Venezuela's Chavez slams Bush on Iraq

[Say_What]

Go Hugo!!! Seems to be the only one with cojones enough to respond to the attacks by the NeoCons.

<clips>

CARACAS, Venezuela - President Hugo Chavez dismissed Washington's concerns that Venezuela's democracy is under threat, saying a "dictatorship" led by
President Bush poses a true threat to democracy around the world.


Condemning the war in
Iraq, the Venezuelan leader said that Bush and John Negroponte, a former director of national intelligence who is designated for the No. 2 position in the State Department, should be tried for "war crimes" committed by the U.S. military across the globe.

"The two of them are criminals. They should be tried and thrown in prison for the rest of their days," Chavez told a news conference.

"If he had any dignity, the president of the United States would quit. The U.S. president doesn't have the political or moral capacity to govern," he added.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070201/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/venezuela_us_1

[rinsd]

1. It had been a whole week since he saw his name in the papers.

Hugo must be jerking off to the possible US invasion of Iran and what that will do to oil prices.

[bahrbearian]

2. I don't think he is the one Jerking Off.

He loves high oil prices so much,that he gives it away Free to the Poor

[NYCGirl]

4. I thought it was at discounted prices, not free.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/07/AR2005120702245.html?nav=rss_world/southamerica

[rinsd]

5. Its win win for Chavez

He gets an enemy to rail against while raking in the dough for his programs.

Maybe he can avoid that gas subsidy decrease they were considering in light of oil prices dropping.

[EFerrari]

6. He "gets" an enemy? What a very strange frame. It's like asserting

that he set himself up to be deposed or assasinated by us just to get his mug in the papers.

lol

[Judi Lynn]

3. Hot one! Bush gave an interview to Fox! How rare! Lucky Fox.

Must be because of their fine journalistic standards and reputation, right? From the article:

"I am concerned about the undermining of democratic institutions. And we're working to help prevent that from happening," Bush said in an interview with Fox News.
(snip)

Cool! He means here, right? Good for him! Atta pRes!



Mighty fancy buttwork. What a mighty pRes. In front of Lincoln's statue, too! So refined.

[Say_What]

16. The Global Media Giants We are the world

Great pics as usual. :-)

Pathetic that the Venezuela-challenged folks can't connect the dots where the media is concerned.

<clips>

A specter now haunts the world: a global commercial media system dominated by a small number of superpowerful, mostly U.S.-based transnational media corporations. It is a system that works to advance the cause of the global market and promote commercial values, while denigrating journalism and culture not conducive to the immediate bottom line or long-run corporate interests. It is a disaster for anything but the most superficial notion of democracy--a democracy where, to paraphrase John Jay's maxim, those who own the world ought to govern it.

The global commercial system is a very recent development. Until the 1980s, media systems were generally national in scope. While there have been imports of books, films, music and TV shows for decades, the basic broadcasting systems and newspaper industries were domestically owned and regulated. Beginning in the 1980s, pressure from the IMF, World Bank and U.S. government to deregulate and privatize media and communication systems coincided with new satellite and digital technologies, resulting in the rise of transnational media giants.

How quickly has the global media system emerged? The two largest media firms in the world, Time Warner and Disney, generated around 15 percent of their income outside of the United States in 1990. By 1997, that figure was in the 30 percent-35 percent range. Both firms expect to do a majority of their business abroad at some point in the next decade.

The global media system is now dominated by a first tier of nine giant firms. The five largest are Time Warner (1997 sales: $24 billion), Disney ($22 billion), Bertelsmann ($15 billion), Viacom ($13 billion), and Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation ($11 billion). Besides needing global scope to compete, the rules of thumb for global media giants are twofold: First, get bigger so you dominate markets and your competition can't buy you out. Firms like Disney and Time Warner have almost tripled in size this decade.

Second, have interests in numerous media industries, such as film production, book publishing, music, TV channels and networks, retail stores, amusement parks, magazines, newspapers and the like. The profit whole for the global media giant can be vastly greater than the sum of the media parts. A film, for example, should also generate a soundtrack, a book, and merchandise, and possibly spin-off TV shows, CD-ROMs, video games and amusement park rides. Firms that do not have conglomerated media holdings simply cannot compete in this market.

http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1406

[Judi Lynn]

17. "Venzuela-challenged" is absolutely perfect. You're right. They gulp it down with no clue they are

being manipulated. Like _{George Bush,} they entertain no lingering curiosity about anything. They'll probably never know there are photos of Dr. Laura on the internetS which could make you leap off a cliff!



I hate the dead weight they add to threads. Have to learn to work around them.

I read last year that one of the huge companies _{George H. W. Bush} is connected to, probably Carlyle, was looking into buying a bunch of newspapers, and movie theaters. Nearly swallowed my tongue when I read it. That just doesn't sound right, does it?

[PATRICK]

21. The globalization cabal,

if I might interject the point, is self-defeating suicide based on repression of EVERYTHING and already ruined in most practices by rogue outlaws and incompetence among the "elites" implementing and personally benefiting from the "new new world order" which has been around and falling on its face since the first new Holy Roman Empire gambit. Now the price of collapse is raised nearly to planet-killing stakes.

The legend of the "enlightened Despot" has been broadened to absurdity so that any billionaire, no matter how degenerate, anti-democratic or plain stupid can play. The Divine Right of Mammon. The institutions of the glossy and sensible world dream have been debased from the top down to the Ponzi base. The whole rosy mess needs to be shredded and redone from the empowered bottom up.

[jefferson_dem]

7. Cute rhetoric. Not far from what chimpy himself routinely offers up.

Hugo and chimpy...two peas in a pod.

[pampango]

8. Plus they both get to rule by decree. n/t

[Say_What]

12. Interesting how well US propaganda works...

Interesting how the corporate owned MSM never reports on Colombia, a country with the worst human rights record in the Western Hemisphere. The same things they accuse Chavez of are actually happening in Colombia and worse, yet we hear no word about it in MSM. But when it comes to Venezuela, US sheeple, gullible enough to swallow the regurgitated propaganda the MSM serves up, buy into the bullshit hook, line, and sinker. Pathetic.

Recently Colombia:

Jailed a journalist recognized throughout Latin America for his investigative reporting on the forced displacement of Colombian civilians at the hands of state and paramilitary forces

Is about to pass ‘anti-terrorism’ bills that will hand down sentences of eight to twelve years in prison for anyone who publishes statistics considered ‘counterproductive to the fight against terrorism’, as well as the possible ‘suspension’ of the media outlet in question.

Increasingly resembles not only a state that restricts the right of information and press freedom, but, more disturbing, a governing body that limits the actual human right to disseminate information relating to state policy and the suffering of the country’s masses.

Like Israel is the US lapdog in the Middle East, Colombia is the US lapdog of South America. Despite it's abysmal human right record, Colombia is the world's third largest recipient of US military funding after Egypt and Israel so is off limits as far as MSM is concerned.

http://www.colombiajournal.org/colombia248.htm

[rman]

20. Plus they both invade oil rich countries,

and take away Civil Rights from their citizens.

Same routine indeed.

[David__77]

9. Absolutely right!

Further, I would argue that Bolivarian constitution, which is the basis of democratic rule in Venezuela, provides more freedom than the US constitution. There is no greater right than the right to life (not for fetuses, but those actually born!). Bush is a dictator, if not in the US then certainly with his colonial regimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. Meanwhile, Venezuela is peaceful and is concerned only with defending its sovereignty unlike so many third world puppets who sell their nations on the cheap.

[cigsandcoffee]

11. Abortion is illegal in Venezuela, unless the mother's life is at risk. n/t

[Say_What]

13. WTF?? He wasn't talking about abortion, duh.

Read carefully before posting knee-jerk responses that make zero sense. :evilgrin:

[cigsandcoffee]

14. Well, why bring up rights for fetuses, then? n/t

[Say_What]

10. Chavez calls on U.S. people to impeach Bush

Interesting how the corporate owned MSM leaves out facts about poverty, etc., in the USSA.

<clips>

CARACAS, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Thursday called on the U.S. people to impeach President George W. Bush, saying in his opinion, Bush lacked even the bare minimum of skills needed to rule.

... "If only the U.S. people had the power to call an impeachment referendum," he said.

...Chavez hit back, saying: "If any country suffers misery, poverty and inequality it is the U.S.."

The Bush administration has spent billions of dollars in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, while 40 million U.S. citizens are suffering extreme poverty at home, he added.

The Venezuelan leader also accused the U.S. government of threatening to invade Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia and any other nation that is trying to get rid of its influence.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-02/02/content_5687039.htm

[Say_What]

15. Latin America's Real "Mr. Danger" Negroponte's Latest Gig

As Chavez correctly points out in the article, this recycled Iran-Contra war criminal, Death Squad John, should have been jailed decades ago.

<clips>

President Bush's nomination of current director of National Intelligence John Negroponte for the position of deputy secretary of state brings bad news for Latin America. If proven, the allegations of Negroponte's sordid involvement in the Central American "dirty wars" of the 1980s should fundamentally disqualify him for any job in public service; at the very least, his nomination requires a serious inquiry into the deep stains on his record. There is compelling evidence that Negroponte routinely covers up his complicity in a variety of questionable entanglements, including being aware of, if not helping to guide and facilitate funding for, a Honduran military death squad in 1983 while serving as U.S. ambassador in Tegucigalpa. With a newly elected U.S. Congress that has been given a mandate to fix the country's profoundly troubled foreign policy, now is the time for this country's policymakers, particularly the new Democratic majority, to call into question yet another of Bush's egregious foreign policy errors-in-the-making.

Considering Bush's "with us or against us" doctrine which was richly applied to the southern nations during the reign of such hard-right State Department figures as Otto Reich and Roger Noriega, it is not surprising that the White House has continuously elevated very controversial figures--like former UN ambassador John Bolton--to prominent positions in the administration. But even today, with a new Democratic congress committed to reforming an increasingly unpopular foreign policy, the White House does not appear to be changing its tack. President Bush continues to promote controversial advocates of the Reagan Cold War strategy, as in the case of Robert Gates (the Iran-Contra scandal-implicated former deputy director of the CIA), who was recently made Secretary of Defense following the resignation of Donald Rumsfeld. Like Negroponte when asked about the details of his Honduran service, Gates consistently displayed memory loss when it came to his familiarity with a roster of illegal and black box initiatives during that period.

The Case Against Negroponte Deserves to be Heard

...Negroponte's imminent confirmation brings with it the strong possibility that the U.S. might move from its current status of protracted neglect to a preoccupation with making up for lost ground in its regional standing that would take on Venezuela as well as some of the less militant "Pink Tide" nations with their left-leaning, reform-minded goals. It is possible, that in response to recent elections that have once again elevated regimes intent on pursuing their own political paths, the State Department under Negroponte will redouble its efforts to revive its ideologically-dominated Latin American policy of previous Republican presidencies. While Negroponte's portfolio will not specifically underline Latin America, he will, if he follows the practice of his predecessor, Richard Armitage, dabble in any area of his choice. Since he held two ambassadorships in Latin America, and given Secretary Rice's famous indifference to the region, his influence over hemispheric issues is likely to be considerable, particularly when it comes to dealing with Venezuela with a big stick.

A Questionable Legacy: Honduras

There is strong evidence that from 1981 to 1985, John Negroponte used his role as U.S. ambassador to Honduras to cover up human rights abuses conducted by a military-sponsored death squad responsible for the murder of almost 200 opponents of Honduran cooperation with the Reagan administration-sponsored covert war against the Sandinista government of Nicaragua.

...Negroponte would later extol Alvarez as being a reliable source of information and a model democrat. In correspondence released through the Freedom of Information Act, Negroponte described the General's "commitment to democracy" despite strong evidence of his leading role in human rights abuses alleged by a number of Honduran human rights groups and civic leaders. Despite Negroponte's close working relationship with Alvarez, he later denied any knowledge of "death squad-type activities" perpetrated by Alvarez's Battalion 316 at his 1989 Senate confirmation hearing for his nomination as ambassador to Mexico, ignoring the strong evidence of its primary role in carrying out such misdeeds which was documented in a comprehensive investigation by the Baltimore Sun. Alvarez did not end up well. After fleeing to California with purportedly over a million dollars in bribe payouts, he later returned to Honduras, where he was murdered, reportedly for not sharing his U.S.-supplied booty with his fellow commanders.

http://www.counterpunch.org/cohen01122007.html

[Judi Lynn]

18. Took most of us a good 20 years before we knew what part Negroponte played

in those events, and what was really happening.

Our own media did a GREAT job of keeping the country totally in the dark about that time, thanks to the heavy hand of Cuban "exile" Otto Reich in Reagan's Office of Public Diplomacy. It's a real shame Congress was somehow moved to overlook his ILLEGAL propaganda excesses.

[PuraVidaDreamin]

19. Viva Chavez

I'd take him over shrub (el diablo) anyday