The Bush of Latin America: Chavez Redesigns Venezeula's Constitution to Suit His Need

[Epicurus]

In a move much like President Bush's authoritarian power grabs and suppression of civil liberties, Venezeulan ruler Hugo Chavez has decided that Venezuela's Constitution (which he himself implemented after taking power in 1999) places far too many restrictions on his presidential power and consequently his ability to force his own socialistic agenda upon his populace.

Chavez, who originally attempted to seize power in a violent military coup in 1992, has long been annoyed by the restrictions placed on his power by the country's Constitution. His proposed changes seek to remedy that "problem", as well as further his goal of a socialist Venezuela.

Among other things, the new Constitution grants him the power to run for election indefinitely, extend his current and future presidential terms from 6 to 7 years, personally manage the country's international reserves, and makes almost every institution of the Venezuelan government directly answerable to Chavez.

Dictators disguise themselves in many colors, whether it's red white and blue in Bush's America, or... just Red in Chavez Venezuela.

Any workable system of government must have checks and balances on the power of its chief executive and its legislature alike, and Constitution that protects the social and economic rights of its citizens from interference and restriction from the government.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7119371.stm

[WRL]

President Bush has taken some of the fewest war time powers of any sitting President in US history. Pick up a history book, Lincoln suspended habeas corpus, FDR ran internment camps, and this is the extreme tip of the iceberg. Bush has what, spied on known terrorists trying to make contacts in the US.

[Battleborne]

President Bush has taken some of the fewest war time powers of any sitting President in US history. Pick up a history book, Lincoln suspended habeas corpus, FDR ran internment camps, and this is the extreme tip of the iceberg. Bush has what, spied on known terrorists trying to make contacts in the US.

Give it a rest wrl...ya cannot convince libertarians that they are wrong...beefy et al will just take a new personna and continue the Libertarian party line...tis funny though!

[Beefy]

President Bush has taken some of the fewest war time powers of any sitting President in US history. Pick up a history book, Lincoln suspended habeas corpus, FDR ran internment camps, and this is the extreme tip of the iceberg. Bush has what, spied on known terrorists trying to make contacts in the US.

Hello Larry, is that really what you believe, that W has only "spied on known terrorists"?

If Bush ate a live baby on national television, what would you say? That the Clintons killed Vince Foster, and Carter's antisemetic, thus no one should pay attention to Bush eating a live baby?

[WRL]

I just can't believe the extreme lack of knowledge regarding US history among Americans. I mean take Iraq for example, it's yielded some of the fewest fatalities of any war, of this scale, in our history, yet popular perception is quagmire, bloodbath, defeat. Truth is, Baghdad fell is 3 weeks, 21 days, lighting fast, and setting up a new government is never an overnight job, once again think US history, we went through the articles of confederation, take Shay's rebellion, till finally we agreed on the US Constitution we know today, it was if memory serves me correct, a 13 year process, and people today think we can do it in 13 weeks.

Here you go we declared our independence on July 4, 1776, and George Washington wasn't sworn in until Apr. 30, 1789. Read about our history during this period, it wasn't a cake walk for ourselves either.

[Battleborne]

I just can't believe the extreme lack of knowledge regarding US history among Americans. I mean take Iraq for example, it's yielded some of the fewest fatalities of any war, of this scale, in our history, yet popular perception is quagmire, bloodbath, defeat. Truth is, Baghdad fell is 3 weeks, 21 days, lighting fast, and setting up a new government is never an overnight job, once again think US history, we went through the articles of confederation, take Shay's rebellion, till finally we agreed on the US Constitution we know today, it was if memory serves me correct, a 13 year process, and people today think we can do it in 13 weeks.

Here you go we declared our independence on July 4, 1776, and George Washington wasn't sworn in until Apr. 30, 1789. Read about our history during this period, it wasn't a cake walk for ourselves either.

It's not about the war...beefy et al are desparate...they see the writing on the wall Hukabee will be the next President...they are wanting Old man (RP) the Swiss Miss to win freedom for a cool high!

[WRL]

Hello Larry, is that really what you believe, that W has only "spied on known terrorists"?

If Bush ate a live baby on national television, what would you say? That the Clintons killed Vince Foster, and Carter's antisemetic, thus no one should pay attention to Bush eating a live baby?

no I believe he's unleashed the full, constitutional, granted sometimes on the borderline, powers he can to fight this war. I don't believe he's broken the law, even though many of our greatest Presidents have to protect Americans during a time of overt war, today's war is just as much covert as it is overt.

[Cypress]

I just can't believe the extreme lack of knowledge regarding US history among Americans. I mean take Iraq for example, it's yielded some of the fewest fatalities of any war, of this scale, in our history, yet popular perception is quagmire, bloodbath, defeat. Truth is, Baghdad fell is 3 weeks, 21 days, lighting fast, and setting up a new government is never an overnight job, once again think US history, we went through the articles of confederation, take Shay's rebellion, till finally we agreed on the US Constitution we know today, it was if memory serves me correct, a 13 year process, and people today think we can do it in 13 weeks.

Here you go we declared our independence on July 4, 1776, and George Washington wasn't sworn in until Apr. 30, 1789. Read about our history during this period, it wasn't a cake walk for ourselves either.

Jesus, still using the same talking points from three years ago.

There isn't going to be any glorious victory here. There isn't going to be a vibrant democracy on the banks of the Tigris in your lifetime. You and your president callously and recklessly invaded a nation and bungled your way into the worst foreign policy mistake in the history of our republic. A trillion dollars, five years, and hundreds of thousands of dead people later, the best you can hope for in the long run is a failed state, with a weak central government, and provinces run by warlords and militias. A country that will not be a vibrant democracy, nor a true strong pro-ameirican ally. That is the most egregious and stupid waste of lives and taxpayer resources in the history of our country. The blood is on your hands. And your presidents.

Further, your desperate comparisons to american conflicts of the past are laughable at face value. Your war is five years old. Five years after the fall of Hitler and Imperial Japan, those countries were peaceful and well on they're way to being vibrant democracies. After the invasion and occupation of Panama in 1990, we stood up a Panamanian government within months, and did not provoke an insurgency against us (not that I agree with Poppy Bush's invasion). Kosovo and Bosnia, by way of comparison to Iraq, are now seen as shining examples of competent, well-managed military operations. Civil order - if not underlying tensions - was restored in short order in those countries.

The only bungled military adventure that can even be remotely compared to your war in Iraq, was the Phillipines insurgency. And that was an occupation that was built on the same lies as your Iraq war. And even that insurgency was largely contained in a shorter period of time than your War.

Your president is an utter failure. A complete incompetent. I hope you can live with the two votes you cast for him: it cost this nation (and Iraq) an ocean of blood and treasure.

[Beefy]

It's not about the war...beefy et al are desparate...they see the writing on the wall Hukabee will be the next President...they are wanting Old man (RP) the Swiss Miss to win freedom for a cool high!

I know Ron Paul will not win. I know this, but I think his message is worth hearing, and worth being addressed. And thus far, of all the viable candidates in both parties, I would hope for Mike Huckabee, but I will likely be voting third party again this time around.

Huckabee seems to me to be a decent and honest man, and wouldn't THAT be a refeshing change. And the fact that he's a Republican would prevent the rubber stamping of bills through congress and certainly be cause for less spending (unless, by some miracle, the (R) should win back the congress in '08. In such an event, I would hope for Obama for the same reason.)

And Larry, I'm very familiar with history, and one, giant, glaring difference between the American Revolution, the the War in Iraq, is that the American Revolution was grown organically, and was won because there was a clear organic cause inspired by the people actually fighting and instigating the war. It's not as if some other country invaded us, overthrew any British power, occupied us, then "let" us self govern while they watched over us with machine guns.

Not only that but the swearing in of George Washington was not the initial self governance of this country, and the country wasn't being occupied by a foreign power in the meantime. There were the Articles of Confederation, which proved to be ineffective, and the government then adopted the Constitution at a later date, under which Washington was sworn in as the 1st president.

The American Revolution, and the Iraq War are so far apart, they're not even not in the same ball park, they're not even the same sport.

A more appropriate analogy would be to compare it to Viet Nam, which has far more similarities to this conflict than any other American War.

[WRL]

I know Ron Paul will not win. I know this, but I think his message is worth hearing, and worth being addressed. And thus far, of all the viable candidates in both parties, I would hope for Mike Huckabee, but I will likely be voting third party again this time around.

Huckabee seems to me to be a decent and honest man, and wouldn't THAT be a refeshing change. And the fact that he's a Republican would prevent the rubber stamping of bills through congress and certainly be cause for less spending (unless, by some miracle, the (R) should win back the congress in '08. In such an event, I would hope for Obama for the same reason.)

And Larry, I'm very familiar with history, and one, giant, glaring difference between the American Revolution, the the War in Iraq, is that the American Revolution was grown organically, and was won because there was a clear organic cause inspired by the people actually fighting and instigating the war. It's not as if some other country invaded us, overthrew any British power, occupied us, then "let" us self govern while they watched over us with machine guns.

Not only that but the swearing in of George Washington was not the initial self governance of this country, and the country wasn't being occupied by a foreign power in the meantime. There were the Articles of Confederation, which proved to be ineffective, and the government then adopted the Constitution at a later date, under which Washington was sworn in as the 1st president.

The American Revolution, and the Iraq War are so far apart, they're not even not in the same ball park, they're not even the same sport.

A more appropriate analogy would be to compare it to Viet Nam, which has far more similarities to this conflict than any other American War.

I used the American perspective to try and hit home my point in a familiar way, governments are not set up in 13 weeks. I personally think the Marshall Plan used in Europe was a much better example. We are basically, with a few exceptions, following that platform, one that took the bloodiest continent on the planet, one with a long history of totalitarianism, and turned it into one of the most peaceful, democratic places on Earth. The same can happen in the middle-east, only the people are far more radicalized though the religious nature of their extremism. However the platform can work here too, as it did in Europe and Asia. A new generation will have to be raised away from the state run schools force feeding this brand of extremism down their throats, state run media needs to become a thing of the past, so that backwards education isn't reinforced. This is not Panama, nor a peace-keeping mission by NATO. This is the war on terror, to quote the Bush administration from 2003, 'a long hard slog" and far broader than cypresses implications.

[Beefy]

I used the American perspective to try and hit home my point in a familiar way, governments are not set up in 13 weeks. I personally think the Marshall Plan used in Europe was a much better example. We are basically, with a few exceptions, following that platform, one that took the bloodiest continent on the planet, one with a long history of totalitarianism, and turned it into one of the most peaceful, democratic places on Earth. The same can happen in the middle-east, only the people are far more radicalized though the religious nature of their extremism. However the platform can work here too, as it did in Europe and Asia. A new generation will have to be raised away from the state run schools force feeding this brand of extremism down their throats, state run media needs to become a thing of the past, so that backwards education isn't reinforced. This is not Panama, nor a peace-keeping mission by NATO. This is the war on terror, to quote the Bush administration from 2003, 'a long hard slog" and far broader than cypresses implications.

Come on William, do you really thing that WWII is akin to the war in Iraq? The Marshall plan was a rebuilding after a complete and total destruction of Europe, after countries had waged war on eachoter rather than a tactic.

The War on Terror.

We are waging a war on a tactic of war. This is like waging a war on warfare.

William, there are wars that need to be fought, and there are countries that need help after being wartorn. If you are suggesting that out military presence there in Iraq is in the same stages as Europe after VE day and during the recounstruction, I have to question your analogy once again.

We are still in a war, we are not in postwar reconstruction in Iraq.

I thought this was fairly obvious.

[Socrtease]

I just can't believe the extreme lack of knowledge regarding US history among Americans. I mean take Iraq for example, it's yielded some of the fewest fatalities of any war, of this scale, in our history, yet popular perception is quagmire, bloodbath, defeat. Truth is, Baghdad fell is 3 weeks, 21 days, lighting fast, and setting up a new government is never an overnight job, once again think US history, we went through the articles of confederation, take Shay's rebellion, till finally we agreed on the US Constitution we know today, it was if memory serves me correct, a 13 year process, and people today think we can do it in 13 weeks.

Here you go we declared our independence on July 4, 1776, and George Washington wasn't sworn in until Apr. 30, 1789. Read about our history during this period, it wasn't a cake walk for ourselves either.

Ok please lets not compare the setting up of a country in the 21 century to setting up a country in the 18th century. Lets compare setting up the Japanese and German governments beginnng in 1945. Were Germans still fighting street to street in in 1949? Where the Japanese planting bombs until 1949? DOn't wiki it, the answer is a resounding NO! Further when the Japanese bombed us on December 7 and the German's declared war in the 8th we didn't declare war on Mexico and Iceland. What you continually seem to ignore in your blowing of the bush administration is that they said this would be over and we would be greeted in the streets as liberators with flowers, like the Iraqis are the same as those cheese eating surrender monkeys the french. They discounted every military man that told them they didn't have enough people to secure the whole of Iraq and now we are at the end of a surge that should have taken place 4 years ago to start with. Your hero GWB and party flubbed this thing from beginning to end and all you can do is look for a cup somewhere so you can do a GOP bukkake show.

[Socrtease]

We are NOT following the Marshall plan or the plan right after the war ended. We did not disarm ALL the german soldiers and we did not tear down the german police. In all states but Bavaria we did pull all the nazis out of positions of power, which explains why Patton had Bavaria up and running well in advance of other states in Germany. This clusterfuck is NO WHERE NEAR as smoothly running 4 years after MISSION ACCOMPLISHED as Germany or Japan were running.

[Diuretic]

Chavez needs to go back to Dictator School. He's letting people VOTE on the changes. Waddyareckon???

On 2 December, Venezuelans will decide whether or not to approve a package of constitutional reforms, which include ending the limits on presidential terms.

Now a real Dictator, not this wishy-washy imitation Chavez, would simply TELL the people, el jeffe is in for good, get used to it.


Madre de Dios, can't this bloke get any of his Dictator work done right????

[Epicurus]

Well since he has the power to rule by decree in emergencies, and the power to declare a state of emergency I would say yes. He absolutely is an authoritarian leader who originally tried to seize power with a military coup in '92, and ended up in power by promising to end the abuse of power by the leading parties. Much like people who voted for Bush hoping for small government, voters who elected Chavez to end abuse of power were hellishly disappointed. Both men undertook an unprecedented power grab for their own executive branch, and have been accused by their citizens of using their power to tamper with subsequent reelections.

I think the comparison is absolutely valid, and I'm sure many Venezuelans would agree.