Posts

Google Celebrates Leftist Leader Cesar Chavez, Not Easter, On Religious Holiday As Some Christians Call For Boycott

/3 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Daily Mail

The internet is alight today with stories of faith, confections, and one very famous egg roll, but the biggest web destination of them all has opted to honor a leftist labor activist instead of the Easter holiday.

Several times per year, and sometimes per month, internet search behemoth Google shakes things up on its incredibly high-traffic homepage by changing its logo to celebrate a memorable day in history like a famous person’s birthday or world-changing event.

This past February 6, for instance, the company honored what would have been famed anthropologist Mary Leakey’s 100th birthday.

Earlier in the year, Google gave nods to the birthdays of baseball legend Jackie Robinson, Dr. Martin Luther King, and, true to the company’s quirky form, pioneering ice resurfacer Frank Zamboni.

The ‘Google Doodles’ began as a way for Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin to leave a sort of ‘Out of the Office’ message when they placed a stick figure within their logo before taking off for Nevada’s Burning Man festival in 1998.

Read more from this story HERE.

Chavez Wins Again, Opponent Concedes

/0 Comments/in /by

It was supposed to be a close vote; some even believed that an upset was in the works. But when the dust settled, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez had won another election. This time, however, his margin of victory was considerably reduced, from 25 percentage points six years ago to about 10 percentage points on Sunday. Despite Mr. Chavez’s vow to complete the “Bolivarian revolution” he launched in 1998, he must take into account the views of the many Venezuelans who voted against him. That assumes the president will complete his six-year term — an open question given his health problems.

Mr. Chavez was a retired lieutenant colonel, best known for launching a failed coup in 1992, when he won the presidency 14 years ago. He was then, and remains, a fiery populist who has promised a socialist revolution for his country in the name of the Latin American nationalist Simon Bolivar. During his tenure in office, he has transformed Venezuelan society, using class warfare — he refers to the rich and middle class as “the squalid ones” — to bolster his support: He has nationalized private property and businesses, while providing free medical care, housing, education and food to the country’s poor.

Essential to his success is the flood of oil revenues Venezuela enjoys as a member of OPEC, the global petroleum cartel. With proven reserves putting the country in the ranks of the top 10 oil producers, oil revenues account for about 94 percent of Venezuela’s export earnings, more than half of federal budget revenues, and around 30 percent of gross domestic product. Fonden, the country’s state investment fund, accounts for nearly a third of all investment in Venezuela and half of public investment; in 2011, it received 25 percent of government revenue from the oil industry. Over the last seven years, it has absorbed about $100 billion of Venezuela’s oil revenue — much of it used to buy support for Mr. Chavez.

But those investments have been less than effective. The country suffers from power shortages and regular blackouts, a decaying infrastructure, failure to provide other basic services and a pall of corruption and favoritism that hangs over all segments of the economy. More ominous still, Venezuela has the world’s fourth highest murder rate — at least it is estimated as such, since the government stopped publishing official crime statistics in 2004.

That is fertile soil for an opposition movement, and after years of division, the various groups coalesced around a candidate, Mr. Henrique Capriles. He is the 40-year old governor of Miranda state, which includes Caracas. The son of a real estate developer, he devoted special energy to press-the-flesh campaigning to counter Mr. Chavez’s message that his opponent was an elitist who cared little about the concerns of ordinary citizens.

Read more from this story HERE.

Vote Fraud in Venezuela: Exit Polling Shows Opponent Won but Chavez Declared the Winner

/9 Comments/in , /by

According to the Associated Press, Venezuela’s electoral council has declared that Hugo Chavez beat Henriques Capriles in Sunday’s presidential election with about 54 percent of the vote, despite exit polls showing otherwise.

Venezuela Twitter users have claimed Chavez’s victory was wrought with election fraud, and that the socialist incumbent president sent tanks into the streets of his country as those exit poll reports showed him losing. A picture of the tanks surfaced on Twitter Sunday evening.

The British Guardian newspaper reported that Chavez also sent troops armed with AK-47s into Venezuela’s streets to fight against any protests in case unrest came as a result of the news.

A Spanish news outlet reported earlier on Sunday that exit polls showed Capriles defeated the socialist president by a narrow margin.

Read more from this story HERE.

Venezuela’s Chavez May Lose Election Next Week

/2 Comments/in , /by

The crowds are bigger, his speeches slicker, and Venezuela’s young opposition leader, Henrique Capriles, is on a roll in a final, frenzied push to end President Hugo Chavez’s socialist rule. With just one week left before the Opec nation’s presidential election, the 40-year-old state governor is whipping up crowds like never before, creeping up in the polls and becoming increasingly aggressive in his attacks on Chavez’s policies.

“We’ve never had a candidate like him,” gushes shopkeeper Andrea Gomez, 42, screaming at Capriles like a teenage fan at a pop concert, as the passing politician blows kisses from an open-top cavalcade on the Caribbean coast north of Caracas.

Capriles has made big inroads among the working class where Chavez has his power-base, but still faces suspicions that he is too much of a rich kid and will end Chavez’s popular welfare programmes.

The 58-year-old incumbent remains a formidable campaigner and has a strong connection with many Venezuelans, especially the poor. Yet while a majority of big pollsters still put Chavez in front, two – Consultores 21 and Varianzas – have Capriles just ahead.

Opposition activists insist the poll numbers are distorted by a “fear factor” – government employees wary of reprisals if they show support for Capriles, for instance – and therefore underestimate their man’s real popularity. Either way, Capriles seems certain to have the best tilt at Chavez that anyone has managed during his 14-year rule.

Read more from this story HERE.

Iran Cementing Relations With Venezuela & Bolivia While Obama Looks On

/1 Comment/in , /by

With little notice in the main stream media, Iran has been cementing it’s relationships with regimes in Venezuela & Bolivia, both countries under the control of strongmen friendly to communism. Iran is the main funder of terrorism throughout the world, For them to gain a foothold in Latin America, does not bode well for peace in our hemisphere.

Recently I spoke with Bolivian Senator Ms. Carmen Gonzales. She has had the courage to stand up and speak out about the repression besetting her country and it’s ever closer alliances with Iran. She has been the object of continual harassment by the government for her vocal opposition; including being buried in lawsuits (18) designed to silence her.

Tell us about Iran’s influence in Bolivia?

The influence of the Iranian theocracy in Bolivia is very wide and deep. Iran has inked many agreements with Bolivia, both known and unknown to the Bolivian people. I have demanded to know the extent of these agreements, but as of yet there has been no response from the leadership. Iran is interested in our mining industry, gas and uranium. Iran is interested in expanding its influence in Latin America, to provoke the United States. It is very advantageous to Iran to have the friendship of the Bolivian regime, with all of its natural resources, including uranium and being strategically placed in the center of the continent.

But most people of Bolivia repudiate the Iranian regime: They abuse human rights, they do not respect their women and are dangerous to world peace and stability. Recently Canada withdrew its embassy in Tehran in a clear sign that the civilized world will not tolerate the authoritarian practices of undemocratic and abusive Iran.

I am also worried as a Bolivian Senator ,what may happen to the Jewish community here. Recently, the Iranian defense minister was with our ruler, Evo Morales. That same minister is under orders for international prosecution, accused by an Argentine federal judge to be part of the deaths of hundreds of Jewish-Argentine AMIA (Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina in 1994).

Read more from this story HERE.

Allen West: Iran is a Growing Threat in Latin America that cannot be Ignored

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo credit: Collin Harvey

As we enter into a campaign season wholeheartedly focused on our economic security, let us not forget our national security.

Right here, under our noses, a strategic alliance is being formed between Iran and Venezuela. More than 150 Iranian diplomats are accredited in Caracas — a disproportionate number by any count — demonstrating the Tehran regime’s unusual involvement in Latin America. Over the past few years, this honeymoon between Hugo Chavez and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has given birth to increased military involvement between the two countries, a complex financial web to bypass international sanctions against the ayatollahs and an operational infrastructure for carrying out terrorism against the nations of the free world, especially the United States and Israel.

This growing alliance between their respective military establishments allows Iran to extend its strategic coordination deep into the Western Hemisphere, enabling conventional, nuclear and terrorist capabilities well beyond Tehran’s geographic vicinity. It was revealed recently that Venezuela is building military drones for Iran and has supplied Iran with an unknown number of F-16 warplanes for countermeasure training and radar calibration. Also, the top Venezuelan diplomat in Florida, Consul General Livia Acosta, was expelled in January by the State Department because of her well-documented involvement with an Iranian cyberterrorism plot against American nuclear facilities.

The unholy alliance also has enabled Iran to skirt United Nations‘ and other international economic sanctions meant to slow Tehran’s nuclear weapons program. Venezuela has publicly declared its support for Iran’s nuclear aspirations, and an economic and financial web of joint ventures, accounts and agreements makes it easy for Iran to bypass arms embargoes, banking freezes, oil boycotts and other economic steps taken to slow the theocracy’s nuclear policy of proliferation. For instance, Venezuela provides front companies and facilities to Iran’s petrochemical and arms industries, uses its banking system to middle-man oil payments, and extends political support for Tehran in the international arena in order to bypass international sanctions. This Venezuelan support constitutes a vital lifeline, nurturing the ayatollahs’ bomb, and enables Iran’s nuclear program to grow and strengthen.

Yet the Iranian infiltration of Latin America goes beyond Venezuela.

Read more from this story HERE.

More Pentagon incompetency: Hugo Chavez “does not represent a threat to US security”

/0 Comments/in , , /by

U.S. Gen. Douglas Fraser on Tuesday backed up President Obama’s appraisal that Venezuela does not represent a threat to U.S. security. The only thing that statement proves is that both men refuse to acknowledge a menace that has grown worse on their watch.

Gen. Fraser is the last in a long line of regional commanders who have refused to mud-wrestle with Hugo Chavez. I have profound respect for men and women who are willing to risk their lives fighting our enemies or ordering others to do so, and I understand fully why they want to keep such conflicts to a minimum. However, the best way to prevent such confrontations is to kick over rocks to find the hidden threats and to take careful measure of our foes.

On Gen. Fraser’s watch, Mr. Chavez has consolidated a narco-state in Venezuela. U.S. law enforcement and federal prosecutors have gathered fresh, compelling evidence implicating Venezuela’s National Assembly president, minister of defense and Mr. Chavez himself in narcotics trafficking. If a foreign military using its personnel, vehicles and aircraft to shovel cocaine onto U.S. streets and schoolyards is not a national security threat, what is? If such activities by Venezuela’s government are not a threat, why do we spend billions of dollars to counter the problem? Why does Gen. Fraser’s own command website call drug trafficking “a significant threat to security and stability in the Western Hemisphere”?

On Gen. Fraser’s watch, Mr. Chavez and his senior military commanders have provided material, financial, logistical and political support for Colombian drug traffickers who are branded terrorists by the U.S. government. American authorities know Mr. Chavez’s regime has issued Venezuelan passports or visas to thousands of Middle Eastern terrorists and offered safe haven to Hezbollah trainers, operatives, recruiters and fundraisers. During a March visit to Southern Command headquarters in Miami, now Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin E. Dempsey said, “[W]e recognize the threat that transnational organized crime presents, not just because of what they transport to our shores, but what they could also transport — terrorists and weapons and weapons of mass destruction.”

On Gen. Fraser’s watch, a half-dozen Iranian companies sanctioned by United Nations, U.S. or European authorities have built suspicious industrial installations at various sites in Venezuela. Those facilities were important enough to attract secret visits by Iranian Maj. Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the Revolutionary Guard Corps aerospace commander, who previously headed Iran’s missile program, in July 2009 and November 2011.

Read more from this story HERE.

Venezuela’s Chavez weighs in on US Presidential Race – in favor of Obama

/3 Comments/in , /by

CARACAS, Venezuela – Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez has signaled a preference in the U.S. presidential campaign by comparing Mitt Romney to his own challenger.

Chavez, who is up for re-election a month before U.S. President Barack Obama, has in recent weeks expressed a clear preference for the man currently in the White House.

In a campaign speech Saturday night, Chavez equated the agenda of his challenger, Henrique Capriles, with that of Romney, saying both men represent the callously selfish capitalist elite.

Chavez claims Capriles, a moderate former governor, is trying to trick Venezuelans into believing he genuinely cares about the poor, the core of Venezuelan president’s constituency.

“I believe the person to best explain the loser’s agenda isn’t Barack Obama but rather Romney, because it’s the extreme right-wing agenda that borders on the fascism of the United States,” Chavez told tens of thousands of supporters in the western city of Maracaibo.

Read more from this story HERE.

Photo credit: vaXzine

Romney slams Obama’s pandering statement to Spanish TV that Chavez is no threat to US interests

/0 Comments/in , , , /by

Republican Mitt Romney chided President Barack Obama on Wednesday for playing down “the threat” posed by Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez as he sought to portray the Democrat as soft on national security, an issue that may resonate with Latino voters in November’s election.

Romney was reacting to remarks Obama made to a Spanish language television station that Chavez’s actions over recent years had “not had a serious national security impact” on America.

“This is a stunning and shocking comment by the president. It is disturbing to see him downplaying the threat posed to U.S. interests by a regime that openly wishes us ill,” Romney said in a statement. “President Obama’s remarks continue a pattern of weakness in his foreign policy, one that has emboldened adversaries and diminished U.S. influence.”

Pushing back, Obama’s campaign team accused Romney of playing into the hands of the leftist Venezuelan leader by granting him the international attention that he craved.

“Hugo Chavez has become increasingly marginalized and his influence has waned. It’s baffling that Mitt Romney is so scared of a leader like Chavez whose power is fading,” said Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt.

Read more from this story HERE.

Photo credit: William Hernández