Is the MSM Going to Treat Mushareff Like They Do Hugo Chavez?

Chavez is openly called a dictator by politicians and the MSM, even though he came to power through elections. And he hasn't done anything yet to become a dictator. Surely nothing on the same level as what Mushareff is doing in Pakistan. Now THAT'S dictatorial! Come to think of it, Mushareff didn't even come to power by being elected!

He changed the Supreme Court members extra-constitutionally in his first year in in office.

Did that make FDR a "dictator"? According to the fascists and robber barons of that era, it did.

The dinosaurs of the Hoover and Coolidge administrations, who were still on the Supreme Court, were shooting down program after program of the "New Deal" as "unconstitutional"--with the country gone belly-up, and millions starving and suffering homelessness and unemployment. FDR got sick of this fascist blockade, and proposed adding to the number of justices (nine is an arbitrary number--it does not appear in the Constitution), so that new, young, liberal members could be added to the Supreme Court. The rightwing (the unprincipled architects of the Great Depression) screamed, "Dictator!"--and FDR couldn't get Congress to do it. But the pressure on the Court that he had created caused one justice to change his mind about the "New Deal." Thus, Social Security was saved!

Now the rich and the corporate want to loot Social Security They've been borrowing heavily against it (and against the government pension system) for their corporate resource war (and to lard each other with tax breaks). And if a strong peoples' president were, by some miracle, to get elected here, and tries to stop them from looting Social Security, and tries to impose fair taxation, and maybe messes with the Supreme Court, on behalf of the American people (i.e., tries to do something about the Bush fascists who have been installed there), you can be sure that the rightwing will be calling him or her a "dictator."

Fascists don't like it when leftist leaders get powerful enough to DO SOMETHING FOR THE LITTLE PEOPLE.


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Here's part of a report on the reform of the Venezuelan Supreme Count, from "School of the Americas Watch" (3/29/05):


The decision to nullify the old ruling (the old ruling had freed 4 military officers who were involved in the 2002 coup attempt) was made possible because of a law to reform the Supreme Court, passed by the parliament last year. Among other measures, the law increased the number of judges sitting on the Supreme Court from 20 to 32, and allowed for the appointment of a judge by a simple majority vote of the National Assembly, Venezuela's unicameral parliament. Prior to the adoption of this law, a two-thirds majority was required.

The new law also allows for the annulment of a judge's appointment to the court if he or she fails to uphold the law and the constitution.

This reform of the Supreme Court has prompted a lot of controversy both inside and outside of Venezuela. Venezuela's capitalist-backed opposition, as well as US officials and anti-Chavez commentators in the US media, have accused Chavez of violating "judicial independence" and of "packing the courts" with his supporters.

Not only is the claim fundamentally untrue--it is not the president but the National Assembly deputies who appoint the Supreme Court --but the hypocrisy of those making the claim is staggering. There was no serious judicial independence in the courts before Chavez's rise to power, and the Bush administration is renowned for wanting to pack the US Supreme Court with judges who share its neo-conservative ideology.

What the Venezuelan opposition is really afraid of is that the capitalist elite is losing control over the courts, and therefore their immunity from prosecution for the crimes they have committed to date in their campaign against Chavez.

As well as carrying out the failed 2002 coup, the opposition, which has received millions of dollars from the US government via the National Endowment for Democracy, has used economic sabotage and a campaign of violent protests in its attempt to oust the Chavez government, which was re-elected in July 2000 with 60% of the popular vote.

However, until recently, not a single person had been jailed for their role in the 2002 coup or other crimes linked to the campaign to overthrow the elected government. The failure to punish those involved in the coup against what they see as "their government" has caused enormous anger and resentment among the poor. In a letter from Venezuela posted at the Cyber Circle website in February this year, US solidarity activist Louise Auerhahn reported that one of the most common pieces of graffiti in Caracas reads "Prison to the coup plotters!"

All this began to change with a legal offensive started by the government last year and led by state prosecutor Danilo Anderson. Travel bans were issued to 30 participants in the coup and at least 400 individuals are being investigated for their role in the coup.

In October, eight anti-Chavez politicians and businesspeople were found guilty of rebellion for their role in ousting the elected pro-Chavez governor of the state of Tachira during the 2002 coup. They received prison sentences of up to six years. They were the first to be found guilty of charges relating to the coup. (MORE)

http://www.soaw.org/newswire_detail.php?id=797

The same goes for Bush vs. Chavez.

Mushareff was never elected by anybody. He took over Pakistan in a military coup, and overthrew the ELECTED president (Buhto).

Chavez has been elected three times--in two regularly scheduled elections, and one (U.S./Bush-funded and instigated) recall election. He has also increased his margin every time. In the latest presidential election in Venezuela, he won with 63% of the vote. And he currently enjoys a 70% approval rating.

Pakistan doesn't have elections.

Venezuela not holds regular elections, they are among the most highly monitored elections in the free world--and have been unanimously certified as honest, open and above board by the OAS, the Carter Center and EU election monitoring groups, who are permitted to crawl all over the country during election time.

As for Bush vs. Chavez...

In addition to the outrages of Florida 2000, and all the evidence of vast suppression, by Bushites, of poor and minority voters in 2004, there is the matter of the electronic voting systems, installed all over the U.S., during the 2002 to 2004 period, with extremely insecure and insider riggable voting machines and central tabulators, run on 'TRADE SECRET,' PRORPIETARY programming code, owned and controlled by rightwing Bushite corporations, with virtually no audit/recount controls.

I mean, it's just laughable.

Bush is no more legitimate than Mushareff is. They merely hold power. They have no right to it. (Nor does the U.S. Congress, for that matter. There is hardly a one of them who can prove that he or she was actually elected.) (It is no accident that Bush has a 25% approval rating, Cheney has a 17% approval rating, and the U.S. Congress has an 11% approval rating. That's what happens when you steal elections in order to perpetrate a war that 70% of the people disapprove of.)

Chavez, on the other hand, is the about the best example one could come up with of a leader who truly represents his people. 60+% margins in his elections. 70% approval rating. Lively political culture, with the government positively encouraging maximum participation in government and politics by all citizens. Scrupulously lawful. Many helps to the poor--free universal health care; free education through university; building many new schools and medical centers in poor areas never before served by government. All economic indicators up. All social indicators up. Doing good for the region, too, with the Bank of the South and other projects.

And what have Mushareff and Bush accomplished? They can't even catch OBL, and more than likely don't want to. He's all they've got--their gravy train. Oh, and they've both destroyed democracy in their countries. That's an accomplishment, I guess, from the point of view of war profiteers and global corporate predators.