Greg Palast: FEAR OF CHAVEZ IS FEAR OF DEMOCRACY Resent-Date: Tue, 11 Dec 2007 12:44:55 -0600 (CST) ------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 3 Dec 2007 11:26:16 -0500 To: rkm@quaylargo.com From: Greg Palast Subject: Fear of Chavez is Fear of Democracy FEAR OF CHAVEZ IS FEAR OF DEMOCRACY Bush: If it9s 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 it9s just driving them crazy that they can9t fix the vote in Venezuela. [Note: Watch the reports taken from the Palast BBC investigations in Venezuela in the newly released DVD, 3The Assassination of Hugo Chavez.3] The Bush Administration and its press puppies - the same ones who couldn9t 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, Venezuela9s 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 Chavez9 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. Let9s get clear exactly what this vote was about. Firstly, it was a referendum to change the nation9s 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, we9d 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 weekend9s 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, 3It9s 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 nation9s constitution with changes in property law, work hours and so many other complex economic adjustments that the entire referendum sank of its own weight. It9s 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 world9s largest reserve of coconuts? Like Operation Iraqi Liberation (2OIL2) - it9s all about the crude, dude. And lots of it. The US Department of Energy documents I obtained indicate that the guys holding Bush9s dipstick figure that Venezuela is sitting on 1.36 trillion barrels of crude, five times the reserves of Saudi Arabia. Chavez9 continuing tenure means that Venezuelans9 huge supply of oil will now be in the hands of Venezuelans! As Arturo Quiran, resident of a poor folks9 housing complex, told me, 3Ten, fifteen years ago there was a lot of oil money here in Venezuela but we didn9t see it.2 Notably, Quiran doesn9t particularly agree with Chavez9 politics. But, he thought Americans should understand that under Chavez9 Administration, there9s a doctor9s 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 nation9s oil wealth on 3social programs2 rather than on more drilling platforms to better fill the SUVs of Texas. Chavez has committed other crimes in Washington9s eyes. Not only has this uppity brown man spent Venezuela9s oil wealth in Venezuela, he withdrew $20 billion from the US Federal Reserve. Weirdly, Venezuela9s 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 America9s capital in 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 that9s why they have to kill him. In 2002, The New York Times sickeningly applauded the coup d9etat against Chavez. But that failed. Therefore, as the electorate of Venezuela is obstinately refusing to vote as Condi Rice tells them, there9s only one solution left for democracy-loving Bush-niks, the view express out loud by our President9s spiritual advisor, Pat Robertson: 3We have this enemy to our south controlling a huge pool of oil. Hugo Chavez thinks we9re trying to assassinate him. I think we ought to go ahead and do it. We don9t need another $200 billion war It9s a whole lot easier to have some covert operatives do the job.2 But Hugo9s not my enemy. Indeed, he9s 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 doesn9t like that deal. And Abdullah9s wish is George Bush9s command. (Interestingly, Chavez9 fellow no-term-limits dictator Bill Clinton endorsed the concept.) I don9t agree with everything Chavez does. And I9ve found some of his opponents9 point well taken. But unlike Bush, I don9t think I should have a veto over the Venezuelan vote. And the locals9 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 Chavez9 boosters appear 3under duress.2) You9d think they were showing for a taping of 3South American Idol.2 (Well, the Venezuelan President did break into song a few times.) It9s worth noting that Chavez9 personal popularity doesn9t 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 Venezuela9s 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, Chavez9 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, The Assassination of Hugo Chavez, including Palast9s interviews with Chavez, his opponents - even the man who kidnapped Chavez. You can watch the trailer on 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, 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 www.GregPalast.com or www.PalastInvestigativeFund.org To Unsubscribe, please 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: rkm@quaylargo.com (comments welcome)