Who's going to be pissed if there's another coup in Venezuela?

I, for one, think it would be pretty obvious where it came from if it did happen, and I'm wondering who'd be pissed off at Bush if it did happen.

I ask because I heard Maxine Waters talk about Haiti. She said that the State Department sent up some trial baloons the week before the coup there in order to guage the level of resistance among the American public (I think she cited specifically an article or editorial in the NY Times). She said that, when Americans didn't make a big stink, the coup happened.

So, I'm wondering, if the US engages in MORE intrigue in Venezuela, who among us will be HIGHLY pissed off.

President Hugo Chavez Frias says his opponents are following a plan of violence against his government that was "Made in the USA" ... and referencing events in Haiti, he says that US President George W. Bush does not have the integrity to draw the line at kidnapping other countries' Presidents.

However, he warns: "Here in Venezuela the United States will get 'a little surprise' if they try the same thing..."

Chavez Frias showed pictures taken by security forces in the thick of opposition-inspired riots over the last week which ended in seven deaths, 200 injuries and 300 arrests. Chavez Frias claims that opposition rioters used machineguns and rifle fire against the National Guard (GN) and innocent bystanders ... "I have no doubt ... we have experienced organized subversion groups armed with military weapons, supported by the Metropolitan Police (PM) as a private army of the so-called Coordinadora Democratica (CD) ... their strategy was designed in Washington ... Made in the USA!"
http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=16272

But only because I know it's not going to get us anywhere. It's just another in a long line of Bush fuck-ups that the general public could care less about. Sure, I'll be pissed off personally. I'm sure most of us here will be. But without any good way to do something about it, it really doesn't matter. Unfortunately, this isn't an issue that's going to energize voters - just further irritate people who already hate Bush. So rather than get all upset about it, I'm going focus that anger into the issues we can use to make sure Bush never sets foot in Washington DC again. I don't know if that makes any sense at all.

She believed (and she could be wrong) that if people were outraged by the trial baloons the Bush admininistration sent up, they might not have tried this in an election year.

Obviously, Bush has some shit he wants to get done if he thinks he might lose in the fall, but he also wants to try to win in the fall.

So, if people do get outraged, we might actually save a lot of Venezuelans from the misery of living under fascism.

Furthermore, if Venezuela does build up a middle class, for all you employees of companies that actually try to act competively and which sell products to consumers who have a choice over whether they buy them, and buy things they want to buy, you might be better off if there are new middle classes around the globe.

Congresswoman Maxine Water's Statement on Kidnapping of Aristide


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 1, 2004 Contact: Ron Dungee
(323) 757-8900


Congresswoman Maxine Waters' Statement on Kidnapping of Haitian President Aristide


"I spoke to President Jean-Bertrand Aristide by telephone this morning and he told me that did not resign. He said he was kidnapped by American military and U.S. diplomats and military officials and was being held in the Central African Republic.

"Mr. Aristide said that Luis G. Moreno, deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince, came to his home in the wee hours of the morning with other diplomats and with U.S. Marines. He said he was told to leave and leave now or he and many Haitians would be killed.

"He told me, 'The world must know it was a coup. I was kidnapped. I was forced out. That's what happened. I did not resign. I did not go willingly. I was forced to go.'

"Mr. Aristide told me he was being held under guard in Central Africa's Palace of the Renaissance and felt like he was in jail.

"I also spoke with President Aristide's wife, Mildred. The first thing Mildred said was, 'The coup d'état is complete. It has been completed.'

"I talked to the president and his wife for about 15 minutes. He was anxious to get the word out that he did not leave voluntarily, that he was kidnapped, that he was forced out.

"President Aristide told me he had not been abused, but he sounded angry, stressed, determined; really anxious that people know he was kidnapped, that he did not go willingly, that he was forced out.

"I am deeply saddened that the United States government appears to be complicit in the overthrow of President Jean Bertrand Aristide. The Bush Administration refused to lead an international peacekeeping force to end the violence in Haiti and allow President Aristide to finish his term in office; then the Administration forced him out of the country in the dark of night.

"Last Thursday, the Congressional Black Caucus had an emergency meeting with President Bush, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of State Colin Powell. We laid out a very clear case for intervention and asked the president to lead an international effort to keep the peace, stabilize the volatile situation and preserve the government of Haiti's first democratically elected president.

"I have visited Haiti three times since the first of the year and was able to provide first hand information about what was going on in that country. I explained that the so-called opposition was a conglomeration of former supporters of the dictatorial Duvalier regime. Andre Apaid, an American citizen in charge of the Group of 184 started this coup three weeks ago. Guy Philippe, who was exiled to the Dominican Republic after he tried to stage a coup in 2002 was leading a band of exiled military criminals, thugs and murderers-some convicted in absentia for killings they committed in ousting Aristide from office when he was first elected. These were the people pursuing a coup d'état to return Haiti to the corrupt dictatorial rule of the past.

"The CBC asked the president to intervene immediately to stop the bloodshed in Haiti. Scores of Haitian people had been killed and thousands of others held hostage as Philippe and his army of thugs seized town after town as they advanced toward Port-au-Prince. We pointed out that the obstacle to a peaceful solution was not Aristide. I was in Haiti when Aristide signed off on a peace proposal worked out by CARICOM (the Caribbean Community) and others in the international community. It was the opposition that rejected the proposal and refused to negotiate a peaceful resolution of the crisis.

"However, we did not go to the White House to ask for help in Haiti solely for humanitarian reasons. We went there because the United States government was actively involved in the creation of this crisis and had an obligation to do something about it. For several years, the United States blocked $145.9 million in development loans to Haiti by the Inter-American Development Bank. These loans were supposed to fund health, basic education, rural road development, potable water and sanitation programs. Blocking those loans further impoverished the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. Our government prevented the money from going to Haiti until the Congressional Black Caucus intervened last year.

"We tried to impress upon the president that the situation of Haiti was extremely critical and immediate action was needed. We did not need a massive military presence in Haiti and it did not need to be a lengthy occupation. All we asked was that the United States and other countries provide immediate assistance to Haiti to strengthen the Haitian police so that they could restore law and order. We could have been in and out in a short period of time, but the president asked for more time to think about it. He was holding out for a political solution to the crisis.

"Now we know the political solution for which he was holding out.

"The thugs and military criminals have accomplished their mission of deposing Aristide with the overt approval and support of the Bush Administration. Now, other members of the Aristide Administration are seeking asylum in other countries.

"This should have been prevented and could have been prevented if the Bush Administration had acted to help stabilize the situation in Haiti

http://www.house.gov/waters/pr040301.htm

11.

Venezuela is a hot front in a global war. The war to end all wars, because, if the perpetrators have their way, it will never end.

The choice is stark, and it's well past time to side with Chavez. Self-identified liberals, leftists and progressives who serve as apologists for the oligarchs are, whether intentionally or not, on the wrong side.

Don't scab for the bosses,
Don't listen to their lies.
Us poor folks haven't got a chance
Unless we organize.
Which side are you on?

2 for 3 in getting those poll questions locked because that's apparently an inflamatory way to introduce these issues.

Too few Democrats are saying boo about this now. We have the CBC and a few brave others.

Right now I am closely watching Kerry and the rest of the Democrats to see if Kerry will get my vote in November. I want ACTION- real action to counter what Bush did and not just mere hollow words or campaign rethoric.

That not forthcoming, allowing him his next little coup in Venezuela, I will be royally pissed and tell both parties to kiss my effing Creole ass. I will not, despite the horror of what is happening in my motherland, play this "lesser of two evil games". Evil is effing evil. You don't just say you're on the side of good- you effing do something. I want that from Kerry- it would redeem him back to my number 2 of all the candidates spot- and I want that from all Democrats.

If all I can't count on are words- screw that, I can write those myself. As a matter of fact, I used to (and people will ask me why I'm so effing jaded). What I want is real action to stop Bush from the mad course he's on. If my Democratic reps haven't caught on by now, I'll work hard at repudiating every single god-damned one of them because they are useless to me. That is my right as a voter, whose vote was paid for by spilt red blood and by God I will exercise it. The Bush bogeyman can't scare me enough to vote Dem if the ghouls are Dems in white sheets.

There. Sorry. That's what you get after 2 CCs and Coke. But every last word is meant. I will not be hijacked along with my party.


On edit: And if anyone can't tell... that's a highly pissed beyond mathematial comprehension.