Venezuela's Chavez Admits Not Funding Opposition-Led Regions

[LoZoccolo]

CARACAS (Dow Jones)--Venezuela President Hugo Chavez acknowledged Friday he withholds central government funding to regions that are controlled by the opposition, saying they don't deserve "one cent."

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20100910-711731.html

[Renew Deal]

1. Aren't they all Venezualans?

I think it would be outrageous to say something like that in the US.

[LoZoccolo]

2. He says it's because they're bourguoisue so it's OK. n/t

[Tempest]

8. Republicans did the same thing when they controlled Congress

Democratic districts and blue states received less federal funding after the Republicans took control. Republicans completely shut out Democratic sponsored legislation when they had power.

[Nye Bevan]

3. Obviously taken out of context. Chavez is a *great* guy.

Really great. And all the other bad stuff that people post about him like shutting down TV stations is taken out of context too. Chavez hated Bush and I hate Bush too so Chavez must be a great guy. I used to think he was a bad guy but the pro-Chavez DU brigade has finally convinced me otherwise.

[The Magistrate]

4. As They Say, Sir: Politics Ain't Bean-Bag

This is pretty much how the game is played everywhere.


Who do you think I should give contracts to ,my enemies?"

[Donald Ian Rankin]

5. To what extent is your post ironic?

I find it hard to tell to what extend you're defending Chavez and to what extent you're simply aiming for humour.

For what it's worth, I think that this is extremely serious political corruption, and is another severe blow to those who claim that Chavez has some respect for democracy or that elections in Venezuela can be described as free and fair.

Is there evidence suggesting that there is correlation between federal funding to red states vs funding to blue states and control of the government in the USA, do you know?

[The Magistrate]

6. If Recollection Serves, Sir, Irony Is A Song By A Ms.Morrisette?

What mostly divides Federal funds distribution in our country is the divide between rural and urban states, which transcends party labels and is gerry-mandered in our Constitution to favor the rural over the urban, which tendency is compounded by the tendency of Senators from the empty states to gain great seniority,and home in on appropriations seats like lampreys on a lake trout.

The problem with all this 'three minutes hate' stuff marshaled against Col. Chavez is that no one can point to widespread jailing or killing of his opponents, while next door they are unearthing the mass graves of people massacred by the army, and thus the accusations of despotism and such strike a distinctly tinny and false note.

In politics, one rewards friends and punishes enemies. One gives people incentives to vote out people who actively work against one's policies.

For a man operating in a situation of revolution opposed by counter-revolution, Col. Chavez is being remarkably mild.

[LoZoccolo]

7. Do you think there's anything wrong with the actions of Rod Blagojevich?

Or Dick Cheney with regards to Halliburton?

[The Magistrate]

12. Blagojevich Ran His Mouth A Lot, Sir

He actually did very little, and nothing out of the usual line here: people who donated to the campaigns had a better shot at state contracts, a condition to which contractors respond by donating to both parties. We have a whole sub-species of 'bi-partisan' fixers down in Springfield to handle the traffic, whichever party holds the chair. Blagojevitch did push through a very good health insurance program for chikldren,that has made a real difference in the state.

Cheney acted to directly enrich himself and his cronies, viewing transferring as much of the national treasury as possible into a few pockets as the chief reason for holding office.

[The Magistrate]

13. Blagojevich Ran His Mouth A Lot, Sir

He actually did very little, and nothing out of the usual line here: people who donated to the campaigns had a better shot at state contracts, a condition to which contractors respond by donating to both parties. We have a whole sub-species of 'bi-partisan' fixers down in Springfield to handle the traffic, whichever party holds the chair. Blagojevitch did push through a very good health insurance program for chikldren,that has made a real difference in the state.

Cheney acted to directly enrich himself and his cronies, viewing transferring as much of the national treasury as possible into a few pockets as the chief reason for holding office.

[geek tragedy]

11. Collective punishment is considered a moral wrong sir, is it not?

By this same token, how can we condemn the sanctions regime that killed hundreds of thousands under Saddam Hussein?

[The Magistrate]

16. Collective Punishment, Sir, though You Are Stretching The Term Torturously

Is pretty much how conflict is carried out, short iof assassinating heads of state and such....

[geek tragedy]

10. Sir, that is corruption beyond that practiced by Messrs. Bush and Cheney.

It is the stuff of Mugabe and Mobutu, not Castro.

[The Magistrate]

15. It is Not Corruption, Sir

Do not mix up terms. Corruption is when it goes into someone's pockets rather than to a public purpose.

[geek tragedy]

17. Sir, that is a distinction without a difference.

A highway or high school or what have you is still an expenditure that benefits private persons. Corruption is not merely graft, but diverting public resources to one's own tribesman or race or partisans.

Indeed, this is what Mubage did--take away from his enemies and give to his supporters.

[The Magistrate]

25. No, Sir, You Are Simply Wrong On the Terms Of Engagement

To say that all expenditure benefits private persons, and therefore is corrupt if some of them like or support you, succeeds only in stigmatizing all expenditure as corrupt, and gets no one anywhere in assessing whether behavior is in bounds.

One notices, also, the trotting out of a new eminence horibilus to compare Col. Chavez to, namely Mugabe of Zimbabwe. Again, the quantity of dead and hospitalized political opponents in Venezuela is nowhere near sufficient to sustain the comparison, which accordingly must be aimed at influencing people ignorant of the situations being compared.

[geek tragedy]

26. Mr. Mugabe is also known besides his brutality for seizing the lands

of white farmers and giving them directly to his political supporters--a private transfer of wealth funneled through the government.

[The Magistrate]

28. But That, Sir, Is Not The Root Of the Comparison

Nor,for that matter, do you really want to look too closely into how title to those land came about in the first place....

[geek tragedy]

29. The catastrophic failure of Mr. Mugabe's policy speaks for itself.

The purpose of a ruling party is to improve the lives of all citizens, not the other way around.

[The Magistrate]

31. Col. Chavez, Sir, Has Improved The Lives Of The Majority Of Venezuelans

In a society where wealth is highly concentrated, this cannot be done without some disadvantage to those who were better off than most in the first instance....

[VioletLake]

32. Kick, for your responses, Sir. nt

[Peace Patriot]

9. And we're supposed to believe the Wall Street Urinal and the Dow Drones because...?

I'll wait for a reliable quote--IN QUOTATION MARKS--and in CONTEXT--until I judge this statement, and, meanwhile I marvel at how ordinary ol' politics--whether this item, if true--the majority party using its advantage to favor groups, leaders, regions that agree with the majority party, and to disfavor others--or some other such matter--is SUCH A BIG DEAL in the corpo-fascist press, when it happens in Venezuela. There are literally thousands of such stories throughout the democratic world. Why Venezuela, Venezuela, Venezuela???

--------------------

For those who want something other than Rupert Murdoch's view of Venezuela, I suggest the following....

"They’re Running the Economy Into the Ground"
Discrediting Neoliberal Alternatives
By Kevin Young 9/3/10
http://www.zcommunications.org/they-re-running-the-economy-into-the-ground-by-kevin-young

and

Misreporting Venezuela's economy
Mark Weisbrot 9/11/10
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/sep/10/venezuela-economics

[Common Sense Party]

22. Okay:

Caracas.- El presidente de la República, Hugo Chávez, aseguró este viernes que es imposible trabajar con gobernadores y alcaldes de la oposición por lo que no les dará "ni un centavo".

"Aquí en Miranda como en otros estados donde gobierna la oposición, aquí en este municipio Sucre, donde hay un alcalde burgués, tienen que saberlo, es imposible trabajar con ellos", afirmó.

Por lo tanto, aseguró que al gobernador del estado Miranda, Henrique Capriles Radonski y al alcalde del municipio Sucre, Carlos Ocariz, no les da "ni un centavo" porque son "unos burgueses".

"A qué gobernador o alcalde burgués voy a darle yo un centavo, ¿para qué?, sin con ellos es imposible trabajar", agregó Chávez.

http://www.eluniversal.com/2010/09/10/pol_ava_chavez-no-dara-ni-u_10A4451895.shtml

[Kalun D]

14. What??

You mean Chavez is not following the Obama example of trying to accommodate the opposition and not accommodating his base?

[DBoon]

18. He learned from our Republicans

don't ever fund any project, no matter how worthwhile, if it benefits the opposing party

[mrdmk]

19. Dude, What are you thinking?

Just for kicks, checking out the link there was a nifty second line:

<from the OP's link>

"It's impossible to work with them," Chavez, a socialist, said during a speech to supporters broadcast on state television. "You really think I'm going to give an governor one cent? For what? They're bourgeois."

<end of OP's link>

Now for the Google trick. Copy the title of the article, paste it into Google with quote marks at the beginning and end, then click the first link. Below is the Google link provided for you...

link: http://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&channel=s&hl=en&source=hp&q=%22Venezuela%27s+Chavez+Admits+Not+Funding+Opposition-Led+Regions+%22&btnG=Google+Search


Here are the four paragraphs of the article provided for your reading pleasure:

CARACAS (Dow Jones)--Venezuela President Hugo Chavez acknowledged Friday he withholds central government funding to regions that are controlled by the opposition, saying they don't deserve "one cent."

"It's impossible to work with them," Chavez, a socialist, said during a speech to supporters broadcast on state television. "You really think I'm going to give an governor one cent? For what? They're bourgeois."

Chavez' comments come less than three weeks before important legislative elections in which anti-Chavez candidates are trying to win back seats in the National Assembly after the opposition boycotted the last elections in 2005. Chavez says a ruling party defeat at the polls Sept. 26 would be a serious blow to the country's "socialist revolution."

The president, who's been in power 11 years, said he's very willing to provide funding to governors and mayors who support his government. Chavez noted that he recently approved 70-million-bolivar ($16 million) funding request from a municipal mayor in Caracas to have new elevators installed in high-rise apartment buildings in a poor neighborhood.


Now, let's examine the proceeding article. The forth paragraph states $16 million was approved by Chavez for a funding request from the municipal mayor in Caracas. Low a behold, the municipal mayor in Caracas is from the opposition party. OK! Now in the second paragraph (a paragraph you could have provided) Chavez is quoted, "It's impossible to work with them," then the article declares Chavez is a socialist! The fifth paragraph (not shown, please follow the above instructions to read the article), informs us that the state of Miranda is connected to the city of Caracas. Wow, what a chicken-shit news article you have here!!! (As a matter of term 'news article' is used with lots of hesitation.)

It can claimed that you did not read the entire article, but leaving out the second paragraph to get a knee-jerk reaction is really low and nothing less!

[Hannah Bell]

20. thanks for -- the rest of the story.

[marmar]

30. DU needs a anti-Chavez discussion group.....

..... where people can post discredited Chavez hate pieces all day long.

[Hannah Bell]

21. unrec for cherry picking bullshit

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=9117568&mesg_id=9118570

[mrdmk]

23. I would Un-Rec this post, but I think disruptors on the board the Un-Rec to get a

'knee-jerk' reaction... Besides, others need to read the thread for their own knowledge!

[G_j]

24. dishonest cherry picking

gonna own it?

[47of74]

27. Oh goodie...

A thread on Chavez, complete with people who worship Saint Hugo of Venezuela.