Fausta's Blog

Hugo Chavez Needs Surgery after Finding New Lesion during Trip to Cuba

The rumors about Chávez’s health began spreading when Nelson Bocaranda, a columnist at Venezuelan daily El Universal, posted an article to his blog and several tweets saying the president’s 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 Chávez’s 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. Chávez 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,

Bocaranda’s blog post wasn’t the only report of Chávez’s supposed deteriorating health to appear over the weekend.

Merval Pereira, a columnist with Brazil’s O Globo, reported on Friday that Chávez’s 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 Chávez’s medical records.

In addition to the above,

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, Chávez himself has now come forward with that information.

You can hear him say it (in Spanish),

The next surgery he’s facing must be major surgery or he would not have released this news to the public.

Let’s hope the USA administration has contingency plans in case of Hugo’s demise.

The financial world is not what we understand it to be.

Four videos that recently came to my attention explain debt and who owns your money,

1. The Rise of the Financial Empire,

Read the rest of this entry »

Aiming to “reset” the button, Hillary stands out in the crowd; perhaps she thought she was in Rode Island with Joe Biden,

Didn’t get the memo? Hillary Clinton dons lime green shirt for G20 ‘family photo’ while everyone else wears white (h/t Babalu)

Fashion faux-pas, or smart diplomacy? You decide!

Mary O’Grady asks,
Keystone XL and National Security
Who gains the most from Obama’s rejection of a new oil pipeline?

the U.S. should be seeking to defund the Chávez 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 Chávez 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.

Read the whole thing.

and we’re supposed to think that “the Obamas stand up for working Americans”?

A new Internet ad by the president’s 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 president’s 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.

Sixteen vacations in three years

– President’s Day 2012, Michelle and the first daughters in Aspen, Colorado to ski.

– Christmas 2011, the first family in Hawaii for an extended vacation.

– Summer 2011, in Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., for the annual beach break.

– June 2011, the first lady, her mother and daughters traveled to South Africa and Botswana.

– President’s Day 2011, the first lady and first daughters travel to Vail to ski.

– Christmas 2010, in Hawaii.

– August 2010, the first family traveled to Panama City Beach, Fla., for some sun and fun at the beach.

– August 2010, Obama spent the weekend alone in Chicago for his 49th birthday bash.

– August 2010, the first lady and daughter Sasha traveled to Spain for a mother-daughter vacation.

– August 2010, summer vacation again at Martha’s Vineyard.

– July 2010, the first family went to Mount Desert Island, Maine.

– May 2010, the first family had a four-day trip to Chicago.

– March 2010, first lady and daughter spend Spring Break in New York City.

– Christmas 2009, Hawaii again for the annual break.

– August 2009, at Yellowstone National Park and the Grand Canyon for a short vacation.

– August 2009, their first summer vacation as first family at Martha’s Vineyard, Mass.

If you’re working (a big “IF”), when was the last time you went on vacation? And forget about the 15% that are unemployed.

The Obamas stand for working Americans…only if those Americans own Aspen Skiing Co.

(h/t Maria)

At the Exxon station at 2708 Virginia Ave NW, 10 blocks due west of the White House.

Hope, change, whatever.

Was the first President the best President?
Yes.

Steven Hayward points to this book, The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Presidents: From Wilson to Obama, which points out that,

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 office—and the Constitution—would 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.

David Azerrad writes about Washington, the Indispensable Man of the Revolution

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.” His Farewell Address remains the preeminent statement of purpose for American foreign policy.

No survey of Washington’s 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 memorable letter 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 he–and not Polk or, heaven forbid, Wilson–deserves a national holiday.

Thank you, George Washington!

ARGENTINA
Amalia Lacroze de Fortabat, billionaire cement heiress and modern art patron, dies at 90

Asesinan a dirigente de segunda fuerza parlamentaria de Argentina

BELIZE
Immigrants in Belize
A Spanish accent
How foreigners are transforming a small English-speaking country

BRAZIL
Carnival,

Jennifer Lopez & Fergie Samba at Rio Carnival

Brazilian cardinal slams Euro-centric Catholic Church

CHILE
Oasis of Tiny Life Discovered Beneath Desert; no, no hobbits.

COLOMBIA
Colombia priests ‘hired own killers’ in suicide pact
Two Colombian priests who were found shot dead in the capital Bogota a year ago themselves hired the assassins who killed them, prosecutors say.

CUBA
Seven Lessons Cubans Can Learn
From the Taiwanese

ECUADOR
A Cry for Press Freedom

High Court Upholds Libel Suit in Ecuador

EL SALVADOR
Public Security In El Salvador: The Slide Towards Re-Militarization – Analysis

HAITI
Book review: Haiti’s history
Many trials and errors
A legacy of villains, inside and outside the country

HONDURAS
Honduras Prison Fire Kills Hundreds

Jails in Honduras
An avoidable tragedy
A horrific fire puts a long-overdue spotlight on prison conditions

LATIN AMERICA
Reich tells CPAC Obama admin must distinguish between friends and enemies in Latin America

MEXICO
Mexico Prison Riot Leaves 44 Dead

Mexico Posts Huge 3 Ton Sign on Border Reading, “NO MORE WEAPONS!”

Once the Needle Goes In It Never Comes Out

NICARAGUA
Administration Delegation to Nicaragua “Legitimizes Ortega,” Ros-Lehtinen Charges

PUERTO RICO
This ‘Diary’ rather incomplete

VENEZUELA
Henrique Capriles wins primaries in Venezuela, will face Chavez in October

Venezuela’s oil industry
Spilling over
An oil spill bodes ill for the president’s re-election campaign

The week’s posts:
Hey, Sean, how about Hugo’s homophobic, anti-Semitic propaganda?
“Cartels” as a misnomer
Val Prieto to Dana Milbank: I got your chimichanga right here
Chavez’z anti-Semitism pops up in the electoral campaign
Sean Penn {hearts} Cristina
Hezbollah in the tri-border area, Hezbollah in the tri-state area
Fortuño’s Plan to Energize Puerto Rico

“Find out what it is in life that you don’t do well, and then don’t do that thing.”

Jamie Weinstein of the Daily Caller tells us that The real-life most interesting man in the world passes – John Fairfax, Who Rowed Across Oceans, Dies at 74, who apparently, like the fictional Most Interesting Man in the World (a.k.a. TMIMITW), thought that “it’s never too early to start beefing up your obituary”

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 résumé, which lately included a career as a professional gambler.

Obituarists live for the day when they can write an obit like that.

Here’s the fictional TMIMITW,

“Stay thirsty, my friends.”

From the Congressional Budget Office report,
Understanding and Responding to Persistently High Unemployment, February 2012, (h/t Big Government)

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.

Since High Real Unemployment Data Reflect Poorly On Obama, the Brokest Nation In History Fusses Instead About Sex, as Mark Steyn points out (h/t Instapundit):

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.

Additionally,

And, as Chart 5-1 on page 58 of the official Obama budget “Analytical Perspectives” makes plain, your feckless, decadent rulers have no plans to do anything about it.

Timothy Geithner, Secretary of the Treasury, actually said,

on behalf of the Obama White House, to Rep. Paul Ryan: “You are right to say we’re not coming before you today to say ‘we have a definitive solution to that long term problem.’ What we do know is, we don’t like yours.”

Hear him say it,

Back to Mark Steyn,

Instead, the Democrats shriek, ooh, Republican prudes who can’t get any action want to shut down your sex life! According to CBO projections, by midcentury mere interest payments on the debt will exceed federal revenues.

For purposes of comparison, by 1788 Louis XVI’s government in France was spending a mere 60% of revenues on debt service, and we know how that worked out for His Majesty shortly thereafter.

Meanwhile, a post-menopausal Andrea Mitchell is scandalized over a very old joke.

Mitchell, married to former chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank Alan Greenspan, apparently can’t take her mind off sex long enough to peruse the real scandal.

With real unemployment at 15%, and gasoline prices expected to rise above $4.50/gallon by Memorial Day, you can’t help but wonder what distraction the media is going to concoct next.