Venezuelan Prez Hugo Chavez: "Golf is a bourgeois sport," shuts down courses.

[yllus]

Bourgeois? I pointed this article out to a Russian coworker of mine and he went into a laughing fit. He's still smiling about it in his office.

Chavez launches Golf War

CARACAS?Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's political movement has found a new target: golf.

After a tirade against the sport by Chavez on television last month, pro-Chavez officials have moved in recent weeks to shut down two of the country's best-known golf courses ? in Maracay and Caraballeda.

"Golf is a bourgeois sport," Chavez said during a live broadcast of his Sunday TV program. He repeated the word "bourgeois" as if he were swallowing castor oil. He went on to mock the use of golf carts as illustrating the sport's lazy quality.

If the course closings go ahead, the number of courses shut down in the country since 2006 will be about nine, said Julio Torres, director of the Venezuelan Golf Federation.

Most of the closed courses are in oil regions and were initially built for Americans working in the industry. Chavez's purge of dissidents from the state oil company focused suspicion on golf courses, viewed as bastions of the old elite.

A housing shortage has also pushed the government's hand, Chavez said last month when he questioned why Maracay had so many slums while the golf course and the grounds of the state-owned Hotel Maracay stretch over about 30 hectares of coveted real estate.

"Just so some little group of the bourgeois and the petit-bourgeois can go and play golf," said Chavez, a noted baseball fan, during his TV program.

Critics of the anti-golf campaign point out that Venezuela's top ally, Cuba, is going in the opposite direction.

Canadian and European investors are seeking to build up to 10 new courses as part of a bid to raise tourist revenues.

"China has more than 300 golf courses, and look what's happening here," said Torres. "We're going from 28 courses to 18.''

 

[Jaskalas]

Originally posted by: yllus
Bourgeois? I pointed this article out to a Russian coworker of mine and he went into a laughing fit. He's still smiling about it in his office.

Ah, channeling some communist manifesto is he? Doesn't surprise me. Chavez was always on the extreme end of the spectrum, which does not stop at socialist.

 

[Genx87]

Damn Tiger Woods and his imperialist ways!

 

[PJABBER]

Yet ANOTHER anit-Bolivarian post! Stop, you're killing me! (joke - I don't live in Caracas.)

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

He's probably angry that he simply sucks at golf. Maybe he should take a few lessons from Kim Jong Il so he can learn how to make multiple holes-in-one every single round?

On a more serious note, why doesn't he just start golf programs for the poor at these courses instead of shutting them down? I guess doing something like that doesn't suit his tirading style though.

 

[yankeesfan]

The golf courses must have improperly registered with the government. Chavez had every right to do this.

:roll:

 

[Genx87]

Originally posted by: yankeesfan
The golf courses must have improperly registered with the government. Chavez had every right to do this.

:roll:

I heard they supplied golf clubs, balls, and bags to the coup in 02. Thus this is completely justified!

 

[ayabe]

Golf courses are extremely damaging to the environment.

Cuba is probably building more as cover for horse show enthusiasts, kind of like Thailand did for pedophiles.

 

[monovillage]

How long before Julio Torres is arrested for "golf crimes against the State"

 

[TheSkinsFan]

what a fucking nutcase. :roll:

 

[JSt0rm]

mix a god complex with the fact we tried to kill him off and you get this guy. lol

 

[DucatiMonster696]

You got love socialism and the stupidity of it all.

 

[Craig234]

Originally posted by: DucatiMonster696
You got love socialism and the stupidity of it all.

It's amusing how frequently these sort of comments are written in garbled grammar.

 

[DucatiMonster696]

Originally posted by: Craig234

Originally posted by: DucatiMonster696
You got love socialism and the stupidity of it all.

It's amusing how frequently these sort of comments are written in garbled grammar.

If you are going to find fault in my usage of grammar well to my defense I was educated in our left leaning "public education" system.

 

[Craig234]

Originally posted by: DucatiMonster696

Originally posted by: Craig234

Originally posted by: DucatiMonster696
You got love socialism and the stupidity of it all.

It's amusing how frequently these sort of comments are written in garbled grammar.

If you are going to find fault in my usage of grammar well to my defense I was educated in our left leaning "public education" system.

But you fail to note the right-wing alternative of no public education, which we had for some time as chidren properly worked beside their parents making widgets inthe factories to enrich the factory owner and to get the family enough food not to starve, which was the right-wing 'paradise' they offer today.

The government programs don't work miracles, try as they might have to teach you basic grammar for I presume 12 years or more, and failed; they can only work efficiently.

Just as I expect when government healthcare passes, you will have some redneck bring his wife and her head he accidentally cut or blew off and blame the government medicince for not being able to 'fix' his mistake, you can blame the 'liberal public education system' for not teaching you grammar, even while it has educated people enough to create world-class productivity that creates the wealth for providing a safety net for the right, whether semi-literate individuals or cheap manual labr backwards 'red states' subsidized by blue.

So give us your right-wing utopia where people are not educated, there is no internet invented by Al Gore for you to post this on, where the middle class is lost not ony to the nation but to history, since there's no education to learn about it, on your dedicated road to prevent those stinking liberals fro mraising the average man out of the serfdom under oligarchy and return to the proper situation of the average man being the equivalent of the farm animal. Yes, that's far better than the 'liberal' system.

 

[Colt45]

Piss on golf. The proletariat can play soccer, an actual sport.

 

[OCGuy]

Thank god even our liberal president isnt as whacko as this guy.

 

[BoomerD]

Originally posted by: OCguy
Thank god even our liberal president isnt as whacko as this guy.

Heck, even our last three Conservative presidents weren't as whacko as this guy. Reagan was close...but not quite this bad.

 

[Craig234]

Originally posted by: BoomerD

Originally posted by: OCguy
Thank god even our liberal president isnt as whacko as this guy.

Heck, even our last three Conservative presidents weren't as whacko as this guy. Reagan was close...but not quite this bad.

Did Chavez sponsor a terrorist army in Nicaragua, back Salvadoran death squads who killed thousands of civilians, raped nuns and murdered an archbishop, run an admnistration that illegally traded missiles for hostages to fund the terrorist army and lied about it to Congress? (Did Chavez secretly take his oath of office at midnight because an astrolger said to?) Did Chavez put out an album with a speech opposing public healthcare?

Or is it just that closing 10 of 28 golf courses is crazier that those things?

 

[OCGuy]

Does somebody else smell that? It suddenly smells like Chavez' balls in here. Maybe it is the guy who uses the American flag avatar as an ironic statement.

 

[Drift3r]

After viewing 12 journalist beat by Chavez supporters some people in Venezuela are beginning to wake up.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200...ela_journalists_beaten

By RACHEL JONES, Associated Press Writer Rachel Jones, Associated Press Writer ? Fri Aug 14, 11:53 pm ET

CARACAS, Venezuela ? Hundreds gathered in Venezuela on Friday to demand justice after a group of journalists protesting media regulations were kicked, punched and beaten with sticks.

Attackers injured 12 of the journalists on Thursday as they passed out leaflets warning against a new education law that critics fear could lead to indoctrination in schools. Their fliers warned against a provision for sanctions against reports that "produce terror" among children or incite hate.

The education law provoked sporadic protests in Venezuela's capital this week. Dozens of marchers demonstrated against its approval Friday afternoon, while shortly after dusk, protesters across Caracas banged on pots and pans for about a half hour to show their indignation.

But Chavez applauded lawmakers for passing the bill on Friday, calling it "tremendous."

"We want to truly bring down this bourgeois, capitalist system of education," he said. "If the bourgeoisie cries about it, it's because it's good."

The leading Caracas daily Ultimas Noticias, which has a government-friendly editorial line, said 12 journalists employed by its newspaper group were injured in the attacks Thursday. The paper ran a front-page headline declaring: "Enough with the violence!"

Photos showed apparent Chavez supporters descending on the group, then shoving, kicking and beating them with sticks. The journalists, some bloodied in the confrontation, later reported the attackers shouted slogans in support of Chavez's government.

The government condemned the violence and ordered an investigation. No arrests have been made.

Ultimas Noticias quoted witnesses saying the attackers emerged from a pro-government television station, Avila TV. It published a photograph showing a group pummeling a person lying on the pavement, while two of the attackers wielded sticks.

Avila TV denied involvement in a statement, calling the accusations one of "many attacks" aimed at discrediting the station.

On Friday, about 300 protesters led by journalists chanted "Freedom of expression!" outside the attorney general's office. Some held signs with photos of injured reporters under the words: "Stop the aggression against journalists!"

Justice Minister Tareck El Aissami condemned the violence, saying the journalists were protesting peacefully when attacked.

The legislation was approved early Friday by lawmakers allied with Chavez.

The reporters were attacked a couple of blocks away from the National Assembly, where police broke up a larger protest with tear gas.

"A man hit me over the head with a stick," reporter Maria Rondon told Ultimas Noticias. Another journalist, Sergio Moreno, said a woman struck him on the back with a rock.

Carlos Lauria of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists urged the government to "prosecute those responsible to the full extent of the law." The Inter American Press Association urged an "immediate and complete investigation."

Tensions have been on the rise between Venezuela's private media and Chavez's government. Earlier this month, regulators forced at least 32 radio stations off the air, refusing to renew some licenses and revoking others because officials said they failed to comply with regulations.

Chavez has repeatedly clashed with media outlets he accuses of conspiring against him.

Lauria said Chavez and his government should abstain from using inflammatory language against the media. "It promotes a climate, an environment, where these incidents happen," he said.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Originally posted by: OCguy
Does somebody else smell that? It suddenly smells like Chavez' balls in here. Maybe it is the guy who uses the American flag avatar as an ironic statement.

Craig can't help spouting his usual leftist hackery. His programming dictates it.

 

[Dari]

I do not know about chavez socialist tirade but he has a point. Golf takes up too much fucking space. Lazy motherfuckers do not even exercise, they ride their carts.

 

[Moonbeam]

Originally posted by: blanghorst

Originally posted by: OCguy
Does somebody else smell that? It suddenly smells like Chavez' balls in here. Maybe it is the guy who uses the American flag avatar as an ironic statement.

Craig can't help spouting his usual leftist hackery. His programming dictates it.

That may be true, but what I mostly see here is a huge disproportion of the exact same kinds of bots that you complain about but that are rightist hackery and that fact is invisible to you because you are one of them.

 

[moparacer]

Somehow I feel certain some of you hacks can figure out how to blame this on GW.

Come on, cant be that hard....