Low Earth Orbit

Making citizens in to mushrooms

The new European Union treaty will mean “transfers of sovereignty” from Britain and Gordon Brown is right to hide the fact from the public, an EU leader admitted yesterday.

[…]

“I am astonished at those who are afraid of the people: one can always explain that what is in the interest of Europe is in the interests of our countries,” he told Belgian newspaper Le Soir.

“Britain is different. Of course there will be transfers of sovereignty. But would I be intelligent to draw the attention of public opinion to this fact?”

Not if your interest is political victory instead of good governance. I am mordantly amused by his own implied estimate of his intelligence, blurting this out in a public interview.

[source]

For real dictator, they roll over

[source]

The Venezuelan government has been busy lately. They’ve been stocking up on arms; cracking down on democracy; and now the latest, pressuring the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. to cancel a “newsmaker” event on press freedom organized by Venezuelan students.

The Club claims the event was “postponed” because it had more than one speaker, violating the spirit of the event. But, as the source points out

• The Club admits being contacted by the Venezulean government just before canceling.
• This wouldn’t have been the first time multiple speakers were allowed.
• It was canceled the day before the event. If the number of speakers were the issue, wouldn’t that have been noticed a wee bit earlier in the process?

Old Media, always happy to suppress dissent for real dictators.