The continuing adventures of Hugo Chavez

[tomdemaine]

Is it me or is Hugo Chavez doing a paint by numbers "socialist" dictatorship? Every with every step it just seem so obvious what his goal is.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6948872.stm

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President Hugo Chavez has presented his plans for changes to Venezuela's constitution, including an end to the presidential term limits

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Mr Chavez has rejected criticism of the proposals, saying they will bring "new horizons for the new era".

Some of the main changes include:

* Removing term limits for the presidency, and extending the term of office from six years to seven

* Bringing in a maximum six-hour working day

* Increasing presidential control over the central bank

* Strengthening state economic powers, allowing the government to control assets of private companies before a court grants an expropriation order.

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Chavez said. "If someone says this is a project to entrench oneself in power. No, it's only a possibility, a possibility that depends on many variables."

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[AzDesertRat]

fascism comes from both the right and the left---it all depends on the rationalizations used to justify one's actions.

[lehighguy]

Bringing in a maximum six-hour working day.

This is probably the stupidest of the things you listed. At least I understand why he wants to be a dictator.

Anyway, his fate is tied to the price of oil. If my friend can get hit oil sands refining process down we can all bid this freak goodbye.

[mosdef]

[ QUOTE ]
Is it me or is Hugo Chavez doing a paint by numbers "socialist" dictatorship? Every with every step it just seem so obvious what his goal is.

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Is it that his goal is to be dictator, or that he really thinks socialism works but, at every stage, the most logical step (to him) is move on step closer to dictatorship? For example, when he fixes prices he may actually think that this will result in more goods available to consumers. When he sees "hoarders and speculators" jumping all over the arbitrage opportunity he created, he of course needs to restrict all kinds of freedoms. Was it his goal to restrict freedoms, or is it just a poor understanding of economics that takes him there?

[Nielsio]

[ QUOTE ]
Is it me or is Hugo Chavez doing a paint by numbers "socialist" dictatorship? Every with every step it just seem so obvious what his goal is.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6948872.stm

[ QUOTE ]
President Hugo Chavez has presented his plans for changes to Venezuela's constitution, including an end to the presidential term limits

[/ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]
Mr Chavez has rejected criticism of the proposals, saying they will bring "new horizons for the new era".

Some of the main changes include:

* Removing term limits for the presidency, and extending the term of office from six years to seven

* Bringing in a maximum six-hour working day

* Increasing presidential control over the central bank

* Strengthening state economic powers, allowing the government to control assets of private companies before a court grants an expropriation order.

[/ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]
Chavez said. "If someone says this is a project to entrench oneself in power. No, it's only a possibility, a possibility that depends on many variables."

[/ QUOTE ]

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I'm pretty sure the same type of interventions are found all over Europe and the Americas.

When you put them in the extreme is when they look very silly and stupid, but they're basically everywhere so the joke is on you (the reader).

[zasterguava]

I'd rather have a socialist dictator lead Venezuala than a dictator who is a puppet to US power and imperialist ambitions, which is the only other viable alternative.

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If my friend can get hit oil sands refining process down we can all bid this freak goodbye.


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We can also say goodbye to prosperity in the projects, yo!

Not quite sure what supports the accusation that he is a "freak", though.

[John Kilduff]

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[ QUOTE ]
If my friend can get hit oil sands refining process down we can all bid this freak goodbye.



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We can also say goodbye to prosperity in the projects, yo!


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My guess is that nothing could enhance prosperity in the housing projects so much as would a super-cheap new process for extracting and refining oil (I'm not saying sand extraction will be that holy grail). The biggest boon to poor people almost everywhere would be cents-a-gallon gasoline and fuel oil instead of dollars-a-gallon gasoline and fuel oil).

[lehighguy]

Socialist that base thier entire economy on plundering natural resources never work out in the end. Either:

1) They run out of the resource
2) The price collapses

His economic management is horrible. There are actually food shortages because he put price caps on food. The only reason the economy doesn't collapse is the massive petro dollar influx. He isn't doing anything to build up the non-oil econcomy.

[QuadsOverQuads]

[ QUOTE ]
fascism comes from both the right and the left

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Um, no, actually it doesn't.

Fascism is, by definition, the merger of state and corporate power -- typically behind an ultranationalist, anti-progressive shock-front.

The notion that fascism can be "leftist" is complete right-wing bullsh*t, generally meant to blur the definition of fascism for political purposes.


q/q

[AzDesertRat]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
fascism comes from both the right and the left

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Um, no, actually it doesn't.

Fascism is, by definition, the merger of state and corporate power -- typically behind an ultranationalist, anti-progressive shock-front.

The notion that fascism can be "leftist" is complete right-wing bullsh*t, generally meant to blur the definition of fascism for political purposes.


q/q

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Wiki gives a different definition:

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is an authoritarian political ideology (generally tied to a mass movement) that considers individual and other societal interests subordinate to the needs of the state, and seeks to forge a type of national unity, usually based on, but not limited to, ethnic, cultural, or racial attributes.

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Control by the state can come from many directions--left and right. The effect is still the same. I call the anti smoking zealots nazis and I still stand by that definition even though I am a nonsmoker now.