Fox News tries six degrees of seperation/Chavez

Just caught a bit from Fox News and they were using the JFK plot to heighten the Chavez threat a little bit. The anchor was discussing the plot with some South American "expert" and after discussing the plot a bit and how the guy planning it was from Guyana(not Iraq--what a shock)he suggested that there were "reports" that this guy had plans to "visit" Venuzalua and then wondered whether there was a chance of a Chavez link to the terror plot.

They showed more footage of Chavez during the segment with the obligatory anti-Chavez subtitles in their popular question format(Chavez said, what?) which was part of a new segment apparently which featured various dictators.

So again, Fox paves the way for us to run the military trhough Venuzalua as soon was it's convenient(as soon as we get the Iraq oil locked up).

My guess is that Chavez will continue to be an overt and covert target through various means until one way or another--either directly or through some sort of puppet leader, we gain control of their oil.

I really wonder with the agressiveness we seem to be pursuing oil these days if there is real concern over the peak oil issue and if the potential fields just aren't accessable enough or promising enough.

The oil companies probably have a good idea.

Time/Newsweek / rightwing corporate radio monopoly meme that Chavez is a "dictator" is interesting. They have been so right about so many things. Ahem.

To counter-balance their noxious, lying, deceitful, fascist, 24/7 propaganda, I recommend: www.venezuelanalysis.com.

REASON--as Al Gore recommends.

Another recommendation: The documentary "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised," available in DVD at AxisofLogic.com.

Many of us in the U.S. sat out the horrors in Central and South America that were perpetrated by our government and our global corporate predators, in collusion with local rich fascist elites, such as the slaughter of TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND Mayan villagers in Guatemala in the 1980s, with Reagan's direct complicity, the assassination of a Catholic bishop who advocated for the poor, and the rape and murder of Catholic nuns and other advocates of the poor, in El Salvador, and the Reagan war on Nicaragua ("Iran/Contra") that violated a specific law of Congress against it, and that got some investigation and wrist-slaps of the perps, but failed to result in the showdown over the president usurping war powers that might have prevented the current horror in Iraq. And the CIA assassination of Salvador Allende in Chile, and the assassination in Washington DC of his ambassador (did you know that the FBI gave Robert Novak Letelier's private address book, taken from his blown up car, and Novak published those contacts, putting all of their lives in danger; Plame and Brewster-Jennings were not Novak's first outings).

Some of us in the U.S. were acutely aware of these and many other outrages by our government, aimed at destroying democracy in Latin America by violence and mayhem. Some were aware of some things, not others. Some were dimly aware. Probably most were not aware at all--just had a vague sense of disorder in Latin America that seemed to be endemic to the region. "Banana republics" and all that. A stereotype. Nobody particularly responsible for it. Something in the "Latin character."

Never again.

I swear.

To the extent that I was one of the dim bulbs in the U.S. in the 1980s--smugly thinking that I knew something about world affairs, and being aware and concerned on some events, it's true, but not on many others, and never really putting the whole picture together--I swear, in my old age, to KNOW what is going on in Latin America--what is REALLY going on--and to do whatever I can, in my limited way, to NOT LET THE U.S. AND ITS GLOBAL CORPORATE PREDATORS DESTROY DEMOCRACY IN LATIN AMERICA ONCE AGAIN.

We now have a fascist junta ourselves, which is determined to steal the oil, gas, minerals, forests and other resources of the Andean region, where three vibrantly democratic, leftist (majorityist) governments have been elected--in Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador--which are in alliance with each other and with the leftist governments in Argentina and Brazil, and to some extent with the leftist governments in Chile, Uruguay and Nicaragua. Indeed, a leftist revolution has swept South America, with big leftist movements also in Peru, Paraguay and Mexico (likely to win future elections). This movement provides SOME protection for individual leaders and governments who are openly challenging U.S. domination in the region, such as Venezuela, but it is nevertheless true that the Bush Junta and its colluders in the Democratic Party leadership are determined to destroy this movement, and to restore fascism, military dictatorship and brutal oppression in Latin America.

1. Bush appointed John "death squad" Negroponte as U.S. Undersecretary of State for Latin America. Negroponte was running the death squads and torture chambers against the Nicaraguan government, out of Honduras, under Reagan. http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1076 . This truly terrible appointment (even from a diplomatic viewpoint--what an insult to Latin Americans!) tells us much about the Bush Junta's intentions in Latin America: return of the death squads, political assassinations, torture, mass graves, fascist juntas, vast exploitation of people and resources, the end of democracy.

2. The Bush Junta has larded $4 billion on the rightwing fascists in Colombia, who have been slaughtering thousands of union organizers, peasants and leftists, and engaging in drug trafficking--tied to the top echelons of the Uribe government (the chief of the military, the former head of intelligence, many politicians). One of the plots of these rightwing fascists was assassinating Hugo Chavez and destabilizing the Andean region, preparatory to more military juntas. Colombia borders Venezuela. The rightwing paramilitaries are already stirring up trouble in the border region, possibly in cahoots with the anti-democratic, rich oil elite in Venezuela, which cannot gain power by legitimate means, and have already tried one military coup against Chavez (which the people of Venezuela repelled).

Venezuela is a strong and vibrant democracy where the government has nearly wiped out illiteracy, and is concentrating use of the government's oil profits on education, among other upward mobility policies for the poor. Their election system puts our own to shame, for its transparency and honesty (unanimously certified by the Carter Center, the OAS and EU election monitoring groups). Venezuela is furthermore a leader of the new Latin American self-determination movement, which is throwing the World Bank/IMF and its ruinous policies out of the region, and replacing it with local institutions, such as the Bank of the South (Venezuela, Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, Paraguay), which is committed to social justice and to local control of development. Venezuela has done more to empower the people of Venezuela--including programs aimed at widespread popular participation in government--and to empower OTHER South American peoples, than any other government in South American history.

THIS is why there is such a concerted effort by OUR Oilgarchy to demonize Chavez and to topple his legitimate, repeatedly elected government.
This--and also, they don't want US to get any ideas about real democracy and social justice--nor about transparent vote counting.

I think the Bolivarian revolution will weather this storm. It is very big, very widespread and long overdue. It is revolution by election (--what Thomas Jefferson had in mind). It is lawful--indeed, scrupulously pro-Constitution. It is just. It is open-minded and innovative. It is the will of the people. And no lies and mud that they can throw at Chavez can change that--such as the recent lies about the Chavez government denying a license to RCTV being an attack on "free speech," while they IGNORE the pulling of FIVE broadcast licenses in the "free trade" state of Peru, where the Bush Junta-backed candidate, Alan Garcia--a very corrupt "leftist"--was elected (during a strong challenge from the real left). In a democracy, the people own the TV/radio airwaves and license their use often with provisions--such as the "Fairness Doctrine" that we once had here (before Reagan), requiring that all TV/radio stations provide EQUAL TIME for opposing political views (among other things).

That's another idea they don't want us to get from the South American democracy movement: that we, the people, have the RIGHT--and indeed the duty--to regulate our PUBLIC airwaves, and to make the PUBLIC airwaves accessible to all people and viewpoints, not just the rightwing corporate viewpoint that is shoved down our throats on all channels, all the time, in the U.S. Many here have FORGOTTEN what a "free press" is really like. Rightwing corporate monopolies of the PUBLIC airwaves--often combined with monopolies of newsprint, news magazines, books and entertainment--is an ABERRATION. It is NOT normal. It is NOT democratic. It is poisonous! And this is not even to mention the specific cause of the Venezuelan government in denying RCTV a license renewal: their active participation in the violent military overthrow of the elected government! If Faux News actively supported the kidnapping of Nancy Pelosi, the shutdown of Congress and the courts, and suspension of the Constitution, would they have a right to continued use of our PUBLIC airwaves? Absolutely not--and they would deservedly be in jail for treason!

The cry of "free speech" in defense of RCTV is the supreme irony. What do you think those rightwing juntaists--who were aided and abetted by RCTV--would have done to free speech in Venezuela, if their coup had succeeded?

The same thing that was done to free speech in Colombia, recently--mass graves. The same thing that was done to free speech in El Salvador in the '80s--kill the bishop, slaughter the poor. The same thing that was done to free speech in Nicaragua, in Chile, in Argentina, in Guatemala, and throughout Latin America, by past U.S.-backed fascist governments--and also, recently in Oaxaca, Mexico. DEATH to those who dare to speak freely! Death and torture and rape and oppression of every kind. Merely for being a leftist. Merely for advocating for the poor. The Venezuela coup plotters would have shut down free speech with an iron boot.

That's what RCTV conspired in. That is why they lost their license.

I urge people to get informed, and to do everything they can to prevent U.S. policy from going the way of the death squads once again, and to support democracy in Latin America, and to restore democracy in our own land.