------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 3 Dec 2007 11:26:16 -0500 To: •••@••.••• From: Greg Palast <•••@••.•••> Subject: Fear of Chavez is Fear of Democracy FEAR OF CHAVEZ IS FEAR OF DEMOCRACY Bush: If it¹s our oil, why do Venezuelans get to vote on it? GOP panicked that counting votes in Venezuela will spread to Florida by Greg Palast Monday December 3, 2007 The Family Bush can fix Florida. They can fix Ohio. But it¹s just driving them crazy that they can¹t fix the vote in Venezuela. [Note: Watch the reports taken from the Palast BBC investigations in Venezuela in the newly released DVD, ³<http://mailings.gregpalast.com//lt/t_go.php?i=57&e=Mzk4NTI4&l=-http--www.palastinvestigativefund.org>The Assassination of Hugo Chavez.³] The Bush Administration and its press puppies - the same ones who couldn¹t 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. Typical was the mouth-breathing editorial by the San Francisco Chronicle, that the referendum could make Hugo Chavez, Venezuela¹s President, ³a constitutional dictator for life.² And no less a freedom fighter than Donald Rumsfeld, from the height of the Washington Post, said that by voting, Venezuela was ³receding into dictatorship.² Oh, my! Given that Chavez¹ 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. Let¹s get clear exactly what this vote was about. Firstly, it was a referendum to change the nation¹s constitution to end term limits for President. 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, we¹d have missed out on the statesmanship of Junior Bush. While US media called Chavez a ³tyrant² 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. We were not told this weekend¹s referendum was a vote on term limits, rather, we were told by virtually every US news outlet that the referendum was to make Chavez, ³President for Life.² The ³President for Life² canard was mis-reported by no less than The New York Times. But ending term limits does not mean winning the term. As Chavez himself told me, ³It¹s up to the people² whether he gets reelected. And that infuriates the US Powers That Be. Secondly, beyond ending term limits, the referendum would have loaded the nation¹s constitution with changes in property law, work hours and so many other complex economic adjustments that the entire referendum sank of its own weight. It¹s the Oil. Term limits and work hours in Venezuela? Why was this a crisis for Washington? Why is the Bush crew so bonkers about Hugo? Is it because Venezuela sits on the world¹s largest reserve of coconuts? Like Operation Iraqi Liberation (²OIL²) - it¹s all about the crude, dude. And lots of it. The US Department of Energy documents I obtained indicate that the guys holding Bush¹s dipstick figure that Venezuela is sitting on 1.36 trillion barrels of crude, five times the reserves of Saudi Arabia. Chavez¹ continuing tenure means that Venezuelans¹ huge supply of oil will now be in the hands of Š Venezuelans! As Arturo Quiran, resident of a poor folks¹ housing complex, told me, ³Ten, fifteen years ago Š there was a lot of oil money here in Venezuela but we didn¹t see it.² Notably, Quiran doesn¹t particularly agree with Chavez¹ politics. But, he thought Americans should understand that under Chavez¹ Administration, there¹s a doctor¹s office in his building with ³free operations, x-rays, medicines. Education also. People who never knew how to read and write now know how to sign their own papers.² Not everyone is pleased. As one TV news anchor, violently anti-Chavez, told me in derisive tones, ³Chavez gives them (the poor) bricks and bread!² - how dare he! - so, they vote for him. Big Oil has better ideas for Venezuela, best expressed in several Wall Street Journal articles attacking Chavez for spending his nation¹s oil wealth on ³social programs² rather than on more drilling platforms to better fill the SUVs of Texas. Chavez has committed other crimes in Washington¹s eyes. Not only has this uppity brown man spent Venezuela¹s oil wealth in Venezuela, he withdrew $20 billion from the US Federal Reserve. Weirdly, Venezuela¹s 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 America¹s capital in Š South America! Oh, no! 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? And that¹s why they have to kill him. In 2002, The New York Times sickeningly applauded the coup d¹etat against Chavez. But that failed. Therefore, as the electorate of Venezuela is obstinately refusing to vote as Condi Rice tells them, there¹s only one solution left for democracy-loving Bush-niks, the view express out loud by our President¹s spiritual advisor, Pat Robertson: ³We have this enemy to our south controlling a huge pool of oil. Hugo Chavez thinks we¹re trying to assassinate him. I think we ought to go ahead and do it. Š Š We don¹t need another $200 billion war Š It¹s a whole lot easier to have some covert operatives do the job.² But Hugo¹s not my enemy. Indeed, he¹s 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 doesn¹t like that deal. And Abdullah¹s wish is George Bush¹s command. (Interestingly, Chavez¹ fellow no-term-limits dictator Bill Clinton endorsed the concept.) I don¹t agree with everything Chavez does. And I¹ve found some of his opponents¹ point well taken. But unlike Bush, I don¹t think I should have a veto over the Venezuelan vote. And the locals¹ 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 ³rally² 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 Chavez¹ boosters appear ³under duress.²) You¹d think they were showing for a taping of ³South American Idol.² (Well, the Venezuelan President did break into song a few times.) It¹s worth noting that Chavez¹ personal popularity doesn¹t extend to all his plans for ³Bolivarian² 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. So there you have it. Some guy who thinks he can take Venezuela¹s 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? In Orwellian Bush-speak and Times-talk, Chavez¹ 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? ***************** Greg Palast has just returned from South America. Catch his investigations for BBC Television and Democracy Now! in the newly-released DVD, <http://mailings.gregpalast.com//lt/t_go.php?i=57&e=Mzk4NTI4&l=-http--www.palastinvestigativefund.org>The Assassination of Hugo Chavez, including Palast¹s interviews with Chavez, his opponents - even the man who kidnapped Chavez. You can watch the trailer on <http://mailings.gregpalast.com//lt/t_go.php?i=57&e=Mzk4NTI4&l=-http--www.youtube.com/watch--Q-v--E-IYHtctwucCc>YouTube. Greg Palast is the author of the New York Times bestsellers, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy and Armed Madhouse. This week, Palast will release his new film on DVD, <http://mailings.gregpalast.com//lt/t_go.php?i=57&e=Mzk4NTI4&l=-http--www.palastinvestigativefund.org>The Election Files: Theft of 2008, with music by Moby. These films are made available only as gifts to donors to the Palast Investigative Fund, a not-for-profit charitable foundation supporting investigative reporting. More information at <http://mailings.gregpalast.com//lt/t_go.php?i=57&e=Mzk4NTI4&l=-http--www.GregPalast.com>www.GregPalast.com or <http://mailings.gregpalast.com//lt/t_go.php?i=57&e=Mzk4NTI4&l=-http--www.PalastInvestigativeFund.org>www.PalastInvestigativeFund.org To Unsubscribe, please <http://mailings.gregpalast.com//box.php?funcml=unsub2&nl=1&mi=57&email=•••@••.•••>click here. -- -------------------------------------------------------- Posting archives: http://cyberjournal.org/show_archives/?lists=newslog Escaping the Matrix website: http://escapingthematrix.org/ cyberjournal website: http://cyberjournal.org How We the People can change the world: http://governourselves.blogspot.com/ Community Democracy Framework: http://cyberjournal.org/DemocracyFramework.html Moderator: •••@••.••• (comments welcome)
