Venezuelans Say No

President Hugo Chavez "is a human being who makes mistakes," said one of his supporters in Venezuela's National Assembly.

[Daniel Brockert]

The referendum would have eliminated term limits, not made him dictator for life. The author needs to research his material better.

[Pete C]

Oh My
Does this mean that Sean Penn and Danny Glover are going to be out in the cold. Boo hooo.
I guess they can still root for his Socialist ideas here in America by supporting Left Wing Democratic dopes. Just don't be surprised when the Big New Government Programs smothers growth and taxes us into bankruptcy. Only Free Market Capitalism can create real prosperity but the socialists despise it.

[BETS]

Daniel Brockert wrote:

The referendum would have eliminated term limits, not made him dictator for life. The author needs to research his material better.

By eliminating term limits, it would allow him to run for the rest of his life, most likely unapposed. Dictator for life. Try and read the whole concept of the article

[Larry the Cable Guy]

Maybe we can take a lesson from the Venezuelan people and vote out all of OUR crooks from state and federal government and setting term limits

[1st Amendment]

Don't buy Citgo...As for Sean Penn, Kevin Spacey and the rest. I would love to see them survive on 20k a year. Lock their assets for a year and see what they can do with 20k. Let's see how socialist they are then or do they just want to be part of the ruling class? Put up or shut up Hollywood.

[Adam]

"Venezuela's economy has turned sour in spite of the country's vast oil wealth"

This Statement is blatantly untrue. According to CIA World Factbook, their economy grew at 10.3% last year, only 30% of which can be attributed to Oil. The rest can be attributed to many of the Socialist policies Chavez has institued, ie higher minimum wage and social programs.

Also, no major economy has ever succeeded without a large measure of government intervention. The US had high protective tariffs, all of Europe is essentially Socialist, China is the fastest growing economy in the world, with one of the biggest governments.

[Adam]

1st Amendment, Why would you rather give your money to Heartless Multi-Nationals and Totalitarian Arab States, rather than to Venezuela, which is using the money for social programs across the Westerne Hemisphere(including the US) and is run by someone who has won elections that are considered more free and transparent than our last two Presidential Elections.

[felix lopez]

venezuela el mejor pais del mundo

donde se puede encontral a un presidente donde una oposicion raquitica sentensian su propia muerte ganando un referendo consultivo .ahora no le queda camino tienen que entender que aqui hay un legitimo presidente que ahora ellos mismo reconosen que por 9 años han sido tonto util del imperio ,.esto fortalese al pueblo chavista que no ha dado su ultima palabra sobre esta materia.
viva chavez

[Myself]

Larry the Cable Guy wrote:

Maybe we can take a lesson from the Venezuelan people and vote out all of OUR crooks from state and federal government and setting term limits

This vote was not about voting Chavez in or out. He's in till 2012. This was about a slew of constitutional referendums, which IF they had passed, would have allowed Chavez to take steps that in effect would have made him ruler for life.

[FAV]

Give us a break! Their past glories under democratic rule you talk about was under Banana Republic status where the Venezuelan oligarchs and our multinationals got the gravy and the poor hardly got crumbs. For your information Venezuela has led Latin America in the reduction of abject poverty in his tenure. That's why we have been trying to depose him, after all our oil magnates should be getting most of the profit from the oil revenues under contracts ushered in when it was a "democratic" Banana Republic. In all fairness Chavez went too far in this constitutional revision, but the doing away with term restriction was the least of the people's concerns. Notice under the parliamentary system a Bush English poodle reigned for too many years. As in our "corporocracy" it matters little who's in power anyway. Our legislators 11% favorable rating in recent polls says much about our "democracy". The Venezuelans proved that democracy can work, but they were wise enough to reject this most benevolent ruler's desire for more power. If we had a functioning democracy Bush would have been impeached long ago.

[Pete C]

Yea right,
You forgot the mantra "Bush lied so people died" ha ha ha. More socialist hogwash from the underclass.
Only free market capitalism can offer real prosperity to the working class. You don't see any mutual fund owners under Chavez yet 60% of Americans own shares. We have the highest homeownership rate as well.
Sorry you never made it in the free market Adam but I did so you lose. ha ha ha

[Don Pesci]

And where was Connecticut’s resident expert on Latin America, U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd, as Venezuela disappeared beneath the totalitarian wave? Chavez took over the largest oil company (shades of Putin and Castro) and Dodd said nothing. Chavez posted his thugs throughout the country to suppress dissent and Dodd said nothing. He closed down newspapers and hounded journalist and Dodd, the author of a bill in the senate that would prevent journalists from giving testimony during trials, said nothing. And the Courant said nothing also. Two of a kind. Was you silence on Dodd's strange silence payback for his bill favoring the non-disclosure of pertinent evidence during trials?

[1st Amendment]

Adam wrote:

1st Amendment, Why would you rather give your money to Heartless Multi-Nationals and Totalitarian Arab States, rather than to Venezuela, which is using the money for social programs across the Westerne Hemisphere(including the US) and is run by someone who has won elections that are considered more free and transparent than our last two Presidential Elections.

Other than what everyone else has said how about the fact that the majority of our oil comes from Canada and Mexico. I do not promote nor will I pay for socialism.

[ToHellWithBigots]

I see you're still on the "He's a would-be dictator" BS train. Get off it already, no one buys your lies! This guy has your true number:

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/2988

[LIGER OMNI PROPER MAX]

http://www.fhpdesign.com/rey.html

[suzu]

of course the courant is worries about a dictator for life when chavez said he wanted to remove term limits.
and of course the courant has no problem with our fine democratic administration supporting coups against chavez. it cleverly sees into the future but has no ability to do something so simple as seeing the past. it is as if the coup attempt never happened.
no wonder dittoheads abound.

[FAV]

suzu wrote:

of course the courant is worries about a dictator for life when chavez said he wanted to remove term limits.
and of course the courant has no problem with our fine democratic administration supporting coups against chavez. it cleverly sees into the future but has no ability to do something so simple as seeing the past. it is as if the coup attempt never happened.
no wonder dittoheads abound.

Brava!

[Adam]

Pete,
Before Chavez most of the population was worried about where they would find their next meal, while huge corporations took all the profits. When feeding yourself is your chief worry, I don't think mutual funds even come to mind. I think the baseline standard of living is life expectancy and being to feed your self, in that regard the long-time socialist contries in Latin America by far do the best job. Also, while their name may be on the deed an alarming number of Americans are finding out that they don't actually own their homes. And I'm doing just fine finacially thank you.

[wingbenty]

Adam wrote:

Pete,
Before Chavez most of the population was worried about where they would find their next meal, while huge corporations took all the profits. When feeding yourself is your chief worry, I don't think mutual funds even come to mind. I think the baseline standard of living is life expectancy and being to feed your self, in that regard the long-time socialist contries in Latin America by far do the best job. Also, while their name may be on the deed an alarming number of Americans are finding out that they don't actually own their homes. And I'm doing just fine finacially thank you.

If you live forever then you truly own something.

Because we all die we are only renting !

[felix lopez]

FAV wrote:

<quoted text> Brava!

Iam sorry I really gets my nuts off when someone come on and say something like like chavez wanted to be on power for ever je je thats cute where did you get that? Iam sure it was not from here .we the people put chavez were he is by the vote .like it or not.