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Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has ordered the expropriation of several historic buildings in the main square in the capital, Caracas.

The buildings include a former residence of the country's 19th Century independence hero, Simon Bolivar.

The president said the move was part of an effort to preserve Venezuela's national heritage.

The order is likely to please and anger Venezuelans in equal measures, says the BBC's Will Grant in Caracas.

President Chavez's instructions to take over several buildings came during an impromptu tour of the square from where he was presenting his weekly television programme, Alo Presidente.


"What's that building? Wasn't it once a theatre?" Mr Chavez asked the mayor of Caracas, Jorge Rodriguez, who was accompanying him.

Reassured that the state theatre was already in state hands, Mr Chavez turned his attention to the building next door, which he was told was now owned by a jeweller.

"Expropriate it," he said.

Mr Chavez also ordered that another building, once occupied by Simon Bolivar, pass into state hands, as well as a number of other sites of historic interest.

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Originally posted by Kwicko:
So taking buildings without consultation or legal process makes one a socialist, eh?

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Originally posted by Geezer:
But back on topic. Do you have any problem with Pres. Chavez expropriating people's businesses and homes without due process, or is that okay with you? Do you think that's fair?

"Keep the Shiny side up"

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Originally posted by Geezer:

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Originally posted by Kwicko:
So taking buildings without consultation or legal process makes one a socialist, eh?

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Yeah. I guess that does make Saddam Hussein a Socialist too.

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But back on topic. Do you have any problem with Pres. Chavez expropriating people's businesses and homes without due process, or is that okay with you? Do you think that's fair?

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Originally posted by AURaptor:

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Originally posted by Geezer:
But back on topic. Do you have any problem with Pres. Chavez expropriating people's businesses and homes without due process, or is that okay with you? Do you think that's fair?

"Keep the Shiny side up"

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Now THAT's funny. Asking some on this forum to "stay on topic ". Good luck w/ that !

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Originally posted by AURaptor:
Iraq, Japan, Germany...... all exactly the same, huh?





The T.Rex they call JANE!

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Originally posted by Kwicko:

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Originally posted by AURaptor:
Iraq, Japan, Germany...... all exactly the same, huh?

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My, you ARE stupid, aren't you?

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Originally posted by Geezer:

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Originally posted by Kwicko:
So taking buildings without consultation or legal process makes one a socialist, eh?

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Yeah. I guess that does make Saddam Hussein a Socialist too.

But back on topic. Do you have any problem with Pres. Chavez expropriating people's businesses and homes without due process, or is that okay with you? Do you think that's fair?

"Keep the Shiny side up"

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Originally posted by AURaptor:

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Originally posted by Kwicko:

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Originally posted by AURaptor:
Iraq, Japan, Germany...... all exactly the same, huh?

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My, you ARE stupid, aren't you?

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Just burned you and obliterated your nonsensical point.

Stupid like a fox, huh?

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Originally posted by AURaptor:


Just burned you and obliterated your nonsensical point.

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Originally posted by Geezer:
So maybe this will be the benchmark by which we determine when Pres. Obama goes Socialist.

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Originally posted by antimason:

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Originally posted by Geezer:
So maybe this will be the benchmark by which we determine when Pres. Obama goes Socialist.

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well.. lets be fair, Obamas probably more a 'corporatist'. if General Motors literally became 'Government Motors', we could call him a socialist. as it stands, he's perfectly content continuing the status quo of giving mega-corporations the protection of the US taxpayer, rendering them infallable. like GE, like the insurance companies, like the banks, like the military industrial suppliers... and so on

but hey whos counting...

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Originally posted by AURaptor:
No response to the issue, huh?

Didn't think so.

Go find some more pics to post, you got nothing else.

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Originally posted by Kwicko:
Which makes him worse than Bush... HOW, exactly?

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Originally posted by Kwicko:

As for your ludicrous claims that we never took over Iraq, or Japan, or Germany? You DO know what an UNCONDITIONAL surrender is, don't you? You DO know that we then installed governments in those places, right? But yeah, in that howling vacuum of your head, I'm sure none of those count as invasions, occupations, or taking over. SUUUUUURRRRRE they don't.

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Originally posted by Kwicko:
Who did you imagine Saddam took those buildings from when he built them?

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I'm sure I have as much problem with that as you did with the invasion and expropriation of Iraq by the U.S.

You DO have a problem with that, don't you? Do you think it's fair, or is it okay with you?

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Originally posted by GinoBiffaroni:
You keep saying without due process ?

what is due process here?

BBC did not say

Are the people in question appealing ?

http://countrystudies.us/venezuela/41.htm

A court system does exist, are the laws in Venezuela being broken ?

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This also happens in Israel all the time without the right to appeal, are they socialists too ? of course there it is not to preserve historic buildings, but to run out folk they don't like... is that okay with you? Do you think that's fair?, which is worse ?

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Originally posted by Geezer:

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Originally posted by Kwicko:
Who did you imagine Saddam took those buildings from when he built them?

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If he built them, then he didn't take them from anyone.

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I'm sure I have as much problem with that as you did with the invasion and expropriation of Iraq by the U.S.

You DO have a problem with that, don't you? Do you think it's fair, or is it okay with you?

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So you expect Chavez will give the stores and homes back? Wanna bet?

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Human Rights Watch notes that "Venezuela currently lacks a credible, independent judiciary that can serve as a check on arbitrary state action and a guarantor of fundamental rights."

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Posted by Fremdfirma:

Nope, for YOU, this isn't about the act in question, which I consider wrong no matter who does it or where, for YOU this is about *who* is committing it, cause it's all just bullshit and excuses to flame a guy the producers of your current political Kool-Aid do not like, without a single thought in your pointy little heads to the notion that your little pet Kool-Aid servers are as guilty or worse of DOING THAT SHIT HERE.

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Originally posted by Fremdfirma:
Well shit, so do we, to put it bluntly.

And while the rise to power and resultant corruption have driven ole Hugo off the deep end of the slippery slope, this really isn't one whit different that misuse of eminent domain here in the states, is it now ?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelo_v._City_of_New_London

So where were you when this was an issue, eh ?

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Nope, for YOU, this isn't about the act in question, which I consider wrong no matter who does it or where, for YOU this is about *who* is committing it, cause it's all just bullshit and excuses to flame a guy the producers of your current political Kool-Aid do not like, without a single thought in your pointy little heads to the notion that your little pet Kool-Aid servers are as guilty or worse of DOING THAT SHIT HERE.

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Originally posted by Fremdfirma:
He ever was ?

Unfortunately Geeze, we DO bear some responsibility since they've got such a short yardstick to measure him by thanks to that asshat Perez, and frankly even as fallen as he is, he's still better on his worst day than Perez was.

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But it's THEIR country, man, when they want our "advice", our "help", which if they had any sense they'd nuke themselves rather than do, they'll bloody well ask for it.

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That said, you DO have some of that better-dead-than-red aroma comin off ya like a bad aftershave, Geeze, so why not be honest about it ?

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Fremd, if folk actually want to be Socialists or Communists, (or pretty much anything else) it's fine with me

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Fremd, if folk actually want to be Socialists or Communists, (or pretty much anything else) it's fine with me - as long as it's not with a gun to their heads, or with their guns to my head.

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You forgot to accuse me of being a paid shill for the government, like you used to

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Iraq, Japan, Germany...... all exactly the same, huh?

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Originally posted by Bytemite:

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Iraq, Japan, Germany...... all exactly the same, huh?

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I'm not sure what this has to do with Chavez, unless this is a response to Kwicko's point about expropriating nations, and the argument is that the U.S. was justified in Germany and Japan, and will eventually be justified in Iraq.

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Iraq is no more taken over by us than Japan or Germany. As Obamessiah has stated, we're on course to leave, as we have always planned to leave.

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The overall point being, we left those countries

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Originally posted by Bytemite:
Still, not such a great idea to walk into a country and carve it up. It's basically trying to build a skyscraper with only dynamite and bullets.

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Originally posted by SignyM:
Having nothing substantive to refute my post with, you launched right into a personal attack

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Originally posted by Geezer:

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Originally posted by SignyM:
Having nothing substantive to refute my post with, you launched right into a personal attack

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Sorry, Siggy, but when you spend two paragraphs insulting someone, you really shouldn't expect them to take the time to wade through your paranoid insults and provide substantive refutations of whatever little bits of discussion you hide there.

"Keep the Shiny side up"

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