Chile is Free At Last

in 1973, democratically-elected president Salvador Allende was nationalizing certain key parts of his country's economy, in accordance with mainstream economic opinon at the time as practiced by most Western European countries. The copper companies, however, were afeared of their interests and implored the Nixon administration to do something about it. Henry Kissinger, who once said that Chile was 'A dagger pointed at the heart of Antarctica' (that is, at nothing), now said that Chile could become 'an example for a successful and democratic socialist country' and therefor had to be stopped. The Nixon Administration responded by spending hundreds of millions of dollars to sabotage the Chilean economy and the installing a military junta.

The junta was led by General Auguste Pinochet, who died this week. During his rule he orchestrated the 'disappearance' of thousands of Chileans and dozens of Americans, Spanish, and other nationals who he deemed inconveient, while torturing thousands more, including the current Chilean president.

After his 'retirement' at the age of 75 (though he remained commander-in-chief for years afterward) Pinochet was arrested and brought to trial by Spanish authorities for having murdered their citizens. His opponents demanded the release of the CIA files about Pinochet. To counter that, a right-wing State Department official demanded that they release ALL the files, including the ones on Allende. What they revealed was a total lack of totalitarian ambition on Allende's part, who apparently viewed advocates of Cuban-style communism at least as big a threat as the right-wing militants who eventually killed him.

Well, anyway, Pinochet is dead. It's a shame he never had to face justice.

So, A Liberal Walks into a Bar...

Browsing the blogs lately I came upon already-in-progress plans to create a conservative 'Daily Show' type program on the Fox network (duh):

Fox News Channel might air two episodes of a “Daily Show”-like program with a decidedly nonliberal bent on Saturday nights in late January, with the possibility that it could become a weekly show for the channel.

The half-hour show is executive produced by “24’s” Joel Surnow and Manny Cota and creator Ned Rice, who previously wrote for “Politically Incorrect” and “Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson” through This Just In Prods. It would take aim at what Surnow calls “the sacred cows of the left” that don’t get made as much fun of by other comedy shows. “It’s a satirical news format that would play more to the Fox News audience than the Michael Moore channel,” Surnow said. “It would tip more right as ‘The Daily Show’ tips left.”

I think is is going to fail. Why? Forgive me for making a sweeping generalization: conservatives aren't funny. Certainly there are exceptions. Jackie Mason, for one. Certain episodes of South Park. On the whole, however, when one wants to laugh the scale tilts heavily to the left. Even coming up with five right-wing comedians is a challenge. I can't get far without having to add Dennis Miller, and he's about as funny as Mikhail Glinka giving math lessons to Friedrich Nietzsche aboard the Andrea Doria.

Perhaps I should say: conservative attempts at humor are not usually successful, though there are plenty of conservatives who have excellent senses of humor.

Consider: recent forays into field of humor have not been terribly successful. The most prominent right-wing comic strip, Mallard Fillmore a.k.a. Gipper the Talking Points Duck, drawn by a man so thin-skinned and contemptuous of his readers' intelligence that he thought they would be fooled by a parody of his strip in America: the Book. Naturally, he struck back by implying that Jon Stewart has a thing for underage drunk boys. For me, it was easy to tell the real Mallard from the fake because Stewart's version was funny.

Of course, I could be wrong. Maybe this new show will be witty and insightful and make everyone laugh at their own foibles. But, the odds are against them.

Morning in America

A good night for the Dems.

In Ohio, Virginia, and Montana, it looks like incumbent Republican senators were beaten, though in VA and MT it was very close.

In Massachusetts Deval Patrick was swept into office in a landslide.

In Tennessee, a flurry of ads suggesting that Harold Ford Jr. was out to steal all the white women proved sufficient to sink his campaign.

In Pennsylvania, man-on-dog dead-baby-kissing creepmeister Rick Santorum lost big time. Good riddance.

All told, the Democrats gained at least 28 House seats and 6 senate seats (with Independents). Small majorities, but majorities nonetheless.

Also signficant: not a single Democratic incumbent lost. Not n the House, Senate, or the Governorships. Not one.

Awesome.

It's also fun to cruise the conservative blogs and find new perjorative terms for Democrats. So far I've found Dumbocrats, DemocRats, Democraps, Dimmocrats, Dim-o-cracks, etc. Let me know if you find others.

P.S. Daniel Ortega won in Nicarauga. Let the false comparisons begin!

P.P.S. Britney Spears is getting divorced.

P.P.P.S. Donald Rumsfeld resigned. Fancy that.

'North Korea Not So Bad' Says North Korean Propaganda Website

Given the recent concern over North Korea, I realized something: I don't know anything about North Korea. Time for an internet search.

What I found was the usual information about Kim Jong Il's regime and the terrible economic situation there, but in the midst of all this gloom I found one site which has nothing but good news. It's the Pyongyang Chronicles, the Voice of the People!

If you want to know why it doesn't have a North Korean web address, it's because there is no such thing. The internet is banned.

At first, I assumed this was a parody. The blithe statement of things that were not true, the use of 'fascist' and 'imperialist' ever other word, etc. It seemed too easy.

But, the more and more I read of it, it began to look more and more sincere. The earnestness, the knowledge of Korean history and terminology, and the (occasional) facade of reason all pointed to the genuine article.

By far the most interesting section of this website - at least until the 'Kids' Corner' is finished - is Ask A Korean!, which actually allows e-mails which are extremely critical of Kim Jong Il and his regime (though they are dismissed out of hand, of course). Some highlights:

Dear Pyongyang Chronicles,

What does the North Korea Government think of Australia and our own dear and glorious leader, the Hon. John Howard MP? I think he has brought great prosperity to Australia and Australian workers, and is a man of the people.
- Freedom Freddy

Dear Mr. Freddy

Your president Mr. Howard may have done some good things for some of the people in Australia, but we have a negative opinion of him as he is a fascist sympathizer and supports the imperialist government of America. We think you should be very worried as any friend of the imperialists is an enemy of the people. Do not let this man lure you into a false state of security, because you could be prospering one minute and the next you could have all your basic human rights stripped from you.

Although we cannot view your entire website due to the American blockade of internet access in Korea, our webmaster did fax us a few pages for us to look over. Unfortunately, it looks like you are trying to brainwash people with a variety of fascist, elitist, and right-ist propaganda

...

A rumor says that south korean soap operas are very common in the DPRK. is it true

Aviv Avni

Dear Mr. Avni

Many of us do watch South Korean soap operas in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, mostly to laugh at the ridiculous fascist American propaganda presented by them. It is absolutely ridiculous the lengths the imperialists will go towards brainwashing the people and taking away their free will to think for themselves. We are very thankful every day in Korea that we can just laugh at such things, and that we are given the freedom to live a free life.

Kim Min-Hwa
Citizen of Pyongyang

...

Really, I've been a military officer of the Republic of Korea for the past 5 years, and from what I can tell from my GP on the MDL, all your soldiers are malnourished, short, and rather unhappy looking. And why do you keep attacking us? Like back in 2002 you killed several of our sailors in the west sea. Your so-called great leader have threatened to turn our capital into a "sea of fire" since the year 1950. You have 8000 artillery pointing at us with double our military strength, and you say that we're a threat. And because of your damn nuclear testing I'm now in emergency duty, thank god for the computer.

Kim Soon Min (aka "Kenny Kim")

Hello "Kenny"

First of all, I must say I feel so bad for you that the imperialists have forced you to take one of their names in place of your true Korean name. It is sad how they want to Americanize the world. As for our soldiers, perhaps you should look a bit closer - are you sure you are not looking at your own soldiers? Given you have probably taken a few beatings to the head, I forigve you for your short sightedness. Everybody in DPR Korea is very well nourished and fed. There is plenty of food to go around. You my friend have been brainwashed by the fascist propaganda of those 80,000 American soldiers that are still in the southern Korea.

Elsewhere on the web, I found some photos of what seems to be a Russian tourist visiting Pyonyang. It seems like a large, clean, modern city, except that THERE ARE NO PEOPLE THERE, or what seems to be almost no people, because of the lack of street traffic:



Maybe people stay inside all day, I don't know. If I had to live in North Korea, tht's probably what I'd do.

And, nom de Dieu, no pigeons either:



That's a public monument in an open space. Either all the pigeons have starved to death, or political prisoners are forced to clean it every night with their tongues. I don't think I want to known which.

November Surprise?

Hey guess what:

Saddam Husseinis going to be sentenced (probably to death) on November 5, two days before the midterm elections.

That is some fantastically good timing on the part of the White House. you'd think they'd planned it like that or something.