$250,000 of it's own money?

As it turns out, Chavez is asking his followers to give up luxury. Actually, he is demanding them to do so since he only wants true socialist by his side. I think I'm going to sit down and wait to see Jorge Rodriguez giving up his Audi and Iris Valera her Mercedes SUV just to name a few (they might have changed cars by now but you get the point). Yes, Chavez meant things that are extra, like an extra refrigerator or an extra truck or things that are just laying around and well, this government officials need to get to their jobs. But shouldn't a true socialist relay on public transportation? or maybe have a car but not such a luxury car? We would have to set the limit of luxury in order to really judge them but I just wanted to point that out.

Now the real issue here is Chavez announcement of his willing to donate $250,000 of his own money. Yes, unless the press is quoting him wrong, he did say of his own money.

Before I go any further here are some articles, in English, with the story:
http://www.caribbeannetnews.com/news-2009--12-12--.html
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/americas/06/11/chavez.socialists.reut/index.html

Let's do some math now. I'm going to assume that the "SOCIALIST" Venezuelan president makes the same amount of money as the "CAPITALIST" US president. The amount is: $400,000 a year that, using the black market exchange rate which Chavez recently used for himself, (http://buscador.eluniversal.com/2007/06/12/eco_art_chavez-calcula--con_316727.shtml
http://caracaschronicles.blogspot.com/2007/06/chavez-sells-at-black-market-rates.html)
turns out to be roughly: 1,600,000,000 Bs. Actually lets calculate it at the official rate too, which would be about half or: 860,000,000 Bs. that Chavez, if making the same as the US president, would make on a year of work. Now, we can assume that Chavez salary is not even close to the Capitalist, Imperialist, Devlisih US president, so, since I can find anywhere how much the US president should make, let's assume he makes just a quarter of it which is $100,000 or 400,000,000 Bs. at the parallel or black market rate and 215,000,000 Bs. at the official rate. Well, that figure is still to big for me, so I am going to say that Chavez actually makes just 1/8 of what the Us president makes a year which would be roughly $50,000 (a little bit over the median of what the average american family makes a year. Census link for 2002-2003). So $50,000 at the parallel market rate: 200,000,000 Bs or 107,500,000 at the official rate.

All right we have some simple math speculating what Chavez, as Venezuelan president, make a year. We are going to use the last amount of 107,500,000 Bs or a litlle less than 9,000,000 Bs per month, which would be around 12 times more than the minimum wage in Venezuela (calculating the minimum wage at 700,000 Bs per month, is actually a little less). I think is also fair to say that Chavez didn't have to much on his bank account before being president since he was just a poor para-trooper from Barinas (a state in Venezuela where Chavez is from) but I am going to set his bank account at 20,000,000 Bs which at 1998 was a decent amount for a saving account, around $28,000 calculating at a 700 Bs per US$ rate. (I'm not sure the rate is correct but since I'm assuming moth of the math we will use it).

Moving on, making $50,000 a year, for 8 years + $28,000, without spending a single dime on anything (why should he, venezuelans pay for his clothes, trips, food etc with their oil money and taxes) Chavez would have, today the amount of $428,000 which would be enough for him to donate $250,000 of his own money. He would actually be donating more than half of his money if this numbers are correct.

So, the question now is: Exactly how much money does Chavez makes a year and how much money does he has sitting in his Bank Account? I mean how much money would you need to have in order to donate $250,000 of your own money to your cause? Maybe you would donate half, or even all of it if you truly believed on it. But if Chavez had done so, wouldn't he say it out loud to prove his commitment and his socialist nature? But how does donation work for a true socialist? Is he givinng 10% of his money? is he giving more? is he giving less? Who knows, but we do know is that he has enough to give at least $250,000 of his "own" money. It would be nice if public servants finances were made public like the imperialists of the US which at least show us their Tax returns which clearly show how much they earned during the year.

Are they blind?

I am having a real hard time understanding how the main Chavista defense for the RCTV case is the fact that there was no legal proceeding and that Chavez waited for the end of the license to not renew it as an act of Totalitarian Dictatorship. Really, if you don't see how this was a totalitarian decision, let me try to illustrate you.

First I'm going to quote, what globovision quoted of what, Ecuador's President, and Chavez's firend Rafael Correa, said this sunday about the RCTV case:

"Les digo muy claro, si después de probar que un canal apoyó un golpe de Estado y que estuvo al lado de los golpistas, como lo hizo RCTV, yo cancelo ese canal", declaró Correa el diario Hoy.

Señaló que "eso no hizo Chávez, él esperó para no renovar la frecuencia".

Translation: I say it very clear, if after PROVING that a TV station supported a coup and that it was sided with its participants, like RCTV did (although this was never proved since there was no trial), I will cancel that TV station. Chavez didn't do that, he waited so he could not renew the license."

Is anybody seeing the irony here? Correa basically admits that Chavez had a complete disregard for the laws and basically skipped the due process to see if RCTV had a real involvement in the coup. Since he's such a nice guy, he waited till their license expired so he could make the decision (he, himself, and only he) to not renew it.

Can this be a more clear example about how the law is carried out on Venezuela? How can people defending Chavez admit to this and not have a problem with it? I guess they don't believe in democracy, or better yet, they believe in it when it doesn't apply to them like Chavez does. It is important to remember that Chavez created his own constitution on 1999. Who knows, maybe he failed to tell us that he was exempt from following it.

Estudiantes del Centro del País, UC=UCV=UPEL=UBA.

Just another video showing how the National Guard has been blocking students that are trying to get the the concentrations in a clear attack to their right of free transit.

Marcha de Estudiantes Carabobeños a Caracas

Students chanting: "I came becuase I wanted to, I didn't get paid to come." (In reference to Chavez supporters who are paid to attend his protests) This was after they where stopped by the National Guard when they where trying to reach Caracas from Carabobo (a city about two hours or less from the Capital) to join the student protests.

The cause for the blockade was an alleged crash which drivers going to opposite way never saw.

What ever happen to the right of free transit?

Democracy you say? Where? I can't really see it.

What is wrong with Peter?

Well, he enjoys the freedoms of the free capitalistic world that he rejects and he embraces the Castro-Chavez-Communist regime but won't live in Venezuela or Cuba, oh no, not him.

The Link: http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/~mclaren/blog/?p=102

One thing to note is that peter doesn't allow comments and I am unable to place a trackback on blogger which makes the discussion a little difficult but hey, he's a communist-leaving-in-the-freedom-of-capitalist-usa supporting the closing of a TV station after all, what else could we expect?

"The CIA is clearly trying to manipulate the global media." It just never fails to amaze me how Chavez stupid paranoia gets spread amongst his followers. The CIA...THE FREAKING CIA is controlling the "GLOBAL" media. I guess Peter, as does Chavez, has undeniable prove of the CIA's involvement. I am going to wait sitting down just in case it takes them a little long to produce such evidence.

Peter uses the same exact argument that people living in the US, that support Chavez...Ok I am just going to stop for a second here. To all you Chavez supporters on the US that think he's great and your government is bad I tell remind you of this: You live in a free country, you are free to go live in Venezuela any time you want. As a matter of fact we should change the Immigration bill to allow US citizens to trade their citizenship with venezuelan citizens, that way, venezuelans tired of Chavez can go live in the Empire and usa-freedom-enjoying-Chavez-supporters can go and experience his marvelousness first hand, right there where the action is. I am sure the lines of venezuelans willing to trade will be enourmous.

Bach to the post, Peter starts by arguing that if a USA Tv station had participated in a coup, that RCTV backed up, allegedly participates and all those arguments. Peter even goes into more detail, explaining exactly what needs to happen: "If there was a successful military coup in the United States and a particular TV station applauded the overthrow of the president (and the dissolving of Congress and the Supreme Court, as well as the suspension of the Constitution), and if then the coup was reversed by other military forces accompanied by mass demonstrations, and the same TV station did not report any of this while it was happening to avoid giving support to the counter-coup, and instead kept reporting that the president had voluntarily resigned … how long would it be before the US government, back in power, shut down the station, arrested its executives, charging them under half a dozen terrorist laws, and throwing them into shackles and orange jumpsuits never to be seen again? How long? Five minutes? The Venezuelan government waited five years." Peter, don't you realize you are basically pointing out that the Chavez government closed the station as a way of retaliation or vengeance? Should I help you see this more clearly? I will try.

Peter defends Chavez actions based on the "fact" that if a USA government was overthrown, the same overthrown government would "...shut down the station, arrested its executives, charging them under half a dozen terrorist laws, and throwing them into shackles and orange jumpsuits never to be seen again..." in less than five minutes. Notice that is not the US government, but the government that was overthrown that after a serious of unfortunate events, got back into power. But let's keep moving, under this argument, Peter is saying that good old Chavez didn't close them immediately but waited five years till the end of their license. If this were true, then what happened with due process? I mean, if this station really participated, why weren't it's owners tried? (I am getting tired of pointing this out). Why did Venevision got it's license (channel 4 with also allegedly participated on the coup) renewed when it's license was up at the same time as RCTV? You see Peter, if you are saying that Chavez didn't try this media owners but waited till their license was up to stick it to them, well...that sounds like vengeance to me. And really, if RCTV didn't get their license renewed, because they participated in the coup, aren't they entitle to a fair trial? I mean, there is no law in Venezuela stating that a TV station has to go to trial to see if they get their license renewed, although they can appeal a decision not to renew it which magically, RCTV didn't get.

Moving along in your post I have a simple answer for your question: Can anyone name a single daily newspaper in the United States that is unequivocally opposed to US foreign policy?

Answer: Rolling Stone Magazine. Just read this edition (June 07) piece about Giuliani and lat piece about the Republican candidates, as a matter of fact, just read any edition of the last 7 years of Bush and you will see how this magazine completely opposes any action of th GOP.

Some more links:
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/profile/story/9961300/the_worst_president_in_history
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/12055360/cover_story_time_to_go_inside_the_worst_congress_ever

There's more links and more stories published on Rolling Stone floating around but I'll let you do your work and research them. I think the links above, even thought don't prove that the whole editorial line of Rolling Stone is completely anti-Bush, it proves that they do run articles that completely oppose Bush's Administration. My god, the last one even calls congress people thieves and perverts.

So Rolling Stone seems pretty opposition to me, even though nobody calls that, not even the President or the Congressmen (past congressman since they are not longer at Congress). You see Peter, Chavez is the one that loves labels, and as you, everything that is not in his way of thinking is simply anti-patriotic and funded by the Empire.

And by the way, you need to define your concept of mass, because when you say: "makes education more widely available to the masses of poor people,..." I believe you mean to the masses of poor people that are willing to wear the government red t-shirt uniform and chant at every government funded protest or charade. Because you see Peter, in Venezuela, if you are not with the government, you are a traitor, a pawn of the Empire. You are a burgess capitalist bastard that is out to destroy the revolution.

Enjoy your freedom in the US.

I am just going to link to this one.

It is just that good

http://blogs.salon.com/0001330/2007/06/03.html#a3517

This is the Chavez Democracy. Now I dare anybody that supports him abroad to say they want to live in a country under this type of ruling.

A thought for the post below

As posted on The Devil's Excrement.

"· An opposition student is not necessarily a student.
· If he is a student, he is being manipulated, has no convictions
· If they have convictions, they are the ones of the Empire that thru the CIA, buys consciences.
· If the CIA has bought them, it is to use them as meat for the slaughterhouse (A terrible statement when it is made by the owner of the slaughterhouse.) and the irresponsible parents.
· They are numerically insignificant, only the tricks of the mediatic manipulation make them appear as a crowd.

On the other hand

· The pro-Chavez student is a conscientious and critical being.
· He marches because of his convictions. Nothing is behind him.
· He can reach the Miraflores Presidential Palace because he is part of the “people”
· There are always millions of them.
· Their parents do well in letting them march, they are young and should have a conscience, not go lazing around like the other ones. "