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Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Little events that do not get the notice they should get

Eliot Engel is a Congressman from the Bronx and as such a certifiable Liberal.  Look at his web site and he is not one hiding away from his links with Nancy Pelosi.  Thus, even if Voice of America is a tad partial on the way it handles interviews over Cuba and Venezuela, the interview of Congressman Engel should be noticed. 
I put first the dubbed interview because it is more complete and gives more context, in particular over the Iran Caracas flights that was derided by chavista agents who observe that from Tehran you can also fly to Frankfurt.  Except that they do not tell you that you would have a hard time to get a seat on that flight, and you would be in luck if you were to find a tour leaving Caracas for Isfahan.  Heck, even myself would sign up for an Iran tour at CADIVI dollars!!!! 

The second video is the resumed original sound track interview where Engel comes more of a hack than he is in real life, a rather paused and thoughtful New Yorker.  But that is Voice of America which is not PBS. 

Yet do not be fooled by appearances or by the silly rejection for "intromission" of Bernardo Alvarez in Washington: what is noteworthy here is that there are now enough Liberal congressfolks that know the truth about Chavez and his regime, and that is a sea change, explaining a lot of things, such as the decision by the US to maintain Palmer as the ambassador to be in Caracas and forcing Chavez to reject him outright.  something that he has not done as to this typing the Venezuelan foreign ministry has yet to communicate officially their rejection of Palmer. 

Indeed, when the Democrat from the Bronx chairman of the House subcommittee on Western Hemispheric Affairs says that Chavez is running the Venezuelan economy into the ground and that he looks more and more like a dictator, you know that the propaganda office at the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington might want to diversify its activities..... or should be closed outright as totally useless. 

1 comment:

Thugo is able to fool fewer and fewer people in the US.There are still pockets of support for him in Hollywood and in academia.  Bill Delahunt, the 10th District Massachusetts Congressman who was a friend of Thugo for reasons of cheap heating oil, is retiring.  One less fool for Thugo. 

I was previously neutral about Thugo, seeing his election in 1998 as a reaction to corrupt and inept governance.  As a result of having worked with some Venezuelan engineers 5-6 years ago, my opinions changed. 

There are still some Thugo supporters around.  I have previously pointed out Mark Lloyd, Chief Diversity Officer at the Federal Communications Commission.  Take it away, Mr. Lloyd:

"In Venezuela, with Chavez, is really an incredible revolution - a democratic revolution.  To begin to put in place things that are going to have an impact on the people of Venezuela. "The property owners and the folks who then controlled the media in Venezuela rebelled - worked, frankly, with folks here in the U.S. government - worked to oust him.  But he came back with another revolution, and then Chavez began to take very seriously the media in his country. " And we've had complaints about this ever since." 

Mr. Lloyd tried to backtrack and claim that his statement was not in support of Thugo.  Yeah, right.  Tell me another one.  I am skeptical because Mark Lloyd has views regarding freedom of speech and freedom of the press that resemble Hugo Chávez more than they do Thomas Jefferson. 

"It should be clear by now that my focus here is not freedom of speech or the press.  This freedom is all too often an exaggeration.  At the very least, blind references to freedom of speech or the press serve as a distraction from the critical examination of other communications policies. "[T]he purpose of free speech is warped to protect global corporations and block rules that would promote democratic governance." 

Notwithstanding Mark Lloyd, Palmer’s testimony in Congress and Eliot Engel’s videos are steps in the right direction. 

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