The Devil's Excrement

Someone at the American Thinker knows a lot about what is happening in Venezuela and Chavez’ aborted trip and suggests very similar reasons for the cancellation:

“He cancelled all that, and all of a sudden, supposedly because of airplane trouble. Never mind that extensive preparations had been made, and correspondents had been flown out. Chavez was so hasty about it his people didn’t even bother to even tell the Council of the Americas that he wasn’t coming –  the Secret Service ended up doing it for him. Chavez’s flacks said the presidential airplane could not be repaired in time. But that’s a little ridiculous – Venezuela has plenty of aircraft – and the Venezuelan foreign minister managed to catch some sort of flight to the U.S. for the United Nations sessions this week.

There was some speculation among the media that Chavez had urgent business regarding a violent weekend military confrontation at the western border with Colombian paramilitaries, which left six Venezuelan soldiers and one civilian dead.”

And of course , the Apure massacre was a media show to make Chavez look bad according to chief Chavez pleaser and flunky Maduro:

“An international and mediatic ambush”

I guess it wasn’t the paramilitary either…Saatchi and Saactchi? BBOD? CIA?

Carlos Alberto Montaner has the right idea about what would be the proper road to follow if the Carter Center and the OAS wanted to find out the truth:

“How can this operation be carried out? Simply by naming a panel of impartial experts — mathematicians, statisticians, systems engineers, lawyers even — to listen to the accusations of the opposition and the arguments of the government. How can this operation be carried out? Simply by naming a panel of impartial experts — mathematicians, statisticians, systems engineers, lawyers even — to listen to the accusations of the opposition and the arguments of the government.”

So, Hugo Chavez cancelled his trip to New York to the summit on poverty, because “the starting motor on the left engine was not working properly”(1). Wow, a powerful President like Chavez can be stopped by a little starting motor, despite having an old plane that served him well for the first four years of his Presidency and multiple Citations and the like that jet around the new oligarchs of the robolucion.

See, the President had more than the U.N. meeting, he was going to meet with Wall Street types, was going to speak at the Council of the Americas and was going to inaugurate the new offices of Citgo in Houston. But this makes it such a source of rumors and stories that it is certainly fun to hear the many theories:

-(2)Chavez was mad because Bush did not invite him to lunch

-(3)The US Secret service would not allow him to go and speak at an Evangelical church in Harlem.

-(4)The OAS had refused to have accept his “surprise” visit to its Washington headquarters.

-(5)The border incident has him concerned as six more people have been killed since Friday, while the Colombia Army continues to point to the Colombian guerrilla as the killers.

As usual, we will never know the true reason. What else is new?

Funny article by Ibsen Martínez in today’s El Nacional, had to translate given its relevance to what I have been discussing in this blog and the fact that one has to keep a sense of humor above all.

The hypothesis of the hacker (And other fantastic tales) by Ibsen Martinez

I have heard no less than six versions about the hypothesis of the hacker:

The canonical version of the same supposes that at some point the Chavista high command hired the services of a Russian hacker to twist the results of the recall referendum- A Russian hacker… suggestive idea, without any doubt.

-Why Russian? I asked close up to the last “analyst” that told the story in my presence.

-What are you saying?

-Why is the hacker in your version Russian? I ask, because I have also heard he is German.

-The hacker Diosdado hired is Russian. For a reason I ignore, Russia produces the sharpest hackers in the world. Everybody knows that. The hacker that twisted the results was Russian.

-The surprising thing is that other people say he is German.

-They are not well informed; they say something just to say it: Diosdado’s hacker is Russian.

-At another bar I heard say he was Cuban. And that it was Silvio Rodriguez who brought him hidden among his musicians.

-A Cuban hacker? Absurd! It’s amazing to see what irresponsible people invent. Cuba is not well known for its hackers: prostitutes, bongo players, home run hitters, water polo trainers, all of that, maybe, but hackers in Cuba? I am telling you: The hacker is Russian.

-Accepted: He is Russian. Now tell me how they hired him.

-They have all of the money. With that money you hire anything you want. Why are you so surprised? PDVSA has the bills to hire the hacker who intervened the bidirectionality of the Smartmatic Plus boxes. That’s all, it is that simple: that’s how they screwed us.

-Sorry, but I like fluff; if you are going to bullshit me, I have the right to request that the bullshit be reasonably elaborated. If there is something that can give some semblance of veracity to bullshit, is the details. I would like the details of when, where and by whom was the Russian hacker hired. It would please my credulity to know at least what was the Russian’s hacker name, Vassily? Dimitri? Evguenny? Yuri? And since we are talking about it, why couldn’t it be a Russian woman? It would not be peculiar to have a female hacker in a market for hackers as effervescent as the Russian one: Nadehsda? Tatiana? Svetlana?

-Are you calling me a bulshitter?

-No; I am simply asking that you tell me the name of the hacker

-Nobody calls me a bulshitter

-Don’t sweat, “broder”, I am not calling you a bulshitter. In reality the hypothesis of a hacker…

-It is not a “hypothesis”. I am not a man of “hypothesis”. I am telling you what happened; the midnight of August 15th. the Russian hacker stuck it to us up to the point where it says the brand name.

-Ok, don’t get all pissed off. In reality, the intervention of a Russian hacker as part of the technological fraud in a Latinoamerican referendum is simply fascinating. It is something that deserves an article in Slate or in Gatopardo. But understand that I would get high much easier if you give me more details. For example, where did they go get the Russian hacker? To Russia?

-Don’t’ be infantile: The hacker is Russian, but that does not mean he lives in Russia. A hacker can live anywhere he wants; his work transcends geography because he lives in hyperspace. The hacker is Russian…

-Let’s call him Vladimir.

-OK, let’s say his name is Vladimir. Shit on your pants: Vladimir lives in California. In Silicon Valley to be more precise.

–Silicon Valley! That makes sense.

-Of course it makes sense! Diosdado got in touch with him long time ago, chatting on the Web. They are old friends. Virtual friends. It seems Vladimir was also a communications engineer in Vladivostok, before the fall of the Berlin wall, a long time before he emigrated to the US. That’s where the elective affinity between Diosdado and Vladimir comes from. Both were one day communications engineers.

-Who would have imagined it! Diosdado Cabello having on line friendships!

-Well, let me tell you that one of the characteristics of post modernity is the return to epistolary literature, via Internet. The lost art of writing to friends, and in general to dear ones, has returned in the XXIst century to stay. There are virtual romances, people that find their mate and get married via the Web. People that get Viagra on the Web, that find spare parts for their 66 Valliant on the Web. Why couldn’t Diosdado Cabello find a friend via the Web? Somebody he has never seen, but with whom he established, in time, a close friendship, a stimulating and sustained link of the purely intellectual type. Diosdado maybe Chavista, but even Chavistas have friends.

-No, I am not saying anything against it. That part of your tale is very consistent. Let’s recapitulate: Diosdado has a Russian friend whose name is Vladimir, a friend from the Web and he tells him that he is worried because everything indicated that the No was going to lose the recall.

-Exactly, that is how the shit came down: Diosdado, very concerned because the polls yielded a victorious Si, arrived home one night, served himself a scotch, connected to the Web and began chatting with Vladimir, his virtual buddy from Silicon Valley: And, Vladimir asked him about the voting machines, asked him if there is no way to fiddle with the software and Diosdado, disconsolate, says no, that unfortunately for him, the Smartmatic Plus ™ boxes are tamper proof. And he is not saying it: It is certified by Quiros Corradi and Maria Corina Machado; two factors characterized as the enemy. “The REP is fine” says Maria Corina in a press conference; “The machines can be trusted” says Quiros Corradi in a press conference. Nothing can be done, Diosdado chats, and we have to resign ourselves to a loss.

-Piece of shit, no?

-Imagine

-So?

-Vladimir chats with Diosdado: ”Don’t sweat it Diosdadovitch: find me the diagram of those machines-the so called blueprint- and you ill see how we are going to find a way around the referendum. Turns out Diosdado and Vladimir had been friends for years, but he did not know that Vladimir was a three drum hacker until that night. Imagine!

-Shit, wait, let’s order another one, this story is great.

-So the shit is that Vladimir who is a Ukrainian wizard “breaks the code” of the Smartmatic Plus ™.

-Just like the British counterspies deciphered the Enigma machines in the Second Wold War

-Exactly. And with only twenty four hours to go for the referendum. Things were tougher than anyone imagines. The guy rode the bidirectionality, alone, with a Vodka Tonic by his side, from Silicon Valley, in permanent communication with Diosdado, he began modelling the results with vote intentions and this and that. Who cares about Hausmann’s algorithm? It was a Russian hacker that screwed us!

-Incredible. It gives you a lot to think about. The perfect crime. No evidence, no smoking gun.

-That Russian already collected and you are going to find him the day when Hell freezes over. That’s why I am not going to vote in the regional elections. What for? So that Vladimir can laugh at me? No way! I wasn’t born yesterday.

-I have another version, equally believable, I think.

-Let’s see.

-The Chavismo decided from day one to place obstacles in the recall vote. Thus, all of the irregularities to take advantage of them, which Tulio Alvarez has summarized superbly. But on the way, something made them think that that they could win the same recall vote they opposed so much. Both strategies are not incompatible. That’s why they displayed with no morals all of the abilities of the old electoral populist culture: they took care of both, of blocking the referendum and bringing the people out to vote. They had the motivation and the resources. They are militant and they ambition hegemony. More than looking at an algorithm that explains the recall referendum, if I were an opposition politician I would try to stare in the face at a formidable enemy: A radical populism with dozens of billions of US dollars.

-No way man, you are starting to talk like Teodoro. If you are going to start with those laborious cogitations then it is true that we can no longer talk…

Funny article by Ibsen Martínez in today’s El Nacional, had to translate given its relevance to what I have been discussing in this blog and the fact that one has to keep a sense of humor above all.

The hypothesis of the hacker (And other fantastic tales) by Ibsen Martinez

I have heard no less than six versions about the hypothesis of the hacker:

The canonical version of the same supposes that at some point the Chavista high command hired the services of a Russian hacker to twist the results of the recall referendum- A Russian hacker… suggestive idea, without any doubt.

-Why Russian? I asked close up to the last “analyst” that told the story in my presence.

-What are you saying?

-Why is the hacker in your version Russian? I ask, because I have also heard he is German.

-The hacker Diosdado hired is Russian. For a reason I ignore, Russia produces the sharpest hackers in the world. Everybody knows that. The hacker that twisted the results was Russian.

-The surprising thing is that other people say he is German.

-They are not well informed; they say something just to say it: Diosdado’s hacker is Russian.

-At another bar I heard say he was Cuban. And that it was Silvio Rodriguez who brought him hidden among his musicians.

-A Cuban hacker? Absurd! It’s amazing to see what irresponsible people invent. Cuba is not well known for its hackers: prostitutes, bongo players, home run hitters, water polo trainers, all of that, maybe, but hackers in Cuba? I am telling you: The hacker is Russian.

-Accepted: He is Russian. Now tell me how they hired him.

-They have all of the money. With that money you hire anything you want. Why are you so surprised? PDVSA has the bills to hire the hacker who intervened the bidirectionality of the Smartmatic Plus boxes. That’s all, it is that simple: that’s how they screwed us.

-Sorry, but I like fluff; if you are going to bullshit me, I have the right to request that the bullshit be reasonably elaborated. If there is something that can give some semblance of veracity to bullshit, is the details. I would like the details of when, where and by whom was the Russian hacker hired. It would please my credulity to know at least what was the Russian’s hacker name, Vassily? Dimitri? Evguenny? Yuri? And since we are talking about it, why couldn’t it be a Russian woman? It would not be peculiar to have a female hacker in a market for hackers as effervescent as the Russian one: Nadehsda? Tatiana? Svetlana?

-Are you calling me a bulshitter?

-No; I am simply asking that you tell me the name of the hacker

-Nobody calls me a bulshitter

-Don’t sweat, “broder”, I am not calling you a bulshitter. In reality the hypothesis of a hacker…

-It is not a “hypothesis”. I am not a man of “hypothesis”. I am telling you what happened; the midnight of August 15th. the Russian hacker stuck it to us up to the point where it says the brand name.

-Ok, don’t get all pissed off. In reality, the intervention of a Russian hacker as part of the technological fraud in a Latinoamerican referendum is simply fascinating. It is something that deserves an article in Slate or in Gatopardo. But understand that I would get high much easier if you give me more details. For example, where did they go get the Russian hacker? To Russia?

-Don’t’ be infantile: The hacker is Russian, but that does not mean he lives in Russia. A hacker can live anywhere he wants; his work transcends geography because he lives in hyperspace. The hacker is Russian…

-Let’s call him Vladimir.

-OK, let’s say his name is Vladimir. Shit on your pants: Vladimir lives in California. In Silicon Valley to be more precise.

–Silicon Valley! That makes sense.

-Of course it makes sense! Diosdado got in touch with him long time ago, chatting on the Web. They are old friends. Virtual friends. It seems Vladimir was also a communications engineer in Vladivostok, before the fall of the Berlin wall, a long time before he emigrated to the US. That’s where the elective affinity between Diosdado and Vladimir comes from. Both were one day communications engineers.

-Who would have imagined it! Diosdado Cabello having on line friendships!

-Well, let me tell you that one of the characteristics of post modernity is the return to epistolary literature, via Internet. The lost art of writing to friends, and in general to dear ones, has returned in the XXIst century to stay. There are virtual romances, people that find their mate and get married via the Web. People that get Viagra on the Web, that find spare parts for their 66 Valliant on the Web. Why couldn’t Diosdado Cabello find a friend via the Web? Somebody he has never seen, but with whom he established, in time, a close friendship, a stimulating and sustained link of the purely intellectual type. Diosdado maybe Chavista, but even Chavistas have friends.

-No, I am not saying anything against it. That part of your tale is very consistent. Let’s recapitulate: Diosdado has a Russian friend whose name is Vladimir, a friend from the Web and he tells him that he is worried because everything indicated that the No was going to lose the recall.

-Exactly, that is how the shit came down: Diosdado, very concerned because the polls yielded a victorious Si, arrived home one night, served himself a scotch, connected to the Web and began chatting with Vladimir, his virtual buddy from Silicon Valley: And, Vladimir asked him about the voting machines, asked him if there is no way to fiddle with the software and Diosdado, disconsolate, says no, that unfortunately for him, the Smartmatic Plus ™ boxes are tamper proof. And he is not saying it: It is certified by Quiros Corradi and Maria Corina Machado; two factors characterized as the enemy. “The REP is fine” says Maria Corina in a press conference; “The machines can be trusted” says Quiros Corradi in a press conference. Nothing can be done, Diosdado chats, and we have to resign ourselves to a loss.

-Piece of shit, no?

-Imagine

-So?

-Vladimir chats with Diosdado: ”Don’t sweat it Diosdadovitch: find me the diagram of those machines-the so called blueprint- and you ill see how we are going to find a way around the referendum. Turns out Diosdado and Vladimir had been friends for years, but he did not know that Vladimir was a three drum hacker until that night. Imagine!

-Shit, wait, let’s order another one, this story is great.

-So the shit is that Vladimir who is a Ukrainian wizard “breaks the code” of the Smartmatic Plus ™.

-Just like the British counterspies deciphered the Enigma machines in the Second Wold War

-Exactly. And with only twenty four hours to go for the referendum. Things were tougher than anyone imagines. The guy rode the bidirectionality, alone, with a Vodka Tonic by his side, from Silicon Valley, in permanent communication with Diosdado, he began modelling the results with vote intentions and this and that. Who cares about Hausmann’s algorithm? It was a Russian hacker that screwed us!

-Incredible. It gives you a lot to think about. The perfect crime. No evidence, no smoking gun.

-That Russian already collected and you are going to find him the day when Hell freezes over. That’s why I am not going to vote in the regional elections. What for? So that Vladimir can laugh at me? No way! I wasn’t born yesterday.

-I have another version, equally believable, I think.

-Let’s see.

-The Chavismo decided from day one to place obstacles in the recall vote. Thus, all of the irregularities to take advantage of them, which Tulio Alvarez has summarized superbly. But on the way, something made them think that that they could win the same recall vote they opposed so much. Both strategies are not incompatible. That’s why they displayed with no morals all of the abilities of the old electoral populist culture: they took care of both, of blocking the referendum and bringing the people out to vote. They had the motivation and the resources. They are militant and they ambition hegemony. More than looking at an algorithm that explains the recall referendum, if I were an opposition politician I would try to stare in the face at a formidable enemy: A radical populism with dozens of billions of US dollars.

-No way man, you are starting to talk like Teodoro. If you are going to start with those laborious cogitations then it is true that we can no longer talk…

Funny article by Ibsen Martínez in today’s El Nacional, had to translate given its relevance to what I have been discussing in this blog and the fact that one has to keep a sense of humor above all.

The hypothesis of the hacker (And other fantastic tales) by Ibsen Martinez

I have heard no less than six versions about the hypothesis of the hacker:

The canonical version of the same supposes that at some point the Chavista high command hired the services of a Russian hacker to twist the results of the recall referendum- A Russian hacker… suggestive idea, without any doubt.

-Why Russian? I asked close up to the last “analyst” that told the story in my presence.

-What are you saying?

-Why is the hacker in your version Russian? I ask, because I have also heard he is German.

-The hacker Diosdado hired is Russian. For a reason I ignore, Russia produces the sharpest hackers in the world. Everybody knows that. The hacker that twisted the results was Russian.

-The surprising thing is that other people say he is German.

-They are not well informed; they say something just to say it: Diosdado’s hacker is Russian.

-At another bar I heard say he was Cuban. And that it was Silvio Rodriguez who brought him hidden among his musicians.

-A Cuban hacker? Absurd! It’s amazing to see what irresponsible people invent. Cuba is not well known for its hackers: prostitutes, bongo players, home run hitters, water polo trainers, all of that, maybe, but hackers in Cuba? I am telling you: The hacker is Russian.

-Accepted: He is Russian. Now tell me how they hired him.

-They have all of the money. With that money you hire anything you want. Why are you so surprised? PDVSA has the bills to hire the hacker who intervened the bidirectionality of the Smartmatic Plus boxes. That’s all, it is that simple: that’s how they screwed us.

-Sorry, but I like fluff; if you are going to bullshit me, I have the right to request that the bullshit be reasonably elaborated. If there is something that can give some semblance of veracity to bullshit, is the details. I would like the details of when, where and by whom was the Russian hacker hired. It would please my credulity to know at least what was the Russian’s hacker name, Vassily? Dimitri? Evguenny? Yuri? And since we are talking about it, why couldn’t it be a Russian woman? It would not be peculiar to have a female hacker in a market for hackers as effervescent as the Russian one: Nadehsda? Tatiana? Svetlana?

-Are you calling me a bulshitter?

-No; I am simply asking that you tell me the name of the hacker

-Nobody calls me a bulshitter

-Don’t sweat, “broder”, I am not calling you a bulshitter. In reality the hypothesis of a hacker…

-It is not a “hypothesis”. I am not a man of “hypothesis”. I am telling you what happened; the midnight of August 15th. the Russian hacker stuck it to us up to the point where it says the brand name.

-Ok, don’t get all pissed off. In reality, the intervention of a Russian hacker as part of the technological fraud in a Latinoamerican referendum is simply fascinating. It is something that deserves an article in Slate or in Gatopardo. But understand that I would get high much easier if you give me more details. For example, where did they go get the Russian hacker? To Russia?

-Don’t’ be infantile: The hacker is Russian, but that does not mean he lives in Russia. A hacker can live anywhere he wants; his work transcends geography because he lives in hyperspace. The hacker is Russian…

-Let’s call him Vladimir.

-OK, let’s say his name is Vladimir. Shit on your pants: Vladimir lives in California. In Silicon Valley to be more precise.

–Silicon Valley! That makes sense.

-Of course it makes sense! Diosdado got in touch with him long time ago, chatting on the Web. They are old friends. Virtual friends. It seems Vladimir was also a communications engineer in Vladivostok, before the fall of the Berlin wall, a long time before he emigrated to the US. That’s where the elective affinity between Diosdado and Vladimir comes from. Both were one day communications engineers.

-Who would have imagined it! Diosdado Cabello having on line friendships!

-Well, let me tell you that one of the characteristics of post modernity is the return to epistolary literature, via Internet. The lost art of writing to friends, and in general to dear ones, has returned in the XXIst century to stay. There are virtual romances, people that find their mate and get married via the Web. People that get Viagra on the Web, that find spare parts for their 66 Valliant on the Web. Why couldn’t Diosdado Cabello find a friend via the Web? Somebody he has never seen, but with whom he established, in time, a close friendship, a stimulating and sustained link of the purely intellectual type. Diosdado maybe Chavista, but even Chavistas have friends.

-No, I am not saying anything against it. That part of your tale is very consistent. Let’s recapitulate: Diosdado has a Russian friend whose name is Vladimir, a friend from the Web and he tells him that he is worried because everything indicated that the No was going to lose the recall.

-Exactly, that is how the shit came down: Diosdado, very concerned because the polls yielded a victorious Si, arrived home one night, served himself a scotch, connected to the Web and began chatting with Vladimir, his virtual buddy from Silicon Valley: And, Vladimir asked him about the voting machines, asked him if there is no way to fiddle with the software and Diosdado, disconsolate, says no, that unfortunately for him, the Smartmatic Plus ™ boxes are tamper proof. And he is not saying it: It is certified by Quiros Corradi and Maria Corina Machado; two factors characterized as the enemy. “The REP is fine” says Maria Corina in a press conference; “The machines can be trusted” says Quiros Corradi in a press conference. Nothing can be done, Diosdado chats, and we have to resign ourselves to a loss.

-Piece of shit, no?

-Imagine

-So?

-Vladimir chats with Diosdado: ”Don’t sweat it Diosdadovitch: find me the diagram of those machines-the so called blueprint- and you ill see how we are going to find a way around the referendum. Turns out Diosdado and Vladimir had been friends for years, but he did not know that Vladimir was a three drum hacker until that night. Imagine!

-Shit, wait, let’s order another one, this story is great.

-So the shit is that Vladimir who is a Ukrainian wizard “breaks the code” of the Smartmatic Plus ™.

-Just like the British counterspies deciphered the Enigma machines in the Second Wold War

-Exactly. And with only twenty four hours to go for the referendum. Things were tougher than anyone imagines. The guy rode the bidirectionality, alone, with a Vodka Tonic by his side, from Silicon Valley, in permanent communication with Diosdado, he began modelling the results with vote intentions and this and that. Who cares about Hausmann’s algorithm? It was a Russian hacker that screwed us!

-Incredible. It gives you a lot to think about. The perfect crime. No evidence, no smoking gun.

-That Russian already collected and you are going to find him the day when Hell freezes over. That’s why I am not going to vote in the regional elections. What for? So that Vladimir can laugh at me? No way! I wasn’t born yesterday.

-I have another version, equally believable, I think.

-Let’s see.

-The Chavismo decided from day one to place obstacles in the recall vote. Thus, all of the irregularities to take advantage of them, which Tulio Alvarez has summarized superbly. But on the way, something made them think that that they could win the same recall vote they opposed so much. Both strategies are not incompatible. That’s why they displayed with no morals all of the abilities of the old electoral populist culture: they took care of both, of blocking the referendum and bringing the people out to vote. They had the motivation and the resources. They are militant and they ambition hegemony. More than looking at an algorithm that explains the recall referendum, if I were an opposition politician I would try to stare in the face at a formidable enemy: A radical populism with dozens of billions of US dollars.

-No way man, you are starting to talk like Teodoro. If you are going to start with those laborious cogitations then it is true that we can no longer talk…

On Friday, six Venezuelan soldiers and a PDVSA technician were killed by a group of “irregulars” in Apure State. In characteristic fashion, we will probably never know the truth:

1-The Minister of Defense of Venezuela blames the Colombian paramilitary or drug traffickers. Translation: We can not blame our friends from the Colombian guerrilla, FARC, but we have no clue who did it.

2-The Colombian Foreign Minister blames the FARC guerrillas. Translation: We can not blame our friends the paramilitary, but we have no clue who did it.

3-El Nacional quotes sources within the Venezuelan military, as saying it was a FARC group of 20 people who did the killings.

I’ll go with 3) these sources usually know better and say the truth more often than the Ministers from either side.

Note 1: You would be pleased to know that the Government is using F-16’s to look for those that did this. At last they are put to use, I am not sure how a pilot on an F-16 can have time to look out for 15-20 people walking around, but this is a revolution after all.

Note 2: I don’t usually plug my Orchids section (not often at least), but you should be curious about the picture of whta may be my favorite orchid, beautiful, majestic and elegant.

What one pro-Chavez leader of the Federation of Farmers thinks about land reform in the Chavez era:

“The land is for those that work it and not for those that own it was the saying in the adeco times in the sixties, in reference to the implementation of agrarian reform. Those were stormy times, my parents tell me, when at all times, anarchy and populism were the rule when it came time to assigning productive land, much like it is happening in the Bolivarian revolution.

The populist and pork barrel euphoria of the beginnings of the democratic era, did not allow for the planning, the ordering, the giving away of land titles and the necessary census to know, truly know, who was capable of receiving land and make it produce. It was all a complete mess (despelote!) that killed the law that became, according to the experts, a model for the agrarian sector in Latin America. Today, unfortunately we are repeating the same errors. I would even say that it is even worse, because in Betancourt’s time Government officials were filled with good intentions, in contrast with the hoodlums that currently lead the Ministry of Agriculture and Land who are filled with revenge and hate towards anyone that is not with the revolutionary process. That is why I propose that the first revolutionary invasions should take place in floors 13, 14 and nearby floors of the East Tower of Parque Central, with the objective of removing from the roots the corrupt, incapable and inefficient elements that have overtaken the Ministry of Agriculture and Land.

What guarantee do producers have that the land will not be invaded by people foreign to the agricultural sector, when those that lead the institutions of the sector are highway hoodlums? What guarantee is there that the supposedly unused lands are going to be occupied by people that know what they are doing and not by militants of the Chavismo, whose intention is to take over the land to either sell it or rent it later , much like it is happening with some housing in Caracas? Is not easy, I insist, first let’s get rid of the misery traffickers that lead the Ministry of Agriculture and Land and then let’s give away the land to those that truly want to work it. By the way, the number one estate owner continues to be the State; it is there where the process of invading land should begin. “

-Chavez creates more Ministries. In 1998 when Chavez won his first election, he criticized the size of the State, reducing the number of Ministries from 21 to 15 by merging Interior with Justice, Health with Social Development, Education, Culture and Sports, Transport and Urban Development and Agriculture with Industry and Commerce. Since then, he has created six, including Housing (needed), Foodstuffs (what about Agriculture?), Social Economy (as opposed to what?), Culture, Higher Education Special Zones.

-Another Mirage crashed one more in a long series of Mirages and F16’s that have served as incredibly neat toys for the military, but unfortunately too many have crashed. At $15,000 per hour in fuel, maybe it’s for the better, the fewer there are the less they will spend. There are 13 left…Maybe it is time to buy more to defend ourselves from whatever! So glad the three submarines have not sunk beyond their established parameters (thanks Ed!)!

-The Prosecutor devoted to political vendettas Danilo Anderson is investigating the people that went to the Presidential Palace on April 12^th. to see if they are charged with rebellion. So, the Generals were exonerated from rebellion by the Supreme Court so that now they will go after the civilians. I certainly hope they call General Lucas Rincon, the highest ranking General in the military to testify as to why he said Chavez had resigned on April 11^th. Rincon was in Chavez’ Cabinet until August 18^th. and remains the most mysterious link as to the supposed “coup” in April 2004, since it was his appearance that evening that led to all of the events in the next three days.

–Venezuela will sell US$ 1.5 billion in US dollar denominated bonds abroad in the next two weeks. Apparently $44 per barrel is insufficient to finance the revolution. Since Chavez said prices are on their way to $100 per barrel, the revolution should be safe.

-The People’s Ombudsman came out to request that the Bank Superintendence eliminate the SICRIT. This is the database that banks share to establish credit for people. The Ombudsman says this is a violation of their rights. Watch out TRW! Watch out consumers, you will no longer be able to get credit if this is approved!

-Still waiting to give my opinion on the latest Carter Center report. I will wait for Hausmann and Rigobon to give their oopinion. So far, it seems to me to be so silly, I don’t dare say more than that. They proved the votes and their signatures had a high correlation. Seems obvious to me, but….They also showed the random number generator works. The one in Excel in my PC does too, but that has nothing to say about what happened on the CNE computer. Better shut up and don’t start talking like a Venezuelan expert: Find ten Venezuelans, preferably men, ask them a question, eight out of ten will be experts on the subject)

-Chavez creates more Ministries. In 1998 when Chavez won his first election, he criticized the size of the State, reducing the number of Ministries from 21 to 15 by merging Interior with Justice, Health with Social Development, Education, Culture and Sports, Transport and Urban Development and Agriculture with Industry and Commerce. Since then, he has created six, including Housing (needed), Foodstuffs (what about Agriculture?), Social Economy (as opposed to what?), Culture, Higher Education Special Zones.

-Another Mirage crashed one more in a long series of Mirages and F16’s that have served as incredibly neat toys for the military, but unfortunately too many have crashed. At $15,000 per hour in fuel, maybe it’s for the better, the fewer there are the less they will spend. There are 13 left…Maybe it is time to buy more to defend ourselves from whatever! So glad the three submarines have not sunk beyond their established parameters (thanks Ed!)!

-The Prosecutor devoted to political vendettas Danilo Anderson is investigating the people that went to the Presidential Palace on April 12^th. to see if they are charged with rebellion. So, the Generals were exonerated from rebellion by the Supreme Court so that now they will go after the civilians. I certainly hope they call General Lucas Rincon, the highest ranking General in the military to testify as to why he said Chavez had resigned on April 11^th. Rincon was in Chavez’ Cabinet until August 18^th. and remains the most mysterious link as to the supposed “coup” in April 2004, since it was his appearance that evening that led to all of the events in the next three days.

–Venezuela will sell US$ 1.5 billion in US dollar denominated bonds abroad in the next two weeks. Apparently $44 per barrel is insufficient to finance the revolution. Since Chavez said prices are on their way to $100 per barrel, the revolution should be safe.

-The People’s Ombudsman came out to request that the Bank Superintendence eliminate the SICRIT. This is the database that banks share to establish credit for people. The Ombudsman says this is a violation of their rights. Watch out TRW! Watch out consumers, you will no longer be able to get credit if this is approved!

-Still waiting to give my opinion on the latest Carter Center report. I will wait for Hausmann and Rigobon to give their oopinion. So far, it seems to me to be so silly, I don’t dare say more than that. They proved the votes and their signatures had a high correlation. Seems obvious to me, but….They also showed the random number generator works. The one in Excel in my PC does too, but that has nothing to say about what happened on the CNE computer. Better shut up and don’t start talking like a Venezuelan expert: Find ten Venezuelans, preferably men, ask them a question, eight out of ten will be experts on the subject)