“All the news that’s fit to print,” says the front page of the New York Times. The editorial page at the Times was turning ecstatic backflips Saturday, celebrating the “resignation” of Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez and the ascendance of “respected business leader” Pedro Carmona. A color photo of President Carmona and his friends the generals graced the front page of that edition.
That news was not fit to print. Mr. Chavez did not resign; he was removed from office at the point of a gun. The story of Mr. Chavez’s resignation was one of the bull tickets passed out by the White House press office Friday.
Is it odd that the presidential administration of the US should be doling out misinformation about the demise of a democratically-elected president in another American nation? It should be odd, but it’s not. The Times, to its credit, reported Tuesday that the Bush administration had been meeting with Venezuelan coup-plotters for months. All the recent unrest in Venezuela has revolved around oil, a subject dear to the heart of George W. Bush.
So the Bush administration had been meeting with South American coup-plotters at exactly the same time the political situation in the Middle East was falling apart. Then, a week after Saddam Hussein announces he’s shutting down Iraq’s oil supply for 30 days, the Venezuelan military deposes Hugo Chavez and puts an oil-friendly businessman in his place. Did I mention Venezuela is the only member of OPEC located in the Americas? I’m not suggesting conspiracies, I’m just reading the chronology.
Of course, it didn’t work. The Venezuelan people poured into the streets, Mr. Carmona sneaked out the back door, Mr. Chavez was back at the presidential palace in time for Sunday dinner and the generals were sent to Cellblock D. By Tuesday, the Times’s editorial page was backpedaling, deciding military coups d’etat are not a good thing after all, but somehow never quite getting around to an admission of error.
The Bush administration finds the reversal of fortune depressing news, certainly not fit to print. The South American revolution failed, the Democrats in the Senate will not let Mr. Bush into the Arctic Wildlife Refuge, Colin Powell is meeting with every elected official above the rank of mayor from Casablanca to Damascus, but no one is listening.
It’s a good thing the recession is over and the recovery is underway. At least that’s what they say in Washington, DC. Out here in America, the price of gas is up, unemployment is up and the valiant consumers, whose spending carried the economy through the winter months, are broke.
Here in Vermont, legislators are fighting over the budget. Programs are slashed and the debate on taxes is not whether to raise them, but which taxes will be raised and by how much. The recovery may have arrived, but not here, not yet.
We’re not alone in this. The Maryland legislature put its state on an austerity budget. Virginia is cutting social programs and raising tuition and fees at state colleges. Students in Idaho wore their coats in the classroom all winter, because the thermostats were turned down. In Nebraska, poor people will have to pay more for prescription drugs.
Revenue for state budgets is expected the fall almost $40 billion short of what is needed this year. To cover that shortfall, many programs will be cut, many taxes will be raised. But, as I said, unemployment is up. People who have no income pay no income tax. People who lose their jobs lose their insurance and have to rely on the state to cover their needs. Insurance costs for states are already growing by 10 to 12 percent a year; this will not help.
Bill Clinton shredded the social safety net in 1996 and got away to Chappaqua before the bodies started falling. George Bush does not seem inclined to worry about those falling bodies, as long as they’re not oil executives. Before he thinks about removing any more American presidents from office, Mr. Bush would do well to remember he’s not the only one with those ideas.
In and Out
“All the news that’s fit to print,” says the front page of the New York Times. The editorial page at the Times was turning ecstatic backflips Saturday, celebrating the “resignation” of Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez and the ascendance of “respected business leader” Pedro Carmona. A color photo of President Carmona and his friends the generals graced the front page of that edition.
That news was not fit to print. Mr. Chavez did not resign; he was removed from office at the point of a gun. The story of Mr. Chavez’s resignation was one of the bull tickets passed out by the White House press office Friday.
Is it odd that the presidential administration of the US should be doling out misinformation about the demise of a democratically-elected president in another American nation? It should be odd, but it’s not. The Times, to its credit, reported Tuesday that the Bush administration had been meeting with Venezuelan coup-plotters for months. All the recent unrest in Venezuela has revolved around oil, a subject dear to the heart of George W. Bush.
So the Bush administration had been meeting with South American coup-plotters at exactly the same time the political situation in the Middle East was falling apart. Then, a week after Saddam Hussein announces he’s shutting down Iraq’s oil supply for 30 days, the Venezuelan military deposes Hugo Chavez and puts an oil-friendly businessman in his place. Did I mention Venezuela is the only member of OPEC located in the Americas? I’m not suggesting conspiracies, I’m just reading the chronology.
Of course, it didn’t work. The Venezuelan people poured into the streets, Mr. Carmona sneaked out the back door, Mr. Chavez was back at the presidential palace in time for Sunday dinner and the generals were sent to Cellblock D. By Tuesday, the Times’s editorial page was backpedaling, deciding military coups d’etat are not a good thing after all, but somehow never quite getting around to an admission of error.
The Bush administration finds the reversal of fortune depressing news, certainly not fit to print. The South American revolution failed, the Democrats in the Senate will not let Mr. Bush into the Arctic Wildlife Refuge, Colin Powell is meeting with every elected official above the rank of mayor from Casablanca to Damascus, but no one is listening.
It’s a good thing the recession is over and the recovery is underway. At least that’s what they say in Washington, DC. Out here in America, the price of gas is up, unemployment is up and the valiant consumers, whose spending carried the economy through the winter months, are broke.
Here in Vermont, legislators are fighting over the budget. Programs are slashed and the debate on taxes is not whether to raise them, but which taxes will be raised and by how much. The recovery may have arrived, but not here, not yet.
We’re not alone in this. The Maryland legislature put its state on an austerity budget. Virginia is cutting social programs and raising tuition and fees at state colleges. Students in Idaho wore their coats in the classroom all winter, because the thermostats were turned down. In Nebraska, poor people will have to pay more for prescription drugs.
Revenue for state budgets is expected the fall almost $40 billion short of what is needed this year. To cover that shortfall, many programs will be cut, many taxes will be raised. But, as I said, unemployment is up. People who have no income pay no income tax. People who lose their jobs lose their insurance and have to rely on the state to cover their needs. Insurance costs for states are already growing by 10 to 12 percent a year; this will not help.
Bill Clinton shredded the social safety net in 1996 and got away to Chappaqua before the bodies started falling. George Bush does not seem inclined to worry about those falling bodies, as long as they’re not oil executives. Before he thinks about removing any more American presidents from office, Mr. Bush would do well to remember he’s not the only one with those ideas.