CALIFORNIA YANKEE

Venezuela Sends Tanks To Colombian Border

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has ordered troops and tanks to the border with Colombia and ordered the Venezuelan embassy in Bogota closed.

Chavez is threatening war because Columbian forces killed FARC leader and terrorist Raul Reyes, in a firefight near the Ecuadorean border:

The second-highest-ranking leader in Colombia's largest leftist guerrilla group was killed in a predawn firefight near the Ecuadorean border, the Colombian government announced Saturday morning.

Luis Edgar Devia Silva, better known by his alias Raul Reyes, was found dead early Saturday in a jungle camp in Ecuador after a battle erupted between rebels and Colombian armed forces in southern Putumayo state and continued on the Ecuadorean side of the border.

Reyes, 59, was second in the hierarchy of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, and was the rebel group's principal spokesman and chief diplomat. He was one of 50 FARC leaders indicted in the United States on drug and terrorism charges in March 2006. The U.S. State Department had offered a $5-million reward for information leading to his arrest.

According to the Christian Science Monitor, Reyes was wanted in connection with 57 murders and four cases of kidnapping, and also faced charges for 26 counts of terrorism and 25 for rebellion.

Columbia has been making progress against FARC, but the killing of Reyes is the first time one of the members of the FARC's ruling body, the seven-man Secretariat, has ever been killed.

Court Freezes Venezuelan Assets

Venezuela is forced to consider the consequences of nationalizing assets of foreign companies.

A court in the United Kingdom issued an order preventing the sale of any assets owned by the Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), the Venezuelan state-owned petroleum company. ExxonMobil won the order, which effectively freezes assets worth billions of dollars in its battle to be paid fair compensation for property seized by Hugo Chavez's Neocommunist government.

Chavez should have asked his buddy Castro about what happens when you take foreign property without just compensation.

Violent Deaths In Venezuela Double Iraq's Numbers

Iraq and Venezuela both have populations of about 27.5 million. In the last three months of 2007, a Venezuelan was twice as likely to lose his life to violence as an Iraqi.

Erick Takes On Mayor Ellis' Solidarity With Chavez

RedState's Erick Erickson takes on Macon Georgia Mayor Jack Ellis' "solidarity" with Venezuelan Dictator Hugo Chavez:

Keep up the good work Erick.

Close Race in Venezuela

A new poll finds Venezuela’s presidential election could be close. Hugo Chávez is preferred by 49 percent and Manuel Rosales is preferred by 47.6 percent. Humorist Benjamín Rausseo, who has since withdrawn, got 1.3 percent in the poll.

The presidential election is scheduled for December 3.

If You Were Concerned About Electronic Voting Before . . . .

The federal government is investigating the Venezuelan takeover of a leading U.S. manufacturer of electronic voting systems:

Smartmatic was a little-known firm with no experience in voting technology before it was chosen by the Venezuelan authorities to replace the country’s elections machinery ahead of a contentious referendum that confirmed Mr. Chávez as president in August 2004.

Seven months before that voting contract was awarded, a Venezuelan government financing agency invested more than $200,000 into a smaller technology company, owned by some of the same people as Smartmatic, that joined with Smartmatic as a minor partner in the bid.

In return, the government agency was given a 28 percent stake in the smaller company and a seat on its board, which was occupied by a senior government official who had previously advised Mr. Chávez on elections technology.

[. . .]

Smartmatic then bought the much larger and more established Sequoia Voting Systems, which now has voting equipment installed in 17 states and the District of Columbia.

The investigation is trying to determine whether the leftist Venezuelan government of President Hugo Chávez has any control or influence over the firm’s operations. The Times reports both Smartmatic and the Venezuelan government strongly deny that the Chávez’s regime has any role in Smartmatic.

Is it not bad enough that the nation is in the process of implementing a voting system reliant upon machines that are demonstrably vulnerable to manipulation? Now we must also worry that a foreign nation, one with a leader hell bent on joining the axis of evil, may control a U.S. manufacturer of these problematical devices.

We must step back and think about how ensure absolute confidence in the results of elections. Bush v Gore made that more than abundantly clear. Electronic voting systems are still not yet ready for prime time.

Venezuela Should Withdraw

The U.N. General Assembly continues to vote for a non-permanent member of Security Council from the 32-nation group of Latin American and Caribbean States.

Although Guatemala has led Venezuela in but the one tie of the 29 ballots, Guatemala has failed to obtain a two-thirds majority of Member States present and voting.

Ambassador John Bolton says Venezuela should withdraw from the race:

"The honorable thing would be for the candidate that has now lost 28 out of 29 ballots to withdraw," Bolton told reporters at the UN. "But Venezuela insists on putting everyone through this vote after vote. It is clearly obstructionist."

According to the Associated Press, experts see this as a defeat for Chavez:

"This has to be considered a defeat for Chávez," said Edward Luck, a U.N. expert who heads the Center on International Organization at Columbia University.

[. . .]

"The Security Council isn't the place for a mud-wrestling match," Luck said of Chávez's U.N. speech. "People tittered and laughed at his comments."

Nile Gardiner, a U.N. expert at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington think tank, argued that Chávez is the bigger loser, given his efforts to raise Venezuela's international profile. Chávez, fueled by his oil-rich nation's petroleum dollars, has campaigned for the open seat for months.

"This is a massive victory for common sense on the world stage and a huge defeat for Chávez's virulent brand of fanatic anti-Americanism," Gardiner said.

The Guatemala/Venezuela standoff isn't that lengthy by U.N. standards. In 1979, a contest between Colombia and Cuba for a seat on the council went 155 rounds before Mexico was elected as a compromise choice. There is no limit to the number of ballots.

Ambassador John Bolton has it right again. Venezuela's refusal to withdraw from the deadlocked race along with Chávez's undiplomatic speech to the General Assembly during which he referred to President Bush as the Devil demonstrates Venezuela's obstructionism and is evidence as to why Venezuela should not be elected to the Security Council while Chávez leads the country.

Lamont Must Renounce Danny Glover

Following the Caracas Crackpot, formerly known as Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, undiplomatic speech at the United Nations during which El Loco referred to President Bush as the Devil, the wacky leftist leader made a bizarre public appearance at the Mount Olive Baptist Church in Harlem.

Chavez, who Imus referred to as the fourth Dixie Chick, was introduced at the podium by actor Danny Glover. At the church Chavez again disrespected President Bush and insulted all Americans, calling the leader of the free world “devil,” “alcoholic,” and “sick man.”

Chavez's impolitic and rude exercise of free speech, a right not enjoyed by the citizens of Venezuela, has resulted in calls to boycott Citgo, the U.S. subsidiary of Venezuela's state-owned oil company.

Living, and voting, in Connecticut I have a more parochial response. I want Greenwich millionaire and Democratic anti-war senatorial candidate Ned Lamont to disassociate himself from the Chavez-hugging Danny Glover. The Lamont website continues to post a news article about Glover campaigning for Lamont. Just as Chavez is free to make a very impolite speech, Danny Glover is free to embrace the Caracas crackpot. Lamont is likewise free to cling to Glover's support, but if he wants to be a U.S. Senator he needs to disassociate himself from the actor who introduces and calls friend the leftist leader who makes such outlandish comments against our president.

Connecticut Approves Chavez's Oil Program

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal found no legal problem with Venezuelan President Chavez's program to supply oil to Connecticut's poor:

In response to a request for a legal opinion from Gov. M. Jodi Rell, Blumenthal said the Citizens Energy Corp. of Boston and the Connecticut Association for Community Action are private, nonprofit organizations and their deal to provide oil through the Venezuela-Citgo Heating Oil Program is not subject to review by the state Department of Social Services.

Blumenthal also said the arrangement raises no antitrust concerns.

Under Chavez's oil program CITGO, the third largest refiner in the United States, and which is wholly owned by the national oil company of Venezuela, has offered to sell about 4.8 million gallons of heating oil to Citizens Energy, a Boston-based non-profit energy company, at a 40% discount from the wholesale price of heating oil. Citizens Energy will immediately sell the heating oil at the full wholesale price to a large heating oil wholesaler. Citizens Energy will use the profits from the sale of this oil to provide financial assistance to needy heating oil customers in Connecticut.

Chavez's oil program became embroiled in State politics when one of the Democrats seeking to challenge Governor Rell, New Haven Mayor John DeStefano, helped set up the deal to get discounted heating oil for the poor in his city using the state's nonprofit community action agencies to distribute the oil.

Governor Rell said she wanted Blumenthal to address the "legality of the state of Connecticut sanctioning participating in this program:" before endorsing the program:

"From the very beginning, I said I had no trouble with this," the governor said Monday. "Any time that we can receive oil at a discounted price certainly we should be pursuing it. But I wanted to make sure any legal questions were answered. They have been answered, so go ahead and proceed.

According to the Associated Press, Blumenthal said he was giving a legal opinion and didn't want to discuss the politics of the program. Nevertheless, he did seem to make a political point in his opinion:

As a matter of policy or political perspective, there may be sound reason to have reservations about the source of this assistance -- a company effectively owned by a foreign government that may have questionable policies or motives. There is also sound reason to be critical of Congress, whose ill-advised neglect makes this assistance necessary. As a matter of law, there is no reason to decline or disapprove it. Indeed, it fills an unfortunate, profoundly important need for our citizens, consistent with our laws.

While I understand very few politicians would dare to oppose assisting the needy with the cost of heating oil, there is something unseemly about taking aid from one who supports Castro, and Hamas.