BTW, want to see why they are so desperate to get rid of Chavez's TV show "Alo Presidente"? Take a look at this:
http://oilwars.blogspot.com/2005...f-
contrast.html
Images of Chavez using the program to inaugerate great new programs, in this case new sophisticated ambulatory clinics, is not something the opposition can stomach. And of course these images of Chavez doing great things fro the country give him an unfair eletoral advantage 
I know the post is on the polls but your links have to be the best summary of the pernicious effects of the "opposition" on Venezuela that I have ever seen.
Kudos on the excellent blog.
I am always amazed at your capacity of spin, OW. You know Alo Presidente should be banned, but since you cannot find good solid arguments to justify that the biased CNE keeps the program, then you decide on a good ol'chavista tactic: attack the messenger.
So now, according to you, whoever opposes Chavez is "the opposition" which, conveniently, in your adopted and translated Chavista terminology, englobes anybody that opposes or dissents with the autocratic president of Venezuela.
That has been the Chavista tactic since day one. If one opposes the President, then one must be a "tiny rejected minority who go around saying Venezuela is not a democracy".
BTW the polls results showing the rejection against the opposition refers to the traditional opposition parties, it has nothing to do with the individuals that oppose Chavez, like myself.
In fact, OW, remember that, if there was no cheating in the RR, at least 40% of Venezuelans were desperate to remove Chavez from office two years ago. So desperate that they risked political blacklisting to get rid of Chavez. This, OW, is not a "tiny minority".
It was a good try on your part OW, but I don't think that your readers are fooled by your spinning rethoric.
You know that Alo Presidente should be banned.
PS. As for language skills, your English is much much better than mine! So, in that respect, the Chavistas have a greater advantage. All the gringos in Venezuelan Goverment sponsored Bolivarian Circles definetly have more means and better English speaking skills than four devoted venezuelan bloggers and an occasional reader that happen to dissent with Chavez.
"You know Alo Presidente should be banned, but since you cannot find good solid arguments to justify that the biased CNE keeps the program, then you decide on a good ol'chavista tactic: attack the messenger."
Alo Presidente should be banned?!?! Wow, that is certainly a little drastic don't you think. Should we ban Alo Ciudadano also? Wonder what the pricks at SIP would have to say about that?Presidents shouldn't be allowed to speak freely and report to their constituents what they are doing? Can't agree with you on that at all. Now, I will agree Alo Presidente should be stopped during the campaign period, which I have already said. But I certainly hope that come for the first Sunday after his re-election Chavez returns to the airwaves to keep people well informed on what the government is doing.
"In fact, OW, remember that, if there was no cheating in the RR, at least 40% of Venezuelans were desperate to remove Chavez from office two years ago. So desperate that they risked political blacklisting to get rid of Chavez. This, OW, is not a "tiny minority"."
Bruni, that was in 2004. All their bogus accusations of fraud, their continued violence, their inability to develop a coherent program and Chavez's continued successes have done nothing to help their cause. They are now a shadow of what they were then.
For the umpteenth time, they may again become a powerfull force, if they stop simply being obstructionists and stand for something, some positive vision for the country. But that still doesn't seem to be happening. Look at how they jump on the new clown who stands for nothing save removing Chavez. Makes me think they are still only about getting their previous power and access to easy money back.
Actually, the one issue that my maids really have against Chavez is that he spends too much time talking on TV. When he interrupts the soap operas he makes them all mad.
They don't listen to him... they're just angry that they can't watch what they wanted to watch.
I think that there are a lot of people amongst the working poor who feel the same way.
Depends. I know people who love the way he speaks. One woman I know says he reminds her of her father when he speaks.
I do remember him starting out one cadena by making some derisive remark towards people who watch novelas (he was interupting one). I thought that was going to push some peoples buttons 
Anyways, obviously his long windedness doesn't bother too many people, or at least not to the extent that it undoes his good deeds in their eyes. These poll numbers are just stunning.
Well, Bruni, I am a bit angry at Chavez too.
He hasn't had an Aloe Presidente in weeks! This is bullshit. I am thinking of writing him a letter explaining to him that his (formerly) weekly show has been integral in strengthening the Bolivarian project in the Americas. And what does he do--he just goes off and helps save other parts of the world. Geez!
Sure, I am all for Chavez helping mitigate the problems in Asia, especially North Korea, and in Eastern Europe, and in the MIddle East--but we need him here too!
Bruni, you are an outsider. Why don't you convince GW Bush to help you to become president of Venezuela. Sure, Bush is a deplorable, illiterate war criminal, but give it a shot.
Be sure to wear your shortest shirt when you meet with Bush. Though he is a man of God, he loves a short shirt like the rest of the hypocrites.
Suerte amiga. 
(Hey, maybe Feathers or Maria could be your vice president. Just a thought.
If a clown can gain so much noteriety, imagine what you could do in a mini-skirt )
"If a clown can gain so much noteriety, imagine what you could do in a mini-skirt "
Slave, pretty soon you are going to have Daniel Duquenal showing up berating you for your ignorance of Venezuela. The skirt thing has been tried before - the name Irene Saez ring a bell? Didn't work though.
BTW, on the clown thing, did you know that Howard Stern actually ran for governor of New York State? The idiot pulled out before the actual election though. His program was interesting. He claimed he was going to do a few things on the first day in office - like elinate all road tolls, and pass a law banning road work during the day, and then immediately resign. The funny thing is, as skimpy as that program is its still more than the Venezuelan opposition has ever put together.
Francisco already spinned the oposition rejection before, to him there is the oposition and then there is the Opposition, to him EVERYBODY falls into the latter (or the former I was dizzy by then so I forget) but they all reject the former.
Why would anybody support friction?
Flanker,
you know when I was a little kid my mother almost got me killed by sending me to school in a small town with a "McGovern for President" button on. Everybody was of course for Nixon. A few years later you would be hard pressed to find anyone who would admit to having voted for Nixon. Kind of makes you wonder how he won in such a landslide.
Same with the opposition. They had millions cheer on a coup, millions more join in a strike to starve Chavez out, and now you can't find a solitary sole who will admit to having anything to do with that. Very bizarre. Maybe there really wasn't anyone in that march to Miraflores on A11. It was all a montage by Globovision
BTW, for Quico to try to disassociate himself from the opposition is a little galling considering his very public track record with it.
Of course, OW, I am well aware of the former beauty queen presidential candidate. I think that she is living in Miami now--a born-again Christian (or was that Jessica Hahn?)
Ok, Bruni--strike that proposal.
hmmmmmmmm......how about you keep the short--just below the thong--mini-skirt AND you wear a clow mask! Yes, just the right combination to ensure that you will recieve 1% of the total vote!
OW, Quico has a habit of 'disappearing' some of his posts from those heady days.
Really, his prognosticating is very embarassing. No, lie or innuendo is over the top enough--no rumor too outragous to shill on his fanatical readership. He has been so wrong for so long that there must be a fat trust-fund somewhere--because, though is is adept at the slick psuedo-reportage that is so endemic among the NYT/WSJ crowd of private school fools, his record of being so cedulous, biased, and incorrect so much of the time would not qualify him for a paying job in journalism.
But, hey, when it comes to the empire, ideological extremism mascarading as solid journalism is no vice. If the trust-fund becomes defunct I am sure he will make do. He'd be a hit in Isreal for sure.
Hey Slave, the Internets are our friends. Just do a Google search for some characteristic Quico phrases from the posts you remember, and then, when the results pop up, look for the link that reads "cached". Then, all you's gotta do is clicky da linky.
You'd be amazed at how much wingnuttery you can find down Ye Olde Memorye Hole that way...pro-censorship types like Quico and Bruni notwithstanding.
OT
An important message that made be hopeful in the dark time we are living in:
"Dear sir,
I live in Israel and I am a Jew. We don't all support the policies of Olmert or the policies of the Labor party either. And many of us grieve for the loss of lives in Lebanon and Palestine just as deeply as you grieve for those lives. I am sorry that this is happening to your country and I hope and pray that your family and friends will be safe and I hope that not one more Palestinian must die for the crimes of the state, the Israeli state.
I would like to leave Israel before my son turns of age where he must serve in the military, I will not have my child be a part of an occupying army. I don't want my child to have the guilt of the death of your loved ones or of Palestinians on his heart.
Please know that we are all not like the thugs that visit your blog and say cruel and callous things. I abhor the messages they leave on your blog and they are not representative of Judaism. Zionism is not Judaism. One day the Jews around the world will realize this fact and I hope that when they beg you and Palestinians for forgiveness that you will forgive them for the spiritual malaise that has afflicted them.
In peace and in solidarity,
Yossi"
BREAKING NEWS
An anti-chavista blogger have critisized Israel! Yes, its true. Blogger Daniel describes some of the Israel bombings as "clumsy"...
Yeah sure, clumsy is the right term for 37 kids killed today:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/me...main/
index.html
"OW, Quico has a habit of 'disappearing' some of his posts from those heady days."
I have yet to see that. I've read them enough that I remember them and I have yet to look for one that I remember and not find it.
Now, if I could only remember my own posts 
OW, if my memory serves me correctly, the posts from A-11 are not available.
Subsequent to that, I do remember during the oil strike when Quico made some comments, seeming to imply that the right wing leadership may have been involved in premeditated murder or some other unscrupulous actions. It was a fairly critical post and he began to be attacked from his readership--he promptly disappeared the post, it was never to be see again.
More, I do believe that he disappeared the comments from the night of the RR. The evidence was there that he and his cohorts in Venezuela intended to break electoral laws by posting false exit poll information before the polls closed.
Really, Quico is as low as they come--he epitomizes the vendepatria, exploitative attitude of the 'upper' classes in Venezuela. When he is called on his shit he demurs and slurks away.
Like a spoiled little rich boy he doesn't take responsibility for his words or his actions.
I think it is great that Chavez is so popular. But I am also a little concerned. With the opposition knowing they can't win an election do you think they might return to using violence such as coups or even assasination attempts against Chavez? I think they probably will but I'm interested to know your opinion.
Dave, for me it is axiomatic that the far right, pro-empire wing of the elites in Venezuela would assasinate Chavez if they could.
Look no further than Lebanon to see how fanatical the thinking of the global rightwing has become--to the point that they are subverting their own power in their lust for total global domination.
The violence-option has never receeded from the anti-democratic Venezuelan right's vision of 'what is to be done', unfortunately.
It is good that Venezuela has cooperated with Cuba in setting up a defense/intelligence network that has to this point kept these thugs fairly quiet. But, no doubt, they will rear their ugly oligarchical heads again, when they view the time as being ripe.
Right now is the most delicate time. They know that he wins a huge victory in December it will look very bad if they do anything to him. So I think they may try to incite violence before the elections.
This is an important thread and I hate to disract it but this cries out fot it:
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/
US tax dollars hard at work murdering little kids.
There's more, too:
http://www.vheadline.com/readnew...ws.asp?
id=64701
He blasts Israel for its Orwellian talk about going easy on civilian casualties.
As for me, I keep seeing that scene of Chavez, from "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised", the one where he pulls up the press clipping of the dead Afghan kids and, visibly upset, says, "You cannot fight terror with more terror!" For that, the US ambassador (then, Donna Hrinak) got called home, then sent back to tell Chavez to retract publicly. He bluntly refused and told her she was talking to the president of a sovereign country, and that she was out of line, and not to come in with anything like that again. That part's not in the movie, but it is in Eva Golinger's book, The Chavez Code--which you have GOT to read if you haven't done so yet. Beg, borrow or bootleg a copy, but READ IT. Apparently Chavez's refusal to play nice, both in this and other matters, was what emboldened the State Dept to fund the opposition and encourage them to get people out demonstrating, so they could stage a massacre and then blame it on the Bolivarians.
And of course, the State Dept. (via USAID and NED) is also behind the bogus signatures the oppos gathered in the lead-up to the referendum. They pumped money into poor neighborhoods like Petare, bribing the locals with cash and groceries to vote against their own consciences and best interests. It's all down on declassified paper, folks, and Golinger got the goods!
So, when you hear an oppo talking about Chavistas using bribery or intimidation to buy support, remember, you're hearing THEIR projections. That's what THEY would do.
OW, when I see photos of these dead children, knowing that the 'justification' for these attacks is the taking of soliders in retribution for the captives that Isreal has (10,000) this makes all the talk about the 'war against terror' simply empty.
Reminds me of Nazi Germany and the way the bulk of its population went along like fanatics.
Reading people like Danile, Quico, Feathers, and Miguel on this matter says all I need to know--they are moral midgets in their capacity to follow the empire's line of twisted apologetics.
The only positive that can come from this is the weakening of Isreal and the US in the eyes of sane people around the world. That they are being diminished by their own terror is satisfaction, of a sort--but that it is accomplished on the deaths of these kids is sickening.
We need an international justice force to capture Bush, Blair, Olmert and the others. They need to be put on trial for their complicity in all this terror.
More good stuff:
http://www.vheadline.com/readnew...ws.asp?
id=64703
"How dare you get rough with your Rapist!" Indeed.
Yes, blame those people for fighting back instead of just handing over the land and all that's in (and under) it. How lovely!
"Reading people like Danile, Quico, Feathers, and Miguel on this matter says all I need to know--they are moral midgets in their capacity to follow the empire's line of twisted apologetics."
What is actually good about this is by them ranting on and pretty much following the Bush/Israel/Fox News line on this to the "T" they show just how right wing the Venezuelan opposition is, all their assertions to that they are "liberals" notwithstanding.
BTW, Slave--only about one in five Germans was a convinced Nazi. The rest were cowed by the goon squads. Most, however, were not fanatics; they were just doing what it took to survive in an insane regime, which is duck their heads and avert their eyes, mouth the "appropriate" rhetoric when it was demanded of them, and hope they wouldn't be the next ones sniffed out as "Landesverraeter" (traitors).
And if I see one oppo come on here and try to liken Chavez to that, I'm gonna laugh my ass off at them. I've seen what opposition violence looks like; I've seen the videos and the photos, as well as a growing number of detailed reports. Those people are like the upper-class version of Hitler's goon squads, which is why they'll never have real support. Chavez has real majority support, because he empowers people peacefully from the ground up, and that's why so many love him. Hitler ruled from the top down, loved savage capitalism and repression both, ran a police state where you could get shot for speaking out against him, and that is why my German ancestors feared and secretly hated him.
Bina:
They consistantly lied about Chavez's statements. If you recall from the film Chavez clearly said it was ok to fight terrorism and then held up the pictures of the kids who had been killed and said "pero asi no, asi no" - "not this way". That was a very rational and fair position yet the opposition distorted it, leaving out the first part of the quote, to imply it was just kneejerk anti-Americanism on Chavez's part. Just like they distort lots of other of his positions.
Bina, I was at a coffee shop the other day, a 'Chrisitan' guy with whom I spoke with tried to 'save' me.
I told him that I was down with Jesus (as an anti-imperialist) but I did not support mainstream, organized religion because of their hypocrisy in supporting the Iraq and other wars.
After I told him that Jesus would not be down with war he disagreed. Of course I challenged him to show me where in the record he could claim that Jesus was pro-war he shuffled off.
This is an indication of how morally polluted a sizable amount of the US population has become (a majority?).
Bina, I understand that you might be of German hertige, but, hey, I think that most Germans willfully supported the nazi policies, at least until the last few years. This is all to human and is not intended to spotlight Germans. I think that the populations of the US and Isreal are indicative of how the disease of imperialism and militarism pollutes the minds and ethics of the general population. Really, the racism and nhilsim is quite blatant.
We all have to the potential to become the facsist if we don't seek justice, dialoguge and peace.
OW--yeah, you are right, they are far right wingers. Disgraceful. They are apologists for imperialism because it supports the unjust system of capitalism that has put their families on the top of the hierarchy.
The fact that they don't see how their support of this barbarity is telling to the general Venezuelan population is a function of their collective delusion. They do know it though--as we have both noted how they run away from topics having to do with US imperialism or its history in Latin America like the plauge.
This is partly why they are losing.
What is actually good about this is by them ranting on and pretty much following the Bush/Israel/Fox News line on this to the "T" they show just how right wing the Venezuelan opposition is, all their assertions to that they are "liberals" notwithstanding.
Do you remember when the opposition tried to make the Chavez-issue NOT about right/left and capitalism/socialism and imperialism/anti-imperialsm?
They said all "democratic forces" from left to right dissliked Chavez.
This lies have been exposed for a long time but the current Lebanon-war makes this extra clear.
Slave, the "willing executioners" thing was a lie. A lie propagated first by the Nazis themselves, and then by westerners who needed that demonizing meme as an excuse to outstay their welcome over there. Why else do you think there were GIs in Germany long after the land was rebuilt and safe for democracy? And why there are none now, after the East Zone was re-unified, even though far-right skinheads, like unemployment, are a major problem over there? You'd think the US'd be falling all over themselves trying to stop that if they really cared about stomping out fascism, but no. The US won't even stomp out its own fascists. (Google William Krar sometime, or just cruise the Southern Poverty Law Centre's web pages, and you'll get an eyeful of how little they're doing against fascist terrorism. Yet they've had more incidents of that than of "islamo-fascism". Go figure.)
There was an extensive anti-Hitler resistance in Germany, but it was fragmented along party lines and very brutally repressed. I can remember seeing a book on it once, and I could still kick myself for not buying that expensive thing when I had the chance. This is the kind of "unknown history" that deserves to be shouted from the rooftops. My own grandpa wasn't a member of any group (he thought all clubs were bullshit), but when he complained about how you couldn't get decent shoes in Germany anymore, and then ranted about that bastard Hitler and how he didn't know anyone who'd voted for him, and how did that asshole get into power anyway, etc.--he was taken in by the Gestapo and "warned". The officer's exact words were, "You have four children..." And that's all; that's how they shut HIM up. And my grandpa wasn't a man easily silenced!
Now multiply that by a few dozen million, and you begin to get the picture. The Nazis were always a minority party, but they were murdering anyone who got in their way even BEFORE they took over the Reichstag (and then burned it and blamed a commie), so it's not surprising that a country where everyone was sick of a lost war, fed up with politics in general, and just scrambling against insane capitalism to make a living, would look the other way if it meant that their children wouldn't be killed in front of them before it was their turn to be shot.
Hell, I'm firmly convinced that most people in the US don't even like George Bush and sure don't approve of how he's handling just about anything, but just look at how they're acting! Hardly any resistance, and what there is, gets death threats from the goons. It's deja vu all over again...
Anyhow. After that, I think I'm in need of a good laugh, and I found it:
http://www.vheadline.com/readnew...ws.asp?
id=64694
This guy is barely literate, but he thinks he's "the big leagues"? Who's this nutter kidding?
another good blog http://bloggingbeirut.com/
Great post. Stuff like this can convince people like my parents.
Bina, maybe you are right. The fact that I have to do businesss with many powerful, pro-Bush believers, the fact that I have to pay living wages with health insurance for my people (in an industry where others use and abuse illegals) compells me to be largely silent as well.
Even our company's name is a strike against us for the real, far rightwing reactionaries.
But a far rightwing, mercenary logic is at play in the US and Isreal. For these fanatics 'might makes right'--why compromise if you have all the money and the guns, and you control the means of propaganda.
Thank god for the information I recieve here on OW's blog, and that there are people of all back-grounds, creeds, and religions that contribute here who are genuinely commited to human freedom and justice.
Kyle,
Keep working on your parents. We need to make sure everyone is as well informed regarding Venezuela as possible.
There sure is a lot of disinformation out there and we have to fight it.
BTW, lest we forget, its still not over in Mexico. Today there was a rally of between 500,000 and 2 million people in Mexico City (Venezuelan opposition, eat your hearts out):
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/
20060...exico_elections
Leftist candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador called Sunday for hundreds of thousands of his supporters to erect permanent protest camps to cripple Mexico's capital until a disputed presidential election is decided.
Addressing about a half-million marchers filling the city's historic central plaza and spilling down fashionable Reforma boulevard, Lopez Obrador said, "I propose we stay here permanently until the court resolves this ... That we stay here day and night."
If Lopez Obrador supporters heed his call, blockades could have a catastrophic effect on already chaotic city traffic, hurting downtown commerce.
The leftist asked his followers not to "invade public spaces" and demonstrators said they wouldn't block streets, but Lopez Obrador also apologized in advance for "any inconvenience our movement might cause."
"We will take drastic measures. We will blockade airports, we will take over embassies," marcher Sara Zepeda, 32, said as she pushed her 2-month-old son in a baby carriage.
The former Mexico City mayor finished slightly behind his conservative opponent, ex-Energy Secretary Felipe Calderon, in the July 2 election, and says a vote-by-vote recount will expose fraud that titled the election.
An official count gave Calderon less than 0.6 percent over Lopez Obrador, about 240,000 votes out of some 41 million cast. The Federal Electoral Tribunal has until Sept. 6 to either declare a winner or annul the election.
Calderon remains confident he was the election's rightful winner and said he won't be intimidated by street protests.
The conservative candidate and his party's legal team on Sunday presented their arguments to the seven-judge electoral tribunal, saying he had won the vote cleanly. They also argued in favor of annulling votes in districts that went heavily for Lopez Obrador.
"At the end of the day, we won the presidential election. Period," Calderon said.
Backers of Lopez Obrador had said they hoped the rally would draw more than a million people and on Sunday gave a crowd estimate of 2 million. But the crowd appeared to number far less than that.
It was the third and biggest rally convened by Lopez Obrador since the vote.
OW, bro, what is it with the numbers in these marches? Really, coming on reliable info about what is happening there is difficult. La Jornada seems to be the best.
But the numbers? If the march two weeks ago was larger than the first, then how does this march stack up. What is the 'momentum-factor' in Mexico at this point?
Really, to me it sees axiomatic that an election with this narrow a margin would cry out for a recount, that the momentum would be on the side of the country's democrats. But it seems that the corporate media there wants to crown Calderon king and expects everyone to shut up.
Really, this entire event is quite confusing and reliable info seems wanting.
Good luck to Obrador because I really believe he recieved more legit votes than the smarmy Calderon.
The above comment is mine.
SR, apparently this march was much larger than the previous two. So it seems AMLO is gaining momentum. You don't here about it in the U.S. - the Leb-Israel war has pushed everything else out of the news but people in Mexico have still focused on it.
Yes La Jornada is the best. The NarcoNews probably has good info too but I haven't looked at it in a while.
SR:
Check this out:
http://
senderodelpeje.blogspot.c...ifestantes.html
Good pictures. They have the Zocalo jam packed. And the site is complaining La Jornada underestimated the crowd by putting it at 1.2 million. Whatever, it was damn big.
OW, thanks, but reading the lame AP report one would believe that this last gathering was smaller than the last.
Good move on Obrador's part to coordinate a permanent occupation and civil protest until all the votes are accurately counted.
The ruling tribunal will suprise me if they require a full recount. I still have no faith in the Mexican oligarchy, but they might suprise me.
If not, time for a revolution.
Meanwhile, the fun's heating right up in oppo-landia:
http://www.vheadline.com/readnew...ws.asp?
id=64714
Assassination plans are in place against pro-Chavez deputies in the National Assembly. Watch yer backs, folks.
Gee I love you guys asking for all the Mexican votes to be counted! I am all for it, as I said before, but I find it ironic that the Chavistas were firstly asking for that and, all of the sudden, they kept quiet.....
Now for the initial topic OW. You say that since I am asking for the ban of Alo presidente, I should ask for the ban of Alo Ciudadano. That, my dear OW is mixing oranges with apples.
Is the presenter of Alo Ciudadano running for President? No to my knowledge. Does the program uses the Venezuelan taxpayers money? No to my knowledge. Then? Why should I ask for the banning of that program just because of its name?
As for Slave. Don't be so sexist Slave, would you? The fact that I am a woman, does not make me a brainless sexual object. And laugh all you want, but if I lived in Venezuela I would seriously think about getting into politics to fight the Chavismo. I can assure you that I could do better than most.
Oh look...Bruni's off her medication again.
As I recall, wasn't it the oppos who didn't want all the signatures scrutinized? Probably because the handwriting on so many sheets was all the same?
Projection, Bruni...'tis a killah.
BTW, there's excellent stuff here from Eduardo Galeano:
http://www.counterpunch.org/
gale...no07292006.html
Reminds me again of that scene of Chavez saying "Let's go after the terrorists, yes...but not like this!"
Bruni, who says that I am being sexist--I'd just enjoy seeing you run for president of the Bolivarian Republic in a short mini-skirt while wearing a clown mask Yes, it would be entertaining and you'd become almost famous.
I'd vote for you, even though I don't live in Venezuela (if that were legal, of course). You'd surely get a sizable amount of the pro-clown vote.
"Gee I love you guys asking for all the Mexican votes to be counted! I am all for it, as I said before,"
Actually, I've said I'd settle for an audit of a random sample. But they're not getting that either.
"Is the presenter of Alo Ciudadano running for President? No to my knowledge. Does the program uses the Venezuelan taxpayers money? No to my knowledge. Then? Why should I ask for the banning of that program just because of its name?"
Bruni, you are being a little bit disengenious here. No the presenter is not running for president. But the program exists for only one purpose, to attack one of the people who is, Hugo Chavez. Just like El Nacional newspaper that has as its admitted sole purpose, "to get Chavez out". Do you think its fair for Chavez to have to campaign against a private media which for the most part has its sole purpose not to inform but to remove him from office. A little unfair I think (although also ineffectual given Chavez's measely 26% negative rating).
And as to your non-sensical "public private money" differentiation, in all the democracies I'm aware of they limit and control what private money can be spent to. So when all your ultra-rich opposition friends stop bankrolling their candidates or all the their attack media against Chavez then we can look for some receprication - but not until.
OW, and doesn't this get down to the nitty gritty of 'democracy':--why should the rich and big corporations have a louder voice than regular citizens?
As I have stated before--the media that participated in the destablization and lies that lead up to the coup and supported the oil sabatoge would have been dismanteled long ago if Slave had any power in Venezuela.
Bravo, Quico and other lying oligarch/empire whores would be growing organic vegetables for a few years as they pay for their myriad crimes against the democratic republic.
Well, you got your wishes OW. Your "unbiased" CNE voted 4 to 1 in favor of not restricting the cadenas and not doing anything against Alo Presidente.
However, the candidates times in the private waves are all restricted.
So that is what you consider fair and democratic? A President during an election campaign can talk over 6 hours every wekk FREELY and do as many cadenas as he wants while if you are a private citizen running for president, you've got to pay your campaign and you got restrictions?
Come on OW! Come on!
Eso es abuso de poder de la peor especie. Eso se llama tener la sartén agarrada por el mango y no soltarla nunca!
Qué democracia es esa?!
There is no way to have a democratic elections with these guys, No way.
Learn a lesson OW: support a military putchist once and you got your democratic system screwed for life. That is what happened in Vzla.
Bruni:
I haven't read about the decision. But be clear on my position. My position all along was a) Alo Presidente was ok during non-election periods and b) it needs to be stopped some number of months before the election as having it during an election is indeed unfair.
So if they decided to allow it throughout the pre-election period and are restricting others people time that is indeed unfair and I don't agree with it. I'll comment more when I read the details of it.
Commenting by HaloScan
