- The Family Bush can fix Florida. They can fix Ohio. But
it's just driving them crazy that they can't fix the vote in Venezuela.
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- The Bush Administration and its press puppies - the same
ones who couldn't get enough of the purple thumbs of voters of Iraq - are
absolutely livid that this weekend the electorate of Venezuela had the
opportunity to vote.
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- Typical was the mouth-breathing editorial by the San
Francisco Chronicle, that the referendum could make Hugo Chavez, Venezuela's
President, "a constitutional dictator for life." And no less
a freedom fighter than Donald Rumsfeld, from the height of the Washington
Post, said that by voting, Venezuela was "receding into dictatorship."
Oh, my!
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- Given that Chavez' referendum was defeated at the ballot
box, we now that, as a dictator, Chavez is a flop. Of course, without meaning
to gainsay Secretary Rumsfeld, maybe Chavez is not a dictator.
-
- Let's get clear exactly what this vote was about. Firstly,
it was a referendum to change the nation's constitution to end term limits
for President.
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- Oh, horror! Imagine if we eliminated term limits in the
US! We could end up stuck with a president - like Franklin Roosevelt. Worse,
if Bill Clinton could have run again, we'd have missed out on the statesmanship
of Junior Bush. While US media called Chavez a "tyrant" for suggesting
an end to term limits, they somehow forgot to smear the tyrant tag on Mr.
Clinton for suggesting the same for the America.
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- We were not told this weekend's referendum was a vote
on term limits, rather, we were told by virtually every US news outlet
that the referendum was to make Chavez, "President for Life."
The "President for Life" canard was mis-reported by no less than
The New York Times.
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- But ending term limits does not mean winning the term.
As Chavez himself told me, "It's up to the people" whether he
gets reelected. And that infuriates the US Powers That Be.
-
- Secondly, beyond ending term limits, the referendum would
have loaded the nation's constitution with changes in property law, work
hours and so many other complex economic adjustments that the entire referendum
sank of its own weight.
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- It's the Oil.
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- Term limits and work hours in Venezuela? Why was this
a crisis for Washington?
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- Why is the Bush crew so bonkers about Hugo? Is it because
Venezuela sits on the world's largest reserve of coconuts?
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- Like Operation Iraqi Liberation ("OIL") - it's
all about the crude, dude. And lots of it. The US Department of Energy
documents I obtained indicate that the guys holding Bush's dipstick figure
that Venezuela is sitting on 1.36 trillion barrels of crude, five times
the reserves of Saudi Arabia.
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- Chavez' continuing tenure means that Venezuelans' huge
supply of oil will now be in the hands of Venezuelans!
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- As Arturo Quiran, resident of a poor folks' housing complex,
told me, "Ten, fifteen years ago there was a lot of oil money here
in Venezuela but we didn't see it." Notably, Quiran doesn't particularly
agree with Chavez' politics. But, he thought Americans should understand
that under Chavez' Administration, there's a doctor's office in his building
with "free operations, x-rays, medicines. Education also. People who
never knew how to read and write now know how to sign their own papers."
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- Not everyone is pleased. As one TV news anchor, violently
anti-Chavez, told me in derisive tones, "Chavez gives them (the poor)
bricks and bread!" - how dare he! - so, they vote for him.
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- Big Oil has better ideas for Venezuela, best expressed
in several Wall Street Journal articles attacking Chavez for spending his
nation's oil wealth on "social programs" rather than on more
drilling platforms to better fill the SUVs of Texas.
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- Chavez has committed other crimes in Washington's eyes.
Not only has this uppity brown man spent Venezuela's oil wealth in Venezuela,
he withdrew $20 billion from the US Federal Reserve. Weirdly, Venezuela's
previous leaders, though the nation was dirt poor, lent billions to the
US Treasury on crap terms. Chavez has said, Basta! to this game, and has
called for keeping South America's capital in South America! Oh, no!
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- Oh, and did I mention that Chavez told Exxon it had to
pay more than a 1% royalty to his nation on the heavy crude the company
extracted?
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- And that's why they have to kill him. In 2002, The New
York Times sickeningly applauded the coup d'etat against Chavez. But that
failed. Therefore, as the electorate of Venezuela is obstinately refusing
to vote as Condi Rice tells them, there's only one solution left for democracy-loving
Bush-niks, the view express out loud by our President's spiritual advisor,
Pat Robertson:
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- "We have this enemy to our south controlling a huge
pool of oil. Hugo Chavez thinks we're trying to assassinate him. I think
we ought to go ahead and do it. We don't need another $200 billion war
It's a whole lot easier to have some covert operatives do the job."
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- But Hugo's not my enemy. Indeed, he's made a damn good
offer to the American people: oil for $50 a barrel - nearly half of what
it sells today. By locking in a long-term price, Venezuela loses its crazy
Iraq war oil-price windfall. In return, we agree not to let oil prices
fall through the floor (it dropped to $9 a barrel in 1998) and bankrupt
his nation. But Saudi Arabia doesn't like that deal. And Abdullah's wish
is George Bush's command. (Interestingly, Chavez' fellow no-term-limits
dictator Bill Clinton endorsed the concept.)
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- I don't agree with everything Chavez does. And I've found
some of his opponents' point well taken. But unlike Bush, I don't think
I should have a veto over the Venezuelan vote.
-
- And the locals' sentiments are quite clear. I drove with
one opposition candidate, Julio Borges, on a campaign stop to a small town
three hours from Caracas. We met his supporters - or, more accurately,
his lone supporter. The "rally" was in her kitchen. She served
us delicious arepas.
-
- The next day, I returned to that very same town when
Chavez arrived. Nearly a thousand screaming fans showed up - and an equal
number were turned away. (The British Telegraph laughably reports that
Chavez' boosters appear "under duress.") You'd think they were
showing for a taping of "South American Idol." (Well, the Venezuelan
President did break into song a few times.)
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- It's worth noting that Chavez' personal popularity doesn't
extend to all his plans for "Bolivarian" socialism. And that
killed his referendum at the ballot box. I guess Chavez should have asked
Jeb bush how to count votes in a democracy.
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- So there you have it. Some guy who thinks he can take
Venezuela's oil and oil money and just give it away to Venezuelans. And
these same Venezuelans have the temerity to demand the right to pick the
president of their choice! What is the world coming to?
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- In Orwellian Bush-speak and Times-talk, Chavez' referendum
was portrayed before the vote as a trick, Saddam goes Latin. Maybe their
real fear is that Chavez has brought a bit of economic justice through
the ballot box, a trend that could spread northward. Think about it: Chavez
is funding full health care for all Venezuelans. What if that happened
here?
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