Hugo Chavez's thugs shut down Telemundo's coverage of its "elections" on Sunday. In the run up to the election, Chavez, in a barely veiled message of intimidation against critics in the media, promised to close channels that were "breaching the law." Whether or not "breaching the law" meant criticizing Chavez, el presidente left unclear. "I don't care what the world says. I care about what happens in Venezuela," Chavez exclaimed. "The world can say, 'Oh, dear!' but this is my country; I'm responsible." My country? No comprende, senor. Chavez opens up more than he knows in his "this is my country" remark. Was this really an innocent usage of "my country"? He wasn't using the phrase in the "my country tis of thee" or "my country right or wrong" sense, was he?. One would have to believe that one actually owned a country to arbitrarily shut down insufficiently fawning television stations. Perhaps Chavez didn't intend to claim ownership in declaring Venezuela "my country," but the subconscious works in strange ways. Not so incidentally, Chavez won Sunday's election. Had he lost, would he have cancelled the voting as he has cancelled television shows that he does not like? It's his country, after all.

Also, Citgo has seen a decrease in sales in this nation since AMericans don't want to line Mr. Chavez's pockets. So many Citgos are changing into "Petro Express," also owned by Mr. Chavez.

Just wanted to let my fellow consumers know.

Be well,

Sponge

The only reason a thug like Chavez keeps getting re-elected is that he has a boob like Bush to rail against.

If Gore was president, he would have lost.

hey CIA, why dont you waste this clown?!!!!

Ah, I knew this was somehow Bush's fault.

No, the reason Chavez keeps getting re-elected is the same reason that Saddam kept getting re-elected: both are brutal murderers who would run the opposition through people shredding machines if they really became a threat.

Is God playing one or is it some kind of cosmic joke that the majority of the World’s energy supplies lie under ground occupied and lorded over by the World’s biggest a’holes? Of what significance would these turds be without controlling a most important natural resource?

Hugo Chavez is a far greater threat to American national security than Iran or Iraq ever have been or ever could be. All of the focus on Iraq and the Middle East seems to have caused us to lose track of this. If we would develop more of our own oil and gas reserves, this would give us more leverage when dealing with these people.

I'm astounded by how consistently misinformed people are here.

Chavez is no friend of the United States.

But his dirty little secret is that he's no enemy either.

He sells us milllions of barrells of oil a day, and can't stop cuz if he did he'd be broke.

He can talk all he wants, he's in no position to make good on his threats.

I don't want to believe it, but I sometimes think that Iraq is a contrived diversion that masks some of our greater problems right in our own back yard.

Do we really need to be concentrating on the Middle East's problems when we have so many brewing right here in our own hemisphere?

It seems more important to me that we get under control ALL of our neighbors to our south than it does to worry about whether or not Iran wants to destroy their neighbors.

HeHe

Chavez can sell his oil to China, India, Europe or any number of other countries. Venezuela would not be broke if they stop selling to the US, however, the US would be significantly hurt if Venezuela were to shut off flow of oil to it. As it stands right now, the bottom line is we need Venezuelan oil more than Venezuela needs to sell it to us, furthermore, the Chavez government is a big supporter of Iran. Some of Venezuela's oil money is probally finding its way into the coffers of Al Qaeda and other terrorists. This is an unaceptable situation and it needs to change.

While right now we need Venezuelan oil more than they need to sell it to us, this can change. Right now we are sitting on massive reserves of oil in the Gulf of Mexico. Congress has not authorized drilling of this oil. They need to do so immediately. With the addition of this oil to our supplies we can achieve energy independence or at least minimize our reliance on foreign oil. At a minimum, this would give us greater leverage when dealing with foreign suppliers and it would lessen the amount of money available to terrorists to finance Jihad. It would be a win/win situation all the way around for the US. Also, we are going to need to add more refineries.

Actullly B. Poster, VZ has a special kind of heavy oil that can only be refined in US refineries.

It can't sell to other economies without decades of investment in refinery tehnology.

Yes I'm aware of the excuses for not confronting Venezuela and getting off of oil imports from that country. The US cannot build refineries very quickly becuase of silly environmental regulations. If these ridiculous regulations were eliminated, refineries could be built much faster. If the Japanese, Chinese, or the Indians do not currently have the appropiate refineries, they should be able to build them very quickly. It should not take decades. They are far more resourceful than that. You are not giving them enough credit.

As I recall reading, the heavy oil that Venezuela has can only be sold at a profit when the price per barrel of oil is at the current high levels. Instability in the Middle East elsewhere is a contributing to the current high oil prices. Part of the bitter fruits of what has been, to date, a poorly executed Iraq policy has been the strengthening of a very dangerous enemy in Venezuela. The Iraq policy needs to be changed. This is in the process of happening. US troops will be out of Iraq very soon.

The bitter fruits of insane environmental regulations has been to make America dependent on others for much of its energy needs. This needs to be changed.

The bitter fruits of a poorly executed Iraq policy and insane energy policies that allow tree huggers to set our energy policies are that America's position as the world's dominant power is lost. Even if we had the will to reclaim that position, it would take at least thirty years to do so.

The top priorities going forward should be: 1.)Achieving energy independence. Even if we cannot become completely energy self sufficient, by developing more of our own resources we can lessen our dependence. This will give us more leverage when dealing with foreign suppliers. 2.) Enhance our Border security and enforce our immigaration laws.

Of course they can build special refineries for VZ heavy oil, but its much cheaper for them to import light sweet from elsewhere to burn in the refineries they already have.

Its called economics dogg, look it up.

VZ is not a credible threat.

HeHe

With the price of oil as high as it is it would likely be cost effective for many other countries to augment their supplies with VZ oil. In any event, if VZ decides to cut the US off, it would effect Chavez and VZ some but it affects the US more In other words, VZ will have little trouble finding buyers for their oil.

I'm aware of what economics is. Economics motivates American business leaders but it is less important to some of our enemies. VZ would gladly sacrifice much of its oil profits to see the US destroyed. As pointed out earlier, the shutting off of the VZ market hurts the US more than it does VZ.

This situation is unacceptable. In time, it can be changed. We will need to drill for more of our own oil and build more refineries. Having more domestic oil will give us more leverage when dealing with countries like VZ.

Mr. Chavez is probably pleased to know you do not think VZ is a credible threat. His propaganda machine has been very effective. The reality is Chavez is a bigger threat than eitehr Iran, Syria, or Iraqi "insurgents."

Perhaps the solutions I offer will not work but at least I recognize the threat and have offered what I think are practical solutions to deal with the issue. You offer denial of rality. Denial of reality will not be helpful.

Btw, I accidently left something out of the previous post. The US will need to get the deficit under control. Relying on others to finance our budget is unacceptable and cannot continue. In order to get the deficit under control, the well-fare state will have to end. The US government can no longer afford to play nanny to much of the American population.