Reply #7: I am stunned that DUers would support a coercive anti-freedom law!

[tom_paine]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=aQNGUTqERrXM&refer=latin_america

Wow.

And before you label me a Bushevik or some other such nonsense, look at my journal and/or search my previous posts.

Volunteering to help the community is all well and good. But once you are unilaterally by threat FORCING people to work (slave labor, anyone? because that is essentially what it is, albeit a mild form with mild punishments comparatively...bet they get worse as time drags on)

I have always been on the fence about Chavez. Some have said him a saint, some a devil. I have seen both sides and thought some merit in each. This is not remarkable, most people are in between those two points (Mr. Bushler is close enough to the devil side that I never want a closer one to rule us).

But this law, in my opinion is just plain WRONG. And my opinion of Mr. Chavez just dropped a few notches. He is most definitely not a saint. His hyperbole is often bordering on ridiculous. Bad as Bushler is, can anyone say with a straight face that his "is the worst Tyrant in the history of the world", which Chavez has said more than once?

Wow, that sure puts Hitler and Stalin in their place, doesn't it? Bush isn't even close to Pol Pot, Hitler, Stalin, Shaka Zulu, Caligula, Genghis Khan, Mao, etc. etc. ETC.!

My point being that was indication enough that maybe at least some of what Chavez critics about him being a bit of a tyrant himself were true.

Now this. An ugly ultra-coercive law which, as the gentleman from John's Hopkins correctly points out, is a time-worn Communist/Hardcore Socialist method of bringing more aspects of society under control, like Bush and the Religious Right are trying to do to different aspects of society here.

I know, maybe Chavez can have a Spartakiad...attendance compulsory, of course.

Now I see Chavez as more of a Left-Wing Bush (it would explain why they hate each other so badly) and I recommit myself to being a Moderate who resists the extremes of BOTH SIDES.

Because in the end, left-wing and right-wing authoritarianism are both contrary to freedom and simple human decency.

Chavez is now exposing himself a a left-wing authoritarian.

Flame away, if you must! :grr: