Chavez, Readings

Hey, that's nice of him: Chavez Offers Cheap Gas to Poor in U.S. Would there be an income meter at the station, then? Maybe a tie and shoe-scanner?

And from Socialist Worker:

The festival was also an opportunity for him to showcase the social changes taking place in Venezuela.

Missions intended to end poverty and improve the economic and cultural lives are educating the population through literacy drives. Other reforms such as the re-nationalisation of universities and the building of new housing are being carried out.

These radical reforms are enthusiastically supported by the majority of Venezuelans. Indeed Chavez’s support seems to be growing. During the festival pro-Chavez candidates won 73 percent in the local elections.

The changes have also led to a growing discussion about socialism. At the festival Chavez spoke about Karl Marx, Rosa Luxemburg and Leon Trotsky. He insisted that the immediate choice facing humanity is socialism or barbarism.

Old models of “one party, authoritarian states” were rejected as incompatible with democratic socialism.

I know nothing about this Cybercast News Service but they have a video of this important story:

Washington (CNSNews.com) - The Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., the current home of hundreds of wounded veterans from the war in Iraq, has been the target of weekly anti-war demonstrations since March. The protesters hold signs that read "Maimed for Lies" and "Enlist here and die for Halliburton."

Oh when will the peaceful anti-war protestors stop tormenting our wounded, crippled and poisoned, pension-less, lied-to, economically-bereft, morally-unzipped and punch-drunk, gonzo, dispensable child soldiers?

And Chris Hedges speaks on The Cannon of Christianity.

Even better is Greg Palast and...Greg Palast (courtesy of here).

An interview with Arundhati Roy courtesy of here:

In a recent article, the remarkable un-embedded journalist Dahr Jamail interviews several American marines who served in Iraq. Asked what he would do if he met Bush, one of them says: "It would be two hits—me hitting him and him hitting the floor." It’s for this reason that the US is looking for allies—preferably low-cost allies with low-cost lives. Because the media is completely controlled, no real news makes it out of Iraq. But last month, I was on the jury of the World Tribunal on Iraq in Istanbul. We heard 54 horrifying testimonies about what is going on there, including from Iraqis who had risked their lives to make it to the tribunal. The world knows only a fraction of what’s going on. The anger emanating out of Iraq and Afghanistan is spreading wider and wider.... It’s a deep, uncontrollable rage that you cannot put a PR spin on. America isn’t going to win this war.

The Theory's Empire Squatting post continues to be updated, with related fallout here, if anybody still cares.