"...IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN HERE?"..VENEZUELA/CUBA UPDATE 07/14/2010

[Your Uncle Sam]

VENEZUELA

TV station chief vows

to stay critical of Hugo Chávez

Facing arrest at home, the president of Globovisión TV was in Miami where he said he will keep pressuring President Chávez

Guillermo Zuloaga has no plans of laying low as an international fugitive.

Facing arrest in Venezuela, the president of Globovisión -- the nation's last TV station openly critical of the government -- said he'll travel the world and continue pressing the Hugo Chávez administration as the country gears up for legislative elections on Sept. 26.

``We would be critical of whoever was in power,'' said Zuloaga, who was in Miami on Tuesday. ``But this government has been a complete failure.''

Venezuela has one of the highest murder rates in the Americas, the steepest inflation in the region and is saddled with a shrinking economy. Despite reaping billions in oil wealth over the last decade, infrastructure is poor, and power outages and food shortages have become a way of life, Zuloaga said.

``The Venezuelan population is fed up and everybody is waiting for the [legislative] elections,'' he said. ``The pressure on the government is going to be higher and higher and higher.''

Pressure on Zuloaga, 68, peaked in March when he was briefly detained for criticizing the government during an event in Aruba. In June, the courts dusted off a year-old case and ordered his arrest on charges that he and his son hoarded automobiles at their Toyota dealership in a bid to drive up prices.

Zuloaga said there were only 20 cars in question, all of which had been paid for and were awaiting delivery. The government's true aim, he said, was to silence Globovisión. Last week, Zuloaga took his case to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Washington, D.C. As President Chávez has pursued his ``21st century socialism,'' he has clashed with the press even as he has poured resources into state-run media. In 2002, he accused Zuloaga and other media barons of backing a failed coup against him.

The government began dismantling RCTV -- one of Venezuela's largest television stations -- in 2007.

In March, the Inter-American Press Association accused the government of leaning on advertisers, manipulating the exchange rate and creating regulations aimed at stifling dissent.

``Faced with the Chávez government's economic sabotage, the independent press in Venezuela is on the verge of collapsing and disappearing,'' the organization said in a report.

Zuloaga said he plans to keep running Globovisión while in exile. ``For the moment,'' he said, ``I'm a citizen of the world.''

CHAVEZ, LIKE OTHER COMMUNISTS, RAN ON "CHANGE"...look familiar?

DES MOINES, Iowa (IN THE HEARTLAND)– A billboard created by an Iowa tea party group that compares President Barack Obama to Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin is drawing sharp criticism — even from fellow tea party activists who have condemned it as offensive and a waste of money.

The North Iowa Tea Party began displaying the billboard in downtown Mason City last week. The sign shows large photographs of Obama, Nazi leader Hitler and communist leader Lenin beneath the labels "Democrat Socialism," "National Socialism," and "Marxist Socialism."

Beneath the photos is the phrase, "Radical leaders prey on the fearful & naive."

The co-founder of the roughly 200-person group said the billboard was intended to send an anti-socialist message. But Bob Johnson admitted Tuesday that the message may have gotten lost amid the images of fascist and communist leaders.

"The purpose of the billboard was to draw attention to the socialism. It seems to have been lost in the visuals," Johnson said. "The pictures overwhelmed the message. The message is socialism." He said he didn't know of any plans to remove the sign.

But others in the tea party movement criticized the sign.

Tea Party America

"That's just a waste of money, time, resources and it's not going to further our cause," said Shelby Blakely, a leader of the Tea Party Patriots, a national group. "It's not going to help our cause. It's going to make people think that the tea party is full of a bunch of right-wing fringe people, and that's not true."

Blakely also expressed outrage at linking Obama to Hitler, the leader of Nazi Germany who oversaw the killing of 6 million Jews and whose invasions of neighboring countries led to World War II.

"When you compare Obama to Hitler, that to me does a disservice to the Jews who both survived and died in the Holocaust and to the Germans who lived under Nazi regime rule," Blakely said.

John White, an Iowa coordinator of the Tea Party Patriots, said that he can understand the North Iowa group's perception that Obama is "Hitler-esque," but he thinks the billboard is offensive and unproductive. White said that he planned to discuss the matter with national tea party officials.

"I fear they may end up in some kind of trouble over it, because it's basically slanderous," White said. "I don't know that it's the message we want to send. I'd much rather see billboards that say 'Remember in November. Get Out and Vote.'"

The billboard is owned by Waitt Outdoor of Omaha, Neb. Waitt general manager, Kent Beatty, said the company didn't have a problem with the message.

"We believe in freedom of speech," Beatty said. "It doesn't reflect our views, necessarily."

The White House declined to comment on the sign.

One person who welcomed the billboard was Dean Genth, a Democratic activist from Mason City, a city of 30,000 people just south of the Minnesota border, who said he thinks the sign lays bare the views of tea party supporters.

"I welcome them to continue to spew that kind of stuff because I think it's going to do a lot of good for the good Democrats around the state," Genth said.

Venezuela's television network Globovision has even more cause than usual to worry about run-ins with the government. Its boss Guillermo Zuloaga, fiercely critical of Hugo Chavez, was arrested earlier this year for allegedly slandering the president. Now Caracas has issued an warrant for his arrest on other charges. Zuloaga has dropped out of sight, but left his staff at Globovision worrying about they claim is a targeted political persecution of their channel, and a fresh attack on the country's freedom of the press.

Watch the following video,

then click here for posting of October 25, 2009:

http://tpartyus2010.ning.com/forum/topics/it-will-never-happen-here-or

TEXT OF THE OCTOBER 25 POSTING

25 OCTOBER 2009:

THINK IT COULD NEVER HAPPEN HERE? THINK AGAIN!

(A story of deception, treachery, and betrayal

.....As told to me, in confidence)

January 1,1959, at the stroke of midnight, Castro brought his "change" to Cuba with a loud bang. My grandfather was a police officer in Havana and for that he was considered an enemy of the state. Within hours he was snatched from his wife and 3 children. He was unfairly sentenced to death by firing squad. My great aunt and my great grandmother pleaded for his life. So those revolutionary guerrillas sentenced him to 30 years in prison of which he served 21 and a half years. He was freed in 1979 due to a treaty that was signed between Cuba and the United states to free the oldest political prisoners. My grandpa was in that category. We were living in Miami at the time. We listened to the radio as they were announcing the political prisoner’s names and we heard my grandpa’s name, Jose Antonio Gonzalez! We drove from South Miami to the Opa-Locka airport. We were excited and yet nervous. I met my grandfather when I was 7 years old. My mother had her father until she was nine years old so at least she had some recollection of him. My uncle too. To my aunt however he was really non-existent she did know him at all until she was 24 years old and ready to be married. I always heard my family’s stories with great fascination.

One story my mother tells is when she was a little girl in school…She was 9-10 years old at the beginning of the revolution. One day the teacher told the children in her classroom to close their eyes. The children did so as they were told. Then, the teacher said, "now pray to God for a piece of candy." The teacher then commanded the children to open their eyes and they found no candy on their desks. So then the teacher again instructed the children to close their eyes and ‘pray to Fidel for a piece of candy.’ Then the teacher commanded the children to open their eyes and each child found a piece of candy on their desk. "See," she said "God doesn’t exist. Fidel will give you what you want."

So much was told to me. You can see a pain that still runs deep. These stories were passed on to me so that I and others may not fall into the same trap. It is what made me go out into the streets hand in hand with my grandmother and my great-aunt to protest the return of Elian Gonzalez to Cuba. It is what made me realize what a mistake I made in having believed in the Liberal promise and vote for Bill Clinton only to have him turn his back on the Cuban exiles like his fellow Democrat John F. Kennedy did so many years ago. This is why I do not believe the promises that are made by Barrack Hussein Obama. It is not about the color of skin black, brown, yellow, white; or political party Republican or Democrat. It is about defending our country’s very principle of freedom for all and family values. The core values that make our nation great. To me it is the reason why my family escaped Cuba….Freedom! My brother, Staff Sergeant James xxxxxxx, is defending our freedom right now in Afghanistan.

The fact that we have communists advising the President of this country and the fact that the President himself is a marxist defiles what my brother and so many others are fighting for and have fought for. Don’t let them fight and die in vain! Wake up America!! Do not let our children be indoctrinated the way they tried with my mother years ago. Don’t let our businesses that we sweat and work hard for be taken over like my grandmother’s business was years ago. This is why my family shares these stories. They are lessons that are very deeply engraved in my soul forever. -Maria

God Save America

Your Uncle Sam