Venezuela

By Dave Lindorff

President Obama deserves credit for breaking the half-century-long
taboo in American politics of dealing with Cuba, and meeting with Raul
Castro, Cuba’s current leader. He also deserves credit for dealing in a
friendly manner with Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua and Hugo Chavez of
Venezuela.

But what is this crap about “talking with” our enemies or with countries that have been “hostile” towards us?

It is certainly be true that America doesn’t like Communism, and
doesn’t like having properties owned by its citizens taken over, which
happened in the wake of the Cuban revolution, but nationalization is a
right that many sovereign nations have exercised in their national
interest, and besides that, what has Cuba ever done that would show it
to be an enemy of the US?

By Dave Lindorff

It’s going to be interesting to see how much longer the vicious
decades-long US embargo of Cuba lasts, whichever person wins the White
House this November.

The main reason the US has stubbornly refused to trade with Cuba,
and has used sanctions to bully other nations into refusing to trade
with Cuba, while enthusiastically trading with and investing in China,
Vietnam and other communist regimes, is that Cuba has had little to
offer the US, either in terms of products or markets.

That’s all about to change dramatically, with word that the
Communist island just 90 miles to the south of Florida may possess oil
reserves equal to or greater than all the oil reserves left in the
United States.

By Dave Lindorff

Critics of government get all worked up when Washington spends money
stupidly, or does something manifestly stupid. There was a even senator
from Wisconsin, William Proxmire, who used to hand out "Golden Fleece"
awards for such things.

The Pentagon's notorious $600 payments for toilet seats that were
$12 in local discount stores, or $434 paments for hammers that were $10
in the local hardware store were good examples of this.

But nobody seems to be screaming about the incredibly wasteful
rescue of AIG, on which the government has spent first $85 billion and
now another $37.5 billion.

George Bush, Dick Cheney, Condi Rice, John McCain, and the crazy Neocons have been playing "poke the giant" around Russia in places like Georgia, Ukraine, Poland, and the Czech Republic.

So Russia decided to retaliate by strengthening military and business relations in places like Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Nicaragua. Here's a good roundup from Bloomberg News:

Russia Builds Ties in Latin America to Challenge U.S.

By Henry Meyer

Sept. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Russia is in talks to build a space center in Cuba as it forges closer ties with Latin American countries opposed to the U.S. in the wake of Cold War-era tensions sparked by the Georgia conflict.

By Dave Lindorff

    American Secretary of War Robert Gates knows a real leader when he sees one.  “Clearly, as far as I’m concerned,” he said, Vladimir Putin, and not President Dmitry Medvedev, "has the upper hand right now."

     Well hell, Gates should know. After all, he deals on a daily basis with the same peculiar situation here in the US, where the president also is a figurehead and the real power lies in the hands of Vice President Dick Cheney.

By Dave Lindorff

What the hell is Barack Obama talking about?

He says that America should be talking with leaders in Cuba, Iran, Venezuela, Korea, Syria. Fine. But he calls this “talking with our enemies.”

What enemies?

Let’s get something straight. Enemies are people who are fighting against you, who are trying to destroy you. Is Cuba fighting against America? Is Iran fighting against America? Is Venezuela fighting against America? Syria? China? No. These countries may be rivals, but they are not enemies.

The closest we come to having an actual enemy in today’s world is North Korea, where we are technically still in some kind of truce following a hot war, but of course that war itself has been over for half a frigging century, and nobody has been killing anyone on the Korean Peninsula in decades.

By Dave Lindorff

The New York Times had a news article about Venezuela in Thursday’s edition, but it was about Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez saying he would cut diplomatic ties with neighboring Colombia. There wasn’t a word about a memo from a CIA operative in Caracas to CIA Director General Michael Hayden, uncovered yesterday, outlining a plan for interfering with a Venezuelan referendum set for Dec. 2, and laying out the steps for instigating and backing a coup.

The plot, called “Operation Pliers,” and laid out in the letter to Hayden by an undercover operative named Michael Steele, who reportedly works in the US Embassy as a “regional affairs officer,” was intercepted by Venezuelan intelligence and released publicly on state TV yesterday.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told the editorial board of the Chicago Tribune that he has a "gut feeling" that the US has entered into a new period of increased risk of terrorism.

Let me get this straight - Chertoff has a "gut feeling" that the US is on the verge of another terrorism attack.

I'm getting a gut feeling that this is a impending Wag the Dog operation as Bush continues to feel the increasing public scorn for his commutation of Scooter Libby's prison sentence, the mounting public opinion against the war, the plummeting Bush-Cheney public approval ratings, the defection of Republican senators from the "all war, all the time" Bush war agenda, the backlash from claiming executive privilege for the RNC emails originating in the White House, the White House refusal to allow aides to testify before congress, the burgeoning congressional investigations...those are just a few of the high points from which it's important to distract the public's attention.

But there's more, and even more reason to be concerned about the Bush administration's handling of national security. ABCNews is reporting that an alQaeda cell is either in or en route to the US.

Amerika's Taliban is at it again... Grand Ayatollah Pat Robertson has issued a Fatwa on President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, president of arguably the most democratic country on the planet. Chavez has been elected in Free and Fair elections multiple times, unlike our own Dear MisLeader, who has stolen both the 2000 and 2004 (S)elections... thanks to Amy Goodman for reporting and providing the heads-up to the transcript and video clip at MediaMatters.org.

Pat Robertson proposed a terrorist attack on the government of Venezuela, through the assassination of its president, Hugo Chavez.

The "Bush Doctrine" states that governments have a right to engage in "pre-emptive" wars to prevent terrorist attacks.

So under the "Bush Doctrine," does Venezuela have the right to assassinate Pat Robertson to "pre-empt" an assassination attempt on Hugo Chavez?

Let's see if anyone in the White House press corps asks this blatantly obvious question...