phil,

HAR, HAR (and they same the right wing has no sense of humor)

I guess I'd like to see the wealth redistributed from the aristocracy with the connections back into education and infrastructure. I have very little hope that much will change over the next 4 years but at least the estate tax will be more reasonable soon. i make too much to get aid directly but 'wealth' moving around is great for the economy and the nation.

We'll see if Chavez is truly a democratic...if he hands over power peacefully at the end of his tenure.

hjs fm 11211

-- didn't you? Didn’t you contribute to NPR and PBS that spent 8 years undermining our democracy, our liberty, the Bush Admin, the US Military, our way of life? Didn't you contribute to groups like "move on dot com," "Hilary for Senate" and "militant lesbians against everything normal?" Or are you just one of the broke back liberals waiting for the Bama to redistribute the wealth from those who can and did to those who can't and didn't? Inquiring minds want to know.

Phil
so following an election if I don't like the winner's agenda I can organize a coup?

I wish I had thought of that 8 years ago.

Your guest's suggestion that Chavez's coup attempt should be disregarded because he served his time shows an astonishing lack of historical perspective. Wouldn't the world have been a lot better off if another power-hungry demagogue had been disqualified from elective office by his prior coup attempt, notwithstanding his having served time for the crime? Of course I am referring to Hitler, who spent much of the 1920s in prison. Chavez's prison term doesn't make him any less dangerous, and the fact that he was able to reach office the second time without a coup doesn't make him any more a democrat.

The coup attempt followed Chavez's move to nationalize oil and cement industries. He has a lot of opposition within and outside the country. He was a criminal with an agenda. Now he has become a wild man... sending his thugs out to destroy all opposition... the legislature, the media, businessmen, Catholic religious leaders, "Jews...." Of course the Bama sides with a dictator against the interests of liberty, he can learn a lot from socialist "teachers" such as Castro and petty ones such as Chavez.

Anyone who calls GWBush Satan in public and at the UN at that is ok by me. I have few problems with Chavez. I don't like his attempt to hold onto the presidency by changing the laws as did Mike Bloomberg did here. It's time to deflate some egos here. Like the big shots on Wall Street who say we need these same guys who brought us to our knees to get us back on our feet, I say what if, what if they died? What if Hugo and Mike and the "we-can't-do-without" people were to die? There's no one who can replace them!! I don't think so.

Your commentator does your listeners a disservice by simply stating that Chavez was democratically elected. Anyone who follows what has been going on in Venezuela for years, who reads Spanish-language newspapers and watches Spanish-language television and who speaks frequently to Venuzuelan people knows that Chavez uses gangs to intimidate the opposition, particularly during, but certainly not limited to, elections.

Can someone please let me know what writer Mario was talking about, I caught the tail end of the conversation.

Thanks

Obama is Chavez's worst nightmare. He no longer has a Boogey man to blame for Venezuala's problems.

Venezuela is not the only nation in Latin America. More on the others please. Also, could you ask you guest about Nicaraqua and the Noriega regime's crackdown of the opposition press, particularly the Chamorra family?

Did the guest see the Frontline documentary, "The Hugo Chavez Show?"

Chavez tried to do a coup when he wanted power, then adapted and realized that democracy was the way to go and that Television was his friend.

Also there is a mixed record of Chavez. According to Frontline, the country is not better off.

Also what about his attempts to consolidate power by trying to pass certain laws in the legislature. This was reported by Democracy now.

You guest sounds like a publicist for Hugo Chavez.

Mario,
Do you know what Obama's position is on the status question in Puerto Rico? Will he push to help resolve what many consider the problem of secondary citizenship (no presidential vote, no voting congressional represenation...)?

wasn't chavez elected?
didn't the USA try to overthrow him during the bush years?