Venice Film Festival: A Movie Star Reception For Hugo Chavez
by John NolteAs tens of thousands took to the streets of Venezuela to protest the Chavez government’s growing authoritarianism, as the Chavez government announced the closing of over two dozen radio stations “biased” against the government, why is it not surprising that the international film community greeted the thug with what the AP describes as a “movie star reception?”
Yes, it looks as though unless Ahmadinejad, the ghost of Joseph Stalin or the surviving members of the Weather Underground show up to steal his thunder, Hugo Chavez (whose Indian name is “He Who Rides Little Girl Bike“) is the toast of the 2009 Venice Film Festival.
The hoopla surrounds Oliver Stone’s latest documentary “South of the Border,” which the the L.A. Times describes as a “counterpoint to the prevailing U.S. image of Chávez … as a bellicose dictator-cum-comic opera figure.”
I’m still unclear how one is supposed to represent a bellicose dictator-cum-comic opera figure as something other than a bellicose dictator-cum-comic opera figure, but rest assure Oliver — Can I play soccer with Uncle Hugo?– Stone gave it the old college try; the same Oliver Stone who portrayed the Abraham Lincoln of the Middle East and his Vice President as warped and sinister.
Meanwhile, in a land where enabling evil is considered a bad thing, events are unfolding that probably won’t be found as a helpful update in the “South of the Border” DVD release:
Tens of thousands marched through Venezuela’s capital on Saturday to protest what they call growing authoritarianism by President Hugo Chávez.
And you can practically see The Beautiful People, hands over ears, chanting nanananaIcan’thearyounanananaIcan’thear you… over the news that Chavez will “democratize media ownership” through the closing of up to 100 radio stations “biased against the Chavez government”:
Infrastructure Minister Diosdado Cabello closed 34 radio stations in July, saying the government was “democratizing” media ownership. …
Venezuela will pull the plug on 29 more radio stations, a top official in President Hugo Chavez’s government said[.] …
The powerful Chavez ally has threatened to close over 100 stations in total, part of a long-term campaign against private media that the government says are biased against Chavez’s government.
What a relief that perverting the language could never lead to something like that here in America.
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89 Comments
There it is again… the double speak use of the word "democracy". Hugo wants to close the stations for democratic purposes…
Just like Michael Moore and his "We must get rid of capitalism and replace it with democracy" from yesterday.
Democracy is becoming code for reducing freedom in favor of government control. They're using the masses as a cover to gobble up power.
What can you say about someone who actively applauds Hugo Chavez? These people are so frickin´ dumb and degenerate.
Great piece, Mr. Nolte.
Wouldn't Obama and his cronies love to pull the plug on the New Media – talk radio, Drudge, and that other news source that-when-named-gets-your-post sent to site admin?
Thank God we have them. Though Van and his buddies can't be too happy about it.
What can you say about someone who actively applauds Hugo Chavez?
These people are all dumb and degenerate.
Listen lefties, and listen good.
I had to listen you idiots for 8 years gripe in the most vitriolic ways about President Bush. I tolerated idiots like Michael Moore, Keith Olbermann, and Bill Maher; I listened to them spew the most acinine crap about a president and never once whined and moaned about a "Fairness Doctrine" because you have freedom of speech.
Now when President Obama screws up, and I call him out on it, I'm "racist" and now we need a Fairness Doctrine for the airwaves. I guess that's because no one listens to that trash heap Air America.
Also, the next lefty who blathers on about the greatness of Hugo Chavez, I will smack you with a copy of The Gulag Archipelago and then kindly ask you to read it.
Obama is already conniving to get his tickets for next year, can't have "little girls on bikes" out Dictator[ing] him.
I can't wait for the next time our "Dear Leader" meets Hugo Chavez and gets punked by another useful idiot photo opportunity when Chavez presents him with a signed copy of the DVD. The look on Obama's face when he realizes it's happening again should be priceless.
I'd love to see the Beautiful Peoples faces if this rice and bean Dictator showed them his other truer self. They'd be swimming in their own crap. Probably whining like claw -hammer face Sean Penn did when he came back from Iraq, after Saddam used him like toilet paper. Useless despicable lowlife's starting with that Bum Oliver Stone but not ending there.
I'd love to see the Beautiful Peoples faces if this rice and bean Dictator showed them his other truer self. They'd be swimming in their own crap. Probably whining like claw -hammer face Sean Penn did when he came back from Iraq, after Saddam used him like toilet paper. Useless despicable lowlife's starting with that Bum Oliver Stone but hardly ending there.
The shock by Obama was that dummy Chavez gave him a book he had already. The kabuki theater at that meeting was very enlightening. Followed by the bow to the king of Islam. Obama knows who his superiors are.
Chavez is gonna fall out of his ivory tower soon and should be "Mussolinied". Unfortunately there is no shortage of libs around to give him safe haven. Stone, Penn and the other useful idiots that have enabled and glorified this clown will have the blood of the Venezuelans on their hands when the inevitable comes.
Chavez is gonna fall out of his ivory tower soon and should be "Mussolinied". Unfortunately there is no shortage of libs around to give him safe haven. Stone, Penn and the other useful idiots that have enabled and glorified this clown will have the blood of the Venezuelans on their hands when the inevitable insurrection comes.
Watching Hollywood drool over Chavez is like watching chickens cluck over Colonel Sanders.
Ja ja ja ja! and JA!
Chavez is the best!!!!!!!!!!!!
Look at all the above loosers cry with envy. Gringo go fly a kite!!!!!!!!
Get your criminal, genocidal military country and shove where the sun doesn't shine!
Oliver will be moving to paradise when?
A new Mussolini stomps onto the world stage, and the left goes ga-ga…a lesson for those who believed fascism is a phenomena of the right and not the left…
Huh?
Democracy is mob rule. That is why we are a Constitutional Republic; where no majority can vote to take away your rights.
Example: If we stuck to the principles of a Republic, we wouldn't have been debating civil rights in the 60's. They aren't up for debate.
Those who want to subvert your God given rights cry Democracy.
What would Titus Pullo do?
"Yes, it looks as though unless Ahmadinejad, the ghost of Joseph Stalin or the surviving members of the Weather Underground show up to steal his thunder, Hugo Chavez (whose Indian name is “He Who Rides Little Girl Bike“) is the toast of the 2009 Venice Film Festival."
Best line I have read in years.
troll = enano pelotudo in spanish
Lenin is smiling in his grave at all the useful idiots who are still with us. He's also happy about how the Obama Administration is filled with them, including Mr. Yes We Can.
Choose your side, folks.
Take careful note of exactly who is on which side.
Think very carefully about what you are seeing and reading.
Reflect on where we have been as a country and where all of this is headed
Get ready to fight like your life depended on it.
Because it DOES.
As Chavez gets ready to shut down all political opposition radio and television stations —– Oliver Stone says Chavez is misunderstood and not a bad guy.
He would head-butt Chavez, then bite his tongue off. And the world would be better for it.
If Oliver and his ilk have their way they'll do the same here. When your views are the "correct" ones then why not make them the dominant ones?
I'm sorry Chavez's police are holding a gun to your head and making you say those things. You would think that for propaganda purposes, they would have at least learned proper English before writing that script for you, huh? Anyway, my heart goes out to you and hopefully you won't have to repeat their lies much longer.
Stone on Chavez: "Why do you seek out the dark side when the guy is doing good things?…He is a democrat, and there is opposition to him…People forget that he cut the poverty rate by one half. People in Venezuela are getting an education, they are getting health care and welfare. He actually delivered on what he said he would."
Two possibilities come to mind here concerning Stone's gush. One is that the man is simply an idiot and just puts his fingers in his ears when he doesn't hear what he wants to about Chavez, which would be the more comforting scenario. The other is that Stone and others of his kind simply do not care about the loss of personal freedoms, the government takeover of the media, or anything else being done in Venezuela as long as it provides or is done in the name of "social justice" or other forms of economic comfort. Even worse, being in favor of these freedoms is not what makes one a "democrat" (small "d"), being in favor of the little guy and doing away with those freedoms if necessary to give him his due is.
(continued)
Unfortunately, I think this is the more likely explanation. Stone is an arrogant man, and through that arrogance we've gotten a glimpse into the minds of the far left, but he's not flat-out stupid. He has to know what Chavez is doing to the Venezuelans' liberties, but he must regard it as less important than the fact that "Little Girl Bike" is "spreading the wealth around" (sorry, Freudian Obama). Personally, I don't know what's scarier: everything the current Administration here has done or tried to do in the past seven and a half months, or the fact that morally incompetent people like Stone are supporting it at the same time that they applaud Chavez and similar thugs.
Touche'
Even the left knows the real dictators come from the left. They just have a reply that goes something like "we just haven't gotten it correct yet," or "the movement was taken over by thugs later, but it started well." Their delusion knows no bounds.
Disgusting. Chavez is a very big threat to liberty anywhere in the world and Oliver Stone is his lapdog idiot.
How can a tool like Oliver Stone have produced the humane "World Trade Center?" It must have been the one moment of clarity, like Neil Young's "Let's Roll."
Just added Oliver Stone to my "do not watch" list
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Too bad Oliver Stone and Michael Moore can't be deported to pepe's country and live under the tyrrany of Chavez, the pig-boy, or to Iran to live under the murderous Ahmadinejad. Both are Stone & Moore are treasonous swine.
What business of your is it how we Latin Americans vote for our leaders? The voters of Latin America are wising up! We don't tell YOU who to vote for. Now leave us alone and let make our own choices and run our own countries. If Oliver Stone wants to make a documentary about a president, well that seems like a person who is important enough to have a documentary made about him – why do you care? Fix your own screwed up country before you criticize anyone.
Titus Pullo?
Chavez is the most prominent Fascist of our day. He is bundling industries together to subvert competition with the goal of fixing prices, wages and profits.
Mix in some Nativist Nationalism, invoking images of hero's past to motive your people and you've got Fascism from A to Z.
Pixar got a Lifetime Achievement award at Venice, first time a whole film studio was so honored. There is some press about their award, if you Google News Advanced Search for it. I bet Stone-Chavez gets more press, even though most of the public would be more uplifted by the news of Pixar's success.
Well, Sim… it's like this: your president comes to NYC and badmouths our leadership at the UN. Our leaders have remained publicly quiet on this and other anti-USA attacks by El Cha… so, we feel like he started it and he is therefore open season. If I were you, I would think about trying to be less sensitive when people verbally attack your president.
Tell me… did you ever say anything publicly about George Bush?
Thank you! Thank you Mr. Stone for bringing the truth about this great man to the world!!
Unplug yourselves from the corporate propaganda matrix long enough to go see the story of a real hero!
Except the "wealth" part is a big fat stinking propaganda lie. Chavez has destroyed Venezuela's economy. The private sector is in tatters, the state-run oil industry collapsing. Venezuela not only imports food now (it used to be a net exporter)- they even have to import *coffee.*! Stone is either stupid, blind, or a liar. My money's on the last.
The supposed "halving of the poverty rate" is the most transparent form of creative accounting- you define "poverty" as X percent of the median income… then you lower the median income drastically. Presto! The economic "equality" of Cuba.
What makes you think I am from Venezuela? Read up on the history of US-Latin American relations. The US has a history of intervening in the region, often supporting oppressive dictatorial regimes. Now democracy is vibrant again, but people still remember that history. So maybe you should re-think "who started it".
Chavez is gonna tumblel out of his ivory tower soon and should be "Mussolini-ed". Unfortunately there is no shortage of libs around to give him safe haven. Stone, Penn and the other useful idiots that have enabled and glorified this clown will have the blood of the Venezuelans on their hands when the inevitable insurrection occurs.
"Democracy is vibrant again"
Christ almighty. "Democracy" in Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Cuba….
Only in the "People's Democratic Republic" sense are they democratic.
This is satire, right? Right? I mean, nobody this stupid really exists. Or am I wrong?
He wasn't already ON your do not watch list? Sorry, I could have e-mailed you mine from circa 1995. I haven't spent money on any of these tools in so long, I cannot imagine why anyone would.
yes, but… did you ever say anything publically about George Bush?
You should see it on the ground – you'd be surprised. Or you can continue to watch from afar and call the masses ignorant and feel good about yourself, but these governments have massive popular support and all of those voters don't really care if you approve of who they vote for (one exception: you're right that Cuba is not a democracy, so one out of five is not bad for remedial social studies – the rest all have transparent elections according all the international observers). Try some independent research and thought instead of distortion.
We have the right to elect whoever we want. And we will exercise our rights without your permission. You can't stop us.
Frequently. I am a US citizen – so I guess that is part of being politically engaged in my country.
The point is not really who has a right to speak so much as – what should anyone in the US have against elected, relatively-stable governments most of which have not really taken very strong anti-US positions? Most seem to want to work with the US, actually. For most people with personal experience in the region the US press and general US discourse on Latin America just seems like mostly ignorance, fabrication and distortion. There is no reason to have conflict with these governments and we need friends more than enemies in the region.
"the rest all have transparent elections according all the international observers"
Right. Never mind the suppression of opposition media, and the suppresion of opposition rallies and the massive government-funded Chavismo rallies- and, oh, even if something slips and an opponent wins, say, Mayor of Caracas- well, hell, that can be circumvented by just transferring the office's powers to a Chavez appointed shadow-mayor. No problem. And 'Bolivarian Councils' to usurp local government wherever the Peole had the temerity to vote the wrong way.
And of course the forcible expropriation of private businesses, and the purge of competent management in favor of redshirt stooges. And Chavez hours-long rants, covered in entirety and (theoretically) mandatory, together with workplace 'education." And the occasional murder or disapperance.
Yeah. Democracy. About like Iran. Who do you think you're kidding?
Or the Zelaya stunt- ballots preprinted "yes," and the Official Results pre-tabulated.
I'll give you this much- at least (unlike some commie propagandists) you've given up on trying to defend Castro, former darling of the Left, and the utter fiasco of his blood-soaked rule.
PS "international observers" Like the Carter Center? Sheesh.
Wait until Chavez' compadre is gone in 2013, amigo.
We can do whatever the hell we want. Great powers command, POS little banana republics obey. Comprende?
If Castro, Kim Jung Il and Ahmadinejad collaborated on an anti-capitalist film they would get a standing ovation at the Venice film festival and all these film festivals populated with communist, socialist and anarchist refuse. I suppose we shouldn’t be too hard on the high school dropouts and drug addicts that we call celebrities, after all they couldn’t spell socialist let alone define it. You ask them what makes Europe socialist and they stare at you with a blank look.
Hollywood liberal idiots [redundancy], it’s the capitalist system that allows for your trash to be produced which has given you tremendous undeserved wealth. The fact that these imbeciles decry capitalism just goes to show you they have no idea what capitalism is. Maybe they should be sent to Cuba for 10 years so they can learn what what it is by having it and freedom deprived from them.
I am a Latin American specialist with over 20 years experience in the region. My clients are LatAm government agencies. I contribute commentary to various government agency web sites and develop training programs for government agencies. I am married to an Argentinian lady and live in Argentina.
There are good and bad things to say about all governments. The point I am trying to make is that speaking our mind about governments, their personalities and activities is a good and important function. I went to war to defend the rights of persons who do not agree with me to speak their mind about anything about which they care to comment… that includes you.
See Julius Caesar's Commentaries on the Gallic Wars, and the HBO series Rome, seasons 1 and 2.
Nothing but a big commie party. Was Obama invited?
I'd love to see the Beautiful People's faces if this rice and bean Dictator showed them his other truer self. They'd be swimming in their own crap. Probably whining like claw -hammer face Sean Penn did when he came back from Iraq, after Saddam used him like toilet paper. Useless despicable lowlifes starting with that Drug Addled Bum Oliver Stone but hardly ending there.
Hell yeah, StanH.
My name is pepe. And I am a liberal poster-child. Will you adopt me and teach me how to think in a rational and sane human being?
My name is pepe. And I am a liberal poster-child. Will you adopt me and teach me how to think like a rational and sane human being?
My name is pepe. And I am a liberal poster-child. Will you adopt me and teach me how to think like a sane and rational human being?
Except the "wealth" part is a big fat stinking propaganda lie. Chavez has destroyed Venezuela's economy. The private sector is in tatters (that which hasn't (yet) been expropriated), the state-run oil industry collapsing. Venezuela not only imports food now (it used to be a net exporter)- they even have to import *coffee.*! Stone is either stupid, blind, or a liar. My money's on the last.
The supposed "halving of the poverty rate" is the most transparent form of creative accounting- you define "poverty" as X percent of the median income… then you lower the median income drastically. Presto! The economic "equality" of Cuba.
Bullshit. The measure of a dictator is not whether he's voted in, but whether he can be voted out again. Chavez is a dictator
If you think Latin American voters have the right to run their own countries, then how come Chavez is trying to run Colombia, Honduras, Peru…… BTW, how come Obama is telling the Hondurans who their President must be?
(PS: nobody in the Western Hemisphere has the right to elect a Communist. We get a veto).
Those so called artists are eager to lick the boots of all the dictators they can find, especially if they are anti-american.
It's more easy to spit on those who don't send their opponents in jail.
Envy? ENVY? When Chavez is done with Venezuela, we´ll be asked to fork over money and green cards. These countries are pathetic even now, and people like you are the reason why.
Though you sound more like a German skinhead to me.
And we have the pleasure to send them in hell, as it was done for guevara, noriega, and all those shitheads who will follow.
The US can't even manage its own economy – much less influence the hemisphere.
But at least you are honest about your imperialism, I'll give you that. Impotent, but honest.
At least you are honest. Most people try to lie about it.
Wow, Stone and Chavez are even dressed alike.
thug my arse
hello the radio stations are a threat to social order there was already a channel that had incited violence and help navigate people to participate in the coup
how would you feel if fox news or cnn started organising people to overthrow the government
typical double standard of the American people makes me sick
Thats just stupid there is no conspiracy you idiot by oliver stone and michael moore to have an oppressive government. The fucking opposition is an minority in the country that incites violence
now by my values when a instituition tries to over throw with out popular support an elected government then any1 supporting them are fascists
Edword you need to calm the fuck down and read a little and stop watching fox
How Pathetic. Oliver Stone, elitist pig, get a life.
Cling to your guns, the Revolution is coming.
I'm sure you have great authority on the subject of double-standards.
Stop watching MSNBC.
Where did all these Leftist brainless commentators come from? Stooges.
Nice F-Bomb usage.
Who needs to calm down, JANM?
Oh, and please send me your preferred reading list.
Apparently I need to improve my vocabulary.
Obama is Green (Red) with envy….
"The US can't even manage its own economy"
This, coming from a Chavista! ROTFLMAO!!!!!!
How's that 30+% inflation working out for ya? And the empty store shelves? Or the capital flight? Or the tumbling oil production? Or private-sector activity falling 4.1% in just the second quarter this year? Venezuela is an economic toxic-waste dump.
And you're just a bantam cock crowing on your dunghill if you think El Colosso del Norte is impotent, just because our current Commander-in-Training-Pants has no balls, or if you think we haven't noticed Baby Huey's cozy alliance with the Iranians and Hezbullah.
Yep. As in "People's Democratic Republic." All of which are none of the above.
"hello the radio stations are a threat to social order"
Gee, where have we heard that before?
Yet again, I do not understand the leftist/statist/liberal "thought" processes. I don't get it. I've tried to at least see their points – but they are anti-intuitive. But, I'll try again…
Please, one of y'all that claim Chavez as your own (norteamericano o otro), explain to me why you want someone who demands you agree or… well, there's no OR, just a demand for agreement. Someone who gets elected and then changes the rules to make himself non-unelectible (is there a word for that, other than dictator or tyrant?). Please explain this to me!!!
Thanks.
I say it all here. thanks. http://shutking.blogspot.com/
You gotta lot of bile to spew. Sore LOSER?
Some of us are enjoying being on better terms with our neighbors under a new administration – and we don't really care if we dominate the hemisphere or not. We like their bananas anyway, why not be nice to those little banana republics you seem to hate so much?
Well, I am a Latin American specialist with 19 years experience in the region (starting when I was 12); I work with rural indigenous people on cultural and linguistic issues (and I speak Portuguese, Quechua and 2 other indigenous languages in addition to Spanish and this helps me to speak to people other than urban government sectors). I am married to an Ecuadorian lady and live in Ecuador. I mean, as long as we are playing the authenticity game.
I often criticize Chavez, Correa and other leaders when I have a reason to. But there is a difference between speaking one's mind and distortion or defamation. The US press about Latin America has tended to be the latter – this does not serve the purpose of government criticism because serious criticism is based on fact. You live in Argentina – do you think people in the US can get an accurate picture of what it is like there from the press?
Also, I did not ask you to go to war on my behalf. I appreciate your effort, but please don't hold it over my head.
To be honest, he might probably go work for Chavez. He´s a bit of a mercenary. But Vorenus would suffer a crisis of conscience. And then Pullo would kill Chavez over a woman, or because Hugo insulted the XIII Legion, and get rid of the body in the sewers. I´d call that a happy ending.
Well… at last… something we can agree upon. The media… including the blogs… are satisfying their basic need to corrupt, spin and propagandize the news. That's why I troll a lot of radical sites… I feel I have to piece together the truth from the Huffington Post, Media Matters, Al-Jazeera, the BBC, the Root, the Kos and various radical left and Iraqi/Iranian bloggers… on the right, I read Fox News, Breitbart, the survival blogs from the US and (my personal favorite blog by a fiend of mine – a 30 yo architect and professor in the southern barrios of BsAs – Surviving Argentina). I also try to keep up with economic policy news with the Baseline economist blog. What I have found is…
. The truth is hard to figure out.
. As a militant Centerist, I find that the middle-of-the-road position shifts a lot… ebbs and flows, expands and contracts as Centerists find some issues upon which they feel passionate draws them closer to the left or right. That's as it should be.
. The world needs guys like you, working down in the mud with campesinos and indiginas, while I am flying over you at 4 km in a helicopter (out of the most effective man-portable missile range) with a load of corrupt and aggressive military and oligarchy-supporting capitalist tools. I work from the inside, and you work from the outside… I'm fine with that.
. The left does not withhold support from radicals because, if they are leftist, they can do no wrong. Van Jones is just the most recent example.
. BO hiring guys that openly espouse the overthrow of the Constitution of the US (he swore to protect and defend that document) and espousing Chavez-type control of the media leading to total government control of the media is going to bring the Center… a majority currently in the US… snug up along side the Right. This is a shame, because bowing to the radical Left will jeopardize the really good stuff he wants to do – such as Universal (not single-payer) health care, green jobs, etc.
. I am personally sick to my stomach of what BO wants to do in bring education closer to the radical left. We cannot allow that to happen.
. I like the way Argentina pays for a collage education for any student who could pass the requisite exams. Chavez and Castro have also done some really good and laudable things in education… but, I don't appreciate how they have turned the schools into madrassa-like political tools, radicalizing the young. That can not be allowed to happen in the US. The Right won't be allowed to do it, either.
. I am a big supporter of citizens doing government service as a way of paying back for their education. I am a beneficiary of that via the US military. My children were beneficiaries of the Americorp plan in conjunction with the Texas A&M School of Oceanography. I would like to see that program expanded for the good of the country, with the proviso that NO political agenda be imposed upon such programs.
. If Chavez is successful in becoming a full on dictator in VZ and Iraq is successful in seriously destabilizing the middle East, we may be looking at some fairly destructive wars. The Center never wants war. Chavez is helping Iran by selling gasoline in defiance of UN sanctions.
. Chavez is destabilizing the region by supporting leftist radical groups and narcotraficantes. He has not responded to the Swedish diplomatic demand as to why the serial numbers of anti-aircraft munitions sold by Sweden to Chavez were recovered in raids against the FARC in CO and EQ.
The list goes on and on. The bottom line is that if you insist on vehemently supporting leftist ideals in the face of violation of the ideals of the common good, you will be resisted. I didn't need your permission to go to war to support freedom, and you don't need my permission to spew leftist opinion on blogs. Nice, huh?
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