Friday, August 12, 2005

The infinite wisdom of Hugo Chavez -- "Argentina's bonds are thousands of times safer than US Treasury bonds" Tell that to those that had them before than country defaulted three years ago --"There is a savage and relentless attack on President Lula that has to come from a planning center of his own country or abroad...it is a rightwing conspiracy" Only hours later, Lula himself went on TV and ask Brazilians to forgive him and his party. "I feel betrayed by unacceptable practices, practices of which I was never a part of" said Lula, showing why he is so different from Chavez. --"Oil prices will never go down" He should talk to Carlos Andres Perez, who thought exactly the same thing in the 70's. --Venezuela can help alleviate the oil crisis that is coming" According to reports, Venezuela's oil production went down in 2003, again in 2004 and has gone down so far in 2005. You know why? Lack of investment. You know who decided that? Hugo Chavez. It is a vicious circle, in and outside his mind. 10:31:45 PM    comment []

Daniel's letter to the opposition is a must read Don't forget to read Daniel's letter to the opposition, hopefully they will pick up on some of these ideas. All I can add  to it is: When in doubt, hold a primary, people want more democracy, give it to them. 9:47:51 PM    comment []

Code of Behavior A friend sent me a code of behavior from this website which in turn was borrowed from this other weblog and which I have modified to fit my blog. I have mentioned some of these ideas before, but I thought it would be good to have them in one place, visible and clear: 1. Stay On Topic - The topic of a blog entry should be the topic for most comments pertaining to it. Beware of conversational drift. If your comment is longer than the post, maybe you should rewrite it. - No meta-discussion. Meta-discussion is conversation about the conversation: about another person's commenting style, about the blog rules, about the blogger's decisions, etc. Any issues with the blog raeders or its blogger should be addressed privately to the owner. - No repeat posts. Double posts, or repetitive posting of the same points over and over, will not help your argument. We heard you the first time. If you think you have a lot to say, but are not getting enough room to say it, start a blog and tell us once about it, but that is about it. -This is a blog mostly about information on/about/for Venezuela and what is happening in our country. It is a terrible world out there, but for discussions about how much you love/hate Bush, love/hate Bin Laden, love/hate Lula, love/hate Michael Jackson and/or love/hate the war in Iraq, there are plenty of blogs devoted to those topics. Visit them. These people/situations are only relevant if there is a direct connection between them and Venezuela. 2. Do Not Abuse, Harass, or Defame - No personal attacks. Insulting, attacking, or denigrating another reader are ad-hominem attacks, which weaken debate and are not allowed under any circumstances. - No baiting or gloating. Repeated taunting, sexual come-ons, or competitive posts toward another user constitute harassment and will get you banned. The object is intelligent discourse, not scoring points. - No defamatory speech. Denigration of or threats against any group of people due to their race, religion, nationality, gender, politics or sexual orientation will not be tolerated. 3. Don't be anonymous When you write in your e-mail in the comments, only your blogger sees it. Please use your real e-mail, I may want to contact you, ask you about a comment and otherwise know who you are. I will not reveal your e-mail to anyone. If you can't trust me with your e-mail, why should I give credence to what you say in your comment? -Violations of any of these rules will result in removal of the offending comment(s). Repeat offenders will be banned from the blog. -These rules may be modified whenever the owner of the blog feels like it. Only one person has ever been banned from this blog. That is one too many. -Suggestions for changes, additions and improvements to these rules should be sent to me privately, via the envelope below. 8:09:50 PM    comment []