{"id":440,"date":"2006-08-30T10:25:53","date_gmt":"2006-08-30T10:25:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/irdial.com\/blogdial\/?p=440"},"modified":"2006-08-30T10:25:53","modified_gmt":"2006-08-30T10:25:53","slug":"less-intelligent-than-a-hamster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/irdial.com\/blogdial\/?p=440","title":{"rendered":"Less intelligent than a hamster"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>You remember the scene from a Simpsons episode, where Bart keeps trying to grab a cake, even though each time he does it he gets an electric shock?<\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/venezuela\/story\/0,,1860867,00.html\">The US government has been accused of trying to undermine the Ch\u00e1vez government in Venezuela<\/a> by funding anonymous groups via its main international aid agency. &#8230;<br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Larry Birns, director of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs (Coha) in Washington yesterday [said] &#8220;The US is waging diplomatic warfare against Venezuela.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>He said that while the US had accused Mr Ch\u00e1vez of destabilising Latin American countries, the term &#8220;destabilisation&#8221; more aptly applied to what the US was trying to do to Mr Ch\u00e1vez.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>[&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p>I would file this under &#8216;normal service&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>Given <a href=\"http:\/\/www2.truman.edu\/~marc\/resources\/interventions.html\">the bloody history of US intervention<\/a> in South\/Central American policitcs, not to mention Bush&#8217;s previous worldwide, you&#8217;d think they&#8217;d realize this cake is wired to the mains.<\/p>\n<p>But no. Anything in the name of spreading &#8216;democracy&#8217;: someone awake in 2003 said &#8220;In Bush-speak, &#8220;democracy&#8221; has been perverted to mean U.S. imperial hegemony: nations run by puppet rulers who make all the right noises&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Incredibly, &#8216;terrorism&#8217; originating in South America against US targets doesn&#8217;t seem to exist to any great extent. Who&#8217;s betting that will remain the case?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You remember the scene from a Simpsons episode, where Bart keeps trying to grab a cake, even though each time he does it he gets an electric shock? The US government has been accused of trying to undermine the Ch\u00e1vez government in Venezuela by funding anonymous groups via its main international aid agency. &#8230; Larry [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12,16,11,21],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/irdial.com\/blogdial\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/irdial.com\/blogdial\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/irdial.com\/blogdial\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irdial.com\/blogdial\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irdial.com\/blogdial\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/irdial.com\/blogdial\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/irdial.com\/blogdial\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irdial.com\/blogdial\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irdial.com\/blogdial\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}