http://www.lewrockwell.com/…

Venezuela’s socialist president, Hugo Chavez, knows a fellow leftist when he sees one:

Chavez, who calls capitalism an evil and ex-Cuban leader Fidel Castro his mentor, ridiculed Bush for his plan for the federal government to take equity in American banks despite the U.S. right-wing’s criticism of Venezuelan nationalizations.”Bush is to the left of me now,” Chavez told an audience of international intellectuals debating the benefits of socialism. “Comrade Bush announced he will buy shares in private banks.”

It’s pretty hard to argue with ol’ Hugo’s observations. (Link via Drudge.)

I don’t know that he’s left of Chavez… but he’s trying.

http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/…

Many people expected that after his painful electoral defeat in the constitutional referendum last year, Hugo Chávez was going to stop his systematic assault against democracy and civil liberties in Venezuela.

Last week, he decreed a new intelligence law (no need for a National Assembly here) that basically turns Venezuela into a police state. The new law requires that people:

“… comply with requests to assist the agencies, secret police or community activist groups loyal to Mr. Chávez. Refusal can result in prison terms of two to four years for most people and four to six years for government employees.”

The law also stipulates that the police agencies can conduct surveillance activities on the population, like wiretapping, without a warrant. Furthermore, the authorities can deny access to evidence to defendant lawyers under the grounds of “national security.”

It’s interesting how people sympathetic to Chávez around the world, but particularly in Latin America, call fascist to anyone who criticizes their beloved leader. They fail to recognize that many of his policies, especially laws like this one, have fascism written all over them.

As one socialist dictator falls this one rises.

http://news.yahoo.com/…

The House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved legislation on Tuesday allowing the Justice Department to sue OPEC members for limiting oil supplies and working together to set crude prices, but the White House threatened to veto the measure.The bill would subject OPEC oil producers, including Saudi Arabia, Iran and Venezuela, to the same antitrust laws that U.S. companies must follow.

The measure passed in a 324-84 vote, a big enough margin to override a presidential veto.

The legislation also creates a Justice Department task force to aggressively investigate gasoline price gouging and energy market manipulation.

“This bill guarantees that oil prices will reflect supply and demand economic rules, instead of wildly speculative and perhaps illegal activities,” said Democratic Rep. Steve Kagen of Wisconsin, who sponsored the legislation.

The lawmaker said Americans “are at the mercy” of OPEC for how much they pay for gasoline, which this week hit a record average of $3.79 a gallon.

The White House opposes the bill, saying that targeting OPEC investment in the United States as a source for damage awards “would likely spur retaliatory action against American interests in those countries and lead to a reduction in oil available to U.S. refiners.”

The administration said less oil going to refineries would limit available gasoline supplies and raise fuel prices.

Foreign investment in U.S. oil infrastructure has declined in the last decade. But the state-owned oil companies of several OPEC nations are owners of U.S. refineries, and those investments could be affected if the legislation becomes law, said Arlington, Virginia-based FBR Capital Markets Corp.

The bill also requires the Government Accountability Office to carryout a study on the effects of prior oil company mergers on energy prices.

The Senate would still have to approve the House measure.

The Senate previously approved similar legislation as part of a broad energy bill. However, the OPEC-suing provision was removed after White House opposition in order to get the underlying energy legislation signed into law.

Speculation is an essential knowledge source for the market. Just like any other source it’s important for the market to function optimally. The speculation is wild because some group of jackasses in Congress and the executive branch of the USA government are waging wars on people who did us no harm. Because they are screwing up the value of the currency and attempting to carve the path for future energy sources. No bill can guarantee prices. They will likely cause shortages like the late 1970’s. As Mises said when the government interferes and screws things up… they know nothing else but to continue to interfere and to screw up.

I’m not sure how the hell they can enforce anything like this, I’ve not read the bill yet, but this sounds to me to be a declaration or war or at least an aggressive act.

If the government wants prices to drop stop the intervention. Leave the market alone. Leave the people and governments of the oil producing nations alone. Leave domestic energy production alone. Let them build refineries, let them drill for new oil sources, let them build nuke plants. Then will the costs normalize.

http://www.reuters.com/…

Communist Cuba has authorized the unrestricted sale of computers and DVD and video players in the first sign that President Raul Castro is moving to improve Cubans’ access to consumer goods.An internal government memo seen by Reuters on Thursday said the appliances long desired by Cubans can go on sale immediately, although air conditioners will not be available until next year and toasters until 2010 due to limited power supplies.

Only foreigners and companies can buy computers in Cuba at present, while DVD players were seized at the airport until last year, when customs rules were eased.

Now Cubans will be able to buy them freely, paying for them in hard currency CUCs, or convertible pesos, worth 24 times more than the Cuban pesos state wages are paid in.

“Based on the improved availability of electricity, the government at the highest level has approved the sale of some equipment which was prohibited,” the memo said.

It listed 19-inch (48-cm) and 24-inch (61-cm) television sets, electric pressure cookers and rice cookers, electric bicycles, car alarms and microwaves.Cubans were delighted with the prospect of being able to buy items such as microwave ovens and air conditioners that were previously only available as stolen goods on the black market.

Shop attendants in central Havana had not heard about the measure but said there was great demand for the items.

“That’s great. I hope this is the necessary start along a new path,” said second-hand clothes vendor Maritza Hernandez, eager to see further reforms to Cuba’s command economy.

Many Cubans expect the state to soon allow them to buy cellular telephones. While they will now be able to buy computers, access to the Internet remains controlled by the government.

Toasters in 2010 huh? Welcome back… to the 20th century. Too bad it’s only because of help from Venezuela.

They don’t have toasters or electricity but at least they have “free” healthcare.

http://www.bloomberg.com/…

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez suffered his first electoral loss in nine years as voters turned down his plan to revamp the nation’s constitution and tighten his grip on power.

Voters refused to abolish presidential term limits or allow government censorship during declared emergencies. Chavez also sought to shorten the work day and end central bank autonomy.

Chavez’s 69 proposed changes to the constitution were grouped into two blocks. The first set lost 50.7 percent to 49.3 percent, the second block 51.1 percent to 48.9 percent. About 8.9 million people voted, or 56 percent of those eligible, according to a statement on the election agency’s Web site.

http://www.latinbusinesschronicle.com/…

First the good news: Venezuelans rejected a constitutional reform that would further radicalize the country’s economy. Then the bad news: It really won’t make much of a difference. Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez can bypass the results through decrees, local business leaders say.

The referendum over 69 changes to the constitution included reforms that would formally lift the central bank’s autonomy (and control over international reserves), reduce the work day from eight to six hours and give the government greater discretion in expropriating private property. One proposal included taking out references to the guarantees for private property (article 112 of the constitution) and instead create a “Socialist Economy.”

This shows, just like the 2000 and 2004 United States Presidential elections, the problem with democracy and republics. 4.512 and 4.548 million people have dictated 69 conditions for the other 11.381 and 11.345 million respectively. Even if you assume that the 6.993 million who didn’t vote don’t care either way, 49.3% and 48.9% of those who did vote are continuing to live under a system they don’t approve of.

I’m glad to see that some of Venezuelan people realize it’s a bad idea to allow the government to take control of so many things. Unfortunately for them, as the article says, Chavez still can implement many of his plans without approval from the people or their representatives. They could also attempt to place them on another national ballot. Given that it failed by such slim margins it could pass on another pass. I wonder why the 69 changes were split into 2 blocks instead of each having a separate vote. I’d imagine with how close the results were that some of them would have passed. I’m also very curious as to the reasons why so many did not turn up to vote. These were major changes proposed.

http://news.yahoo.com/…

Masked gunmen opened fire on students returning from a march in which tens of thousands of Venezuelans denounced President Hugo Chavez’s attempts to expand his power through constitutional changes.

Students protested in at least six other cities, and several turned violent with rock-throwing youths clashing with police shooting plastic bullets at demonstrators.

The violence broke out after an estimated 80,000 anti-Chavez demonstrators — led by university students — marched peacefully to the Supreme Court to protest constitutional changes that would greatly expand Chavez’s power if voters agree to the changes in December. Unrest, if it continues, could mar a Dec. 2 referendum on the controversial reforms.

The amendments being protested would abolish presidential term limits, give the president control over the Central Bank and let him create new provinces governed by handpicked officials.

I’ve heard from coworkers with Venezuelan friends that a fairly large portion of the population does not like what Chavez has been doing. This seems to validate that. Lets hope the US doesn’t do anything stupid to unite the pro and anti-Chavez people like we are doing in Iran.