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even upon superficial research into them. And if you go in depth, you find out that Chavez is the exact opposite of how they portray him--he is, in fact, the most serious and determined advocate of democracy in the history of South America.
Lula da Silva, the president of Brazil, recently said, of Chavez: "You can criticize Chavez on a lot of things, but not on democracy."
Odd, huh?, that he would say that, when it so completely contradicts the Bushite/Corpo propaganda. But I've found it to be true. Chavez cannot be faulted on democracy. He is a democrat with small d. His government fosters maximum citizen participation, and runs elections that put our own to shame for their transparency. He is not repressive--not even a little bit. He has harmed no one, invaded no one, jailed no one unfairly, and has been running a highly popular, scrupulously lawful government for ten years, having been elected twice (mostly recently with 63% of the vote), having won a Bush-funded recall election, and having survived a Bush-supported rightwing military coup, because he is so popular. I suppose you could criticize him for his very popularity--that is, it's always a danger to a political culture for it to be based on--and seemingly dependent on--one leader, but he can't help how popular he is, how visionary he is, how right he is on most issues, and he and his government have gone way out of their way to insure that power in Venezuela is widespread and deep--bottom up, not top down. He owes his own power to the grass roots, to the social movements, to the poor majority, to the people, and that is how he administers the government.
Lulu's remark is not odd, if you know the facts. I will just mention one more: In Venezuela, they use electronic voting, but it is an OPEN SOURCE CODE system--anyone may review the code by which the votes are tabulated--and they nevetheless count a whopping 55% of the votes, as a check on machine fraud. In the U.S., we use electronic voting, but it is a 'TRADE SECRET,' PROPRIETARY CODE system--not even our secretaries of state are permitted to review the code by which the votes are tabulated; the code is owned and controlled by rightwing Bushite corporations, and there are virtually no audit/recount controls. In half the country, there is no ballot to recount--the election results are completely unverifiable. And even the best states do only a ONE PERCENT handcount, to check for fraud (--miserably inadequate in a 'TRADE SECRET' code system).
And this is not even to mention the international monitoring groups that have been permitted to crawl all over Venezuela, during elections--and that have unanimously declared Venezuela's elections to be honest, fair and reliable.
The facts about Venezuela's election system not only tell us that Chavez really was elected--something that almost none of our own public office holders can prove--but also, it tells us that the government that helped design, that agrees to, and that implements this system is not afraid of its own people, and is seriously democratic, honest, open and transparent. Vote counting is the bottom line of democracy. Without transparent vote counting, you don't really have a democracy. If the vote counting is honest, you can be fairly certain that the government is honest is other respects. By contrast, governments that kill, torture, oppress, loot government coffers, favor the super-rich, rob and brutalize the poor, are profoundly corrupt and secretive, and stomp on human and civil rights--like ours--have to have a mechanism by which to steal elections (--if they bother to maintain an illusion of democracy, which ours currently finds convenient). Look to the election system of such governments, and you will find what we find here--non-transparency, secrecy, unverifiability, and, of course, many other ills.
Transparent vote counting doesn't tell you everything you need to know about a government. But it is a very good test of the basics of democracy. If it is present, you know the country is on the right track. If it is absent, you know the country is in big trouble.
This is what the Bushwhacks and the Corpo/fascists who are running things here don't want you to know: Venezuela is a good democracy--one of the best in our hemisphere, and possibly in the world. And we have pretty much lost our democracy. It is teetering over the cliff of outright nazism.
McCain's bluster about "the region's worst tyrants" and "dangerous despotism" is utter bullshit. So is Obama's language about Chavez (he called him "authoritarian" and a "demagogue" in a speech to the anti-Castro Miami mafia). But I tend to forgive Obama some of his crapola because I know he's got an uphill battle, a) not getting whacked, and b) trying to bring some sanity back to U.S. foreign relations.
Obama says he will "talk to our enemies." If Hugo Chavez is our "enemy," then so are most of the people of Venezuela--and, as a matter of fact, most of the people of Brazil, of Argentina, in Bolivia and many other countries, whose leaders are allied with Chavez, and who greatly admire him for his leadership of the democracy revolution in South America. But, truly, none of these people or their leaders are our "enemy." And I think Obama can learn this, if he doesn't already know it. McCain, on the other hand, is an asshole. He takes his dictates from the Corpo/fascists. And he expects to be--and probably will be--Diebolded into office, as his reward.
There, I said it. The Corpo/fascists have the capability--the EASY capability--to insert the SECRET programming code that (s)elects McCain and his Lipstick to preside over the end of U.S. democracy--and the likelihood is that they will use it. When have Corpo/fascists ever had such power and didn't use it? I think there is a chance that the Corpos might let Obama win, for their own nefarious purposes. They really are in very big trouble in South America, for instance--and in increasing trouble in Central America. The leftist trend in South America is overwhelming--and it is a smart left, too, not only committed to social justice, but also to economic independence, self-determination and cooperation among countries. South America has already formed a South American "Common Market" (UNASUR), with plans to extend to all of Latin America (and not including the U.S.) The U.S.-dominated World Bank/IMF loan sharks have basically been evicted from South America. The corrupt, failed, murderous U.S. "war on drugs" is being evicted from many countries. And now U.S./Bush ambassadors are being evicted--for their nefarious activities in Bolivia and Venezuela.
Here's a list of the leftist governments in South America: Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Brazil and Chile. Of these, the first six are strongly leftist. Brazil is center-left but strongly allied with the leftists. Chile is center-left and a weaker ally. This leaves only the two outliers--Colombia (Bush Cartel client state--with a truly evil government), and Peru (run by corrupt 'free tradists," with a 20% approval rating--likely to be ousted in the next election). The most startling development was the recent election of a leftist in Paraguay--after 61 years of rightwing rule (including a heinous dictatorship).
In Central America, the Sandinistas were elected in Nicaragua (strongly allied with the South American leftists). Last week, Honduras (HONDURAS!) gave the Bushites the finger, and joined the Bolivarian trade group, ALBA--and yesterday, they snubbed the new U.S. ambassador, in sympathy with Bolivia. Leftists are ahead in the polls in El Salvador and Panama. Guatemala just elected its first progressive government, ever. And Mexico came within a hairsbreadth--0.05%--of electing a leftist a couple of years ago (and may well elect him next time round).
The time's they are a-changin'! And what this means for U.S. Corpos is that their nasty habits of resource plunder, pollution, labor oppression and looting of economies and governments in South America are being curtailed (except in Colombia--and, for the time being, in Peru), and that trend is quickly moving north. So, either they are going to go out in a flaming blaze of war--trying to regain corporate control of some of those resources (as they are trying to do in Bolivia, and have plans to do in Venezuela and Ecuador)--an insane policy that will fail--or they're going to have to get used to playing nice, at least for a while.
This is one reason they may permit Obama to win. The situation for U.S. Corpos in South America is critical. We could already be looking at permanent alienation between the northern and southern halves of this hemisphere. It is a distinct possibility that Argentina and Brazil will also eject the U.S.-Bush ambassadors from their countries, for the mess that the Bushwhacks have created in Bolivia. Argentina and Brazil are Bolivia's chief gas customers. The white separatists in Bolivia--supported, funded, 'trained' by the Bushwhacks--are blowing up their pipelines, for godssakes! They can't put up with this. U.S. ambassadors, as we know, are Corpo ambassadors. If the situation deteriorates further, between South America and the Bush junta, our Corpos may find that they, too, are 'persona non grata.'
One more thing: Argentina and Brazil just announced that they are going off the U.S. dollar. They are no longer being dictated to by the U.S. And they are strong allies of Hugo Chavez, Evo Morales and Rafael Correa (Ecuador). They are all democrats with a small d. They are all committed to common goals of social justice and self-determination. I think they will act in concert, as to this Bolivian situation (and other Bushwhack plots). Argentina and Brazil may try diplomacy first, but if they can't get the Bush junta to back off, we may well see "the shape of things to come" unfold in the immediate future, with these South American countries unified against the U.S.
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