NOT keeping up with the REAL news? Read today's Dandelion Salad

I am posting this WHOLE thing.

It's ALL relevant. I have dozens of things already stacked up.

So this is speedlinking.

Hopefully, google will be kind and post some of it.

One thing about Blogger, you don't get enough room for proper tagging, even if like me, you are a slob in spelling them when posting, just not enough ROOM!!

This list should indicate to you why elections are NOT enough - and that there is NO real leadership which is WHY the Dennis video is SO important to WATCH.

Veeger

Dandelion Salad

Dennis Kucinich: You Can’t Secure Our Nation With LIES! Posted: 13 Mar 2008 07:04 PM CDT Dandelion Salad CSPANJUNKIEdotORG March 13, 2008 C-SPAN from www.youtube.com posted with vodpod . see Kucinich-Dennis Contribute to Kucinich for Congress

Watching the Dollar Die By Paul Craig Roberts Posted: 13 Mar 2008 06:58 PM CDT Dandelion Salad By Paul Craig Roberts 13/03/08 “ICH“ I’ve been watching the dollar die all my life. I sometimes think I will outlast it. When I was a young man, gold was $35 an ounce. Today one ounce gold bullion coins, such as the Canadian Maple Leaf, cost more than $1,000. Our coinage was [...]

Republicans & “Free Market” Zealots Bring Death To America Posted: 13 Mar 2008 06:51 PM CDT Dandelion Salad By Paul Craig Roberts 03/13/08 “ICH” March 12. Crude oil for April delivery hit $110 per barrel. The US dollar fell to a new low against the Euro. It now takes $1.55 to purchase one Euro. These new highs against the dollar are the ongoing story of the collapse of the [...]

President Bush Addresses FISA Legislation (video) Posted: 13 Mar 2008 02:17 PM CDT Dandelion Salad Veracifier President Bush, March 13, 2008 from www.youtube.com posted with vodpod .

Yassin Aref’s Struggle for Justice in Police State America by Stephen Lendman Posted: 13 Mar 2008 01:55 PM CDT Dandelion Salad by Stephen Lendman Global Research, March 13, 2008 Yassin Aref is a 37 year old Albany, New York resident and one of many Muslim victims of police state justice in post-9/11 America. They’ve been hunted down, rounded up, held in detention, kept in isolation, denied bail, restricted in their right to counsel, tried [...]

Mosaic News - 3/12/08: World News from the Middle East Posted: 13 Mar 2008 01:42 PM CDT Dandelion Salad Warning . This video may contain images depicting the reality and horror of war and should only be viewed by a mature audience. linktv For more: http://linktv.org/originalseries “Admiral Quits After Questioning Bush,” Al Jazeera English, Qatar “Jordan Releases Islamist Leader,” Al Arabiya TV, UAE “Dora Residents Suffer Lack of Services,” Sumaria TV, Iraq “Egypt Suspends Gaz Exports to Israel,” Al Jazeera [...]

Stop-Loss Congress Direct Action + Arrested Activists (videos) Posted: 13 Mar 2008 01:21 PM CDT Dandelion Salad WHYNotNews Stop-loss Congress Mission Statementmyspace.com/stoplosscongress Mission Statement:We believe that Congress works for US, and that the time has come to TELL them what they must do. It is time to stop the corrupt and murderous business as usual in the Senate and House of Representatives. On March 10, 11, and 12 we will participate in nonviolent direct actions [...]

NBC Makes Mockery of US Constitution & Rule of Law (video) Posted: 13 Mar 2008 12:20 PM CDT Dandelion Salad representativepress http://representativepress.blogspot.c… Fallon’s resignation is frightening. see link for message to Jim Miklaszewski, NBC News Chief Pentagon Correspondent - about Post at NBC News BLOG “Field Notes” on Tuesday, March 11, 2008 11:25 AM http://representativepress.blogspot.c… http://representativepress.googlepage… from www.youtube.com posted with vodpod . see Why Fallon’s Resignation is [...]

What they won’t say about NAFTA by Adam Turl Posted: 13 Mar 2008 05:34 AM CDT Dandelion Salad by Adam Turl socialistworker.orgMarch 14, 2008 HILLARY CLINTON’S and Barack Obama’s criticisms of NAFTA make it seem like the U.S. is the biggest loser. ADAM TURL sets the record straight. HILLARY CLINTON and Barack Obama are waging rhetorical war on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)–the free trade deal shepherded through Congress and signed into [...]

The Peacemaker by Eva Golinger Posted: 13 Mar 2008 05:17 AM CDT Dandelion Salad by Eva Golinger venezuelanalysis.com ZNet March 11th 2008 President Chávez’s diplomatic tone and calm demeanor brokered peace between Andean nations on the brink of war at the Rio Group Summit in Santo Domingo late last week, yet the media portrays him as a “dictator” and “threat to the region”. PERHAPS the most misrepresented and demonized figure in the [...] [

Disagreements by Top Military Brass regarding Bush-Cheney War Plans by Michel Chossudovsky Posted: 13 Mar 2008 05:02 AM CDT Dandelion Salad by Michel Chossudovsky Global Research, March 12, 2008 Adm. William Fallon was forced to resign as head of U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM) over disagreements pertaining to the administration’s Iran war plans. Defense Secretary Gates said that Adm. William J. Fallon “had asked for permission to retire” and that Gates had agreed. The fact of [...]

Oh, Geraldine! by Michael Posted: 13 Mar 2008 04:17 AM CDT Michael by Michael featured writer Dandelion Salad Michael’s blog post Brain Spank March 13, 2008 Fuck me. The sheer indignance for her to suggest she’s being persecuted for her remarks because she’s white is astounding. “Racism works in two different directions. I really think they’re attacking me because I’m white. How’s that?” -Geraldine Ferraro You have got be fucking kidding me. They’re attacking [...] [

US Relief Organization Takes Expedition to the USA (video) + What have we become as a nation? Posted: 13 Mar 2008 03:31 AM CDT Dandelion Salad mmflint 1 weekend, 920 patients seen, 500 pairs of glasses provided, 94 mammograms performed, 1,066 teeth extracted, 567 cavities filled. 400 people turned away… Check out RAM’s website: http://www.ramusa.org/ For more cruel and unusual news, check out http://www.michaelmoore.com/ from www.youtube.com posted with vodpod . h/t: lenaw70 *** What have we [...]

CIA Holocaust Claims Twenty Million Victims Posted: 13 Mar 2008 02:54 AM CDT Dandelion Salad by Len Hart thepeoplesvoice.org March 12, 2008 The world’s number one terrorist organization, the CIA has committed heinous acts of terrorism abroad, murdering critics of US foreign and domestic policies and has done it on behalf of an increasing tiny, privileged American elite. This elite is a tiny one percent which owns more than the combined [...]

Olbermann: Ferraro Special Comment + How To Delegate + Geraldine Furorro Posted: 13 Mar 2008 02:23 AM CDT Dandelion Salad Ryokibin Mar. 12, 2008 The Ferraro Special Comment Finally, as promised, a Special Comment on the presidential campaign of the Junior Senator from New York. By way of necessary preface, President and Senator Clinton — and the Senator’s mother, and the Senator’s brother — were of immeasurable support to me at the moments when these very commentaries were [...]

Stunning New Report on Domestic NSA Dragnet Spying Confirms ACLU Surveillance Warnings Posted: 13 Mar 2008 01:53 AM CDT Dandelion Salad ACLU (3/12/2008) FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: 675-2312 or media@dcaclu.org WASHINGTON – The American Civil Liberties Union responded today to a stunning new report that the NSA has effectively revived the Orwellian “Total Information Awareness” domestic-spying program that was banned by Congress in 2003. In response, the ACLU said that it was filing a [...]

Was the U.S. Involved in Killing the FARC-EP Leaders? Posted: 13 Mar 2008 12:27 AM CDT Dandelion Salad By James J. Brittan ICH 12/03/08 “Counterpunch“ While virtually every country in Central and South America, including the Caribbean, has waged in on the debate of the Colombian state conducting an illegal military campaign within Ecuadorian sovereign territory, resulting in the deaths of various high ranking officials in the Revolutionary Armed [...]

Congo Resource Wars by Andrew G. Marshall Posted: 12 Mar 2008 11:25 PM CDT by Andrew G. Marshall featured writer Dandelion Salad March 12, 2008 This report examines the current war and genocide in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which started in the mid-1990s, placing emphasis on the roles of Western covert operations, corporations and the plundering of resources that has resulted. War in the Congo King Leopold’s War for Rubber Nearly [...] [

Ron Paul: Our Empire is Coming Down! (video) Posted: 12 Mar 2008 11:06 PM CDT Dandelion Salad CSPANJUNKIEdotORG C-SPAN March 12, 2008 from www.youtube.com posted with vodpod . see Ron Paul on Cavuto: Federal Reserve’s $200 Billion Injection Don’t Stand For This! (Gravel; Paul) (video) The Money Masters - How International Bankers Gained Control of America (video) Paul leaves open door to third-party bid, unlikely to support [...]

Coreluminus: Ballad of John Taylor Gatto (music video) Posted: 12 Mar 2008 10:35 PM CDT Dandelion Salad djlookwood All of us who went to school thought we were learning, only we did not know that the lesson was obedience, and that the histories we were given were lies, and the exams were behavioural tests, not academic tests. The devisors of the tests only interest was would we modify our behaviour enough to [...]

Life at Guantánamo Bay (video) Posted: 12 Mar 2008 09:34 PM CDT Dandelion Salad NewAmericaFoundation During the last six years, the U.S. Administration has held nearly 800 alleged terror suspects without trial at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. 500 of these men have now been released, but their stories - and the stories of those who remain - are largely unknown. Fragments have emerged in books and interviews, and in declassified [...]

Stephen Colbert Roasts Bush at Correspondent’s Dinner (video; 2006) Posted: 12 Mar 2008 09:30 PM CDT Dandelion Salad Posted previously on my old blog on April 30, 2006. ~ Lo Stephen Colbert Roasts Bush at Correspondent’s Dinner 24 min 10 sec - Feb 19, 2007 from video.google.com posted with vodpod . h/t: Corporations_Ate_My_BABY! [

The Cold, Cold Steel of Handcuffs by Cindy Sheehan + Bush Sings Posted: 12 Mar 2008 09:15 PM CDT The Real Cindy Sheehan by Cindy Sheehan Dandelion Salad featured writer March 12, 2008 With the unbelievable 5th anniversary of “shock and awe” looming before us like a dark cancer that is out of control, the Buffoon in Chief, George W. Bush, once again tormented the nation [...]

Threat of Iran War More Real: End the World for What? By Liam Bailey Posted: 12 Mar 2008 08:29 PM CDT Liam By Liam Bailey featured writer Dandelion Salad The Bailey Mail March 12, 2008 2008-03-11 According to an article in Time Magazine online, the threat of war with Iran is becoming more real. It is true that the threat of World War III from U.S. President Bush was a level [...]

The Ant Man Exits: War Crime Accomplice Canned for Insufficient Groveling by Chris Floyd Posted: 12 Mar 2008 08:17 PM CDT Dandelion Salad by Chris Floyd Empire Burlesque Tuesday, 11 March 2008 If Admiral William Fallon really was the only man standing between us and a new war with Iran, as Esquire magazine claimed recently – well, he’s gone now. Top U.S. Commander in Mideast to Retire Early (NYT) As we noted here the other day, the magazine’s view of Fallon [...]

The Real News: Why support Kosovo independence (videos) Posted: 12 Mar 2008 07:47 PM CDT Dandelion Salad TheRealNews More at http://therealnews.com/c.php?c=080301YT Prof. Robert Austin on the moral argument for Kosovo’s declaration of independence 2008-03-11 Robert Austin is the Graduate Coordinator for the Center for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies at Munk Center for International Studies at the University of Toronto. from www.youtube.com posted with vodpod . Kosovo’s declaration [...]

Mosaic News - 3/11/08: World News from the Middle East Posted: 12 Mar 2008 07:13 PM CDT Dandelion Salad Warning . This video may contain images depicting the reality and horror of war and should only be viewed by a mature audience. linktv For more: http://linktv.org/originalseries “Twin Suicide Attacks Rock Lahore, 24 Killed,” Al Jazeera English, Qatar “Saudis Intercept Zawahiri’s Message,” Al Arabiya TV, UAE “Homes Transformed Into Car Repair Shops,” Al Arabiya TV, UAE “Muslim Brotherhood Changes Slogan in [...] [

New UN Sanctions Make US-Iran War More Likely Posted: 12 Mar 2008 07:10 PM CDT Dandelion Salad by William H. White Global Research, March 12, 2008 OpEdNews.com United Nations Security Council Resolution 1803: Casus Belli Passage of the third United Nations Security Council sanctions resolution against Iran makes a war between the United States and Iran more likely. The Bush administration has been pressing the United Nations Security Council for months to pass a third [...]

Follow up on Hugo Chavez, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador ..

The Peacemaker

March 11th 2008, by Eva Golinger - ZNet

President Chávez's diplomatic tone and calm demeanor brokered peace between Andean nations on the brink of war at the Rio Group Summit in Santo Domingo late last week, yet the media portrays him as a "dictator" and "threat to the region".

PERHAPS the most misrepresented and demonized figure in the media today, President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, recently became a symbol of peace and diplomacy at the Rio Group Summit in Santo Domingo this past March 7. Chávez's diplomatic, affectionate tone and his call to peace between sister nations calmed tensions between Colombia, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Venezuela, which just hours before had been on the brink of war after Colombia unilaterally violated Ecuador's territory without permission or notification in order to bomb and assassinate a leader of the Fuerzas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) who was camped with a group of visiting Mexicans on the Ecuatorian side of the border. All those stationed at the FARC camp were killed, with the exception of three women, including one Mexican, who were injured and left by Colombian soldiers to die but were later rescued by Ecuatorian armed forces. Chávez, who had ordered his troops to the Colombian border and warned President Uribe of Colombia that a similar attempt to violate Venezuela's sovereignty would be met with force, was quickly labeld by the international media as a "warmonger" and "responsable" for the conflict in the region. Colombia's government, publicly backed by President Bush himself, accused Chávez and President Correa of Ecuador of aiding and funding the FARC, a group labeled "terrorist" by the United States, Colombia and the European Union, and even went so far as to implicate Chávez in the proposed sale of uranium to the FARC in order to build dirty bombs. These unsubstantiated - and extremely dangerous - allegations fall right in line with the increased efforts of the Bush Administration to label Chávez's Venezuela as a nation that supports "drug trafficking", "terrorism" and "money laundering", and to classify Chávez as a "dictator", "authoritarian" and "threat to U.S. interests." {Hell, it worked to bring down Panama, did it not??}

Debunking the Chávez myth is not as easy as it should be. Coverage of President Chávez and Venezuela is negative and distorted in 90% of major media outlets in Europe, Latin America and the United States. An analysis of the Washington Post editorial page during the past year shows that of the twenty-three editorials or OpEds specifically written about Venezuela, only one - written by Venezuela's Ambassador to the US - presented a balanced vision of the South American nation's political and economic situation. President Chávez was labeled as a "dictator", "autocrat", "strongman" or "despot" on ten occasions and references to his government as "dictatorial", "authoritarian" or "repressive" were made in almost every article. Even worse, the Washington Post perpetuated the falsehood of Venezuela's relationship with terrorism in almost a dozen editorials during the last year.

None of these claims about Venezuela and President Chávez's slippery slope towards a terrorist dictatorship have ever been seriously substantiated with real evidence. In fact, a frightening parallel can be drawn between the Bush-Cheney lies about weapons of mass destruction in Sadaam Hussein's Iraq and the false allegations about Chávez's Venezuela funding and arming Colombian terrorists and facilitating drug trafficking and money laundering. The mere reference made by President Uribe regarding a possible sale of uranium to the FARC to build bombs is eerily reminiscent of Pat Robertson's outrageous claims in 2005 that President Chávez was building a nuclear bomb with Iran to blow up the United States. While ridiculous, such allegations justified the U.S. invasion of Iraq after government officials hammered the false claims into public opinion and the media recycled lies. Those cynical or too naive to believe that a similar aggression could occur against Venezuela need only remember the U.S. invasion of socialist Grenada in 1983 or the bombing and invasion of Panamá in 1989. In both instances, neither government represented a real threat to the U.S., and in both cases, myths about "dangerous dictatorships" were perpetuated in the media in order to justify the unilateral attacks. When the truth comes out years later, as is the case with Iraq, U.S. officials offer insincere apologies and shrug it all off as "in the past" and anyway, they were all bad guys.

Over the past year, the U.S. State Department has classified Venezuela as a nation "not collaborating" with either the "war on drugs" or the "war against terrorism". The Pentagon and the intelligence communities released reports earlier this year citing Venezuela as a "major threat to U.S. national security" and have proposed beefing up military presence in the region. The White House and Congress have increased USAID and National Endowment Funding to opposition groups in Venezuela in an effort to rebuild ailing conservatives that favor a U.S. agenda. International media portray Chávez as "public enemy #1" and the leader of a Latin American "axis of evil" that is threatening regional stability. Meanwhile, poverty in Venezuela has been reduced by more than 50% under the thrice-elected President Chávez, 100% of Venezuelans have access to free, quality health care and education beyond the doctoral level, voter participation has skyrocketed to unprecedented, historical levels and more new hospitals, schools, highways, bridges, railways and industries have been built since during the entire 40-year period of "representative democracy". And to top it all off, Chávez has negotiated the release of six hostages held by the FARC for more than five years, helped pay off Venezuela's, Argentina's and Nicaragua's foreign debt and established regional initiatives such as Telesur, the Bank of the South, PetroCaribe, UnaSur (Union of South American Nations) and ALBA, a cooperative trade agreement between Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua and Bolivia.

Hugo Chávez is a man of peace. The question to ask is why the Bush Administration and mass media continue to portray him as an evil dictator. But we all know the answer to that: Venezuela has the world's largest oil reserves. So what we really need to be asking is why public opinion - you - allow the perpetuation of this dangerous myth?

[Eva Golinger is a lawyer and the author of The Chávez Code: Cracking U.S. Intervention in Venezuela (Olive Branch Press 2006) and Bush vs. Chávez: Washington's War on Venezuela (Monthly Review Press 2008). You can visit her blog at www.chavezcode.com.]

Source:

ZNet

Venezuela's Chavez Closes Embassy In Ecuador, Sends Troops To Border

Linda Young - AHN Editor

Caracas, Venezuela (AHN) - Venezuela President Hugo Chavez has ordered his country's embassy in Columbia closed and sent troops to the border in an apparent reaction to an operation by Columbia in Ecuador that resulted in the killing of a top rebel leader. Chavez had said that Columbia violated Ecuador's sovereignty and warned that if it pursued FARC rebels in Venezuela that he would consider it an act of war, according to reports.

Columbian forces reportedly killed the second-in-command of the FARC, which is a Spanish acronym for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.

It was a joint operation between Colombian air forces that attacked a FARC camp from the Colombian side and Colombia's national police. It resulted in the death of Luis Edgar Devia Silva, known as "Raul Reyes," along with 16 others.

But Chavez reportedly condemned the operation, saying it was murder not combat because the men were killed while they slept in their camp in Ecuador.

Exxon will Never Again Steal from Venezuela Says Chavez

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/3142

Exxon will Never Again Steal from Venezuela Says Chavez

February 11th 2008, by Kiraz Janicke - Venezuelanalysis.com

United Socialist Party Delegates protest
against ExxonMobil in Puerto Ordaz
on Saturday (Gonzalo Gomez/Aporrea)

Caracas, February 11, 2008 (venezuelanalysis.com) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez classified the intention of the worlds largest oil company, ExxonMobil, to freeze assets of state-owned Venezuelan oil company Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), as part of a US government backed "economic war" and destabilization campaign against his government and the people of Venezuela. Chavez vowed that the Venezuelan government would not be intimidated.

"They will never rob us again, those bandits of ExxonMobil, they are imperialist bandits, white collar criminals, corruptors of governments, over-throwers of governments, who supported the invasion and bombing of Iraq and continue supporting the genocide in Iraq," he said on his weekly TV show ‘Alo Presidente.'

Last week, Exxon said it won temporary court orders in the UK, the Netherlands, and the Dutch Antilles to freeze PDVSA assets worth up to $12 billion, in a dispute over compensation for a 41.7% stake (worth $750m), in the Cerro Negro exploration project in the Orinoco oil field. The project was nationalized by the Venezuelan government in May last year as part of a drive to gain majority state participation in the country's oil production joint ventures.

Other major oil companies including U.S.-based Chevron Corp., France's Total, Britain's BP PLC, and Norway's Statoil negotiated deals with Venezuela to remain on as minority partners in the Orinoco oil belt projects.

However, ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil, rejected the changed conditions and have been in compensation talks with PDVSA. A spokesperson for ConocoPhillips said they are seeking an "amicable resolution" with the Venezuelan government.

ExxonMobil rejected an initial compensation offer by the Venezuelan government and is seeking arbitration. Another injunction solicited by ExxonMobil in a New York court in January also froze up to $315 million in funds owned by the Venezuelan oil company.

However, all of the court orders are subject to appeal and the Venezuelan government is set to challenge the injunctions in New York and London on the 13th and 22nd of February respectively.
Chavez has warned that if the injunctions are not overturned Venezuela will suspend oil shipments to the United States.

"If you freeze us, if you really manage to freeze us, if you damage us, then we will hurt you. Do you know how? We are not going to send oil to the United States," he said.

Venezuela is the U.S.'s fourth largest oil supplier behind Canada, Saudi Arabia and Mexico. According to the latest figures from the U.S. Energy Department, Venezuela accounted for 12% of U.S. crude oil imports in November, supplying some 1.23 million barrels a day.

"Take note, Mr. Bush, Mr. Danger. If the economic war continues against Venezuela, the price of oil will reach $200. Venezuela will take up the economic war and more than one country is inclined to join us," he added.

Nicaragua's President, Daniel Ortega, backed up Chavez's stance, saying the move by Exxon in conjunction with recent comments attacking Venezuela by US National Intelligence Chief, Mike McConnell showed "a clear imperialist offensive against Venezuela."

"What I want to say to President Chavez and to the Venezuelan people is that they can count on the unconditional solidarity and approval of the Nicaraguan people," Ortega added.

PDVSA, which accounts for some 90% of Venezuela's foreign exchange and half of federal tax revenue, has been central to the Chavez government's policy of wealth distribution through funding immensely popular social programs that provide free education and healthcare to the poor. In 2006 the government invested more than $13 billion in such programs.

Venezuela's predominantly wealthy opposition sectors, hostile to Chavez's nationalization and wealth distribution policies, blamed the government for Exxon's injunctions, arguing the oil project "should never have been nationalized in the first place."

However, Chavez pointed to the two-month oil industry shutdown, orchestrated by the opposition in an attempt to oust him from government in 2002-2003, which caused an estimated $10 billion worth of damage to the economy and said there are some Venezuelans that want to destroy PDVSA.

Similarly, Venezuela's Ambassador in London, Samuel Moncada also criticized the "anti-national conduct of some Venezuelans," specifically the owners and workers of private TV station Globovision, "who demonstrated their open and unconditional support" for the attacks of ExxonMobil against Venezuelan interests.

In contrast, the actions by ExxonMobil have angered many poorer Venezuelans who view the move as an attack on Venezuela's sovereignty and who have organized protests around the country. Oil workers in the Cerro Negro project, (renamed Petromonagas), rejected the judicial actions of ExxonMobil as completely unacceptable. Union leader Luis Carvajal said, "This transnational has exploited our wealth, has exploited our workers and violated our rights - all the workers in the Orinoco oil belt support the nationalization."

Stalin Pérez Borges, national coordinator of the National Union of Workers said the injunctions are "a political-economic attack that is part of a plan against the revolutionary process."

The founding congress of the new United Socialist Party of Venezuela has passed a resolution calling for demonstrations against ExxonMobil this Thursday in Caracas and in Maracaibo, in the oil rich state of Zulia.

Venezuela's Chavez threatens oil cut-off indicating he's got HIS finger on the pulse

Tough talk is in response to Exxon Mobil's attempts in court to win assets of state oil company.

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- President Hugo Chavez on Sunday threatened to cut off oil sales to the United States if Exxon Mobil wins court judgments to seize billions of dollars in Venezuelan assets.

"If you end up freezing (Venezuelan assets) and it harms us, we're going to harm you," Chavez said. "Do you know how? We aren't going to send oil to the United States. Take note, Mr. Bush, Mr. Danger."

Exxon Mobil (XOM, Fortune 500) has gone after the assets of state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA in U.S., British and Dutch courts as it challenges the nationalization of a multibillion dollar oil project by Chavez's government.

A British court has issued an injunction "freezing" as much as $12 billion in assets.

"I speak to the U.S. empire, because that's the master: continue and you will see that we won't sent one drop of oil to the empire of the United States," Chavez said during his weekly radio and television program, "Hello, President."

"The outlaws of Exxon Mobil will never again rob us," Chavez said, accusing the Irving, Texas-based oil company of acting in concert with Washington.

Chavez has repeatedly threatened to cut off oil shipments to the United States, which is Venezuela's No. 1 client, if Washington tries to oust him. Chavez's warnings on Sunday appeared to extend that threat to attempts by oil companies to challenge his government's nationalization drive in courts internationally.

"If the economic war continues against Venezuela, the price of oil is going to reach $200 (a barrel) and Venezuela will join the economic war," Chavez said. "And more than one country is willing to accompany us in the economic war."

Exxon Mobil spokeswoman Margaret Ross said the company had no comment. A U.S. Embassy spokeswoman in Caracas did not return a call.

The U.S. imported 1.23 million barrels of crude oil a day from Venezuela in November, making it the fourth-biggest source of oil imports behind Canada, Saudi Arabia and Mexico, according to the latest figures from the U.S. Energy Department.

Those four countries, along with Nigeria, accounted for 74 percent of U.S. crude oil imports in November, the government said. By itself, Venezuela accounted for about 12% of U.S. crude imports, the figures showed.

Venezuelan Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez has argued that court orders won by Exxon Mobil have "no effect" on the state oil company PDVSA and are merely "transitory measures" while Venezuela presents its case in courts in New York and London.

Exxon Mobil is also taking its claims to international arbitration, disputing the terms it was granted under Chavez's nationalization last year of four heavy oil projects in the Orinoco River basin, one of the world's richest oil deposits.

Other major oil companies including U.S.-based Chevron Corp., France's Total, Britain's BP PLC, and Norway's StatoilHydro ASA have negotiated deals with Venezuela to continue on as minority partners in the Orinoco oil project.

ConocoPhillips and Exxon Mobil, however, balked at the tougher terms and have been in compensation talks with PDVSA.

Gas prices pull back

Background

Big oil tanks up: Exxon's profit nears $10B

By Matt Krantz, USA TODAY

While drivers have been painfully paying up at the pump, oil companies have been racking up eye-popping profits.

Thursday, ExxonMobil (XOM) became the most stark example yet of how much big oil companies benefited from the huge run-up in oil prices during the third quarter even as two major hurricanes ripped through the industry's Gulf Coast infrastructure. Exxon reported:

• Net income up 75% to $9.92 billion. That is the most a U.S. company has earned from operations in a three-month period and greater than the annual gross domestic product of entire nations including Cameroon and Zimbabwe.

• Revenue up 32% to $100.7 billion. That is greater than the annual GDP of all but just 38 of the world's economies.

Exxon illustrates the energy's sector's tremendous profit amid record-high energy prices. The industry is on pace to earn $96 billion this year — more than what the USA's industrial and telecom companies will earn, combined, says Standard & Poor's based on members of the S&P 500 index. (Vote: Are oil companies' high profits justified?)

And it's not just ExxonMobil that's raking it in. Royal Dutch Shell reported net income up 68% to $9 billion Thursday. Earlier this week, BP (BP) reported a $6.5 billion third-quarter profit and ConocoPhillips (COP) a $3.8 billion profit. Today, ChevronTexaco (CVX) is expected to post 53% higher earnings of $3.9 billion, says Reuters Estimates.

The massive profit gains were widely expected giving the soaring price of oil. The price of a barrel of oil hit a record $70 during the third quarter and, even though it has backed off to $60.80 currently is still up 40% in 2005.

It's not as if the industry didn't have difficulties with the damage of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. In fact, ExxonMobil said oil production fell 5% during the third quarter and natural-gas production fell 9%.

But those disruptions had little effect on the flow of oil companies' profits.

"The strong commodity price offset any affect of the hurricane," says analyst Lysle Brinker at John S. Herold.

That's because oil companies were selling gasoline to wholesalers at record prices. The profits from were more than enough to offset any hit the big oil companies suffered when the price of oil and gas rose faster than they could boost the price of gas sold at their own company-owned stations, says Tina Vital, oil stock analyst at S&P.

Vital says the difference between the price of oil and the price ExxonMobil charges wholesalers hit a record. But, due to public outcry and consumer sticker shock at the pump, Vital says the company charged less than their cost for gasoline during the period.

Meanwhile, the oil industry has tried to soften criticism of its current boom times by pointing out the cyclical nature of its business.

Government data backs that up. The U.S. Energy Information Administration reports that although the 20 big oil companies it tracks earned a combined $22.55 billion last quarter, those same 20 companies, together, earned only $1.59 billion in the fourth quarter of 2001.

In fact, Big Oil was weathering tough times then, reporting combined quarterly profits of less than $10 billion from the third quarter 2001 through the fourth quarter of '02.

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http://www.optevi.net/newstracker/default.aspx?f=1&e=756

Optevi News Tracker - World News - Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva

Hugo Chavez and leaders of six other South American nations launched a regional development ..... Michael Hudson - financial consultant, michael-hudson.com ...

You will find tons of relevant articles that are definitive at that last link and don't forget to read Confessions of an Economic Hitman - Hugo read it: so should you!!

Chavez offers "oil for food"

Venezuela's president has offered Caribbean and Central American nations the option to pay for oil supplies with local products, such as bananas and sugar.

Speaking in Cuba at a meeting of Petrocaribe, his regional energy alliance, on Friday, Hugo Chavez also lambasted the US and other rich nations for squandering world resources.

"We have begun to create a new geopolitics of oil that is not at theservice of the interests of imperialism and big capitalists, "

Chavezsaid in his speech.

He dismissed Americans and "Yankees" and pledged Venezuela's oil and gas would "always be at the service" of its "brother nations".

The Petrocaribe alliance, which grew to 17 countries on Friday with the admission of Honduras, has bolstered Chavez's influence in the region since it started in 2005.

But the debt of Petrocaribe members to Venezuela has reached $1.16bn in little more than a year of supplies, and is estimated to rise to$4.6bn by 2010.

Recognising this, Chavez proposed debts be offset with local products and services.

Services for oil

He did not say how local products would be used to pay down debt, but he said it would be the same method used by Cuba, which pays for oil supplies with medical and other services."

We propose adding to the financed portion of the oil bill a method of payment that includes the supply of a series of local products and services, "

he said.

The Petrocaribe deal allows members to defer payment on 40 per cent of their Venezuelan oil bill for up to 25 years, with interest of only 1per cent.

Dan Erikson, from the inter-American dialogue, told Al Jazeera that Petrocaribe had won Chavez friends in the Carribean, but that its impact was relatively small.

"Chavez tends to get much greater defference in the Carribean today than he did in the past, however, the Venezuelan president has various outreached programmes,"

Erikson said.

Outreach

He added that the Carribean states were still often "charting their own course" on the world stage.

"If you look at most of the states engaged with this - aside from Cuba- they tend to be quite small states that relly on a variety of international partners,"

he told Al Jazeera.

The outreach to Venezuela is part of this overall strategy of trying to globalise relations for Carribean states who need all the friends they can get.

Critics say Petrocaribe is increasing the indebtedness of small Caribbean states still reeling from the loss of preferential markets for bananas and sugar in the EU.

While in Cuba, Chavez is also due to open a revamped Soviet-era refinery that will supply diesel, gasoline and jet fuel to members of Petrocaribe. Chavez has helped keep Cuba's battered economy afloat with 92,000 barrels per day of oil that Havana pays for with the medical services of thousands of doctors treating Venezuela's poor.

The CIA invovlement in Venezuela's referedum: James Petras

CIA Venezuela Destabilization Memo Surfaces

November 28th 2007, by James Petras

On November 26, 2007 the Venezuelan government broadcast and circulated a confidential memo from the US embassy to the CIA which is devastatingly revealing of US clandestine operations and which will influence the referendum this Sunday, December 2, 2007.

The memo sent by an embassy official, Michael Middleton Steere, was addressed to the Director of Central Intelligence, Michael Hayden. The memo was entitled 'Advancing to the Last Phase of Operation Pincer' and updates the activity by a CIA unit with the acronym 'HUMINT' (Human Intelligence) which is engaged in clandestine action to destabilize the forth-coming referendum and coordinate the civil military overthrow of the elected Chavez government. The Embassy-CIA's polls concede that 57 per cent of the voters approved of the constitutional amendments proposed by Chavez but also predicted a 60 per cent abstention.

The US operatives emphasized their capacity to recruit former Chavez supporters among the social democrats (PODEMOS) and the former Minister of Defense Baduel, claiming to have reduced the 'yes' vote by 6 per cent from its original margin. Nevertheless the Embassy operatives concede that they have reached their ceiling, recognizing they cannot defeat the amendments via the electoral route.

The memo then recommends that Operation Pincer (OP) [Operación Tenaza] be operationalized. OP involves a two-pronged strategy of impeding the referendum, rejecting the outcome at the same time as calling for a 'no' vote. The run up to the referendum includes running phony polls, attacking electoral officials and running propaganda through the private media accusing the government of fraud and calling for a 'no' vote. Contradictions, the report emphasizes, are of no matter.

The CIA-Embassy reports internal division and recriminations among the opponents of the amendments including several defections from their 'umbrella group'. The key and most dangerous threats to democracy raised by the Embassy memo point to their success in mobilizing the private university students (backed by top administrators) to attack key government buildings including the Presidential Palace, Supreme Court and the National Electoral Council. The Embassy is especially full of praise for the ex-Maoist 'Red Flag' group for its violent street fighting activity. Ironically, small Trotskyist sects and their trade unionists join the ex-Maoists in opposing the constitutional amendments. The Embassy, while discarding their 'Marxist rhetoric', perceives their opposition as fitting in with their overall strategy.

The ultimate objective of 'Operation Pincer' is to seize a territorial or institutional base with the 'massive support' of the defeated electoral minority within three or four days (presumably after the elections though this is not clear. JP) backed by an uprising by oppositionist military officers principally in the National Guard. The Embassy operative concede that the military plotters have run into serous problems as key intelligence operatives were detected, stores of arms were decommissioned and several plotters are under tight surveillance.

Apart from the deep involvement of the US, the primary organization of the Venezuelan business elite (FEDECAMARAS), as well as all the major private television, radio and newspaper outlets have been engaged in a campaign of fear and intimidation campaign. Food producers, wholesale and retail distributors have created artificial shortages of basic food items and have provoked large scale capital flight to sow chaos in the hopes of reaping a 'no' vote.

President Chavez Counter-Attacks

In a speech to pro-Chavez, pro-amendment nationalist business-people (Entrepreneurs for Venezuela ­ EMPREVEN) Chavez warned the President of FEDECAMARAS that if he continues to threaten the government with a coup, he would nationalize all their business affiliates. With the exception of the Trotskyists and other sects, the vast majority of organized workers, peasants, small farmers, poor neighborhood councils, informal self-employed and public school students have mobilized and demonstrated in favor of the constitutional amendments.

The reason for the popular majority is found in a few of the key amendments: One article expedites land expropriation facilitating re-distribution to the landless and small producers. Chavez has already settled over 150,000 landless workers on 2 million acres of land. Another amendment provides universal social security coverage for the entire informal sector (street sellers, domestic workers, self-employed) amounting to 40 per cent of the labor force. Organized and unorganized workers' workweek will be reduced from 40 to 36 hours a week (Monday to Friday noon) with no reduction in pay. Open admission and universal free higher education will open greater educational opportunities for lower class students. Amendments will allow the government to by-pass current bureaucratic blockage of the socialization of strategic industries, thus creating greater employment and lower utility costs. Most important, an amendment will increase the power and budget of neighborhood councils to legislate and invest in their communities.

The electorate supporting the constitutional amendments is voting in favor of their socio-economic and class interests; the issue of extended re-election of the President is not high on their priorities: And that is the issue that the Right has focused on in calling Chavez a 'dictator' and the referendum a 'coup'.

The Opposition

With strong financial backing from the US Embassy ($8 million dollars in propaganda alone according to the Embassy memo) and the business elite and 'free time' by the right-wing media, the Right has organized a majority of the upper middle class students from the private universities, backed by the Catholic Church hierarchy, large swaths of the affluent middle class neighborhoods, entire sectors of the commercial, real estate and financial middle classes and apparently sectors of the military, especially officials in the National Guard. While the Right has control over the major private media, public television and radio back the constitutional reforms. While the Right has its followers among some generals and the National Guard, Chavez has the backing of the paratroops and legions of middle-rank officers and most other generals.

The outcome of the Referendum of December 2 is a major historical event first and foremost for Venezuela but also for the rest of the Americas. A positive vote (Vota 'Sí') will provide the legal framework for the democratization of the political system, the socialization of strategic economic sectors, empower the poor and provide the basis for a self-managed factory system. A negative vote (or a successful US-backed civil-military uprising) would reverse the most promising living experience of popular self-rule, of advanced social welfare and democratically based socialism. A reversal, especially a military dictated outcome, would lead to a blood bath, such as we have not seen since the days of the Indonesian Generals' Coup of 1966, which killed over a million workers and peasants or the Argentine Coup of 1976 in which over 30,000 Argentines were murdered by the US- backed Generals.

A decisive vote for 'Sí' will not end US military and political destabilization campaigns but it will certainly undermine and demoralize their collaborators. On December 2, 2007 the Venezuelans have a rendezvous with history.

James Petras, a former Professor of Sociology at Binghamton University, New York, owns a 50 year membership in the class struggle, is an adviser to the landless and jobless in brazil and argentina and is co-author of Globalization Unmasked (Zed). His new book with Henry Veltmeyer, Social Movements and the State: Brazil, Ecuador, Bolivia and Argentina, will be published in October 2005. He can be reached at: jpetras@binghamton.edu

Hey Rupert? What Happened To All Those Post-Saddam $20 Barrels Of Oil?

Oil Touches $100, But Will Go Beyond In 2008

By Darryl Mason

yournewreality.blogspot.com

No power king on the face of the planet did more to warp reality than Rupert Murdoch in helping to create the American mindset that backed the War On Iraq in early 2003.

Using his massive media blitzkrieg marketplace control in the US, the UK and Australia (70% of all daily newspapers), Murdoch pumped the always extremely dodgy case(s) for War On Iraq with all the desperate enthusiasm of a Depression-era carnival huckster with two families to feed and a baseball bat wielding loan shark taking aim at his kneecaps.

You must remember what Rupert had to say about how good the Iraq War would (could) be for the price of oil, right?

In case you've forgotten, here's Rupert Murodch, from February 12, 2003, as quoted in the Australian Financial Review :

"The greatest thing to come out of this for the world economy, if you could put it that way, would be US$20 a barrel for oil. That's bigger than any tax cut in any country."

Rupert won over a lot of people with that prediction. A lot of business and oil people anyway. A lot of media people, too. Particularly his media people.

They really believed that getting rid of Saddam would let them control the majority of Iraq's oil, and flow another 4 or 5 million barrels a day into world markets. Invading and occupying Iraq was also going to help free the United States from its terror-soaked death grip with the Saudis, who were, and remain, the dominant force in Middle East oil.

How dominant? More than a dozen of Saudi Arabia's countrymen allegedly carried out the 9/11 attacks, and BushCo. paid them back by, errr, bombing goat herders in Afghanistan and flying out dozens of members of the Bin Laden family from the United States under the protection of the CIA. Talk about a hardline.

But even though Murdoch could spin Wall Street, and readers of the financial media, he never really convinced most of the readers of his tabloid print and TV media, even though the pro-war message was relentless and unforgiving. That's why more than ten million people around the world marched in protest against the Iraq War in early 2003.

Murdoch's media ranted and raved and spite bile at all the protesters, even the World War 2 veterans and the little kids with their hand-drawn signs saying 'Please Don't Kill Iraqi Kids'. Murdoch's media labeled veteran and child alike a bunch of Saddam sympathisers and terrorist-enablers, sometimes on the front pages of the newspapers. Before the protests even began.

But they still marched. In cities, towns, villages, even along country roads where the only people to see them were interstate truck drivers. In the United States, in England, in Australia, the United States, Canada, across Europe, across Asia.

Even though Rupert controlled the vast majority of tabloid newspaper markets in Australia, the UK and the US, and he directed them all too, as one former Murdoch journo told me in 2004, "really get behind this now", he could never get the majority of the people in Coalition Of The Willing nations onside for the Iraq War. They didn't have to step in it to know it was bullshit from the get go.

When the Iraq War began on Mach 21, 2003, more than 70% of Australians opposed the illegal invasion and occupation. The opposition was higher in the UK, and much less in the United States.

For most people, already trying to deal with rising fuel price, the only thing the Iraq War had going for it was Rupert's claim that $20 a barrel oil would likely be the result of massacring Iraqis.

So where are we now, four and a half years on from Rupert's infamous "$20 a barrel" quote?

Oil is closing in on $100 a barrel, and the financial media is discussing how oil beyond $100 a barrel will effect economies around the world.

Venezuela is happy, Iran is very happy, Russia is happy, Canada is happy, Mexico is happy. East Timor, if oil prices stay this high, will also soon be very happy. The Saudis? They're fucking ecstatic. They'll have to start burning money logs soon just to get rid of all that cash.

If you're an excess-oil-producing nation (meaning you produce enough to sell on international markets) you're probably burning candles and bowing down before shrines of President Bush, Dick Cheney and the coterie of NeoCons who have done so much in the past few years to unleash so much havoc and destruction and fear and chaos across the Middle East, further destabilising the confidence of the world's oil markets.

Without Bush, Cheney and all those NeoCons and let's not forget the Iraq War enabler himself Rupert Murdoch, the 'evil' leaders of Iran, Venezuela and Russia would not be so rich and powerful.

How rich? How powerful? Well, think about this. Venezuela, Iran and Russia now owe international creditors next to nothing. They've paid off once near crippling loans to the World Bank and IMF. Collectively, they owe a few billion, less than $10 billion, tops.

And the United States? Trillions in debt. Not billions. Trillions.

Who knows? Maybe there really is something in the ultra-weird conspiracy theory that the leaders of Iran, Venezuela and Russia are secretly working in cahoots with President Bush's oil baron friends to drive up the price of the black gold. It would probably make sense around the boardroom table. Everyone gets rich.

Except for you, of course.

After all, we keep hearing about a looming War On Iran, it's always just a few weeks away, but it hasn't happened yet, has it? Flicking back through my files I see stories from 2003, saying that Bush would launch air strikes on Iran "within weeks". That's more than four years ago now.

And look at Venezuela. Chavez has never been so powerful, or so popular. His anti-American rhetoric, and his interference in how American corporations suck oil from his nation, have helped to make oil a very, very unstable commodity. Chavez, compared to the days before the CIA tried to assassinate him, is now leading one of the most oil-rich socialist nations on the planet. And thanks to all that oil wealth, Venezuela is soon to become even more socialist.

Questions.

So many unanswered questions.

What about the new Oil Shock? Isn't oil running out? What if Venezuela cuts off supplies to the US? Is the Iranian president really crazy? Does he actually believe in the 12th Iman? Is he going to sink oil tankers in the Persian Gulf and disrupt more than 1/4 of the world's oil from getting to market if Israel nukes his reactors? What if Iran bombs Israel? What if Israel bombs Syria? What if Turkey invades Northern Iraq and that oil pipeline up there goes up in flames? And what's with Putin? Could China and Russia really go to war with the US to protect their hundreds of billions of dollars worth of new business interests in Iran? What would that do to the world's oil supplies?

And up and up and up the prices go.

Where they will stop?

Nobody knows.

Well, they'll have to stop before $200 a barrel. That's the price where even the most optimistic economists say the world's economies will grind to a halt.

And nobody wants that.

Well, not yet.

"The greatest thing to come out of this for the world economy, if you could put it that way, would be US$20 a barrel for oil."

Thanks for that, Rupert. It's one of the greatest misguided, or false-positive quotes since all those quotes in the 1940s where scientists and radio station owners said "this TV thing" would never take off.

Now, the chaos in Iraq, mostly unleashed thanks to the Murdoch-backed war, is not the only reason why oil is now closing in on $100 per barrel.

But it sure isn't helping.

It's amazing to remember that President Bush, and others, particularly in Murdoch's worldwide media, pushed the line that Iraq would, within only a few short years, be pumping oil to the tune of 8 to 10 million barrels a day. That was how the reconstruction of Iraq was going to be paid for. Before the American taxpayers got shaken down for more than $600 billion. And probably another few hundred billion more.

The Council On Foreign Relations, the Vatican of nutcase war pigs and NeoCon destroyers-of-nations, also pushed the line back in 2002 that the Iraq War could only mean good things for the price of oil. They failed to tell us, however, that when they meant "good things" they weren't talking about oil at $20 a barrel.

How they all must have laughed when Rupert Murdoch said the Iraq War could see oil prices plunge from $30 or $35 a barrel (late 2002 prices), down to a measly $20. That would have showed those damned Saudis and Iranians - wink, wink.

But instead, we got oil closing in on $100 a barrel, and a tank of petrol becoming the sort of luxury expense that millions of Americans, Australians and Brits are increasingly unable to afford so they can, you know, get to work.

A few hundred years ago this pack of clowns now purposely driving up the price of oil to once unimaginable prices would have been hung in the village square and pelted with cow turds.

Now they sit back and watch their stock prices soar. And they're doing it in the US, in the UK, in Australia, in Venezuela, in Russia and across Europe. And of course, in Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Welcome to the New Poverty. It's pretty much like the old poverty, but much, much worse. You'll be poor, you'll be able to only eat shit food, but you'll still have a job. However, you probably won't be able to afford the fuel to get to work.


UPDATE : To be fair to Rupert Murdoch, he did get one prediction right from the days before the War On Iraq was unleashed. And that was this prediction about President Bush if he didn't end up 'winning' the war :

"He will either go down in history as a very great president or he'll crash and burn."

Crashing and burning.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great essay, and so true.

Roger Ailes Brain Tumor said...

Excellent work. Best rant I've read in ages. Murdoch's a lying shitbag.

May the souls of Iraq's dead children haunt his every sleeping moment for the rest of his life.

$20 barrels of oil? Would you like to buy a bridge as well? How about a moon of Jupiter?

Tom TQ said...

"hung in the town square and pelted with cow turds"

love it, I can see it in my mind

wonderful

never stop fighting said...

too late darryl

all we have left is our guns and our right to bear them against the ones who want to disarm us

FUCK THEM ALL!!!!

don't be intimidated

don't be afraid

don't let them deny the rights you have left while you still have them

THEYRE COMING FOR ALL OF US!!

cold dead hands said...

Never Stop Fighting..


Truer words ever spoken


Theyre coming for you me and everyone in between.

American insurgency looms.

Know who you're real friends are today. You need to know people you can trust.

cold dead hands said...

Never Stop Fighting..


Truer words ever spoken


Theyre coming for you me and everyone in between.

American insurgency looms.

Know who you're real friends are today. You need to know people you can trust.

Anonymous said...

Cold Dead Hands


your message was so important you had to post it twice eh?

post it a dozen times and more!

believe it my friends

They're coming for all of us

Lady Broadoak said...

I used to drink with Rupert & Co in NYC .. man! They don't drive themselves and have to pay at the pump or anywhere else. They don't buy Conrail passes or hightail it in from Long Island. They haven't a CLUE what transpires in the real world, they don't care to find out either.

Their minds and hearts are as toxic as BuZh&Co and the other Texas Boyz. And them coming together at the bar was a pretty mutually exciting proposition ..

As long as the bartenders keep pouring their drinks, as long as their medical doctors keep giving them pills to pop, as long as their credit cards keep them ca$hless and smoothe their way and as long as the Fed Reserve keeps cutting down trees to print money on, they are happy. As long as they keep their fancy little restaurants to "dine" in, they'll be in there, hanging out together creating new victims for a very sick system.

To them, individuals are just numbers to move around on piecharts or excel spreadsheets to prove their points.

Murdoch and the neoCONS have this in common - they AREN'T nice (to anyone at all), they couldn't care less about anybody but themselves and those they get stoned with.

When bar closing time hits and they are aggressive - stay outta their WAY. They'll take you down or get someone to do it for them.

Never let these guyz drink on YOUR side of the bar, NEVER.

If someone suggests you believe a SINGLE word they say, have a talk with the bartender who will assure you that they aren't gentlemen!!

It's high time these drunken idiots were INTERVENED and put away, as their truly erratic behavior and delusions were exposed and shown for the INSANITY it really is.

As for only having our guns left? They're controlling the ammo supply. What good are the gunz?

Hug your families instead. Start doing arts and crafts. Talk a nice long walk. Learn to enjoy watching seeds grow. Keep an inner smile. Listen to Meatloaf .. they cannot rock N roll ..

You've done a fine job with their total insanity in this essay.

It's time to 86 them once and for all!! or as we say in Canada, TURF THEM OUT!

Cheers! (as I hoist a V8 cocktail salute to you)

Chávez’s Plan for Development Bank Moves Ahead

RIO DE JANEIRO, Oct. 21 — The idea by Hugo Chávez, Venezuela’s president, to create a Bank of the South to finance regional development projects is moving forward, aided by the tacit approval of Brazil, which has South America’s largest economy.

William Fernando Martinez/A.P.

Colombia’s president, Álvaro Uribe, right, said his country would join the bank being created by Hugo Chávez, left.

But doubts persist about the need for such a bank, which many economists and analysts continue to see as a political move by Mr. Chávez to try to spread his influence and carry out his crusade against Washington-based multilateral institutions like the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank.

Seven South American countries are expected to inaugurate the new bank at a ceremony on Nov. 3 in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital, where it will be based. At a meeting here earlier this month the countries — Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela — signed off on the idea of creating an institution with up to $7 billion in initial capital, paving the way for the bank to begin operating as early as 2008.

An eighth country, Colombia, said earlier this month that it wanted to be included as well. Colombia’s president, Álvaro Uribe, said his country would join the new bank as long as it was an “expression of solidarity and brotherhood,” and not a rejection of the international lending institutions.

The Bank of the South will be organized to promote investment in infrastructure and could help stimulate greater regional trade and integration. Mr. Chávez says he sees it as an alternative financing institution to the World Bank, the I.D.B. and the International Monetary Fund, all of which have significant Washington involvement.

“The idea is to rely on a development agency for us, led by us,” Rodrigo Cabezas, Venezuela’s finance minister, said earlier this month.

The bank’s formation comes at a time when South America is awash in development money, both public and private, and when most of the continent’s economies have increased their credit ratings to levels that make the cost of borrowing cheaper than during the past two decades. That is one reason that Chile, which has the continent’s best credit rating, has not signed onto the project.

“The macroeconomic picture in Latin America is as good as it has ever been,” Luis Alberto Moreno, the president of the I.D.B., said in an interview last week. Still, he said: “There is plenty of room for everybody. The challenges of development in Latin America are very big.”

Brazil has sent mixed messages about its support for the institution. It declined to give its support until clarifying that the bank’s role would be limited to aiding investment in the region, and would not create an emergency fund to bail out countries in economic crisis as the I.M.F. does, which Mr. Chávez had set as an initial goal.

“Brazil has shown less interest because it has the greatest credit capacity,” said Guido Mantega, the country’s finance minister. But, he said, “we continue to support the project because it will benefit our commercial partners and Brazilian businesses.”

In an interview last month, Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, dismissed concerns that Venezuela would try to exert more control over the bank. “It is small-minded to think that one bank created with the multilateral representation of many countries would be at the service of one person or one country,” Mr. da Silva said. “It’s not that simple.”

But some analysts say that despite Brazil’s grudging support, the bank’s potential for politicization is a concern. “Brazil wants to avoid showing that it is somehow part of a Chávez-led institution that is making loans for projects that are being judged more for their political ideology than for their economic viability,” said Peter Hakim, president of the Inter-American Dialogue, a policy group in Washington that focuses on Latin America.

Brazil’s own development bank, the Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social, has become a force, lending $34 billion in the past year for Brazilian projects. Before last week’s annual meetings in Washington of the World Bank and the I.M.F., Luciano Coutinho, the president of the Brazilian bank, said he would propose creating a fund through his bank whose purpose would seem to duplicate the mission of the Bank of the South.

The fund, Mr. Coutinho said, would finance integration projects in Brazil and South America with the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank.

Several issues remain unresolved about how the Bank of the South would function, including how much capital each country would commit, what its lending conditions would be and whether the members would have equal voting rights.

Mr. Mantega, Brazil’s finance minister, said it was still unclear whether Brazil and Venezuela would enter the bank with higher capital levels. Brazil appeared to make a major concession last week, however, when Mr. Mantega said each country would have voting rights in the bank’s administrative council.

Meanwhile, development banks already based in the region, like the Corporación Andina de Fomento in Caracas, are waiting to see how an institution more closely aligned with Mr. Chávez’s political objectives will compete in granting loans.

The new bank could struggle to be competitive with the I.D.B., especially, which has investment grade status in the international markets due to the participation of the United States and other developed nations, and therefore obtains resources at relatively low cost. None of the future partners of the Bank of the South borrow on terms readily available to rich, industrialized nations. If the bank is able to obtain resources in the international capital markets, it is likely to be at higher costs than those paid by Brazil or Colombia, economists say.

Still, efforts by leaders in the region to remain on good terms with Mr. Chávez appear to be outweighing uncertainty about the new institution. Countries like Argentina, Brazil and Colombia, after all, are profiting as never before from exporting food and consumer goods to Venezuela, where domestic producers have been stymied by price controls and uncertainty over Mr. Chávez’s economic policies.

Simon Romero contributed reporting from Caracas, Venezuela.