Venezuela president granted sweeping powers

[alp227]

Last edited Tue Nov 19, 2013, 11:17 PM - Edit history (1)

Source: Al Jazeera

Venezuela's National Assembly has granted President Nicolas Maduro wide-ranging special powers to rule by decree for one year so that he can fix the economy.

Tuesday’s vote over the Enabling Law is the latest move by the elected Venezuelan leader, a protégé of the late President Hugo Chavez, to strengthen his hand as he faces an important political test in municipal elections next month.

The law will essentially allow the president to create laws without parliamentary approval.

The socialist president says he needs greater personal power to stamp out opponents who are waging “economic warfare against his government” as the country struggles with soaring inflation and shortages of basic goods.

Read more: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2013/11/venezuela-president-granted-sweeping-powers-20131119223850383590.html

---

Other sources: BBC, Latin American Herald Tribune, AP, Washington Post, Reuters, Miami Herald, Bloomberg News

[joeglow3]

1. Good luck with that

[Archae]

2. Hitler was given those powers because of "the Communists" and "the Jews."

"Opponents who are waging economic warfare against his government," same "justification" for a dictatorship.

It doesn't mean squat if they are left-wing or right-wing, this is not good.

[davidpdx]

6. Nah, the leaders of Venezuela are perfect

I heard the Vatican has already decided to make Chavez a saint.

I'm sure it's only a matter of time before they do the same for Maduro.

[happyslug]

37. Actually those powers were given to Hindenburg NOT Hitler.

And it had NOT been the first time such power was granted to Hindenburg, he had been given those power previously. In fact many observers made the comment that had Hindenburg NOT been President and given those powers, the enabling act would NEVER have passed.

It was understood that Hitler would use those powers. but till his death Hindenburg had the power to revoke that grant of power (thus Hitler merged the Offices of President and Chancellor into one office with him being BOTH).

Just a comment that the people of Germany voted for that act in a fair and open election.

Just as the German Wiemar Constitution permitting such enabling act to be passed, so does the Constitution of Venezuela and it is a power the PRE DATES CHAVEZ. It has been abused in the past, but it is a power the people of Venezuela has granted to Right Wing presidents in the past. The key is NOT the granting of the power but how it will be used. Time will tell us if the power was used for good or bad.

Hindenburg is a good example, when he had been given that power previously, it had NOT been abused by his then Chancellor. The difference was Hitler would be Chancellor under the 1934 Enabling act, not a different right wing politician who was NOT a Nazi (Such a Right wing non Nazi had been Chancellor when the power was granted to Hindenburg previously).

As with Germany in 1928-1934, the key was NOT the enabling act itself, but who was Chancellor and that Chancellor's willingness to abuse that power. Such emergency power is some times necessary, thus it is in the Constitution of Venezuela. Only time will tell if it was abused or not.

[Archae]

48. I hope you're right about the granting of such power.

But I'm not going to be surprised if Maduro absues the power.

IF.

[Theyletmeeatcake2]

60. Wow..impressive...it's not often that

Facts get a run in threads about Venezuela !!!

[Throd]

3. Good. Now he can fix everything.

[Jackal87]

9. you mean

Make inflation even worse. Even my classmate from venezuela wishes chavez was alive, he even says atleast chavez looks like a genius compared to maduro. Which says a lot because he didn't like chavez until maduro showed up.

[hrmjustin]

4. There goes democracy!

No way to defend this.

[MADem]

5. He trumped up charges against a legislator, got her removed, and got a majority to support his

"rule by decree" -- it's only a matter of time before he's the Great Dictator and even more of a mockery of himself than he already is. Such a tinpot!

[Comrade Grumpy]

11. Gee, I wonder how many peasant organizers this tinpot dictator has killed.

Oh, sorry, wrong country. I was thinking of Colombia.

It's quite illuminating how some people fulminate about political power grabs in leftist Venezuela, but are totally silent on mass political murder in rightist Colombia. The spirit of Joe McCarthy lives.

[Bacchus4.0]

12. over 20,000 murders and 20% of murders commited by police

according to the gov's own Interior Minister. So you can do the math. This is like the 5th rule by decree period and the country is deeper in the shit hole than at any other period.

[Comrade Grumpy]

16. A high crime rate is different from political murder. Apples and oranges.

Not saying Venezuela is perfect, but it is hardly the only country where police kill a lot of people. Brazil? Jamaica? Honduras?

[Bacchus4.0]

19. only Honduras is worse than Ven. I didn't realize there was a sliding moral scale

of murder committed by police and their agents. Venezuela violence is out of control and the government either does nothing or can't do anything about it.

[Comrade Grumpy]

21. I don't like police misconduct wherever it happens.

It's one thing to be concerned with high crime rates and police misconduct; it's quite another to use them as a hammer to bash only the governments you don't like.

And if you really want to talk about deadly, corrupt police forces, I have one word for you: Mexico.

[Judi Lynn]

23. The guy seems to miss the fact Honduras, known for its death squads,

was supremely useful to the Iran-Contra viciousness, and brought back its former death squad leader to head its national police right after the coup, and has swept its right-wing death squad/military personel, who've been torturing, assassinating, etc. since the military coup against Zelaya and made them the national police force as well.

These professional monsters in Honduras work for the national right-wing government, serving the interests of the oligarchs. Standard.

[Bacchus4.0]

26. you could start a GD thread on most corrupt police, but this is about the Ven dictator

I think Ven would win out over Mexico on the most corrupt and murderous. Ven's murder rate is well above Mexico's, (we hear much more about our neighbor though), and if the security forces are ONLY responsible for 20% of the crime in the country as their interior minister says then thats like 4000 peole.

And Maduro's ostensible excuse for the dictatorial powers is to combat corruption so obviously the country and government are rife with severe corruption.

[MADem]

41. You can buy toilet paper at a reasonable price in Mexico. nt

[Theyletmeeatcake2]

61. No mention of the drug cartels is ever made.....

And where does all that shit end up....the USA of course...all those countries suffer as a result ....right wing or left wing it don't matter to those scum high enough to let it happen...

[geek tragedy]

14. "look over there!"

The atrocities occurring in Colombia are well-known.

[Comrade Grumpy]

17. That is really, really feeble.

I guess the atrocities that go on in Colombia (with US taxpayer support) are so well-known they're not even worth caring about. Because I never, never see any of the human rights-defending Venezuela-bashers have a single fucking word to say about the campaigns of mass murder and political assassination in Colombia. They're too busy putting on their Joe McCarthy hats and charging around saving the world from communism.

And isn't what is going on in Venezuela also well-known? In fact, it seems to get a lot more attention in the mainstream media than anything that goes on in Colombia. And it certainly seems to get a lot of obsessive attention from a certain bunch here.

But I understand. Who has time to worry about Colombian peasants when there are Venezuelan capitalists to save?

[Judi Lynn]

22. Who has the time, indeed! Outstanding comment, perceptive.

It's a good thing well balanced people take the time to look beyond the right-wing drool which gets stuffed into what should be intelligent conversations.

Most people have known for years how important it is to continue looking for the truth, above and beyond the cheap, manipulated crap thrown out by the corporate media.

Food for thought on this situation which has been going on since the very day Hugo Chavez took office:

FAIR Study: Human Rights Coverage Serving Washington's Needs
Feb 02 2009

A new FAIR study finds that leading newspapers have been putting political considerations ahead of humanitarian concerns in their editorials on human rights in Latin America.

The report, "Human Rights Coverage Serving Washington's Needs," finds that while Venezuela is by every measure a safer place than Colombia to live, vote, organize unions and political groups, speak out against the government or practice journalism, editorials at four influential newspapers have portrayed Venezuela's government as having a far worse human rights record than Colombia's. While the human rights concerns expressed in newspaper editorials do not track with the degree of human rights abuses documented by human right groups, they do closely follow Washington's official stances toward these countries.

Some highlights from the study, which looked at editorials on human rights in Venezuela and Colombia in the New York Times, Washington Post, Miami Herald and Los Angeles Times over 10 years (1998-2007):

- Nine in 10 editorials about human rights in Venezuela presented a strictly negative view of the country's record, while a majority of the Colombia editorials presented either a mixed or wholly positive assessment. Of the 101 editorials on Venezuela examined in the study, 91 described the human rights situation negatively, and not a single editorial portrayed Venezuela's record in a wholly positive light. Of 90 editorials on Colombia, 42 only portrayed Colombia's situation as negative, 32 expressed a mixed assessment, and 16 were entirely positive.

~snip~

The authors conclude that, "rather than independently and critically assessing the Colombian and Venezuelan records, major corporate newspaper editors, to one degree or another, have subordinated crucial human rights questions to what they see as the U.S.'s interests in the region."

More:
http://fair.org/press-release/fair-study-human-rights-coverage-serving-washingtons-needs/

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Buying Venezuela's Press With U.S. Tax Dollars

Posted: 07/19/10 02:28 PM ET

Originaly published in NACLA

The U.S. State Department is secretly funneling millions of dollars to Latin American journalists, according to documents obtained in June under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The 20 documents released to this author--including grant proposals, awards, and quarterly reports--show that between 2007 and 2009, the State Department's little-known Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor channeled at least $4 million to journalists in Bolivia, Nicaragua, and Venezuela through the Pan American Development Foundation (PADF), a Washington-based grant maker that has worked in Latin America since 1962. Thus far, only documents pertaining to Venezuela have been released. They reveal that the PADF, collaborating with Venezuelan NGOs associated with the country's political opposition, has been supplied with at least $700,000 to give out journalism grants and sponsor journalism education programs.

Until now, the State Department has hidden its role in funding the Venezuelan news media, one of the opposition's most powerful weapons against President Hugo Chavez and his Bolivarian movement. The PADF, serving as an intermediary, effectively removed the government's fingerprints from the money. Yet, as noted in a State Department document titled "Bureau/Program Specific Requirements," the State Department's own policies require that "all publications" funded by the department "acknowledge the support." But the provision was simply waived for the PADF. "For the purposes of this award," the requirements document adds, " . . . the recipient is not required to publicly acknowledge the support of the U.S. Department of State."

Before 2007, the largest funder of U.S. "democracy promotion" activities in Venezuela was not the State Department but the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), together with the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). But in 2005, these organizations' underhanded funding was exposed by Venezuelan American attorney Eva Golinger in a series of articles, books, and lectures (disclosure: This author obtained many of the documents). After the USAID and NED covers were blown wide open--forcing USAID's main intermediary, Development Alternatives Inc. (DAI), a Maryland-based contractor, to close its office in Caracas--the U.S. government apparently sought new funding channels, one of which the PADF appears to have provided.

Although the $700,000 allocated to the PADF, which is noted in the State Department's requirements document, may not seem like a lot of money, the funds have been strategically used to buy off the best of Venezuela's news media and recruit young journalists. This has been achieved by collaborating with opposition NGOs, many of which have a strong media focus. The requirements document is the only document that names any of these organizations--which was probably an oversight on the State Department's part, since the recipients' names and a lot of other information are excised in the rest of the documents. The requirements document names Espacio Publico and Instituto Prensa y Sociedad, two leading organizations linked to the Venezuelan opposition, as recipients of "subgrants."

More:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeremy-bigwood/buying-venezuelas-press-w_b_650178.html

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You Probably Didn’t Hear that Venezuela Was Again Ranked the Happiest Country in South America

Written by Dan Beeton
Tuesday, 17 September 2013 15:50

The U.N. Sustainable Development Solutions Network released its World Happiness Report for 2013 last week. Following up on the first such report, released last year, the U.N. says that the 2013 edition

delves in more detail into the analysis of the global happiness data, examining trends over time and breaking down each country’s score into its component parts, so that citizens and policy makers can understand their country’s ranking. It also draws connections to other major initiatives to measure well-being, including those conducted by the OECD and UNDP’s Human Development Report…

The World Happiness Report, as with similar such studies as the Happy Planet Index is in part a response to perceived shortcomings with traditional economic and social measures such as growth, poverty rates, employment, education, life expectancy and other indicators.

While U.S. media coverage of the report was not overwhelming, there was some. The report was also covered in numerous international outlets in countries throughout Europe, in Asia, Africa and Australia and New Zealand, among others. CNN noted that

“On a regional basis, by far the largest gains in life evaluations in terms of the prevalence and size of the increases have been in Latin America and the Caribbean, and in Sub-Saharan Africa", the report said. Reduced levels of corruption also contributed to the rise.

But CNN neglected to mention that Venezuela ranked first – again – among South American nations as happiest.

More:
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/the-americas-blog/you-probably-didnt-hear-that-venezuela-was-again-ranked-the-happiest-country-in-south-america

[center]~ ~ ~[/center]

AP’s One-Sided Venezuela Coverage

On Desk Reporters Who “Phone-in” the Spin

By Dan Feder
Special to the Narco News Bulletin
December 18, 2002

The statement seemed clear enough. After a total of 25 hours of negotiations that framed this past weekend, the Organization of American States – representing 34 governments – released a much-awaited declaration on the crisis in Venezuela. The OAS rejected any solution that is not consistent with the Venezuelan constitution – which went into law with the support of President Hugo Chávez in 1999 only after the entire nation approved the text in a referendum – and “fully support(s) the democratic and constitutional order of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, whose government is headed by Hugo Chávez Frías.”

But the Associated Press (AP)’s Nestor Ikeda, who until yesterday had not written on Venezuela since the coup last April, doesn’t seem to get it. And looking at the coverage AP has provided on Venezuela for the last two weeks, this is hardly surprising; the reports, especially those of a certain writer we will get to in a moment, have been a steady stream of dishonest spin.

Despite a short, uncomplicated, essentially unambiguous declaration (making it something of an anomaly in diplomatic literature), Ikeda apparently felt the need to bend over backwards trying to prove that the OAS had, in fact, “given no direct support to Chavez.” What could have been more direct than the above statement? A photo of the 34 ambassadors wearing red berets shouting “viva la revolución bolivariana?” An international force sent in to squash the opposition? How long can people like Ikeda deny that the opposition has lost the bulk of the international support that it once had?

Ikeda goes on to quote the US Ambassador to the OAS, Roger Noriega, who says “this resolution supports the secretary general’s efforts, unequivocally and energetically,” giving the impression that Noriega was quite pleased with the resolution. Here may lie the key to Ikeda’s bizarre slanting of this important story. Noriega recently served on the Senate Foreign Affairs committee. While in that post, he became notorious for his skill at manipulating reporters. Once, he was overheard bragging that New York Times’ Larry Rohter never made a move without consulting him. It seems that, rather than seek out independent analysis of the resolution, or do his own (did he even read it? one has to wonder), Ikeda has let a veteran Washington spin-doctor tell the story for him.

More:
http://www.narconews.com/Issue26/article567.html

[font size=4]ETC.[/font]

[Theyletmeeatcake2]

63. Good stuff... Should shut the pea brains down for a while

[Bacchus4.0]

24. Maduro is the one who is acting as dictator, not Santos in Colombia

I don't think a headline stating "Santos does NOT have decree powers" would qualify as LBN.

[EX500rider]

32. Not quite...

...it's more:

Everybody here agrees Colombia and Honduras have serious problems, no one argues different, post a thread on either and you will get no argument.....but when it comes to Venezuela many here close their eyes to the issues/problems the Venz. Govt has created and blame it all on the US or a mistranslation or western media bias.....but never on Venz. govt's actions which have resulted in a oil rich country who can't keep the lights on and has the worse murder rate in South America and major shortages of basic commodities, etc..
But they DO wave a red flag while doing it, so i guess it's OK?

[MADem]

51. All kinds of room in the LA group to talk about Columbia ALL DAY LONG....

No one is stopping you from doing that.

You're changing the subject if you start griping in a general way about Colombia in a thread that is specifically about Maduro's Venezuelan power grab.

[Theyletmeeatcake2]

62. Kick and run..

[Ranchemp.]

25. It's really got to be getting harder and harder

for the apologists to keep coming up with excuses for the Maduro regime's grab of absolute power.

[Archae]

15. Is anyone talking up Columbia as a "model?"

The Chavistas constantly brag about how great Chavez was and Maduro is.

I don't see anyone being as laudatory about Columbia. Even in our government.

[Judi Lynn]

18. It might be more moral to stop pumping boatloads o' taxdollars

into the Colombian government and military, keeping this violent feudal system in place all these long deadly years.

[Ranchemp.]

33. But this thread isn't about Colombia is it?

Nice try at diversion though.

[Bacchus4.0]

20. a Colombia model would be an improvement, really

Colombia is moving in the right direction from reducing violence to nearing a peace agreement. No ruling by decree despite the presence of an armed insurgency.

[Judi Lynn]

27. Maybe you should try to pay more attention:

Colombia is a model for Latin America: John Kerry

http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/27850--colombia-is-a-model-for-latin-america-john-kerry.html

----------------------
Kerry, who has been nominated for US secretary of state, said at a senate confirmation hearing on Thursday that he hoped Washington could make progress in the Western Hemisphere with improved relations with Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador, much like the success the United States had with Colombia.

"Colombia is a model for the region. It is an example to the rest of Latin America about what awaits them if we can convince people to make better decisions," said Kerry.

"Colombia has suffered too long due to insecurity and violence associated with armed conflict... President Santos has taken the difficult step towards finding a political solution and indicated that the lessons learned from past peace processes will be taken into account. Any negotiations to strengthen democracy, the rule of law, human rights, that leads to peace is good and deserves our support," said the former presidential nominee.

Kerry also lauded the security efforts made by ex-president Alvaro Uribe in a critical moment of unrest in addition to president Santos's continued efforts.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/11088885

[MADem]

40. That's called a "diversionary tactic." Maduro is a fucking nitwit who is dragging his nation into

the sewer.

Because there's no defense for what Maduro is doing, the idea is to flail around and find something else to get all outraged about, and pretend that it matters to this discussion, even when it doesn't.

[MADem]

52. That's called a "straw man"--and no, I haven't seen anyone here leaping out their own butts about

Colombia. Colombia only looks "not so bad" by comparison to VZ. It's certainly not Brazil.

Bottom line, though, this thread is about Maduro and VZ...and the VZ cheerleading squad is running away from the topic.

[MADem]

38. We aren't talking about Colombia, though. Or Joe McCarthy. So why are you changing the subject?

"Look over THERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" never works as a debate strategy. It simply exposes the weakness--or in your case, lack-- of an argument in support of Maduro's craven mendacity.

Stick to the topic of the tinpot dictator in Venezuela, the bandera-fondling Maduro.

If you want to talk about Colombia, you are, of course, free to start a thread on that topic. Columbia didn't help Maduro trump up charges against a legislator to skew the vote in his favor, now, did they?

[Bacchus4.0]

13. exactly correct n/t

s

[Ranchemp.]

7. Hmmmm.

The socialist president says he needs greater personal power to stamp out opponents who are waging “economic warfare against his government” as the country struggles with soaring inflation and shortages of basic goods.

We all know what this means, and I find it highly suspicious so close to elections.

Wanna bet who those opponents are?
Maybe he should start with the massive mismanagement and rampant corruption within his own govt.

And I'll wager that come a year later, he'll want an extension.

[dlwickham]

8. Power to "stamp out opponents"?

bet he's going after all those damn toilet paper hoarders

[Wolf Frankula]

10. Rule By Decree for One Year

during the 'temporary' emergency. They will find that there is nothing more permanent than a 'temporary' emergency.

Wolf

[Judi Lynn]

28. DU'ers, and trolls, have been discussing Venezuela's enabling law

here for years and years.

You won't see the trolls finally putting a sock in it, and sliming their ways back to their caves and start licking themselves prior to a nice long nap until a huge country from the North installs another fascist, torture-loving mass murdering, larcenous, narcissistic sociopath like Augusto Pinochet, after launching a successful coup next time against the Venezuelan President.

Here's a thread on the "decree power" which is only one of so very many already posted here. Skim through it to see all the things which have already been written to understand no matter how things change, they seem to stay the same:

Venezuela assembly gives Chavez decree powers
Source: Reuters

(Reuters) - Venezuela's parliament gave President Hugo Chavez decree powers for 18 months on Friday, outraging opposition parties that accused him of turning South America's biggest oil producer into a dictatorship.

The move consolidated the firebrand socialist leader's hold on power after nearly 12 years in office, and raised the prospect of a fresh wave of nationalizations as the former paratrooper seeks to entrench his self-styled "revolution."

Chavez had asked for the fast-track powers for one year, saying he needed them to deal with a national emergency caused by floods that drove nearly 140,000 people from their homes.

But the Assembly, which is dominated by loyalists from his Socialist Party, decided to extend them for a year and a half.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4664132

[Bacchus4.0]

29. Maduro's decree powers are ostensibly to 1) combat corruption 2) against the "economic war"

and now a new one 3) Preserve internal order and sanction those who act against the security and defense of the nation.



La Ley Habilitante fue mutando y creciendo. Primero era para luchar contra la corrupción que se iba a "tragar la patria"; luego se sumó el combate a la denominada guerra económica; y ayer, cuando finalmente fue sancionada por la Asamblea Nacional, incorporó el elemento de la preservación del orden interno y sancionar a quienes atenten contra la "seguridad y defensa de la nación", entre los que se encontrarían factores políticos.


Maduro said just 6 months ago, "I guarantee that there is no corruption, for the first time in Venezuela, in 180 years."

“Yo garantizo que no hay corrupción, por primera vez en la historia de Venezuela, en 180 años”

http://www.noticias24.com/venezuela/noticia/158085/


Only an idiot would support this moron.

[Ranchemp.]

30. It's hilarious to watch the defenders and apologists

twist themselves into knots justifying this latest grab of power from the Maduro regime. I feel pity for the people of Venezuela who are going to pay the price for more mismanagement of the economy and the widespread corruption within the govt, meanwhile, Maduro and his lackeys won't feel the pain, they've got theirs.

[Bacchus4.0]

31. yep, the puzzling question is 'why'? There are several examples of leftist leaders in

Latin America that have done remarkable job in the social and economic arenas. Peru and Brazil being the most notable. Of course, both of these nations have amicable relations with the US so they don't get the praise for their successes. Meanwhile, Venezuela is collapsing and they continue to support this very repressive conservative anti-democratic leadership. They do wear red hats and say revolution alot though.

[MADem]

39. "Only an idiot would support this moron."

I agree. One would have to be very stupid, or a Maduro troll, or a denier of basic, simple, facts, to back this assclown. What he is doing is so overwhelmingly ANTI-the people it isn't funny.

[Archae]

49. It's a political way of defending a favorite "star."

Sports star, movie star, TV star, and so on.

We hear about someone we like, but when they turn out to be assholes like Sean Penn did agan, recently, his defenders still talk him up.

Here in the US, just look at the Ted Cruz and Sarah Palin phanbois.

And...

Looks like VZ is in trouble, heading for a Castro-style dictatorship.

[MADem]

50. Castro's crew is running that joint, anyway...

They have been for a long time.

[novano]

34. good luck

[Ranchemp.]

35. The only thing that's going to happen is

more mismanagement, more corruption by Maduro's govt, and more oppression of Maduro's political opponents while the people of Venezuela suffer even more economic oppression.

[Kingofalldems]

64. At least it won't be like right wing hero Pinochet's government...

thousands tortured and killed.

[Ranchemp.]

65. So far.

Time will tell.

[hrmjustin]

36. Are people defending this?

[MADem]

42. A couple of people in this thread are....it's indefensible. nt

[hrmjustin]

43. I don't understand it. This has never worked out well when tried before.

[MADem]

44. For reasons that escape me, VZ gets a pass -- despite rampant corruption, extreme incompetence,

daily violence and brutality and unbelievable managerial stupidity, there's still this cadre that believes those thieving, dumb assholes "care" about the people. If they really gave a crap, they'd run their country professionally and not rob the joint blind.

If any other country did this, the same cheerleaders would be up in arms. It's just bizarre.

[Throd]

45. Whether it works or not isn't the point

Its a chance to put on your Che underoos and shake your fist at the "Yanqui Imperialista" circa 1975.

[MADem]

53. Even though the fashion now, for the "Boligarchs" is a VZ flag track suit and a wad of Yanqui cash.

Only the elites are allowed access to all that hard currency....everyone else has to deal with the toilet paper that is VZ money.

[joshcryer]

55. The problem is those people have their heads in the sand.

And simply cannot accept the corruption it perpetuates.

[Posteritatis]

46. There's people who'll defend just about anything

Venezuela's president could be shoveling newborns into boilers to power the conveyor belts that bring the newborns to him so he can shovel them into the boilers more efficiently, and there'd probably be people saying they had it coming.

Hell, there's an outright North Korea fanboy off in one of the other ongoing threads here, and there were people defending the Saudi ban on women drivers a month or so ago.

Venezuela, as someone else points out, gets a pass on things that a lot of other places generally wouldn't, but there aren't many stances one country or another holds in the world that don't have at least some enthusiastic defenders around here.

[joshcryer]

54. Yes, Decree powers in Venezuela are always defended by the usual suspects.

Unfortunately Decree powers have not shown to be particularly useful.

[hrmjustin]

56. I think it could olny lead to disaster.

[joshcryer]

57. If used justly, not really. It's just that it's for the upcoming elections.

So in that event it will indeed lead to disaster. You can't decree your way out of the polls. And the chavistas are polling quite poorly as Venezuela rapidly declines due to failed policies.

[christx30]

47. That's an amazing ego he has.

"This country is pretty messed up. But I can fix it and stop an economic war if you just give me unlimited power."
It'd be funny if he didn't have millions of people depending on him to do the right thing.

[freshwest]

58. Sounds like Mittens. Maduro can't be as bad as Willard, can he?

Willard and Ann are going to finance Chris Christie who is being funded by the Koch brothers pretty openly now.

A billionaire's game. Who possesses the real wealth in Venezuela now?

We never get details in the press as to who owns stuff. So who's the boss there?

Sure ain't Maduro, he's just playing a part there. For China, for some Middle East interest, just can't tell who.

[Beacool]

59. Poor Venezuela, it was nice knowing you.

[Pterodactyl]

66. Good. He needs to start sweeping. The country is getting really dusty.

[Starry Messenger]

67. I guess people in this thread would condemn the National Industrial Recovery Act and the New Deal?

[FrodosPet]

68. I believe many would condemn the wages and lack of benefits of the WPA

It was meant as a safety net to private employment, not a replacement. In other words, it was workfare. Max 40 hours a week, preferably under 30, working for $19 to a maximum of $94 a month (which is the modern equivalent of $314.06 to $1,553.79 a month).

http://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm

From what I've researched, the average full time wage was $41.57 a month ($687.14 a month in 2013). The projects were not supposed to interfere with private enterprise. Employment was not guaranteed, no local project equaled no job. And you could only get the jobs if you were an able bodied head of the household. If your husband worked, you stayed home. If you got a job in the private sector, your husband lost his WPA job. And when the project was complete, and another project was not available...you're out of luck.

http://newdeal.feri.org/misc/faq/index.htm

Would people here condemn workfare? Or paying people $4.29 an hour with no medical benefits and the potential of layoffs at any time?

I personally am not condemning the program. It kept a lot of people from starving, and restored their dignity: people of that era REALLY hated taking charity. But, under the same parameters as the 1930s, the WPA would never get past Congress. The 'Pus (I mean 'Pubs) would trash it for being soshalist and the progressives for being anti-worker.