Chavez Hires 200 To Manage His Twitter Account

[onehandle]

Source: Huffington Post

The president joined Twitter on April 27 in an attempt to counter adversaries who have actively used the site to make accusations of human rights violations, organize protests and – above all – ridicule Chavez. He urged supporters to join as well, calling Twitter "a weapon that also needs to be used by the revolution."

With an average of about 20,000 people per day signing up to follow Chavez's tweets, the president says he has been overwhelmed by nearly 54,000 messages from supporters, critics and people writing to ask for help with a problem or lodge a complaint. On Thursday, he announced that a new team of 200 aides would help him manage the stream. "I'm creating a team due to the avalanche of requests, and some grievances," he said.

Opposition lawmaker Juan Jose Molina said he was not surprised by Chavez's ability to attract a crowd in cyberspace, but he thinks the president should spend less time tweeting and more time working to reduce soaring inflation and violent crime.

"Nobody can deny that Chavez has leadership. But it's also true that nobody can deny his inability to govern," Molina said. "He should be more dedicated to solving the country's problems."

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/10/chavez-twitter-account-ma_n_569755.html

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It's all about the costume.

[dotymed]

1. I have no idea

how to tweet and if it costs money. I would like to commend President Chavez on the direction he has taken his country in. If he could use a college educated, disabled carpenter, I'd be there in a minute.Socialism-vs-Capitalism (unregulated), no contest. Capitalism is the most unfair form of governance (no longer an economic system) possible.Every since reagan began the turn over of our country to the "free market", America has been spiraling out of control. Except for the wealthiest citizens, America has become a prison (privatized) where the rights of the vast majority are subject to the total control of the minority of the minority. I frequently ask; in 1970, when the top income tax rate (for the wealthiest individuals and corporations) was 75%, was America a "Socialist" country? Currently the top income tax rate is 35% for the wealthiest (along with people who earn a fraction of the elites) and MOST corporations do NOT pay income taxes. Yet we hear, right wing propaganda, that we are becoming a "Socialist" nation. :crazy: , if Obama would raise the top tax rates for the wealthiest (not people who earn $200,000 a year but the ones who get 5 million dollar "bonuses", our economy would repair itself in short order. He knows this. They have chosen to have a serfdom and if we ORGANIZE and non-violently protest against this (the millions of disenfranchised) the comparatively few elites would have to let us have our nation back. We could govern it in a much more equitable way. Instead the 'propaganda machines" constantly try and succeed at dividing us over the stoopid "hot button issues" like abortion and gay marriage. They know and we should know that you cannot legislate morality (and being gay is not being immoral). If you could, then why are all of the banksters stealing us blind and not being prosecuted? We're a bunch of dumb cows being led to slaughter for the greed of the corporations.

[brooklynite]

2. "The Enemy of My Enemy".....

...is sometimes still my enemy.

That Hugo Chavez is a Socialist doesn't make him a democrat.

And no, it costs nothing to post a tweet...

[dotymed]

3. When was the last

time we had a real democrat in the White House? Chavez was democratically elected, by overwhelming majorities, many times. The international observers said that the elections were cleaner than ours.

[brooklynite]

4. Ferdinand Marcos was elected democratically too...(at least the first two times)

Authoritarian leaders have been known to garner popular electoral votes.

[xsquid]

11. Exactly, yet people could not say anything bad about marcos

with fear the wrong person would hear. During Martial law ( I was there in 75 and a lot up through 84) people were shot for being out after midnight for plotting to overthrow the government, you could hear automatic weapons fire every night. He was elected but secretely hated, note after he was ousted. You won't know how the people in venesuela feel about chavez until he's gone, elected or not many are afraid to not support him. That's the people that get him elected.

Maria conchita alonso who was raised there:

http://www.mediaite.com/online/actress-maria-conchita-alonso-writes-open-letter-to-sean-penn-on-venezuela/

Maria Video:

http://www.tmz.com/videos?autoplay=true&mediaKey=52725019-9310-449b-9afa-e40eed0eacd5

[bitchkitty]

18. Afraid not to support him?

What a load of shit. You just let out a big stinky fart in the elevator, and I'm not going to let you get away with it.

Afraid not to support him - in your wildest fucking corporatist dreams!

[AlphaCentauri]

19. I can understand Conchita's resentment

She had to sleep with many rich men before she was famous and rich, Chavez didn't

[xsquid]

20. Ah, chavez good conchita bad. It's the bizarro world.nt

[bitchkitty]

22. Her brother owned the land upon which Colombian

mercenaries were living while they trained for an attack on Chavez that fortunately never happened. She's hardly an impartial source, and nobody can ignore her obvious bias.

Other than that, she's just one more has been who hooks up with the right wing out of desperation for their failing careers.

[AlphaCentauri]

24. Conchita Alonso For John McCain

"Because I believe in this country and its people. Because I believe that there is no need for change, instead we need to fix the problems that need and should be fixed. Because I am convinced that John McCain won’t give us the same of what we lived through and suffered through with the Bush administration. Because I am setting aside my fear that I lived in other countries in which if I was to express my point of view I would run the risk of losing opportunities in my career, just as I have been warned by several colleagues here in the United States, “What if you don’t get offered any more roles in Hollywood for expressing yourself?”. That is why today as a new citizen of The United States and a Hispanic forever, I find myself obliged to take a stand against the imminent danger of supporting populist changes that could end up becoming a true deterioration far from the improvements that are needed in the country."

http://www.latingossip.com/chisme/maria-conchita-alonso-for-john-mccain.html

[dotymed]

14. lol..Marcos was installed as a US puppet

from the get go. The CIA may have "elected him", not the people. The CIA are experts at vote rigging. They have a lot of practice. Marcos-vs-Chavez? wow, thats original...

[Xenotime]

12. He is a very fair progressive.

[EFerrari]

9. As Lula da Silva said, you can fault Chavez for a lot of things but not democracy. n/t

[bitchkitty]

17. Nothing except time and effort.

That he cares enough to hire people to manage the input that he is getting via Twitter, instead of just ignoring them, is just one more reason I like the man.

[joeglow3]

5. I have one beef with your post

It always bugs me when people compare tax rates across decades. What you pay in tax is a function of TWO components: income tax rate AND taxable income. Yes, the rates of the past were as high as 90%. However, many people were paying zero in taxes and no one paid anywhere near 90% due to the massive amount of deductions allowed to reduce taxable income. When the rates were cut, MANY of these deductions were done away with.

While I agree we can increase taxes 5-10%, if you raised the tax rates to 70%, you WOULD see a HUGE impact of the economy as a whole.

[Dave From Canada]

6. Yes, let's all praise King Hugo and his 30% inflation. n/t

[dotymed]

13. I'd prefer to praise him for the peasant lives

he has improved. If you don't realize how hard he been attacked by America and its allies, then you surely wouldn't understand the inflation. Of course when you make the banksters treat the peasants as humans, inflation is one of your least worries.

[DavidDvorkin]

7. Twitter just simplified matters for him

They've lost all followers/following for all of their accounts.

Maybe they'll be able to restore those. Or maybe not.

[LaPera]

8. Chavez has the most popular Twitter in Venezuela, with more than a quarter of a million followers.

Mr Chavez's account beat that of opposition TV channel Globovision into second place only 10 days after he first set it up.

[xsquid]

10. I'm not sure that means much, conservative talk radio here

has by far the most listeners here. That doesn't mean they are wiping out the left (other than on radio).

[harun]

15. Vive Chavez!

[Old Troop]

16. Well, he does have a lot to say.

[Regret My New Name]

21. He needs to setup a blog and put google adsense on it...

:P

[boppers]

23. Up next: Facebook and farmville!

"Hugo Chavez has sent you a sheep."