Savoring France's Victory, the European Elections
and uncovering bizarre funding?

Monday 14, June 2004

Well, Britain played very well, but they did commit a couple of mistakes at the very end. Their 1-0 lead evaporated unbelievably in 3 minutes of prolongation time to a 1-2 loss. Zidane entering for good into immortality scored two balls in the same area of the net, with the same strength that gave the fleeting impression of a football encrusted in the net, before falling on the ground. Tough for Britain, but they should still feel OK, they played very well, and their mistake was against France. Not the kind of team one can make mistakes....

I still think that France and Britain will make it to the 4 last teams. Considering the other games played far it should not be too difficult.

Meanwhile Europe finished its vote. The point of this blog is not to discuss European politics unless Venezuela is involved. However I could not fail to observe that manual voting was the rule on TV, from France's Chirac having trouble closing his envelope to Germany's Schoeder folding a very large ballot. Pictures of tables in different countries covered with large ballots were for all to see. Yet by midnight European time all the results were in and I have not seen reports of fraud, yet.

Contrast this with the current electoral debate in Venezuela where chavismo wants to impose automation, no control, no external observers, etc... And I can bet anything that come August 15, by midnight we will still not have the results and both sides will be screaming fraud. Though we know which is the side most likely to commit fraud, the one that has access to all elements of power, all elements that allow it to commit elaborate fraud schemes. Could we just pay Estonia to run our elections?

On another front, Vcrisis seems to have obtained new information on how is spent some of the money that Chavez gives overseas to improve his image, outside of the famous Patton Boggs lobbying firm. A first installment comes in: The 'impartial' advocates of Venezuela?$ Hugo Chavez. I cannot wait for the rebuttal of the people named as recipients of "grants" and what not. Gee, I wonder if someone from the opposition is willing to fund me. I am tired of writing everyday and not being paid for... And I write at least as well and certainly more objectively than some of the people named. Sour grapes? Me?

Meanwhile we will be looking for further installements from Vcrisis.