Chavez protege Maduro seeks snap election as Venezuela mourns

Maduro, hand picked by Chavez, is trying to push a snap election to cash in on  Chavez's death while it still lingers in the air. 

This is a major crossroad for Venezuela. Either they get back on the road to Democracy, or follow the path of Cuba.

My condolences to Sean Penn who I understand is on suicide watch.

Emotional: Sean Penn  pictured at the funeral of Hugo Chavez.
He described the Venezuelan leader as a 'champion of the poor'


Some of the other "notable attendees" were
Jesse Jackson, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Raul Castro, and Hugo's Protégé: Evo Morales, Dictator of Bolivia.

 Venezuela's new acting President Nicolas Maduro is pushing for a quick election, hoping to benefit from an emotional outpouring at the death of his charismatic mentor, Hugo Chavez, and step into his shoes. 

 Venezuela's election commission could announce as early as Saturday a date for the election, which two recent polls have forecast Maduro would win comfortably. 

 Maduro, a former bus driver and union leader who served as foreign minister and vice president under Chavez, has vowed to keep Chavez's self-styled socialist revolution alive. He was sworn in as acting president in Congress on Friday and handed the red, yellow and blue presidential sash. "I asked (the election authority) to comply with legal and constitutional obligations and immediately call elections," Maduro, 50, told Congress late on Friday as he cemented his position as heir-in-waiting. 

 The Supreme Court had earlier ruled that Maduro did not need to step down in order to campaign, but the move was denounced by opponents as a violation of the constitution and a "fraud." As Maduro spoke in Congress, residents of some wealthy neighborhoods of Caracas banged pots and pans in a traditional form of protest. Maduro named Chavez's son-in-law Jorge Arreaza as his vice president, and then returned to a military base where more than 2 million people have filed past Chavez's remains to pay their last respects, and took his oath again in front of the casket.

 Chavez was a hero to millions of mostly poor supporters for using Venezuela's oil wealth to finance heavy social spending during his 14-year rule but he was seen as a dictator by his opponents. He died on Tuesday at age 58 after a two-year battle with cancer. 

 Like Communist leaders Lenin, Stalin and Mao, Chavez's remains are to be embalmed and put on display "for eternity". An eclectic cast of celebrities, leftist and center-right presidents and rogue leaders attended Chavez's state funeral on Friday. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a close ally, broke with protocol to kiss the coffin, while Oscar-winning actor Sean Penn was also in attendance.

 It is likely to be a particularly bitter election campaign in the OPEC nation, which boasts the world's largest oil reserves. The opposition had accused the government of trampling on the constitution during its handling of Chavez's battle with cancer, and is furious that Maduro was allowed to take on the job of caretaker president while he campaigns for the job. "This transgression is unprecedented in the history of the republic," opposition lawmaker Maria Corina Machado said on Twitter. "Today, on a day of mourning ... the Supreme Court issued a political sentence, a fraud," said opposition leader Henrique Capriles, 40, the centrist governor of Miranda state who lost to Chavez in October's election and is expected to face off against Maduro. "We are not prepared to tolerate abuses of power," he added. "To become president, the people have to elect you. ... No one elected Nicolas president." 

Judging by this article it doesn't seem they're off to a good start.

Chavez protege Maduro seeks snap election as Venezuela mourns

The Desperation in Sequestration

Citing sequestration, White House cancels tours

(Unless, of course, you have $500,000 to meet with Barry)

 Times are tough.
 Some staff members have been seen parading around the WH lawn with these.

The White House announced Tuesday that all tours of the building have been canceled because of the automatic spending cuts known as sequestration, which took effect on Friday.

"Due to staffing reductions resulting from sequestration, we regret to inform you that White House Tours will be canceled effective Saturday, March 9, 2013 until further notice," The White House visitor's office announced in an email Tuesday afternoon. "Unfortunately, we will not be able to reschedule affected tours."

"We very much regret having to take this action, particularly during the popular Spring touring season," the email added. (RELATED: Bob Woodward claims President Barack Obama lied repeatedly about sequester trigger)

Federal agencies facing budget cuts have a long-standing habit of suspending their most visible and popular activities in an effort to gin up public outrage, a strategy that Washington journalist Charles Peters nicknamed the "Firemen First Principle" in 1976.

In one famous example of the strategy, the National Parks Service director closed all the nation's national parks, including the Grand Canyon and the Washington Monument, for two days a week after President Nixon cut the agency's budget. The ploy worked, and Congress quickly restored funding amid public outcry.

The Desperation in Sequestration

I'm not buying it and either is Egypt

Napolitano got back on her high horse yesterday and said she is going to have to release more illegals because of financial woes better know as sequestration. This comes on the heels of  announcing we are giving, not selling, 20 F16's and 200 M1 Abrams tanks to the Muslim brotherhood in Egypt.  The F16's alone come to $213 million, which is paid for by U.S. taxpayers and approved by Washington. The M1 Abrams tank goes for about $8.5 million a pop. 

 Mohammed Morsi's (the name alone should have been a show stopper) overriding goal is to establish Shariah law and has thus far decreed near-absolute power for himself while opponents battle outside his palace. So what is really going on in Egypt? With the support of Barry, Mubarak was disposed of and replaced with Morsi who is far more detrimental to the U.S. and Israel then Mubarak ever was.  Someone tell me this isn't going to come back and bite us on the ass. 

Press conference photo of Napolitano trying to explain it away. 

This is what would take place if WH press reporters had any guts.

So you see, it is more important to spend money giving Muslims instruments of war, then it is to keep illegals behind bars ... and to add insult to injury, releasing them back on the streets of America, rather then Mexico where they belong. 

Thought this would send up some red flags but evidently not.

Visit by Egypt’s Morsi to Iran reflects foreign policy shift

http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2012-08-27/world/35491859_1_morsi-nuclear-program-minister-ali-akbar-salehi

The visit by President Mohamed Morsi to Iran will be the first by an Egyptian leader since the nations broke off diplomatic relations in the 1980's after Egypt’s recognition of Israel. 

PS: I'm bet Israel is just tickled pink over the weapons deal.

I'm not buying it and either is Egypt

White House retreats from doomsday spending cuts predictions

       

Gene Sperling... Spin Doctor Extraordinaire :

"Nobody ever suggested that this was going to have all its impact in the first few days," he told "NBC's "Meet the Press.

This idiot must live in an alternate universe!

Did this not occur or was it a figment of my imagination? 

☟

WASHINGTON — The Associated Press has learned that the Homeland Security Department released more than 2,000 illegal immigrants facing deportation from immigration jails in recent weeks because of looming budget cuts. It also planned to release 3,000 more during March.

And the sequester didn't even kick in yet!!!

I guess the nation experienced a collective coma when Napolitano said, "All I can say is, look, we're doing our very best to minimize the impacts of sequester. But there's only so much I can do. I'm supposed to have 34,000 detention beds for immigration. How do I pay for those?"

They're undocumented Democrats.

White House is retreated from its doomsday predictions about the impact of the $85 billion in federal spending cuts as they enter a second week -- with Republican leaders appearing at least satisfied about delivering on their promise to limit government spending and hold down taxes.

Gene Sperling, the White House's top economic adviser, repeatedly said Sunday the cuts will not hurt as much on "Day One" as they will over the long haul. 

"Nobody ever suggested that this … was going to have all its impact in the first few days," he told "NBC's "Meet the Press." "It is a slow grind."

His remarks are in contrast to weeks of President Obama and his Cabinet warning that the cuts will result in furloughs or pay cuts for middle-class wage-earners such as teachers, Capitol Hill janitors and air traffic controllers, which they said could cause 90-minutes delays at major U.S. airports.

Sperling declined at least twice to directly answer questions about whether the worst-case-scenario rhetoric has hurt the president's credibility on the issue. He instead stuck to his argument that independent economists forecast the cuts will result in 750,000 fewer jobs and that corporate executives now anticipate slower economic growth.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell told CNN's "State of the Union" Americans absorbed similar cuts once already this year.

"This modest reduction of 2.4 percent in spending over the next six months is a little more than the average American experienced just two months ago, when their own pay went down when the payroll tax holiday expired," the Kentucky Republican said.

Congress agreed to the cuts, known as sequester, in 2011 after failing to agree on more measure reductions -- to defense and some domestic spending. However, the cuts were intended to be so drastic that Democrats and Republicans would be forced to compromise before they started.

Still, Sperling rejected several Republican-backed plans and said no compromise would be reached unless the party agrees to tax increases.

Barry came up with sequestration and signed it into law. The whole idea was to cut spending. Tax increases were never part of it and only serves to defeat the purpose of the bill. The words "Cutting Spending" are not in a Democrat's vocabulary.

White House retreats from doomsday spending cuts predictions

Rodman's a gas in North Korea

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Ex-NBA star Dennis Rodman met North Korea's Kim Jong Un on Thursday on the third day of his improbable journey to Pyongyang, telling the leader "You have a friend for life," a delegation spokesman said.

Rodman and Kim sat side by side at an exhibition game in Pyongyang on Thursday, chatting as they watched players from North Korea and the U.S. play in mixed teams, Alex Detrick, a spokesman for the New York-based VICE media company, told The Associated Press.

Rodman later addressed Kim before a crowd of thousands, telling him, "You have a friend for life," Detrick said.

The encounter makes Rodman the most high-profile American to meet with the young North Korean leader, said to be a diehard basketball fan, and comes at a time of heightened tensions between Washington and Pyongyang.

North Korea conducted an underground nuclear test just two weeks ago, making clear the provocative act was aimed at sending a warning to the United States.

Rodman, three players from the professional Harlem Globetrotters exhibition team, and a VICE television crew are in Pyongyang to shoot a documentary about North Korea for HBO.

Thursday's game in a packed gymnasium ended in a 110-110 draw, with two Americans playing on each team alongside North Koreans, Detrick said.

I'm sure it was just a coincidence it ended in a tie.

Rodman's a gas in North Korea