Posted on 11/16/2007 4:22:20 PM PST by Eric Blair 2084
In two weeks, Venezuela seems likely to start an extraordinary experiment in centralized, oil-fueled socialism. By law, the workday would be cut to six hours. Street vendors, homemakers and maids would have state-mandated pensions. And President Hugo Chávez would have significantly enhanced powers and be eligible for re-election for the rest of his life.
David Rochkind for The New York Times A nascent student movement has held protests of increasing defiance in recent weeks. The wide-ranging revision of the constitution, which is expected to be approved by referendum on Dec. 2, is both bolstering Mr. Chávez’s popularity here among people who will benefit and stirring contempt from economists who declare it demagogy. Signaling new instability here, dissent is also emerging among his former lieutenants, some of whom say the president is carrying out a populist coup.
“There is a perverse subversion of our existing Constitution under way,” said Gen. Raúl Isaías Baduel, a retired defense minister and former confidant of Mr. Chávez who broke with him in a stunning defection this month to the political opposition. “This is not a reform,” General Baduel said in an interview here. “I categorize it as a coup d’état.”
Chávez loyalists already control the National Assembly, the Supreme Court, almost every state government, the entire federal bureaucracy and newly nationalized companies in the telephone, electricity and oil industries. Soon they could control even more.
But this is an upheaval that would be carried out with the approval of the voters. While polls in Venezuela are often tainted by partisanship, they suggest the referendum could be Mr. Chávez’s closest electoral test since his presidency began in 1999, but one he is still likely to win.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Thank you Jimmah Cahta.
Is it just me, or have we seen this play before?
BTT. The purse is full and the guy holding it can buy whatever he wants. But he can’t refill it.
Seems like good old fashioned vote buying to me. Sounds like our Dems.
And when the oil runs out? I hope Hugo is still around so they can string him up when they have to go to pay cuts, higher taxes, a 10-hour day, child labor, and no freebies.
By the way Hugo, futt the shuck up!
|
Hell, if you promised US citizens this, they would elect the promiser. People are for the most part dumb.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
The only issue we agree on (for different reasons than dims) is dependence on foreign oil and alternative fuels.
They oppose fossil fuels because it hurts the trees and deer. We oppose it because we would love to see the day when middle eastern sand monkeys (I happen to be a middle eastern sand monkey so I can say that) in Saudi Arabia and autocratic rulers sit around and wonder what happened to their cash.
Basic error of banana republic communists. Real commnunists put their top mathematicians and physicists on the state payroll. Or shoot them.
“Picture a boot grinding into a human face, forever”
Communism in a nutshell.
The terror hasn’t started yet, but it will.
As they say, all politics are local. Here in the USA when the heavy hand of the Communism comes in and seizes a private bar or restaurant and tells private property owners that they can't cater to smokers, many people cheer.
It's good for them, so they vote for it and applaud it.
Huey's got a little problem with the Orinoco crude - it's so heavy not everyone can refine it. We can. We can also choose not to. Interesting things happen in that case - the other people who can will find themselves enjoying lower prices and working to capacity to refine less than the amount he wants them to. We'll pay higher at the pump but it looks as if we will anyway. So who blinks first?
“And President Hugo Chávez would ... be eligible for re-election for the rest of his life.”
And I have no doubts as to the authenticity of those elections!
“but it will.”
Oil will prop it up for awhile. When one of the oil companies that has plants in venezuela was taken over by Chavez (pardon me, allowed chavez to “invest” in the company), I sent an email urging them to sabotage equipment and virus up the computers. Too cowardly to do that, I guess.
What will happen with the future elections is it will just be a yes or no referundum on Chavez.
Do you support him or not?
They will of course make the numbers look good. A 100% approval rating would be unbelievable. So they will make the number say 98% to make it look good.
That’s interesting. We have the refineries here in the Democratic People’s Republic of NJ and La. He has the oil.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.