Good News: Hugo Chavez Has Kidney Failure

He won't be missed.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who has been fighting cancer, was rushed to a Caracas military hospital after suffering kidney failure, according to a report late Wednesday -- which sparked an angry response from the government.

The leftist, staunchly anti-US stalwart Chavez went into the Military Hospital in Caracas on Tuesday morning, the El Nuevo Herald newspaper reported on its website, citing anonymous sources with knowledge of the case.

"He was in fairly serious overall condition," one of the sources told the Miami-based Spanish-language daily. "When he arrived, he was in quite serious shape and that is why he was brought in for emergency care."

Venezuela's Information Minister Andres Izarra appeared to deny the report in a posting on Twitter.

"Those who should be admitted are the journalists of the Nuevo Herald, except into a madhouse [instead of a hospital]," Izarra tweeted.

On Sunday, Chavez sought to assure Venezuelans he was healthy, telling them that cancer-fighting chemotherapy treatment has not left him with any debilitating side effects.

Chavez returned to Venezuela late last Thursday following what he described as a fourth and hopefully final round of chemotherapy in Cuba.

More here.

In a sign his condition might be deteriorating, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez has been sent again to the Carlos Arvelo Military Hospital in Caracas. Wednesday, his doctors were considering transferring him to the private Caracas Clinics Hospital, where he could be better treated for his renal-insufficiency problems, said sources close to the situation.

Let's just hope he can hold on until his good buddy Sean Penn arrives at his bedside.

'It's Not Time to Die. It's Time to Live'

Wishful thinking, pal. What does it say about your hellhole country when you can't even receive chemotherapy? What, you don't trust your own doctors?

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez touched down last night at Havana’s José Martí airport in another twist in the tale of his newly public battle with cancer.

The fiery socialist leader will today begin chemotherapy there for an unknown period of time, raising questions as to the future of his presidency especially as elections loom in 2012.

“We're going to give it everything we've got,” Mr. Chávez said Saturday as he boarded his flight in Caracas. “It's not time to die. It's time to live.”

The slow release of information about Chávez's illness has led to much speculation on his health and, therefore, his ability to govern. And as he toys with how much decision-making power to delegate while he is treated in Cuba, analysts warn of a looming power struggle within his inner circle.

“Chávez still resists transferring authority to his vice president, and it remains to be seen how many important decisions will be made by others,” says Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue think tank in Washington. “It would be a complete break from the caudillo-style [quasi-dictatorial, top-down] governance that has characterized the Chávez regime.”

Mr. Shifter struggles to believe that an arrangement whereby Chávez shuttles back and forth between Cuba and Venezuela, maintaining his hold on power, will work smoothly.

“Either Chávez will refuse to give up real decision-making or, if he is incapacitated, his inner circle will engage in a fierce power struggle that could become quite chaotic,” says Shifter.

Bank on chaos. These Communists don't give up power easily.

'Stop Dreaming' About Hugo's Death

Who's dreaming? We're just keeping hope alive.

Senior allies of Venezuela's socialist President Hugo Chavez have dismissed reports he is sicker than the government has admitted, telling his enemies to "stop dreaming" of his death.

The normally verbose leader has not been seen in public since a June 10 operation in Cuba to remove a pelvic swelling. His long absence has prompted widespread speculation he may be seriously ill, possibly being treated for prostate cancer.

Accusing opponents of cynically rejoicing at his health problems, government officials insist Chavez, 56, is fine and that he should be back for a regional summit planned for Venezuela's 200th anniversary of independence on July 5.

"President Chavez is recovering well from his surgery. His enemies should stop dreaming and his friends should stop worrying," Vice Foreign Minister Temir Porras said on the social networking site Twitter.

"The only thing that has metastasized is the cancer of the Miami Herald and the rest of the right-wing press."

It's a vast right-wing conspiracy, perhaps.

Meanwhile, even though Dear Leader Hugo is ready to do jumping jacks and will allegedly return to Venezuela by next week, his brother is ready for an armed struggle.

With Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez incommunicado and reportedly convalescing in Cuba, his brother told an audience that both arms and the ballot box could be used for Venezuela’s ruling party to retain power.

“As authentic revolutionaries, we cannot forget other forms of fighting,’’ Adán Chávez said at a prayer meeting in Barinas, Venezuela, that was devoted to the health of his 56-year-old brother, who grew up there.

Quoting Latin American revolutionary icon Ernesto “Che” Guevara, he added: “It would be inexcusable to limit ourselves to only the electoral and not see other forms of struggle, including the armed struggle.”

Adán Chávez, a mild-mannered former university physics professor who has a close relationship with the president while maintaining a low profile, did not explain why it might be necessary for the president’s backers to consider the possibility of guerrilla warfare in the future, and the statement seemed to clash with Hugo Chávez’s own assertions.

The comments came during a day of intense speculation that the leader may be gravely ill after reportedly undergoing emergency surgery 16 days ago.

Fernando Soto Rojas, president of the National Assembly, said rumors that Chávez has been diagnosed with cancer are false. He added that he expected the president to return home before July 5, Venezuela’s independence day.

Throughout South Florida, the news — or lack of it — prompted discussions of a post-Chávez Venezuela.

“If we can get rid of him, we’re not going to have another Fidel Castro in our country,’’ Pablo Cardenas said after a dinner with friends and family at Caballo Viejo, a popular Venezuelan restaurant in Westchester where photos of Venezuelan telenovela stars hang on the bulletin board.

Chavez Returns ... to Twitter

Venezuelan madman Hugo Chavez, or someone tweeting for him, has emerged after two weeks of silence.

Viva la revolucion or something.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, not seen in public for two weeks, ended his unusual silence with several Twitter messages on Friday, but said nothing about his health after an operation in Cuba.

The reemergence of the loquacious leader on the social networking site will do little to squash speculation that his prolonged absence means he may be seriously ill.

Marking a public holiday that celebrates a victory in a battle against Spanish colonial forces in 1821, Chavez congratulated the armed forces and saluted all Venezuelans.

"Today is my army's day and the sun rose brilliantly! A huge hug to my soldiers and to my beloved people," he wrote from his Twitter account, @chavezcandanga.

"From here, I am with you in the hard work every day. Toward victory always! We are winning! We will win!"

Uh, doubtful.

Is Hugo Chavez Dying?

As the eternal optimist, we can hope for the best, and reports trickling out seem to indicate the Venezuelan psychopath may be in much worse condition than has been reported.

Venezuela's voluble and ubiquitous President Hugo Chávez hasn't returned to the public eye after a surgery in Cuba that has friends and foes alike speculating about the state of his health and the future of his rule.

Mr. Chávez has been in Cuba since June 8, when he was felled by a pelvic abscess for which he underwent an operation two days later. Soon after, Venezuelan officials said the flamboyant leader was in good health but would recuperate in Havana for a "few days."

Those few days have stretched to 11, punctuated by false alarms over the date of his return. On Monday, a ruling party lawmaker said Mr. Chávez was hours from touching down in Caracas and urged his supporters to prepare a "tremendous" welcome for him. The claim was quickly refuted on the Twitter account of Venezuela's Communications Minister Andres Izarra.

On Tuesday, Mr. Chávez made another virtual appearance. In a statement posted on Mr. Izarra's Twitter account, he lamented the death of another Venezuelan official who had sought medical treatment in Cuba.

"We don't know very much about [Chávez's] health, there is no official news, only partial reports," said Chávez critic Teodoro Petkoff, a former presidential candidate and current editor of the opposition newspaper Tal Cual.

Mr. Chávez raised concerns when he said, during a call to a Venezuelan television station two days after his operation, that there were no "malignant" signs found, a former top Venezuelan health official said.

The former official, who asked not to be named, pointed out that a pelvic abscess—a pus-filled cavity that can result from injury or infection—is a reaction to a condition. "His choice of words was a red flag," the official said.

The former official also said there was a possibility that Mr. Chávez would be hospitalized when he returned to Venezuela, another potential sign of the severity of his ailment. If it was a matter of simply treating an abscess, Mr. Chávez would likely not need a hospital at that point, the official said.

Once a slender tank commander and would-be major-league baseball pitcher, Mr. Chávez has cultivated an image as a health-conscious sportsman. But 12 years in power have taken their toll.

Mr. Chávez, 56 years old, has gained a lot of weight since his days on the mound, works long hours and is known for drinking quarts of coffee daily. Nevertheless, he seemed poised to resume a full schedule in early June after a knee injury had sidelined him, when he left Venezuela for visits to Brazil, Ecuador and Cuba.

In Cuba, he suffered acute pain during a meeting with former Cuban leader Fidel Castro and was rushed into surgery.

Since then, Mr. Chávez has been nearly invisible, except for a phone call into a Venezuelan television station on June 12, two days after his operation, and photographs of Mr. Chávez wearing a tracksuit in the colors of the Venezuelan flag as he is flanked by Fidel and Raul Castro, published in the state newspaper Granma on June 18.

In a three-paragraph note, Granma assured its readers that Mr. Chávez was in close communication with top Venezuelan officials and was "on top of the principal issues of his country."

The mystery surrounding Mr. Chávez's health is a throwback to the Cold War secrecy which persists in Cuba, one of the last Communist governments left standing.

Imagine how dreadful medical care must be in Venezuela when this maggot has to go to a hellhole like Cuba to have surgery. Here's hoping whatever treatment he's getting is botched and he soon joins his Marxist idols for a permanent dirtnap.

It's a shame our administration here has no clue what it's doing with foreign policy. Sure seems to me like this is a golden opportunity to some some damage to the Chavez regime. But that would be assuming Obama was opposed to Chavez and his reign of terror.

Fat Slob Chavez Tells Venezuelans to Cut Calories

Lead by example, tubby.

President Hugo Chavez urged Venezuelans on Sunday to cut their calories to avoid obesity - the latest lifestyle recommendation by the self-proclaimed socialist crusader.

Chavez has lobbied in recent weeks against what he calls the evils of capitalism, including alcoholism, breast implants and violent television programs.

"Be careful with weight gain!" warned Chavez on Sunday, speaking during his weekly television and radio program. "We are eating better, that's been proven. We're leaving malnutrition behind. It no longer exists in the country, but be careful with obesity."

Chavez - who often dispenses advice to supporters during his marathon speeches - said he'd start a campaign to urge Venezuelans to consume less fatty foods and eat in a healthier fashion.

Good thing we don't have nattering nanny-staters here in this countyr.

Oh, wait...

If I'm going to be lectured on what I eat, it should probably come from people who don't have obvious weight issues themselves.

Hugo Chavez: Maybe Capitalism Ended Life on Mars

In other news, there's been a run on tin foil in Venezuela to make those cute little hats guys like Chavez enjoy wearing.

Capitalism may be to blame for the lack of life on the planet Mars, Venezuela's socialist President Hugo Chavez said on Tuesday.

"I have always said, heard, that it would not be strange that there had been civilization on Mars, but maybe capitalism arrived there, imperialism arrived and finished off the planet," Chavez said in speech to mark World Water Day.

Chavez, who also holds capitalism responsible for many of the world's problems, warned that water supplies on Earth were drying up.

"Careful! Here on planet Earth where hundreds of years ago or less there were great forests, now there are deserts. Where there were rivers, there are deserts," Chavez said, sipping from a glass of water.

He must be reading too much Al Gore.

He added that the West's attacks on Libya were about water and oil reserves.

Oh, OK. Has he seen any satellite images of Libya lately? Doesn't look like they're flush with water.

Hugo Chavez Fantasy: Sean Penn, Oliver Stone or Noam Chomsky as US Ambassador

If none of the above crackpots make the cut, he'll settle for Bill Clinton.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez sought to end a diplomatic stand-off with the United States on Tuesday by suggesting it name Bill Clinton, actor Sean Penn or director Oliver Stone as its envoy to Caracas.

In the latest flare-up between the ideological foes, Washington withdrew the visa of Venezuela's ambassador last week in retaliation for Chavez's rejection of President Barack Obama's nominated ambassador to Caracas.

U.S. diplomat Larry Palmer had criticized Venezuela's government, saying morale in its military was low and there were clear ties between members of the Chavez administration and leftist rebels in neighboring Colombia.

In a televised speech late on Tuesday, Venezuela's firebrand president said he had come up with a solution.

"I hope they name Oliver Stone. I'll suggest a candidate ... Sean Penn, or (linguist and philosopher Noam) Chomsky. We have a lot of friends there. Bill Clinton!" Chavez said.

Stone visited Caracas in May for the local premiere of his documentary "South of the Border," which profiles Latin America's leftist leaders. He told reporters he admired Chavez and his record since coming to power in 1999.

Penn, who has been involved in humanitarian efforts following Haiti's earthquake, won best actor Oscars for his roles in the Clint Eastwood-directed drama "Mystic River" and as slain gay activist Harvey Milk in the movie "Milk."

Chavez also recounted how he met U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton briefly on the sidelines of Dilma Rousseff's inauguration ceremony on Saturday in Brazil.

"I said to Senora Clinton 'How is your husband?'" he said. "But I made a mistake because I speak very bad English, and I said 'How is your wife?' She laughed, then I said husband."

What a card that Hugo is, slipping in a little lesbian humor. No word if Huma Abedin was present.

Smart Diplomacy: Hillary Has 'Friendly Chat' With Communist Thug Chavez

Maybe she's taking notes for her boss on how to destroy the economy.

Despite a simmering diplomatic row, President Hugo Chavez and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were seen having a brief, friendly chat Saturday at the inauguration of Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff.

"They talked and smiled, at least for five minutes. It looked like a social conversation, both were smiling," a Brazilian official who witnessed the encounter told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The encounter came only three days after the United States revoked the visa of Venezuela's ambassador in Washington, in reprisal for Chavez's rejection of the US president's appointed ambassador to Caracas.

But Chavez and Clinton were all smiles as they mingled with the presidents of Chile and Colombia and the prime minister of Portugal while waiting to meet Rousseff.

At one point, Chavez extended his hand to Clinton, who shook it, smiling. They chatted for a few minutes before moving on to formally greeting Rousseff.

Venezuela's Chavez to Move into Gaddafi Tent

I had no idea these two were an item. Still, Hugo, don't you two want to find out if you're compatible before you move in together? Oh wait, maybe it's just platonic.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says he is going to govern temporarily from a tent so that families made homeless by recent floods can take refuge in his office.

Mr Chavez said he would have a Bedouin tent given to him by the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi put up in the garden of the presidential palace.

Twenty-five families are already living in the palace after losing their homes.

The floods have made more than 100,000 people homeless across the country.

"Put up Gaddafi's gift," said Mr Chavez during a visit to a refuge for flood victims close to the Miraflores palace in Caracas.

"You can install it in the garden at Miraflores because I'm going to move into the tent. We can put some beds in my office."

Mr Chavez is an admirer of Col Gaddafi, who lives in a huge Bedouin tent in Libya, and brought one with him when he visited Venezuela last year.

Wonderful: Chavez Now Seizing Housing Complexes

Like many American politicians of the leftist persuasion, Venezuelan goon Hugo Chavez is big on social justice. Granted, he's got a very strange intererpretation of this so-called justice.

Facing a wave of criticism from business leaders, President Hugo Chavez is defending his order for government officials to seize control of residential complexes.

Chavez promised Sunday to crack down on construction and real estate companies that he accused of unjustly boosting prices, which he labeled "housing fraud."

The president, a self-proclaimed revolutionary who idolizes Cuba's Fidel Castro and is currently on a visit to Havana, called his decision last week to order the expropriation of six residential complexes and "the temporary occupation" of eight gated communities in Caracas and other cities "an act of justice."

Venezuela's consumer protection agency and state prosecutors are investigating complaints that construction companies and real estate firms are illegally charging buyers high interest on unfinished apartments, even though the buyers settled on a price years ago and made down payments.

"We have decided to put an end to this type of organized crime," Chavez wrote in his weekly newspaper column.

Companies accused of violating consumer-protection regulations deny any wrongdoing.

Apartment owners affected by the measures have had mixed reactions.

Some don't like having soldiers posted near their homes or fear the measure could encourage pro-Chavez squatters to invade buildings still under construction.

Gee, ya think?

Opposition politician Julio Borges accused Chavez on Sunday of trampling private-property rights and steering Venezuela toward Cuba-style communism.

Borges told a news conference that Venezuelans don't want to live in "a country of slaves, where the government is the owner of everything and the people aren't owners of anything."

"We want a country of property owners," he said.

Don't worry. At this rate the government will soon own all the property.

The 'Good Life Card' Comes to Venezuela

The basket-case that is Venezuela inches closer to a Communist dictatorship, but according to Sean Penn and Oliver Stone's good buddy, living under complete control of the state and getting your food rationed is bizarrely called the good life.

Presented by President Hugo Chávez as an instrument to make shopping for groceries easier, the ``Good Life Card'' is making various segments of the population wary because they see it as a furtive attempt to introduce a rationing card similar to the one in Cuba.

The measure could easily become a mechanism to control the population, according to civil society groups.

``We see that in short-term this could become a rationing card probably similar to the one used in Cuba,'' Roberto León Parilli, president of the National Association of Users and Consumers, told El Nuevo Herald. ``It would use more advanced technological means [than those used in Cuba], but when they tell you where to buy and what the limits of what you can buy are, they are conditioning your purchases.''

Chávez said Tuesday that the card could be used to buy groceries at the government chain of markets and supplies.

``I have called it a Good Life Card so far,'' Chávez said in a brief statement made on the government television channel. ``It's a card for you to purchase what you are going to take and they keep deducting. It's to buy what you need, not to promote communism, but to buy what just what you need.''

Of course this commie blockhead fails to note what happens when the money runs out.

Former director of Venezuela's Central Bank, Domingo Maza Zavala, said this could become a rationing card that would limit your purchases in light of the country's recurring problems with supplies.

``If the intention is to beat inflation, they should find a good source of supply for the entire market and not only for centers that are part of social chains,'' he said. ``To do that, you need to encourage local production with the help of the private sector, since they cannot do it by themselves. The government cannot become the ultimate food distributor.''

Humberto Ortega Díaz, minister for public banking and president of the Venezuelan Bank, minimized such criticism and said that all this measure is trying to do is to improve service at the government supply chains.

``Why can't our Bicentennial chain use a card to make it easier for customers to buy their groceries?'' the minister said in an interview broadcast on a government channel. He said that this type of initiative has been used by private commercial entities.

Yet, critics pointed out that the measure could turn out not as innocent as the minister makes it to be, and they insist that the government control over the supply chain is too broad and depends greatly on imports the government authorizes through its currency exchange system.

In theory, the government could begin to favor the import of products to be sold through the government chains and have more control over the type of products purchased and the people buying them.

Jaime Suchlicki, director of the University of Miami's Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies, said that Venezuela's current problems of scarce supplies are very similar to those Cuba faced when Fidel Castro introduced the rationing card.

``The card emerged when goods began to become scarce,'' Suchlicki said. ``The government had seized many companies that did not work because the government managed them poorly. Then they decided to distribute groceries through those cards.''

Crackpot Chavez: Israel Will Be 'Put In Its Place'

More wisdom like this and Sean Penn's good buddy will be a shoo-in for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez described Israel on Saturday as a genocidal state that acted as an assassin for the United States, predicting the Middle East nation would one day be "put in its place."

The socialist Chavez is a harsh critic of both Israel and the United States and cut relations with Israel after accusing it of "holocaust" for its 2009 offensive in the Gaza Strip.

"It has become the assassin arm of the United States, no one can doubt it. It is a threat to all of us," Chavez said, during a visit by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Chavez said he supported a peaceful struggle for the return to Syria of the Golan Heights, captured by Israel in 1967.

"The territory will one day return to the Syrian hands," Chavez said. "Of course we want it to be peaceful because we don't want more war."

"But one day the genocidal state of Israel will be put into its place, and let's hope that a really democratic state emerges there, with which we can share a path and ideas."

Chavez did not offer further details of what putting Israel "in its place" would entail.

Doesn't seem he's thought it out much. But hey, why worry about details when you have a grander vision.

"Arab civilization and our civilization, the Latin American one, are being summoned in this new century to play the fundamental role of liberating the world, saving the world from the imperialism and capitalist hegemony that threaten the human species," Chavez said. "Syria and Venezuela are at the vanguard of this struggle."

Hugo Chavez Now Offers Parenting Advice

I must admit his advice here is pretty sound. Just listening to this blithering bag of wind is sure to cure insomnia.

In a television appearance on Thursday to extol the virtues of a portable computer his socialist government plans to introduce at public schools, Chavez said youngsters had stopped him in the street to tell him they saw him on television.

"It seems that there are mothers here who, instead of putting their kids to sleep with cartoons, put them to sleep with Chavez," he said.

"And the child dozes off and dozes off, and Chavez speaks and speaks and speaks. And the child falls asleep," said the loquacious leader, well known for speeches that can last for hours.

Meanwhile, on a more serious note, the gangster thug closed a bank with ties to an outspoken television station while the fugitive boss of Globovision aired his own thoughts.

The fugitive boss of Venezuela's opposition Globovision television station accused socialist President Hugo Chavez on Monday of ordering his arrest to stifle his criticism of the government.

Authorities in the OPEC nation issued a warrant for Guillermo Zuloaga and raided his house on Friday, accusing him of illegally storing new vehicles last year for speculative purposes. He was not home at the time.

Zuloaga said in a telephone call to Globovision from an undisclosed location that the charges were politically motivated and he was the victim of a witch hunt.

"We have been viciously attacked again by the government for the sole purpose of trying to silence us," he said. "I have come to the conclusion that handing myself in would do no good for the country, for Globovision, or for my family."

No kidding. We've got a lot of that happening in this country as well.

'GDP Shrank in the First Quarter and the Bourgeoisie are Having a Party'

The insipid Venezuelan clown Hugo Chavez is living in deep, deep denial. Faced with an economy crumbling under the weight of his failed socialist polices, the nutcase has blamed his problems on ... capitalism.

I guess it's too late for him to get a clue.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Wednesday that a recession in his Latin American country marked the death of capitalism and had nothing to do with his government's socialist revolution.

The OPEC member's economy is bucking the global recovery trend, with the central bank posting a 5.8 percent contraction for the first quarter of 2010 on Tuesday.

The increasingly grim macroeconomic environment -- which economists call "stagflation" because the slump has not cooled runaway inflation -- is now a major challenge for Chavez with a legislative election looming in September.

"GDP shrank in the first quarter and the bourgeoisie are having a party," Chavez said, referring to political opponents who blame his policies for the recession.

"They don't realise that the party they are attending is the wake of capitalism ... because the economy that is shrinking is the capitalist economy," he said in a televised speech.

Huh? If he were any more clueless he'd qualify an an Obama economic advisor.

"We are going to bury Venezuelan capitalism," Chavez said, adding that his administration would "take from the bourgeoisie control of the money which belongs to all Venezuelans."

After 11 years in power, he blames the economic woes on a global crisis in capitalism and the impact of a traditional elite who he says are determined to drive him from office.

Critics, however, say his socialist economic policies -- including widespread nationalizations, currency controls and pressure on the private sector -- are ruining what should be one of the continent's richest nations, given its oil wealth.

Meanwhile, apparently unhappy with controlling state media, he's now taken up blogging. Must be a great read.

The guy who locks up political enemies is also joining forces with the Obama administration, Mexico and a small number of American malcontents in attacking Arizona. He might want to clean up his own house before flapping his gums.

Meanwhile, in Venezuela, Chavez's human rights record has been criticized by watchdog groups in several areas, including political discrimination, lack of freedom of expression and freedom of association. The U.S. Department of State's 2009 Human Rights Report on Venezuela also identified other human rights problems in the country of roughly 27 million, including summary executions of criminal suspects, widespread criminal kidnappings for ransom, political prisoners and selective prosecution for political purposes, "considerable corruption" in all levels of government and many others.

The report also notes that Venezuelan law makes "insulting" the president a crime punishable by up to 30 months in prison without bail, with lesser penalties for insulting lower-ranking officials.
...
Jonah Goldberg, a visiting fellow at American Enterprise Institute, a Washington-based conservative think tank, said the recent comments are "standard operating procedure" for politicians in Cuba, as well as Chavez.

"The denunciation of the United States' human rights record comes from the people who have had the most brutal human rights record," he said. "It's the playbook they always go back to. Taking denunciations seriously from places like Cuba and Venezuela is just a colossal waste of time."

Stunner: Chavez's Socialist Dreamstate Crumbling

Hard to believe isn't it? Socialism has a 100% track record: It's failed every time. Of course the only way this thug is leaving office is in a box, but keep hope alive. His day will come.

Venezuela's economy is in trouble despite the country's huge oil reserves. Blackouts plague major cities. Its inflation rate is among the world's highest. Private enterprise has been so hammered, the World Bank says, that Venezuela is forced to import almost everything it needs.

The situation is creating a serious challenge to President Hugo Chavez's efforts to transform his country into a socialist state.

Take, for instance, the Three M metal works, tucked into an industrial zone in San Cristobal, the capital of Tachira state in western Venezuela.

On a recent day, big machinery stamps out sheet metal. For a moment, things seem normal in the plant. But more often than not these days, the contraptions are dead quiet — shut down.

"Just like us, everyone is suffering," says manager Marta Medina. She reels off a list of problems the company faces: lack of spare parts, power shortages and falling orders.

The workforce is down to just eight, from more than 50 people employed a year ago.

It's a common experience in Venezuela, where the economy contracted 3.3 percent in 2009 and is expected to shrink further this year. Few business owners see a rosy future, at least in the short term.

Jose Guerra, a former Central Bank economist, says state intervention in private businesses is hitting the economy hard.

"The government is nationalizing, expropriating, or confiscating," he says. "They are not creating new wealth; this is wealth that was already created."

If that weren't bad enough, another factor is hobbling the economy — an unprecedented energy crisis.

There's that word again: unprecedented. Whenever socialism fails, the media calls it unprecedented. Of course there is precedence all over the globe of failed socialist states.

Critics say a lack of investment, coupled with government ineptitude, left Venezuela without the electrical generation capacity it needs. The government blames a brutal drought.

Whatever the reason, cities such as San Cristobal go dark every day — sometimes for four hours or more, as the government uses rolling blackouts to save energy.

On a recent morning at Zambrano auto works, the compressors and power painters come on after a blackout. Workers have been at a standstill for an hour, says Jesus Yanis, who paints cars. He adds that he expects the power to go out again later in the day, for another two hours.

The blackouts have hurt business, Yanis says.

This is not the way it was supposed to be. Venezuela is one of the world's great energy powers. Its oil reserves are among the world's largest and its hydroelectric plants are among the most potent.

But these days, Venezuela is being left behind: The rest of Latin America is expected to grow at a healthy rate this year, according to the World Bank.

Guerra, the former Central Bank economist, says the government must reconsider its policies — and drop the statist socialist model that Chavez adopted.

"The government has to consider that the socialist point of view is not so good for the economy," Guerra says. "Chavez believes in the old-fashioned socialism. This kind of socialism is dead, definitely dead, it doesn't apply to any country in the world."

Sadly, the Democrats in this country still believe in socialism, which is why they must be removed from office.

Instapundit links. Thanks!

Even Cavemen Now Joining Twitter

I wonder if this semi-retarded troglodyte will be able to get anything coherent out in 140 characters or less. He's certainly not known for his brevity.

Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan President, has announced that he will start using Twitter, the microblogging site which will test his ability to deliver a concise message.

Mr Chavez speaks to the nation for hours every Sunday on his radio and television program but on Twitter he will be limited to much shorter messages of just 140 characters each time.

His use of Twitter also marks a new tactic in his approach to the internet and social networking.

In January Mr Chavez said that using Twitter, the internet and text messaging to criticise his regime was "terrorism."

He has now decided to use the social networking tool for his own purposes.

"Comandante Chavez is going to open his Twitter account soon to wage the battle online," Diosdado Cabello, director of Venezuela's state-run telecommunications agency, said on Venezuelan television, according to Bloomberg News.

"I'm sure he'll break records for numbers of followers."

Uh, doubtful.

I give him a week until he shuts it down after being unmercifully taunted. Comrade Chavez doesn't like dissent.

And how confused will he be to discover Hugo Chavez is already on Twitter?

Great News: Iran Increases Shock Troops in Venezuela

Good thing Obama is so much more respected around the world and everyone loves us again.

Oh, wait...

Iran is increasing its paramilitary Qods force operatives in Venezuela while covertly continuing supplies of weapons and explosives to Taliban and other insurgents in Afghanistan and Iraq, according to the Pentagon's first report to Congress on Tehran's military.

The report on Iranian military power provides new details on the group known formally as the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF), the Islamist shock troops deployed around the world to advance Iranian interests. The unit is aligned with terrorists in Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel, North Africa and Latin America, and the report warns that U.S. forces are likely to battle the Iranian paramilitaries in the future.

The Qods force "maintains operational capabilities around the world," the report says, adding that "it is well established in the Middle East and North Africa and recent years have witnessed an increased presence in Latin America, particularly Venezuela."

"If U.S. involvement in conflict in these regions deepens, contact with the IRGC-QF, directly or through extremist groups it supports, will be more frequent and consequential," the report says.

The report provides the first warning in an official U.S. government report about Iranian paramilitary activities in the Western Hemisphere. It also highlights links between Iran and the anti-U.S. government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who has been accused of backing Marxist terrorists in Colombia.

Oddly enough, there's another familiar anti-U.S. government agent who's also friends with Hugo Chavez.

Of course since according to Bill Clinton and the media the greatest threat to America is those angry Tea Partiers, you can just ignore this and go back to sleep.

H/T Doug Ross.

Great News: Oliver Stone's Hugo Chavez Flick Coming to America

With any luck it'll draw less than Uma Thurman's new flick, if that's actually possible. Though we should never underestimate the stupidity of the American left, and the lemmings will likely line up to see one of their heroes on the big screen.

But now, Americans will have the chance to decide for themselves what to make of the 70-minute documentary, thanks to the efforts of Cinema Libre. On June 25, the distributor will release South of the Border in New York, followed quickly by an L.A. premiere on July 2. “Not only is it a genuine honor to work with one of the greatest American directors, but his insightful documentary shows how these leaders of Latin America are being intentionally villanized by the U.S. mass media,” Cinema Libre’s Philippe Diaz told Reuters. “This unique dialogue needed the eye and the courage of a director like Stone to convince us that these leaders are fighting for a more humane society, which means defending themselves against American corporate interests.”

Stone undertook this project with Chávez after his initial idea to document Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was turned down by the Iranian president. For South of the Border, Stone enlisted the help of British-Pakistani commentator Tariq Ali, who had already worked with Chávez to write the 2006 book Pirates of the Caribbean: Axis of Hope.

How bad is this drivel? According to Time:

South of the Border is a near sibling to the Michael Moore docu-comedy Capitalism: A Love Story, which premiered at Venice last night and which looks like a masterpiece of attitudinal moviemaking next to Stone's slapdash effort.

No doubt it'll win plenty of awards from the Chavez sycophants in Hollywood.

God is a 'Bolivarian'

Whatever happened to the separation of church and dictatorship?

President Hugo Chavez is confident that God and nature will pull Venezuela out of a power crisis battering both the economy and his popularity.

Rationing and blackouts have afflicted the South American oil exporter since late 2009, due mainly to a drought that has cut water levels at hydroelectric installations normally supplying more than two-thirds of power needs.

The crisis may cause a second year of economic contraction in Venezuela and is also weighing on Chavez's approval ratings ahead of a legislative election in September that he and opponents are casting as a referendum on his rule.

"The squalid ones are hoping it won't rain," Chavez said late on Tuesday, using his usual term for the opposition.

"But it's going to rain, you'll see, because God is a 'Bolivarian.' God cannot be squalid. Nature is with us," the socialist leader added during an event with athletes.

Pretty desperate for the Communist thug to be praying to God now, isn't it?

I just hope Spicoli doesn't read this or he might want to imprison me. Speaking of Spicoli, is it just me or does he sound an awful lot like his whiny traitor character Daulton Lee from The Falcon and the Snowman here?

Sean Penn on Chavez
by burghnews

Whatever the pathetic Chavez wants to use as an excuse, the lack of electricity isn't his only concern.

President Chavez, who until recently avoided talking about violence and rampant crime, went as far as to admit that the situation “has become a risk for the Bolivarian revolution”.

“Chavez has the idea that the revolution must break structures and continues to believe that violence is part of the class struggle, the conflict of the poor against the rich. But what we have in Venezuela is the poor killing the poor” said Roberto Briceño-León, head of the ONG Venezuelan Violence Observatory.
According to the ONG in the last three years, 91% of murders have gone unpunished.