¡Carepicha!
>> Thursday, January 15, 2009 –
hugo chavez,
oil,
socialism
Well, well, well. Who do we have here? Groveling like a sissy baby to those big, bad, evil oil company capitalists?
Those free market principles are a mother, aren't they Hugo? Somebody better call the waaaaaaambulance. And I'm sure somewhere in here is a lesson about the failures of Socialism. Obama? Obama?
¡Como lo duele el dolor, carepicha!
Brett, what do the far-left and this Chango Chavez all have in common? A lack of personal accountability, that's what.
This shit-stain will find someone else to blame for all of his current problems. No way could it be the proven failures of Socialism. HotAir and some of the other conservative blogs all had some good posts on this today.
All we have to do to prove this is look ninety miles South of Miami to the Utopian society of Cuba and the leading assholes the Castro Brothers. BTW, both Castros are personal heroes of Chavez. No small coincidence.
Wait until Chavez tries to pull his "President For Life" bullshit on the people of Venezuela. His days are numbered.
P.S. I am currently in the process of passing a Kidney Stone so I am loaded on Percocet and feeling quite nice as I type.
I and dreading the time when the drugs off. Hopefully the damn stone will pass by then. I hope you never have to deal with one of these little fuckers.
To be fair BT and Greasywrench, whilst Hugo Chávez's politics of Nationalistic socialism may be anathema to the right wing in the US, his social welfare programs, like health care and higher education for the poor will have transformed some very miserable lives.
The free market can't be left to decide everything other wise we would still be living in the Feudal states of the Middle Ages. Social advancement such as universal suffrage, free education and health care were gained via social movements, often from the left of politics such as the Trade Unions, and Labour Parties. Big businesses are not usually philanthropic. There were model villages built by the Cadburys etc, but they are the exception that proves the rule, so there has to be some state interference to achieve social good for all of society and not just the few.
The collapse of the US Investment Banks and mortgage system has brought the western capitalism model to its knees world wide and it’s the poorest in the poorest of countries who suffer the most in the current circumstances and so some attempt to alleviate their poverty by health care and education is not an evil thing in my world.
One of the greatest failures of US foreign policies post WWII was the failure to recognize that propping up “Generalissimo Mustachio’s” and his landlord cronies just because he was “Anti Communist” was wrong. Better to have helped poor countries in Africa, Asia and Latin and South America, achieve and maintain ‘democracy’ even if it led to the odd socialist or left leaning government of the left, and then helping set up universal suffrage, free education and health care.
The world and the US may have been happier places if such a policy had been the doctrine…. I am digressing a bit and I discuss this more in a blog New World Order
I am not and never will be a ‘socialist’, but I recognize that there are some aspects of social policy (particularly universal suffrage, free education and health care) that would never have been achieved in a purely capitalist system. I for one am grateful for these three gifts as they have allowed me to live (when 20 yrs earlier I would have simply died for lack of health care), and given me the tools via my state education to make my living.
And once every five years or so, my political masters have to pay some attention to my views, no matter how much they would prefer not to have to do so. Unhappily the four years they couldn’t give a toss what I think but that’s democracies flaw
The economic crisis has strengthened the hand of the left everywhere, including the US and may be the ‘legacy’ that Bush really leaves behind. Last year you would have bet against Obama being President, and in Europe most ‘left wing’ governments such as Gordon Browns were collapsing but now most have had opinion poll recoveries because of the recession.
Obama, may feel 'lefty' to citizens in the US, but he is hardly a socialist by European standards (more centre right) and certainly he's not a Chavez. I don‘t have the expectation that he will be a ‘great’ Pres. Just because he’s black, but then again I don’t suspect that he will be a bad Pres. solely for that reason either.