Washington's slanders against Venezeula are DEAD wrong

http://www.jsonline.com/

For anyone who has been to Venezuela, it's easy to see why no one wants to take Washington's side in this grievance. A few weeks ago I passed by a twenty-two-story government building in downtown Caracas, and saw about 200 students blocking the exits in a protest against the government. Trapped inside past quitting time were thousands of employees, including several cabinet-level ministers. A few police stood by calmly, not interfering. This went on for hours. There were no injuries or arrests. I thought of what would happen if people tried this in Washington D.C. There would be tear gas, pepper spray, heads cracked, and mass arrests. Some would get felony charges. The protest would be over in 10 minutes.

The next day I turned on the TV and on the biggest channels there were commentators and experts trashing the government, in ways that do not happen in the United States or indeed most countries in the world. I picked up the two biggest newspapers at a newsstand -- very slanted against the government, again like nothing in the U.S. It's pretty hard to make a case that Venezuela is less democratic than other Latin American countries, and no respectable human rights organization has tried to do so. The Venezuelan economy is booming, millions of poor people have access to health care and subsidized food for the first time, and President Chavez' approval ratings have soared to more than 70 percent -- according to opposition pollsters.


In other words: Washington is just scared of losing market domination to a socialist-style economy, so Venezuela is now "antidemocratic"

It is amazing how many are duped by our propaganda about other countries. For the first time, I am ashamed to be an American.

Imagine what would happen if a foreign government tried to get Pennsylvania to TAKE UP ARMS and overthrow "our" government. You would see clusterbombs, smartbombs, missiles, tanks, F-16's, all the usual suspects released upon Pennsylvania and them there are the simple facts.

But remember... democratic nations don't use WMD... and they don't produce terrorists... but they do terrorize their own when their own step out of line.

My recent experience working for homeland security for a day (as a roleplayer -- my sister coerced me in to doing it ) has shown me the intracacy of the spy network Homeland Security employs. They have undocover/plainsclothes agents everywhere, and they also have many hidden cameras in multiple buildings (even nongovernmental buildings).

I'm sure they also infiltrate dissident groups and peace groups.

Trust me, it probably wouldn't get that far.