US Domestic Policy and criticism of Chavez.

[Kanaric]

Why is it that the same people who showed complete DISDAIN, said in caps because of the degree of their disdain, for the socialistic takeover of corporate assets in Venezuela now applaud the same action in the US with the financial industry? And these people are conservatives? It is bipartisan virtually unilateral agreement in congress. Whats worse is that this will be done on the backs of the taxpayers, who are MORE than burdened with Iraq among other things, but in Venezuela its done by decree. I don't want my money going to corporate buyouts for unprofitable industries just because of the Bush/Republican policy of deregulation.

When is this farce that Republicans are "conservative" going to end? This is probably the largest socialist takeover in American history not to mention that they are BY FAR the biggest spending party in the history of the United States. Utterly irresponsible to an extreme that defies comprehension that people consider them a good economic party in their current state.

Not saying the Democrats are any better, in fact they are terrible for siding with them... seemingly risking the nation at a chance of further tainting George Bushes presidency, but at least they attempt to police this sort of thing and they don't decrease revenues and THEN increase spending to a whole new degree never before seen resulting in the non stop printing of money and throwing the dollar in the toilet and our financial security into the hands of our political enemies.

Waiting on spoon fed talking point responses.

[Arthum]

Well,can't really say I'm sorry for you Americans, now you're -literally- getting the bill presented, for electing the same clique of douches twice.

That of course would be more satisfying to say, if we hadn't the same or similar problems here in Europe, even if maybe not quite on that scale.

[Furious Mental]

Chavez is expropriating the rich. Bush is bailing them out. For some reason it's perfectly OK to spend mountains of public money to save the bank balances of people who made giant profits recklessly trading in vapour money. I'll bet the same thing happens again in twenty years time, with even more arcane forms of finance even more remote from tangible things with intrinsic value.

[Viking Prince]

Well, I for one have been posting the disdain for the takeovers. They need a plan to privatise and to regulate the derivatives market. Bankers should not be highly leveraged on derivatives by taking hedge fund money on deposit and taking on the risks better suited for nonbanking companies. The same with insurance. Risks are devilish enough without leveraging them.

The big difference is that socialist governments bailout or even seize healthy companies to control in perpetuity. I still have hope that this latest episode of ballouts will still end with the companies in the private sector, responsible misconduct punished, and regulations to prevent this abuse in the future.

Freddie and Fannie committed fraud. "Creative" definitions of temporary loses, actual fraud in stating expenses, and political protection money to US Senators such as Dodd and Obama. The CEO's fled with piles of cash and at least two are important to the Obama campaign (Johnson and Maines). Now, the democrats want to fix the problem and ask that partisan finger pointing should cease so that we can all get together and fix the problem. If this does not sink the Obama campaign, nothing will.

[Viking Prince]

Another reason for disdain of the undemocratic tendencies of your friend Hugo:

Two Human Rights Watch staffers issued report critical of Venezuelan president and then deported

The Venezuelan government has expelled two Human Rights Watch staffers from the nation and ordered them not to return, the group said Friday.

The men were kicked out of Venezuela on Thursday night, hours after issuing a report in the capital of Caracas that asserted that the 10-year rule of President Hugo Chavez has weakened democratic institutions in the country.

Jose Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch, and Americas deputy director Daniel Wilkinson were confronted at their hotel and given a letter accusing them of anti-state activities, the organization said Friday.

"Their cell phones were confiscated, and their requests to be allowed to contact their embassies were denied," the group said in a written statement. "They were put into cars, taken to the airport and put on a plane to São Paulo, Brazil, where they landed this morning."
"This is the first time this has happened in the Americas," said Conor Fortune, a press officer for the group. "The events basically prove many of the points made in the report: that Venezuela is still a very repressive country under Chavez."

How nice of you to start the thread!!!

[Arthum]

Hmmm,human rights watch complains, because two staffers have been expelled, should I look up, if there are any complaints they might have about the US,I wonder ???

I don't think you really want to go there.

[Reloader-1]

Arthum,

As a Venezuelan living in the USA...

I understand that you may not like the US - I agree with you on many points, perhaps. At certain times, however, you have to call something for what it is, and here, the US clearly does not belong on the same page as Venezuela in terms of repression.

Trust me on this - you don't want to go there

[Arthum]

Reloader-1,

I have no problem with the US as such, just with some of their policies and about repression, I'm pretty sure you would beg to differ, sitting in Gitmo,Baghram airbase or in any of the other various locations, where all the rules and values the US themselves still are promoting ,are getting violated to the extreme.

I do not however put the US and Venezuela on the same level, if someone comes up with such red-herring articles though, I throw them right back into the sea.

[Viking Prince]

Reloader-1,

I have no problem with the US as such, just with some of their policies and about repression, I'm pretty sure you would beg to differ, sitting in Gitmo,Baghram airbase or in any of the other various locations, where all the rules and values the US themselves still are promoting ,are getting violated to the extreme.

I do not however put the US and Venezuela on the same level, if someone comes up with such red-herring articles though, I throw them right back into the sea.

When nations expell people without allowing embassy contact and just dump them on a flight out to any random destination, don't you wonder about the government? And only for publishing a study on government repression. What does this have to do with USA? Nothing. It is right or wrong -- Gitmo does not facter in. You criticize my post as a red herring and do the same yourself.

[MaximiIian]

It's not so much the socialist takeover (in fact, I support democratic socialism, as do many others) in Venezuela that has us ticked about Chavez. It's that, well...Chavez is a pompous dickhead who needs to learn when to shut the up when he's doing a socialist takeover in Venezuela.

[Viking Prince]

It's not so much the socialist takeover (in fact, I support democratic socialism, as do many others) in Venezuela that has us ticked about Chavez. It's that, well...Chavez is a pompous dickhead who needs to learn when to shut the up when he's doing a socialist takeover in Venezuela.

No offense -- but that is a skill that is missing with nearly all politicians. Hugo has lots of company --- even in the USA.

[Arthum]

There you see, we're actually all on the same level here.Probably even Chavez' mother thinks, that he's a pompus,pea-brained,populistic,pot-bellied P...astard and the reason he nationalises everything that hasn't fled the country by the count of "tres", is because he needs the cash to keep himself in power and it will only last him so long...and I think everybody can guess, who he's going to blame, if the money runs out, no ?

The situation is different in the US, completely different, but all of us apply completely different standards here.I mean actually a very similar thing has taken place where I live a few years back, only on a communal level and made Berlin fall into so much debt, we'll need some more years, just to stop taking credits, let alone paying back the debts.What has happened now in the US is simply on a far,far more larger scale and there should have been much more precautions and safety nets to prevent it from happening, that it still could happen is thanks to a level of incompetence unparalleld at least in this millenium.