What the Heck was I Thinking!?

From the Instapundit via Belmont Club. This post just shows that you can’t completely control access to information without completely controlling access to everything else.

The only way Chavez can continue his effort to limit public opinion that disagrees with him is to spread the repression - YouTube access control will require Internet control. This way leads to disconnectedness (to use a Thomas Barnett-ism) and to economic fossilization ala Cuba and North Korea.

June 01, 2007 BYPASSING HUGO CHAVEZ’S CENSORS, with YouTube:

An opposition Venezuelan television station whose broadcast license has not been renewed by the government is now turning to YouTube to get its message out after its transmitter was taken over by a state-run channel. Hugo Chavez’s “Bolivarian Revolution” has no time for media groups that criticize his government; Radio Caracas Televisión (RCTV) is now off the air, and another channel, Globovision, could be next, according to CNN.

RCTV journalists and producers have not been arrested or stopped from working, but their main link to the public has been removed. Rather than giving up, the station has turned to YouTube, where it now has its own channel for the show El Observador. A Colombian channel is also broadcasting RCTV content into Venezuela.

El Observador clips have been seen 175,000 times since May 28, and the channel is currently the most-subscribed channel of the week.

Heh.

Heh, indeed - to steal both of Glenn Reynolds’ one-worders. Chavez can’t go too much farther without really shooting himself in the economic foot.

…and you can’t be a little bit pregnant, either

Source: Instapundit.com -

Iraq doesn’t look like it’s so poorly managed. You could include Lebanon in that equation and still Iraq looks fairly well governed.

From Captain’s Quarters blog yesterday:

Palestinians Pine For Israeli Security

How bad has life in Gaza become? Palestinians have begun to recognize that they cannot govern themselves — and that life under Israeli authority was preferable. (emphasis mine)

While we see many sectarian and tribal acts of violence, this is much less a problem in the 27.5-million population Iraq than in the roughly 3 million population Gaza and West Bank areas. It also compares favorably with the 4.5 million population in Lebanon.

Heck, even the US has nearly as much violence in cities and states as Iraq.

 

Source: Captain’s Quarters

Dean Barnett at HughHewitt.com has posted on Sen. McCain’s “defense” of the McCain-Kennedy shamnesty bill.  In his lamenting the apparent demise of McCain’s campaign, Mr. Barnett notes that his main defense is to attack Mitt Romney’s position on immigration.

While in war it’s better to go on the offense than to play defense, this is politics. Some of the time you actually have to defend your own position from the factual and philosophical perspective.

McCain’s team can’t seem to get it through their heads that  “love me because I’m me” isn’t an effective way to woo voters. They can’t force people to vote for him, so it’s not possible to only attack his opponents’ positions. McCain has to actually say what he thinks makes this the best bill that could be passed at this time.

He hasn’t.

Mr. Barnett notes near the end of his post:

McCain has responded to this crisis with the kind of petulance we’ve all gotten used to over the past several years. He has attacked using emotion, rather than defend using logic. In a perfect world, we could assume that if McCain were to give a major address on immigration on Monday, he would devote his energies to defending the bill he’s crafted. (emphasis mine)

Whenever emotions are the only decision point on something, watch out. That’s how liberals attempt to stampede their followers in illogical directions.

If this bill won’t stand scrutiny on its own, then maybe it should be laid to rest.

Source: Hugh Hewitt