Don't let ignorance stop you, Mark!!
Hey Folks,
I've added comments in blue.
- Uke Man
Chavez would be bad news for America
Saturday, June 03, 2006
I could not believe my eyes as I read Anthony Fife’s letter last Saturday. Hugo Chavez is a communist [ not true - socialist ] who follows in the footsteps of Cuba’s Fidel Castro, his idol. Chavez is currently courting Red China [so are we ] and Iran [ we are threatening them ]. He is stirring ferment in South and Central America against the United States [ this ignores the fact that they have good reason to mistrust us - but then guys like this think every foreign country should put OUR interests first ]. How in heaven’s name can Fife praise him and recommend that the United States follow his lead?
Does Fife want our economy and civil rights to follow those of Venezuela [Chavez has improved the civil rights for 80% of his people - that's part of why he was overwhelmingly elected ], Bolivia and Cuba [Cuba has universal health care; do we?]? Doesn’t he understand that when central governments own and run oil companies, only two things happen over the long term: higher prices and shortages? Does he care to look to Europe, where governments either own or have large shares in oil companies and gasoline costs upward of $6 a gallon? [prices are higher there by policy via taxation]. The exceptions are countries run by dictators, theocrats, thugs and corrupt democracies that must keep gasoline prices abnormally low to prevent street riots, which would lead to toppling the hierarchy. A prime example is Venezuela, with gasoline prices of about 20 cents a gallon [make up your mind, Goldilocks - Europe bad:too high; Venezuela bad: too low; United States just right?]
Fife said the Venezuelan economy is growing. It may be growing but only because of one thing: oil, and the price it charges us for it. I trust he remembers that Venezuela is a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, which is an illegal (in the United States) [they're not in the United States - ande it's illegal to execute people in many countries - but not in the United States - how do you want that argument to work, Mark? We stop executions and they drop out of the cartell? or vice versa?] pricefixing cartel. The World Bank’s latest figures show Venezuela is No. 60 in the world ranking in gross domestic product, right above Uruguay, Belize and Gabon, at about $4,000 per person annually. The United States produces 10 times that figure. And a full one-third of Venezuela’s gross domestic product is oil exports, which means without oil, Venezuela would be right up there with those powerful economies of Fiji, Tunisia and Serbia and Montenegro [which perhaps explains why Chavez might want to protect his country's natural resouce and use it to better his people - unless, of course, American interests should conflict with that, in which case he should give way]. So much for Fife’s dream world of Venezuela’s growing economy. Seeing communism coming, many industrialists pulled capital out of the country for safer quarters. Leaving it there would only mean confiscation sooner or later, or loss through inflation, which has averaged about 25 percent a year. The same thing happened after Castro’s coup in Cuba, and look at the sad results 50 years later [if it's sad in Cuba, how much of the sadness have we imposed via the embargo?] . The long-term future is bleak for the average person in Venezuela if Chavez remains in power. Hint: Those costs are personal liberties via voting corruption, restrictions on free speech and press, and takeover of private industry and resources. Oil income will only postpone the end result, not prevent it [the costs he's talking about hit the local upper crust and wealthy foreigners who had formerly raked off everything for themselves and denied rights to the masses] .
Chavez attempted a coup in 1998 and, when that failed, he adopted Castro, Mao Zedong and Vladimir Lenin’s blueprint to ferment class envy [if it's bad to envy the prerogative of the class that oppresses you, is it good to appreciate and respect the class that oppresses you?] among the masses. He was barely elected [60% to 40% - better than Bush did] under suspicious circumstances, notwithstanding the approval of Jimmy Carter, who "monitored" the elections from his hotel [ he doen't like Jimmy either] . Strangely enough, this is the same Carter who, when president, instituted gasoline controls that caused the highest inflation-adjusted prices, greatest shortages and longest lines in our nation’s history. He also gave away the Panama Canal [Don't you have to own something to give it away?] , which led to China today operating the ports at either end of the canal, which some say could be a very dangerous situation should we ever incur a military conflict with China. Imported oil from Venezuela and the Middle East also come to us via the Panama Canal. Thank you, Carter, for making us so vulnerable.
No thanks, Fife. Facts speak for themselves. I’ll take the free market and freedom over government control, socialism or communism, whatever you want to call it. Under a free market, prices have a chance to come down [maybe to 20 cents a gallon - Chavez for president!!] .
MARK FRIDAY
Blacklick
I've added comments in blue.
- Uke Man
Chavez would be bad news for America
Saturday, June 03, 2006
I could not believe my eyes as I read Anthony Fife’s letter last Saturday. Hugo Chavez is a communist [ not true - socialist ] who follows in the footsteps of Cuba’s Fidel Castro, his idol. Chavez is currently courting Red China [so are we ] and Iran [ we are threatening them ]. He is stirring ferment in South and Central America against the United States [ this ignores the fact that they have good reason to mistrust us - but then guys like this think every foreign country should put OUR interests first ]. How in heaven’s name can Fife praise him and recommend that the United States follow his lead?
Does Fife want our economy and civil rights to follow those of Venezuela [Chavez has improved the civil rights for 80% of his people - that's part of why he was overwhelmingly elected ], Bolivia and Cuba [Cuba has universal health care; do we?]? Doesn’t he understand that when central governments own and run oil companies, only two things happen over the long term: higher prices and shortages? Does he care to look to Europe, where governments either own or have large shares in oil companies and gasoline costs upward of $6 a gallon? [prices are higher there by policy via taxation]. The exceptions are countries run by dictators, theocrats, thugs and corrupt democracies that must keep gasoline prices abnormally low to prevent street riots, which would lead to toppling the hierarchy. A prime example is Venezuela, with gasoline prices of about 20 cents a gallon [make up your mind, Goldilocks - Europe bad:too high; Venezuela bad: too low; United States just right?]
Fife said the Venezuelan economy is growing. It may be growing but only because of one thing: oil, and the price it charges us for it. I trust he remembers that Venezuela is a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, which is an illegal (in the United States) [they're not in the United States - ande it's illegal to execute people in many countries - but not in the United States - how do you want that argument to work, Mark? We stop executions and they drop out of the cartell? or vice versa?] pricefixing cartel. The World Bank’s latest figures show Venezuela is No. 60 in the world ranking in gross domestic product, right above Uruguay, Belize and Gabon, at about $4,000 per person annually. The United States produces 10 times that figure. And a full one-third of Venezuela’s gross domestic product is oil exports, which means without oil, Venezuela would be right up there with those powerful economies of Fiji, Tunisia and Serbia and Montenegro [which perhaps explains why Chavez might want to protect his country's natural resouce and use it to better his people - unless, of course, American interests should conflict with that, in which case he should give way]. So much for Fife’s dream world of Venezuela’s growing economy. Seeing communism coming, many industrialists pulled capital out of the country for safer quarters. Leaving it there would only mean confiscation sooner or later, or loss through inflation, which has averaged about 25 percent a year. The same thing happened after Castro’s coup in Cuba, and look at the sad results 50 years later [if it's sad in Cuba, how much of the sadness have we imposed via the embargo?] . The long-term future is bleak for the average person in Venezuela if Chavez remains in power. Hint: Those costs are personal liberties via voting corruption, restrictions on free speech and press, and takeover of private industry and resources. Oil income will only postpone the end result, not prevent it [the costs he's talking about hit the local upper crust and wealthy foreigners who had formerly raked off everything for themselves and denied rights to the masses] .
Chavez attempted a coup in 1998 and, when that failed, he adopted Castro, Mao Zedong and Vladimir Lenin’s blueprint to ferment class envy [if it's bad to envy the prerogative of the class that oppresses you, is it good to appreciate and respect the class that oppresses you?] among the masses. He was barely elected [60% to 40% - better than Bush did] under suspicious circumstances, notwithstanding the approval of Jimmy Carter, who "monitored" the elections from his hotel [ he doen't like Jimmy either] . Strangely enough, this is the same Carter who, when president, instituted gasoline controls that caused the highest inflation-adjusted prices, greatest shortages and longest lines in our nation’s history. He also gave away the Panama Canal [Don't you have to own something to give it away?] , which led to China today operating the ports at either end of the canal, which some say could be a very dangerous situation should we ever incur a military conflict with China. Imported oil from Venezuela and the Middle East also come to us via the Panama Canal. Thank you, Carter, for making us so vulnerable.
No thanks, Fife. Facts speak for themselves. I’ll take the free market and freedom over government control, socialism or communism, whatever you want to call it. Under a free market, prices have a chance to come down [maybe to 20 cents a gallon - Chavez for president!!] .
MARK FRIDAY
Blacklick
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