WaPo editorial hitpiece on Chavez today:

[EFerrari]

Mr. Chávez Tries Again
With an economic crash in sight, Venezuela's strongman calls another referendum on his tenure in office.

THE FUTURE does not look bright for Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez. Last month, opposition candidates won control of the country's three most populous states and the two largest cities. The price of Venezuela's heavy oil has dropped below $35 per barrel, which is 40 percent below what the government says it planned for in next year's budget and less than half of what independent analysts say Mr. Chávez needs to sustain his heavy spending on projects such as the nationalization of domestic industries, purchases of Russian weapons and subsidies to clients including Fidel Castro and Daniel Ortega. Already, Venezuelans are experiencing inflation of more than 30 percent, shortages of basic goods and the world's second-highest murder rate. In less than five weeks, the inauguration of Barack Obama will remove Mr. Chávez's favorite foil -- George W. Bush -- and replace him with a president who may be more popular in Venezuela than Mr. Chávez himself.

What to do? Mr. Chávez could have moderated his policies and reached out to his opposition. Instead he is rushing to stage another referendum on a polarizing constitutional amendment that would remove the limit on his tenure in office. The self-styled "Bolivarian revolutionary" lost a similar vote last December, and polls show that only about a third of Venezuelans now favor such a measure. So why insist on this new vote, which could take place as early as February? Evidently, Mr. Chávez sees his opportunity to turn himself into a president-for-life slipping away along with the opportunity to lead a new bloc of authoritarian and anti-American states in Latin America.
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In theory, advocates of democracy in Venezuela might welcome this referendum as a way to decisively stop Mr. Chávez's attempt to turn the country into a 21st-century Cuba. The problem is that elections in Venezuela are no longer free and fair. Mr. Chávez has turned national television into a state propaganda outlet, and the Miami Herald reported Sunday that the government spent tens of millions of dollars to buy votes in the recent state and local elections. The state election authority, which is controlled by Mr. Chávez's loyalists, delayed the announcement of his defeat in last year's referendum; reliable sources say the president conceded only after he was told by military commanders that they would not put down protests against a falsified result. The official results, showing the margin of Mr. Chávez's loss, have not been released.

Mr. Chávez's campaign means that the Obama administration is likely to find Venezuela in turmoil as it takes office. The caudillo has taken to threatening his domestic opponents with arrest or military action -- and both history and the polls say he cannot win this referendum without force or fraud. While any U.S. attempt to influence the vote would probably be counterproductive, Mr. Obama ought to make clear that any chance that Mr. Chávez has of rapprochement with his administration will disappear if he corruptly entrenches himself in power.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/18/AR2008121803388.html

[Peace Patriot]

1. The outright lies in this 'slash and burn' piece are flabbergasting.

:wow:

-----------

Something's up with this.

Guesses:

1. South American economic/political independence is really, really, REALLY hurting the investment portfolios of the WaPo owners and their cruddy pals. No more World Bank/IMF looting expeditions! They seethe with anger and vitriol way, way, WAY beyond the call of corpo/fascist duty, in this op-ed. Something is really biting their buttocks, and Chavez's leadership in enterprises like the Bank of the South (local control of development money, with social justice goals), and UNASUR (the new South American "Common Market," sans the U.S.), and in re-negotiating oil/gas contracts with multinationals, to provide more money for social programs (Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador have all done it quite successfully) is one probable reason for their hatred. The corrupt, failed, murderous U.S. "war on drugs"--a war profiteer's wet dream--and its increasing rejection by many leftist countries--with Venezuela again in the vanguard--is another possible reason.

2. The corpo/fascist rulers of the U.S.--with WaPo as their chief propaganda/psyops organ--are terrified that we might get ideas from Chavez and the Bolivarians about, oh, say, transparent vote counting, and government "of, by and for the people." The Financial 9/11 they just pulled off could well lead to the underclass here finally concluding that we are in class war, waged by the rich, and start fighting back.

3. The war that the Bushwhacks have been trying to start all year in South America--in order to grab control of Venezuela's oil (and whatever else they can get)--is imminent.

[EFerrari]

2. It's cr@p! You're smarter than me. How do I find out who wrote it?

Man. I'd have to flunk that paper in my Engish 1A sections!

[Judi Lynn]

3. I'll bet it was Jackson Diehl. He has been conducting his war on Chavez at a fever pitch for years.

It is odd they didn't give him the by-line but I noticed the author also used one of Jackson Diehl's favorite terms, "caudillo":

Deconstructing Washington Post's Anti-Chávez Propaganda
July 7th 2008, by Joe DeRaymond

Jackson Diehl, a Deputy Editor of the Washington Post, recently wrote a column about Leopoldo Eduardo López, a mayor of Chacao, a district of Caracas, Venezuela. It was widely syndicated, and appeared in the Miami Herald on July 1, and in one of my local papers, the Morning Call of Allentown, PA, on July 2 under the title, “Venezuela's Chávez Fears Caracas Mayor”. No evidence is presented in Diehl’s analysis that supports the claim of the headline, and Diehl is quick to tip his hand in his lead paragraph, as follows:

“Defenders of Hugo Chávez like to argue that there is no alternative to the Venezuelan caudillo other than the feckless and unpopular politicians who preceded him in the 1990s. The simple refutation of that canard is Leopoldo López, the 37-year-old mayor of central Caracas, whose boyish good looks only underscore the fact that he represents a fresh generation.” (Jackson Diehl, Morning Call, 7/2/2008)

Diehl fabricates an argument he can refute easily, by making the argument he wants to refute and attributing it to “Chávez defenders”, without citation. Then he calls Chavez a caudillo, or military strongman, without mentioning that Chávez has won several national elections to become and remain President, and has lost important elections also, and abided by those results.

Nowhere in the column is there a mention that López, with his good looks and US education, is a Mayor of a rich and exclusive central district of Caracas, Chacao, which is a neighborhood filled with foreign embassies and richly appointed homes. His political roots are in the rightwing, upper middle class and rich opposition groups that have opposed Chavez and social reform in Venezuela. López’ social roots are in the upper class. He attended Kenyon College in Ohio and received a Master’s Degree from Harvard. He then was able to get a job for the State-owned oil company PVDSA. His current problems and the administrative restrictions imposed by Comptroller General Clodosbaldo Russian have been accepted for enforcement by the National Electoral Council. They are a result of improper campaign contributions funneled to his campaign, through his mother, from the PVDSA, while they were both employees of the corporation.

More:
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/3622

[EFerrari]

4. Good eye!

:applause:

[Judi Lynn]

6. I've frowned and gagged at his writing long enough to recognize his pet word. He seems unbalanced,

doesn't he?

That kind of undiluted hatred pouring out of him day after day should be a signal he needs help, and needs it in a hurry. Jackson Diehl just may be the next spectacular case we hear of someone going "postal" at his workplace.

http://media.washingtonpost.com.nyud.net:8090/wp-dyn/content/photo/2007/02/22/PH2007022201037.jpg

If you ever turn around and see someone like this staring at you, RUN, RUN! Jackson Diehl is loose!

[Bacchus39]

11. love how you try to tell Venezuelans whats good for them

"air_us and vhfuguet: Unlike 2/3s of the United States, Venezuelans vote on verifiable voting machines. And unlike the US, Venezuelan elections are monitored. If you have credible evidence of election fraud in Venezuela, please produce it because this editorial does not, nor have you.

Poverty has in fact decreased in Venezuela every year during the Chavez administration. Notwithstanding, poverty, crime and corruption is going up worldwide -- and that includes the United States. The number of domestic corruption scandals and investigations right here are too many to even count any more.

Because elections in Venezuela are cleaner than ours, her citizens have a much better shot than I do at deciding if their government is doing a good job or not on these issues or not. And the same goes for eliminating term limits -- something many Western democracies don't have. If the people don't want it, the referendum will not pass and the vote count that defeats it can be verified which is more than you can say for most elections anywhere in the United States where elections are held on hackable voting machines and are unmonitored."

the people already made their decision last year.

[Judi Lynn]

12. Just found the answer to your question. Check this out:

April 18 , 2006

Jackson Diehl: Worse Than Page Six?
The Washington Post vs. Venezuela
By ERIC WINGERTER

Anyone looking to keep up to date with the current talking points for the Venezuelan opposition need only follow the writings of Jackson Diehl in the Washington Post. As deputy editorial page editor, Diehl drafts the un-bylined editorials about President Hugo Chavez.

When Diehl writes a particularly unsubstantiated column, the Post publishes his work on the right-hand side of the opinion page, thus minutely distancing his ravings from the official opinion of the paper.

Over the years, progressive Venezuela watchers have come to regard Jackson Diehl Op-Eds as a sounding board for the urban legends and gossip promoted by Venezuela’s well-connected opposition leaders--sort of a Page Six for anti-Chavez innuendo. His columns have given mainstream credence to the ideas that the democratically elected president is actually a dictator, that a media law banning explicit sex on television is an act of political censorship, and that important literacy and health care programs are nothing more than a cynical attempt to buy votes from Venezuela’s unwashed masses.

The power of a Post editorial is significant, and it is partly due to the work of Mr. Diehl that the storylines above, although easily refuted, have framed the discussion of Venezuela in the U.S. press.

Diehl’s propensity for not letting facts get in the way of an anti-Chavez rant have often drawn the man well-merited and well documented rebuke.

More:
http://www.counterpunch.org/wingerter04182006.html

[Judi Lynn]

5. That's an amazing eruption of bile, isn't it? He cites "reliable sources!"

Hey, that's good enough for me! Who cares who they are, as long as the writer says they're "reliable."

The entire piece reeks.

I haven't seen any Venezuelan polls conducted on the term limit thing at all, have you? The referendum from 2 yrs. ago contained that item along with 68 OTHER separate issues they wanted to decide, some of them HUGE, emotionally, challenging age-old views along "religious" lines and traditions.

The caudillo has taken to threatening his domestic opponents with arrest or military action -- and both history and the polls say he cannot win this referendum without force or fraud.

We know Chavez has NEVER used force OR fraud. This is the last resort of a Washington columnist standing on his last legs: he knows things are bound to change after Obama is inaugurated, and he may eventually wind up bitching about Chavez from a barstool to a bunch of people who couldn't care less.

Fantastic that the one source he does directly cite is THE MIAMI HERALD. Predictable! If the Herald doesn't fold soon, and it might, since McClatchy's trying to unload it, maybe Jackson Diehl can move there to write.

[Vogon_Glory]

7. Falling Oil Prices Are Hitting A Lot of Oil Producing Countries

Falling oil prices are hitting a lot of oil-producing countries these days. Hugo Chavez's Venezuela isn't the only country taking a hammering. So are Russia, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and other places.

While oil prices will eventually climb back up, regimes that are counting on high oil revenues to not only pay for social programs but also to support money-losing, corrupt, and badly-run state-owned enterprises had best see to it that other parts of their business sector, public as well as private, continues to at least balance their books if not make a profit.

[Judi Lynn]

8. Washington Post claims Venezuelan Elections are not "free and fair"

Washington Post claims Venezuelan Elections are not "free and fair"
By Editorial
Dec 20, 2008, 20:42

The Washington Post ran yet another misleading editorial about Venezuela today, this time making the false and damaging claim that the country does not have free and fair elections. The Post ignores the fact that all international observers have consistently certified democratic elections carried out during the Chavez administration as free and fair. OAS Secretary General Miguel Insulza said recently that the regional elections that took place on November 24th, 2008 were a "peaceful, exemplary" process that showed the maturity of democratic institutions in Venezuela.

HELP DEMAND THE TRUTH

Read the Washington Post editorial here. Then, send a brief letter to the editor (200 words or less) to [email protected]. Don't forget to include your full contact information. You may want to mention the following points:

-All international electoral observers have certified elections carried out under the Chavez administration in Venezuela as free and fair. Venezuelans have gone to the polls 11 times in the past decade, and the country's independent National Electoral Council has been repeatedly praised for carrying out transparent elections. Read quotes from observers here.

-The Post's claim that pro-Chavez candidates attempted to "buy votes" in the recent regional elections does not stand up to scrutiny. It cites a single obscure article in the Miami Herald that is based on rumors spread by the political opposition and does not provide sufficient grounds upon which to discredit Venezuela's entire electoral system.

-The Post needs to check its facts and stop spreading lies about Venezuela. Contrary to what the Post writes, the country does not have the second-highest murder rate in the world, nor even the second-highest rare in the region.

-Also contrary to what the Post states, the Electoral Council did in fact publish the official results of last year's referendum. Furthermore, President Chavez conceded defeat quickly and calmly when the reforms were narrowly rejected by voters. He was not, as suggested, forced to do so by the military.

-Venezuelans will likely vote in a national referendum early next year on whether to remove presidential term limits. This is not a bid by President Chavez to "corruptly entrench himself in power," as the Post claims. Regardless of what citizens decide, the system of participatory democracy will remain in place, and elections in Venezuela will continue to be intensely scrutinized.

https://mail.google.com/mail/?zx=19bs1646p89ju&shva=1#label/VIO/11e5180db51f98ae

[dipsydoodle]

10. Neither were Azerbaijan's

but that suited the USA. Same may also be said of Georgia.

[dipsydoodle]

9. Mr. Obama ought to make clear blah blah

I'da thunk by now the USA had learned not to interfere in Latin American issues and such suggestions are wholly out of place.

I'm guessing that whoever wrote that anonymous editorial for WaPo was born thus :

[Judi Lynn]

13. No doubt about it. You'd have to be that way, as well, to believe any part of it!

It's good to know, however, if people pay enough attention, and exert themselves long enough to do any homework, any research, they'll know enough to be able to tell when they're hearing/reading gibberish.