VHeadline commentarist and money market expert Fred Cederholm writes: I've been thinking about earthquakes, the US dollar, the February 2008 trade numbers, our trade deficits, our energy deficits, interest rates/ the "auction," and inflation. Official numbers for our energy imports and our trade deficit(s) for this past February, and the cumulative trade deficit(s) for the calendar year thus far were released last week.
While the media may have focused on the anomalies of a growing cluster of hundreds of unexplained quakes in the Pacific Ocean off the State of Oregon and the Friday morning 5.2 shaker in Southeastern Illinois, the real "shakiness stories" should have chronicled the further downward slide of the US Dollar relative to the other major world currencies.
Unfortunately there is presently no "Richter Scale" for the precarious shakiness of the Buck.
The Dollar is having major seizures!
You see while equity markets appeared to enjoy a favorable performance for the week just ended, this is a fluke reflecting that certain "index heavy" companies had a better first quarter from their international operations - mainly because the Dollar continued to tank. Because we import far in excess of what we export, we all have paid dearly for the benefits of these few. We now see the repercussions of recent interest rate cuts and the continued printing of more dollars. There is a time value to money and that is called interest. Each cut or anticipated cut in interest rates paid to holders of Dollars results in a downward re-pricing in the purchasing value of the Buck.
This is the true cause of the run amok inflation we are ALL experiencing at BOTH the gas pump and grocery store.
Our eight largest trade deficits for the month of February 2008 (and 2008 Year to Date) are as follows: China $18.355 Billion ($38.667 Billion YTD), Japan $6.877 Billion ($13.469 Billion YTD), Canada $6.450 Billion, ($12.316 Billion YTD), Mexico $5.467 Billion ($10.638 Billion YTD), Saudi Arabia $3.501 Billion ($6.891 Billion YTD), Germany $3.416 Billion ($6.320 Billion YTD), Nigeria $2.884 Billion ($6.297 Billion YTD), and Venezuela $2.600 Billion ($6.020 Billion YTD). Our hands-down overall biggest dollar denominated imports are for crude oil and petroleum distillates, so just WHAT all are we still hocking our souls for in what we are getting from China, Japan, and Germany?
February imports AND exports were both at records, yet imports grew faster!
The top eight sources of Uncle $ugar's crude oil imports for February 2008 were: Canada (1.888 Million barrels per DAY--MBPD), Saudi Arabia (1.614 MBPD), Mexico (1.231 MBPD), Nigeria (0.982 MBPD), Venezuela (0.927 MBPD), Iraq (0.780 MBPD), Angola (0.341 MBPD and Kuwait (0.261 MBPD). Uncle $ugar's top eight sources of total petroleum imports for February 2008 were: Canada (2.419 MILLION barrels per DAY--MBPD), Saudi Arabia (1.627 MBPD), Mexico (1.324 MBPD), Venezuela (1.112 MBPD), Nigeria (1.025 MBPD), Iraq (0.780 MBPD) Russia (0.451 MBPD), and the Virgin Islands (0.351 MBPD). Crude imports averaged 9.514 MBPD at a February import average price per barrel of crude oil ($84.76). It is important to note that last Friday's crude pricing reflected an all-time high of $ 117 per barrel. Pump prices locally are now $3.57/ gallon for a 10% ethanol blend, $3.67/ gallon for regular, and $4.18/ gallon for diesel!
The FED has cut their lending rate to banks by 3.0% to 2.25% to "save the banks and their borrowers," but it is the savers who really took the hit on their deposits. Borrowers actually saw their rates rise, or MAYBE stay the same!
Last week's Treasury auction composite average rate at 1.38% for 26 weeks "suggests" further rate cutting by the FED. Should this major error in policy occur, the Dollar will plummet, and crude will soar above $130.
A few may benefit; but ... we will ALL pay at the pump AND the store!
VHeadline's Washington D.C. based commentarist Chris Herz writes: It just tickles me no end to find a comment from a right-wing imperial source at VHeadline. Some poor sucker still believes in the codswallop purveyed by the corpo media. Of course this is testimony to our policies of allowing comment from all sides and letting the readers decide issues on the evidence. That's a good thing.
But bumf is bumf!
We can easily ask those who so fervently believe that corporate neo-liberalism is the wave of the future why it is that the USA are in such dismal economic straits just now. Certainly in either Republican or Democratic administrations the corporate types have had it all their own way for a generation now.
Taxes pared down on the wealthy, corporations left free to dismantle their domestic production in favor of out-sourcing to places where reactionary government can assure that workers can be made to work for basically nothing and shot or incarcerated should they object. All this and more have been the features of this wonderful "bi-partisanship."
Folks like President Hugo Chavez in Venezuela have not failed to point out what an unmitigated disaster has been the application of the failed Washington consensus in their quarter of the world. But its failures are no less manifest in the USA herself.
Our economic statistics speak so eloquently for themselves. Should we examine official statistics in the same way that they were calculated before we were consumed by wacky rightist economic theories beginning in 1980, we could see inflation rates of 12 or 13 percent, and unemployment rates at similar levels.
The share of Gross Domestic Product enjoyed by manufacturing would be a bit more than 10 percent, while manufactured imports account for about 17 percent.
So even were we to export all of our manufactures, under conditions of a weak dollar, we would still be unable to close the trade deficit!
We can see that we have been in recession for most of the period going back to 2000.
But don't take my word for it. Do your own research. All this information is no secret. It is readily available to anyone who wants to read and study. Honest financial reporters like Paul Craig Roberts or John Williams can help you. Most of all ask yourself if your own situation has improved.
The only real advantage that the right has here is its command of racial, religious and militarist chauvinism. Everything they say about objective matters has the same relationship to reality as has their opinions on evolution. It has been a fact that since Nixon's time the majority of the US electorate have allowed themselves to be controlled by more or less blatant appeals to the angels of their baser nature. And so what is happening to the USA could not, therefore, happen to nicer people.
This is also of course the ultimate source of the damage done to the candidacy of Barak Obama, who by reason of his race is compelled, against his inclinations to avoid outright repudiation of his liberal and even, in some instances radical base. He is forced to talk sense to a people who cannot bear to hear it.
I expect to win some substantial wagers in November on my position that come what may, the electorate will vote conservative yet again, as they promise to do tomorrow in our state of Pennsylvania, one of the most racially polarized in our country. A bet I'd surely love to lose, but one which seems safer than any investment in our "free market" banks.
One certainty: No one in Venezuela's Foreign Ministry should be expecting any change in their relations with the Empire anytime soon. But we may all take home a consolation prize. The Empire will also be unable to deal with its massive financial hemorrhage.
That makes it a race to see if the inevitable financial implosion occurs before the next administration, whoever leads it, can add enough troops to the army to deal with upstarts like your President Chavez.
Thomas Paine's Corner:(Jason Miller):Is the Western consumerist culture that we inflict upon the rest of the world truly the pinnacle of our evolution? If it is, I resign my membership in the human race. Though I don't fear that I'll be compelled to tender my resignation any time soon because our so-called 'non-negotiable American Way of Life' is a piece of ***, for myriad reasons.
We in the Western 'developed' nations, particularly in the United States, are an utter disgrace to our species.
Our myopic, self-centered, jejune, hubristic, and benighted ways of examining and interacting with the rest of the world, including other human animals, non-human animals, and Mother Earth herself, are reprehensible to the point of nausea and beyond.
And why wouldn't they be?
We carry perceived entitlement to such pathological lengths that we actually believe that the world and all of its inhabitants are resources we can objectify and use to enhance and ensure our 'prosperity,' 'security,' and 'the growth of our economy.' We are conditioned to believe ahistorical, manipulative and grossly distorted sound-bites streamed into our shriveled, atrophied cerebrums by well-coiffed, polished talking head sycophants who owe their careerist souls to a system that is destroying the world.
And why wouldn't we US Americans believe that our 'shining city upon the hill' is entitled to whatever our little hearts desire (and our $1 trillion per year military can plunder)?
We are all living large thanks to the genocide our forefathers committed against the natives of Turtle Island. After all, who's going to worry about a little thing like 10-100 million dead'red men' ... or the 100 million black slaves who contributed mightily (and involuntarily I might add) to the development of our economic juggernaut of a nation?
I can already see the shoulders shrugging and people assuaging potential guilt with the shop-worn arguments that 'we've more than made it up to them,' ... 'you can't change the past,' or 'I wasn't there when it happened.'
Well, guess what. I'm not suggesting reparations or apologies. **** applying band-aids to gaping wounds. We are barbarians masquerading as enlightened Christian folk' ... we've even deluded ourselves into believing our shit smells like roses.
How far do we go before we call a halt to our insanity?
Stocks of large marine animals have fallen 90% since 1950. The polar bears and penguins are drowning and disappearing in droves. Cattle, pigs, and chickens suffer unspeakable horrors in torture facilities euphemistically labeled factory farms mostly so we can get our 'fast food fix' and destroy the world one burger at a time by eating at McDonald's. 50% of the world's tropical forests are gone and if present trends continue they will all be gone by 2090. A unique species of life goes extinct every 20 minutes.
Conscienceless sociopaths like George W. Bush and Dick Cheney routinely rise to the ultimate positions of power, visibility and responsibility in our nightmare society.
We have already slaughtered over a million Iraqis in retaliation for the 3,000 people they DIDN'T kill on 9/11. Disproportionate scapegoating at its finest. Job well done, USA! (One shudders to think how many we would've killed had Iraqis been the actual perpetrators of the WTC bombings).
I wonder, dear reader, if you are wondering the same thing I'm wondering as I'm writing: Just what the **** is wrong with us?
We US Americans excel at paying lip service to worshipping Christ and/or the God of the Old Testament, but the truth is that our real god is Mammon. Even those who reject mainstream culture and its obsession with wealth and material possessions are forced to subjugate themselves to the almighty dollar in our filthy capitalist dog-eat-dog, winner-take-all system.
We fancy ourselves to have a monopoly on 'freedom' and 'decency.'
In fact, we've mind-****ed ourselves into believing it is our 'duty' to 'civilize' the rest of the world. In reality we are wage and debt slaves who each play a role in perpetuating a system that is grossly immoral, exploitative, and malevolent. We export our evil via our blood-drenched foreign policy. 'Get them before they get us' is our motto — even if we happen to be the equiivalent of Mike Tyson pulverizing an infant. Hey, he might've attacked us when he grew up, right?
For those of us who haven't had every shred of moral decency indoctrinated out of us, there is cause for some optimism. Like a pyramid balancing on its apex, capitalism is destined to topple. Linear, short-sighted, chaotic, grossly immoral, and dependent upon infinite growth in a finite world, it has already reached obsolescence in the minds of most intellectually honest critical thinkers. Its myriad victims have discovered perhaps its ultimate vulnerability: asymmetric warfare.
In its insatiable thirst to commodify everything, capitalism is at odds with Mother Nature herself.
If the victims of imperialism and monopoly capitalism don't bring this son of a bitch down, the Earth will. And I feel confident that I speak for many when I state that the world will be truly blessed when our violent, hierarchal, and malignant culture of murder and mayhem is throttled to death like a perpetrator who finally encounters a victim with the means to eradicate him.
Meanwhile, we can accelerate the demise of the dominant culture, as Derrick Jensen has labeled our rotten-to-the-core Westernized, capitalistic way of being. As Jensen suggests, we need to build upon the culture of resistance that is rapidly expanding in the pre-revolutionary environment in which we find ourselves.
As the inevitable revolution or crash approaches (the power elite can only fuck the people or the environment so hard before the backlash takes them out), there are many things we can do (each according to our abilities and resources) to monkey wrench this merciless, murderous machine.
Students of history will note that all manner of people and activities are necessary to bring down a deeply entrenched rotten and oppressive establishment. Strikers, boycotters, organizers, thinkers, writers, spiritual leaders, protestors, civil disobedients, conscientious objectors, providers of resources, and groups engaged in direct action like the ALF are all essential to the success of resisting the considerable might and tenacity of those who hold a majority of the world's wealth and power.
So, as Jensen suggests, find what you love and do it in such a way that it puts a little more wobble on that inverted pyramid.
And when the time comes, those of us who are clinging to our guns so bitterly will know what to do with them.
Jason Miller is a wage slave of the American Empire who has freed himself intellectually and spiritually. He is Cyrano's Journal Online's associate editor (http://www.bestcyrano.org/
VHeadline commentarist Kenneth T. Tellis writes: When one reads that headline in the newspapers, one is reminded of the help that Venezuela was giving the forgotten poor people America that had no recourse, when New Hampshire Governor John Lynch was forced to shy away from the discounted oil that Venezuela was giving America's needy. Thus Governor Lynch slammed the idea of receiving Venezuelan discounted oil.
In February 2006, "Chavez is selling Venezuela's assets are cut-rate prices while his country languishes in poverty and essential infrastructure crumbles."
If some Americans now have to choose between buying gas and buying food, then we must assume that America itself is languishing in poverty. But there is no word from U.S. Senator John Sununu (R-N.H.) about poor Americans having to choose between putting food on their family table and buying gas.
Could he be too ashamed to face the reality of what is happening to America's poor?
Of course Sen. John Sununu could not be bothered with how low-income Americans coped with the winter, because he was snugly ensconced in his private mansion.
This is the real America where the divide between the rich and poor, is like day and night.
National Assembly (AN) deputy, Luis Tascon has launched his candidacy for the Metropolitan Mayor's Office in Caracas. In a direct challenge to President Chavez, Tascon states that he is not a pre-candidate but a candidate and criticizes those surrounding the President for keeping him a captive. Tascon has reiterated his revolutionary credentials and says he wants a Mayor's Office open to technology that allows human resources to reach the community to solve problems. Aporrea-Merida has made an interesting observation that the only official TV channel covering the announcement was ANTV, the National Assembly channel. Tascon has slammed the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) as "undemocratic ... with members that reject Socialist ideology."
Former Defense Minister, Vice Admiral Orlando Maniglia has come out in defense of the reserve force. Throughout the world, the Vice Admiral states, the concept of the reserve is integrated into a country's development. " The social role of the Armed Forces (FAN) is historical and is linked to the concept of the reserve because the spirit of the reserve is the spirit of the people." Maniglia points out that the new content of the reserve in Venezuela is to allow people who have not done military service to contribute towards improving the country and its defense against any eventual situation. The reserve, Maniglia adds, must be used and not just be put on the shelf as a trophy.
The United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) has announced a timetable of activities during May. PSUV spokeswoman, Maria Cristina Iglesias says the 10 party vice presidents will visit regional state teams dedicated to political work. The teams will be structured in the same way as the national leadership is linked to the national political coordination team. The organisation, ideology, electoral technical, communication, social movements, finance, mobilization, and government liaison committees will also be on the move during this period. The political coordination committee is made up of eight members and headed by a vice president of a region. Activities will begin on April 26 with battalion meetings to start a " communal diagnosis" with the aim of setting up different local programs. On April 29-30, there will be a meeting to discuss the results of the communal diagnosis and on May 11, there will be discussion in the assemblies to set up specific programs. Iglesias states that this is the first step of the electoral campaign but did not give any details of methods or how candidates will be chosen.
Agriculture & Lands (MAT) Minister, Elias Jaua brushes aside charges that the production of sugar in the Turbio Valley of Barquisimeto will be affected by the State's recovery of 2,400 hectares. The Minister says only 300 hectares of the above is made up of sugar cane plantations ... " they are in no danger and producers will not be hindered when they harvest the product." The valley, the Minister states, has been recommended for more than 20 years as a valley of exclusive agricultural use and environmental protection but is not suitable for sugar cane production, a fact he has made clear in round table meetings with producers. One of the big problems of sugar cane production in the valley, the Minister insists, is the effect of contamination when the sugar cane is burnt every year. The legal process will be starting shortly to allow supposed owners to present property rights and demonstrate their intention to continue producing on the lands but the produce will be vegetables.
MAT Minister Jaua maintains that Venezuela is currently producing around 9 million tonnes of food and around 3-4 million tonnes are being imported. He also states that milk is freely available in stores, even though there are zones that are historically difficult regarding distribution. Jaua calls on the private sector to respond and to stop complaining about prices, controls, and other excuses. Highlighting the fact that is the first time that a government that has delivered a series of facilities to agricultural and agri- industry sectors to increase production, he points to tax exonerations and a preferential credit rates as just two of many initiatives.
Attorney General, Luisa Ortega Diaz has called on the Supreme Tribunal of Justice (TSJ) to open a hearing against Guarico State Governor, Eduardo Manuitt for alleged serious physical aggression against Mayor of Zaraza, David Fares. According to a preliminary investigation, the Attorney General comments, the State governor allegedly cause serious injuries to the Mayor during a heated exchange at the Finance Ministry in Caracas. Ortega Diaz says it is up to the TSJ plenary session to see if there are sufficient merits for starting a legal process against the State Governor. Manuitt has responded calling the measure is " absurd" and " rubbish." First of all, the Governor retorts, the country has so many problems and important things to do and secondly, he believes there is a political motive lurking in the background. The Attorney General's measure, he continues, is unconstitutional because every Venezuelan has a right to due process, which means that every person must be notified of any investigation against him and not learn about it on the TV. This is not the first investigation or charge against Manuitt. A few years back he was accused of allegedly conniving with and backing police murder squads in his state.
Interior & Justice (MIJ) Minister Ramon Rodriguez Chacin says he is in favor of a Supreme Tribunal of Justice decision favoring prisoners seeking legal benefits that will allow their re-insertion into society. Among some of the things ruled on by the T SJ are: the possibility of conditional freedom and work programs. However, the ruling is not open to all prisoners ... some rights will be suspended depending on the kind of crime. Not all the prisoners will benefit and it's not automatic, the Minister states, and announces that prisoners enjoying the reform will be monitored to ensure that the alternatives are complied with. The Minister has criticized opposition non-governmental organizations as riding on the back of the prisoners ... " it was not the NGOs but prisoners themselves that found a valid interlocutor in the authorities."
Last month the Pope visited the United States and I watched every day of his 6 day visit to America. It made me reflect that I am a Catholic and through my life when I disagreed with some of the dogmas of the Catholic Church I thought that in my lifetime I could never change my religion or ever be anything else but Catholic.
In a way similar to my faith in Catholicism when I first came to Venezuela in 1962 I taught sports in the of Catia. This was when I first fell in love with the people of Venezuela and especially the children and the families of the barrios.
When invited to their homes in Catia they gave me their food when they had no food to spare. They gave me their bed when I was happy to sleep in a hammock and they looked out for me to make sure I was safe.
These beautiful memories and my love for the people of Venezuela has remained in my heart for all of my life. From 1951 to 1954 I attended a Catholic high school in Chicago 3 blocks from Comiskey Park and saw Chico Carrasquel play. What he did as a young man was amazing and he quickly became my idol.
In 1999 I was privileged to meet and become good friends with my favorite baseball player of all time, Chico Carrasquel.
In all of the articles that have been written about Chico there was something for which he received little or no credit and that was the inspiration he gave to other young men who wanted to play baseball.
This was a young man from the barrio of Caracas called Sarria who knew he could play baseball and despite the poverty that existed in his family he overcame every obstacle to become a major league baseball player and gave inspiration to hundreds if not thousands of young Venezuelan boys who also aspired to play professional baseball.
If you think about it without Chico's inspiration there might never have been future Venezuelan baseball stars like Luis Aparicio, Andres Gallaraga, Dave Concepcion, Omar Visquez, Bobby Abreau and so many more who gave credit to Chico for the inspiration he gave to them.
In baseball Chico continues to be the most inspirational man of his time in Venezuela and should never be forgotten and this is the reason that this foundation was established and it is our hope that in addition to the baseball park in Puerto La Cruz all Venezuelans should continue to honor him by helping us to establish baseball parks and other good works throughout the barrios of Venezuela in his name.
In a brief press conference with the Senate Republican Leadership, Sen. Kay Baily Hutchinson (R-TX) says that the United States should support democracies in South America and reward then through agreements like the proposed Colombia Free Trade Agreement, which has been stymied in the House of Representatives.
Education Minister Adan Chavez has ratified the implementation of the new Bolivarian education curriculum for next year, 2009. Chavez insists that the timetable for debate has been extended to allow for greater understanding and exchange of opinions. At the beginning of 2008, the Ministry started courses for primary and secondary school teachers but the sessions are facing sabotage from school parents and teachers in parts of eastern Venezuela. The opposition has rejected the curriculum, accusing the government of trying to introduce ideology into the educational system and introducing by stealth modifications to the Constitution that were rejected in the ballot box on December 2, 2007. The Minister denies the charges and maintains that he is open to dialogue, proposing that educational zones organize discussions to include all the social sectors, non-governmental organizations and universities.
The Venezuelan Association of Catholic Schools (AVEC) says it is preparing counter- proposals to the Ministry on the new curriculum, highlighting what it calls the essential values in education. The organization will present the Minister a document at the end of May. Last week in Zulia and other States teachers met to discuss and hear the government side of the argument during a week-long study session during which classes were suspended.
Energy & Petroleum Minister, Rafael Ramirez says the government is preparing to break the reciprocal protection agreement signed with the Netherlands in protest over abuse on the part of some oil companies. Referring to the conflict with ExxonMobil, which has succeeded in freezing Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) assets in the Netherlands, Minister Ramirez has made it clear that Venezuela objects to the fact that foreign companies can register as Dutch companies and he cites the practice adopted by a Chinese oil company, Eni Italia and even ExxonMobil taking advantage of a loophole in the mutual protection agreement. Venezuela is preparing its legal offensive to have the freeze order in the Netherlands lifted at a hearing in the Hague planned for the end of the month.
The United Socialist Party of Venezuela (USB) has announced the launch of a new weekly party newspaper which will be called, "To the Left." PSUV leader and journalist, Vanessa Davies says the newspaper will be a tool for members in their political and ideological formation and will include contributions from members to promote participation and the building of the party from the bottom upwards. The first edition is expected to appear on Monday.
It would appear that only two of the currents of opinion inside the pro-government National Union of Workers (UNT) will sign up for the proposed government trade union central. The Bolivarian Socialist Force (FSBT) and the Alfredo Maniero Movement will form the backbone of the new organization, which is expected to come into force in time for May Day celebrations. The Workers in Revolution Collective (CTR), Socialist Union Autonomy and Socialist Wave are laying down conditions before entering, while the C-Cura has announced it will continue in the UNT. FSBT coordinator, Oswaldo Vera whose group is promoting the new central has announced that the executive committee will consist of presidents of federations.
The divisions inside pro-government centrals are indicative of a pluralist resistance to the government steam-roller in the wake of a similar decision taken by several pro-government political parties not to enter the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV).
Due to government regulation, the last oil refinery built in the United States was completed in 1976. In addition, the Middle East is politically unstable which leads to a risk premium on the world's major source of oil. It is obvious that the demand for oil has grown while supplies have been restricted. The average price of gas in the United States today is approximately $3.25. The question is, why are gas prices not higher than they are?
VHeadline commentarist Hahnemann Coll writes: I must say that I am not surprised with the information about VHeadline being "blacked", the reason is simple: the Bolivarian Revolution is hurt more from the inside than from outside.
While there are people that really care about the wellbeing of ALL Venezuelans and the success of the whole revolution, there are not only the corrupts that remind us the plague that affects Latin America from time immemorial, we find, also, the total internal intolerance toward the critics that should be the best weapon the revolution could find to improve and solve any problem that could arise.
On the contrary, the critics within the revolution's ranks, are treated as the scum of the earth, as enemies of the revolution, as a pariah by their own mates.
Being part of the revolution is to recognise mistakes and correct them, being a revolutionary is to refuse corruption and its perptrators no matter who they could be. To be a revolutionary means to point out whatever is wrong as we do when something is right, to put Venezuela's interests before one owns and understand that the well-being of all and everyone of those living in Venezuela will benefit oneself.
Sadly, we see everyday those that call themselves revolutionaries procrastinating the revolution itself and wasting enormous amounts of time and energy defending small parcels of power while the counterrevolution is doing its part with all the tools available.
I see the revolution falling apart in spite of the disinterested efforts of those who really care, those who day after day give their best for Venezuela and the revolution.
It is not only the corruption. To appeal to the observer the revolution has to demonstrate that is better than other options.
Instead, what we get is a bunch of guys declaring here and there, discrediting all of those that do not thinks as they do, falling into the CIA's game instead of promoting a real battle of ideas and proposals. We have a left wing that remains in the 60s and hasn't understood that changes have to be done and quick for the survival of the whole process.
The problem is not Globovisión or what it says, the problem is what we say and what we do or, even more important, what we don't say and what we don't do.
The fourth Republic fell down because of the total lack of respect the political elite shown toward the Venezuelan people, not because the current leaders demonstrated being better than the formers. It is a mistake to assume that the bad habits from the fourth Republic disappeared with the arrival of Hugo Chavez, on the contrary, the fight has to be frontal and merciless by all democratic means against corruption and inefficiency, there are no valid excuses.
Problem is, do we really have the kind of leaders that would act that way?
I feel that they are less and less every day, but they deserve our cooperation.
Most probably the only thing we are going to get is our personal satisfaction for doing the right thing ... for some of us that's the most important.
VHeadline commentarist Kenneth T. Tellis writes: I am sometimes amazed how people can be blown by the wind into opposing that which they once promoted as being the right thing.
Just think how former general and defence minister of Venezuela, Raul Baduel, in his recent speech in Panama now seems to take another tack from what was previously his own view.
What is wrong with Bolivarian Revolution? Absolutely nothing, because it promotes the rights of all Venezuelans, not just a few of the upper class. In any democracy or progressive state all people must be counted and must have a say in government. Did the former general speak out against the indigenous Native people of Venezuela being shoved to the sidelines? No he did not because he was not belonging to that community.
If it's democracy that Raul Baduel speaks about, where was he all these years, when a huge segment of the Venezuelan people could neither vote or take part in government.
Even as I write there are elements within the Venezuelan government who have either corrupted the Bolivarian Revolutions aims for their own advancement and privileges, or those who are bent on undoing the Bolivarian Revolution from within its own ranks. These are the Quislings and saboteurs who do not really want the revolution to succeed. Let us hope thar Chavez sees through the haze that is clouding over a revolution that was brought about by the people of Venezuela, and should succeed.
Now, it is up to Chavez to come down hard on these saboteurs and Quislings and expel them from the government and the ranks of the new Venezuelan Socialist Party. Let there be no stone unturned in the search for those who hide in the ranks of every governments body, and work to destroy the revolution from the inside.
... but, the struggle of dedicated patriots is being impeded by those who will not allow anyone to reach the office of Chavez, and thus he is not in the know.
It would seem to me that Raul Baduel is now speaking from both sides of his mouth, and the thought occurs to me, could Raul Baduel have been reached by some U.S. sympathizers?
The democracy that Baduel promotes strikes one as being very similar that being practiced in the U.S. ... but that is not what the Bolivarian Revolution promotes or practices, because in essence it is anti-democratic, based on an oligarchic system, where only the rich speak, and the masses have no say whatsoever.
A bomb scare forced the evacuation of a Spain-bound passenger plane at Caracas airport on Monday, after officials received a telephone tip that one of the passengers had an explosive device. The alert was called off after the 'Air Europa' flight, with 258 passengers on board, was moved to a different part of the airport, the passengers disembarked and their luggage subjected to a thorough search. 'No explosive was found,' Julio Fernandez, the director of communications for the privately owned Spanish airline said in Madrid.
Speaking on his Sunday TV political talk show, a former Vice President, Jose Vicente Rangel says the opposition "No + Chavez" initiative on April 11 both at home and abroad was a complete failure, despite abundant economic resources. The opposition will try to revive destabilizing actions and heat things up, the journalist states, concentrating on getting students to protest against the new school curriculum, even though the government has postponed its implementation until 2009.
Cuban Minister for Fishing, Alfredo Lopez has announced a joint venture with Venezuela to undertake fishing on the high seas in an effort to resolve the insufficient offer of fish in his country. Lopez says Cuba is developing two strategic lines to solve the problem of food shortages especially seafood and the first is to recover fishing on the high seas. The decision to set up a joint venture was taken during a meeting between Venezuela and Cuba at the fourth Petrocaribe summit. The second line will be to develop fish farming. In 2007, Cuba produced more than 22,000 tonnes of shrimps, tilapia and other farmed fish. In 2006, the European Union imported 5,000 tonnes of fish products from Cuba.
Interior & Justice (MIJ) Minister Ramon Rodriguez Chacin says his country's anti-drugs struggle is centered on capturing narco-trafficking kings and the seizure of drug transshipments. The Minister say he's convinced of complicity in the country facilitating the transit of drugs through Venezuela. The Minister reveals that seizures have increased 300%. Such figures are not to show off, Rodriguez Chacin argues, they are a sub-product of the real struggle, namely the struggle against the capos and those facilitating the transit of drugs through Venezuela on any level, whether they be members of the government, state employees or private citizens. Rodriguez Chacin maintains that Venezuela will refuse any petition to extradite drug-lord, Hermagoras Gonzalez without him first paying for crimes committed and without sharing of information. The Minister contends that he has always questioned US anti-drugs policies inside Colombia. "Anyone who flies over Colombia at a low altitude and slow speed can see poppy fields ... The US contribution to Colombia is not for the war on drugs, which is just a front hiding other geo-strategic reasons."
On Saturday in the presence of 1,440 members of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), President Chavez has sworn in State political teams of the party elected by socialist assemblies several weeks ago. The President has highlighted the date of the swearing- in ceremony, April 19, which is the 198th anniversary of the start of Venezuela's Independence struggle against the Spanish. PSUV Andean region vice president, Ali Rodriguez Araque has told members that the Socialist hope is re-born in Venezuela after many thought that it had ended with the fall of the Soviet Union when many people throughout the world gave up and betrayed their dreams.
President Chavez called on the national leadership of the fledgling PSUV party to activate a political bureau was in each state. The political organisation will be in permanent action, the President ventures, and he would like to see the bureaus activated as soon as possible to avoid a top-heavy leadership. The regions must be given importance and contact between political bureaus in each state and regional vice presidents is fundamental.
Discipline in the new political party is fundamental, President Chavez has told members of the PSUV during a swearing-in ceremony of regional leaderships. Chavez says he would prefer to lose a state governorship than have to bear an undisciplined state governor and hammers home the fact that the party has no candidates at the moment for the upcoming regional elections, however much a person member might be winning in local poll surveys. The President says one task of the proposed political bureaus will be to identify people presenting themselves as saviors or future mayors and state governors ... " a person with a personal project and ambition cannot be a real Socialist."
As regards internal dissension, Chavez calls on the national leadership to open up channels for criticism and internal differences to avoid the desertions the revolutionary movement has suffered in the past. The President admits that there has been a lack of internal debate and absence of any channel that allows expressions of criticism but warns that anybody with a critique should not go running to opposition channels to air their views complaining that it is the only place where they can express their opinions.
Referring to the electoral defeat on December 2, the President reflects that the jolt it gave the revolutionary movement is welcome but he slams critics who have questioned the selection method of candidates to the national leadership, warning that he has identified one "squalid," who attacks via the Internet, passing himself off as a revolutionary.
Speaking in Panama during a meeting of political parties of Latin America, former Defense Minister General (ret.) Raul Baduel has called on Latin American and Caribbean political leaders to view Venezuela as a " dangerous example of the birth of hegemonic politics and growing power. The General says it is one of the biggest obstacles to setting up a really democratic regime in Venezuela and what is happening there is unnatural and annuls real democracy. Venezuela is currently trapped in an antidemocratic system, Baduel proclaims, where there is no autonomy of public powers and where the executive exercises the functions of other powers and President Chavez wants to perpetuate himself in power. Furthermore, he urges (continental) media "not to lend themselves to the ploy of politicians who take advantage of people's needs to reach power using a nationalist discourse."
Interior & Justice (MIJ) Minister, Ramon Rodriguez Chacin has announced the setting up of units for communal police in the different parishes of Caracas as part of the Safe Caracas Plan. The Minister says communal police can have direct contact with local communities, getting to know them, receiving denunciations and getting closer to people in a humanistic way, providing necessary security. The units will also have the necessary technology to help improve security in the capital, Rodriguez Chacin reports, and at the moment there are eight units functioning already in different parishes.
President Chavez says multilateral financial organizations are beginning to realize that the planet is entering into an unparalleled food crisis and taking desperate measures to end it. This is something that Venezuela has been working on for the last nine years, the President rightly boasts, through implementing a Socialist model of society. Speaking to the leadership of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), Chavez contends that the UN Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO) is asking for multi-million financial resources to attend millions of hungry people appearing every day on all continents including the old Europe and the USA. The President points to programs undertaken five years ago, such as the Mercal food distribution program and other initiatives regarding production and distribution of quality food accessible to everybody. Sooner or later, the President states, those who still do not recognize what the government is doing will have to walk the same path and if they resist, they will have to face the People demanding profound and radical changes to a situation of misery and poverty and the wide gap between rich minorities and poor majorities.
I was woken up at 3.20am this morning by a telephone call from a tried and trusted friend who has told me that VHeadline is officially "blacked" by powerful elements within the Venezuelan government despite our many years efforts to promote Venezuela's democracy, constitutionality and the rule of law.
I have no reason to doubt the veracity or sincerity of my friend's information especially considering that, of late, many others among us have been very much concerned over the influence of corrupt individuals and power groupings both outside and within the Chavez administration who are making every effort to enrich themselves and to attempt to destroy what President Chavez has indeed achieved over the last nine years of his administration.
Earlier, I had received a number of emails alerting to the fact that the Bolivarian Revolution is in clear and imminent danger from 5th columnists who are either in the pay of the United States of America or violently radical members of the Venezuelan opposition -- or indeed both!
It has now been confirmed to me that as an editorially independent e-publication, VHeadline is seen as a danger to the designs of those 5th columnists and traitors within the administration since they are unable to control our output and are generally worried by our enthusiasm for democracy over any fanatical belief in the ideals of either the opposition or Chavismo per se. We are labeled Chavista by the opposition and escualidos by the Chavistas while what we seek to do is to carve a middle path for democracy and the Venezuelan people irrespective of who may or may not be elected President at this point in time or history.
I have also had it confirmed that the funding of Danny Glover's movie on a little known Haitian freedom fighter (to the tune of $30 million) was excessive by any movie industry standards and is most probably indicative of pay-offs to manipulators who have facilitated the funding through the good offices of the National Assembly.
I am also troubled by the fact that foreign investors in North America (especially with regard to the gold mining sector) are growing more and more impatient about incessant and inexplicable delays in the awarding of permits to begin mining operations that would contribute thousands of jobs in the most depressed regions of Venezuela while government officials seem to be travelling hither and thither effectively doing nothing to achieve much-needed progress for the Venezuelan people. It is equally obvious that certain individuals have pocketed large sums of money that should otherwise have been dedicated to the Venezuelan people.
In this respect I venture to say that Venezuelan democracy is in mortal danger and that something needs to be done about it (like yesterday!) before it is too late.
Naturally, the impetus for a cleansing of the administration, and opposition sectors working against the legitimate government of Venezuela, needs to come from the grassroots people of Venezuela and it is refreshing to see that there is already a plethora of movements beginning to exert the influence of the Venezuelan people from the bottom up as was (hopefully is!) President Chavez' declared thesis on how the Venezuela of our aspirations should be governed.
It is alarming to see how corrupt individuals have taken over the essential political functions of embassies and consulates internationally and are working against the better interests of the Venezuelan people, often as a result of infiltration by local security services such as MI5 and the CIA.
It is therefore that I feel that, although all of us involved with VHeadline are driven by a deeper affection for the country and the people of Venezuela, we cannot simply be blind to the deviations and distortions that come from within the administration while highlighting the over-kill of deviations and distortions perpetrated by the United States, Spain and other foreign govenrments which seek to subjugate and plunder the Venezuelan people of what by sovereign right is theirs.
We cannot do it alone! WE have to do it with the support of the Venezuelan people ... the true patriotic grasroots Venezuelan people who are presently unaware of the dirty dealings going on behind their backs otherwise they would most probably take immediate remedial action just the same as they did to demand and require the return of President Hugo Chavez Frias in the aftermath of the April 2002 coup d'etat by US-funded traitors in the political and commercial opposition.
I therefore ask your advice as a colleague and contributor to VHeadline, individually and confidentially to let me know what you feel that we, collectively, should do to ensure that VHeadline can continue to fight for Venezuela's democracy, constitutionality and the rule of law.
I am assured that the answer lies in the hands of the Venezuelan people and that they, sooner or later, will make their feelings known through the ballot box. Their next opportunity is in the November elections but with current trends of infiltration and sabotage within the administration itself, I am fearful that Venezuela's democracy will never reach that opportunity or that the democratic will of the Venezuelan people will not be accepted in such circumstance.
Ergo the urgency of the question:What to do?
Should we fight on with vigor or simply fold up our tents and go away?
I think you know my own particular stance in this matter -- please don't hesitate to let me know yours,
World Affairs Council, 6 p.m., Bethesda-by-the-Sea at 141 South County Road in Palm Beach. Ambassador John Francis Maisto will present 'Security, Democracy, & Stability in Latin America & the Caribbean.' Maisto was the U.S. Ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS) from 2003-2006, the U.S. ambassador to Venezuela 1997-2000 and the ambassador to Nicaragua 1993-1996. Call 561-236-1825. Visit www.worldaffairsflorida.org
When it comes to espionage and defense, the sky is not the limit for Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Chavez offered between $100 million and $150 million during negotiations to acquire partial interest in a company that operates a powerful observation satellite capable of discerning objects as small as about 27 inches across, according to documents in a civil complaint filed in a New York federal court. Chavez sought to purchase 20 percent to 30 percent of the stock offered by ImageSat International, the company that owns the Eros A and Eros B satellites; the latter was launched in 2006 by Israel, reportedly to spy on Iran's nuclear program.
Well, I don't know about you, but I've had enough of this arrogant pipsqueak 'president' and the 'el supremo' of Venezuela, and the 'royal' family of the desert and all the other blowhards of the OPEC cartel. What makes me even angrier than their smug superiority is the fact that we brought this on ourselves. And it's all happened before.
The trouble with ideology and fanaticism is that they are not particularly suited to run countries. Venezuela has perhaps the unhealthiest economy in South America. All productive sectors have been thwarted. Nationalization has been used to castrate companies from any profitability. After the usurpation of the national oil company PDVSA, the only enterprise that could barely afford it, next in line were the telecommunications and utilities but Chavez did not stop there and continued on to the cement and iron industries. None can really survive.
Close to 200,000 poor families in 15 cold-weather states – in every Northeastern state except New Hampshire – can thank controversial Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez for helping them heat their homes this winter. The Venezuelan-controlled oil-refining company, Citgo Petroleum Corp., donated 45 million gallons of free home heating oil this winter in a move that bought good publicity for the country’s socialist leader, who famously called President Bush “the devil” in a 2006 United Nations speech.
THE AMERICAN VOICE RADIO NETWORK -- April 18, 2008 -- Drew Malone speaks with VHeadline's John Sanchez in New York. President Chavez should slow down to make more speed against corrupt elements in his government who are putting democracy at risk!
