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Obama’s buddy Chavez nationalizes an American company

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CBS News: Chavez orders expropriation (nationalization) of American company Owens-Illinois. (H/T ECM)

Excerpt:

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Monday ordered the expropriation of U.S.-based glass maker Owens-Illinois Inc.’s unit in the South American country.

Chavez announced plans to expropriate the company in a televised speech, saying it operates in western Trujillo state.

The leftist leader criticized the company’s practices in the country, saying it had been “taking away the money of Venezuelans” and exploiting local people. Chavez did not detail his complaints about the company.

There was no immediate reaction from the company, based in Perrysburg, Ohio.

Owens-Illinois also has operations throughout Latin America in Colombia, Brazil, Peru, Ecuador and the Caribbean, focusing on the manufacture of glass containers.

It was unclear how the government would handle compensation for the company’s assets in Venezuela.

Chavez has nationalized or expropriated a wide range of companies, including cement makers, retail stores and steel mills, while seeking to lead Venezuela toward a socialist system.

He said in his speech that more expropriations are planned.

“There’s another list around here,” Chavez said, but added that he would save additional announcements for later.

Here’s the Republican response to Hugo Chavez’s latest anti-American aggression.

Excerpt:

Republican U.S. Rep. Connie Mack targeted Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez on Tuesday — and ripped into the Obama administration for not standing up to him.

Mack, the ranking Republican on the House Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, noted that Chavez was continuing a world tour to push his country’s oil exportation.

[…]“While Chavez reaches out to nations across the world to explore and refine Venezuelan oil, what is the Obama administration doing?” demanded Mack, who is rumored to be running for the U.S. Senate in 2012. “The administration is failing to protect U.S. national security interests by ignoring the fact that we currently rely upon Venezuela for approximately 10 percent of U.S. oil imports. Instead of strengthening oil reserves or working with important U.S. allies such as Canada – which is well-poised to increase the flow of crude oil to our refineries – the Obama administration has not made it a priority.

“What’s more, as the administration sits idly by, Chavez continues his quest to nationalize key private-sector industries,” continued Mack. “During his trip to Belarus, Chavez announced the nationalization of two gold mines in Venezuela, and just yesterday Chavez announced the expropriation of the local affiliate of U.S.-based glassmaker Owens Illinois. Chavez acknowledged that his government has “a list with more names” of companies in Venezuela that will be expropriated.

“The Obama administration must get serious about dealing with the inherent threat that Chavez poses to our nation and the region,” concluded Mack. “We must take a hard look at our current energy portfolio and invest in energy projects with countries that respect international legal standards. And finally, for the security of our economy and the free market, Congress must support the pending free-trade agreements by passing them without delay.”

Where is Obama? Shouldn’t he be saying something about this?

Hey Obama! I can nationalize more private corporations than you can!

Oh. I guess they are having some sort of communist competition or something. Maybe trying to see whose country can hit 20% unemployment first?

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Left-wing NPR should lose all government funding for firing Juan Williams

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This 10-minute segment about NPR’s firing of Juan Williams is a MUST-SEE.

The CEO of NPR (Vivian Schiller) is a radical leftist. She even worked for the New York Times – the most radically left-wing newspaper in the entire nation.

Look, I love to watch Juan Williams. Sure he’s a lefty, and he says some crazy things sometimes, but he’s a great guy and a good journalist. Conservatives ought to go to the mat for Juan Williams because he has always been willing to come on Fox News and mix it up with people on the other side of the aisle – that makes him a stand-up guy in my book. NPR should be ashamed. And they should not be funded by the government if they are only going to present left-wing views. If they want to be Air America The Sequel, then let them do it with their own money, until they go bankrupt.

Sarah Palin calls for NPR to lose all government funding

Here’s what Sarah Palin said about Juan Williams’ firing. (H/T Gateway Pundit)

Excerpt:

At a time when our country is dangerously in debt and looking for areas of federal spending to cut, I think we’ve found a good candidate for defunding. National Public Radio is a public institution that directly or indirectly exists because the taxpayers fund it. And what do we, the taxpayers, get for this? We get to witness Juan Williams being fired from NPR for merely speaking frankly about the very real threat this country faces from radical Islam.

We have to have an honest discussion about the jihadist threat. Are we not allowed to say that Muslim terrorists have killed thousands of Americans and continue to plot the deaths of thousands more? Are we not allowed to say that there are Muslim states that aid and abet these fanatics? Are we not allowed to even debate the role that radical Islam plays in inciting this violence?

I don’t expect Juan Williams to support me (he’s said some tough things about me in the past) – but I will always support his right and the right of all Americans to speak honestly about the threats this country faces. And for Juan, speaking honestly about these issues isn’t just his right, it’s his job. Up until yesterday, he was doing that job at NPR. Firing him is their loss.

If NPR is unable to tolerate an honest debate about an issue as important as Islamic terrorism, then it’s time for “National Public Radio” to become “National Private Radio.” It’s time for Congress to defund this organization.

NPR says its mission is “to create a more informed public,” but by stifling debate on these issues, NPR is doing exactly the opposite. President Obama should make clear his commitment to free and honest discussion of the jihadist threat in our public debates – and Congress should make clear that unless NPR provides that public service, not one more dime.

Mr. President, what say you?

My favorite senator, Jim Demint of South Carolina, will introduce a bill to cut government funding of NPR.

If you want to see how far on the left NPR really is, read this story by Byron York. They will tolerate any insult directed at the center-right, but they can’t bear to even hear a mainstream conservative point of view.

http://gatewaypundit.firstthings.com/2010/10/bill-oreilly-npr-will-rue-the-day-congress-is-going-to-defund-npr-video/
Commentary

Who is on the political left in America and what are their goals?

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Walter Williams

From Investors Business Daily – economist Walter Williams explains the political left.

Excerpt:

One of the greatest sources of confusion and deception is the difference between leftists, progressives, socialists, communists and fascists.

I thought about this as I caught a glimpse of the Oct. 2 “One Nation” march on Washington.

[…]The gathering had the support of the AFL-CIO, Service Employees International Union, stalwarts of the Democratic Party such as Al Sharpton and organizations such as the NAACP, the National Council of La Raza, Green for All, the Sierra Club and the Children’s Defense Fund.

Let’s look at some of the history of socialism and communism.

Nazism is a form of socialism. In fact, Nazi stands for National Socialist German Workers’ Party. Nazis murdered 20 million of their own people and in nations they captured.

The unspeakable acts of Adolf Hitler’s Socialist Workers’ Party pale in comparison to the horrors committed in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). Between 1917 and 1987, Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin and their successors murdered, or were otherwise responsible for the deaths of, 62 million of their own people.

Between 1949 and 1987, Mao Tse-tung and his successors were responsible for the deaths of 76 million Chinese. The most authoritative tally of history’s most murderous regimes is in a book by University of Hawaii’s Professor Rudolph J. Rummel, “Death by Government.” A wealth of information is provided at his website.

[…]When Hitler, Stalin and Mao were campaigning for political power, you can bet they didn’t campaign on the promise to murder millions of their own people, and probably the thought of doing so never crossed their minds. Those horrors were simply the end result of long evolution of ideas leading to consolidation of power in central government in the quest for “social justice.”

It was decent but misguided earlier generations of Germans, Russians and Chinese, like many of today’s Americans, who would have cringed at the thought of genocide, who built the Trojan horse for a Hitler, a Stalin or Mao to take over.

[…]The primary goal of communism and socialism is government ownership or control over the means of production. In the U.S., only a few people call for outright government ownership of the means of production. They might have learned that government ownership would mess things up.

Instead, they’ve increasingly called for quasi-ownership through various forms of government regulation, oversight, taxation and subsidies. After all, if someone has the power to tell you how you may use your property, it’s tantamount to his owing it.

These are important things to understand about socialists/progressives/leftists/communists.

When you allow someone else to control the means by which you earn your living – by taxing you or by regulating your employer, for example – then you are giving up your freedom to earn your own money and to spend it as you see fit. Socialist dictators always get elected by people who have been duped into exchanging their liberty for the promise of “social justice” – equal life outcomes regardless of your free decisions. But the end is always the same – violence and poverty. To avoid mass murder, it makes sense to decentralize power over many individuals and businesses. And that’s why conservatives favor the free market and limited government.