US Congressman Barney Frank has "no confidence" in the constitutional...

[KenLayedOff]

...autonomy of Venezuela's National Elections Council (CNE)

In a press release issued from Washington D.C. today, US congressman Barney Frank (D-Ma) writes that "I am very disappointed at the Venezuelan National Elections Council's use of hyper-technical points and controversial procedural rulings to repress what appears to be the clear will of a sufficient number of Venezuelan citizens to move the country to a constitutional referendum on President Chavez."

"I call on President Chavez to urge his supporters on the CNE to continue talks facilitated by the OAS and Carter Center to work out procedures to guarantee the rights of citizens who wish to confirm or refute their signatures."

Contacted in Washington this afternoon, Frank told VHeadline.com that he sees President Chavez Frias as pressuring the CNE to declare the referendum petition invalid ... "I've spoken with the Carter Center and I believe that the signatures that were gathered without them filling out the forms, that there was a miscommunication, a misunderstanding and there does not appear to be any doubt about these signatures/thumbprints and that is pretty well verifiable."

...more

http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=16242

[montanacowboy]

1. Lately this guy has been coming

from left field - wtf is wrong with him? since he went on that duck hunt with Unkie Dickless and Scolida he has lost his marbles? did they do something to his brain? what a dickhead

[pinto]

2. Barney Frank went on the duck hunt with von Cheney and Solowia?

I doubt it? maybe I'm wrong, wouldn't be the first time.....

[montanacowboy]

4. I am very sure I read

that somewhere yesterday - if I am wrong someone please let me know - but he was saying something about how it was ok that Scalia didn't have to recuse himself

[MarkTwain]

8. It's far more likely that...

...Barney Frank will be fathering a child, naturally, with Britney Spears in the next nine months than that he EVER went on a hunting trip with the likes of Cheney and Scalia.

Any statement to that effect is, unequivocally, without any merit, substance, or truth. Anyone who suspects, much less believes, that assertion know nothing - absolutely nothing - about Barney Frank.

Relative to Congressman Frank's comments about Chavez, we would be always well advised to take Barney's opinion and thoughts under advisement. He is a man who speaks with considered experience and from a progressive and democratic perspective at all times.

[pinto]

9. kick

[KenLayedOff]

3. I like Barney Frank and he is a good congressman

What is wrong with speaking out about an obvious undemocratic action by Chavez? Not even Chavez is above the law and his constitution. Let the people speak and bring it to a vote.

[montanacowboy]

5. Even good congresspeople

are taken in by the BFEE - do you honestly believe that the CIA is not behind the action to remove Chavez? they have already tried it once and failed -

[KenLayedOff]

7. I have see the charge made but no proof yet

I use tinfoil in the microwave to make pretty sparks and use proof and facts to make decisions about who is in on a coup.

I will read any unbiased source that provides proof the CIA or other outside force tried to remove Chavez. All the citizens in the streets protesting Chavez are not working for the CIA.

[ldf]

12. not all the citizens are in the street protesting chavez

and if you are not aware of our involvement with the failed coup attempt, then you have not done your homework.

and i am not going to do it for you.

i would suggest you check out one of the many threads on du concerning it.

[teryang]

6. Who died and left Congressmen Frank

...in charge of Venezuelan constitutional issues? Which is worse, him not recognizing NEC credentials or fraudulent signatures on the petition? I guess he knows better. Let him check the hundreds of thousands of signatures and thumbprints one by one. America should decide how Venezuela is governed, right?

He ought to pay more attention to voting fraud here in Amerika.

[KenLayedOff]

10. Perhaps he, like many others don't trust Chavez

Chavez has certainly gone from a populist winner to dictatorship in short order. He only appears to be more embolden by the day. I don't believe the people there wanted a dictator.
<spelling>

[ldf]

13. yes, they would love

to continue to live their poor, squalid lives, thanks to the control of their resources by the rich, and in many cases, american corporations.

[dax]

14. How about we leave Venezuala ALONE????!!!!

It is documented that USAID has spent more than a MILLION dollars funding the opposition factions in Venezuala (and that is just the open expenditures) the US has been trying to overthrow Chavez since day ONE primarily because, LIKE SADDAM-he is trading in EUROS so we don't get a cut and LIKE SADDAM he refuses to privatize the oil and other national resources so we can own him-All you folks that keep picking apart the credentials and personalities and possible violations of other country's elected leaders fail to miss the point- THE PEOPLE OF VENEZUALA ELECTED HIM. He has a term of office. They can vote him out. Why should the US interfere in the affairs of a country that does not seek that interference? it is a violation of international law, sovereignity and democracy and that is a fact. How would you perceive if say, some foreign governments pooled their cash and bought a bunch of media here and spent say 200 million to influence our elections-and you were bombarded twenty four seven with reports and news saying the Bush administration was criminal and corrupt and should all go to jail and promoting say -Kucinich (oh wait a minute we might like that) seriously-think about how the issue is FRAMED they are trying to demonize a government to make it ok with you to overthrow it and convince you that it will be better for the people in that country who don't get to have a say in the matter- I have more respect for the rest of the world. I don't think our government is even necessarily doing the best job here. Let's work on that and QUIT INTERFERING.

[bemildred]

11. Well, it is an interesting question.

While I have no particular beef with Mr. Frank,
one does have to wonder what prompted him to pick
up his sword and shield and go after this particular
windmill, and for that matter what prompted someone
to want him to.

[Voltaire99]

15. Poor Venezuela. When even the putative progressives are agin you...

...how long until the US Marines arrive to do the redecorating?

Shame on Barney Frank. Can he be blind to what is in the offing there - a right wing-sponsored putsch orchestrated and partly funded by Washington? Or is he suffering from neo-liberalism, too?

[windansea]

16. maybe he had a chat with Carter

instead of reading the pro Chavez sources that many rely on here

[windansea]

17. here's another statement

In the face of the recent wave of crimes against the Venezuelan civilian population, which is claiming for respect for democratic institutionality, perpetrated by the new candidate for totalitarian strongman, Hugo Chávez, our Human Rights Organizations express their firm condemnation and make a public call to the international public opinion so that it reacts in categorical fashion this step back into barbarie which, under the direct influence of the Stalinists directives captained by Fidel Castro from Havana, threatens to subject the whole of Venezuelan society to debacle and tyrannical submission.

The subterfuges and false arguments that "Chavism" is employing in Venezuela are the same that have been used by other despots that ended up exterminating millions of human beings with the only real goal of perpetuating themselves in power and of creating dynasties of executioners. V. Lenin, Adolph Hitler, Mao Tse Tung, Benito Mussolini and Fidel Castro among other representatives of twentieth century repression have established the formulas for squashing all vestiges of democratic rights and civil liberties.

A new wave of fascist and Stalinist national socialism is going around in Latin America, with Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro playing the role of Commissars in Chief, the same way it went around Europe for decades last century. Those that fight for the integral respect for human rights, anywhere in the planet, can not remain impassive facing this new cycle which returns us to medieval servility.



Vitautas Landsbergis, President of IGFM, ex President of Lithuania.

Alexander Soljenitzyn, ex prisoner of the Gulag y Nobel Prize in Literature

Lech Walesa, ex president of Poland

Janos Kiss, ex President of the Hungarian Parliament

Václav Havel, ex President of the Check Republic

Serguei Agrusow, Founder of IGFM, Germany

Elena Bonner, President of the Andrei Sajarov Foundation.

Elie Wiezel, Nobel Peace Prize

Haydée Marín, President of the Panamerican Comitte of IGFM

Miroslav Kusy, Memmber of the Parlamient of the Republic of Slovakia

Anton Manolescu, President of the Human Rights Comisión of the Romanian Parliament

Sergel Grigorianc, Helsinki Group of Moscow

Adam Michnik, Polish Intellectual and Reporter.

Ricardo Bofill, President of the Committee for Human Rights of Cuba.

Lee Van Thau, Executive Director of the Human Rights Coordinator of Vietnam.

Sergej Kovaljov, Russian Movement for Human Rights.

[Moderator]

18. Locking.

This thread was started by a since-banned disruptor.