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chaloobi
SFN Regular
1620 Posts |
 Posted - 12/03/2007 : 11:14:28
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I assume everyone's seen the news. I personally don't mind a stronger Left in Central and South America (balance to the Force it will bring) and Chavez's anti-Bush rhetoric esp. at the UN was hilarious. But from what I'd heard about it, Chavez was going too far in Venezuela's revised constitution.
Left governance does not = dictator, and Venezuelans proved that today, IMO. They want something left of a US economic lapdog but not the kind of crap Chavez was going to do to their constitution. Good for them.
I think where Chavez went wrong is the 6 hour work day bribe. You still have to go to work every day, after all. If he'd gone for a 4 day work week, they'd have bought it. 
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-Chaloobi
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Edited by - chaloobi on 12/03/2007 11:16:38
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Gorgo
SFN Die Hard
USA
5310 Posts |
Posted - 12/03/2007 : 11:21:49 [Permalink]
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| Another would reduce the working week to 36 hours. This is being reported in the media as a 6-hour day, but more likely it will be interpreted as four eight-hour days plus four hours on Friday. |
http://www.cepr.net/content/view/1366/45/ |
I know the rent is in arrears
The dog has not been fed in years
It's even worse than it appears
But it's alright-
Jerry Garcia
Robert Hunter
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Cuneiformist
The Imperfectionist
USA
4955 Posts |
Posted - 12/03/2007 : 11:46:08 [Permalink]
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| I'm relieved only because if the election were close the other way, there no doubt would have been hints from various other governments about a crooked vote. And Chavez said that if there were any of that talk from the US, he'd refuse to ship any oil. I wasn't looking forward to that showdown. |
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chaloobi
SFN Regular
1620 Posts |
Posted - 12/03/2007 : 12:48:07 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Gorgo
| Another would reduce the working week to 36 hours. This is being reported in the media as a 6-hour day, but more likely it will be interpreted as four eight-hour days plus four hours on Friday. |
http://www.cepr.net/content/view/1366/45/
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It's like a very casual Friday. Still, you have to wake up and go to work. 3-Day weekends would have got it passed.
For reference here's some more info:
CARACAS, Venezuela - Humbled by his first electoral defeat ever, President Hugo Chavez said Monday he may have been too ambitious in asking voters to let him stand indefinitely for re-election and endorse a huge leap to a socialist state.
"I understand and accept that the proposal I made was quite profound and intense," he said after voters narrowly rejected the sweeping constitutional reforms by 51 percent to 49 percent.
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Chavez told reporters at the presidential palace that the outcome of Sunday's balloting had taught him that "Venezuelan democracy is maturing." His respect for the verdict, he asserted, proves he is a true democratic leader.
"From this moment on, let's be calm," he proposed, asking for no more street violence like the clashes that marred pre-vote protests. "There is no dictatorship here."
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Chavez, who was briefly ousted in a failed 2002 coup, blamed the loss on low turnout among the very supporters who re-elected him a year ago with 63 percent of the vote.
Seven in 10 eligible voters cast ballots then. This time it was just 56 percent.
The defeated reform package would have created new types of communal property, let Chavez handpick local leaders under a redrawn political map and suspended civil liberties during extended states of emergency.
Other changes would have shortened the workday from eight hours to six, created a social security fund for millions of informal laborers and promoted communal councils where residents decide how to spend government funds.
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A close ally of Cuba's Fidel Castro, Chavez has redistributed more oil wealth than past Venezuelan leaders, and also has aided Latin American allies — including Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua — that have followed Venezuela's turn to the left.
"He is a man who feels for the people, a man who has suffered, a man who comes from below," Carlos Orlando Vega, a 47-year-old carpenter's assistant, said outside a polling station in a Caracas slum on Sunday.
Vega is among tens of thousands of Venezuelans who, under Chavez, have new government-provided homes.
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Chavez, 53, also suffered some high-profile defections by political allies, including former defense minister Gen. Raul Baduel.
Early Monday, Baduel reminded fellow Venezuelans that Chavez still wields special decree powers thanks to a pliant National Assembly packed with his supporters.
"These results can't be recognized as a victory," Baduel told reporters,
Baduel, who as defense minister helped Chavez turn back the 2002 putsch, said Venezuela can only be properly united by convening a popularly elected assembly to rewrite its constitution.
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Link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071203/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/venezuela_constitution |
-Chaloobi
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| Edited by - chaloobi on 12/03/2007 12:50:28 |
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Orwellingly Yurz
SFN Regular
USA
529 Posts |
Posted - 12/03/2007 : 13:07:34 [Permalink]
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YO: I'm satified with the Venezuelan vote going against Chavez. He was going adrift down Bushit Creek with all the constitutional changes in his boat. Now, if Bush could just take a cue from Hugo:
a little respect for his 'subjects' regarding what the vote was that they rendered. Chavez even acknowledged his feeling that Venezuela showed a maturing democracy with it. Even if Chavez is insincere with that remark, you'd think Bush, his Repuglican'ts and even the Wiener Democrats would 'get it' that a majority of US voters want our ass out of Iraq and no 'Bomb Bomb Iran,' as the Beach Boys would sing it.
Orwellingly Yurz, please. |
"The modern conservative...is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy. That is the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness."
--John Kenneth Galbraith
If dogs run free
Then what must be,
Must be...
And that is all
--Bob Dylan
The neo-cons have gotten welfare for themselves down to a fine art.
--me
"The meek shall inherit the earth, but not the mineral rights."
--J. Paul Getty
"The great thing about Art isn't what it give us, but what we become through it."
--Oscar Wilde
"We have Art in order not to die of life."
--Albert Camus
"I cling like a miser to the freedom I lose when surrounded by an abundance of things."
--Albert Camus
"Experience is the name so many people give to their mistakes."
--Oscar Wilde |
| Edited by - Orwellingly Yurz on 12/03/2007 13:09:16 |
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Gorgo
SFN Die Hard
USA
5310 Posts |
Posted - 12/04/2007 : 05:25:30 [Permalink]
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| Some { audio }comments by Mark Weisbrot of CEPR who has written extensively on Venezuela. |
I know the rent is in arrears
The dog has not been fed in years
It's even worse than it appears
But it's alright-
Jerry Garcia
Robert Hunter
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Gorgo
SFN Die Hard
USA
5310 Posts |
Posted - 12/04/2007 : 05:30:15 [Permalink]
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I think it would have been interesting if it were not an "omnibus" bill to see what would have passed and what wouldn't.
http://www.killingtrain.com/node/587
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I know the rent is in arrears
The dog has not been fed in years
It's even worse than it appears
But it's alright-
Jerry Garcia
Robert Hunter
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Chavez Rejected by Venezuelans
