BoRev.Net

hough it is probably true that states with leftwing govts (West Bengal, e.g.) takes them more seriously and funds them better.

It is the postmodernization of journalism. It doesn't matter if it's true or not. If you report that somebody said it, it is truth.

@El_Cid: This is mostly about Vzla's electricity sector, but segment 3 has an interview with the Mexican electrical workers' union visiting Vzla:

http://www.vtv.gob.ve/videos-emisiones-anteriores/25472#

Oh, LET them take it to The Hague. I can't wait to see Dickeletti get laughed out of court after all his bogus legal arguments in favor of his military putsch!

And, Brazil has already said just that:

“Creemos que esa acción ni siquiera puede ser aceptada por la Corte Internacional, pues se trata de un organismo que forma parte del sistema de Naciones Unidas, que, así como el Gobierno de Brasil, tampoco reconoce al Gobierno de Honduras”, indicó un portavoz del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores.

“El Gobierno de Micheletti hasta puede entregar un pedido para el inicio de una acción, pero en ese caso la Corte deberá aplicar el principio de la ilegitimidad activa”, acotó.

Not joking: Micheletti says he'll take Brazil to the Hague for, um, sheltering the actual, legal President of Honduras in their Embassy.

El gobierno de facto de Roberto Micheletti denunció este miércoles a Brasil ante la Corte Internacional de Justicia (CIJ) de La Haya, por prestar su embajada en Honduras de refugio al depuesto Manuel Zelaya, informó la cancillería en un comunicado.

"El embajador de Honduras Don Julio Rendon Barnica, actuando como agente de la Republica de Honduras ante la Corte Internacional de Justicia, presentó una solicitud introductiva de instancia contra la República Federativa de Brasil por cuestiones juridícas relativas a las situaciones diplomáticas y al principio de no intervencion en los asuntos que son de la competencia interna del Estado", dice el comunicado.

I think it's going to be pretty funny if he does this and the Hague says, 'Thanks, but no thanks, we listen to the government of Honduras, which is not you.'

Fantastic review by Laura Carlsen on the Americas Policy blog on the campaign to destroy the Mexico City public electric utility by a government determined to subsidize private industry and to privatize public resources, including interviews with the workers that Calderon & co. are attacking, while not paying their bills.

Interviews in the Mexican press with government officials reveal that the obliteration of the union was carefully planned for over six months. The Calderon government was just looking for the chance. Ironically, it was the profound economic crisis in Mexico that provided the Calderon administration with its opportunity. Over the past months, 76,000 businesses have closed their doors. The Mexican daily La Jornada reports that 2.8 million workers have lost their jobs in the Calderon administration. For families living on the edge, the blow against the union places them between a rock and a hard place.

Members of the National Association of Democratic Lawyers and the Latin American Association of Labor Lawyers stated in a press conference on October 18 that the decree violates 25 clauses of the Mexican Constitution, and urged workers to file injunctions against the measure instead of accepting severance pay. But each day that passes with no wages sees more workers accepting the government's severance offer.

The administration has launched a campaign to malign the union, implying that the union members had manipulated cushy jobs at the expense of consumers. Consumers know the administrative problems of Central Light, with unexplained charges in light bills and impossible bureaucracies. These administrative problems could easily have been solved long ago, but by analyzing administrative faults and revamping systems—not liquidating the company and its union. Official statistics show that union members made an average of around $500 a month, and 20,000 members earn below this level, hardly a princely wage. What the union did manage to achieve for its members in democratic processes and benefits was an example for Mexican unions.

The real question is who will pay for the crisis. The Calderon administration tried to force through a tax on basic foods and medicines in the federal budget—another move to make the poor pay for the inordinate wealth and privilege of the elite in a vastly unequal nation. It was blocked at the last minute.

As a country, we are completely paying attention to the wrong things (at least from us ordinary folks' point of view) with regard to Mexico, and this is a foolish, foolish thing.

Also, on the Council on Hemispheric Affairs' blog, an outstanding book review & general commentary on a scholar / Pentagon adviser's version of U.S. relations with the Caribbean, and how our foreign policy establishment -- including our intellectual establishment -- still gets it wrong (or 'right' if you're more imperially minded).

The PR notes made available by his college spell out Professor Crandall’s meteoric progress: first as a member of the Bush National Security Council team, then to Obama’s campaign, and now into his current Pentagon service as an advisor. They reveal an ambitious academic who is skilled at working political networks effectively enough to hold respectable positions under both administrations. When it comes to Latin America issues, divergent ideological battle lines between the Republicans and Democrats have never seemed to get in Crandall’s way. One can only conclude that his ebullience over the Bush administration’s regional policy might have limited his ability to sympathize with Obama’s more enlightened approach to Latin America. George W. Bush’s Latin America, after all, was the antithesis of Barack Obama’s. Given Washington’s present initiative to place a string of military bases throughout Colombia, and perhaps elsewhere, for many skeptics the question remains as to whether Professor Crandall can be comfortable with a regional map that isn’t laced with U.S. military facilities...

...Although there are a number of systemic problems with the conclusions he reaches, the most obvious example is that he skims over the fact that the United States undeniably worked to undermine the sovereignty of the Caribbean nations under his purview...

...It may be that one of the clearest reasons to be disappointed with “Gunboat Democracy,” is that Crandall, a born again buccaneer, mistakes ideologically-driven and anecdotal prejudices as legitimate grounds for military intervention.

So Sean Penn is in Caracas, apparently wants to shoot a MOVIE partly in Venezuela.

The H-man just mentioned the Moore controversy "los amargados, los escualidos no entienden el humor"

By the way, it appears that one rather important reason that Mexico City's public electric utility was so horribly inefficient and had to be invaded by right wing President Calderon's stormtroopers and employees forced to work was that big companies and government offices just chose not to pay their electric bills for the last decade.

Los trabajadores entrevistados por este diario calculan, con base en documentos oficiales de LFC, que del total del adeudo de 2000 a 2008, cerca de 60 por ciento corresponde a empresas e industrias y el resto a dependencias y organismos del sector público.

En este último apartado, señalaron, las secretarías del gobierno federal reportan actualmente deudas en el rango de los 5 y 15 millones de pesos, aunque alguna, como la Secretaría de Agricultura, "Grupo Pozos", reportaba en el último corte de la empresa (septiembre de 2009) 321.3 millones, y "Bombeo Texcoco" 45.1 millones de pesos.

And yet the government told the utility to keep providing power, so that private industry could continue functioning.

The side of the story privatization activists never seem to mention.

David Frum doesn't come from the CBC, but his late mother worked for CBC radio and later was a TV anchor--a very trusted one. David is about 180 degrees removed from her, truthwise.

Crazy article, the writer acts as if Vz is Colombia or something with a military that runs around killing unarmed citizenry, labor leaders, and opposition leaders. Talk about your Stalin & Mussolini comparisons.

So Chavecito set up some cinema, so what? It certainly did not require 2 pages of BS.

Yes, I was making the point that David Frum is a fantasy character, or at least believes in fantasies in his own head.

I know this Newsweed item is hard to top, but I did just run across something bizarro from the US State Dept.--unless the "Voice of America" (which published the thing) rewrote the US government press release.

Here it is, in context: (See 3rd paragraph that starts "The deposed leader..." )

"US Stepping up Role in Honduras Political Crisis

"By David Gollust

"State Department

"27 October 2009

(SNIP)

"The U.S. team, expected to be in Tegicigalpa through the end of this week, will meet with both Micheletti and Mr. Zelaya, who has been sheltered at the Brazilian embassy in the capital since slipping back into the country five weeks ago.

"A senior State Department official said the sides are in agreement on all terms proposed by OAS mediator Arias except for critical language providing for Mr. Zelaya to return to office and complete his term, which ends in January.

"The deposed leader has said he would renounce any ambition to hold on to power beyond January despite his previous backing for a referendum that would have allowed him to run again in next month’s election."

(MORE)

---

Source: Voice of America
http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-10-27-voa58.cfm

Posted at: Hondurasoye
http://hondurasoye.wordpress.com/2009/10/27/honduran-national-resistance-update-1027/

I was alerted to it via: Democratic Underground
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=405x25478

----

Who are they hiring at the State Dept. these days? Jim DeMint's mad sister (the one they keep in the attic)?

Yeah, that's the David Frum I know. I thought ceti_alpha was talking about some unknown-to-me showbiz character. Does David Frum come from CBC?

David Frum, the sacked BushCo speechwriter credited with the "Axis of Evil" crap. Son of the late Barbara Frum--and a disgrace to his mother, who was a real journalist. David Frum is just a hack.

Which David Frum are we talking about?

This has to be the most assinine story written this year. WTF??? My nomination is in.

The entire concept of cultural sovereignty dismissed by fascist corporatism is enough to make me punch a hole in the wall.

The irony is that so many of the fantasy imports (Jack Bauer, David Frum, most of the cast of Battlestar Galactica) into the US were sheltered and subsidized by Canadian guvm'nt film and television credits, either directly or indirectly.

Jesus. Someone should point out that Jack Bauer is the grandson of that raving socialist loony, Tommy Douglas, and that Helo "hunky conscience of the battlestar" Agathon is the son of another lefty premier of the Yukon.

Meme of the week:
Liberal and Conservative elites hate on Hugo because he shows up their hypocrisy in spades. And he beat their local subsidiaries in 1998.

Democrats and Republicans watch out...

Well Foreign Policy, another magazine of winning quality, has Otto Reich telling the world like it should be (for US imperial capital):
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/10/27/honduras_is_an_opportunity?page=0,1

I've summarized the article to restart my blog (self promotion is awesome!):
http://theprisonnotebook.blogspot.com/2009/10/otto-reichs-logic.html

Frighteningly, my last article was done last year when Honduras joined ALBA. Maybe I'm bad luck for everything I write on? Here is hoping.

And that's why Julio Borges keeps losing and the 'Cito keeps winning.

Why doesn't NewsWEAK want to talk to the winners? Are they afraid of facts or something?

Hehe, yeah. As we all know, truth is a social construct. My favorite is a Ven oppo leader (Julio Borges) saying sometime back that every second a person dies in Venezuela from hunger. If you do the math, (60 by by 60 by 24 by 356), it turns out that in a year more people die of hunger than Venezuela's entire population. And that's not the only one :)

But he didn't report that somebody said it--he just stated it flat out. Kinda goes beyond postmodernism and into Foucault territory, what?

It's the postmodernization of journalism. It doesn't matter if it's true or not. If you report that somebody said it, it is truth.

He probably talked to some oppo idiots. Illiteracy is rising, poverty is rising, etc. etc.

I had no idea the National Film Board of Canada was so *dangerous*. I might have known, though--started by William Lyon Mackenzie King. Enough said!

Towards the end, the guy actually says that in Chavez's Venezuela, "Illiteracy is on the rise." Um . . . These people are really allowed to just lie their heads off, aren't they?

They always forget to remind people that Ayn Rand wrote FICTION.

This is the same Newsweek that gives everyone's favourite Argentine chick-bangin' governor explain to us about how awesome Ayn Rand is:
http://www.newsweek.com/id/219001/page/1

Those looney-bin neo-cons have been right about Toronto all along! It is a socialist-commie lovefest up here and it ain't stopping! With their crazy Hitler-esque movie making studios funded by the city and all that shit going on. We must get this undercontrol because we would not want someone to become all fascist and stop Pepsi's inherent right to rewrite a script for the benefit of their product or anything. Culture belongs to the corporations, not to the people. Such actions are clear fascist attempts to alter our minds with things like 'socialism' and 'revolution'! Remember the National SOCIALIST Party! DO WE NEED MORE INFORMATION!?!

RUN TO THE NEAREST WALMART AND ALL WILL BE SAFE!

Bollywood doesn't get state funding, at least not in substantial amounts. It's "haute couture" that receives state funding (Mrinal Sen, Ritwik Ghatak, possibly Satyajit Ray, etc.).

There wouldn't be any Bollywood without state funding, would there?

Is Zakaria still the editor of Newsweek?

Bina: it's because most Merkins who write for the mass media are idiots.

In India, they exist at the state level. Though it is probably true that states with leftwing govts (West Bengal, e.g.) takes them more seriously and funds them better.

I like pie

Canada has 'em, too. Funnily, I don't hear anyone kvetching about us.

By the way, many European govts. have similar initiatives, Spain, for example and I am sure, others too (India does too).

Was that guy at the Venice festival inauguration thingie?