To "open the ball" is a dance expression the US cavalry borrowed to describe the initiation of a military engagement. Against Native American prey this usually meant to wake the village by firing into the teepees. The US has long been covertly trying to destabilize Venezuela, but recent developments indicate they're escalating "opposition protests" to Syrian proportions. Tunisia and Egypt may have been more spontaneous than the US-coordinated "Color Revolutions" along the former Soviet Bloc and in Iran, but the rollout of Arab Spring into Libya and Syra was entirely US-EU covert ops. With renewed "populist" uprisings cementing the encirclement of Russia, the US has detonated unrest in South America, determined to push the Venezuelan government to extremes. Next the UN will decide someone has exceded the bounds of human rights violations, ignoring of course the real Goliaths of that game.
Tag: Venezuela
Chavez has double-digit lead going into Venezuela’s election this Sunday
Yes, Hugo Chavez is still popular in Venezuela precisely because conditions have improved during his time in office. The US corporate media is calling it 'a close race' despite the polls mainly showing quite the contrary? Why? Because the pro US government opposition to Chavez plans to scream fraud no matter how bad they actually lose, and the US and international corporate and government backers of regime change in Venezuela want to verbally back up the Right Wing's hysteria no matter what? Why wouldn't Hugo Chavez be ahead in the race? His opponent is even more creepy and slimy than Mitt Romney is here in the US, while Chavez is no Barack Obomber. Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez on the election trail. He is expected to win again, but has pledged to abide by the popular vote.
So-called ‘Human Rights Watch’ inserts itself against Hugo Chavez right in the middle of the Venezuelan election
Human Rights Watch doesn't actually much watch out for human rights and defend them where they are really really under attack, because that would expose the Pentagon and Washington D.C. as being the world's major violator of human rights world wide. You won't see them highlighting Iraq, Yemen, Somalia, Bahrain, and Afghanistan in any major manner while the US government is riding roughshod over human rights the most through its incessant promotion of killing and war in these areas of the world. Where you do see them, is inserting themselves with US government-constructed propaganda, in the middle of the Venezuelan election campaign, on the side of the US government-backed guy! Human Rights Watch attacks 'abuse of power' in Venezuela. Now here is what the Human Rights Fund ITSELF says about where their funds to operate come from... Who funds Human Rights Watch? We are a fully independent non-governmental organization, supported by contributions from private individuals and foundations worldwide. In order to maintain our independence, we accept no money from any government, directly or indirectly. Here is what Wikipedia says their monies to operate come from.... The George Soros Open Society Foundation is the primary donor of the Human Rights Watch, contributing $100 Million of $128 Million of contributions and grants received by the HRW in the 2011 financial year. This is not an honest broker of human rights in the world at all! It is Geroge Soros, rich guy, telling us what human rights are, where he thinks they are being violated, and where he finds no problems in them being violated. That last where he finds little violation of human rights is where the Pentagon is operating making its wars at. What a racket has going, and the American corporate media and the Pentagon love the group he funds! Lest anybody forget, it was George Soros funded groups that were largely behind the previous US government supported military coup that tried to topple Chavez, too, and failed.
All Venezuelans have access to medical care while we in US don’t! Why is this?
'The right to health care is guaranteed in the Venezuelan Constitution, which was written and ratified by the people in 1999. Through implementing a state-funded social program called Barrio Adentro, or inside the barrio, free comprehensive health care is available to all Venezuelans.' See A Look at the Venezuelan Healthcare System But funding to give medical care to the poor is something that burns upper Middle Class American and Venezuelan doctors off. They hate it! here from Lancet, the English speaking world's most important medical magazine we can read this... ***Olga Machado de Castillo, a member of the board of directors and secretary of labour relations in the Venezuelan Medical Federation, a staunch opposition group to Chavez, believes the neglected public hospitals have worsened under the current government. The presence of Cuban doctors in the country, she says, forms part of an active discrimination campaign against Venezuelan health professionals. She calls the arrival of Cuban doctors “an invasion”. “One of the problems in the country is the presence of supposed Cuban doctors. We have determined through studies that only one in every ten of these doctors is really qualified to be practising in medicine while the others are simple technicians”, said Castillo. The Federation refuses to acknowledge any advancements or improvements in health under Chavez; it also claims preventable diseases are on the rise, and diseases that had been eradicated in the past have returned once again. The government denies these allegations, saying that reports of tuberculosis and dengue fever outbreaks are media-provoked slander. They also defend Barrio Adentro saying no Venezuelan doctors would do the work of the Cuban medics in impoverished and violent city slums. But the equipment, personnel, and propaganda that has been used in Chavez's social missions has come at a steep financial cost, and has left the staff of the country's long-established public hospitals asking about their share of the money.*** The Venezuelans medical establishment has fought giving access to poor Venezuelans all the way! For these suited upper Middle Class types of doctors, it is a lot easier to make money treating wealthier clients with next to no real medical problems than to actually treat really sick ordinary working people who have limited funds to pay for their care. See Lancet's complete article for all of their report.. Venezuela: Two competing health care systems The article in Lancet is from 2007, but the medical establishment of Venezuela largely fought Chavez all the way, and many of them have become major supporters of the political opposition against the reformer, Chavez, and his reforms. They will tell you that the current Venezuelan medical system is now a disaster. Yes, In a way they are right, because it is a disaster for them! ...though not for Venezuela's poor. So Are Venezuelans better off under Chavez? ___Yes, of course they are, if you are from a poorer barrio and trying to get medical care for yourself or your kids.
Dueling election rallies in Venezuela
The world corporate media claims that Hugo Chavez's opponent for the October presidential election had hundreds of thousands of people rally for their candidate on Sunday. I even saw one report claim that it was a rally of 1,000,000 people against Chavez. But the same media is basically staying quiet about the rally one day later of Chavez supporters, where it is said in reports that only 'thousands attended' and that Chavez looked 'swollen' and still sick. However no matter how many rallied for who though, what remains is that Chavez is far ahead of his competitor according to the polls. It seems that even a still sickly Chavez is preferred by the majority of the poorer portion of the population in Venezuela over a healthy and obnoxious, 39 y/o pretty boy of the upper middle class candidate, the Señorito Henrique Capriles. REPORT- Hugo Chavez launches re-election bid
2 AM, time to piss off the Navy.
So this is the USN "crackerjack" work uniform blouse, from behind. Notice the two stars on a broad field of blue. That's, according to my brother the Sailor, symbolic. The stars stand for the two times the USN fought the Royal Navy, and won. The extra large field is to make room for more stars as needed. A wonderful imperial gesture, yes? "We are mighty, you shall obey us!" Then there's BP. Which was founded as an adjunct to the Royal Navy and had the Royal Navy and even the U.S. Navy fight to secure their supply sources, which, surprise surprise surprise, none of which are actually in England. The propaganda bit they put out when they helped launch World War One, "That small nations might have the same rights as the Great Powers..." purest bullshit. Then as now, it was all about the Rich getting richer and using the blood and labor of the poor to do it. The kicker of it came down this past spring... when British Petroleum, that ol' devilish offshoot of the British Royal Navy, Bitch-slapped the U.S. Navy in American territorial waters. Guess you kids in Uncle Sams Canoe Club should take those stars off? May God have mercy on the next nation who is so unfortunate to discover that they, too, have United States and British oil buried under their sands. They'll be reduced to puppet dictatorships like Iraq and Kuwait and Nigeria and Ghana and Texas and Colorado have. There will be a top social layer of Kiss-Ass Experts like al Maliki and a vast underclass who will either be slaves to the Korporatisch Imperium or hunted, and their children as well, for the "crime" of being insurgents and resisting the Mighty United States and British Military. They'll be "free" do obey, conform, comply.
Panama Banana say that three times real fast…
But there was a strike against the Government run Banana Industry which unlike the traditional "Banana Republic" isn't a government owned by the Banana Industry. Close enough though, they're bought and Paid (on long credit terms) for by American Fat-Cats who believed and their descendants still do that their money and American (not Rich) soldiers providing the Assassinations necessary to maintain that money entitles them to own the whole world. Especially those nations physically closest to our Arbitrarily assigned borders. By the way, Corporate Warfare and Corporate Welfare are two of the key components of Fascism. The government forces attempted to take the Union leaders prisoner, and killed two union members and wounded 120 others (by Government count) three of whom are in hospitals in comas. And under arrest. Probably for violently attacking a Police Billy Club or Gun Muzzle with their foreheads. Repeatedly throwing their heads under the stomping Jack-boots of the Police even after being handcuffed. The workers, Indigenous people mostly, (that's code for "held in perpetual povertyslavery on the basis of Race" by the way) responded by taking 4 of the cops prisoner. Only the Right Wing code for that is "hostages". One of the causes of the strike was the Puppet Government of Panama (guess which American Corporate Government holds the puppet strings) trying, of course not on American orders, that would be silly to contemplate... passed laws forbidding Union Activity especially strikes. The government "graciously" suspended enforcement of the law, temporarily until they can find some way to get enough American gunboats and Marines into the country to put the Union down for good errr... I mean, find some way to Legally enforce it. Panama wasn't the Original "Banana Republic", although it follows the model, have U.S. Corporations, backed by the Military, which they've exempted themselves from paying the bills thereof, incite a "revolution" in the country which doesn't have strong laws to force the people to surrender their lands, resources, freedoms and especially their labor to the corporate Overlords. The "revolutionaries" run into resistance from the non-cooperative government, then call for the United States government to send soldiers to come and rescue them. It's how the Republic of Texas was formed. How the U.S. took over Hawaii. Puerto Rico. Panama. Iraq.... How we got a third of the land area of the Republic of Mexico after our Former Puppet General Antonio Jose y Maria Lopez de Santa Ana didn't provide quite the level of cooperation they had expected. Why Panama was re-taken from the Former Puppet Dictator Manuel Noriega refused to cooperate with the Reagan-Bu'ush Regime, in yet another arranged Coup. Panama was taken from the Republic of Colombia in the exact same manner because Colombia was leaning toward allowing a French firm to build the Canal (which was going to be built regardless) Noriega helped finance the Banana Republic attempted coup in Nicaragua allegedly by being a go-between for Oliver North and the Medellin cocaine growing and marketing industry. The part about the North connection is "erased"
US to send 46 Navy ships to Costa Rica
That's right, it was not Puerto Rico, but Costa Rica, whose congress approved the mobilization of 46 US Navy vessels in its harbors, including the billeting of 7,000 uniformed US Marines to conduct humanitarian and drug-war operations. Did permission come with conditions? It did, but ours, not theirs. Before the US is to visit Costa Rica with 200 helicopters and combat planes, we stipulated that "US personnel in Costa Rica shall enjoy freedom of movement and the right to engage in activities they may consider necessary to fulfill their mission." Opposition parties in Costa Rica complain that such a huge military fleet in their waters will be disproportionate to the requirements of fighting the drug trade, and appears to have its sights further ashore. Meanwhile the US armada off the coast of Iran is being joined by Israeli warships. Fidel Castro wonders at the likelihood they'll move any direction but escalation sooner than retreat with tail between their legs if Iran complies with the latest UN demands.
The Caracas Commitment Si Se Puede
You might imagine the multinational corporate media would blackout the talk of a 5th Socialist International. They are most determined to censor the issues which the world's leftist parties are resolved to address. Where Obama 2008 and Copenhagen 2009 project a vacuum of ideological momentum, check out the Caracas Commitment. The Caracas Commitment November 25, 2009? By Declaration from World Meeting of Left Parties? November 19-21 Caracas, Venezuela Political parties and organizations from Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Oceania commemorate and celebrate the unity and solidarity that brought us together in Caracas, Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, and from this libertarian city we would like to express our revolutionary rebelliousness. We are glad of and committed to the proud presence of the forces of change in a special moment of history. Likewise, we are proud to reaffirm our conviction to definitively sow, grow and win Socialism of the 21st century. In this regard, we want to sign the Commitment of Caracas as a revolutionary guide for the challenges ahead of us. We have gathered with the aim of unifying criteria and giving concrete answers that allow us to defend our sovereignty, our social victories, and the freedom of our peoples in the face of the generalized crisis of the world capitalist system and the new threats spreading over our region and the whole world with the establishment and strengthening of military bases in the sister republics of Colombia, Panama, Aruba, Curacao, the Dutch Antilles, as well as the aggression against Ecuadorian territory, and the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. We consider that the world capitalist system is going through one of its most severe crises, which has shaken its very foundations and brought with it consequences that jeopardize the survival of humanity. Likewise, capitalism and the logic of capital, destroys the environment and biodiversity, bringing with it consequences of climate change, global warming and the destruction of life. One of the epicentres of the capitalist crisis is in the economic domain; this highlights the limitations of unbridled free markets ruled by private monopolies. In this situation, some governments have been asked to intervene to prevent the collapse of vital economic sectors, for instance, through the implementation of bailouts to bank institutions that amount to hundreds of billions of dollars. Said governments have been asked to stimulate their economies by increasing public expenditure in order to mitigate the recession and the private sector decline, which evidences the end of the supposedly irrefutable “truth” of neo-liberalism that of non-intervention of the State in economic affairs. In this regard, it is very timely to promote an in-depth discussion on the economic crisis, the role of the State and the construction of a new financial architecture. In summary, the capitalist crisis cannot be reduced simply to a financial crisis; it is a structural crisis of capital which combines the economic crisis, with an ecological crisis, a food crisis, and an energy crisis, which together represents a mortal threat to humanity and mother earth. Faced with this crisis, left-wing movements and parties see
Top 10 secret armies of the CIA
Found this on the web, will try to retrace provenance, worth a read: The United States have a well known history of providing military support to countries in need. But from time to time, the US Government has provided secret forces. While many are successful, there have also been a number of failures. This is a list of the ten top secret armies of the CIA. 1. Ukrainian Partisans From 1945 to 1952 the CIA trained and aerially supplied Ukranian partisan units which had originally been organised by he Germans to fight the Soviets during WWII. For seven years, the partisans, operating in the Carpathian Mountains, made sporadic attacks. Finally in 1952, a massive Soviet military force wiped them out. 2. Chinese Brigade in Burma After the Communist victory in China, Nationalist Chinese soldiers fled into northern Burma. During the early 1950s, the CIA used these soldiers to create a 12,000 man brigade which made raids into Red China. However, the Nationalist soldiers found it more profitable to monopolise the local opium trade. 3. Guatemalan Rebel Army After Guatemalan president Jacobo Arbenz legalised that country’s communist party and expropriated 400,000 acres of United Fruit banana plantations, the CIA decided to overthrow his government. Guatemalan rebels were trained in Honduras and backed up with a CIA air contingent of bombers and fighter planes. This army invaded Guatemala in 1954, promptly toppling Arbenz’s regine. 4. Sumatran Rebels In an attempt to overthrow Indonesian president Sukarno in 1958, the CIA sent paramilitary experts and radio operators to the island of Sumatra to organise a revolt. With CIA air support, the rebel army attacked but was quickly defeated. The American government denied involvement even after a CIA b-26 was shot down and its CIA pilot, Allen Pope, was captured. 5. Khamba Horsemen After the 1950 Chinese invasion of Tibet, the CIA began recruiting Khamba horsemen - fierce warriors who supported Tibet’s religious leader, the Dalai Lama - as they escaped into India in 1959. These Khambas were trained in modern warfare at Camp Hale, high in the rocky mountains near Leadville, Colorado. Transported back to Tibet by the CIA operated Air American, the Khambas organised an army number at its peak some 14,000. By the mid-1960s the Khambas had been abandoned by the CIA but they fought on alone until 1970. 6. Bay of Pigs Invasion Force In 1960, CIA operatives recruited 1,500 Cuban refugees living in Miami and staged a surprise attack on Fidel Castro’s Cuba. Trained at a base in Guatemala, this small army - complete with an air force consisting of B-26 bombers - landed at the Bay of Pigs on April 19, 1961. The ill-conceived, poorly planned operation ended in disaster, since all but 150 men of the force were either killed or captured within three days. 7. L’armee Clandestine In 1962, CIA agents recruited Meo tribesmen living in the mountains of Laos to fight as guerrillas against Communist Pathet Lao forces. Called l’armee Clandestine, this unit - paid, trained, and supplied by the CIA - grew into a 30,000 man force. By 1975
Rock Creek Free Press available in COS
The Rock Creek Free Press is available online, but if you want it in print, the DC monthly is available in Colorado Springs at the Bookman, 3163 W. Colorado. The September issue features a speech given by legendary Australian journalist John Pilger on July 4th in San Francisco. Here's the RCFP transcript: Two years ago I spoke at “Socialism in Chicago” about an invisible government which is a term used by Edward Bernays, one the founders of modern propaganda. It was Bernays, who in the 1920s invented public relations as a euphemism for propaganda. And it was Bernays, deploying the ideas of his uncle Sigmund Freud, who campaigned on behalf of the tobacco industry for women to take up smoking as an act of feminist liberation calling cigarettes “tortures of freedom”. At the same time he was involved in the disinformation which was critical in overthrowing the Arbenz government in Guatemala. So you have the association of cigarettes and regime change. The invisible government that Bernays had in mind brought together all media: PR, the press, broadcasting, advertising and their power of branding and image making. In other words, disinformation. And I suppose I would like to talk today about this invisible government’s most recent achievement, the rise of Barrack Obama and the silencing of much of the left. But all of this has a history, of course and I’d like to go back, take you back some forty years to a sultry and, for me, very memorable day in Viet Nam. I was a young war correspondent who had just arrived in a village in the Central Highlands called Tuylon. My assignment was to write about a unit of US Marines who had been sent to the village to win hearts and minds. “My orders,” said the Marine Sergeant, “are to sell the American way of liberty, as stated in the Pacification Handbook, this is designed to win the hearts and minds of folks as stated on page 86.” Now, page 86 was headed in capital letters: WHAM (winning hearts and minds). The Marine Unit was a combined action company which explained the Sergeant, meant, “We attack these folks on Mondays and we win their hearts and minds on Tuesdays.” He was joking, of course, but not quite. The Sergeant, who didn’t speak Vietnamese, had arrived in the village, stood up on a Jeep and said through a bullhorn: “Come on out everybody we’ve got rice and candies and toothbrushes to give you.” This was greeted by silence. “Now listen, either you gooks come on out or we’re going to come right in there and get you!” Now the people of Tuylon finally came out and they stood in line to receive packets of Uncle Ben’s Miracle Rice, Hershey Bars, party balloons, and several thousand toothbrushes. Three portable, battery operated, yellow, flush lavatories were held back for the arrival of the colonel. And when the colonel arrived that evening, the district chief was summoned and the yellow, flush lavatories unveiled. The colonel
Who killed Neda Agha-Soltan?
The video footage is shocking. An attractive young woman watching the demonstrations in Tehran is struck by a sniper's bullet and dies before several video cameras. The tragedy is projected unto Facebook and Youtube, with advocates hoping it will galvanize (American) public support for the brave reform movement in Iran. News accounts blame "Basij snipers" on the rooftops. Other protesters have been killed in confrontations with Iranian riot police, without the benefit of video witnesses, much like two million Iraqis, Afghans, Pakistanis et al. Poor 27-year-old bystander Neda Soltani stood at the quite improbable convergence of bullet and camera --correction-- cameras. I don't have to suggest the scene was staged; whether or not the triggerman was an American is immaterial. Think about just the improbability of your seeing this video. When was the last time the mainstream press has circulated a snuff film? The average person is embarrassed to watch a person die. It's exploitive. Even when America was fixated on beheaded hostages, our television gatekeepers refused to broadcast the footage. Many horrific war killing moments have found their way unto Youtube, which antiwar activists could only hope would find wider distribution, if only to bring home the inhumanity of our soldiers' deeds. It never happens. The western press is running with this story because it demonizes the apparently naked inhumanity of Islam. Muslims stone women, hang gays, look: the bastards shoot their own people arbitrarily. Curiously our media doesn't make hay with the hapless victims of US snipers. The Neda Soltani snuff footage hit internet shores prepackaged with a smiling mug, and a name that translated means "the voice." Could a casting director have picked a better title character to represent Iran's repressed? The western press is even poised to outdo the Muslims in indignant piety, already lauding Neda as a martyr, whom we are informed should launch a thousand Shiite funeral processions. Western pundits compare Neda to the first Shiite martyr, the grandson of Mohammed himself. Of course, also showing excessive Islamic sensitivity, western reporters readily dismiss the vanishing of Neda's body, to the Muslim tradition of hasty burials. For the record, in case you missed it, Neda dies onscreen from an apparent gunshot. We do not see the bullet strike, nor now can anyone habeas corpus. If the scenario was acted entirely, given the success with which the girl's face is being made into an icon, young Neda's life is probably as utterly expendable now as already depicted. You think you're mourning Neda now, imagine her fate if this is a hoax. OR the gunman could just as well have been a US black-op hit-man who had his eye on the videographers approaching innocent Neda. The US military has long admitted that special forces are already operating in Iran. If the Iranian forces are shooting civilian protesters, what's the harm of helping them out where there's a camera ready? When we're not meant to see it, the soldiers shoot the cameramen too. It could be the work of Moussavi henchmen, who are
Cuba declines OAS offer of Trojan Horse
Over US objections, the Organization of American States (OAS, OEA) voted to invite Cuba back into the fold, from which it had been expelled in 1962 for hanging with Communists. Cuba's reply? No thanks! Although Cuba's acceptance by fellow nations was hailed a victory, Fidel Castro wrote: "It is naive to think that the good intentions of one president justifies the existence of a body that... supported... neoliberalism, drug trafficking, military bases and economic crises." In an essay published the day before Cuba's official repudiation of the offer to recommit to the OAS, Fidel Castro recalled a lesson from the siege of Troy. Castro was reported widely as having called the OAS a "U.S. Trojan horse." In reality, Castro blamed the OAS for having "opened the gates" to the Trojan horse of US post-colonial despotism. The Trojan horse RAFAEL Correa, president of Ecuador, currently visiting Honduras, stated the day before the OAS meeting: "I believe that the OAS has lost its raison d’être, maybe it never had a raison d’être." The news, circulated by ANSA, adds that Correa, "prophesized ‘the demise’ of that organization given the many errors it has committed." He affirmed "that the countries of the American continent, given their geographic conditions, cannot all be put ‘in the same basket.’ And for that reason Ecuador proposed some months back the creation of the Organization of Latin American States. "’It is not possible for the region’s problems to be discussed in Washington; let us construct something of our own, without countries alien to our culture, our values, and obviously including countries that were inexplicably separated from the inter-American system, and I am referring to the concrete case of Cuba… that was a tremendous shame and demonstrates the double standards that exist in international relations.’" On his arrival in Honduras, both President Zelaya and Correa stated that "The OAS must be reformed and reincorporate Cuba; if not, it will have to disappear." Another cable from the DPA news agency affirms: "Cuba’s reintegration in the Organization of American States (OAS) has moved from being an issue per se of the organization’s General Assembly in Honduran San Pedro Sula, to once again being turned into an excuse for a struggle of interests that goes much further than the limits of the Caribbean island and could (once again) call hemispheric relations into question. "The president of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, made that very clear on describing the hemispheric meeting that begins this Tuesday in Honduras in quasi military terms. "It will be," he said, an ‘interesting battle’ in which if it is demonstrated that the OAS ‘continues being a ministry of the colonies’ that is not transformed in order ‘to subordinate itself to the will of the governments comprising it,’ it will be necessary to propose ‘leaving’ the organization and creating an alternative." "’Latin American countries are making Cuba the litmus test for the quality of the Obama administration's approach to Latin America," Julia E. Sweig, a Cuba scholar at the Council on Foreign Relations, told The Washington Post on the
Zionist Right Wing launches new effort to fire another Left university professor
University of California- Santa Barbara Sociology and Global Studies Professor, William Robinson, is under attack from the Jewish Anti-Defamation League for having spoken out against Israeli military atrocities in Gaza. Their position is quite simple and is that he should either shut up or be fired. See The Robinson Case A quick view of his defense site shows that this professor and his supporters are quite aware of the nature of this enemy of free speech they are up against. See Academic Freedom in the News The Anti-Defamation League perversely spends much of its time trying to shut people up and defame them, so to speak. As another example of how this works, see the recent Right Wing attacks against President Obama himself for having shook hands with President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. Below is a passage of a news report about Obama and Hugo Chavez's meeting last week. 'Obama returned to Washington early Sunday evening. But even before he got back, Obama was facing condemnation from some Republicans about how he dealt with Chavez. "I think it was irresponsible for the president to be seen kind of laughing and joking with Hugo Chavez," said Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev.' While the Anti-Defamation League itself is not trying directly to remove Obama from office (they love Obama's selection of Rahm Emanuel as Chief of Staff way too much!), they do have a campaign going full steam to falsely label Hugo Chavez as being antisemitic. See ADL's report below... "What is troubling about Venezuela is that anti-Semitism is being used as a political tool," Mr. Foxman said. "Anti-Semitism is fostered by those at the highest levels of government, trickled down the government apparatus and left unchallenged by officials in the Chavez regime, the government-controlled media, and civic and religious leaders who support the regime in Venezuela. "We are encouraged by the many expressions of support for the Venezuelan Jewish community coming from opposition politicians and independent media outlets, who we believe more accurately reflect the views and feelings of the vast majority of the Venezuelan people." That is an excerpt from their website's ADL Report: Venezuelan Jewish Community Under Threat Coming after the US coup attempt and kidnapping of Hugo Chavez, one rather imagines that the ADL has the whole situation backwards. It is not the Chavez government that is anti-Semitic at all, but rather that it is the Right Wing Zionist Movement that is anti-Chavez. They want him removed just like they want all radical Left antiwar professors removed from their academic posts inside the US. And the ADL campaign against Venezuela's current government moves hand in hand with the Republican campaign against Obama for shaking hands and laughing alongside Hugo Chavez. Both the Republican Right and the ADL simply want to stifle all views critical of US foreign policy and Israeli government policy. This Israeli-made campaign to silence and trash all critics of
The Battle Line ahead
Hugo Chavez has message for Obama
Hugo Chavez met Barack Obama at the Summit of the Americas, and presented this gift to the American president: "The Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent" by Uruguayan author Eduardo Galeano. At the United Nations General Assembly in 2006, Chavez held aloft Noam Chomsky's "Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance," encouraging everyone to read it. Is there a common theme to the dark-skinned Chavez's book recommendations? Chavez' critics from the Venezuelan upper middle class think he's no brighter than a monkey. His message, educate yourselves. Eduardo Galeano was interviewed by Amy Goodman on the day Barack Obama learned he had won the election. Galeano had this hope for the first US President of color: that he never forget that the White House, his new home, had been built by black slaves. By the way, Galeano's classic, with which Hugo Chavez hopes to bring Obama up to speed, was published in 1971. When Obama won the 2008 election, Eduardo Galeano wrote this essay: I HOPE. 10 November 2008 Will Obama prove, at the helm of government, that his threats of war against Iran and Pakistan were only words, broadcast to seduce difficult ears during the election campaign? I hope. And I hope he will not fall, even for a moment, for the temptation to repeat the exploits of George W. Bush. After all, Obama had the dignity to vote against the Iraq war, while the Democratic and Republican parties were applauding the announcement of this carnage. In his campaign, the word most often repeated in his speeches was leadership. In his administration, will he continue to believe that his country has been chosen to save the world, a toxic idea that he shares with almost all his colleagues? Will he insist on the United States’ global leadership and its messianic mission to take command? I hope the current crisis, which is shaking the imperial foundations, will serve at least to give the new administration a bath of realism and humility. Will Obama accept that racism is normal when it is used against the countries that his country invades? Isn’t it racism to count the deaths of invaders in Iraq, one by one, and arrogantly ignore the many dead among the invaded population? Isn’t this world racist, where there are first-, second-, and third-class citizens, and the first-. second-, and third-class dead? Obama’s victory was universally hailed as a battle won against racism. I hope he will assume, in his acts of government, this great responsibility. Will the Obama government confirm, once again, that the Democratic Party and the Republican Party are two names of the same party? I hope the desire for change, which these elections have established, will be more than a promise and more than a hope. I hope the new government has the courage to break with the tradition of the one and only party, disguised as two parties which at the moment of truth do more or less the same thing while
American Corners: centers for organizing American government subversion
American Corners is a US government subversion program that operates multiple centers abroad to disrupt opposition to American foreign policy. See Conspiracy and Propaganda Centers: Illegal US Consulates in Venezuela. OK, one might think that this commentary about them exaggerates or is paranoid, or is misleading in some way, so let's examine one of these US government 'Corners' of subversion located in Israel. See American Corner Jericho. Here the effort to subvert is not directed against the Israeli government, but against the Palestinian opposition to that Jewish State dictatorship. The basic political program is- Accept our money and become corrupted by us. This is the policy everywhere they are in operation. It is the policy of dangling carrots in front of donkeys. Just how does American government subversion via the American Corner centers work? This American Corner Serbia is very illustrativ. Notice that the multi-national country of Yugoslavia has been completely ideologically deconstructed by the US government here. It is not called 'American Corner Yugoslavia', though this 'Corner' is located in Belgrade, but merely given the deconstructed name 'American Corner Serbia'. Notice too the cartoonish character of the site as it leads you finally to the nutty gritty of 'discussion' with... U.S. & SERBIAN MILITARY COOPERATION Colonel von Tersch U.S. Military Attache U.S. Embassy Belgrade There is talk of 7 American Corners located in 'Serbia'. The subversion level attacks at the level of the knees, to cripple and deconstruct the entire idea of a valid Yugoslavian nationhood. At the African Regional Services of the American Corner Paris program, we are told quite directly, among the Laura Bush 'Favorite Books' style literary display there, that ... 'Please note that no direct order from persons in charge of American Corners will be considered: To be valid, the order must be approved and sent by the U.S. Embassy Public Affairs Section.' So cute, and so direct to the point, too. The American Corners in Okinawa operates to keep the US military base ongoing at that site in Japan national territory. Not that the idea is very popular with the people of Okinawa itself. How about some of this American Happy Face at an America Corner in the Arab World? Surfin' U.S.A.! at MCBS On February 18, Embassy Muscat's Defense Attach Col. Mark Avery enthralled a full house of approximately 50 students at the American Corner at Modern College of Business and Science (MCBS) with tales of surfing in his home state of Hawaii. Explaining how surfing was originally permitted only for Hawaiian kings on huge boards cut from old-growth forests, the Colonel described the sport's modern manifestations. He discussed the surfing craze of the 1960s that spurred even American Midwesterners who lived hundreds of miles from ocean waves to buy surf boards, and he introduced surfing music like the "Beach Boys." The students especially enjoyed the Colonel's photographs of his favorite surfing spots in Oman, and appreciated his use
Tex Allen The Crook joins Bernie the Bad Billionaire headed for prison
Sure, Tex Al calls himself 'Sir Allen' Stanford and likes to host cricket tournaments, but he's a fifth generation ordinary Texas business crook and not some Grand British Lawdy. He's going to jail soon! US tycoon charged over $8bn fraud. And there he will most likely join the aging Bernard Madoff, whose white crime haul was well over $50 billion. Oops! 'Bernie' still is not in jail despite stealing more than anybody else ever did from duh people! He is free on bail but must stay at his Upper East Side apartment. America really is a get tough on crime country, aren't we? 'Sir Allen' specialized in robbing the Latin American 'investors'. Hundreds line up at Stanford offices in Venezuela So how did our ever so lert SEC and FBI find out about this guy? He's a tricky Texas business class criminal, sin't he? Strangely enough, the answer may well be because Hugo Chavez, President of Venezuela, investigated him first? Yes he did! 'Officials from Venezuelan military intelligence raided a branch of Sir Allen Stanford's offshore bank over claims that its employees were paid by the CIA to spy on the south American country.' ...taken from Cricket tycoon Sir Allen Stanford caught up in spying row That happened early last November and now our lert American Federal officials nabbed the big guy! Crime ever pays, Bernie! Psst... (that's Sir Allen with another man's wife on his knee in the pic.... Bad Boy, Sir Allen!)
Hugo Chavez will liberate the Americas
When I was in Venezuela, I remember President Hugo Chavez was derided for thinking himself heir to the aspirations of the great Simon Bolivar. I remember laughing myself. You don't compare yourself to Washington, or Napoleon for that matter. Though no doubt the world laughed at their ambitions too. Affluent Venezuelans didn't like Chavez, and as a result neither did the press. They depicted him as an uneducated monkey, a dark-skinned un-sophisticate, hoping his ego would eventually be humiliated by his inadequate aptitude for walking upright. Could the Spanish blue-blood snobs have been more wrong? I was sweating this election, knowing that the US has been waging a full out subversive war to remove the outspoken anti-American. Chavez's work is not done, but sitting on Venezuela's incomparable oil reserves, he is not far from getting there. If American incumbents can hang on in the Senate until their 90s, certainly Chavez should be able to ride out his populist appeal to lengths like Fidel Castro or Mao or other bigger than life icons. Venezuelan voters removing the term limits which would hinder a continued Chavez rule, is a victory not only for Venezuela, not only for Latin America, but for all non-aligned nations, and in the end, for all people. Finally a social-conscious reformer blessed with a big stick, big oil. Congratulations Mr. Chavez. You are indeed the Bolivarian liberator who rises against the oppressive New World Order.
Venezuelans kick D.C. in the butt
Venezuela's Chavez wins vote to allow re-election All that control over the press and the Gringos still can't convince the Venezuelans to let them back into the country once again! Don't cry for D.C. though, since they'll just keep trying, keep trying, and let's hope they just keep crying, Latin America. Next election victory will be in El Salvador next month. Goodbye, D.C.! Take your Monroe Doctrine and stuff it!
Misery, poverty, unemployment are growing, and global capitalism is largely to blame
"Misery, poverty, unemployment are growing, and global capitalism is largely to blame," Chavez said in a convention center before 10,000 of the estimated 100,000 people gathered at the World Social Forum held in Belem, Brazil. Earlier in the day, advocates for landless Brazilians gathered in a sweltering gymnasium and roared in approval as Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa belted out the Cuban classic "Comandante Che Guevara." South American leaders came together at the anti-Davos forum with Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, Bolivia's Evo Morales and Paraguay's Fernando Lugo joining Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on stage at the very large gathering of those opposed to the ravages of international capitalism in South America and elsewhere. So who says that the anti-capitalist Left is dead? It is not at all and Latin America is the epicenter of the resistance to this diseased economic system that is destroying the Planet Earth for good. Don't expect this information to appear on your TV screen though. The sponsors just wouldn't except that, now would they? You're under an information blockade here in the US, and as the saying goes... The Revolution Will Not Be Televised. (*note- the photo is from a previous World Social Forum gathering)
Nonviolent vigils will be death of Gazans
GAZA PROTESTS PROLIFERATE! Demonstrators are occupying Israeli consulates, storming embassies, harassing pro-Israeli rallies, and spilling blood on Zionist memorials. Not that anything is working so far. Meanwhile, in non-stories for the press, the usual non-confrontational passivists are lighting candles in memory of the slain. Are they anticipating, in their non-violent wisdom, the eminent extinction of the Palestinians of Gaza? Pacifists seem more comfortable to commemorate the ideological sacrifice of martyrs sooner than advocate for the survival of the endangered. Others are not content to mourn Zionism's ultimate triumph. Here's the best analysis yet I've encountered for antiwar strategists. In Caracas, the protests have the support of the state. Venezuelan president Chavez expelled the Israeli Ambassador and called his nation's Jews to repudiate Israel's inhumanity in Gaza: “Now I hope that the Venezuelan Jewish community speaks out against this barbarism. Do it. Don't you strongly reject all acts of persecution?” Here is the Free Palestine Alliance statement released January 9, 2008: The Massacre Intensifies: As we prepare this thirteenth FPA statement, the Zionist army was continuing what it does best the wholesale slaughter of children and unarmed civilians. As would be expected of the current state of affairs of the US-controlled international scene, the massacre of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip is continuing despite yesterday's feeble UN Security Council resolution that calls for Israel to immediately stop its attack. Actually, the US-Zionist leadership went the other way -- more and more attacks. The Israeli Zionist army was given additional orders to escalate the conquest as it enters into a third phase of obliteration. Simultaneously as the Israeli cabinet was giving orders for a higher kill and destruction ratio, the US Senate was not going to be outdone by Zionists. It had to add to its long and shameful record. So it secretly issued a fast-tracked resolution fully supporting the ongoing massacre and giving Israel the needed cover. We ask, is this Senate resolution in the best interest of the people of the US? But is it not the legacy and norm of the US-Israeli alliance to discard the will of the people of the US and the world. Is it not their norm to discard any and all UN resolutions that may remotely disagree with their strategic plans? The examples are far too many to list, including both UN General Assembly and Security Council resolutions dating as far back as 1947. Yesterday's UN resolution was approved by 14 of the 15 nations that currently sit on the Security Council, with the US abstaining. As would be expected, the resolution did not address the deadly siege that has been imposed on the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, nor did it condemn outright the fascistic actions of the Zionist polity. Sadly, Palestinian victims have now reached at least 800 murdered and more than 3,300 injured. And these numbers are certain to climb substantially. Yesterday alone, fifty Palestinians were found murdered under their destroyed
Obama outed himself as a bigot when he crawled into bed with Rick Warren
Just like Clinton, Obama won't hesitate to throw gays to the dogs if he thinks it will buy him a single vote from the rabid right. I told you he wasn't to be trusted. And just as we saw with Prop 8, most of the black community only wants equal rights for themselves, not anybody else. Say it out loud: Barack Obama is a coward. Of course, Obama openly declared his bigotry against gays before the election, declaring they did not deserve equal rights in marriage. So this really shouldn't surprise anyone that he would flip off the gay community like this. "Change we can believe in," my ass. During the campaign, I had so many arguments with his supporters, who insisted that he was the miracle that would make everything right with America. When confronted with the reality of his positions (as on gays) they would insist that was only to get elected, but, "just you watch," once he was, then we would see the "real Obama." Well, Ladies and Germs, the election is over, and there it is: the REAL Obama — flipping the bird to his supporters. Only a moron would think his hiring every right winger he can find somehow doesn't mean his is going to be a right wing administration. What, am I the only one who realized what being a Chicago politician meant? It means he's an asshole who can't be trusted. But now I suspect a lot of his supporters are beginning to realize that. Though there will always be those who will defend him, no matter what — just like those Republicans who constantly made excuses for Dubya, or those born-again Christians who spend their entire lives dreaming up excuses for their "god." People are pathetically stupid. Disgraced: 66 nations in the UN have backed a resolution decriminalizing homosexuality. Big hold outs: the USA, Russia, China, and the Vatican. The nations that are more progressive than this dying backwater: Albania, Andorra, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chile, Colombia, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Estonia, Finland, France, Gabon, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Guinea-Bissau, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Montenegro, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Paraguay, Poland, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Sao Tome and Principe, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Timor-Leste, United Kingdom, Uruguay, and Venezuela. Excerpts from Thomas McCullock's Dec 29 notes, thomasmc.com.
Noam Chomsky criticizes Human Rights Watch’s pro US government propaganda
In an open letter to the Board of Directors of Human Rights Watch, over 100 experts on Latin America criticized the organization's recent report on Venezuela, A Decade Under Chávez: Political Intolerance and Lost Opportunities for Advancing Human Rights in Venezuela, saying that it "does not meet even the most minimal standards of scholarship, impartiality, accuracy, or credibility." Thus begins a letter signed by More Than 100 Experts (whom) Question Human Rights Watch's Venezuela Report, including Noam Chomsky. It's about time that this phony front for the US State Department's foreign policy objectives, claiming to be a human rights organization, gets taken to task for its reactionary posturing. Too often, many corporate funded 'non governmental organizations' (NGOs) are given a pass on the propaganda they spread, often times in the cause of supporting US governmental interventionism (sanctions, war, etc.) against other countries. Many of these organizations spout a lot of seemingly liberal rhetoric, but their goals are in line with the most reactionary US governmental goals, policies and objectives. It's nice to see Noam Chomsky lending his name to the list of signatories here. That means that many who might not have paid any attention to this criticism of Human Rights Watch, may now look up and take some notice about how this group is funded and operates?
US imperialism in check with Detente
First there's Georgia, where Russia pushes back US efforts to muscle further NATO expansion. Then in our own hemisphere, Bolivia and Venezuela expel their US ambassadors, as Russian long range bombers land in South America in advance of joint naval maneuvers in the Caribbean. It's not a resumption of the Cold War with the USSR, Russia is advancing no Communist Iron Curtain. But could a rival super power, in league with the unaligned nations, be a challenge to US hegemony? We could hope so.