NYTimes editorial needs more comments

[Lydia Leftcoast]

Today (11/28) there's an editorial about Latin America that contains such gems as these:

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Declining oil prices, and the declining stature of President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, will also make Mr. Obama’s task easier.

We have no patience for Mr. Chávez’s corrupt and autocratic ways. But the Bush administration did enormous damage to American credibility throughout much of the region when it blessed what turned out to be a failed coup against Mr. Chávez.

The Venezuelan leader has played anti-American sentiments for all they are worth. And he has spent a chunk of his country’s abundant oil riches to prop up the Castro brothers and finance a wider anti-American bloc. He no longer has as much cash to spread around. And his own citizens have lost patience with his failed revolution.

Mr. Chávez’s decline also poses some new challenges. The finances of Cuba as well as Argentina, Nicaragua or Honduras could deteriorate rapidly if Venezuela decides to cut back its deliveries of cheap oil and billions in aid. Washington must be prepared to help, either with its own aid or by rallying support from international lenders.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/28/opinion/28fri1.html
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In other words, the basic thrust of the editorial is that the U.S. should keep manipulating Latin America for the benefit of its corporations.

I wrote a comment under another name (glad to see that it has more recommendations than any other so far), but a lot of the commentators are accepting the editorial writers' assumptions.

[EFerrari]

1. What a rightwing salad that was!

lol

[Lydia Leftcoast]

2. Yes, but my comment and ones in a similar vein are still at the top of

the Readers' Recommendations list. :-)

[Joe Chi Minh]

5. "And his own citizens have lost patience with his failed revolution."

Not according to this Guardian article:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/nov/27/hugo-chavez-venezuela

"Yes, but my comment and ones in a similar vein are still at the top of
the Readers' Recommendations list."

Yes, because imperialism dies hard. Our football hooligans are still the scorn of Europe. Didn't you know? We won the war!

It was only remembering this sad truth about the mindless arrogance of post-imperial countries and their peoples, that I realised the many DUers on here who go weak at the knees at the thought of Wesley Clark being President are not going to change any time soon.

[EFerrari]

6. Muy bien hecho!

:applause:

[Judi Lynn]

3. Rats. "Comments are no longer being accepted." A-holes!

All I could do was reccommend the two truthful comments.

They sure locked that one up in a hurry. Cowards.

They happen to have used the three filthiest anti-democratic Latin American reporters in the universe, Simon Romero, Juan Forero, and Francisco Toro. Couldn't be worse. Someone has named Simon Romero (saw it in BoRev, I think) the "Judith Miller of Latin America.
" They ALL have a reputation for bending, stretching, ((((((((( spinnnning )))))))) the truth until it's no longer recognizable.

#### the New York Times.

Juan Forero left the NY Times, now works for the Washington Post.

They had to accept Francisco Toro's resignation when it was publicly revealed he belongs to several different anti-Chavez NGO's in Venezuela (sucking up more US taxpayers' heard earned tax dollars).

[Lydia Leftcoast]

4. There were more than two truthful comments when I last looked, but yes,

they shut that one down fast. Some of the responses to columnists go on for hundreds of posts.

I got in first because I happened to be up late on Thursday night and saw the editorial shortly after it was posted.

A lot of people in the U.S. know nothing about Latin America and assume that it's all one big Mexico. (Remember Reagan's remark: "They're all different countries down there"?)

I guess I was lucky in going through a school system in which the social studies curriculum devoted an entire year (6th grade) to the Western Hemisphere. I recall the class being assigned to do reports on Caribbean islands, one person for each of the smaller islands, groups of kids being assigned to the larger islands such as Cuba and Jamaica. My assignment was ...Grenada, so I may have been one of the tiny percentage of Americans who even heard of Grenada before the 1983 invasion.

Anyway, I don't remember what political biases the textbook had, but it gave enough information about each country so that you formed an impression of its geographical features, ethnic make-up, economy, and history. That's why I immediately became interested when the U.S. intervened in Central America. I knew enough about those countries to realize that the right-wing dictators there deserved to be overthrown.