The Next Ballot for Mr. Chávez --WaPo Editorial

[Demeter]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/03/AR2006110301452.html?referrer=email


The Next Ballot for Mr. Chávez
He lost in the U.N. General Assembly, but a crucial vote is still to come -- at home.

Saturday, November 4, 2006; A22



HUGO CHÁVEZ is on a losing streak. This week he was forced to admit defeat in his attempt to win a seat for Venezuela on the U.N. Security Council, an embarrassing end to a campaign in which he had barnstormed the world and promised hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to countries that agreed to support him. In the past few months, three candidates backed by Mr. Chávez have failed to win in Latin American presidential elections, most recently in Ecuador. In each case the connection to the Venezuelan populist touched off a backlash from local voters.

Mr. Chávez has a shot at success this weekend in Nicaragua, where former dictator Daniel Ortega hopes to eke out a first-round plurality over two other presidential candidates with the help of heavy Venezuelan subsidies and some ham-fisted politicking by the Bush administration.

The real test for Latin America's would-be revolutionary leader comes in four weeks, when he will stand for reelection as president. If Mr. Chávez wins an overwhelming mandate for a new six-year-term -- as he has frequently predicted -- he will almost certainly accelerate a concentration of power that has already given him personal control over Venezuela's legislature and judiciary as well as the once-independent state oil company. But the president is facing a surprisingly strong challenge from a state governor, Manuel Rosales, who has been energetically touring the countryside. While polls generally show Mr. Chávez ahead, some give him scarcely more than 50 percent of the vote.

That means that Venezuela's election will be one of the most important in the country's history, not only for its result but also for the way it is held. A free election, even if won by Mr. Chávez, could temper his behavior. So far, however, the chances for a fair vote look mixed at best. The government has invited observers from the European Union, the Organization of American States and the Carter Center to observe the election and the vote count, and it is negotiating access with at least one Venezuelan monitoring group.

But Mr. Chávez is taking increasingly brazen measures to tilt the playing field. Last week his government announced that 1 million state workers will receive annual bonuses equal to three months' pay immediately rather than at the end of the year. A monitoring group, Súmate, reported that Mr. Chávez's campaign time on the five national television networks exceeded that of his opponent by a 22-to-1 margin. The government's oil minister, meanwhile, delivered a speech declaring it "a crime, a counterrevolutionary act" for any manager of the company to oppose the mobilization of its 40,000 workers for Mr. Chávez. When the opposition campaign protested, Mr. Chávez threatened to revoke the licenses of television stations that reported on the controversy.

[Demeter]

1. Actually, Chavez Won in the UN

He managed to keep Bush's puppet (Guatemala) off the Security Council and has proposed as a compromise candidate his ally and admirer Evo Moralez's Bolivia instead. That game isn't over. Nor is the game over in South and Central America.

The fact that there are any real contests at all in South and Central America is due to Chavez's stout opposition to American railroading and oligarchs. He may not have won this round altogether, but he's doing a lot better than Bush, and there's always next season, when Bush will be hiding in Paraguay (if he's as big a fool as he seems to be).

I'm putting my money on Chavez.

[bobbie]

5. Nice use of facts Demeter

I'm putting my money where your money is.

[bemildred]

2. The Mighty Wurlitzer spins up for the coming election in Venezuela.

Gotta give it the old college try I guess.

[Mojekearthe]

3. HE IS A VISIONARY

Hugo Chávez is a visionary, a TRUE man of exceptional fortitude and charisma that US Democrats are PROUD to call their blood brother. Taking the baton of Fidel Castro, who practically SINGLE-HANDEDLY kept democratic principles alive south of the criminal republican fatherland known as "America", Chávez will ensure that wealth is NEVER concentrated, but equally distributed to all people. To extend that very principle to the rest of the continent will ensure that peace and prosperity will prevail.

Of course, when the Democrats prevail in Congress this term, we must bring in Chávez to start the healing process from the utter failure of the criminal administration to take Chávez and his people seriously. One of the dozens of indictments for the administration, and the republican party as a whole, is the documentable and demonstrable hatred and disdain they have for what Chávez is trying to undertake, virtually by himself.

Once President-Successor Pelosi is installed falling the impeachment and indictment of Bush and Cheney, we need to bring Chávez in to work out mutual political and economic programs to foster understanding and cooperation between the United States and the REST of AMERICA. Yes, America is NOT just a collection of states that only take up one quarter of one continent, but the ENTIRE HEMISPHERE, and we must pass the respect. Hugo Chávez is one man who understands the REAL enemy is the US Republican Party, and until it is banned, NO progress can be made. Let's make Chávez's job a little easier for the sake of ALL our children and our hemispheric legacy.

Mojekearthe

[LynnTheDem]

4. Buttermilk Scones

3 cups flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup currants (optional)
1 tablespoon heavy cream, for brushing

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Combine the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and baking soda in a large bowl. Add butter and mix with your fingertips to a coarse meal. Add buttermilk and mix just until combined. Add currants, if desired.
Transfer dough to a floured board and divide into 2 parts. Roll each to 3/4 inch thick rounds. Cut each round into 8 wedges and place slightly separated on a greased baking sheet. Brush the tops with the cream, and bake for 15 minutes, or until lightly browned. Serve warm, split in half with butter and marmalade.

[bobbie]

7. Yum!

:donut:

[bobbie]

6. The new American dream...

To have a president like Chavez (who doesn't get assassinated by the CIA).