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At 2/18/09 12:21 AM, Ershin2009 wrote: With all the weird rigged elections rumors about Bush, would you have liked Bush to run for a 3rd term? 4th term? 5th term? 6th term? 7th term? 8th term?

I think it would have secured Obama's position all the more, or that the Republican party wouldn't have allowed Bush to run again. In the latter case, it probably would have again been Obama vs. McCain.

If we could have a directly elected president, perhaps rethinking term limits wouldn't be such a bad thing...

Is he known for being an oppressive ruler or does he just hate us? At least he hasn't committed any genocides that I'm aware of at least.

This sucks, I had such high hopes for Chavez too. If only he realized the true power that was in his hands, he would step down right now.

Just for my own curiousity;

Why all the hate for Chavez?

Is it just because of his socialistic views? Or is there something I'm missing?

Did Pat Robertson call for his assassination simply because America hates anything that even has a slight odor of socialism?

As far as I know he really hasn't done anything wrong to his people or the world in general...

At 2/19/09 04:36 PM, ReThink wrote: Just for my own curiousity;

Why all the hate for Chavez?

Is it just because of his socialistic views? Or is there something I'm missing?

Did Pat Robertson call for his assassination simply because America hates anything that even has a slight odor of socialism?

As far as I know he really hasn't done anything wrong to his people or the world in general...

Not really, actually its because venezuela had a lot of promise in being a successful democracy when chavez first came to power. That would've been good in general because they have a lot of oil and probably a the friendliest oil shipper to the U.S. However, it soon became apparent that Chavez was preparing the change the country to a socialist nation and so our relations got stale since everything after that went bad, chavez and castro are good friends.

so in short, it's because the U.S likes Democratic nations and Chavez is taking this at one tie promising young democracy and abandoning it for socialism. He probably has good intentions too, but the U.S feels slightly pissed since as you can imagine, the list of stable free-standing democracies has grown thin.

At 2/18/09 07:11 PM, Ericho wrote: Is he known for being an oppressive ruler or does he just hate us? At least he hasn't committed any genocides that I'm aware of at least.

You don't have to kill millions to be cruel leader.

At 2/19/09 04:47 PM, EKublai wrote: so in short, it's because the U.S likes Democratic nations

AAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA
*after five minutes of laughter*
*breathes in, then out*
Oh, you guys are really funny sometimes.

I disagree. The international community will pressure Venezuela if it fails to have normal elections. Venezuela cannot afford to be the next Cuba,

Have you ever been to Cuba?

At 2/19/09 07:17 PM, Florox wrote:

I disagree. The international community will pressure Venezuela if it fails to have normal elections. Venezuela cannot afford to be the next Cuba,

Have you ever been to Cuba?

Nope.
But I've been to Uruguay, and every Latin American country is kinda the same, you know, blacks, Spanish, soccer, etc.
Take Brazil, for example.
Or Spain.

copypasta from 420chan. thought it was relevant

This paper looks at some of the most important economic and social indicators during the 10 years of the Chávez administration in Venezuela, as well as the current economic expansion. It also looks at the current situation and challenges.

Among the highlights:

* The current economic expansion began when the government got control over the national oil company in the first quarter of 2003. Since then, real (inflationadjusted) GDP has nearly doubled, growing by 94.7 percent in 5.25 years, or 13.5 percent annually.
* Most of this growth has been in the nonoil sector of the economy, and the private sector has grown faster than the public sector.
* During the current economic expansion, the poverty rate has been cut by more than half, from 54 percent of households in the first half of 2003 to 26 percent at the end of 2008. Extreme poverty has fallen even more, by 72 percent. These poverty rates measure only cash income, and does take into account increased access to health care or education.
* Over the entire decade, the percentage of households in poverty has been reduced by 39 percent, and extreme poverty by more than half.
* Inequality, as measured by the Gini index, has also fallen substantially. The index has fallen to 41 in 2008, from 48.1 in 2003 and 47 in 1999. This represents a large reduction in inequality.
* Real (inflationadjusted) social spending per person more than tripled from 1998-2006.
* From 1998-2006, infant mortality has fallen by more than onethird. The number of primary care physicians in the public sector increased 12fold from 1999-2007, providing health care to millions of Venezuelans who previously did not have access.
* There have been substantial gains in education, especially higher education, where gross enrollment rates more than doubled from 1999/2000 to 2007/2008.
* The labor market also improved substantially over the last decade, with unemployment dropping from 11.3 percent to 7.8 percent. During the current expansion it has fallen by more than half. Other labor market indicators also show substantial gains.
* Over the past decade, the number of social security beneficiaries has more than doubled.
* Over the decade, the government's total public debt has fallen from 30.7 to 14.3 percent of GDP. The foreign public debt has fallen even more, from 25.6 to 9.8 percent of GDP.
* Inflation is about where it was 10 years ago, ending the year at 31.4 percent. However it has been falling over the last half year (as measured by threemonth averages) and is likely to continue declining this year in the face of strong deflationary pressures worldwide.