Chavez
The handshake
President Obama is taking heat from Newt Gingrich and others for shaking hands with Hugo Chavez and “making nice” with Cuba, etc. Since I’m a dogged liberal opponent of those two particular regimes, let me say I support Obama’s moves and think the Republicans are full of it. It was Chavez who approached Obama at the Trinidad summit, not the
Penn sucks up again
There’s little I can say about Sean Penn’s fluff “interview” with Hugo Chávez and Raúl Castro that Marc Cooper hasn’t said. Some have suggested that I tend to overstate the influence of actor-activists like Penn. If anything, I’ve understated it. Penn’s “journalism” is now being published on the cover of The Nation, right at the moment when audiences are swooning
Chávez: another thing
A pro-Chávez commenter writes: Evil President Hugo Chavez is one of those scary Socialists Senator McCain warns you about – those who care more for the wretched than for the rich. This Washington Post report of a Miami criminal investigation tells us much about Chávez’s supposed concern for the poor: Transcripts of the taped conversations reveal intricate details of the collaboration
Hugo Chávez, thug
Jose Miguel Vivanco and Daniel Wilkinson of Human Rights Watch write about their experience being thrown out of Venezuela for the crime of criticizing the Chávez government. Here’s one lovely detail: [A] close Chávez ally in the legislature suggested on national TV that the two of us had been sharing a single hotel room where we were indulging our “weaknesses.”
Treachery, right and left
It’s a great day at Lerterland when both Joe Lieberman and Hugo Chávez get slammed on the editorial page of the NY Times. Lieberman would like government to decide what you can see on YouTube. (He’s also campaigning hard for John McCain, a matter for another post.) Chávez is looking guiltier on the matter of helping to arm and finance
Political bits, bytes
~ Seems clear enough that the Clintonistas, not the Obamites, are playing dirty politics at this stage. BET founder Robert L. Johnson, one of the most cynical operators around, has lined up behind Clinton and touched off a firestorm with comments that seemed inteded to smear Obama. Johnson’s unsavory record as a propagandist for Social Security privatization, estate tax repeal
A fair question
Darcy James Argue, quite unwittingly, has tied together my two previous posts in an interesting and morally serious way: He asks why Dudamel is getting heat from some for not forcefully opposing Chávez, while Gergiev (whose work I just happened to praise unreservedly) gets a free pass on his close ties to, and explicit political support for, the odious Vladimir
Amid noise, clarity
I can’t let Alex Ross’s refreshing anti-Chávez comments in the The New Yorker of Dec. 3 go without praise here. Writing about Gustavo Dudamel’s recent New York appearance with the Simón Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela, Ross reflects on the celebratory atmosphere during the encores: The players don jackets with the Venezuelan national colors and swivel around, marching-band style. Delirium