From this side of the yucky news

Yesterday and today I had to concentrate on an oncoming trip to Valencia for business. Tonight I tried to catch on the news and I am not pleased. Not to mention my own news.

Looting on the road

I did the round trip to Valencia today. Depending from the hour of day I chose either the Nirgua-Bejuma road to reach South Valencia or the Moron road to reach the Northern suburbs. 10 years ago I used to like the Moron option. The highway from Morn to Valencia has some spectacular views and the Moron San Felipe road was a reasonable two lanes road with tolerable traffic but rolling through a sometimes impossible green country side. Now I only take that road when I need to avoid South Valencia rush hour. Today I had to go both ways through Moron.

On the way in, there was a jam that lasted for about 15 minutes until we could start again. A truck carrying cement bags had overturned and we had to wait until the looters had finished their work to be able to pass again. There was no rescue crew or nothing when I went by, just a Nazional Guard that did the best he could to make sure the looters did not fight among themselves and making sure they would not be run over by the cars waiting in line patiently.

On my return trip same thing. Except this time it took longer, I had to turn my car off: the tows had arrived and they were moving the big truck. When I arrived to the spot I could see that it had also been looted by the natives before the security and tows could operate.

Interesting detail: it was barely a mile from the morning "incident". Coincidence?

Ten years of Chaevz rule to help the people and the only thing we have become is a nation of organized looters where authorities must wait for the looting to be done before they can rescue the victims.

The Venezuelan satellite

Apparently yesterday Venezuela became the owner of a communication satellite. It is Chinese made, it is Chinese controlled, it is Chinese technology. It is Venezuelan dollars just to see Chavez Ooooh and Aaaah with his friend Evo Morales. Did Evo pay for his trip to watch this thing, by the way?

The satellite is called, of course, Simon Bolivar. We know the Chinese are doing all the job because chavista engineers are unable to keep electricity running in Venezuela. Chavista engineers are unable to keep a serviceable Internet system. Chavista engineers are unable to provide us with a regular supply of clean water. Chavista engineers are unable to provide us with pot hole free roads. And we are expected to believe that chavista engineers can design and control a satellite?

Chavez is upset because he thinks that the independent media did not treat the satellite launch as a national holiday. What was in for the Venezuelan people to celebrate? That VTV will get high definition so that Chavez propaganda programs come to you in high definition? So, in sheer spite, he announces that he wants to establish in Venezuela a satellite factory. Why not? We export nothing but oil, why not try to export satellites? What do you say Hugo? A dozen a week?

Sometimes I really, really wonder what link with reality Chavez still has.....

Buying warm clothing from Bolivia

I suppose that in fact I should not bother wondering about Chavez contact with reality: since Bolivia was affected in its favorable customs to the US, Venezuela will buy 200 million USD worth of textile to Bolivia. Has anyone wondered what kind of textile was Bolivia selling to the US? Nice, light, breezy tropical textiles or the warmer, multicolored or not, sort sold for winter clothing? And what about promoting Venezuela own textile industry through the socialist cooperatives? How many of them are going to go bust as the state promotes cheap subsidized Bolivian textile to promote the wonders of ALBA?

But it gets better: in Bolivia they do not believe in this agreement. They point out justly that the Venezuelan market bears no comparison with the US market (Florida GDP is already bigger than Venezuela). Folks also point out that all sorts of wonderful economic joint ventures between Venezuela and Bolivia have amounedt to nothing, that Venezuela promises much but delivers little. Imagine that!!!!!

I wonder if overturned trucks carrying Bolivian clothing will also be looted......

Obamathon

Trying to find some news that if not good is at least not stupid I turn my eyes to the US. And I fail.

Trying to shore up support as polls are starting to tighten some, bringing Obama's result closer to a potential Bradley percentile, he decided to spend a huge wad of money to buy himself a cadena. That is right, Obama bought a simultaneous broadcast of a 30 minute infomercial on 3 major US networks.

Obama's infomercial aired at 8 p.m. EDT on CBS, NBC, and Fox, plus on cable on MSNBC, the Spanish-language Univision, and two networks targeted to African-American viewers, BET and TV One.

Now, Obama should take lessons from Chavez when he becomes president: Chavez gets ALL TV stations, ALL radio stations, ALL OVER THE COUNTRY for as long as he wants, SIMULTANEOUSLY, to say whatever he wants, to attack whomever he chooses, without the right of replica from the aggressed parties, AND he does not pay a penny for it.

I must admit that now that I was warming up to Obama that he pulls such a cheap stunt just because his campaign war chest if full of cash bothers me, bad. I mean, if he had done it 2-3 weeks ago, even better at convention time (he already had the cash then) I could understand. That is what Perot did in his time. But now, not even a week before election? I wonder if Hillary would have done such infomercial........

Anyway, good thing that the US got the faintest of hints as to what we must endure here day in and day out. The satellite launch never ending cadena apparently was quite something in the genre.


-The end-