Chavez supporters hold poll rally

HUGO Chavez's supporters went on a last-minute drive to rally the vote, convinced the firebrand Venezuelan leader will win re-election in Sunday's (Monday AEDT) vote by a landslide, while opponents expressed fears of electoral wrongdoing.

In downtown Caracas, pro-Chavez rap songs blared from loudspeakers overnight, as militants called on voters to ensure the revolutionary president wins another six-year-term with more than 60 per cent of the vote.

(snip)
"Everybody here will vote for the president," said Cassandra Astano, a 30-year-old street vendor in the city centre, a bastion of the leftist leader whose eight years in office have been marked by opposition attempts to drive him from power and by verbal confrontation with the United States.

Her wares included CDs featuring the bugle call Mr Chavez supporters play to wake up neighbours on election day.

"At 4am we'll all be playing it," she said as the reveille rang out from her CD-player.


http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20863355-1702,00.html

They are a small rich oil elite, into which the Bush Junta has been pouring OUR tax dollars for political activity (illegal in Venezuela, as it is here), who perpetrated a violent military coup in 2002, during which more than a dozen people were killed, egged on by their corporate news monopolies, and applauded by the Bush Junta; who then colluded with western oil giants to perpetrate an oil professionals' strike that nearly destroyed the country; who also organized an absurd, wasteful recall election, which Chavez won handily; who scream "ELECTION FRAUD!" with absolutely no evidence (--the OAS, the Carter Center and EU election monitoring groups have closely monitored Venezuelan elections, and have all, unanimously, declared them to be open and aboveboard--the EU has 130 election monitors in the country right now); and who, finally--using a Washington DC public relations firm, paid by OUR tax dollars--are promoting false polls saying the election is close, in order to instigate riots, disorder and another military coup attempt, when Chavez wins this week (all independent polls say Chavez is ahead with a 60% lead--even AP!).

This disreputable and violent "opposition" needs to be truthfully described. I WISH Chavez had a decent opposition. Every government needs one, especially one as popular as Chavez's. He has so far resisted every temptation to become a dictator--and has done so under extreme provocation. He does not seem at all inclined that way. But a decent, thoughtful opposition, that has the country's best interests at heart, could provide needed criticism of the Chavez government--especially on business and environmental issues. But these people seem to be just selfish, myopic, spoiled rich, used to having the run of the country and benefiting from all the oil profits, to the utter neglect of the vast poor population. They have not said or done a single thing that merits respect (that I know of). They are very similar to our Freepers and the thuggish right. To even call them an "opposition," when OUR tax dollars are paying for their political campaigns, is a stretch. They are more like a US-funded "fifth column" (saboteurs--people out merely to disrupt orderly, democratic government and destroy it). It's very unfortunate. But that seems to be the reality in Venezuela.

We may have the same problem here, if and when the Democrats get rid of the secretly programmed electronic voting machines, and come into full power. The rightwing loonies--funded and supplied with ideas by richly endowed rightwing "think tanks"--won't provide constructive criticism for the Democrats. But perhaps, in both cases, the criticism needs to come from the left--the left of Chavez (who is actually something of "centrist"); the left of the Democratic Party--providing the function of an opposition within these "big tent" political groups, since the right has become so dysfunctionally stupid, here and there. They are of no use in improving the government. They are just ignorant mouthpieces of the Corporate Rulers. They PULL the political spectrum way over to the right (and off the cliff to fascism)--mostly because of the inordinate attention paid to them by corporate news monopolies--but, put them in charge, and they wreck the government and enrich themselves at everyone's expense, and then oppress the rest of us to keep it that way.

Yup. I really think I'm onto something. We need to pull everything back toward the left, to get decent government and useful political debate. Some common sense ideas--like nationalizing our oil, and busting up corporate monopolies--are really middle spectrum political ideas. They only seem "leftist" because the political spectrum has been so skewed to the far right. Leftist might be, abolish all corporations and banks and re-distribute the wealth. Middle would be control critical resources, so the country can't be strangled to death, and regulate the size and monopolistic tendencies of big business.

Anyway, I applaud the grass roots organizers of the Boliviarian Revolution! Their get-out-vote campaigns are truly impressive. That's one of the reasons I don't have much concern about the Bushites decapitating their democratic revolution--a leftist revolution that has in fact swept the continent, is multi-headed and cannot be stopped. It is solidly rooted in participatory democracy at every level.

It is truly a peoples revolution. A peoples awareness of their true power and purpose.

They must continue to integrate...and co-operate at all levels.. This way, when the US does intervene, they can stop it!!

troops scattered all over the middle east. Bush has no marines left to overthrow the real democracies south of us.