Saturday, October 28, 2006

Smartmatic is found out? According to The New York Times the US Congress wants to investigate the relation between the current owners of voting machine company Sequoia and the Venezuelan Government. You see, after Smartmatic got paid a sweet amount for the machines, and probably more, used in the Recall Referendum of 2004 in Venezuela, they decided to expand. Since in the US you have to pass some, fairly trivial, tests. They took a shortcut, they bought a company (Sequoia) that had already pass the tests. Now, congressional leaders are wary of the relation between Hugo Chavez government and the Smartmatic/Sequoia company. The Venezuelan ambassador in the US denies any relation (Why does he do it?) and some expert believes that the Venezuelan government would be incapable of trying to subvert the US election. Makes you wonder, doesn't it? (Not Miguel, Not Jorge, just another Ghost Blogger) 9:38:59 PM    comment []

Sugary humor A Chilean producer of artificial sugar made a commercial with an image of Bush kissing Chavez. There was an oil field in the background and the slogan: “We got the impossible, we reinvented sugar”. El Universal reports that the new appointed Venezuelan ambassador in Chile was not amused and made a formal complaint. No complaints from the US Ambassador; the Americans seem to have a better sense of humor. Reporting from cyberspace, Jorge Arena Invited Ghost. Note: Since I cannot upload the picture in Miguel’s system, you can see it here for the time being. 9:17:03 PM    comment []

Is this bad faith or incompetence? Venezuela stops issuing visas to Israeli citizens (IsraelNN.com) Venezuela, which recently has forged closer ties with Iran, has announced it no longer will issue visas to Israeli tourists. A Venezuelan official insisted the cessation of allowing visits was a technical problem and that they would be resumed after a top diplomat returns to Israel. He has been absent for more than two months and there is no indication if and when he will return. A sign of President Hugo Chavez's increasingly anti-Israel sentiments was his recent accusation that Israel was guilty of genocide in the retaliation against Hizbullah terrorists last summer. 7:58:54 AM    comment []