Chavez, Bush, Ahmedinajad, Putin... all enriched by oil, all authoritarian enemies of civil liberties.

Only Ron Paul can save us in 2008.

The vote came out 49% in favor and 51% against, you almost can't come any closer. It was a close vote. Now considering that the Catholic church, American not for profit organizations (who have been booted from other countries for political meddling), as well as the King of Spain and all the white wealthy Caracas elite were arrayed against the plebe cite you could say the President of Venezuela did pretty well. How would you like for the Catholic church to be running political campaigns here in the US, if they did they should loose their not for profit status as a religious/spiritual organization don't you? Anyway, all those against tipped their hands and are now identified as political vectors and I'm sure the Venezuelan Republic will become all the stronger for it. The vote was a win win proposition for Chavez.

As President Chavez said today, it is possible that Venezuela is not yet mature enough to assume socialism. But I have every confidence that IF President Chavez is able to improve the educational system in Venezuela with long-term plans to make fundamental changes the way the youth are educated, emphasizing communal values and a desire to fight for the rights of all the people collectively, that if such a referendum is undertaken again in, say, 4-5 years from now, it would win.

In order for socialism to prevail in a society, that society must be "ripe" and mature enough to embrace it, otherwise divisiveness and chaos may result. The first steps to launch socialism in any given society is re-educating the public away from the degenerate values of the past, and instill a strong collective consciousness in them. This is generally impossible under a capitalist schema of education. Socialist values must be instilled in the curriculum. This is not indoctrination or brainwashing or propaganda, but simply enabling students, and empowering them to visualize the world in a different way.

Under capitalism, from Day One in school, kids are being indoctrinated with capitalist values... such as that it is legitimate to use money (capital), to create exploitative economic situations which use other people's labor for private benefit, and to amass still more money and power in that way.

A socialist educational system would simply undo this capitalist indoctrination and propaganda, and instill human, humane, and humanist values in young people. This would be the fundamental, first, necessary step for the later building of socialism throughout the society.

President Chavez realizes this now, and will now set about to reforming the Venezuelan educational system in a massive way, so that the new generation of youth will embrace socialism, and, if such a referendum is held again in, say, 4-5 years, it would pass with the votes of the younger generation, who might overwhelmingly support it.

I'm not necessarily advocating socialism here; I am just advocating educational reform. If socialism develops out of educational reform, so be it.

The headline emphasizes "Venezuelans vote against," but more significant is that nearly half the voters voted in favor of some very profound leftist reforms. As Chavez said in his speech, the reforms were defeated FOR NOW. In other words, it's not over!

Alerta! Alerta! Alerta que camina, la espada de Bolivar por America Latina! Be alert! The sword of Bolivar marches through Latin America!
.

Prior to the elections, I wasn't sure what Chávez would do or how he would react if his constitutional reform referedum did not pass. I must say I was impressed with his gracious acceptance of the outcome.

He stated that he felt that Venezuela was not yet ready or devoloped enough to assume a bombardment of socialism. That he probably made a mistake in choosing this time and that he will try again because his reform initiative is not dead. Chávez felt a low voter turn-out was what played a key role in the results.

Poor Hugo. He so much wanted to be like his big hero Fidel. Also the poor bozo dosn't realize he's not even fit to shine Fidel's shoes, he thought that if he ran down enough people, especially the President of the U.S. it would be enough to keep him in power for life.

This one's for you, HumeSkeptic, you arrogant douche.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4976cc94-a1d2-11dc-a13b-0000779fd2ac.html


"Chávez was out of step with the wishes of the poorer sectors of the population that support him," says Edgardo Lander, a leftwing political scientist at the Central University of Venezuela. "He had interpreted his election victory in 2006 as a kind of carte blanche to do whatever he wanted, but in reality it"s not like that."

Others suggest that economic distortions resulting from price and exchange rate controls and a sharp fall in private investment in farming and manufacturing have hit the government hard. Despite the oil bonanza, in the state-run supermarkets where the poor shop many basic foodstuffs " such as milk and sugar " are in short supply."

It fun to watch common people...me including...talk about global politcs from other counties...even thought we don't experence them....argue through people

The major problem with Chavez has nothing to do with elections, dictatorship, or term limits.
His country is developing the same sort of problem the Sheiks of Dubai, Saudi, and the UAE have...what to do with all that oil cash.
Now, if he built offshore casio/whore houses, had people live in squallor, kept slaves for house maids, or helped terrorists against the USA...no problem.
So long as money is properly invested to preserve the status quo, the issue would be ignored.
Papa Doc and Samosa for example, did well as a friends of the US. Their tyranny is still portrayed as a romantic era.
The problem with Chavez is this.
He talks of investing the oil profits as an alternative to the strangle hold the World Bank and US foreign aid has on latin economies.
I applaud any democratic move he makes, beyond idealistic principle.
It helps forestall a mercinary war.
US doesn't need more war on top of what our neo-con wars cost already.
Can the USA afford another addition to it's bloody tyranical image?
War will bring on more immigrants desperate to escape, people who have have nothing left to lose.
One would think a guy like Chavez, with intentions to risk capital on development in the hemisphere, would be welcomed.
He'd be adding to US efforts to help the poorer people in other countries...I was brought up to believe that is what aid was for.
However, income tax relief and public aid isn't helping the needy, unless one defines needy people as the wealthiest 1% and the finance corporations.
Our foreign aid programs are mainly a corporate weapon amd cash cow for those who don't need it. At home, it is a necessary Band Aid
Chavez is enemy of the US because he threatens to provide a financial alternative to the World Bank and that is about it.
If one looks at the book, "Confessions of a Corporate Hit Man" it would help bring things into focus.

Hugo just called Jimmy Carter and wants to know if the Florida Supreme court can get involved

How can you not love that chubby little dictator!

This is good.
*

The neocons just hate Chavez because he allows the poor to have more rights then the rich, instead of the other way around. To neocons, wealthy people should have privileged lives because they've achieved success and can use that selfish person gain over others, like the people they employ. We need a leader like Chavez. A leader who will have the balls to end private enterprise in favor of distributed wealth.

Why is it that the assbag, democracy haters-Bush lovers on this post refuse to acknowledge, ignore and obfuscate the fact that the constitutional amendment put on the ballot in Venezuela would NOT have given Chavez 'President For Life' status, NOT allowed him to be dictator? It would have allowed him to continue to run for president like the U.S. allowed until after FDR's last election. As all the assbags can plainly see the elections there were honestly accepted; they were openly inspected and elections in the past, since Chavez came into power at least, have been accepted as honest. Hey assbags, want to talk about it?

Looks to me like the vote count in Venezuala is more honest then the Florida vote here. Hell in Florida 51 to 49 defeat would of been turned into a 53 to 47 win for Hugo. Next time maybe he will have Florida do his counting.