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Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro admitted to knowing ‘with IDs and all’ who are the 900.000 Chavistas who crossed lines and did not vote for him in the 14 April election which anointed him as the successor of deceased Hugo Chavez. “When there is a man fallen in combat as was our commander (Chavez) strength must prevail. Instead of feeling defeated by sadness, we must defeat that sadness and overcome the lethargic feeling. We have identified the 900.000 compatriots with IDs and all…which meant that the gap was smaller, when the gap could have been good”, said Maduro during one of...

RUSH: This Obama comparison to Nixon, you hear it now and then. In fact, it was asked about at the press conference this afternoon with the Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Reuters White House correspondent Jeff Mason said, "How do you feel about comparisons by some of your critics of this week's scandals to those that happened under the Nixon administration?" OBAMA: I'll let you guys engage in those comparisons, and you can go ahead and read the history, I think, and -- and draw your own conclusions. My concern is making sure that if there's a problem in...

The Venezuelan government was forced to begin importing 50 million rolls of toilet paper this week, due to massive shortages in consumer goods, and food in the country. Alejandro Fleming, Venezuela’s Minister of Commerce reportedly addressed the shortage of toilet paper, stating that, “the ‘Revolution’ will bring the equivalent of 50 million rolls of toilet paper to our country to calm things down.” He went on to address the perceived insidious nature of the shortage, asking citizens that they “please understand that we should not allow ourselves to be manipulated by a media campaign portraying shortages.”

SACRAMENTO -- Los Angeles Roman Catholic Archbishop Jose Gomez and several other Catholic Church officials in California took time from their retreat in Sacramento on Wednesday to make a push for Congress to keep up the momentum on changes to the country’s immigration laws. In a gaggle with reporters, Gomez said reform of the country’s immigration laws is “long overdue.” Gomez, who was joined by San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, as well as several bishops from around the state, urged Congress not to delay in passing a bill, saying the bipartisan package of legislation that has come together offers hope...

According to reports by the ruling regime, Hugo Chavez’s hand picked successor, Nicolas Maduro, barely managed to squeak by opposition candidate, Henrique Capriles, in a highly criticized special presidential election. Those figures were provided by the administration Chaves controlled, and were out of the ordinary for the official press organs who routinely claimed staggeringly high support for the president. Yet even by their own official count Maduro barely pulled off the victory. Critics doubt whether he won at all, citing evidence of widespread fraud and voter intimidation.

The following sermon was preached by Bishop John Bradosky of the NALC at the funeral service given for Kevin Michael Chavez, the son of NALC General Secretary Mark Chavez. Mark served many years as founding director of Lutheran CORE. Kevin died on April 8, 2013, on his way home from college. Lutheran CORE extends its prayers of condolence to the Chavez family. Read below or download a copy here. April 13, 2013 First Lesson: Isa 40:28-31 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will...

Nicolas Maduro Wins Venezuela Presidential Election (50.7%): Opposition Gets 49.1% Socialist candidate Nicolas Maduro has won a narrow victory in Venezuela's presidential poll. Mr Maduro, who was chosen by the late Hugo Chavez, won 50.7% of the vote against 49.1% for opposition candidate Henrique Capriles. The electoral commission said the results were "irreversible". There has been no comment from Mr Capriles, who earlier on Sunday has suggested there was an attempt to doctor the result. Mr Maduro told a rally of supporters in the capital Caracas that he had won a "just, legal and constitutional" victory. However, the margin of...

(CNN) -- The man former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez handpicked to be his successor has won the country's presidential vote, officials said late Sunday. With 99% of votes counted, Nicolas Maduro won 50.66% of votes, National Electoral Council President Tibisay Lucena said, calling the results "irreversible." Opposition candidate Henrique Capriles won 49.07% of votes, she said. "I have won by nearly 300,000 votes. It is the decision of the people," Maduro told cheering supporters late Sunday, calling on Venezuelans to respect the results and respond peacefully.

How close are we to becoming what the young girl in this North Korean video thinks all countries should become? The Religion of Kim in North Korea The North Korean propaganda video presented below was released several years ago and was apparently designed to show the life of a family in (comparatively privileged and tightly controlled) Pyongyang. In it, a girl studying to become a teacher praises her and her family's happiness granted by a government that provides everything for them. They in turn give the government their full devotion; it appears to own them. She compares their happy existence...

Watchdog.org reported: Thanks to your generous support, the New York City-based People’s Rights Fund has been able publicize the great work of Karl Marx and dictators Kim Jong-Il, Hugo Chavez and Saddam Hussein. Don’t remember writing that check? If you paid federal taxes after 1997, some of your money went to Tides, a San Francisco-based clearinghouse that collects and distributes about $251 million every year to hundreds of leftwing organizations. Much of the money flowing into Tides comes from wealthy benefactors who use Tides as a clearinghouse — a way to help finance left-liberal organizations without leaving any fingerprints. But...

Easter was on March 31st this year. So was Cesar Chavez Day. ... Everyone has their priorities.

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - Holding a Bible in her arms at the start of Holy Week, seamstress Maria Munoz waited patiently to visit the tomb of the man she considers another savior of humanity. The 64-year-old said she had already turned her humble one-bedroom house into a shrine devoted to the late President Hugo Chavez, complete with busts, photos and coffee mugs bearing his image. Now, she said, her brother-in-law was looking for a larger house to display six boxes' worth of Chavez relics that her family has collected throughout his political career.

Ed Driscol notes that Google has a predictable manner of observing Easter. Ironic, since whatever else you could say about Cesar Chavez he was a devout Catholic: “While two billion Christians around the world celebrate Easter Sunday on this 31st day of March, Google is using its famous ‘Doodle’ search logo art to mark the birth of left-wing labor leader,” Twitchy.com notes, adding that “Google’s Easter insult sparks Twitter backlash, mockery,” as well it should.  The timing of latest in-your-face politically correct homepage is oddly appropriate. As Dennis Prager has written, “You cannot understand the Left if you do not...

One suggests some basis for hope, another writes about oppression by Chavistas and the third pursues the same theme.El Presidente for Life, THugo Chávez, died on or before March 5, 2013. He may have died in Cuba, in Venezuela or perhaps elsewhere. There has been much speculation but nobody who knows for sure seems to be talking. In any event he is almost certainly dead now, a good thing -- or at least I hope it is good -- for Venezuela. Before proceeding further, here are some points that should be kept in mind about Venezuela: 1. Venezuela has a...

This will probably come as a crushing blow to Chris Hayes, (the legacy of Hugo Chavez is “complicated� donchaknow…) but it seems that the dictator may miss out on his chance to become a permanent national monument in corpse form. It turns out that the process to permanently embalm and display the now room temperature leader would take a bit more work than can be managed. Venezuela’s information minister says the government has decided that the body of Hugo Chavez will not be embalmed for permanent display, as officials had said it would be.Ernesto Villegas’ tweet Friday night says the...

At first glance it seems like a reasonably decent airport. Then after a while you notice the dilapidation, the inoperative urinal, the broken floor tiles. A surprisingly pretty Immigration Agent waves me over, inspects my documents, asks a few questions in passable English and allows me into the country. I retrieve my bag and then pass both the bag and the carry-on through the x-ray machine just before the the exit. This is my first trip to Caracas and I was not without anxiety given the tumultuous events of the last few weeks. I had been invited to come and...

Chavez is dead. Is Venezuela?h/t Devil's Excrement Daniel, one of my two favorite bloggers on things Venezuelan, published this article today. It summarizes what's wrong with Venezuela today and does not raise any false hopes for her immediate future. Her future is bleak. Here's the first paragraph. The wake is suspended, Chavez rests for the time being in a military museum, an old barrack to ensure past presidential safety at Miraflores, now unable to ensure safety in an area that has been overcome by slums. For a military that was never able to understand what the civilian world and democracy...

AFP - Venezuela's acting president Nicolas Maduro joked on Wednesday that late leftist president Hugo Chavez's recent death must have played into the selection of the first Latin American pope. "We know that our commander has risen up there and is face to face with Christ," Maduro said, to an outburst of laughter at a political event, just over a week after Chavez died following 14 years in charge of Venezuela.

CARACAS — Venezuela's government said on Wednesday it may not be possible to embalm the remains of late leader Hugo Chavez as planned because the process should have been started earlier. Chavez died last week aged 58 after a two-year battle with cancer. His body has been on display in a glass-topped coffin at a grandiose military academy in the capital Caracas, where millions of people have filed past to pay homage. The government had said it planned to embalm Chavez's remains "for eternity" in much the same way as was done with the remains of Soviet leaders Lenin and...

CARACAS (Reuters) - Late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez may have had a hand in Christ's decision to opt for a Latin American pope, acting President Nicolas Maduro said on Wednesday. "We know that our commander ascended to the heights and is face-to-face with Christ," Maduro said at a Caracas book fair. "Something influenced the choice of a South American pope, someone new arrived at Christ's side and said to him: 'Well, it seems to us South America's time has come.'" Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina was elected in a surprise choice to be the new leader of the Roman Catholic...

CARACAS, VENEZUELA — Business has never been better for Eudis Carrillo. Sure, he’s heartbroken over the death of his hero Hugo Chavez, but there’s precious little time for sentiment: Hats and T-shirts of the late Venezuelan president are flying off the shelves at his streetside stand faster than he can keep them in stock. Ditto demand for Chavez tattoos, Chavez earrings, Chavez mugs and talking Chavez action figurines. One can even buy Chavez boxer shorts and panties, part of a cult of personality that began while the former paratrooper was still alive, but exploded in the week since he succumbed...

Leaving aside his antisemitism and his dictator allies, why would the left celebrate a man who repressed his people and wrecked the economy? It’s an insult to Venezuelans, says Bernard Henri-Lévy. The death of Hugo Chávez, followed by his elaborate funeral, has unleashed a wave of political idiocy, and thus of disinformation, of a magnitude not seen in some time.

Amateur Diplomacy: Somebody explain to us why an official U.S. delegation was sent to Caracas for the funeral of Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez. It only boosts our enemies while diminishing America. The death of Chavez this week should have been an opportunity for the U.S. to rally global support for Venezuela's battered democrats and make a stand for democracy. Instead, the Obama administration has done all it can to validate and bolster Chavez's gangsterly minions desperate to perpetrate their Marxist kleptocracy. Already these surviving Chavistas have made clear who they are and what the U.S. can expect: President Obama called...

Mr. Chávez would have enjoyed the comparisons to Christ and Mr. Bolívar. "He wanted to be the Bolívar of the 21st century," said Enrique Krauze, a leading Mexican historian and author of "Redeemers," about Latin America's messianic caudillos, or charismatic political leaders. The late president often saw himself as a reincarnation of the 19th-century patriot who liberated five countries and sought to unite the former Spanish colonies, say former colleagues.

1. Production quotas on all forms of food, including rice, the country’s primary food item. 2. Price controls on anything from cooking oil to sugar to coffee. Rice, for instance, was only allowed to be sold for 2.15 bolivars ($0.34USD), but cost 4.41 bolivars ($0.70USD) to produce. 3. Both of these policies led to extreme food shortages. For most families, especially the lower- and middle-classes, grocery shopping was a hit or miss. They would be lucky enough to grab a roll of toilet paper. 4. Prior to Chavez’s death, the oil-rich Latin American nation struggled with the worst food shortage...

Wolf Blitzer: “What do you say to the Venezuelans, not only in the opposition but those who have fled the country, who considered Hugo Chavez a vile dictator?” Jesse Jackson: “Well, you know, democracies mature, Our first 15 presidents owned people. They owned slaves. Democracies mature.” Read more: http://conservativevideos.com/2013/03/jesse-jackson-compares-hugo-chavez-to-founding-fathers/#ixzz2N5Yp4HNE

Venezuela's Hugo Chavez slid into a coma the day before he died of respiratory failure after cancer spread into his lungs, sources say. Chavez's precise condition was one of the world's best-kept secrets since his cancer was announced in June 2011. Since his death this week, however, details have emerged of the 58-year-old president's battle with cancer and the last moments in the hospital with close family and senior aides.

Caracas, Venezuela, Mar 6, 2013 / 12:01 pm (CNA).- A source in Venezuela has revealed to CNA that President Hugo Chavez died “in bosom of the Church” and received spiritual direction and the sacraments in his last days. In announcing Chavez’s death to the nation on March 5, Vice President Nicolas Maduro said the Venezuelan leader died “clinging to Christ.” The source in Venezuela told CNA that during the last weeks of his life, Chavez requested spiritual direction and asked to receive the sacraments. Ever since he assumed power in 1999, Chavez butted heads continuously with the Catholic Church over...

The mourners lamenting the death of late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez included the presidents of Iran and Cuba, a Spanish prince and a man that Chavez himself once floated as a possible American ambassador to Venezuela: Hollywood actor Sean Penn. Penn flew to Caracas for the Friday funeral, where he was filmed among the mourning crowd. Earlier this week, he called Chavez “a great hero to the majority of his people.”

Scenes of mass grief and hysteria have accompanied the deaths of many dictators, from the Soviet Union’s Josef Stalin in 1953 to North Korea’s Kim Jong-Il in 2011. The public mourning in Venezuela following the death this week of the country’s Socialist President Hugo Chavez from cancer at the age of 58 will be played out for weeks. The Venezuelan people have been whipped into hysteria by the propaganda of the sinister — and aggressively anti-American — political machine Chavez left behind as his legacy. The complete collapse in law and order in his country meant crime spiralled out of...

The Obama administration has sent an official three-person delegation to Caracas to attend Friday’s funeral for deceased Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. According to US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland, they are former Massachusetts Congressman William Delahunt, U.S. Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York and State Department diplomat James Derham. Chavez´s funeral is being attended by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Cuban President Raul Castro and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, all of whom, like Chavez, have their issues with Western capitalist society.

CARACAS, Venezuela -- Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. will be attending the state funeral for Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Friday in Caracas, the nation's capital. Jackson, founder of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, will be leading a delegation organized by the civil rights organization -- which is separate from the official U.S. delegation

Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez died of a massive heart attack after great suffering and inaudibly mouthed his desire to live, the head of the country's presidential guard said. "He couldn't speak but he said it with his lips … 'I don't want to die. Please don't let me die,' because he loved his country, he sacrificed himself for his country," General Jose Ornella said. The general said he had spent the past two years with Chávez, including his final moments, as Venezuela's president of 14 years battled an unspecified cancer in the pelvic region.

Socialism: The left is out in force, bleating its praise for deceased Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez as a champion of the poor. It's a big lie. Fact is, Chavez hurt the poor, not just in Venezuela, but all over the world. Chavez's death from cancer Tuesday set off a chorus of wailing from the left's politicos, media and movie stars, hailing Chavez as a friend of the poor. "President Chavez cared deeply about the poor," declared Citizens Energy President Joe Kennedy, who's made it his business to distribute Chavez's oil handouts to the poor to help the dictator's political ends....

If you drove by CITGO’s corporate headquarters yesterday you would have seen what many consider a disturbing sight. Many Houstonians are up in arms after driving by CITGO's Eldridge Parkway headquarters and noticing the U.S., Texas and Venezuelan flags being flown at half staff, and you let your feeling show on Matt Patrick's afternoon show. “I gave them a call, and the operator told me that it was in observance and respect of the death of Hugo Chavez,” Teddy told Matt Patrick on his afternoon show on The 9-5-0 yesterday. Teddy wasn’t satisfied with the company’s explanation. “I told the...

Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has been criticised for saying that Hugo Chávez will be resurrected along with Jesus Christ in his tribute to the Venezuelan president who died on Tuesday.

The White House, in an effort tamp down viral rumors, took the unusual step of releasing a statement that President Barack Obama is “alive and well.” The terse statement comes in response to internet rumors that a charismatic, eloquent, leader who swept to power promising to take money from the petroleum industry to fund entitlement programs, had died. The White House clarified that it was, in fact, Venezuela’s socialist President Hugo Chavez who passed away after a long battle with cancer. “Some people just skim the news, or hear a snippet as they walk by the TV,” said White House...

President Hugo Chavez died of a massive heart attack after great suffering and inaudibly mouthed his desire to live, the head of Venezuela's presidential guard said late Wednesday. "He couldn't speak but he said it with his lips ... 'I don't want to die. Please don't let me die,' because he loved his country, he sacrificed himself for his country," Gen. Jose Ornella told The Associated Press.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wins the crown for praise of Hugo Chavez, declaring in a letter to the Venezuelan people that Chavez will be resurrected with Jesus and a revered Shiite imam, reports the Guardian. “I have no doubt he will come again along with all the righteous people and the Prophet Jesus and the only successor of the righteous generation, the perfect human,� he said, the latter referring to the Hidden Imam, explains the New York Times. Ahmadinejad also agrees with Venezuela's government that Chavez's death is a little fishy.

In the flesh he seemed indestructible. Hugo Chávez was not especially tall, but he was built like one of the tanks he once commanded. He was possessed of seemingly inexhaustible energy. He travelled incessantly, both around his vast country and abroad. Each Sunday he would host live television shows lasting up to 12 hours. He would ring up ministers in the early hours of the morning to harangue them. For 14 years, everything that happened in Venezuela passed through his hands, or so he liked to think. Yet Mr Chávez turned out to have been as reckless with his health...

Hollywood bids a fond farewell to Hugo Chavez By: Patrick Gavin March 6, 2013 07:05 AM EST As the legacy of Hugo Chavez gets debated in the wake of his passing, filmmakers Michael Moore and Oliver Stone took to Twitter to praise the late Venezuelan president. “You won’t hear much nice about him in the US media in the next few days. So, I thought I’d say a couple things to provide some balance” wrote Moore. “Hugo Chavez declared the oil belonged 2 the ppl. He used the oil $ 2 eliminate 75% of extreme poverty, provide free health &...

According to a Mortgage Bankers Association release this morning, mortgage applications were up 14.8% from the previous week. Mortgage purchase applications rose 15.04% from the previous week. But in the general scheme of things, we are still stuck in a lower volume rut (as Chris Whalen and I discussed in Zero Hedge in October 2010). Mortgage refinancing applications rose 14.77% from the previous week. But one week doesn’t make a trend. In other economic news, factory orders fell 2.0% in January. And the stock market continues to rise. The Dow is up over 50 point as of 10:15am EST. And...

The controversial leader had a slew of Hollywood heavyweights supporting him throughout his reign, with the most vocal two being actor Sean Penn and filmmaker Oliver Stone. "Today the people of the United States lost a friend it never knew it had. And poor people around the world lost a champion," says Penn in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter. "I lost a friend I was blessed to have. My thoughts are with the family of President Chavez and the people of Venezuela."

DORAL, Fla. (AP) -- Venezuelans in the U.S. cheered and expressed cautious optimism that new elections will bring change to their homeland after the death of President Hugo Chavez. "My hope is that Venezuela will become a free country once again," said Elizabeth Gonazalez, 52, who wore a smiley face sticker on her sweater with the words, "Venezuela without Chavez."

All one needs to know about Hugo Chávez’s poisonous political legacy can be determined from the circumstances in which he died. Or how little we know about the manner in which—or when, or how—he died. As Venezuela’s bombastic caudillo was expiring in Cuba—and then at a military hospital in Caracas—various newspapers, pundits, and bloggers had already declared him dead, speculated on the cause of his supposed death, and examined the fragmentary evidence of his condition in an attempt to determine with what he was afflicted. His handpicked successor, the fanatically loyal former union leader Nicolas Maduro, denounced those who speculated...

Now that Hugo Chávez is out of the picture, former U.S. Ambassador to Venezuela Otto Reich warns President Obama to tread carefully in dealing with the “evil, evil men” that are now running the South American nation. “These guys are so tricky and so evil, quite frankly,” Reich, tells Newsmax in an exclusive interview following the announcement of Chávez’ death on Tuesday. “The people in power in Venezuela today are evil.” … Reich added that Fidel Castro and his brother may be calling the shots in Venezuela. …

BOSTON (AP) -- Former U.S. Rep. Joseph Kennedy II is mourning the death of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, saying he cared deeply about the poor. Kennedy, who heads Citizens Energy, said Chavez and the people of Venezuela donated about 200 million gallons of heating oil to Citizens Energy, which distributes oil to lower income families in 25 states and Washington D.C.

Former President Jimmy Carter released the following statement on the passing of Hugo Chavez: "Rosalynn and I extend our condolences to the family of Hugo Chávez Frías. We met Hugo Chávez when he was campaigning for president in 1998 and The Carter Center was invited to observe elections for the first time in Venezuela. We returned often, for the 2000 elections, and then to facilitate dialogue during the political conflict of 2002-2004. We came to know a man who expressed a vision to bring profound changes to his country to benefit especially those people who had felt neglected and marginalized....

Well folks, proud anti-American Hugo Chavez has finally bought it. The right has been resilient down there -considering- yet the VP who's recently taken charge of affairs is not just a Marxist but a Sopranos-style thug who's reportedly managed executions of Chavez opponents in the past, so any expecting a more just and uncorrupted democratic process are probably in for some disappointment... Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez dead at 58... VENEZUELA DEPLOYS ARMY AND POLICE... Fears of spiralling violence... Venezuela Expels American 'Spies'... Socialist Leader 'Amassed Private Fortune of $2 Billion'... Penn: 'I Mourn a Great Hero'.. h/t Drudge