Free Republic

In case you haven't seen a TV in the last month, here is some background. Bertha Lewis is the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Organizer of ACORN, the largest community organization in the country. Appointed in May 2008, Ms. Lewis oversees the operations of its 400,000 strong membership, which is active in over 110 cities across the country. During the past few weeks while Lewis has been all over the press defending her organization, she has claimed that her first priority is ACORN's Clients, those poor people needing housing, medical care, etc. If she is so concerned about "the little...

CARACAS, Nov. 2 (Xinhua) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Sunday there were good chances for the Democratic candidate Barak Obama to win the U.S. presidential elections slated for Tuesday. "It is not a small thing that an African-American attains the U.S. presidency," Chavez said. Obama and rival Republican John McCain are in their final campaigning stretch ahead of the coming elections. On many occasions, Chavez has expressed his disfavor with McCain, but he has adopted a different view on Obama, who was born to a Kenyan father. "We don't ask him (Obama) to be a revolutionary, but to...

CARACAS, Venezuela | President Hugo Chavez has spent billions of dollars of Venezuela’s oil revenue to challenge U.S. interests, build influence around the world and fund a socialist revolution at home. Yet as Chavez moves from one international crisis to another — most recently a near military confrontation with neighboring Colombia, an important U.S. ally — many wonder how long his oil-funded wild ride will last. Not long, analysts in Venezuela and abroad said, if production continues to decline at the country’s state-run energy company, Petroleos de Venezuela S.A., known by its Spanish initials PDVSA. The state oil company is...

A popular Spanish singer has been banned from performing in a Caracas stadium over remarks he made about Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Higher Education Minister Luis Acuña accused Alejandro Sanz of criticizing Chavez three years ago while touring Venezuela. The ban refers to a concert at a state-run stadium but the government says he can perform at any privately owned venue. Some 15.000 fans hoped to see Sanz at the stadium in the capital on November first. Sanz, widely popular in Latin America, in 2004 accused Chavez of trying to stymie a nationwide campaign for a recall referendum against him...

Danny Glover's new best friend has other devils on his mind besides George Bush. In a little noticed speech in Tehran last month, at the height of the Israel-Hezbollah war, Hugo Chavez, standing next to his new best friend, Holocaust-denier Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, wondered if Israelis, "want war because they have the devil inside them." "I say to them from here, from Iran, once and a thousand times: Murderers! Cowards! Frankly, their fate has been sealed, from the depths of the people's soul ... "I would say today: 'God, throw the lightning bolts at the monsters.' Inshallah ." Applause all around....

· Washington fears Chávez will block Iran sanctions · Latin American countries under pressure over vote The US has launched a diplomatic campaign to block Venezuela's bid to become a member of the United Nations security council out of concern that Hugo Chávez's government would use its seat to try to block punitive measures against Iran. Washington has publicly backed Guatemala's rival effort to take the two-year rotating council next year, but it has reportedly gone further in recent weeks - threatening retaliatory action against Latin American countries who support the Venezuelan bid.

American singer and activist Harry Belafonte (R) speaks as Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez looks on during Chavez's weekly broadcast in El Consejo in Venezuela's Aragua state January 8, 2006. Belafonte is visiting Venezuela with a delegation of civil rights activists. NO SALES NO ARCHIVES REUTERS/Miraflores Palace/Handout