Christmas...

A two-decade tradition ends this year, due to the ongoing writer's strike. So, peeling back a dozen years, my gift to you:

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Some Chavez Allies Slow to Shed Luxuries
By CHRISTOPHER TOOTHAKER
The Associated Press
Friday, December 14, 2007; 2:16 PM

CARACAS, Venezuela -- Hugo Chavez constantly urges his supporters to reject "savage capitalism," but allies of Venezuela's president have been slow to embrace his socialist values _ and some are struggling to explain their consumption of luxury goods.

Justice Minister Pedro Carreno became the subject of widespread criticism and ridicule by local media this week, when a journalist asked if it wasn't contradictory to attack capitalism while sporting a $180 Louis Vuitton tie and $500 Gucci shoes.

Apparently caught off guard, Carreno stammered unintelligibly for a few seconds before responding: "It's not contradictory because I would like Venezuela to produce all this, that way I could purchase things produced here instead of 95 percent of what we consume being imported."

Poking fun at Carreno in an editorial published in the Tal Cual daily on Friday, comedian Laureano Marquez wrote a fictional response from the government official

"Do you think that I, as a revolutionary, am not disgusted by having this imperialist trash around my neck? Of course, but I don't have any other option while locally made ties are not produced," Marquez wrote.

A video clip of Carreno's statements had been viewed more than 20,000 times on Friday, two days after it was posted on the YouTube Web site.

Chavez _ a close ally of Cuban leader Fidel Castro _ preaches socialist ideals, but persuading Venezuelans to adopt more austere lifestyles has been a daunting task in this oil-rich South American country characterized by unchecked consumerism.

Carreno isn't the only government official with a penchant for well-to-do outfits or luxury cars.

Information Minister Willian Lara often wears Tommy Hilfiger jackets, although they are red _ the color of Chavez's ruling party. And Luis Acosta, the pro-Chavez governor of Carabobo state, argued last year that authorities can purchase expensive cars without sacrificing their revolutionary ideals.

"Is it that we revolutionaries don't have the right to have a Hummer or a car? If we make money, we can do it," Acosta said.

Such statements _ and shows of opulence among some of Chavez's closest allies _ prompted the socialist president to later reprimand supporters for failing to shed their materialist ways.

Threatening to impose new taxes on luxury goods in October, Chavez said: "What kind of revolution is this? The Whisky Revolution? The Hummer Revolution? No, this is a real revolution!"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/14/AR2007121401342.html

Thank ace blogger feathers for the clip!

Timeline

As Venezuela still awaits the final election tally, and some worry about an announcement that reverses that known up to now, a timeline.

Since the result, Chavez has insulted his adversaries, and in an vulgar display of sour grapes has stated that he wouldn't want such a "shitty" victory. His partisans in the Nationl Assembly encourage him to ram them through regardless of the electorate's will, using the rule-by-decree powers they gave him.

The last Venezuelan "president" to try to ram through his wishes that way?

Carmona.

"CARACAS -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez did not go gently into the night Sunday as vote tallies showed he was losing a vote on his proposals for radical constitutional revisions, military and opposition officials say.

Military officers and opposition leader played a crucial role in averting a possible attempt by the furious Chávez to refuse to recognize his defeat, the officials, familiar with the events, told El Nuevo Herald.

Some early exit polls Sunday predicted a victory for Chávez, but as the day progressed the indications swung toward a victory for the vote against the revisions -- which included allowing unlimited presidential reelection.

Chávez has acknowledged that he thought long and hard about his defeat before conceding -- the release of official tallies was delayed from 8 p.m. Sunday to early Monday -- but has flatly denied that any military officers pressured him to accept the opposition victory.

As the delay lengthened, opposition officials said, suspicions arose among leading Chávez critics gathered to monitor the tallies in the Caracas offices of Manuel Rosales, governor of the state of Zulia and loser to Chávez in the last presidential election.

''The opposition did not know how to handle the situation until it decided to pressure the military, warning them that what would come if the [pro-no] results were not accepted would be bloody,'' said a businessman who witnessed the events in the Rosales office.

Vicente Díaz, a member of the board of directors of the National Electoral Council, said this week that the delay was the result of an agreement with the yes and no factions to withhold results until 90 percent of the votes had been counted. That agreement was broken, as tensions rose, with an announcement of only 87 percent of the votes counted.

PHONE CALLS

A telephone call went out from the office to Gen. Jesús González González, head of the armed forces unified command, the businessman said, as rumors grew that Chávez would not accept a defeat.

From another phone in the same office, a former leftist politician called Venezuelan Vice President Jorge Rodríguez to warn him of the consequences of not accepting the defeat, the businessman added. He asked that the politician not be identified.

At the same time, from an office elsewhere, retired army general and former Defense Minister Raúl Isaías Baduel was receiving preliminary results from polling centers, said a retired colonel who was in contact with Baduel's office.

At 7:15 p.m. Chávez headed into a meeting with the armed forces high command in Fort Tiuna in Caracas, the country's most important military installation, accompanied by a group of his ministers and supporters in the legislature.

According to the retired colonel, the high command apprised Chávez of the various scenarios if he refused to accept defeat.

''They let him know that the people could hit the streets massively . . . and that there was no way of guaranteeing that the military would go out to repress the people,'' the colonel told El Nuevo Herald.

News reports published in Caracas and Spain Tuesday -- strongly denied by Chávez -- said the president was ''irate'' and complained that he had received false information predicting victory.

The businessman in Rosales' office said the call to Gen. González went out at around 7:30. Almost simultaneously, the former leftist political leader called Vice President Rodríguez ``and fought with him . . . even used a couple of swear words . . . to push him to accept the results.''

At 9 p.m., Rodríguez held a brief news conference and acknowledged that the results were ``tight.''

The sense that the no vote was ahead swept Caracas, and as the National Electoral Council continued to delay the release of the tallies, opposition leaders began going on television to announce that their side was winning.

In the central Caracas municipality of Libertador, a heavily pro-Chávez area, Mayor Freddy Bernal made a radio call to police patrol cars and motorcycles, according to media reports and a recording posted on several Internet sites.

The voice is heard ordering a ''maximum alert'' while awaiting ''instructions from the fundamental leader [Chávez] to see where is the place, if necessary, to show force.'' Chávez appears to have begun to accept his defeat around 10 p.m. according to Venezuelan media reports.

SPOKE TO CASTRO

Chávez supporter-turned-critic Pablo Medina said the president went alone into a room at Fort Tiuna and spoke to his top political mentor, Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
[who advised him to play for time, as per the account in Spanish]

''Every minute that passed made it harder for the government to impose a result different from what was already out in the public opinion,'' said the retired colonel.

Then came the first signal of concession, the dismantling of the stand in front of the Miraflores presidential palace where Chávez had promised to make a victory speech after the votes were counted.

A second sign was the urgent suspension of a giant publicity campaign that the government had arranged for a victory, said the owner of a printing facility who had been contracted by the government as part of the campaign.

''If Chávez had insisted in not recognizing his defeat, the Armed Forces and the people would have forced him to resign from the presidency. He knew that, and because of that he did not take any risks and accepted the debacle,'' said Medina.

''The military helped in one way or another to allow peace to reign . . . and avoid a civil war,'' said retired Lt. Col Joel Acosta Chirinos, a former Chávez ally and now a fierce critic.



http://www.elnuevoherald.com/213/story/127483.html
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/story/335527.html

Hugo Wants A Cookie

For what it's worth : Los Gobernó Un Farsante.

The following is a clip of Hugo Chavez calling in as his bereft sycophants at the publicly-funded television station that's run as an arm of his political party console their Dear Leader after his power grab suffered a setback. Hugo's imperial ambitions to be President-For-Life were rejected by the citizens of Venezuela, and, while the gravy train rolls on for the profiteers seen in the clip, when Hugo ain't happy ain't nobody happy.

Paraphrasing Hugo "It was a draw...and I don't want that kind of a triumph, I'd refuse it...the President of (the elections oversight board )---I didn't call her, as I didn't want to pressure her, only those furious Opposition types pressured her...I had the Vicepresident call her: "tell her when this is irreversible, mathematically impossible" ...I'm not going to chew on a 0.01%, like they do in other countries, like the US...no. Leave me alone!"

Sings a ditty of Spanish pop singer Rafael's; the leeches force rictus grins.

Hugo:"No revolutionary, Bolivarian, socialist, honest Venezuelan would want this kind of Pyrrhic victory, so Pyrrhic that it becomes a moral defeat(!). Also, another question: of what number of dead would we be talking of now??

Note the expression on the face of the harridan in the red top, Mari Pili Hernandez, erstwhile Undersecretary Of State for North America, she who cheers on the September 11th attacks. She tells Chavez that she has CHAVEZ branded on her forehead, speaks to him of all the loving wishes conveyed to him through her, then tells a maudlin anecdote about how her Socialist Battalion was gathered in a situation room to ward off an imagined opposition guarimba,or street action( which never materialized, of course) when she spied an eight-year-old boy looking out a window. "Honey, what are you doing?" "I'm guarding PDVSA" --THAT'S what you've awoken in the people...ONE word from you last night would have meant the people would have gone out into the street and Venezuela thanks you for today's peace, thanks you for your stature, your dignity, your morality as President, the best President this country has ever had, Chavez! We love you!" "I love you a bunch, Mari Pili" he replies.

Where to begin? The patently manufactured anecdote of the little kid watching over the cash cow which keeps his Socialist Battalion living high on the hog? The use of national treasure to blow smoke up the Dear Leaders arse?

The haughty but prissy sour grapes - "I wouldn't want that victory, begone with it!"

No, stick with the barely veiled threats- How many dead would there be if he'd won?
The blood on this man's hands after he sent the army out against civilian demonstrators on April 11, 2002 will never come out, damn spot. And the grotesque obsequious parting shot from Mari Pili? THANK YOU FOR NOT GIVING THE ORDER SO WE DIDN'T TAKE TO THE STREETS? *That* merits gratitude, not inciting a riot because his power grab was rejected?

Thanks to Venezuelans for suffering these thieves, fools, and parasites with more grace than they deserve or warrant.

Doubleclick the PLAY arrow if the video won't play.


Hey, Mari Pili, here's Chris Rock on the subject, from BRING THE PAIN: ( caveat-foul, offensive language, but that's Chris Rock's free speech. This blog doesn't endorse hateful speech)


Recontextualizing Rock's tirade:

MariPili, Hugo - you want some credit for doing what you're SUPPOSED to do? You
want to brag about doing what it is your DUTY to do? YOU"RE SUPPOSED TO, YOU DUMB BEEYOTCHES - WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? What kind of ignorant mierda is that? Whaddya want? A cookie, you Low-Expectation-Having-MoFOs?

You don't get a cookie for refraining from calling for civil war- especially when you accepted defeat only because you feared what your military would do in the event of you carrying out your planned-for fraud.

Friction

Hugo Chavez' most recent attempt to gather for himself the power of an uncrowned (por ahora) king fizzled. You can thank the kids seen at the right of this page, who've grown up under Chavismo and are now making their voices heard.

Poll results took a terribly long time to emerge, and the suspicion that there were extracurricular bargainings between the regime, the military and other parties arose.

The thug gave a graceless "concession"/veiled threat, stating he's glad he lost, it seems.

In the wings: Chavez's saviour, erstwhile army boss, and now NEW YORK TIMES opiner.

HE wants a new Constitution for Venezuela. Chavez: the Remix?


here