Today's Stories

February 17, 2009

Michael Hudson
The Oligarchs' Escape Plan

February 16, 2009

Patrick Cockburn
Iraq Reconstruction: the Greatest Fraud in US History?

Oscar Guardiola-Rivera
The Truth About Colombia's New Emperor

Paul Craig Roberts
Who Remembers Guns and Butter?

Uri Avnery
Livni's Bitter Options

P. Sainath
The Meltdown: Whose Crisis Is It?

Dedrick Muhammad / Michael Brown
White Recession, Black Depression

Carla Blank
A New New Deal for the Arts

Patrick Irelan
Venezuela Ends Term Limits

Dan Bacher
Is Delta Pumping Driving Salmon and Orca Decline?

Fidel Castro
Chavez's Clarion Call

Harvey Wasserman
Hail to the Spleef: Did George Washington Smoke Pot?

Website of the Day
Mining Black Mesa

February 13 - 15, 2009

Alexander Cockburn
On the Rocks

Joshua Frank
The Myth of Clean Coal

Mike Whitney
Geithner's Coming Out Party

George Ciccariello-Maher
Venezuela's Term Limits: More Hypocrisy From the NYT

Nikolas Kozloff
Venezuela Beyond the Referendum

Brian M. Downing
Pakistan on the Brink

Paul Craig Roberts
Deficit Nonchalance

Christopher Ketcham
Israel's Ball Boys

Ron Jacobs
At a Campus Sit-In Against Israeli Occupation

Dave Lindorff
Why Can Judd Gregg See What Obama Can't?

Alan Maass
Lincoln at 200

Chuck Spinney
Grassley Sounds Off on Obama's Man at the Pentagon

Phil Gasper
Mr. Darwin's Reluctant Revolution

Stephen Lendman
A Short History of Business Handouts

Charles Thomson
Tate Cruises: Caveat Emptor on the High Seas

Kathy Sanborn
The Suicide Rush

Saul Landau
Bowled Over

Len Wengraf
The Nightmare in Somalia

Harvey Wasserman
Striking a Blow Against Nuclear Power

David Macaray
An Easy Call for Obama on Joining a Union

Tom Stephens
Four Freedoms, Four Changes

Seth Sandronsky
Lincoln and the Collective Mind

David Yearsley
On the Road Again

Lorenzo Wolff
Freaking Out With Danny Barnes

Kim Nicolini
The Body of the Worker: What "The Wrestler" Says About the State of America

Poets' Basement
Anderson, Buknatski and French

Website of the Weekend
The Iranian Revoution and the US Dual Containment Policy: a Presentation

February 12, 2009

P. Sainath
Neo-Liberal Terrorism in India: The Largest Wave of Suicides in History

Jean Bricmont
French Echoes of the Israeli-Palestine Conflict

Michael Hudson
Trying to Revive the Bubble Economy: Obama's Awful Financial Recovery Plan

Peter Lee
Pakistan, Not Afghanistan, is the Main Event

Dave Lindorff
Judges Nabbed, Jailing Kids for Kickbacks

February 11, 2009

Neve Gordon
Few Peacemakers in the New Israeli Knesset

Peter Morici
Anatomy of a Hemorrhage

Andy Worthington
Who's Running Guantánamo?

Marjorie Cohn
A Call to End All Renditions

Fred Gardner
Change We Can Smoke?

Niranjan Ramakrishnan
The G & O (Geithner and Obama) Bank

Zoe Blunt
Vancouver Island Hippies: Top Security Threat for 2010?

Belén Fernández
Politics on the Panamericana

Martha Rosenberg
Don't Breathe the Meat

Website of the Day
George Dyson on Project Orion

Blues of the Day
David Vest on the CBC

February 10, 2009

Kathy Kelly
How Do People Keep Going?

Nikolas Kozloff
The Stimulus Imbroglio

Uri Avnery
Dirty Socks

Michael J. Berg
Will South Carolina be the Center of the Nuclear Revival?

Russell Mokhiber
Et Tu, Atul?

Joe Bageant
A Commodity Called Misery

Gareth Porter
Petraeus' Subterfuge

Dave Lindorff
Seek Truth, But Prosecute Liars

Rannie Amiri
The Implications of Recognizing Israel's "Right to Exist"

Harvey Wasserman
Nukes and the Stimulus

Niranjan Ramakrishnan
What We Didn't Learn at Obama's Press Conference

Website of the Day
RIAA Takes Over DoJ Under Obama

February 9, 2009

Vicente Navarro
Why Sanjay Gupta is the Wrong Man for Top US Health Job

Paul Craig Roberts
Driving Over the Cliff

Julio Sanchez /
Feliz de Bedout
The Threat of Peace in Colombia: an Interview with Hollman Morris

National Lawyers Guild
Strong Indications of Israeli War Crimes

Jonathan Cook
Israeli University Welcomes "War Crimes" Colonel

Alana Smith
The Nightmarish Case of Fahad Hashmi

Binoy Kampmark
Taking the Bong

Sam Bahour
End the Occupation First

Nicole Colson
Can You Afford College?

Ron Jacobs
Remembering the Second Intifada

Website of the Day
The Legacy of Ed Grothus and the Black Hole

February 6-8, 2009

Alexander Cockburn
Obama's First Bad Week

Ishmael Reed
Saint Thelma's Book

James Abourezk
Obama, Mitchell and the Palestinians

William Blum
Obama and the Empire

Patrick Cockburn
Maliki's Triumph

Henry A. Giroux
Educating Obama

Manuel Garcia, Jr.
Darwin's Living Legacy

Mouin Rabbani
A New Low on Gaza?

David Yearsley
Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Springsteen!

Saul Landau
The Wrestler: an American Tragedy

Jules Rabin
Israel's Disproportionate Responses

Raymond J. Lawrence
A Country Awash in Money But Going Broke

Janette Habel
Castro's Socialism in Crisis

Dave Lindorff
Economy on a Thread

Missy Beattie
Blackout at the Gaza Zoo Massacre

Dale Gieringer
The Opium Exclusion Act of 1909: Marking 100 Years of Failed Drug Prohibition

John Ross
Davos vs. Belem; Swine vs. Pearls

Richard Rhames
Jobs is a Four Letter Word

Bob Wing
Obama, Race and the Future of U.S. Politics

Robert Bryce
Corn Dog Update: Another Study Exposes Bio-Fuel Scam

David Macaray
AFL-CIO and Change to Win in "Re-Wed" Talks

James L. Secor
Inaugural Questions Nobody Asks: Notes from Kuala Lumpur

Jason Flom /
Anthony Papa
The Scourging of Michael Phelps

Norm Kent
Ten Reasons to Get High About Pot in 2009

Kim Nicolini
When Utopia Crumbles: Why Revolutionary Road was Shut Out of the Oscars

Lorenzo Wolff
Ridiculous Flow: How Cee Lo Green Sells Soul

Poets' Basement
Emily Dickinson (with Commentary by Daniel Wolff)

Website of the Weekend
S.J. Gould: Darwin's Untimely Burial

February 5, 2009

Michael Mandel
Self-Defense Against Peace

Saul Landau /
Philip Brenner
Killing the Monroe Doctrine

Ralph Nader
Tax the Speculators!

Robert Bryce
The Unraveling of the Ethanol Scam

Russell Mokhiber
Occupied Territory

Sameh Habeeb /
Janet Zimmerman
Innocents Lost

Dave Lindorff
Small Change

Carmelo Ruiz-Marrero
Beyond Green Capitalism

George Ochenski
A Blow to Big Coal in Montana

Website of the Day
Putting CEO Pay in Context

February 4, 2009

Arno J. Mayer
On Corruption

Paul Craig Roberts
The War on Terror is a Hoax

Patrick Cockburn
The Iraqi Elections

Jonathan Cook
An IDF Jihad?

Fred Gardner
Obama's Mixed Messages on Marijuana

Stan Cox
Slumwrecking Millionaires: India's Fragile New Temples

Margaret Kimberley
The Deepening Economic Crisis

Lawrence Velvel
Agony & Desperation: Madoff's Victims

Dave Lindorff
A Generals' Revolt?

Doug Giebel
A Helping of Bitter Beltway Baloney

Serge Quadruppani
Student Protests Sweep Italy

Website of the Day
The San Francisco 8

February 3, 2009

David Price
Counterinsurgency & Anthropology: Roberto Gonzalez on Human Terrain Systems

Bill Moyers
Obama's Wars: an Interview with Pierre Sprey and Marilyn Young

Kirkpatrick Sale
Obama's Lincoln Thing

Conn Hallinan
When Mind Wounds Don't Count

Peter Morici
The Slippery Slope of Stimulus

George Ciccariello-Maher
From Oakland to Santa Rita: "Fired Up, Can't Take It No More"

Muhammad Idrees Ahmad
The BBC's Nadir

Allan Nairn
What Does It Take to Get a Meal Here, an Earthquake?

Norman Solomon
Why are We Still at War?

David Macaray
The Late, Great UAW

Website of the Day
The Bloody Cove

February 2, 2009

Uri Avnery
Under the Black Flag: Israeli War Crimes

Ralph Nader
What to Do About Wall Street

Gareth Porter
Generals Move to Obstruct Obama's Iraq Withdrawal Orders

Paul Craig Roberts
The Death of American Leadership

Harvey Wasserman
The Nuclear Industry's Latest Money Grab

Rannie Amiri
Gaza and the Crimes of Mubarak

Cal Winslow
Stern's Gang Seizes UHW Union Hall

Steve Early
Checking Out of Stern's Hotel California

Alan Farago
Superbowl as Panopticon

Diane Farsetta
Banning Domestic Propaganda

January 30 / February 1, 2009

Alexander Cockburn
Obama and the Oddsmakers

Michael Hudson
Obama's New Bank Giveaway

Ismael Hossein-Zadeh
"Too Big to Fail:" a Bailout Hoax

Dave Lindorff
The Ugly Truth: the American Economy is Not Coming Back

Saul Landau
Freedom Fighters, Terrorists or Schlemiels?

Andy Worthington
Blame the Chef: How Cooking for the Taliban Can Get You Life in Gitmo

Subcomandante Marcos
Gaza Will Survive

Robert Jensen
Future Farming: an Interview with Wes Jackson

Ron Jacobs
Return of the Democrats

Gareth Porter
Is Gates Undermining Another Opening to Iran?

Allan Nairn
Hope for the Dump Cities?

Laura Carlsen
NAFTA's Dangerous Security Agenda

Rev. William E. Alberts
The Feelings of a Stranger

Christopher Brauchli
From Gitmo to Supermax?

Jules Rabin
Israel and the Bomb

Col. Dan Smith
Thoughts From an Inauguration Refugee

Missy Beattie
The US Garden of Evil

Tom Barry
Obama's Immigration Challenge

J. Michael Cole
The Downfall of an Academic

Manuel Garcia, Jr.
Burning the First Amendment

Dan Bacher
How Dam Removal Can Save the Klamath River

David Rosen
Last Gasp of the Culture Wars?

Don Monkerud
Religion in the American Bedroom

Binoy Kampmark
Updike: Apostle of the Middlebrows

Lorenzo Wolff
Playing Down a Bad Reputation: the Lovin' Spooful's Near Perfect Record

David Yearsley
When Orfeo and Euridice Lived Happily Ever After in Upstate New York

Poets' Basement
Valentine and Rihn

January 29, 2009

Peter Linebaugh
Tom Paine's Birthday

Paul Craig Roberts
Is It Time to Bail Out of America?

Riz Khan
The Future of Gaza: an Interview with Jimmy Carter

M. Reza Pirbhai
Pakistan: a New Cambodia?

Wajahat Ali
Obama's Al-Arabiya Interview

Gregory Vickrey
What About the Environment? Cap and Trade and Selling Out

Dina Jadallah-Taschler
Whither the Two State Solution?

Alison Weir
Killing Palestinians Doesn't Count: Fact-Checking Ceasefire Breaches

Alan Farago
Economy Without Escape Routes

Walter Brasch
Taxing a House of Cards

Website of the Day
Madoff Inc.

January 28, 2009

Norman Finkelstein
Behind the Bloodbath in Gaza

Noam Chomsky
Obama's Emerging Policies on Israel, Iraq and the Economic Crisis

Patrick Cockburn
Is Mitchell's Mission Already Doomed?

Rob Larson
The Clinton Foundation Donors

George Wuerthner
Who Will Speak for the Forests?

Allan Nairn
South-East Asian Groups Threaten Retaliation Over Gaza Invasion

M. Junaid
Levesque-Alam
A Muslim's Memo to Obama

Stefan Simanowitz
The Silent Trade

Charles R. Larson
The Autumn of the Patriot

Website of the Day
Veggie Love: PETA's Banned Superbowl Ad

January 27, 2009

Winslow T. Wheeler
Save the Economy by Cutting the Defense Budget

Yigal Bronner /
Neve Gordon
Fueling the Cycle of Hate

Joshua Frank
Obama's Neocon: the Curious Case of Richard Holbrooke

Jordan Flaherty
Torture at a Louisiana Prison

Ralph Nader
Access to Economic Justice

Rev. José M. Tirado
How Iceland Fell: a Hundred Days of (Muted) Rage

Benjamin Dangl
Bolivia Looking Forward

Russell Mokhiber
What If Israel Were in Your Neighborhood?

Martha Rosenberg
Who Says Technology Transfer Doesn't Pay?

C. G. Estabrook
The Inaugural Address: the Digested Read

Website of the Day
Who Profits From the Occupation?

January 26, 2009

Paul Craig Roberts
Speaking the Truth is a Career-Ending Event

Deepak Tripathi
The BBC's Day of Shame

Vijay Prashad
The India Lobby: Drunk with the Sight of Power

Peter Lee
Geithner's Pop Gun Volley at China

Allan Nairn
The Torture Ban That Doesn't Ban Torture

Uri Avnery
On the Wrong Side of History

John Sayen
The Next Shoe to Drop

Dave Lindorff
Afghanistan is No Threat to America

Lawrence R. Velvel
Investing with Madoff

David Macaray
Obama vs. Labor

Roger Burbach
Winds of Change in Cuba

Norman Solomon
The Ghost of LBJ

Website of the Day
Landscapes of Occupation

January 23 / 25, 2009

Alexander Cockburn
The Ghosts at Obama's Side

P. Sainath
The Freefalling Economy

Patrick Cockburn
In Israel, Detachment From Reality is the Norm

Saul Landau
Reasons for War?

Sasan Fayazmanesh
Our Current Economic Crisis: the Monks' Cure

Alan Farago
The Problem with the Stimulus

Christopher Brauchli
When Due Diligence is a One-Way Street

Andy Worthington
Return to Law?

Ron Jacobs
Obama's Pentagon: Bowing to the Masters of War?

Lawrence Velvel
Investing with Madoff: My Experience (Part Four)

Henry A. Giroux
The Audacity of Educated Hope

David Yearsley
The Music That Wasn't There: Chamber Music for Obama's Masses

Raymond F. Gustavson
Here We Go Again: General Shinseki and Veterans

Dave Lindorff
The Way Forward

Roberto Rodriguez
Fighting for Migrant Justice in the Desert

Dina Jadallah-Taschler
The Struggle of an Un-People

Fidel Castro
Meeting Cristina

J. Michael Cole
Can Obama's Shift on Terror Succeed?

Bob Fitrakis /
Harvey Wasserman
It's Time to Free Leonard Peltier

Ramzy Baroud
Breaking Gaza's Will

Mohammad Ali Shabani
The Aftermath of the War on Gaza

Richard Rhames
Panning for Pyrite on a Cold Day at the Mall

Stephen Martin
Voices in the Mirror

Lorenzo Wolff
Jurassic Radio

Kim Nicolini
Katrina's Endless Loop

Poets' Basement
Fleming, Henson, First, Jaramillo and Glendinning

Website of the Weekend
Cartoon Love

January 22, 2009

Paul Craig Roberts
Another Real Estate Crisis is About to Hit

Kathy Kelly
Worse Than an Earthquake

Allan Nairn
US Intel Nominee Lied About Church Murders

Lawrence Velvel
Investing with Madoff: My Experience (Part Three)

Andy Worthington
Halting the Gitmo Trials

Peter Morici
How to Fix the Banks

Joseph G. Davis
The First MBA Presidency and the Business Academy: a Damage Assessment

Adriana Kojeve
The Democrats on Israel: a Brief Oral History

Benjamin Dangl
Bolivia Poised for Historic Vote

Website of the Day
Support the Gaza Community Mental Health Program

January 21, 2009

Gabriel Kolko
Understanding Gaza

Harry Browne
Obama's Work Ethic

Michael Colby
Ready. Aim. Organize.

Lawrence R. Velvel
Investing with Madoff: My Experience

Audrey Stewart
Starting Over in Gaza

Wajahat Ali
Obama and the Muslims

Binoy Kampmark
The Marketing of Hope

David Kεr Thomson
Abolition

John Ross
In My Own Bones

Allan Nairn
Killer in Chief: Will This President Murder Civilians?

Sheldon Richman
The Peaceful Transfer of Violent Power

Website of the Day
Globistan

January 20, 2009

Chuck Spinney
Hosing Obama Israeli Style

Kathy Kelly
The Strongest Weapon of All

Raymond Deane
The EU, Gaza and the Lisbon Treaty

Ralph Nader
State Terrorism Against Gaza

Audrey Stewart
Why I am in Gaza

Jonathan Cook
Israel's Doctrine of Destruction

Harvey Wasserman
A Ten-Point Solar Agenda for Obama

Christopher Ketcham
Inauguration Ad Nauseam

Robert Jensen
A Citizen's Oath of Office

Dave Lindorff
Commie Chorus on the Mall: This Land Really is Made for You and Me

David Macaray
SAG Watches It All Slip Away

February 17, 2009

Y Chávez No Se Va

The Venezuelan Referendum From the Back of a Pickup Truck

By BELÉN FERNÁNDEZ

Barcelona, Estado Anzoátegui, Venezuela.

On the afternoon of Friday 13 February, my friend Amelia and I found ourselves in the back of a pickup truck in the Venezuelan city of Barcelona with several members of the Partido Comunista de Venezuela (PCV), two loudspeakers, and our Lebanese-Palestinian companion Hassan. The loudspeakers treated motorists and pedestrians to a cycle of three short songs regarding the need for the enmienda constitucional, the proposed constitutional amendment enabling public officeholders to run for reelection indefinitely, scheduled to be voted on in a referendum on Sunday 15 February. The pickup truck’s designated spokesman occasionally interrupted the musical cycle to urge solidarity with Hugo Chávez’ Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela (PSUV) and to warn against anti-revolutionary maneuverings by the opposition.

Friday had been established as the final day of the referendum campaign for both camps, el Sí—supporters of the enmienda—and el No. Amelia and I had first become acquainted with the terms of the struggle 10 days earlier, when we crossed from Colombia into Venezuela during a hitchhiking expedition originating in Quito. From the Venezuelan frontier onward, competing slogans such as “Vota Sí” and “No es No” monopolized the sides of buildings and the rear windshields of cars. The competition sometimes assumed even more straightforward forms, such as “Sí Sí Sí Sí” and “No No No No,” with the Sí campaign enjoying a decided aesthetic advantage based on the fact that the “I” could be dotted with a star.

Amelia and I met our first representative of the No campaign when he picked us up hitchhiking a few hundred meters after passport control. Diego was a 25 year old from the nearby city of San Cristobal who had just purchased a sofa on the Colombian side of the border at a favorable exchange rate. As we had just very unfavorably exchanged dollars into bolivars—due to a refusal to comprehend that the rate on the Venezuelan street was more than twice as favorable as the official rate—Amelia and I congratulated him on his enterprising nature.

Diego denied that opportunities for enterprise existed in a country whose leader insisted on declaring every other day a national holiday. As evidence he explained that the previous day (2 February) had been the 17th anniversary of Chávez’ attempted golpe de estado and that the following day (4 February) was the 10th anniversary of his ascension to power. He failed, however, to address opportunities for enterprise in forced holidays that were financially compensated; his subsequent announcement that chavismo was undemocratic was then slightly contradicted by his declaration that the enmienda would not pass due to the democratic character of the Venezuelan political system. Diego dropped us off in San Cristobal, wagering that Chávez’ conception of George Bush as the devil was slightly contradicted by the fact that the US was the primary recipient of Venezuelan oil.

Having learned while hitchhiking through Colombia that military officials could be tasked with procuring rides for us, Amelia and I approached a checkpoint of the Venezuelan Guardia Nacional outside the city, where the Guardia addressed us in a conspiratorial whisper: GUARDIA: We are voting for el No.

The Guardia acknowledged that they had at one point been convinced that only el Sí could be associated with el Comandante but had been won over when the Venezuelan opposition—supported by the United States—co-opted a quote by Simón Bolívar regarding the dangers of leaving the same man in power forever. (Not taken into consideration by proponents of the unchanging applicability of historical ideals was whether George Washington had ever been of the opinion that countries should be allowed to govern themselves.)

At the Guardia checkpoint a truck driver named Benjamín was conscripted to transport Amelia and me as far as the state of Barinas, homeland of Chávez. Benjamín began by asserting that Barinas ranches belonging to the Chávez family were not examples of equitable property distribution, but over the course of our six hour drive became increasingly boastful of the fact that it cost him less than a dollar to purchase 83 liters of diesel fuel for his truck. He then moved on to gleefully quizzing us on the price of vegetable oil and flour in our own país.

Amelia and I enjoyed our first personal encounter with supporters of the enmienda at another Guardia checkpoint in the state of Guárico in central Venezuela. Upon our arrival at their desk the Guardia offered us not only the greeting “¿Cómo va la revolución?” but also two cantaloupes and the monetary denomination required to use the bathroom at a nearby gas station. They outlined their political stance by pointing across the street to a billboard featuring multicolored repetitions of the word Sí, and did not object when Amelia and I utilized their official stamp on our upper arms.

After reaching the coastal city of Barcelona east of Caracas, we were joined by our Lebanese-Palestinian friend Hassan, whose choice of countries in which to vacation was determined in part by Chávez’ willingness to expel representatives of the state of Israel. The three of us were hosted at the Barcelona home of Hassan’s friend Ali, whose insistence that Chávez was his second father was determined in part by the ease with which Ali had acquired Venezuelan residencia; he nonetheless continued to assure his Venezuelan girlfriend that he would be voting no in the referendum.

Most of our time in Barcelona was spent on a street in the center of town with a high concentration of clothing stores and markets run by Lebanese and Syrian immigrants. On this street we acquired such knowledge as that:

• tahini was also produced in Venezuela, presumably as part of Chávez’ quest to achieve autonomia alimentaria and to combat the notion that Venezuela’s only resource was oil.
• a great deal of noise was caused by puntos rojos, the innumerable red tents in charge of disseminating information in favor of el Si.

Del Valle proclaimed it an absolute necessity that Amelia and I learn to wear our shirts like real chavistas, who had apparently learned to deal with oversized attire by tying the T-shirts in a 1980s-style knot. Once our appearance had been rendered satisfactory, Del Valle commandeered the microphone belonging to the punto rojo and announced with tears in her eyes that three foreign visitors had joined the revolución bolivariana. It was then decided that the next step in our revolutionary education would be flier distribution the following day, a decision which we were forced to review several times given that the punto rojo’s resident DJ did not skimp on decibel levels.

The soundtrack of the punto rojo covered Chávez-related themes in a variety of Latin beats, some of the numbers apparently performed by Chávez himself. The music enabled flier distributors to simultaneously distribute and dance, a combination we were instructed in upon returning to the punto rojo on 13 February, the final day of the referendum campaign.

Most passersby were receptive to our handouts, which stressed different aspects of the proposed enmienda such as that Venezuelans should vote Sí on account of the fact that Chávez loved them. Only a few intended recipients responded with phrases involving the word mierda or implications that the receptive passersby were simply being receptive in order to avoid blacklisting; the DJ meanwhile periodically paused his soundtrack so that punto rojo attendants could perform karaoke to Spanish pop songs.

When we ran out of fliers, we were supplied with business card-size photos of Chávez featuring the referendum question and the advised answer. One of the card recipients was a man who came to be known as “the Communist” based on his membership in the PCV and the fact that we forgot to ask his name; he greeted us with a “¿Como va la revolución?” and accepted a card despite being in the process of distributing a stack of the same cards himself.

The Communist invited Amelia, Hassan, and me to join a section of the PCV in the back of a pickup truck for a quick tour of Barcelona. The itinerary of the quick tour turned out to be as follows:

• Drive five minutes from center of town. Stop so that Communist can address traffic jam on dangers of being tricked by opposition into staying at home on voting day.
• Drive five more minutes to barrio Rómulo Gallegos. Stop so that Communist can spend next two hours alternately dancing salsa on side of road and branding passing cars with variations on the word “Sí” in white marker.
• Listen to same three songs emitted on repeat from pickup truck loudspeakers.

The first song in the cycle somewhat resembled a nursery rhyme and began: “Qué buena, qué buena, qué buena está la enmienda,” before going on to explain that the enmienda had been requested by the pueblo. The other two tunes incorporated the “¡Uh! ¡Ah!” theme, with the catchier of the two stipulating: “Y todos con la enmienda, ¡uh ah! Y Chavez con el pueblo, ¡sí va!”

After the first dozen cycles, Hassan had mastered relevant portions of the Spanish language and Amelia and I had choreographed a simple dance routine in the back of the pickup truck, which we then performed for the next dozen cycles while Amelia intermittently flung Chávez cards through the windows of passing cars. As for the Communist, he and other supporters of the PSUV in possession of white markers continued to hinder the flow of vehicles through Rómulo Gallegos, in confirmation of Barack Obama’s contention that Hugo Chávez constituted an impediment to progress in the region. Freedom of expression was nonetheless upheld, and the driver of one hindered vehicle made a show of wiping the fresh “Sí” from his rear windshield.

Amelia’s and my dance choreography was rendered more difficult when the Communist and half a dozen new cohorts suddenly appeared in the back of the pickup and the truck joined a lengthy caravan of motorcycles, cars, and buses draped in red. As we wound through the barrio, we were cheered on from doorsteps and balconies; aside from a group of spitting children, displays of opposition generally consisted of finger-wagging and amicable declarations of “No.” Non-spitting children meanwhile rushed into the street to collect the Chávez cards that the Communist tossed over the side of the pickup truck.
By the end of the evening, the activity in the back of the pickup had effectively been reduced to limp waves of a red hat by the Communist and the occasional “Allahu Akbar” shouted by Hassan in time with the three-song cycle. When Amelia and I requested the symbolism of this act, he explained that Hezbollah caravans were also repetitive.
Once the caravan had dispersed, we extracted ourselves from the pickup truck and were unable for the rest of the night to speak or comprehend anything that:

1. was not a shout.
2. did not somehow involve the words “uh” and “ah.”

The next morning, the day before the referendum, I went to one of the Arab-run markets in the center of town, now cleared of puntos rojos. The Syrian cashier offered me a papaya shake on the house and informed me that all Venezuelans were “por el no” but that their orientation was masked out of fear. I asked the Syrian if he had gotten this idea from the Diario Región on the counter in front of him—the headline of which read: “¡No voten con miedo!”—and if dancing was a common symptom of fear in Venezuela. He responded that people were liable to do anything under duress, just as Lebanese civilians had been known on occasion to throw flowers and rice at invading Israeli armies.

The Syrian had just returned from a visit to Damascus, where he had noted the prevalence of a certain keychain depicting Bashar al-Assad on one side and Chávez on the other, an arrangement which—according to his analysis—indicated inherent similarities between Bolivarian republics and Syrian Arab republics. In response I brought up a recent hitchhiking incident in which Bolivarianism had been compared to Italian fascism by a truck driver from Napoli.

Further exploration of the wealth of historical analogies made possible by the sizable immigrant population of Venezuela was cut short when a man entered the market from the street and greeted the Syrian with “¿Cómo va la revolución?” before requesting a charitable donation. The Syrian promptly consumed himself with the straightening of a sign on the wall prohibiting the sale of alcoholic beverages from Friday to Monday in honor of the referendum; the question of the status of la revolución was thus deflected to me.

My principal recommendation was that the revolution be accompanied by more than three songs—a proposal that was largely fulfilled the following evening when el Sí triumphed over el No and Chávez sang through part of his celebratory address to the people.

Belén Fernández is currently completing a book entitled Coffee with Hezbollah, which chronicles the 2-month hitchhiking journey through Lebanon that she and Amelia Opali?ska conducted in the aftermath of the July 2006 war. She can be reached at belengarciabernal@gmail.com.

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