Hugo Chavez gives good interview to Barb

I know I haven't been keeping you up to date on Hugo Chavez. But with the Comunist Party here in Tempe having a lecture on him this March 25th at its annual picnic I thought this would be as good time a time as ever to post this U-tube.

Sunday in the ParkJoin us for a PICNIC with music, poetry andprogressive politics. Special guest:

James Jordan, WesternRegional Director of the Venezuela Solidarity Network who will speak on:

THE BOLIVARIAN REVOLUTION:BUILDING SOLIDARITY WITH VENEZUELA

Sunday, March 25th 1 pm Kiwanis Park in Tempe. Ramada #10

From Baseline south on Mill Kiwanis Park will be on your right.

We will have cold beer and picnic food including vegetarian-------------- ------------- -------- Poets for Justice will present Spoken Word----------- ------------- ----------This picnic is dedicated to welcomingback local activist Laro Nicol, a victim of government repression.------- ----------- -------- ------

-$5 minimum donation requested $2 for low income, kids free

Hopefully you can donate more! Proceeds to benefit the
PEOPLES' WEEKLY WORLD newspaper Check it out - pww.org

Greg Palast interviews Hugo Chavez.

The Progressive. Greg Palast. Hugo. Need I say more?

"You’d think George Bush would get down on his knees and kiss Hugo Chávez’s behind. Not only has Chávez delivered cheap oil to the Bronx and other poor communities in the United States. And not only did he offer to bring aid to the victims of Katrina. In my interview with the president of Venezuela on March 28, he made Bush the following astonishing offer: Chávez would drop the price of oil to $50 a barrel, “not too high, a fair price,” he said—a third less than the $75 a barrel for oil recently posted on the spot market. That would bring down the price at the pump by about a buck, from $3 to $2 a gallon."

Here is an article critical of Hugo.

That Chavez is applauded by many people, especially the poor, is not necessarily a sign of democracy; many revolutionary leaders are popular, at least in the beginning of their rule, before their promises have ended in misery and bloodshed.

The left has a proud tradition of defending political freedoms, at home and abroad. But this tradition is in danger of being lost when western intellectuals indulge in power worship. Applause for autocrats undermines the morale of people who insist on fighting for their freedoms Leftists were largely sympathetic, and rightly so, to critics of Berlusconi and Thaksin, even though neither was a dictator. Both did, of course, support American foreign policy. But when democracy is endangered, the left should be equally hard on rulers who oppose the US. Failure to do so encourages authoritarianism everywhere, including in the West itself, where the frivolous behaviour of a dogmatic left has already allowed neoconservatives to steal all the best lines.

Is Hugo the new Castro? Try this PDF.

Is it Hugo ChÃvez's interventions in his neighboring states that is leading Venezuela towards confrontation with the U.S.?

"Some sort of showdown seems ultimately inevitable."

So writes Phil Gunson in an essay for Open Democracy about Hugo Chavez and the current American administration.

Why?

"The reason is clear: the man the US press loves to call a leftist firebrand practices a uniquely bruising and unconventional style of diplomacy."

Chavez is said to have fired professional diplomats and replaced them with "revolutionary cadres" who have "a limited grasp of foreign affairs." Must I point out how similar Mr. Bush is with Chavez in this respect. Bush's appointment of Bolton to the U. N. and Paul Wolfowitz's selection as head of the World Bank seemed to have little to do with 'diplomatic relations' and everything to do with loyalty to the President.

Chavez has also doled out cheap oil and favors to the particulars that he favors throughout the Southern Hemisphere. It is Chavez's intention to reverse the Monroe Doctrine and replace America's influence with his own that infuuriates the current administration and is truly leading Venezuela towards confrontation with the USA.

When one considers the history of American interventionism in the southern half of the Americas "30 military interventions and 47 covert or indirect operations in Latin America since 1846" maybe limiting the U.S. is a good idea.

But what if Chavez's 'Socialism for the 21st Century' really is just a replacement of one Hegemony with another? For that we need a detailed look at the motivations and effects of Chavez in his own land. And that is a whole other post! Coming soon.

What is so scary about Venezuela?

'They' are very busy trying to convince you that Venezuela is the next great Evil of our times. Which is crazy because I thought Venezuela was just full of beauty queens and American white collar criminals fleeing extradition.

The Mainstream Media has been complicit in Bush's orchestrated attempts to portray Venezuela as a threat to the United States. Let us put aside (for now) our well founded fears of invasion by surgically enhanced super beauty bots operating from super secret beauty boot camps. Instead, we offer up today's complicit talking head trying to scare you: CNN's Lou Dobbs. Dobbs' show today had a report about how "strong man" Hugo Chavez has a chance to influence elections in this country due to a company called Sequoia Voting Systems. MMM sounds scary.

According to VoterTrustUSA and the LATimes Sequoia:

"supplied the hardware (converted Olivetti lottery machines) and software used in Venezuela's hotly disputed recall election of president Hugo Chavez in 2004. Despite pre-election polls that indicated Chavez would lose the recall vote by over 55%, he coasted home the victor. Sounds a lot like Georgia in 2002 and Ohio in 2004 and 2005, doesn't it? Of course when you own 28% of the software company that counted the votes, it might help - echoes of Senator Chuck Hagel's "upset" of popular Ben Nelson in Nebraska when Hagel's voting machine company counted over 80% of Nebraska's votes. "

I'd like to make it known that I am not some kind of knee-jerk communist who will defend any socialist at any cost. I have become quite disillusioned with Mr. Chavez, despite his many goodwill acts towards poor Americans. And I don't like it when companies that manufacture and service election machines are part of the political apparatus. [Diebold is a home grown corporation and an example here in America with Republican cronies running it.] I am not a fan of Diebold's or Sequoia's touch screen voting machines, as you probably well know. And I find it deplorable that Chavez would attempt to use these machines.

Given all that I just don't think that Chavez will cut off our oil, invade his neighbors, or attack the U.S. It's quite silly how Chavez and Castro are made into Demi-gods we need to be on the alert for. But that is how the MSM has framed the situation. Even when commenting on big issues like election fraud we are told it is the result of foreign adversaries rather than the internal enemies of democracy.

Chavez is not the cause of policies in the US that allow corporations be they foreign or domestic to have so called 'proprietary rights' over their election code. Chavez may be profiting from our glorious leaders decision to go with 'paperless trails' and touchscreen voting booths, but he can't be blamed for their adoption.

Chavez is often given the Master Status of tyrant or anti-democrat despite many other instances where the MSM does not characterize other leaders with worse records similarly. For instance Russian leader Vladimir Putin is rarely described as a strong-man in the MSM or by Bush. Yet he is engaged in the same kind of questionable anti-democratic processes as Chavez. It is simply disingenuous to insert leader of the Venezuelan people as 'enemy' rather than coming to terms with the many problems to be found in America's democracy.

I'll continue to follow this story and I hope to make my thesis a little more clear and provide a few more examples to illustrate what I think are reactionary elements in our society who use the 'fear' card not to legitimately demonize an anti-democratic leader but as a force to stifle dissent.

Christian Nutwing - Robertson Calls for Chavez's Assassination

FOXNews.com - U.S. & World - Robertson Calls for Chavez's Assassination: "Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson suggested on-air that American operatives assassinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to stop his country from becoming 'a launching pad for communist infiltration and Muslim extremism.' "

Holy crap, is this guy insane or what? Say what you will about Chavez, but he is the freely elected leader of a democratic and allied nation (while he may be critical of G. W. Bush since the guy did nothing to support him during an attempted coup) that's hardly reason to off the guy.

Is being a commie still that scary? What fucking Bible is he reading? Oh...wait...