Barton and other Congress critters say in the letter,
... during a September 16, 2005, interview with Ted Koppel on Nightline, President Chavez boasted of being “friends” with Fidel Castro and other decidedly anti-American foreign political figures
This is incomplete. I remember that Koppel interview. Chavez said he was friendly with everybody, kings, queens, presidents, prime ministers - he had a wonderful relationship with Clinton. There is now a problem with George Bush, not with anybody else, and certainly not with the American people. (Chavez also said that the US was repeatedly trying to overthrow his government, but Koppel was quite skeptical.)
I imagine that in those areas where Citgo is providing cheaper heating oil, the Congressmen and other politicians were delighted, and if there are threats to the supply, they will let Barton know what they think of him.
Front page photos of poor people being deprived of heating oil aren't going to play well, and this is an election year.
This article
http://www.arkansasnews.com/arch...own/
333895.html
says that Barton acts on behalf of the oil lobbyists:
"Only Rep. Vic Snyder admitted that Congress missed a chance to really do something about America's reliance on foreign oil when it passed the Energy Policy Act of 2005 - do-nothing legislation crafted by the oil lobby's own bought-and-paid-for lawmaker, Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas.
The article has some interesting points as well as some inaccuracies.
Well, heck, the world is a strange place. In this corner of the world...
They have indicted some really upright Venezuelans for TREASON and want them sentenced to 16 to 23 years in prison because they received $53000 from the NED (which they declared in full) and used it on their NGO, of the name SUMATE.
Or they really have it in for them for demanding some electoral transparency? Or maybe for exposing the skullduggery present in the Electoral Council? All conspiracy theories on my part he he...
But of course the SUMATE guys should be shot!!! nay sentenced...
Lorenzo, I thought the SUMATE case got thrown out by a "Chavez controlled" court, or did that news not yet get to you?
Owl,
Yes on the Nightline interview you are exactly right. I remember very well him saying they were friends with everyone except Bush. The guy didn't substantiate anything in the letter.
And great digging on that article - this guy sure does seem to be "bought and paid for". I didn't see anything on his web site about stopping the royalty give away. I guess its ok with him because some of it is winding up back in his campiegn treasury.
OT
Great news from Haiti. Preval declared president: "Preval wins with 51.15 percent"
Indeed elliv, that is good news. I just hope that Preval did not make any deals with the empire or the elite and that he starts setting the nation on a more democratic and lawful path.
About this Barton thing--I am suprised that the corporate media and its flunkies havn't attacked this program more vociferously to this point.
But this does show how low the pundit class here in the US has become. Largely they are paid hacks for the most powerful corporate and repressive interests; they don't give two shits about average US citizens as they pimp the latest tax break scams, oil reserve give-aways, and austerity directed at the poorest.
The only thing that gives me solace at this point is that knowledge that 'one day' there will be hell to pay, and that as the US corporate/political class keep attacking the carcass of the body politic here in the US they simultaneously make their Hitlerite imperialist aspirations that much more difficult to attain.
Yeah, Elliv I saw the headline but haven't read the details. What a bunch of BS though. And I, like SR, fear this guy had to sign on the dotted line just to get his votes recognized so now he is beholden to these jerks. Doesn't bode well for him being able to actually govern.
Also, they apparently through out the real votes and just negotiated this!!!! What non-sense. And then the Venezuelan opposition has the audacity to complain about the the CNE!!
Yea ow its sick. But thats the way "democracy" works if U.S. interests are in the stake. I can't find the link now but before U.S. re-installed Aristide in Haiti he had to make a deal with the U.S. government to implement alot of "reforms" (selling out national services like telecommunications, free-trade agreements etc). Well, the U.S felt that Aristide broke some of part of the "deal" so they kicked him out again.
Compare Haiti to Cuba, where U.S. and local oligarchs are not allowed to run the show.
Those who critsize Castro and Cuba for being "undemocratic" or "hard on dissidents" should know whats at stake.
Btw, Human Right Watch (and others) who critisize Cuba for putting US-paid "dissidents" in jail can fu** off.
Even further off topic but talking about "paid dissidents" in the NYT today they reported the US is going to spend $75 million supporting dissidents in Iran this year. THey don't say who gets the money because then the Iranian government could do something about it. Makes you wonder how much money is going to the Venezuelan opposition that we don't know about.
Gotta like this:
AFP
LONDON
Petroleumworld.com 02 16 06
Sixty-six British members of parliament have signed a motion backing Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's political reforms and called for strengthened ties between London and Caracas.
The motion recognised "the progress that is being made by the democractically elected government of Venezuela" in areas such as education, health care and housing for "previously marginalised and excluded" groups.
It noted that they were "an important step in reducing the searing inequalities that characterise Venezuelan society ... (and would) enhance the country's prospects for meeting its millennium development goals".
The MPs called on Britain to acknowledge that the social policies were a model for other developing nations.
It should also support Chavez's administration "in the face of unconstitutional and illegal threats from both internal and external opponents and to work to strengthen ties between the UK and Venezuela".
The early day motion (EDM) -- a method used by MPs to highlight a particular issue -- comes nearly a week after Chavez attacked British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Chavez called for London to hand back its South Atlantic Ocean territory the Falkland Islands to Argentina, which has a long-standing claim on the archipelago, and accused Blair of being a "shameless lackey" of Washington.
Relations between Venezuela and the United States have been strained since the leftist president was elected seven years ago.
Chavez often accuses Washington of plotting against him, and charged it backed an aborted coup in 2002. The Bush administration has expressed concern about his influence in Latin America, particularly his close alliance with Cuba's communist leader Fidel Castro.
The EDM, introduced Tuesday, was preceded a day earlier by a separate one signed by 15 MPs rejecting Chavez's demands over the Falklands and Argentina's claim, urging the government to "declare that the Union Jack (flag) will permanently fly above (the Falklands capital) Port Stanley".
THey don't say who gets the money because then the Iranian government could do something about it.
Yes it's the same thing in Venezuela, USAID censor all the groups they support in Venezuela. Probably NED will do the same.
Sixty-six British members of parliament have signed a motion backing Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's political reforms
Incredible 
Now Bliar can't get away with those lazy lies anymore.
I wonder if there is any way to swap those 66 MPs for 66 members of the US congress, starting with Joe Barton 
It is amazing that this interference into the politics of other nations is so brazen.
Imagine Chavez covertly funding destablization or opposition politics here in the US--they'd be going ape-shit, the bombing would start within a week.
Check out the Ven. opposition's silence on the US political oppression in Haiti. For them it is a given that the US should be able to depose democratically elected governments. They (the Venezuelan opposition) have nothing to worry about--they are not the least bit democratically inclined.
The opposition would have credibility if they had a record of supporting democracy. So far, their actions show them to be supporters of the worst types of political oppression, war crimes, torture, etc.--their silence signals their complicity with the putrid goals of the empire.
But seriously--their hypocrisy knows no limits.
On VTV now, inteview with a U.S. priest bashing US intervension and terror in Latin America.
Ah hes talking about Scool Of Americas. U.S. terrorist training camp. http://www.soaw.org/new/
This guys is a hero. In the name of the U.S. he apolgies to the people of Latin America for all the crimes.
He was a political prisoner in U.S. for 4 years!
His name is Father Roy Bourgeois
http://www.soaw.org/new/article....icle.php?
id=413
if there is a God may he/she/it bless him
Damn, the spanish speaking escualidos are as quick to resort to personal attacks due to an inability to deal with facts as the english speaking ones are.
http://www.noticierodigital.com/...der=asc&
start=0
OW wrote:
"Even further off topic but talking about "paid dissidents" in the NYT today they reported the US is going to spend $75 million supporting dissidents in Iran this year. THey don't say who gets the money because then the Iranian government could do something about it. Makes you wonder how much money is going to the Venezuelan opposition that we don't know about."
Indeed it does. I'll bet Eva Golinger knows, though, and I'm sure Chavez has a fair idea, too...
BTW, apropos US-paid-off Iranian "dissidents", mystery (possibly) solved. I have it on good authority that they're scoping out the Mujahideen-e-Khalq:
http://cfrterrorism.org/groups/
m...mujahedeen.html
Strange bedfellows, but BushCo isn't exactly known for picking good ones (see Chalabi, Allawi, etc.) One would think that the very word "Mujahideen" would be enough to scare them off, but these people don't learn from history--not even their own party's fuck-ups from 20 years ago. And since the useless idiots of Sumate left them with egg on their faces, I guess they have to find a fresh source of blowback now.
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