“President Hugo Chavez ordered construction halted on a major shopping mall in Caracas on Sunday, saying the government will expropriate the unfinished building.

The Venezuelan leader said it would be out of line with his government’s socialist vision to allow the new Sambil mall to take up precious urban real estate — and that unbridled consumerism isn’t his idea of progress either.” Ian James, Associated Press Writer

Shopping malls, with shoppers scurrying like ants to buy things they don’t need and can’t afford, are the perfect symbol of consumerism run amok. The president’s timely action is more powerful than any Christmas sermon delivered by Rick Warren or Pat Robertson. At this time of the year our heads shouldn’t be filled with visions of Victoria’s Secret, Macys and Best Buy, but with images of the poor and needy who need our help.

“The president also has urged Venezuelans to shed their materialism and their taste for designer clothes, sport utility vehicles, Scotch whisky and plastic surgery” — AP

A statesman speaks the truth in love to his constituents, Chavez rightfully rebuked the Venezuelans for embracing American-style rampant consumerism. It’s instructive to contrast the Venezuelan president’s rebuke of his people with Bush’s advice to Americans in the aftermath of 9/11. Instead of calling upon Americans to make sacrifices in a time of war, he advised us to shop till we drop.

American critics of Chavez quickly labeled his action “socialist“, some of these same folks uttered not a word of protest when Bush was nationalizing banks, insurance companies and now automobile manufacturers. Bush and Chavez are both enamored with socialism, but there’s one big difference: Dubya takes over companies to bail out the wealthy; Chavez expropriates private buildings to help the poor. Chavez didn’t take over the mall to hand it over to an insurance company, he’s going to convert it into a facility that will serve the people of Venezuela.

If a politician with the integrity of Chavez had been president of the United States for the last eight years, our economy would not be in shambles and we would not be entangled in two unnecessary and pointless wars.

Viva Hugo Chavez!

Bush, don’t let the door hit you on your way out!

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References:

1. Can Obama Save Capitalism? [Fareed Zakaria]– The great sociologist Max Weber described the power of charisma as “a certain quality of an individual personality, by virtue of which he is set apart from ordinary men and treated as endowed with supernatural, superhuman, or at least specifically exceptional powers or qualities.” Some of Barack Obama’s supporters have at times sounded as if they saw “the one” in these terms. There’s no doubt that Obama is intensely charismatic and that it provides him with unusual political capital. But very soon — say on Jan. 20, 2009 — his powers will start to mutate, and they will derive less from his persona and more from his office. He will shift, in Weber’s terminology, from wielding charismatic authority to legal authority. — [READ MORE]

2. Laissez-Faire Capitalism Should Be as Dead as Soviet Communism [Arianna Huffington] — The collapse of Communism as a political system sounded the death knell for Marxism as an ideology. But while laissez-faire capitalism has been a monumental failure in practice, and soundly defeated at the polls, the ideology is still alive and kicking. The only place you can find an American Marxist these days is teaching a college linguistic theory class. But you can find all manner of free market fundamentalists still on the Senate floor or in Governor’s mansions or showing up on TV trying to peddle the deregulation snake oil. — [READ MORE]

Popularity: 7% [?]

DUMB George Bush is trying desperately to sanitize his Murderous and Blood-Thirsty reign as 43rd president of the United States.

Up to a million Iraqis, by some counts, have died in the Iraq war, and so have 4000+ American soldiers, and more continue to die needlessly in Iraq.

Yet this Mongoose has the courage to claim victory!

Bush’s Legacy of delusion is cemented in stone — a legacy of ignorance and arrogance. Eight years of perverse and dishonest leadership.

Some say Bush has perverted, distorted and tarnished America’s image beyond repair.

Contrary to how he hopes historians will view him [favorably] — George Bush will go down as a blood-thirsty LIAR of Hitler proportions, worse than Richard M. Nixon, ten-fold.

No matter what he does from now henceforth, in an attempt to establish himself as an elder statesman, he will never be able to downplay his complicity in the willful murder of hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis and thousands of American soldiers, through a pack of despicable WMD lies.

During Bush’s reign, hate groups and related crimes, especially on immigrants, increased exponentially. Also, during Mr. Bush’s tenure, alarming numbers of neo-Nazis and other white supremacists have been taking advantage of lowered recruiting standards and lax enforcement of anti-extremist military regulations to enter the armed services.

These recruits will use the combat skills they gain from the Bush’s military, to terrorize American citizens and immigrants, of who blacks and Hispanics are prime targets.

This screwball’s Presidency has left a permanent scar on American Democracy.

Could someone please JAIL this BASTARD. He is a war criminal who belongs in Guantanamo Prison!

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The Republican Party is a PACK OF RABID DOGS who must never be allowed to LORD over this great nation again! They should be relegated to what they really are — A SOUTHERN PARTY OF ILLITERATE GUN-TOTTING, BIBLE THUMPING, IRRATIONAL RACIST BIGOTS …The party of Mrs. Sarah Palin, a POLITICAL FOOL, who can only energize idiots and bigots.

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References:

1. The Deluder in Chief — President Bush is still acting as though he decided to invade Iraq after suddenly being handed life and death information on Saddam Hussein’s arsenal.

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Popularity: 19% [?]

What impressed me most about this debate is the level of maturity Obama has attained during this presidential election season.

He was almost “Clintonesque,” but still needs some polishing in the “connecting with voters” aspect of debating. I don’t think anyone has ever done it better than Bill Clinton in the last couple of decades. Slick-Willy is(was) a master at connecting with voters (see video below). He man-handled and completely destroyed Republican candidates Bush Snr. in 1992 and Bob Dole in 1996. Obama is not at that level yet, but he will get there. For now, McCain’s ineptitude helps.

Clinton vs. Bush in 1992 Debate

The mark of a brilliant man is how he adjusts to conditions around him, and the Obama of now is better, sleeker and crispier than the one I saw in the first few debates during the Democratic primaries.

   Obama gets the McBush Hug

This was not a knockout for Obama, but he surely mopped the floor a couple of times with McCain’s butt.

It was not a game changing performance for McCain either.

Obama outclassed McCain to an extent that he doesn’t need a knockout in the next debate. He is ahead on points and will stay on top barring a major blunder.

He(Obama) owned both the foreign and domestic policy discussions, and McCain should feel blessed for Obama not accepting the “ten townhall meetings” he proposed earlier in the campaign, because Obama owned this meeting too — he was quick on his feet and moved around with athletic ease while hammering in point after point.

Obama was comfortable walking the stage and interacting with the questioners, while McCain wandered around stiffly, microphone in hand like a peeled banana ready for eating.

John McCain has a large collection of very pretty ties, but in this debate as in the previous one, he seems to have chosen the worst out of his closet. What happened to the nice suit and tie he wore when accepting the nomination at the Republican convention a month and a half ago?

McCain looked old, cranky and erratic — sometimes pacing aimlessly around the stage while Obama was talking. He was tense and uneasy, and the big difference in age showed.

I think the biggest mistake McCain made was when he proclaimed that healthcare is a “responsibility” and not a right of every American. Obama countered by saying that healthcare is a “crushing burden” for small businesses and is “breaking family budgets,” and is a RIGHT of every American. This was a very effective answer — and one of the “Butt-Mopping” episodes I mentioned earlier.

Full Debate Video

CNN Debate Analysis

Obama made no mistakes, connected better with voters. McCain’s condescending reference to Obama as “That One,” while probably un-intentional, might be viewed as racist by African Americans. During the years of slavery, blacks were often de-personalized by their slave masters in similar fashion.

“That One!”, could be as bad as ….“Boy!”

Obama was unruffled, consistent, had a thorough grasp of his policy prescriptions and McCain’s “bad ones,” so to speak. He looked more presidential.

In contrast, John McCain seemed agitated, looked grumpy and was sometimes unnecessarily aggressive, and in many instances didn’t answer questions clearly and succinctly.

“I’ll get Osama bin Laden, my friends. I’ll get him. I know how to do it!” ……. — is not good enough.

VERDICT: Obama mauls McCain, but got a free “McBush Hug” at the beginning of the debate. I found that funny after the “No Look” treatment by McCain in the first debate.

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Time.com — Grading the Second Presidential Debate
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References:

1. Memorable Debate Moments

2. Arianna Huffington: The Winner of Debate II? “That One”

Popularity: 6% [?]

The ill-informed average American voter may not be aware of this, but the Dick Cheney patronized criminal Neo-Con Cabal is determined to elect the McCain/Palin ticket for one and only one reason — to promote the Neo-Con Agenda of total world domination and reckless profiteering.

After the end of the cold-war, the Neo-Con primary objective was: “….to prevent the re-emergence of a new rival.” A permanent American global hegemony was proposed.

The core of the agenda was(is) that the United States should use its military supremacy to establish an empire that includes the whole world–a global Pax Americana.

911 cleared the path for these dastardly ideologues. They convinced a clue less moron, George Bush — installed by them to power as puppet-president,…. to wage a “false war” against Iraq — a country that had absolutely nothing to do with the Alkaida attacks on America.

They know that McCain, despite his acquiescence to some of this Neo-Con ideology, may not be easily manipulated, but — he is “half-dead” anyway, and if elected, will most likely be a one-term president, allowing Palin to be the GOP flag-bearer in 2012 — a mouth-watering prospect for NeoCon Manipulation — George Bush Style.

McCain has surrendered his campaign to these THUGS, and if he wins, the neo-cons have only four years to wait, before they resume their predatory operations. In 2012, if he is elected, the “quasi-bipartisan” McCain would be 76 years old, and probably too senile to resist an internal “coup d’état.”

The Neo-Con Agenda

Their election strategy — without which McCain knows he cannot be elected, is to appeal to the “nativist and terrorist” fears of an “illiterate” electorate — the so called “Working Class Whites.”

…and they are (have always) responding like sheep being led to the slaughterhouse — BIBLES and GUNS in tow.

Arianna Huffington of the Huffington Post correctly asserts: “……That’s why the Palin pick was so brilliant. On the outside, she’s exponentially more likable and talented at connecting with people than Cheney ever was. But on the inside, once she graduates from the Neo-Con finishing school, she’ll be a complete and total Dick. Cheney. With lipstick.”

In other words, she will have become just another CRIMINAL/THUG/PUPPET like George Bush.

The sad thing is that the average American is incapable of comprehending the intricacies of this criminal enterprise. Throw in their nativist/racist fears (which McCain and the Neo-Cons are thoroughly massaging this election season) and you may just end up with another totally out of touch presidency, that does not “give a shit” about the well-being of the American people, for they will be busy serving their Neo-Con masters.

The eight years of Bush is clear testimony — a legacy firmly trapped in the jaws of a vicious neo-conservatist dictatorship.

References:

1. Neo-Con Imperialism, 9/11, and the Attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq.
2. Neocon Agenda: Iran, China, Russia, Latin America…
3. The Demonic Cabal
4. The Criminal “High Cabal” — The Reign of Lawlessness

Read More Reviews — They Knew They Were Right: The Rise of the Neo-Cons

Popularity: 8% [?]

The first time I heard of Chuck Norris was in the movie “Way of The Dragon” — originally released as “Return of the Dragon.” in the early seventies.

I was in my early teens, I loved action movies…and still do decades later. Growing up in Africa, we rarely watched movies, and whenever we did, it was a very special occassion.

I remember sneaking into a theater while an under-age teenager and watching the sexually explicit Swedish movie — “Language of Love,” a living-room-type discussion of sex, interspersed with mimed and actual illustrative sequences, including genital close-ups. The movie was meant to be educational — and it was, graphics and all.

In the early seventies, this was serious pornography, by African standards. I remember my mother warning me while waving a BIBLE — never to watch the movie.

I went anyway, only to come back home to a thorough whipping — from both mom and dad! They were petrified — how could I go watch un-godly naked white men and women! LOL!

Even at that age, I was convinced that the bigger “evil” was that BIBLE she was waving. The Europeans came to Africa, stole everything they could lay their hands on, mesmerized and indoctrinated the populace with “Charlatan Lies and Fairytales,” …..then they left, “awarding” Africans “Independence” — Independence “roped” tightly to the IMF, World-Bank and other tools of Neo-Colonialism…..and left Africans holding the BIBLE……dis-organized and well set for a murderous, thieving and genocidal future.

But, my first love was martial arts featuring Chuck Norris, Bruce Lee, Chen Singh and many other oriental stars.

I loved the movie (Return of the Dragon), and Bruce Lee was my hero. I loved Chuck too, and have enjoyed subsequent action/war/drama movies starring Mr. Norris…..upto and including “Walker — Texas Ranger” — re-runs of which I still watch today.

Bruce Lee vs. Chuck Norris in “Way of The Dragon”

During the 2007/2008 US presidential primaries Chuck Norris supported right-wing Republican Mike Huckabee, a xenophobic anti-immigrant bigot, for president — I really paid no attention….Chuck was still my childhood hero…until this morning, when I saw the clip below:

Chuck Norris vs. Arianna Huffington

Bill O’Wino Thinks Arianna is NAZI — LOL!

Chuck’s moronic arguments with Arianna persuaded me to dig in deeper using my favorite Internet Tool — Google.

I googled “Chuck Norris Moron” [113,000 Hits], “Chuck Norris Idiot” [374,000 Hits], “Chuck Norris Racist” [668,000 Hits], and “Chuck Norris Bigot.” [23,800 Hits]

Chuck Norris’s religious lunacy and gung-ho THUG attitude is appalling, and his unbalanced reasoning does not match the “Karate Discipline and Balance” that I have always associated him with.

It saddens me that my childhood hero has turned into Bible Thumping, Gun-Totting Christian Fanatic.

A right-wing ReTHUGlican!

Notes: Facts for Chuck Norris

Popularity: 10% [?]