Chavez nails US again (Chickens get better treatment )

[IChing]

Washington - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez suggested on Sunday that chickens in Cuba get better treatment from authorities than black residents of the hurricane-ravaged US city of New Orleans.

"In Cuba, when they know a hurricane is coming, chickens, hens and people are all evacuated," Chavez said in an interview with The Washington Post and Newsweek magazine, stepping up his rhetoric against the US government.

"A hurricane recently destroyed many towns in Cuba but not a single person died because no one was there. The government prepared its people and took them to shelters, whereas here (in the United States) they left the poor without protection, especially the blacks.">>>snip

"Be careful with the government you have," he added, pointing out that the United States has "a government with so much power that it can start a war and destabilise a country but doesn't take care of its own people."

Chavez repeated his earlier description of the United States as "an empire" that has "a terrorist administration," which is "a threat to humanity."


http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_1805992,00.html

[sarcasmo]

1. Smartest leader on the Planet. IMHO.

[IChing]

2. He's wrong of course because

our chicken hawks get better treatment at least :sarcasm: :rofl: :rofl:

[I_am_Spartacus]

3. Yes. In the US, the chickenhawks are guarding the hens.

[jbnow]

12. Don't know if he is the smartest

There are probably many leaders who think as he does, But he SAYS it, he is the most honest. Refreshing

[sandnsea]

23. Best politician, better than Clinton

I'll give him all of that. And it's a helluva lot of fun to watch. If his walk lives up to his talk, Venezuela should be in good shape in short order. We shall see.

[Child_Of_Isis]

4. Can this guy give a smackdown or what?

He is relentless. He is going to give shrub a breakdown yet. :popcorn:

[silverweb]

5. True as sunrise.

:loveya:

Watch your back, Hugo, and take very good care of yourself. Truthtelling is dangerous work.

[OKthatsIT]

6. The MSM knows he's a good man, doing good for his people

compared to the Bush Admin, Chavez is the only hopeful leadership the poor of the US can look up to. Bush made his own bed...the greedy bastards!

STAY OUT OF PARAGUAY, NEGROPONTE! Leave Boliva and Venzuela alone!

[obxhead]

7. kick!

[Peace Patriot]

8. Here's the important difference between Venezuela and the U.S.

The Venezuelans also vote electronically, but with OPEN SOURCE CODE--that is, anyone may review how the votes are tabulated; whereas, in the U.S., two Bushite corporations, Diebold and ES&S, tabulate our votes using SECRET, PROPRIETARY SOURCE CODE--code so secret not even our secretaries of state are permitted to review it.

Open source code = good president, good government.

Secret, proprietary source code = bad president, bad government.

It's that simple.

-------

We need...

1. Paper ballots hand-counted at the precinct level (--Canada does it in one day, although speed should not even be a consideration, just accuracy and verifiability)

or, at the least...

2. Paper ballot (not "paper trail") backup of all electronic voting, a 10% automatic recount, very strict security, and NO SECRET, PROPRIETARY programming code! (...jeez!).

--------

Having transparent, verifiable elections is a no-brainer, really--if that's what you really want. Dealing with the bipartisan corruption connected to the $4 billion electronic voting boondoggle in the U.S. is not so simple, though. We have to start at the state/local level, where the power over election systems still resides, and where ordinary people still have some influence.

We need a BIG BROOM. And the Republicans are not the only ones who need their house cleaned.

[donheld]

9. Do you have sources?

That would be nice to have for documentation.

[I_am_Spartacus]

21. At the time of the recall election, Venezuela got rid of all its

ES&S (IIRC) machines and bought the machines of a small Florida company which operated this way:

You make your selections electronically, a paper ballot is printed, the voter sees the ballot, if they agree with what they see, the voter pushes a button which drops the ballot into a locked box. The machine electronically records the vote. If they don't, the ballot goes into the trash.

At the end of the day, all the machines phone in their tabulations and the results are calculated instantly. The boxes of printed ballots are available for auditing.

The specific problem Venezuela was trying to solve was that with other methods of voting, the most common form of corruption was that one side would see that a candidate was doing well in precinct, and then ballots would start disappearing from that precinct. Primarily, Venezuela wanted instant counting and tabulation. The next concern was auditability.

I read about that at Venezuelanalysis.com (and they government has a website that explains the voting process). I saw that at the time of the recall election. It's probably in the archives there.

[AmyDeLune]

11. Oregon has mail-in ballots

They are "bubble" sheet style-- black-in the bubble next to the candidate/ballot measure of your choice. The ballots are then mailed in or turned in to local poll stations and are then run through an electronic scanner; and if a problem arises, counting by hand is still an option. Voter turnout has improved considerably since this was instituted.

[slay]

10. The US is indeed an empire

and Bush does run "a terrorist administration". Props to Chavez for telling it like it is.

[MasonJar]

13. Take that again KKKarl; Chavez is someone you cannot control.

[JustSayNO 2 Sheeples]

14. Important note about the headline "Chavez Nails US Again"

Important to remember: He's NOT nailing the US. He's nailing this crooked administration lead by the traitor Rove and Criminal Bush

[susu369]

15. Read this story and weep

(I received some ridicule from a few DU'ers before the storm hit - after saying I was concerned about the prisioners and the fact some may not even have been guilty) -

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/HRW/ea2602d166560bed533d2afbae6d8274.htm

New Orleans: Prisoners Abandoned to Floodwaters

(New York, September 22, 2005)-As Hurricane Katrina began pounding New Orleans, the sheriff's department abandoned hundreds of inmates imprisoned in the city's jail, Human Rights Watch said today. Inmates in Templeman III, one of several buildings in the Orleans Parish Prison compound, reported that as of Monday, August 29, there were no correctional officers in the building, which held more than 600 inmates. These inmates, including some who were locked in ground-floor cells, were not evacuated until Thursday, September 1, four days after flood waters in the jail had reached chest-level.

"Of all the nightmares during Hurricane Katrina, this must be one of the worst," said Corinne Carey, researcher from Human Rights Watch. "Prisoners were abandoned in their cells without food or water for days as floodwaters rose toward the ceiling."

Human Rights Watch called on the U.S. Department of Justice to conduct an investigation into the conduct of the Orleans Sheriff's Department, which runs the jail, and to establish the fate of the prisoners who had been locked in the jail. The Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections, which oversaw the evacuation, and the Orleans Sheriff's Department should account for the 517 inmates who are missing from list of people evacuated from the jail.

--snip--

"They left us to die there," Dan Bright, an Orleans Parish Prison inmate told Human Rights Watch at Rapides Parish Prison, where he was sent after the evacuation.

--snip--

Inmates broke jail windows to let air in. They also set fire to blankets and shirts and hung them out of the windows to let people know they were still in the facility. Apparently at least a dozen inmates jumped out of the windows. "We started to see people in T3 hangin' shirts on fire out the windows,"

--snip--

Many of the men held at jail had been arrested for offenses like criminal trespass, public drunkenness or disorderly conduct. Many had not even been brought before a judge and charged, much less been convicted.

[nolabels]

16. Thanks for the warning HUGO

I have only been clued in since Iran-contra back in 1984 but many others have been hangin much longer. If you are new to what's up, hang around here DU long enough and others will be able clue you in fully after while

Of course, hundreds of years ago, some people even had there ancestors kidnapped and brought over to this land on slave ships, to them, I salute. I salute them for ongoing courage in their long ordeal and the way they endured it :patriot:

[Say_What]

17. "an empire" that has "a terrorist administration"

a Banana Empire at that...

[Name removed]

18. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[54anickel]

19. Now that's intelligent.!

[AspenRose]

20. DAY-um....

This man fears no one, fears nothing...how refreshing to hear the truth spoken like this.

[Barkley]

22. I hope Hugo's speaking at the Million Man March next month - nt

[ngGale]

24. Chavez ....

telling it like it is.

[Judi Lynn]

25. Additional Venezuela news item:Venezuela considers buying Russian subs

Americas News


Venezuela considers buying Russian subs
Sep 25, 2005, 22:15 GMT

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (UPI) -- Venezuelan officials are considering purchasing hi-tech Russian submarines to replace their current fleet.

Admiral Jose Laguna, the Navy`s commander-in-chief, will discuss the purchase of Amur-class submarines with Russian officials during his upcoming visit to Russia.

According to Novosti, the Venezuelan Navy is considering buying three of the diesel-electric submarines to replace their current German Type 209 subs. German sub manufacturers, and a French-Spanish manufacturer are competing for Venezuelan business.

The Russian subs come with the latest anti-ship weapons systems. The system enables the sub to fire missiles and torpedoes from 10 tubes in the bow.
(snip/)

http://news.monstersandcritics.com/southamerica/article_1050494.php/Venezuela_considers_buying_Russian_subs

[ladylibertee]

26. Oh snap! This man has @alls. No wonder Pat Robertson wants

him dead.

[RedCloud]

27. The fun part is that Bush can't start an oil embargo

Chávez already has Asian clients lined up, just in case!