Daily Thought Pad: Venezuelan Communist Dictator's Takeover Virtually Complete… and Why It Matters to You

The biggest problem with the Communist takeover happening in Venezuela is that they have petro-dollars (oil money) to offset the massive inefficiencies of Hugo Chavez' Communist Regime, thus making it APPEAR to be a successful Communist nation. Having built up its economy during decades of Capitalism, they have now seized total power, and have oil dollars upon which to fall back. Hugo Chavez now has the power granted him by the Venezuelan Socialist-dominated legislature to rule by decree.

Think of Chavez' new power as Executive Orders on steroids.
He can do anything, and make it legal by the stroke of a pen. That was the path we were on in February of 2009, until the American people did what the Venezuelans failed to do: we fought back, and in January, we'll have the lower house of Congress back in our hands. But it's interesting to note that even with these new dictatorial powers, Hugo Chavez is behind Obama & George Soros in taking control of his nation's financial sector. The Obama Regime beat the Chavez Regime to the punch on that one.

Just imagine where we'd be if the Democrats had somehow won filibuster-proof majorities in both houses, because the 9.12 Project/Tea Party movement never happened? Obama would have beaten Chavez to in this area, as well. But now we can see our way clear to the Restoration of America (after continuing our fight for several more years, obviously!) at a bright point in our future.
And Venezuela? I fear greatly for their future. Hugo Chavez' opposition has finally united in the face of this growing threat, but it may be too little, too late. Here's the story from Reuters:

UPDATE 6-Venezuela assembly gives Chavez decree powers

Fri Dec 17, 2010 6:24pm EST - By Frank Jack Daniel

* Socialist president given powers for 18 months
* Chavez had asked for one year
* Move is part of a raft of legislation
* Parliament also passed tough new banking rules (Adds details, background)

CARACAS, Dec 17 (Reuters) - Venezuela's parliament gave President Hugo Chavez decree powers for 18 months on Friday, outraging opposition parties that accused him of turning South America's biggest oil producer into a dictatorship.

The move consolidated the firebrand socialist leader's hold on power after nearly 12 years in office, and raised the prospect of a fresh wave of nationalizations as the former paratrooper seeks to entrench his self-styled "revolution."

Chavez had asked for the fast-track powers for one year, saying he needed them to deal with a national emergency caused by floods that drove nearly 140,000 people from their homes
But the Assembly, which is dominated by loyalists from his Socialist Party, decided to extend them for a year and a half.

That means the president can rule by decree until mid-2012, and can keep opposition parties out of the legislative process until his re-election campaign is well under way for Venezuela's next presidential vote in December of that year.

The president of parliament, Cilia Flores, said lawmakers must heed the appeals of families afflicted by the floods.

"It is raised to 18 months at the proposal of those immediately affected, the same people who are there relying on Comandante Chavez," she told the Assembly.

"So that they can have their streets, their highways, public services, electricity, everything to live in dignity, we are going to hear these proposals and concerns."

The vote was part of a legislative onslaught to push through bills before a new National Assembly is seated on Jan. 5. Earlier on Friday, parliament passed a law making it easier for the government to nationalize banks and trim their profits.

FOCUS ON 2012
The "Enabling Law," which means the president can issue decrees across a wide range of areas including housing, land, finances and security, has been denounced as autocratic by his political rivals as well as by the U.S. State Department.

A freshly united opposition coalition won about half the popular vote at a parliamentary election in September to take 40 percent of the seats in the next Assembly -- where they had hoped to put a check on the president's powers.

Chavez's latest move raised concern about whether he would accept defeat if the 2012 election does not go his way. Polls show his traditionally high ratings have slipped, with the nation split down the middle in September elections.

The president, who has used decree powers three times in the past, has said one of his first moves will be to increase the sales tax to raise funds for reconstruction after the floods.
In the past he has used the fast-track powers to pass about 100 laws, including measures to nationalize part of the oil sector and increase the number of Supreme Court judges.

The new banking law passed earlier on Friday creates stringent operating rules that include forcing banks to give 5 percent of their profits every six months to community groups.

It also allows Chavez to order the takeover of institutions that he deems problematic, a move previously made by the banking watchdog. Chavez has increased the state's role in the sector this year, but a total takeover of banking is unlikely.

Chavez, who has inherited Fidel Castro's mantle as Latin America's leading U.S. critic, still has a strong power base in city slums and impoverished rural areas. (Castro has recently admitted that his experiment in Cuba that destroyed generations was a mistake.)

Although his foes' view him as an autocrat ushering in Cuban-style communism, supporters say he is redressing years of imbalance and has encouraged democracy by giving power and funds to grass-roots groups that decide on some public works.

Source: Jared Law at the 9.12 Project Venezuelan Communist Dictator's Takeover Virtually Complete

The Obama/Soros/Progressive Globalist plan was to do exactly the same thing simultaneously here in the United States. It didn’t (hasn’t) happened because of the Tea Party Movement, people like Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Mark Stein, Laura Ingraham, Judge Andrew Napolitano, Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee and a long list of other Libertarian, Conservative, Patriotic and Constitution loving bell-ringers on radio, TV, the Internet, on the ground and with the written word who have little by little educated and illuminated the public with news and information they would never have gotten from the mainstream media (MSM) or even in school.

The left knows this so are now attacking freedom of the press, speech and information through the FCC, even though Congress and the courts have voted/ruled against net-neutrality and told the FCC that the have no jurisdiction to control the Internet.

While most of us will be celebrating or still Christmas shopping, the FCC will be meeting on December 21st in an attempt to try to regulate and essentially takeover the Internet and control Conservative and Independent voices on the radio and other media…

What you can do:

1. Please watch

Judge Napolitano on Net Neutrality

Video: Net Neutrality

Wave Good-bye to Internet Freedom

2. Contact your Senators and Congresspeople

3. Read and participate Below:

Fellow American Patriot,

Barack Obama has a "Christmas surprise" for the American people. It's based upon the FCC's self-imposed December 21 deadline to implement new Internet rules.

Via the FCC, Mr. Obama wants to take control of the Internet---YOUR Internet---your ability to contact your friends, your relatives, and your elected representatives in government.
This "stealth" use of new rules and regulations will sneak up on us just before Christmas. Quite frankly, not too many people know about this; or really take the notion seriously, because, after all, we have the 1st Amendment to the U. S. Constitution to protect us. Right? Wrong!

The FCC is ready to add the Internet to its "portfolio" of regulated industries. The Obama Administration wants to take control of the Internet. BEFORE CHRISTMAS! (even though the regulations won't "officially" go into effect until after the holidays. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski announced that he has circulated "draft rules" that he says will "preserve the freedom and openness of the Internet." No statement---I call it a bald face lie---reflects the vast gulf between the rhetoric and the reality of Obama Administration policy.
Obama's FCC is ready to steal our Internet freedom by simply declaring it has the "right" to regulate it. Here's the underlying problem for Barack Obama. Internet journalists tend to report the news without coloring it with the brush of "political correctness." They challenge the lies that the Obama Administration puts out that the so-called "mainstream media" simply accept and repeat as the truth.

Please, CLICK HERE to send a FAX to every single Member of Congress TODAY, and tell them that they need to exercise their Constitutional authority and oversight over the FCC, by insisting that the FCC postpone the implementation of these new regulations until proper Congressional Committee hearings are held to determine whether the Executive Branch has the Constitutional authority to take over the Internet. Three federal judges in three different cases have already ruled that the Internet deserves the same protection under the First Amendment as printed material receives. AND, please be sure to send a sizeable DONATION to the United States Justice Foundation (USJF) as we keep this Internet freedom issue before the eyes of every Member of Congress. We must not let the federal government continue to whittle away at our Constitutional freedoms!

We must be prepared to do battle with the intrusive FCC federal regulations that will clamp down on our 1st Amendment rights via the Internet. To protect our free speech rights on the Internet, we must fax every single Member of Congress and let them know they must NOT agree to the upcoming December 21st regulations! Will you do that for yourself and for the rest of us... today---please? This is so important; let me repeat my request so you understand the extreme urgency. Because, historically, when government seizes liberty, it's gone forever.

According to the Washington Times: "With a straight face, Mr. Genachowski suggested that government red tape will increase the 'freedom' of online services that have flourished because bureaucratic busybodies have been blocked from tinkering with the Web. Ordinarily, it would be appropriate at this point to supply an example from the proposed regulations illustrating the problem. Mr. Genachowski's draft document has over 550 footnotes and is stamped 'non-public, for internal use only' to ensure nobody outside the agency sees it until the rules are approved in a scheduled December 21 vote. So much for 'openness.'

Mr. Obama will use the FCC plans to implement control of cyberspace by issuing regulations. He blatantly insists that he has the right to regulate the Internet through the FCC---which regulates the other electronic mediums: radio and television. What Mr. Obama really means is that as long as the American people have unfettered access to the Internet, he cannot continue to spread his propaganda and bald face lies without being challenged, and he will be a one-term visitor at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Make no mistake; Barack Hussein Obama is very determined to undermine free speech by seizing cyber-control Internet free speech; under the disguise of making sure our safety and security are of prime importance. The recent WikiLeaks fiasco has helped him to rationalize this tremendous increase of government control to the American public.

Freedom and openness should continue to be the governing principles of the Internet. That's why Mr. Genachowski's December 21 proposals should be STOPPED by Members of Congress. In fact, both the U. S. Senate and the House of Representatives should make it even clearer that the FCC should STOP trying to expand its REGULATORY EMPIRE and should STOP trying to control our freedom of speech over the internet!

In the administration's zeal to "protect the people," the social progressive zealots in the Obama federal bureaucracy are not averse to writing the rules and regulations like this. It makes a clear statement. It takes away our freedoms on the Internet; but it is all under the claim of "protection."
That's why the proposed FCC Internet rules and regulations---THAT ARE ABOUT TO BE IMPLEMENTED without Congressional legislation being enacted---must be stopped by that Body whose legislative authority has been abridged.

That is why YOU must get involved this very moment!

Please. Do NOT sit idly by and calmly surrender your freedoms on the Internet. Please fax every single Member of Congress. (And don't forget to give a generous donation to USJF.)
Don't let the Obama Administration give you a government "Merry Christmas" via Internet controls. Send Barack Obama your personal "BAH, HUMBUG!"

Say "Merry Christmas" with a message that STOPS the federal government from crossing that Constitutional line by seizing the Internet. Barrack Hussein Obama blames the Tea Party Revolution, and the results of the 2010 election, on the American conservatives' unfettered access to the Internet. That appears to be the real reason that the Obama Administration authorized the FCC power grab to regulate the Internet. Obama talking heads might refer to regulation as a form of "Net Neutrality," or a cyber-version of the "Fairness Doctrine." But, plain and simple, it is plain, old fashioned, censorship of the views of a majority by a frightened minority who want to silence that majority. Are you part of the no-longer "silent" majority which believes that the 1st Amendment protects our right to speak our mind, in the public forum of the Internet, or at a Town Hall meeting? Free speech is free. Don't let anyone regulate your right to speak. Get involved. Now. Today.

Please, CLICK HERE to send a FAX to every single Member of Congress TODAY and tell them that they need to exercise their Constitutional authority and oversight over the FCC by insisting that the FCC postpone the implementation of these new regulations until proper Congressional Committee hearings are held to determine whether the Executive Branch has the Constitutional authority to take over the Internet. Three federal judges in three different cases have already ruled that the Internet deserves the same protection under the First Amendment as printed material receives. AND, please be sure to send a sizeable DONATION to the United States Justice Foundation (USJF) as we keep this Internet freedom issue before the eyes of every Member of Congress. We must not let the federal government continue to whittle away at our Constitutional freedoms!

When it comes to the Internet, bipartisan majorities in Congress have insisted on maintaining a strict hands-off policy whenever the left has proposed legislation to impose censorship through regulation. A federal appeals court confirmed this in April, by striking down the FCC's last attempt to do it. In order for the FCC to take this control, it needs Congress to give it explicit statutory authority to do so. Since they have chosen not to, Mr. Obama intends to just do it himself. The Obama Administration is overstepping its Constitutional boundaries? These proposed regulations prove that!

December 21 is only days away.

That's why we must Fax every Member of Congress, RIGHT NOW, to stop this government intrusion into our private, on-line, communications. We have not witnessed this kind of government intrusion since FDR tried to regulate newspapers in 1933.

Freedom of the Press is guaranteed by the First Amendment. Federal judges have ruled specifically that the Internet has the exact same freedoms. But the Obama Administration is trying to control the Internet... and YOU!

On December 1, with an impending implementation on December 21st, Mr. Genachowski announced to the media that he had circulated his draft rules memo. He said it will "... preserve the freedom and openness of the Internet," adding that the federal government will increase the freedom of online services because, he noted, heavy use in some areas of the Internet slow the "web experience" for everyone sharing the same information superhighway lines.

Even though that may be partially true, the United States government should not dictate to us what we can and cannot do on the Internet. Period.

Will you assist us to make sure that our Internet remains OURS, not Barack Obama's?
Please, give us your support, right now, by faxing every Member of Congress.

Although the federal judiciary has extended First Amendment protection to the Internet, Barack Obama believes that he has the executive authority, WITHOUT legislation enacted by Congress, to arbitrarily regulate who uses cyberspace and what access they may enjoy, based entirely on the content of the material that they wish to publish there. If this isn't a violation of our basic rights as Americans, I do not know what is!

I must hear from you NOW!

Thank you for your desire to keep the Internet FREE,

Gary G. Kreep, Esq.
Executive Director
United States Justice Foundation

P. S. - At USJF, our goal is to keep a watchful eye on the unlawful expansion of government. That's why we must keep the Internet totally free from FCC rules and regulations. Please respond ASAP, as these regulations will voted into effect on December 21, 2010. Send the FCC our version of "Merry Christmas!"