Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Hugo Chavez Wins Another Term (Surprise!)

You know, I hate the way the word “allegedly” is thrown around to protect news sources from being sued. It ceases to have meaning when certain facts are clear, and should be reserved for those facts which are in dispute or at least weak. For instance, George Zimmerman did not “allegedly” shoot Trayvon Martin, but we hear that even at this late date. What Zimmerman did was “allegedly"
commit murder, manslaughter, or no crime at all.

Allegedly is a weasel-word used to dilute an otherwise interesting headline, and is set up by overly-cautious attorneys. That said, I am about to tell you a news story in which I will ignore the boldness of the press and insert my own “allegedly” wherever I deem it appropriate. Here goes:

Hugo Chavez is set to be president of Venezuela for at least 20 years, after [allegedly] official results in Sunday’s election handed the socialist trouble-maker a third term. Chavez {allegedly] defeated challenger Henrique Capriles by [allegedly] 7.44 million to 6.15 million votes (54.4 to 44.9 percent), according to results released by the country’s National Electoral Council late Sunday. A third-placed candidate, Reina Sequera, took 0.46 percent of the votes in an election marked by am [allegedly] record high turnout of 81 percent of registered voters.

His second term was supposed to expire in 2013 but in 2009 he [allegedly] won a referendum allowing him to change the Venezuelan constitution to end presidential term limits. Chavez, who has been receiving treatment for cancer, is now in line to remain in power until 2019.

Among the highlights of his current campaign were using Venezuelan oil money to grossly outspend his opponent, establishing large-scale government dependency social programs and plain damned giveaways, controlling all the major state media, and downplaying his regular recurrence of cancer. But just as in past elections, partisan violent thuggery was also part of the election formula.

Chavez's [allegedly] 9.5-point margin of victory, the demonstrated diminishing support for the 58 year-old Chavez. When he first won the presidency in late 1998 his winning margin was almost twice as big as it was on Sunday. It was even greater in 2006, when he won re-election by 26 points. But a sure thing is a sure thing. Perhaps Chavez knew a little American history. When John Kennedy went to is father for more campaign money for his big race, Old Joe is [alleged} to have said: “I don't mind paying for a victory, I just don't want to pay for a landslide.”

This current election resulted in an [allegedly] 81% turnout, the highest in recent Venezuelan history. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen R-Fla), who is also the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee had this to say. “Chavez has denied access to international election monitors, employed last minute ballot changes, controlled the judicial system, harassed independent journalists, and consolidated his power to manipulate the vote in his favor.”

Worst ex-president Jimmy Carter had formed a committee to monitor the election, but was only partially successful. Chavez had earlier taken a page out of Barack Obama's executive order playbook, and arbitrarily changed the existing legislative rules to restrict foreign observers. Carter's group was allowed to interview citizens and a limited number of opposition candidates, under the intense gaze of Chavez minions. They were not allowed into the general area of any of the polling places. No doubt, that's good enough for Carter to declare this a free, fair and democratic election.

Taking a somewhat different tack, Ros-Lehtinen said: “Chavez must not be allowed to continue to export his hate and despotism abroad like his fellow dictators in Iran and Cuba through the oppression of the press and violation of human rights.” She added. “The United States and responsible nations must remain steadfast in our defense of democracy and freedom and not bow to Chavez’s tyranny.”

The questions now are--Does Chavez's narrow [alleged] victory indicate that he will be a little less bellicose toward the West in general and the United State in particular? Given the volatility surrounding Iran, will he continue to be Imdinnerjacket's biggest western hemisphere cheerleader for the destruction of Israel, or will he back off a bit and cut back on the weapons exchanges between the two pariah nations. Nothing scares me as much as an aging, unhealthy zealot of a dictator who continues to work on a nuclear missile delivery system, state of the art nukes, and a red button to set it all off. After all, what does he have to lose?

20 comments:

Joel Farnham said...

LawHawk,

Have you noticed that whenever Jimmah gets involved in a foreign election, a communist dictator is spawned?

I didn't expect Chavez to lose. I expected his opponent to have a fatal accident the day after the election.

Individualist said...

I guess we should be thankful that world opinion is such that Chavez still has to go through the pretense of having an election.

I guess the poll numbers should be reworded though.

Chavez won with 54% of the populace voting who were not shot before they could make it to the voting booth.

tryanmax said...

At least 'ugo is smart enough not to win by 95% with 98% voter turnout. That would really put Jimmah in a spot and besides, it's so gauche!

K said...

Yeah! Another dictator kept in power through the western addiction to foreign oil. It's a shame the Soviets didn't wise up to this sooner, they'd probably be still be around. Any questions about why Obama et al fights domestic oil production to the last inch but helps foreign companies to drill?

AndrewPrice said...

Why am I not surprised?

Individualist said...

K

D'sousa has an answer in 2016. Obama has given taxpayer money for drilling in Brazil, Venezuela and Columbia. He attributes it to deep seated anti-colonial sentiments.

I am not so sure it would be just that...

Tennessee Jed said...

this outcome was never really in doubt, was it? He is, of course, a corrupt dictator. He is B.F.F.'s with B.O. He may, however, die soon. I did like your wonderfully subtle amending of the Jimuh Carter descriptive from "worst president ever" to "worst ex-president". I, for one, could not agree with you more.

LawHawkRFD said...

Joel: Maybe Hugo's mellowing with age.

LawHawkRFD said...

Indi: You did the math.

rlaWTX said...

So, if TOTUS climbs into a cave and stays silent for the rest of his misbegotten life, both he and Carter will maintain their legacies: worst president and worst ex-president...
I bet Carter is already figuring ways for TOTUS to take that title too!

As for good ole Hugo, yawn.

LL said...

Hugo said that he'd vote for Obama and he felt for Obama would vote for him.

Yes, truer words were never uttered.

And I'm sure that the Chicago dead vote there too.

LawHawkRFD said...

tryanmax: Jimmy never met a crooked, anti-American election he didn't like.

T-Rav said...

LawHawk, is it improper to use "allegedly" in this sentence: "Hugo Chavez is allegedly a dictator, thug, and angry self-important man in general"?

Anthony said...

I don't think Chavez will mellow until he dies. Focusing on a larger external power and falsely claiming that it is hostile (the US in reality is mostly indifferent to his theatrics) is how he keeps some of the Venezuelan people focused on something other than his steady accumulation of power (the same trick his idol Castro pulls).

Happily, by many reports Chavez is not long for this world, though its not clear if what replaces him will be any better.

T-Rav said...

Anthony, I'm starting to regard Chavez as akin to Hymon Roth. He's been dying of the same thing for twenty years, and he still manages to make people's lives miserable.

LawHawkRFD said...

K: For a guy who claims he wants to bring American jobs home, Obama has done a pretty piss-poor job. I think his international socialist and "fairness" philosophy compels him to do his own vision of "leveling" the playing field, with an advantage to the other teams. He can't even run the United States, yet he still plans to be the one man who can make everything work "right" worldwide.

LawHawkRFD said...

Andrew: I guess the closest thing to a surprise is that Chavez allowed the vote to be that close. It must have been part of his plan to convince the booboisie that the election was genuine.

LawHawkRFD said...

Anthony: I said that entirely tongue-in-cheek. He will never mellow because as a good communist he must lay up treasures here on earth knowing that for him there will be no treasures in heaven (largely because there is no heaven in their belief structure). The advance of his cancer is only spurring him on to build a bigger and better legacy for himself in history. Poor guy, he'll just be a footnote among the other tinpot dictators fifty years from new.

LawHawkRFD said...

T-Rav: And like Hyman Roth (aka Meyer Lansky), he won't find a home in Israel.

LawHawkRFD said...

LL: They could call the new world capital Chiracas.

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