Chavez says "Comrade Bush" turns left in crisis

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About Thomson ReutersChavez says "Comrade Bush" turns left in crisis
Wed Oct 15, 2008 10:35pm EDT  Email | Print | Share| Reprints | Single Page | Recommend (41) [-] Text

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Trading will never be the same.CARACAS (Reuters) - Socialist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez mocked George W. Bush as a "comrade" on Wednesday, saying the U.S. president was a hard-line leftist for his government's intervention of major private banks in the U.S. financial crisis.

Chavez, who calls capitalism an evil and ex-Cuban leader Fidel Castro his mentor, ridiculed Bush for his plan for the federal government to take equity in American banks despite the U.S. right-wing's criticism of Venezuelan nationalizations.

"Bush is to the left of me now," Chavez told an audience of international intellectuals debating the benefits of socialism. "Comrade Bush announced he will buy shares in private banks."

Chavez, who has insulted Bush in the past as a drunkard or the devil, called him clueless on Wednesday. He accused him of simply parroting the words of his aides without understanding the new policies that rely on heavy state intervention.

"I am convinced he has got no idea what's going on," said Chavez, who has nationalized swaths of the OPEC nation's economy in recent years and is in negotiations to take over a Spanish bank in Venezuela.

Chavez lauds his nationalizations for allowing the state to refocus companies' activities on helping the poor rather than creating value for their shareholders.

The Bush administration, which has promoted free-market policies throughout Latin America, resisted taking equity in banks for weeks. But, faced with a spiraling financial crisis, it reversed course this week with a $250 billion plan.

Chavez, who the United States labels an autocrat, is popular among his supporters at home for criticizing Bush and sometimes wins praise abroad for voicing anti-U.S. opinions.

Despite the ideological differences between the two governments and the diplomatic sparring that led weeks ago to the countries expelling each other's ambassador, Venezuela remains a major oil supplier to the United States.

[TribReady]

Chavez is an evil, terrorist-loving, socialist "dictator"......and in this case, he's right. 

[Dee]

TribReady, I saw this thread earlier and I should have posted when I had the chance. YOU STOLE MY POST! LOL!
Bush has been the most disappointing pres I have ever voted for. I never thought he could have topped the Patriot Act, and hoped he wouldn't try. BUT HE DID! And McCain and Obama HELPED HIM.
Which Socialist are you votin for. The open one, or the closet one?  LOL!

[Heather]

They both scare me!

Heather

[Troyboy]

Where to turn???


                                           Troy

[nomosendero]

Without question Bush is wrong, but if someone needs a Commie to explain this is a moron. I know none of you needed that, but who cares what Chavez says about anything. It is enough for me to be able to figure out Bush sold us out on this.

[Dee]

nomosendero, THEY ALL sold us out on this one. Bush could not have gotten it thru with out the help of the SENATE! McCain the "so called Republican", and Obama both voted for it. Obama stayed away until time to vote the bail out. McCain got right in the middle of it, and helped push it thru. Staying on the phones I believe was his brag. McCain sold us out, and he isn't even President yet.
ALL ARE GUILTY! They "ignored" an unprecedented flood of protest calls that jammed the phone system on capital hill, and their individual offices.
Both Cornyn and Hutchison here in Texas voted for it in the Senate, and 17 of our Congressmen voted AGAINST IT. I look for a big change this election in Texas. Cornyn is up this year. Goodbye Cornyn!

[nomosendero]

No doubt about it Dee, I mentioned Bush because he & Ch were the topic. Maybe TX can get rid of Cornyn.

[Dee]

I intend to do my part on Cornyn. We have 32 State Reps. of which 15 voted for. They should be out also.

[magooch]

President Bush said he didn't like what he was having to do, but something had to be done and there wasn't a single person who would step forward and offer another plan that had any chance of working, without the real chance that it would bring our economy to its knees. 

There were a lot of abuses in the financial business and missteps by administration officials that got us to where we are.  The Bush administration and some Republican legislators, including John McCain have warned about what was coming, but every effort to head it off was stopped dead in its tracks by the Dumbycrats, who have been in charge of the oversight committees for the past 21 months during which time, the situation became critical.

In case some of you haven't noticed, it isn't just the United States that is affected by this worldwide economic problem.  The steps that are being taken to try to keep us out of a depression are not exclusive to this country.  If President Bush had done nothing, he'd be getting a whole lot more criticism than he is now.

I'd be interested in hearing what some of you would be doing about solving the crisis if you were President.

[Graybeard]

I honestly don't believe there was a crisis. I'd have let them fold their tents and go home. I think the only folks who would have been hurt by it would be those multimillionaire heads of the companies affected who would have lost their cushy multiple million dollar a year jobs and had to do something else. Sure I "might" be wrong on that but I really don't think so.

The total of the supposed bail out is such a tiny percentage of the total loans outstanding I just don't think it was a crisis to begin with. The only thing it really accomplished in my opinion was to help the super rich remain so at the expense of the average tax payer.

[Dee]

Exactly GB. Bush and Cheny BOTH are oil men, and they were protecting their stocks in other companies. Part of the scheme of things is most Senators and Congressmen did not necessarily have that many assets when they took office, but with the help of lobbyists, have invested heavily in the markets with their own money. A CYA approach if you will. I believe the bail out was more of a re-stock for Washington and Wall Street fat cats.

Magooch, sometimes though not very often we agree. On this we don't. You have gotten my answer on the bail out. I don't believe it. Yes, I noticed the other countries woes, and attribute it to nothing more than market controlling elites.
Let's hear YOUR PLAN. So far you only repeat what you have been told to believe by the Washington politicians. That isn't a new thought. It is blind allegiance.

[Graybeard]

The supposedly absolutely necessary bail out is such a tiny fraction of the total that it is laugable to try to convince anyone it is essential.

How many of you would fold if say one half of one percent of your total worth was lost? That's about what this amounts to with Fannie and Freddie and far far less than that to the economy as a whole.

The numbers seem HUGE to us and are really in terms we can understand but when looked at as a percentage of the whole pale in significance.

[kevthebassman]

The bailout could be accurately described as the defending soldiers sacking their own city.  The current batch of politicians know that they're on their way out, but they had to vote for the bailout to secure jobs as "consultants" and lobbyists at these billion dollar firms after they're canned by their voters.

[Dee]

kev, with a 17% approval rating for Congress and the Senate you may have a valid point. They are a bunch of SOSOBs.

[magooch]

Exactly GB. Bush and Cheny BOTH are oil men, and they were protecting their stocks in other companies. Part of the scheme of things is most Senators and Congressmen did not necessarily have that many assets when they took office, but with the help of lobbyists, have invested heavily in the markets with their own money. A CYA approach if you will. I believe the bail out was more of a re-stock for Washington and Wall Street fat cats.

Magooch, sometimes though not very often we agree. On this we don't. You have gotten my answer on the bail out. I don't believe it. Yes, I noticed the other countries woes, and attribute it to nothing more than market controlling elites.

 
Let's hear YOUR PLAN. So far you only repeat what you have been told to believe by the Washington politicians. That isn't a new thought. It is blind allegiance.

If it were just Bush and Cheney who stood to lose their butts, the Dumbycrat Congress would never have voted to do anything about it. 

I confess that I don't begin to understand the scope of the problem and even if I did, I wouldn't pretend to know how to fix it.  The whole thing just reinforces my decision not to invest in Fannie Mae, or Freddie Mac as my financial advisor had advised me to do.  What really stumps me is, if I could detect the looming danger and stayed out of it, what the hell were all the wise money-people thinking?

In the future, the institution that makes the loan, should have to hold it and the government needs to get out of the way and not try to influence who gets loans.  It'll be a cold day in hell when that happens.

[Dee]

Now magooch, on your last post, we are in entirely in complete agreement. Not that it matters, but it was a good synopsis of the D.C. situation.