Hugo Chavez

[Renew Deal]

He's always a fun subject here. I am on a mailing list and someone sent this to the group. Any thoughts?

Are you out of your mind? The man is a DICTATOR! He is stealing money from the people, has denounced the United States, stands with Castro, and has defiled the OFFICE of the presidency of the United States on our own soil (I'd like to see anyone in Venezuela get away with that). He stole the election by importing Cuban criminals to vote for him, and has imprisoned those who tried to oppose him. He has a black list of Venezualan citizens who voted against him. They now cannot get work in that country. He has taken control of private corporations, owned by the people of Venezuela and the United States, and is adding to his own bank account. The man is is a COMMUNIST. Excellent politician???? Why don't you move to Venezuela...he needs blind idealists like you.

[Webster Green]

1. Nope....I don't see any thoughts..

I see the same old right wing bullshit talking points to demonize Chavez.

Its all bullshit, of course.

[muntrv]

2. He denounced shrub, not the U.S.. Stole the election? Like shrub.

[Bad Penny]

3. Glenn Beck is now emailing his swill to the masses?

[LynnTheDem]

4. "dictator"??! ROTFL!!!

Seriously, how DO rightwingnuts get to be so incredibly deeply MFingly stupidly ignorant??!

[Wiley50]

14. Your Corporate Media Education System at Work n/t

[leftchick]

5. nothing stated is true

you should ask for facts because he isn't going to find them.

[John Gauger]

6. No evidence is presented for these claims.

Perhaps if they were well established, but, alas, they are not. He is not a dictator. He has been elected in free and fair elections three times, while our leader has been elected in fraudelent elections. They should think before they talk about defiling the office of the President. Yes, he seized those corporations, as was his right; he is the sovereign ruler of Venezuela, the state which holds the charters of those companies. They only exist on Venezuela's authority and Venezuela may choose to seize them if it wishes.

[pinto]

7. Ignore would be a good one, imo. Flamebait's always flamebait.

[Peace Patriot]

8. He's "adding to his own bank account"--but he's a...commie? Jeez, our

war profiteering corporate news monopolies have a lot to answer for. Making oatmeal out of Americans' brains, for one thing.

Try www.venezuelanalysis.com. It's a pretty good anti-corporate-news-swill-on-Chavez de-programmer. It's pro-Chavez, but well-written, thoughtful, informative, with a broad base of writers, and it occasionally posts criticism (but not rightwing crapola and Bush Oil Cartel "talking points."). Get a grasp as to why 60% of Venezuelans strongly support Chavez, and how real elections are conducted. Maybe we could do that here--have transparent elections? (You wonder why impeachment is "off the table," and why all the talk is how MORE troops have to be sent to Iraq, despite SEVENTY-PERCENT of Americans wanting this war ended, and 60% of the voters in the midterms saying the Iraq War was their no. 1 concern? We may have more Democrats in the House, but we do not yet have anything like adequate representation of the majority of our people. And, in Venezuela, they do!)

[Peace Patriot]

9. Here's an excellent article, explaining where all the OP's anti-Chavez

"talking points" are coming from...

http://venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=1876

[upi402]

11. Here's the nut graph of your linked article -for me;

"The near uniformity of the op-ed pages’ distorted characterizations of Venezuelan politics reveals their propagandistic nature. "

[justinaforjustice]

12. Chavez: Demon or Democrat?

The Bush Administration's -- and our national media's -- demonization of the democratically elected Chavez is due to his refusal to allow the Bush administration or its operatives in the International Monetary Fund (IMF), such as Paul Wolfowitz, to dictate Venezuela's economic policies.

Bush's free market policies are calculated to increase the wealth and power of his global capitalist friends and donors (such as the Carlyle Group and American oil industries) while reducing the majority of the population to poverty.

Chavez has pushed back, not only on behalf of Venezuela, but on behalf of South America as a whole. He envisions a continent free from economic slavery and focused on improving the quality of life for all its inhabitants.

Chavez has dared to help other South American countries to escape the confiscatory high interest loans from the IMF by loaning them the money to pay off the IMF loans at reasonable interest rates and with no requirement that the countries privatize their national resources or cut back on social welfare programs, two of the IMF's favorite loan conditions (c.f."Confessions of an Economic Hit Man", Berrett-Koelher, 2004).

Venezuela's new Constitution, drafted by an elected assembly in 1999, provides an impressive array of rights and liberties to its citizens, indeed more than those provided in the U.S. Constitution, and sets up an Ombudsman to insure that the government respects them. (see English language version at http://tinyurl.com/yedotn). And, unlike under the Bush regime, everyone is guaranteed access to its courts for the protection of their constitutional rights, rights which can not be rescinded under any circumstances. (See Const. Article 27 above). All governing officials are democratically elected and all legislation is considered and passed by a democratically elected National Assembly.

Perhaps Chavez's major crime, in the eyes of the Bush Administration, our national media and Venezuelan elites, is that he has committed the dangerous act of using the profits from the country's oil resources to bring free health care, universal literacy, low cost food, public housing and job training to the millions of Venezuelans who never had access to such things before his 1998 election. They would have us believe that such "irresponsible" policies are devastating the Venezuelan economy. The opposite is true, private business is booming in Venezuela and its economy is growing at the rate of 12% a year.

What is the real danger Chavez presents to U.S. neo-conservatives and their corporate friends? The danger that, if Americans knew the truth, they might begin demanding the same freedoms and benefits provided by Chavez's democratic Venezuela.

[upi402]

10. hmmm... nope, no thoughts!

:freak:

[provis99]

13. ever notice on tv, Chavez's Venezuelan critics are old white guys?

I guess a lot of their criticism is at its most basic level plain, old fashioned racism; Chavez is part black and part Indian, and gets a lot of support from these two oppressed groups. The whites in Venezuela have pretty much run things the way they like it, same as in Mexico, same as in Honduras, or elsewhere in Central America. One of the funnier things I have in my propaganda collection is a piece from the Miami anti-Castro Cubans in 1965 shrieking that Castro is really part black. Come to think of it, those Miami Cubans look a little palefaced themselves. Not bashing whitey, you understand; I'm as pale as snow myself. But its not uncommon to find a little racial hostility when you're talking about Cental or South American politics.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

15. * BULLSHIT OVERLOAD * BULLSHIT OVERLOAD * BULLSHIT OVERLOAD *

[Moderator]

16. locking...

This is flamebait.