The rumors about Chvezs health began spreading when Nelson Bocaranda, a columnist at Venezuelan daily El Universal,posted an article to his blog and several tweets saying the presidents health had deteriorated and he had traveled to Havana to assess whether he needed surgery. Bocaranda based the reporting on unnamed sources in Miami and Cuba.
The report contradicted official accounts of Chvezs health. The Venezuelan president has undergone four rounds of chemotherapy since his diagnosis in June and he has said since October that he is free of cancer.
Bocaranda added other colorful details. Chvez relies on steroids to maintain his strength and the appearance of good health as the campaign for the Venezuelan presidency against opposition candidate Henrique Capriles heats up, according to Bocaranda, who does not cite sources for the allegation.
And,
Bocarandas blog post wasnt the only report of Chvezs supposed deteriorating health to appear over the weekend.
Merval Pereira, a columnist with Brazils O Globo,reported on Friday that Chvezs cancer had metastasized and doctors expected it to spread to his liver. Pereira based the report on unnamed Brazilian doctors who he said had reviewed Chvezs medical records.
unconfirmed reports from numerous sources are indicating that Chavez is suffering from a Stage IV Sigmoid Duke C adenocarcinoma, and cannot undergo chemotherapy because of an abscess in the tumor.
While Venezuelan bloggers speculated on whether the reporters were engaged in promoting rumors, Chvez himself has now come forward with that information.
the U.S. should be seeking to defund the Chvez machine, and there is no better way to do that than with approval of the Keystone XL. The Alberta crude that will travel through the XL is of a similar quality to Venezuelan oil, and the U.S. could begin buying from Canada instead of from Venezuela if a pipeline were put in place.
There is one thing that Mr. Lugar and Venezuelans who don’t believe that Chvez has an oil weapon agree on, and that is the Venezuelan dictator’s vulnerability. “Divisions in Venezuela’s Russian-armed military, an inflation rate over 30 percent, a dilapidated oil infrastructure, widespread food and energy shortages, and soaring crime rates are all putting heavy pressure on [him],” the senator writes. Losing a customer like the U.S. might just push him over and with him, Iran’s strongest base of support in the hemisphere.
A new Internet ad by the presidents reelection campaign features a portrait of the first family asking supporters to help the Obamas stand up for working Americans. The appeal, a departure from the typical Obama messaging, provides an early glimpse of the role the presidents wife and daughters are likely to play in his campaign.
The wife and daughters are skiing in Aspen, the most expensive town in America, where they hired five ski instructors.
Americans in 1787 knew they could count on the moderation and virtue of this one man enough to entrust him with this brand new and undefined office. Washington knew his decisions and actions would be crucial to whether the officeand the Constitutionwould succeed for the ages. Few who are not philosophical spectators, he wrote, can realize the difficult and delicate part which a man in my situation has to act. . . In our progress toward political happiness my station is new; and, if I may use the expression, I walk on untrodden ground. There is scarcely any part of my conduct which may not hereafter be drawn into precedent.
As a President who took his bearings from the Constitution, Washington devoted considerable attention to foreign policy. Our first President sought to establish an energetic and independent foreign policy. He believed America needed a strong military so that it could choose peace or war, as our interest guided by justice shall Counsel. HisFarewell Address remains the preeminent statement of purpose for American foreign policy.
No survey of Washingtons legacy would be complete without acknowledging his profound commitment to religious liberty. Many today seem to have lost sight of the crucial distinction he drew between mere toleration and true religious liberty. As he explained in the memorableletter to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport:
All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship. It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people, that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights.
On this day, as we celebrate our greatest President (his actual birthday is on Wednesday), let us remember why heand not Polk or, heaven forbid, Wilsondeserves a national holiday.
At 9, he settled a dispute with a pistol. At 13, he lit out for the Amazon jungle.
At 20, he attempted suicide-by-jaguar. Afterward he was apprenticed to a pirate. To please his mother, who did not take kindly to his being a pirate, he briefly managed a mink farm, one of the few truly dull entries on his otherwise crackling rsum, which lately included a career as a professional gambler.
Obituarists live for the day when they can write an obit like that.
United States is experiencing the longest stretch of high unemployment since the Great Depression
How bad?
Many people would like to work but have not searched for a job in the past four weeks, or are working part-time but would prefer full-time work. If those people were counted among the unemployed, the unemployment rate in January 2012 would have been about 15 percent.
Just to emphasize, this isn’t the doom-laden dystopian fancy of a right-wing apocalyptic loon like me; it’s the official Oval Office version of where America’s headed.
ARGENTINA