Archive for the 'Hugo Chavez' Category
MichaelW on Dec 18 2007 | Filed under: Foreign affairs, Hugo Chavez, MichaelW's Page
Apparently Hugo Chavez takes the resurrection of historical idols quite seriously. And much too literally [HT: Dave In Texas]:
President Hugo Chavez said Monday that Venezuela should open the coffin of independence hero Simon Bolivar to examine the bones, saying there are sufficient doubts about his death in 1830 to warrant a full investigation.
Although history […]
MichaelW on Dec 17 2007 | Filed under: Foreign affairs, Hugo Chavez, MichaelW's Page
It seems that Hugo Chavez is not the only one having trouble instituting his Bolivarian dream state. Evo Morales is facing troubles in Bolivia as well:
Since the election of avowed socialist Evo Morales to the presidency of Bolivia, some have not been particularly happy with the direction he is trying to take the country. […]
MichaelW on Dec 10 2007 | Filed under: Foreign affairs, Hugo Chavez, MichaelW's Page
In the wake of the Venezuelan electorate issuing Hugo Chavez a defeat (his first) at the ballot box last week, there was much speculation from blogospheric skeptics about the actual tally of the votes, and about whether or not Chavez manipulated the results. In a report by Jorge Castañeda for Newsweek comes […]
Hugo Chavez: Genius!
Lance on Dec 05 2007 | Filed under: Economics, Foreign affairs, Hugo Chavez, Humor, Lance's Page
From E. Frank Stephenson:
From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez thinks it’s curtains for America as a world power. “By the crash of the dollar,” he says, “America’s empire will crash.”Tyler Cowen’s suggestion that currencies are not markers of economic success notwithstanding, I hope Chavez’s theory that declining currencies signal the end of regimes […]
MichaelW on Nov 29 2007 | Filed under: Foreign affairs, Hugo Chavez, MichaelW's Page
I’d say this is good news except that I have zero confidence that the referendum will result in anything other than what Chavez wants (i.e. dictatorial control):
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has lost his lead eight days before a referendum on ending his term limit, an independent pollster said on Saturday, in a swing in voter […]
Hugo Chavez and the path to mass murder II
Lance on Nov 08 2007 | Filed under: Environment, Hugo Chavez, Lance's Page
Part I is here, but in The Ruin of Venezuela I wrote:
As we have seen with Mugabe and many others, once you go down this road it is very difficult to turn things around. As the situation gets worse, in order to keep socialism in place, more force is needed. A Revolutionary ideology cannot allow […]
Joshua Foust on Nov 07 2007 | Filed under: Domestic Politics, Foreign affairs, Hugo Chavez, Military Matters, Notes on the war
Cross-posted to The Conjecturer
Defense & The War
In the midst of petulantly crossing his arms and throwing a tantrum about the Future of Iraq Project, an anonymous FSO makes a really good point: “Sending officers into this failed, hideously violent exercise with no language training, no military liaison training, no arms or means of self-defense, no […]
Lance on Nov 06 2007 | Filed under: Foreign affairs, Hugo Chavez, Lance's Page
Heh:
What’s a fair indication that a fascist masquerading as a socialist has lost his “base”? When a student named Stalin says enough is enough:
“The message to the Congress and to the government is that there is … a part of this country that rejects these reforms and we want to be heard,” student leader Stalin […]
The Subtle Oil Shock
Lance on Oct 28 2007 | Filed under: Developmental economics, Economics, Environment, Hugo Chavez, Lance's Page, Libertarianism
It hasn’t been all that shocking. Why not? Greg Mankiw supplies a few possibilities. My favorites? Well let us start here:
In contrast to much rhetoric to the contrary, capitalism is the most powerful weapon to achieve energy efficiency we have.
He provides us with some things I am fond of, conjectures. So I will call this […]
MichaelW on Oct 24 2007 | Filed under: Foreign affairs, Hugo Chavez, MichaelW's Page
The slow march towards full-fledged totalitarianism in Venezuela is picking up the pace. Citizens opposed to Chavez’s plans to change the constitution were forcibly deterred from meeting with the National Assembly by Venezuelan authorities:
Venezuelan riot police fired tear gas at thousands of protesters in downtown Caracas as they marched to oppose President Hugo Chavez’s […]
MichaelW on Oct 11 2007 | Filed under: Domestic Politics, Foreign affairs, History, Hugo Chavez, Media, MichaelW's Page
It is a sad commentary upon the state of the world that anniversary of a bloodthirsty tyrant’s death is celebrated around the world, and here in the United States, not with glee that his anti-freedom rampage was cut short, but with mourn for the loss.
“I halt in my daily combat to bow my head, with […]
The steady march to totalitarianism
Lance on Sep 17 2007 | Filed under: Education, Foreign affairs, Hugo Chavez, Lance's Page
Chavez begins bending another set of private institutions to his will.
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Socialism’s Last Supper
Lance on Sep 17 2007 | Filed under: Foreign affairs, Hugo Chavez, Lance's Page, Religion and theology
Lee over at Postpolitical has some thoughts on the mural below found in Caracas Venezuela:
Technorati Tags: Hugo Chavez, Venezuela, Jesus, religion, Last Supper, Marx, Castro, socialism, communism
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Chavez the Bizarre
Lance on Aug 22 2007 | Filed under: Foreign affairs, Hugo Chavez, Lance's Page
From Fausta I get this:
Venezuela: A Decree for the Clocks
Moved by claims that it will help the metabolism
Wh?? Help what metabolism?
and productivity of his fellow citizens, President Hugo Chavez said clocks would be moved forward by half an hour at the start of 2008.
Effectively this means Venezuela will be in its own time zone. No […]
Lance on Aug 22 2007 | Filed under: Foreign affairs, Hugo Chavez, Lance's Page
Sometimes folks truth is way weirder than fiction. In the case of Hugo Chavez clownish doesn’t come close to describing him.
In the wake of the devastating earthquake that shook Peru, aid has flowed in, including from the government of Venezuela. Alan Garcia, the President of Peru was grateful, even to his bitter political enemy, […]
News Brief, ASHC Hates My Cyrillic Edition
Joshua Foust on Jul 21 2007 | Filed under: Domestic Politics, Foreign affairs, Hugo Chavez, Military Matters, Notes on the war
Cross-posted at The Conjecturer
Defense
Doug Bandow has a pair of great pieces up, on how the GWoT and Iraq are actually opposed to a free society, and more precisely just how badly the Iraq War has distorted us as a society—like, perhaps, the newly self-granted power to seize the property of anyone who “interferes” with the […]
Joshua Foust on Jun 06 2007 | Filed under: Domestic Politics, Foreign affairs, Hugo Chavez, Media, Military Matters, Notes on the war
Cross-posted at The Conjecturer.
Defense
I suppose it goes without saying that the Nintendo DS is already basically an “advanced sensor platform,” since it is natively wireless, adaptive, touch-sensitive (and easily modded for tilt), and has a microphone. But don’t tell that to DARPA, which seems more intent on the 1989 Gameboy, which was low-rez and black […]
Joshua Foust on Jun 04 2007 | Filed under: Domestic Politics, Foreign affairs, Hugo Chavez, Media, Military Matters, Notes on the war, social science
Cross-posted at The Conjecturer.
Defense
Is al-Hurra, the Arabic-language Voice of America satellite channel, nothing more than an al-Jazeera clone? Hardly. One of the reasons Voice of America is as respected as it is was its willingness to broadcast news damaging to the U.S. (same with the “Radio Free” stations). It was this self-criticism that generated sympathy […]
Joshua Foust on Jun 01 2007 | Filed under: Domestic Politics, Election 2008, Foreign affairs, Hugo Chavez, Media, Military Matters, Notes on the war, Technology
Cross-posted on The Conjecturer.
Defense
The IDF is generally thought of as one of the world’s top armies—though it lacks expeditionary capability (which is usually a function of solid logistics), its warfighting is top notch. Not so, according to the Winograd Commission, which examined IDF policies in the wake of the Hezbollah war last year. Why […]
The Death Spiral in Venzuela Continues
Lance on May 04 2007 | Filed under: Developmental economics, Economics, Foreign affairs, Hugo Chavez, Lance's Page
Chavez has railed against the rising cost of health care and set up free clinics. Combined with other factors this has resulted in Health care getting far more expensive. His threats to seize the health care sector completely won’t stop this spiral:
Venezuela Seizes Oil Operations
Keith_Indy on May 01 2007 | Filed under: Developmental economics, Domestic Politics, Economics, Environment, Hugo Chavez, Keith's Page, Technology
Get ready for higher gas prices, as inexperienced bureaucrats take over the operations of 4 major refineries.
Venezuela stripped the world’s biggest oil companies of operational control over massive Orinoco Belt crude projects on Tuesday, a vital move in President Hugo Chavez’s nationalization drive.
The May Day takeover came exactly a year after Bolivian President Evo Morales, […]
Thanks Manny
Lance on Apr 30 2007 | Filed under: Hugo Chavez, Lance's Page, Media
Manny Lopez has written a nice editorial at The Detroit News about his experience entering the world of blogging and my and Lee Garnett’s interview of him discussing Hugo Chavez and developments in Venezuela. Our first time to get mentioned in the dead tree edition of a major paper. The online editorial can be found […]
News Brief, I Want to Be Your Sledgehammer Edition
Joshua Foust on Apr 25 2007 | Filed under: Developmental economics, Domestic Politics, Foreign affairs, Hugo Chavez, Libertarianism, Military Matters, Technology, social science
Cross-posted at The Conjecturer. I’m going go try to shorten these and better group them thematically at some point, but I just find too much during the day to really limit things. Should I give up the pretense of exhaustiveness? I might.
The Pentagon
More on the brave testimony of Jessica Lynch and Kevin Tillman, brother of […]
Hugo Chavez decides to form “socialist formation” classes
Lance on Apr 21 2007 | Filed under: Foreign affairs, Hugo Chavez, Lance's Page
Given our little debate in the comments section of our interview with Manny Lopez about the direction Hugo Chavez is heading with his little dictatorship, here is one more tidbit to digest:
Venezuela’s government will require workers to spend four hours a week in “socialist formation” classes, and is mandating employers form “Bolivarian Work Councils” to […]
Venezuela Under Socialism: An Interview with Manny Lopez
Lance on Apr 18 2007 | Filed under: Developmental economics, Foreign affairs, Hugo Chavez, Lance's Page
Manny Lopez, editorial columnist for The Detroit News, recently returned to Venezuela after a nine year absence. He filed a striking piece from Caracas which caught my and a lot of people’s attention. It illustrated better than most reporting I’ve read on the subject, just how substantially the country had changed under president Hugo Chavez’s […]
The fight against Inflation
Lance on Apr 15 2007 | Filed under: Developmental economics, Economics, Hugo Chavez, Lance's Page
Via Lawrence White I discover today a Sri Lankan columnist who goes by the wonderful and apt nomme de plume Fuss-Budget. He wags his tongue at governments need to control inflation, or at least our ability to know about it. He sets his sights on Argentina here:
Argentina is a typical badly managed Latin American country […]
Alexandra Storr on Venezuela Part Three: History’s lessons
Lance on Apr 14 2007 | Filed under: Developmental economics, Economics, Foreign affairs, Hugo Chavez, Lance's Page
Chavez seems to have learned little from history. My last excerpt is one he should read, but will not. You can of course read the this and more here.
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Alexandra Storr on Venezuela Part Two: The Curse of Oil
Lance on Apr 14 2007 | Filed under: Developmental economics, Economics, Foreign affairs, Hugo Chavez, Lance's Page
The discouraging course of nations dependent upon mineral extraction for their wealth has been oft remarked upon. Unfortunately we see the same trends playing out in Venezuela:
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Alexandra Storr on Venezuela Part One: Living Large
Lance on Apr 14 2007 | Filed under: Developmental economics, Economics, Foreign affairs, Hugo Chavez, Lance's Page
Alexandra Storr has an interesting essay in the American Scholar on Venezuela entitled Living Large on Oil. (Hat tip: Megan McCardle.) Here is part one and it is a different perspective than what I will be discussing in the coming week, but sobering nonetheless:
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Another shoe may soon drop in Venezuela
Lance on Mar 24 2007 | Filed under: Foreign affairs, Hugo Chavez, Lance's Page
One of the steps in turning countries into a totalitarian state is the placing of power in local committees selected for “Revolutionary commitment.” Cuba has used the local committees as the states eyes and ears, enforcers and purveyors of terror. The local gangs have been a key part of Mugabe’s assault on his opponents.
Chavez is […]
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