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Venezuela's Chavez on brink of referendum defeat
Independent ^ | 8/16/04 | Hannah Baldock

Posted on 08/15/2004 5:42:56 PM PDT by francisurquhart

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=551867

There's the link to the article, apparently we can't post articles from The Indpendent directly.


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: venezuela
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To: vbmoneyspender
Sadr and now Chavez....who's next.....?

Stay tuned

41 posted on 08/15/2004 5:58:21 PM PDT by spokeshave (strategery + schadenfreude = stratenschadenfreudery)
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To: harrycarey

Even Paris says: "CHAVEZ OUT"

(OK, she didn't actually say that, but the thread could use a little eye candy)

42 posted on 08/15/2004 5:58:57 PM PDT by ChadGore (Vote Bush. He's Earned It.)
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To: dfwgator

Yep.


43 posted on 08/15/2004 5:58:57 PM PDT by wardaddy (Support the Swifties!)
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To: francisurquhart
Shippers: Venezuela Oil Unfazed by Poll
Reuters - 20 minutes ago
CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Oil exports by Venezuela have not been disturbed by the referendum on the rule of President Hugo Chavez, shipping sources said late Sunday.
Venezuela wake-up call Telegraph.co.uk
Pro-Chavez forces predict president's victory in recall vote Xinhua
Bloomberg - Independent - NPR (audio) - ABC News - and 756 related »

44 posted on 08/15/2004 5:59:27 PM PDT by ChadGore (Vote Bush. He's Earned It.)
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To: dodger fan
"I've heard that a recall of Chavez would raise the price of oil, and the talking heads on Fox say that it is better for Bush if Chavez stays in office."

Not really. Oil will go up in price in the short term if the recall is successful, but over the long term this recall should bring someone in to power in Venezuela who won't give Billions of free oil to Cuba, and who will instead dump that oil onto the ca$h paying global market.

For fighting the war on terror and for long term stability, as well as for long term economic prosperity, recalling Chavez and replacing him in a subsequent election with someone remotely compatible with capitalism will be positive both for President Bush as well as for the world at large...over the long term.

In the short term, this won't help President Bush's re-election, but that's a sidenote compared to the bigger picture (and besides, Bush will win re-election easily despite the nonsense you see published to the contrary).

5 Legislative Days Left Until The AWB Expires

45 posted on 08/15/2004 5:59:53 PM PDT by Southack (Media Bias means that Castro won't be punished for Cuban war crimes against Black Angolans in Africa)
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To: Rome2000; dfwgator

dfwgator had a similar observation. It'll be interesting to see how exactly Chavez's ouster will go.


46 posted on 08/15/2004 6:00:10 PM PDT by Yardstick
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To: francisurquhart

Of course, the Chicago and West Palm Beach precincts have yet to report.


47 posted on 08/15/2004 6:01:02 PM PDT by steveegg (John F'em Ke(rr)y - I was for the war in Iraq before I was against it before I was for it..)
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To: Rome2000
Re: I wonder if Chavez will concede defeat . .

That's a good question . . .Will he pull a Melosavich / Gore ?

48 posted on 08/15/2004 6:01:04 PM PDT by ChadGore (Vote Bush. He's Earned It.)
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To: ChadGore

Post 42: You rule, dude.


49 posted on 08/15/2004 6:01:06 PM PDT by FormerACLUmember (Free Republic is 21st Century Samizdat)
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To: vbmoneyspender
DUers root for Chavez
Yes, DU really do support Chavez. And Castro. They have avatars like this:

50 posted on 08/15/2004 6:01:42 PM PDT by counterpunch (The CouNTeRPuNcH Collection - www.counterpunch.us)
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To: counterpunch
Please, enough pluging of liberaldrivel.blah in this fine conservative forum.
51 posted on 08/15/2004 6:03:41 PM PDT by ChadGore (Vote Bush. He's Earned It.)
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To: Yardstick; ChadGore

Two Miami radio-show hosts known for playing outrageous pranks on the air scored perhaps the most outlandish one of them all Monday:

They called Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and got him to believe he was talking to Fidel Castro.

''We still can't believe it,'' said Enrique Santos, co-host of El Vacilón de la Mañana, (The Morning Hijinks), on WXDJ-FM El Zol 95.7, a Spanish-language salsa station. ``He fell for it.''

The joke was part of a segment called Fidel Te Llama or ''Fidel's Calling You,'' in which Santos and co-host, Joe Ferrero, call various people and play snippets of a controversial conversation between Castro and Mexican President Vicente Fox that Castro made public in 2001.

Hearing Castro's distinctive rasp, the unsuspecting recipients of the call usually believe it is the comandante himself on the phone. After a few minutes of a disjointed conversation in which the same nonsensical sentence fragments are repeated, the victims get suspicious.

Santos and Ferrero then drop the bombshell that it is a Miami radio station calling.

On Monday, Chávez, who counts Castro as his strongest ally and touts Cuba's communist system as a role model, fell victim to El Vacilón.

The irreverent DJs said they started calling Miraflores Palace, the Venezuelan White House, on Friday. About 8 a.m. Monday, using a Cuban-accented woman posing as a Havana operator, they got through to an aide who identified himself as Lt. Arcia.

The secretary said Castro was on the line and wanted to speak to Chávez. Castro's taped voice can be heard in the background, leading the unwitting officer to believe the dictator was really on the line.

PRIVATE LINE

The officer offered to have Chávez call Castro back, but the secretary explained that the Cuban was in a secret location and could not be phoned. The officer gave the radio station the number of Chávez's private line.

''Hello Fidel!'' booms Chávez.

''Did you receive my letter?'' asks Castro.

''Of course I received it,'' replies Chávez. ''I spoke with Germán.'' (Germán Sánchez Otero is the Cuban ambassador to Venezuela, but The Herald could not determine if Chávez was referring to him. A spokesman at Miraflores Palace could not be reached for comment.)

''I'm all set to collaborate with you,'' Castro says.

As the nonsequiturs start, El Vacilón fakes trouble on the line to disguise the rejoinders that don't make sense.

''Yes, brother, how's it going?'' Chávez asks.

''I'll do what you're asking me to,'' Castro replies.

''I don't understand,'' a bewildered Chávez says.

''But I'm going to be harmed, I confess to you,'' Castro says.

Silence from Chávez. Castro goes on: ``Everything's set for Tuesday.''

''Everything's set for Tuesday,'' Chávez repeats, obviously befuddled. ``I don't understand.''

Santos then breaks in and announces they are calling from Miami.

Complete silence from Chávez.

A TIRADE

Santos launches into a tirade: ''Terrorist! Animal! Murderer!'' plus a few choice four-letter nouns. ``You're finishing off the Venezuelan people!''

Santos then hangs up.

Apparently stunned with their success, the duo, both second-generation Cuban Americans, lost their radio composure. They broke into banter in English and put on two CDs at once.

Ferrero said the import of what they had done started to hit them during the dialogue with Chávez.

''We didn't know what to do,'' he said. ``This was a conversation between two presidents. We're waiting for the men in black to show up.''

The station's switchboard lit up with a flood of callers, including the owner, Raúl Alarcón, whom Santos described as ''not very happy.'' Alarcón is chairman of the station's Miami-based parent company, Spanish Broadcasting System.

Alarcón did not return phone calls from The Herald.

Spanish-language media in the United States and the Venezuelan press, which largely opposes Chávez, soon got hold of the story, and Ferrero, 34, and Santos, 28, were barraged with calls.


52 posted on 08/15/2004 6:03:47 PM PDT by Rome2000 (The ENEMY for Kerry!!!!!)
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To: EGPWS
"We all know what their mindset is when it comes to Kerry, but what is their mindset toward Chavez?"

Chavez is the real deal; an open, out-of-the-closet socialist.

Had he filed to run (forget legalities), he would have *won* the Democratic Party's Presidential primary in Illinois this year.

5 Legislative Days Left Until The AWB Expires

53 posted on 08/15/2004 6:03:51 PM PDT by Southack (Media Bias means that Castro won't be punished for Cuban war crimes against Black Angolans in Africa)
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To: counterpunch
DUmmies are psychopathic, murderous, Communist filth. And that's being kind.

But about the recall...

*ahem*

it's BUSH'S FAULT! :)

54 posted on 08/15/2004 6:04:43 PM PDT by TheBigB (I'm more frustrated than a legless Ethiopian watching a doughnut roll down a hill.)
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To: vbmoneyspender

Oh Yeah. The hard left are freak minded like Hugo Chavez is, they will claim a conspiracy and how Bush is attempting a coup and crud.


55 posted on 08/15/2004 6:04:45 PM PDT by aft_lizard (I actually voted for John Kerry before I voted against him)
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To: Rome2000

Uh oh:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1192175/posts


56 posted on 08/15/2004 6:05:47 PM PDT by Yardstick
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To: Southack
Had he filed to run (forget legalities), he would have *won* the Democratic Party's Presidential primary in Illinois this year.

Slight ReWrite™

Had he filed to run (forget legalities), he would have *won* the Democratic Party's Presidential primary in Illinois (insert state - this includes each of the candidates' home states) this year.

57 posted on 08/15/2004 6:06:54 PM PDT by steveegg (John F'em Ke(rr)y - I was for the war in Iraq before I was against it before I was for it..)
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To: ChadGore
"Plugging"..??

I'm EXPOSING. There is a big difference.




Get the Rally Sign and Bumper Sticker Here
www.counterpunch.us

58 posted on 08/15/2004 6:06:57 PM PDT by counterpunch (The CouNTeRPuNcH Collection - www.counterpunch.us)
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To: FormerACLUmember
Lefty DU type groups causing trouble here, too:

JUNE 12, 2004 : (REPORT : AL QAEDA HAS BUILT A SUPPORT NETWORK AMONG ITALIANS AND IS COLLECTING FUNDS FROM LEFTWING MILITANT GROUPS TO BUY ARMS TO FIGHT THE AMERICANS IN IRAQ - GROUPS INVOLVED INCLUDE BUT ARE NOT LIMITED TO THE IRAQI PATRIOTIC ALLIANCE aka IPA, AND THE "ANTI-IMPERIALIST ALLIANCE" aka AIA) ROME— Al Qaeda has built a thriving support network among Italians and is busily collecting funds from left-wing militants to buy arms used to kill Americans and other allied troops in Iraq, news reports and a high-level intelligence official say. Details of the fund raising for Osama bin Laden's foot soldiers were disclosed in the Italian press as the government put final touches on extraordinary security for the recent visit to Rome by President Bush. "Al Qaeda's front no longer consists exclusively of Arabs or Muslims," said a recent front-page article in the Libero newspaper. "Italian extremists are enrolled in al Qaeda." Details of this and other reports were confirmed by a senior Italian intelligence official, who spoke on the condition that he not be identified. Italian extremists' involvement with the terrorists is thought to be so deep that, according to press reports, at least one Italian accomplice was present when an Italian contractor was killed in April in Iraq.     Much of the fund raising for al Qaeda and Iraqi insurgents has been done by two groups — the Iraqi Patriotic Alliance (IPA), made up of Iraqi exiles, and the Anti-Imperialist Alliance, made up mainly of European leftists.     Italian police are investigating the IPA, whose members originally were Iraqi communist dissidents living in European exile. Their leader, Abdul Jabbar Kubaisy, reconciled with Saddam Hussein in Baghdad in February 2003 and committed the group "to confront American imperialist aggression."     Mr. Kubaisy returned to Baghdad when the United States invaded Iraq, leaving his deputy, Awni al Kalemji, to organize anti-American propaganda, according a senior official of the Italian military intelligence organization SISMI.     Mr. Kalemji took part last summer in the "Anti-Imperialist Camp," a weeklong gathering of communists and other leftists including revolutionaries from Iraq, the Philippines, Nepal, the Palestinian territories and Venezuela. The camp was held in the Umbrian hill town of Assisi, home of St. Francis of Assisi (1181-1226), patron saint of animals and the environment and founder of the Franciscan Order of monks. (....Mr. Kalemji said the IPA has hundreds of men fighting coalition forces in Iraq and said he hoped the conflict there will "finish like the liberation war in Vietnam." ...)     Also present were radical intellectuals such as Franco Cardini, a leading expert on medieval history who says that recent videos of Osama bin Laden are fakes distributed by the CIA to foster anti-Islamic sentiment.     Another participant was the Rev. Jean-Marie Benjamin, a French Roman Catholic priest who in February 2003 organized a visit to the Vatican by then Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz.     Father Benjamin's name appeared on a list of 270 persons and organizations that received suspect vouchers under the U.N.-run Iraqi oil-for-food program, the subject of several investigations. --- "Al Qaeda seeking funds in Italy," By John Phillips, THE WASHINGTON TIMES, June 12, 2004, http://washingtontimes.com/world/20040612-113949-4683r.htm

59 posted on 08/15/2004 6:07:24 PM PDT by piasa (Attitude adjustments offered here free of charge.)
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To: FormerACLUmember

60 posted on 08/15/2004 6:07:25 PM PDT by Southack (Media Bias means that Castro won't be punished for Cuban war crimes against Black Angolans in Africa)
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