not that Bush is doing much better

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQQkj...elated&search=

__________________
Welcome to Philadelphia. Here's how you can help us make our great city even better:

• Write to your state and local elected officials
• Report suspicious activity to the police department

ah so! How dare Venezuela nationalize industries! My powerful business lobby has given me a ton of money during my election campaigns, and if/when they call on me to use American military power to lop off this guy, sure I'll do it... American democracy would be imperiled if I didn't act on my benefactor's behalf. And I can use the word "democracy" as the garb for attacking Venezuela. Not to mention I get a lot of oil from there.

Yep, wouldn't be the first time we send American troops to fight a war in a foreign country in order to protect huge interests of private American companies.

__________________


Is it ghey that I love this song so much?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gl_Wc6Nm8lc

I guess you could say I'm not as jaded about "stuff" such as enduring love yet...

I'm sure there are plenty of reasons why nationalizing industry is a bad idea. Bush obviously isn't the right messenger for them.

__________________
Welcome to Philadelphia. Here's how you can help us make our great city even better:

• Write to your state and local elected officials
• Report suspicious activity to the police department

oh, i concur that nationalizing industries is a bad idea. India sent its economy down the tubes in the 70's when Indira Gandhi nationalized the entire banking sector. Before that, her father nationalized Air-India, and the airline has yet to recover from that shot at its bow.

I just don't think Bush is an innocent stand-by. Last time something that drastic happened in the new world, America tried to invade Cuba and try other various means of killing Castro... Nevermind that America basically ruled Cuba for 50+ years as its colony after displacing Spain, so one could argue that all Castro did was to kick out American interests and truly free his island of outsiders. Of course, that argument never washes with Americans, who've been taught to hate Castro's Commie Cuba.

Interestingly, if America refused to do business with a worse Commie regime than Cuba, then Nixon would not have "opened China" back in the early 70s. Remember that China was barely getting out of mass-killings of late 60s Mao's Great Leap Forward.

But I guess commie Cuba is too close for comfort for Uncle Sam's "free" enterprise. And so is Venezuela, which is supposed to be Uncle Sam's backyard. Not to mention that there is a very vocal "exile" Cuban-American lobby that every so often puts the Cuban "pot" boiling and on the front burner.

__________________


Is it ghey that I love this song so much?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gl_Wc6Nm8lc

I guess you could say I'm not as jaded about "stuff" such as enduring love yet...

Communism is a much better idea than our quasi-socialist-capitalist thing that we have here. It basically functions like this: people who control a fictional monetary unit force people through fear of bodily hard into working for them while they do little or nothing. This luxury can then be passed on to the family members who have nothing to do with the work and maybe never will. So, the mass of people, for no real reason, keep a small minority living a free lifestyle. Meanwhile, all of these people are equal in quality. In other words, rich people and their families aren't superheroes.

Marxism focuses on not owning people and allowing the worker, who knows how to make things, get an equal share in society. In our system Paris Hilton could buy a construction company, with her capital, and make millions while not knowing one thing about the subject. A communist government would also have state owned industry, supermarkets were mentioned here, and that would be to prevent price gouging. Think Starbucks and coffee.

The US and many semi-capitalist countries have introduced many communist ideas into their sytems, because revolution probably would have happened if they didn't. That brings home the fact that there are no capitalist countries, that is outside of the third world.

So far, there have been no countries that have attempted a pure Marxist state, which would look a lot like Democracy. We don't have that either. What has occured is Leninism and a couple of other varieties.

The thing made Leninism dumb was its idea that it had to be in a state of war mode, as communism couldn't happen unless the whole world was doing it. So, they never got to the equal benefit for all part, which is the real point. Leninism allowed for its leaders to never have to give up their positions as leaders as long as capitalism existed somewhere. That's a typical kind of sociopathic politician scheme, and I believe that such people subverted communism every time. They used an anti-slavery idea to create slavery and a philosophy as capital, which they used to maintain power.

In the end communism is anything idea that seeks to have as many people as possible sharing an equal chunk of whatever is considered profit.

the only problem is that communism is pretty hokey when put to use in an actual society. Various communistic ideas over the 20th century probably cost more in human life than anything else in human history, except perhaps organized religion.

worse still are various socialism ideas that got tried out in Britain, India, and elsewhere. Now, Chavez is going back to the 50s and 70s to come up with his iteration of socialism...that too is doomed to fail sooner or later, which is why U.S. shouldn't officially be egging on to war.

the only super-socialist countries that are doing ok are perhaps Norway and Sweden. But Norway's got a lot of oil money, and Sweden doesn't have many of the economic pressures that poorer countries have to deal with, not to mention Sweden too is blessed heavily with natural resources of its own.

sooner or later, the party has to end. India's super-socialism party ended in 1991...thank god for it, now after a bunch of market-economy driven reforms, its economy is growing at close to 10% clip. Still, the poverty is so bad and the gap ever widening, that even 10% growth can't ensure social stability...that's why sporadic protests against new industry and stronger hold of government by various socialist and communist parties.

__________________


Is it ghey that I love this song so much?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gl_Wc6Nm8lc

I guess you could say I'm not as jaded about "stuff" such as enduring love yet...

What's hokey about not being a wage slave for someone like Paris Hilton?

What does "doing well" mean? Does it mean working all day and into the evening so that you can make hordes of duplicate items that you have to trick and beg people to buy because they don't really want them that much? Does it mean working those long hours just to have a place to live and food to eat. Does it mean doing all of this almost until you're ready to die, and sometimes while you're dying?

That's not my idea of doing well; that's the life of a slave.

So, I guess by your response that you were unable to come up with a country where communism actually works?
When you say "It", you're talking about communism, right? Because what you describe sounds exactly like North Korea, Cuba and China.

__________________
The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? - Psalm 27:1

Well I still think he is marked for assassination, and maybe it will be due to our involvement. We always have a way of getting involved with these things, especially when such a heavy interest as our third in supply and biggest reserves in world behind Saudi. Chavez hates us so because he thinks Bush was involved in his 2002 short term loss of presidency via military coup. Are there any other reasons? Or is he just a power hungry turd?

The skewed figures down there are troubling, not sure which poll or graph to believe. They all say the complete opposite! The country is good, the country is bad. Unemployment is down 10%, but according to this economist its actually up! Even all the MIT, Stanford douches couldn't figure out if the last election was rigged or not. I do find all that curious. The elusive Venezuela!

But if someone does assassinate we will be blamed. Very similar to how anything in the Middle East happens, they usually blame it on the US somehow. Like the cartoon of Mohammed.

It is a real shame the credibility and feelings towards the US are at all time low. Even our own Americans know that when our Congress starts talking about democracy in countries like Venezuela that they don't give a crap. Can't they give us a new message - the democracy bs is so like 30 years old now. Every time a war, every time a country is bad - democracy democracy blah blah blah. They hate us for our freedom! Forget the fact that we have a trade deficit with country like China that puts people in jail if they say the T word with a screwface (Taiwan). So it all makes sense, or none at all! Who knows maybe I too am a Venezuelan statician.

And all of this makes me want to change our house into a solar wind water fortress! Who wants to lend us 20k?

Chavez overcompensating again... (taken from Bloomberg.com on 6/25)


Venezuela spent $4.3 billion on arms in 2005 and 2006, more than China, Pakistan or Iran, according to the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency. More than $3 billion of that financed contracts for 100,000 Kalashnikov rifles, at least 50 military helicopters and 24 Su-30 jet fighters from Russia, where Chavez next week meets with counterpart Vladimir Putin.
Russian Arms
Chavez on June 21 confirmed possible plans to buy a fleet of Russian-made submarines to protect Venezuela's 500,000 square kilometers of Caribbean Sea territory. He vowed he'd also seek to strengthen the nation's short-range air-defense system, to counter the supersonic and radar-evading aircraft he claims Venezuela would face in the event of a U.S. invasion. U.S. officials have repeatedly denied plans for any offensive, an event most analysts also deem unlikely.
Chavez today thanked Russia for having had ``the courage to stand up to the empire'' and sell Venezuela military equipment. The U.S. suspended arms sales to the country in May 2006.

And here is an article from Forbes today where he is prepping his country for a "resistance war" with the US. Yayyyy....

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/...ap3852344.html