them. The Patriot Act. The Iraq War Resolution. And (with Bush's standing at about 35%), laws suspending the right of habeas corpus, and permitting torture. These laws allow Bush--one man, acting in secrecy--to decide who can be arrested and detained indefinitely without charge, including American citizens; they permit Bush, on his own decision, to suspend virtually every right guaranteed by the Constitution and the Geneva Conventions. And they permitted Bush to invade another country, for no cause, and without receiving a declaration of war from Congress, and to slaughter 100,000 innocent people in the initial bombing alone, and to continue to kill and torture people, and occupy their country. And Bush has furthermore construed these laws--and invented his own "laws"--to mean that he can do anything he damn pleases, including adding "signing statements' to bills passed by Congress stating that the laws don't apply to him and his junta.
Show me the Patriot Act in Venezuela. Show me the Iraq War Resolution in Venezuela. Show me the "signing statements" in Venezuela. Show me a single act of aggression that has been committed by, or even threatened by, the government of Venezuela, against any country or person.
Poll: Venezuelans Have Highest Regard for Their Democracy
Wednesday, Dec 20, 2006
By: Gregory Wilpert - Venezuelanalysis.com
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news.php?newsno=2179You are conflating Castro, a man who gained power by armed revolution, with Chavez, a man who gained power by being elected to office by 61% of the voters of his country, in elections that are the most closely monitored on earth (--by the OAS, the Carter Center and EU monitoring groups). Furthermore, in Venezuela, they hand-count FIFTY-FIVE PERCENT of the votes, cuz they don't trust the machines. (Know how much we handcount?) There is simply no comparison between Castro and Chavez. And, frankly, there is no comparison between Chavez and Bush. Chavez is acting in the interests of the people of his country, and with their consent, and Bush is not.
The "laws by decree" power that the National Assembly of Venezuela (which is also elected in fair and aboveboard elections) voted to give Chavez all pertain to the FURTHER democratization of Venezuela, aimed at INCREASING citizen participation in government, improving economic equity, and eliminating corruption. They are a very limited set of decrees. They are NOT laws that suspend anybody's human or civil rights. They are NOT laws that permit discretionary war. They are NOT laws that permit spying, or secrecy, or "signing statements." And, furthermore, the "laws by decree" have been used before by other Venezuelan presidents. They are NOT some sort of unprecedented power. They are much more like the powers that Franklin Delano Roosevelt was given by the U.S. Congress in the early 1930s to reconstruct the U.S. economy after the super-rich had destroyed it, sending millions into stark poverty. The rightwing in the U.S. called Social Security, unemployment insurance, the CCC jobs projects, fair taxation, and other New Deal measures DICTATORIAL! Yup, it was "dictatorial" against the rich elite who had destroyed the country!
The situation of the U.S. during the Great Depression is very similar to the situation in Venezuela and throughout South America now. The super-rich--that is, global corporate predators based in the United States of America, in collusion with highly corrupt local rich elites--have destroyed the economies of South America, sending millions into stark poverty. And THAT is why, country after country are now electing LEFTIST (majorityist) governments, to try to REPAIR the damage--in Brazil, in Argentina, in Venezuela, in Bolivia, in Ecuador, in Chile, in Uruguay, in Nicaragua, and soon in Peru and Paraguay (where big leftist movements are under way). These governments are very similar to FDR's New Deal government.
In this context, Castro and Cuba are revered--not because of their lack of democracy, but because they, in their own way--through armed revolution and communism--PREVENTED the impoverishment of their people, which has ravaged the rest of the Latin America. They stopped it, cold--by eliminating capitalism. In Cuba, everyone has food; everyone has a decent life; everyone has a free education, through university and higher degrees like medicine. No one can get rich and no one can starve. There is no country in South America--including Venezuela--that wants communism. If they did--and it was freely chosen, by fair and honest votes of the people--I would not oppose it. Who is to say that democracy equals capitalism? It doesn't. But they don't want it. They want mixed socialist/capitalist economies with strong components of social justice. In other words, South Americans are making THEIR OWN judgments of what is right for them. Not dictated by the U.S. They see things that are admirable in Cuba. They are not following the Cuban model--which evolved in an earlier era, amidst horrendous oppression by U.S.-supported fascist elites.
I am continually shocked at the lack of information and lack of understanding of South America's economic condition and politics--and culture--by my fellow North Americans, including some posters here at DU. I am shocked at the kneejerk attitudes, right out of Bush's State Department echoed by our war profiteering corporate new monopolies, that are rattling around in peoples' heads. But I don't "attack" anybody for this. Why? Because I have holes in my knowledge, too. Back in the '80s, for instance, I was unaware that TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND Mayan Indians were being slaughtered in Guatemala because they were LEFTISTS, with the direct complicity of our own president, Ronald Reagan. I knew some leftists and peasants had been killed there, and that the U.S. backed the dictator had done it. I had no idea of the magnitude of the crime, which has since been revealed in a "truth and reconciliation" process sponsored by the UN. I'm shocked at MYSELF. I thought I was a well-informed person.
So I would urge this: Seek information from alternative sources. (A good one on Venezuela is www.venezualanalysis.com.) Don't trust the corporate news monopolies. And, for God's sake, don't trust Bush. In fact, you can just about guarantee that ANYTHING Bush is against is probably good, and anything he or his junta are promoting is probably very, very bad. That's a good starting premise, anyway.
I hate to see people taken in by the corporate news monopolies. They are really bad dudes, you know. They lie all the time--most especially about South America. Outright frigging lies. And if you know who they really are--that 5 rightwing billionaire CEO's control all news and opinion in this country--then you understand why. The words you see in the WSJ, the WP, the NYT, in AP articles, and the words and images throughout TV and radio--are being controlled by 5 rightwing billionaire CEOs, who have neither your interests at heart, nor those of anyone else in the world. They don't want you, a U.S. citizen and voter, to know what they are doing in the world, and where they get their billions from, because you have considerable potential power, in conjunction with other U.S. voters, of REGULATING them and curtailing their ungodly profits, and even pulling their corporate charters and denying them a license to use the public airwaves. Understand their reasons for lying to you, and you will begin to see through their lies. They lied to you about Guatemala. They never told you that Reagan had colluded in the slaughter of 200,000 Mayan Indians. They lied to you about Iraq. And they are lying to about Hugo Chavez.
Don't ever go kneejerk the other way, either. Leftists made this mistake about Stalin back in the old days--hung onto the dream of the Proletarian Revolution long after Stalin had taken it over and become a dictator. Armed revolution is not a pretty thing, and not a preferable way to change a country. (We had one here, though--never forget!) And NO politician is to be trusted. That, to me, is the very definition of democracy. Anyone in power must be watched like a hawk. Openness is the key. Transparency. Is Chavez open and aboveboard? It sure looks like it to me--and the Venezuelans (who, in my opinion, are true lovers of democracy) seem to think so, too. They have repeatedly endorsed him and entrusted him with power. There are lots of eyes and ears on government activity. (And the press in Venezuela is rabidly anti-Chavez--totally corporate controlled.) Is Bush open and aboveboard? Absolutely not. There has never been a more secretive regime in the U.S. (nor a more lapdog press protecting Bush secrecy.) Is Castro open and aboveboard? In some ways yes, in many ways no. It seems to be a government by general consent--but not a democracy. But Castro's lack of openness does not seem to be for the purpose of making Castro or his colleagues rich, nor to engage in excesses (like torture, or plotting war). It's a mixed bag. The Cubans seemed to have lucked out, in having a dictatorship that is fairly benign and has benefited most people. But peoples' welfare should not be dependent on the luck of the draw. Without transparency and real democracy, you can almost guarantee that most people will not benefit, and that serious abuses will occur.
I am not a Chavez worshiper. I am trying to see through the fog of lies from the Bushites and their news media, to what is really going, in Venezuela and other places. If Chavez turns dictatorial--a temptation that ANY leader can succumb to--I would not hesitate to denounce him. I hate dictators. Democracy is my religion--not leader worship. And one more thing that seems to be neglected. The Bolivarian Revolution does not belong to Chavez. It is a grass roots movement, driven by ordinary people--especially by the vast poor population and the indigenous of South America. If Chavez--or any leader--betrays this great democracy movement, for personal gain or aggrandizement--I would wish to see them exposed, and would make every effort to do so. I have no mercy for betrayers of democracy, whether they are Bushites, Democrats or Bolivarians.
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