Sean Penn in a snit with the SF Chronicle

First off, my apologies for not keeping up. Life got in the way of fun. :-)

So now I have to catch up on the news on Chavez and Venezuela.

Here is a letter to the editor from Sean Penn to the San Francisco Chronicle. Apparently, he took offense to an article in the newspaper where Chavez was likened to a dictator, and pot shots were taken at himself and Oliver Stone. (I'll have to track down that article. I'm sure it's a hoot!)

Couple things to note about this article. First off, Mr. Penn aptly points out that Chavez was elected in a democratic fashion, which is true. Some argument remains on whether he really survived the referendum on his presidency a few years back, but we can thank the Carter Center for adding validity to the outcome of that "election."

Mr. Penn also points out that dictators don't lose votes on constitutional referendums. Once again, Mr. Penn states the obvious, as dictators of countries pretty much nullify any constitutions their countries once had.

The problem with Mr. Penn's statement though is that the heart of the constitutional referendum proposed by Mr. Chavez included provisions to allow him to remain president for life!! Sounds pretty much like a dictatorship to me, doesn't it? True, it didn't quite happen as thankfully the No vote won the day (after many hours of delay in result reporting), but it sure came close. Maybe Chavez would have become a democratically elected dictator. I guess that would be possible.

And last but not least, Mr. Penn calls himself a journalist. I guess he's about as much of a journalist as I am an actor. I had a starring role once in my school Christmas play when I was in 2nd or 3rd grade (sorry, I'm getting older and I can't remember which year, but I sure did love the smell of that memiographed script!!! :-)), so I guess I can call myself an actor. Mr. Penn likes to play journalist and pen (no pen pun intended) missives from his point of view that gloss over facts and reality. I think that is called a commentator, or columnist, not a journalist Mr. Penn.

Thanks to The Source for pointing out this article.