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Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) was caught on a hot mic Thursday telling Secretary of State John Kerry to let him know how he could “help” with House Speaker John Boehner. Screengrab via NBC News Screengrab via NBC News Kerry had just testified before the Senate Appropriations Committee on the need to provide Ukraine with economic assistance amid its turbulent transition following the ouster of former President Viktor Yanukovich. Both House and Senate Republicans have expressed opposition to the proposed bill, mainly over a provision that would give unused U.S. Military money to the International Monetary Fund (I.M.F.). Graham was offering...

You want food in Venezuela? Wait in line and get marked like an animal.

THE NEW NEXUS OF NARCOTERRORISM: HEZBOLLAH AND VENEZUELA By Vanessa Neumann December 2011 Vanessa Neumann is a Senior Fellow of the Foreign Policy Research Institute and is co-chair, with FPRI Trustee Devon Cross, of FPRI’s Manhattan Initiative. PDF Version of bulletin. (4 pages, 91K PDF) Press stories, as well as a television documentary, over the past two months have detailed the growing cooperation between South American drug traffickers and Middle Eastern terrorists, proving that the United States continues to ignore the mounting terrorist threat in its own “backyard” of Latin America at its own peril. A greater portion of financing...

It's been a month since violent clashes between opposition demonstrators and government forces in Venezuela first grabbed global attention. Since then, at least 23 people have been killed, according to the latest government tally. The tally did not specify whether the deaths occurred among demonstrators or government forces, or both. Protests rage on, and demonstrators show no sign of backing down. ... Violence surged this week in Tachira state, which borders Colombia. Government forces shot tear gas at opposition barricades there, and a well-known student leader was gunned down Monday. Daniel Tinoco, 24, was a university student studying mechanical engineering....

Vice-President Joe Biden has given a stark assessment of the ongoing unrest in Venezuela, accusing President Nicolas Maduro of widespread human rights violations and saying the situation reminded him of Latin America's troubled and violent past. In a written interview with El Mercurio of Chile where Biden arrived on Sunday at the start of his seventh official visit to the region, he called the unstable situation in Venezuela "alarming" and said the Caracas government lacked even basic respect for human rights. "Confronting peaceful protestors with force and in some cases armed militias, limiting freedom of press and assembly...is not in...

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- U.S. Vice President Joe Biden calls Venezuela's situation alarming in remarks published Sunday, suggesting its government is using "armed vigilantes" against peaceful protesters and accusing it of "concocting false and outlandish conspiracy theories" about the United States.

Patricia Gamboa arrived at a government-run supermarket in western Venezuela at 2:00 am, six hours before doors opened, to be first in line and buy whatever she could get her hands on. As dawn broke, about 200 people stood behind her outside the Bicentenario shop in San Cristobal, with numbers written on their wrists with green markers to avoid arguments over who came first. What was she hoping to buy, then? "Whatever they have," she said, echoing the sentiment of everybody else reading, sipping coffee or sitting on the sidewalk to pass the time. Residents can only shop at Bicentenario...

Thousands of Venezuelan students and opposition supporters have gathered for an anti-government rally in the capital, Caracas. The government deployed hundreds of government security forces to prevent a march towards the food ministry. The authorities say 21 people have been killed in nearly a month of protests. Opposition leader Henrique Capriles told the crowd that detained students and others must be released before any talks with the government. The opposition criticised the government's heavy security operation put in place by the government to prevent the march from reaching the food ministry. "All this military deployment demonstrates the huge fear Nicolas...

Little new information escapes from Venezuela, beyond that protests and repression by the Chavista/Cuban regime continue.As Daniel reported today (Saturday), the Organization of American States (OAS) produced a resolution about the situation in Venezuela. The regime scores because not only the OAS will not send any mission or observation, not only the OAS will not go beyond an exhortation but the OAS also writes "Its appreciation, full support, and encouragement for the initiatives and the efforts of the democratically-elected Government of Venezuela ...". there is an "and" after that to include other sectors but the first part is the one...

Famous foe of imperialism Oliver Stone just premiered his documentary “Mi Amigo Hugo” (“My Friend Hugo”) in the Cuban colony of Venezuela. As the title suggests, the film honors Hugo Chavez, Cuba’s late Venezuelan viceroy. The film was released amidst lavish celebrations on the first anniversary of Chavez’ death and broadcast on the Cuba-run TV channel of the Cuban viceroyalty of Venezuela. For the occasion, Raul Castro himself graced his South American dominion with a visit. “Venezuela today is a country that is practically occupied by the henchmen of two international criminals, Cuba's Castro brothers,” recently declared Luis Miquilena who...

So the people of all classes now find themselves in a situation in which electric power is no longer reliable, blackouts are common, and diseases that were eliminated are returning. Inflation can run up to 50% per month, rendering the Bolivar fiat currency nearly worthless. Since the government had forcefully expropriated (through the Venezuelan socialist version of eminent domain) huge tracts of productive domestic livestock and then given it "to the poor" who didn't know how to farm it, domestic food production crashed. Food was then imported, using dollars. Once inflation soared, the government clamped down on the ability to...

At least 28 Senate Democrats plan to spend hours Monday night and early Tuesday speaking on the Senate floor in a push for congressional action on climate change. It's a strategy that's been in the works for several months, organized by Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), who've been seeking to raise awareness about their concerns on and off the Senate floor. Adopting a strategy used in the past year by some Senate Republicans, the Democrats will begin speaking Monday night after a series of votes and continue until about 9 a.m. Tuesday, according to...

Carlos Salamanca fled Venezuela's growing political turmoil in January with his wife, two teenage children and $7,000. Two months into their journey to the United States, he and his wife are sleeping most nights in an old, worn Nissan. Salamanca had no family or business contacts in the U.S. No property he'd purchased on a previous trip. No idea where the children might attend school. "Once we started getting threats, we couldn't take it anymore," he said of the family's last days in Venezuela. Early waves of Venezuelan immigrants who fled after the late President Hugo Chavez and his socialist...

The nation’s top military commander painted a dark picture Tuesday of future U.S. defense capabilities clouded by shrinking Pentagon budgets and adversaries’ technological advances that he said would erode American battlefield superiority. Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, provided his sobering views as part of the Quadrennial Defense Review, a congressionally mandated evaluation of U.S. military strength issued every four years. Dempsey predicted that it would become increasingly difficult to balance the competing demands of protecting allies abroad, securing Americans at home and deterring future wars. “The smaller and less capable military outlined in...

Joint Subcommittee Hearing: Iran’s Support for Terrorism Worldwide Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade, Subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa 2172 House Rayburn Office Building Washington, DC 20515 Mar 4, 2014 10:00am

An Iranian parliamentary team has embarked on a six-day trip to Cuba and Venezuela despite attempts by the US to disrupt the visits by denying its airspace to the Russian plane carrying the lawmakers.

North Korea has nukes and Iran either has them or is working diligently to get them. That's easier now that sanctions have been diminished and Iran is "open for business." China is becoming more aggressive and so is Russia. Yet Climate Change is said to be the greatest threat we face. Should we care about places, people and what they do closer to home? An article by Michael Ledeen at PJ Media titled It’s the War, You Dolt observes, For those who actually want to see the world plain, the global network is luminously clear, from North Korea and China to...

Last week Jimmy Carter fired off letters to Venezuela’s fraudulent President Nicolas Maduro and to Venezuela’s defrauded Presidential candidate Enrique Capriles expressing “grave concern” regarding the political turmoil and bloodshed convulsing their nation. From his pulpit at Emory University’s Carter Center, the former U.S. president calls for “dialogue” among the embattled Venezuelan parties and offers to visit the troubled nation — but not as a formal “mediator.” The news of Carter’s proposed Venezuela visit was only hours old when alarmed Venezuelan anti-socialists sent out an SOS: “Please, desist from your trip,” reads an open letter from Venezuelan blogger/journalist Daniel Duquenal....

It's been several days now since there was any post on Venezuela and the riots. It seems it's all about the Ukraine when the greatest concern should be the people of Venezuela. There was nothing about them in today's newspaper either.

Actor Jared Leto expressed his support for protesters in Ukraine and Venezuela during his acceptance speech for the Best Supporting Actor award at the Oscars on Sunday, making him the first celebrity at the event to acknowledge the two major events dominating world news right now. “To all the dreamers out there around the world watching this tonight, in places like the Ukraine and Venezuela, I want to say we are here, and as you struggle to make your dreams happen, to live the impossible, we’re thinking of you tonight,” Leto said. In the press room backstage after accepting his...