CHICKEN FEED

Ralph Nader is talking about running again. He says that it would heps the Democrats, by forcing them to move to the left, instead of being virtually indistinguishable from Republicans:

"I would not do this if I didn't really want to defeat Bush," Mr. Nader said, calling the McCarthy era "chicken feed compared with what we have now."

"Seeking justice supersedes everything," he said, sounding more than ever like a candidate. "Without justice, we have nothing in this world. We can't have freedom without justice. That's what freedom is supposed to be."

"If the second paragraph sounds like a direct quote from Hugo Chavez, well maybe great minds think alike," opines Raven as he tucks into his scrambled eggs.

That's what my grandmother always said. Speaking of chicken feed, Rave, did you see in the paper yesterday that Goerge W's IQ is exactly half that of Clinton's?

"No, but you must remember that we birds are sensitive about measuring our intelligence by the standards of your species."

The bird brain, as usual, has a point....

GEOPOLITICAL RAPE

Every day Raven and I receive e-mails from a group we belong to called "Revolución Bolivariana". Normally all of the content is in Spanish, but today we were surprised to receive one from our companero "LeoLeo", with the following subject referenced:

History repeats itself: about the next geopolitical rape by the USA: Foreign Affairs Minister Roy Chadderton Matos tells Washington D.C. to stay out of Venezuelan domestic politics.

The news article referenced from V.headline.com is in English, so we are going to send it along as a follow-up to our comments on this site yesterday:


Foreign Minister (MRE) Roy Chaderton Matos has again accused the United States of interfering in Venezuela's sovereign political affairs ... the statement came after US National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice urged President Hugo Chavez Frias to "demonstrate that he believes in democratic processes" by allowing a possible recall referendum on his rule to "go through unhindered, unfettered ...and then living up to the terms of it."

Chaderton Matos says the possibility of holding the vote is not up to President Chavez Frias but to an autonomous National Elections Council (CNE) which is charged with verifying the more than 3.4 million signatures that Chavez opponents say they've submitted to petition a revocatory referendum. He adds that it is rather "surprising" that Rice didn't understand that or that she must otherwise be ill-informed.

Pro-Chavez Frias parliamentarians have lodged complains over widespread fraud in the November 28-December 1 signature-gathering campaign with many duplicates, signatures from dead voters etc. Meanwhile anti-Chavez Frias groupings are piling pressure on the CNE to resume verifying the signatures, which were turned in three weeks ago ... it has been fraught with procedural delays and the Christmas-New Year holudays.

There has been a week of contentious exchanges between Washington D.C. and Caracas with Cuba-hostile Condoleezza Rice saying it was beyond her believe "why anybody who believes in democracy or wants people to believe that they believe in democracy would want to have anything to do with Fidel Castro."

Paranoid US officials have accused Venezuela and Cuba of cooperating to undermine democratic governments through funding and indoctrination; however Venezuela's MRE Chaderton Matos immediately cites that the United States (in its own questionable interests) had relations with several countries whose governments are indeed not democratically house-clean.

President Chavez Frias has also been quick to deny US statements such as Rice's last Wednesday claim that "Colombia has concerns about activities that Venezuela may have been involved in" ... an obvious reference to earlier (denied) claims that Venezuela has "allowed Colombia rebels to use Venezuelan territory as a springboard for attacks."

Chaderton Matos says: "If Dr. Rice harbors the naive intention of provoking a fight between Venezuelans and Colombians, we can assure her that there is no power capable of achieving this objective!"

Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel says Venezuela hopes to have a normal relationship with the United States despite the tensions but that under President Chavez Frias, relations with the United States have undoubtedly been strained over ties to Cuba and criticism of Washington's principal policy goal for Latin America ... a proposed Free Trade Agreement of the Americas. However the rot really set in when Washington clearly took sides against democracy during the opposition-launched coup d'etat in April 2002 although they slammed into damage-control reverse as soon as US puppet dictator Pedro Carmona Estanga was himself overthrown by the overwhelming will of the people just two days later.

Nevertheless, Vice President Jose Rangel has taken on US Secretary of State Colin Powell following the latter's ill-chosen remarks on Venezuela's referendum which Rangel describes as "impertinent!"

Powell had pronounced, Thursday, that there will be a referendum vote against Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez if signatures are approved to activate the consultation. Rangel says "It is an impertinency, of course ... but Powell says a very interesting thing -- if the signatures are gathered there will be a revocation referendum. Obviously yes."

"Anyway, it is not up to Mister Powell, the US State Department or the United States ... but the National Elections Council of Venezuela will decide."

Raven looks confused:

"Does this mean that Venezuela is not a U.S. colony?"

NEW GIG FOR CONDY: READING MINDS (FOR A PLATE OF LENTILS?)

“Hah! Now we have another member of the Bush Gang shooting her mouth off.”

Raven pours himself a cup of de-caf.

“This stuff has no get up and go to it.”

It isn’t supposed to get you up and going, guy. It’s just supposed to make you think you’re drinking coffee. I assume the big mouth in question is Condoleezza Rice?

“Who else? That Aunt Tomasina, embarrassment to black people everywhere, including me.”

So, what’s her beef?

“Ah, a wink at the Mad Cow….Nice. Listen to this from Yahoo News: ‘There are roles that Venezuela has played that have not been very helpful," Condoleezza Rice, US President George W. Bush's national security adviser, said in a briefing ahead of next week's Summit of the Americas in Mexico.’”

Helpful to whom? Where is it written that Venezuela is supposed to be the crying towel for the Bush Gang?

“Let me continue: ‘Rice cited tensions between Venezuela and neighboring Colombia as well as Chavez's good relations with Castro, who has outlasted successive US presidents for four decades despite pressure from Washington on his regime.'"

"'It is beyond me to understand why anybody who believes in democracy or wants people to believe that they believe in democracy would want to have anything in that regard to do with Fidel Castro, because that's the one truly undemocratic regime in the region,' Rice told reporters.’"

Hmmm. Seems like the one truly undemocratic regime in this region is The U.S.

“There’s more: ‘She also called on Chavez to abandon efforts to block a vote on cutting short his term after opposition leaders filed paperwork containing 3.4 million signatures gathered to support such a referendum.'"

"'The best thing that President Chavez could do at this point is to demonstrate that he believes in a democratic future for Venezuela by carrying out the wishes of his people in this regard,' said Rice.'"

I see. She is now a mind reader of what the Venezuelan people want. Apparently she thinks their votes in the ballot box do not represent their wishes?

“Well, remember who she’s working for. The US people’s votes in the 2000 election, when they elected Gore president, obviously were not considered.”

Good point, Rave. Is there more?

“Yeah: ‘She added that the United States was "working very closely" with the Organization of American States and non-governmental organizations that are "trying to ensure that this process goes off without interference.'"

Gee, guy, how much is she charging for the mind reading sessions? Seems to me the only interference in the democratic process in Venezuela has come from the US….Is that it?

“On the aporrea.org site they indicated also that when she compared the political situation in Venezuela with that of Peru a few years ago. She used this as an example of how with the help of the Organization of American States a country can come out victorious from a difficult political period.”

What a riot! Not only does she read the minds of entire countries (without, of course, speaking their language), but she also does stand up comedy. The president of Peru has been changing his cabinet every 15 minutes—expelling suspected lesbians and anyone else who doesn’t agree with his World Bank style of managing the country. His approval rating, the last time I checked, was 10 percent—otherwise referred to as “in the toilet”. Even the people opposed to Chavez put his rating at 40 percent—fairly phenomenal in Latin America after 5 years in office….

“Well, at least Danny Glover and a bunch of other African Americans are in Venezuela this week to redress the balance. They are talking about the US campaign of disinformation against Venezuela.”

I noticed that. They also indicated that the spirit of Martin Luther King was alive and well in Caracas.

“Good place to be black. Too bad my habitat stops at the border with Guatemala…”

THE CHOCOLATE BOMBER

“Geez, those guys are idiots.”

Raven turns away from the t.v. screen in disgust.

I wasn’t watching, Rave. Which idiots?

“Some FBI jokers—now running the show at the Mexico City airport—decided that there was a bomb in a guy’s suitcase that was padlocked. So there was a big hoo hah and it turned out that the suitcase contained coffee and chocolate.”

Odd that coffee and chocolate would arouse the suspicion of metal detectors. Or maybe those are now typical bomb ingredients. Does the C-4 in C-4 plastic explosives stand for coffee or for chocolate? And who was this chocolate bomber?

“A gringo tourist. Wouldn’t you know? Tall, blond, crewcut—clearly a dead ringer for Osama Bin Laden.”

A very busy guy, that Osama. And omnipresent, like God. Trips to the IMSS clinic for dialysis don’t slow him down from training guerrillas among the five star hotels on Isla Margarita, Venezuela, and kidnapping the aquifers in Paraguay—and now terrorizing the Mexico City airport with chocolate bombs. This is starting to sound like a cut-rate version of “Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?”.

“Good detective work, gumshoe.”

And in other news?

“Just the usual. Twenty five convicts were broken out of a supposed maximum security prison in Michoacan.”

Twenty five?

“I guess they figured it would be as easy to break 25 guys out of jail as the 5 drug dealers they were supposed to break out.”

Apparently they were right. And where are they now?

“Some of the non-drug dealers have been scooped up already. Who knows about the others. They’re probably not at the Mexico City airport, though.”

Unless they are checking the passengers….

MORE U.S. INVASIONS

Raven has crumbs on his beak this morning.

“Rave, you ate the rest of the rosca!”

Raven glances around the room.

“Who, me? Nah. It must have been those 3 wise guys who finished it.”

Ay, wise guys. They’re not supposed to be mafiosos, but Wise Men. Kings. It was pretty tasty, though. And, as the guy from Alcoholics Anonymous who sold it to me pointed out, it was for a good cause. As for the 3 wise guys, who might they be?

“I’ll give you a hint as to who they aren’t: George Bush (father and/or son—take your pick), Dick Cheney and Vicente Fox.

Raven discreetly polishes his beak, effectively disposing of the crumbs from the rosca.

I wouldn’t have picked any of them. The biggest sucker, at the moment (por ahora, in the words of Hugo Chavez after his military coup failed in February of 1992), is clearly Vicente Fox.

“Because he fell on his face while hitting the piñata in Los Pinos?”

No, Rave. because he has allowed the FBI to invade Mexico. They are crawling like cockroaches through all the airports—especially in Mexico City—terrorizing all the Mexican passengers (Monday night the president of the Mexican Senate, who was flying to Los Angeles, was practically strip searched!), and canceling flights (costing the Mexican carriers a big heap of money.) Fox has tossed Mexico’s sovereignty out the window, and even said that the presence of FBI agents, bomb-sniffing (and no doubt butt-sniffing) dogs as well as the flotsam and jetsam from the US Embassy, in the airports was “normal”.

“If human rights violation are the rule of the day, then I suppose he’s right.”

Raven is poking around in the refrigerator.

“Don’t we have anything to drink besides water?”

What do you want, guy: coca cola? You’d better grab the water while you can. The Senate of Paraguay just approved the invasion of US troops in the Triple Frontera (with Brazil and Argentina)—they key to this idiocy is the announcement that they will be joint maneuvers with the Paraguayan navy!

“I’ll say. Isn’t Paraguay—like Bolivia—landlocked?”

So far as I know it is. This time the US believes that Osama Bin Laden has taken control of the world’s largest fresh water aquifer—and they’re going to take it back from him? So start guzzling the H2O, guy.

“Advice taken. Not only that, but the new US primary school geography text, “Introduction to Geography”, by David Norman, indicates that in the middle of the 1980s the US and the UN took control of the entire Amazon region because it was located “in one of the poorest regions of the world and surrounded by irresponsible, cruel and authoritarian countries.”

Irresponsible, cruel and authoritarian? Amazing description of the Bush administration. Now they are changing the maps even before they invade the countries. And your average US citizen, who doesn’t even know on which continent Brazil is located, wouldn’t know the difference. So we’ve got the FBI in Mexico, the US Army in Iraq, Afghanistan, Paraguay, Bolivia....

“The force they sent in October to pulse the peace when The Gringo was booted out of the presidency is still there?”

Evo Morales says yes, and that they’ve killed indigenous folks in the mountains.

“Mexico, Iraq, Afghanistan, Paraguay, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia (of course!)....”

And undoubtedly they are dreaming of a beach in Venezuela.

“I assume you’re referring to Hugo Chavez and Jimmy Carter dreaming of a beach in Bolivia?”

I might be, but the latest round of accusations that Castro, Chavez and Morales are buzzing guerrillas all around the continent to destabilize “democratically elected governments” sounds like the US plans to have another go at overthrowing the democratically elected president of Venezuela.

“We ARE coming up on the second anniversary of the US financed 47 hour coup.”

Last year they were too busy bombing the shit out of Baghdad to invade Venezuela. This year they have more troops, and because Iraq’s oil production is still in the toilet, more incentive to go after Venezuelan oil.

“Dogfaces in Maracaibo in April?”

The only thing that surprises me about the agenda of the Bush Gang of Petrocriminals (to which we must now add Aguacriminals) is that almost nobody else seems to regard their invasions and other terrorist acts as being the least bit irregular.

“Who was it who said: ‘There’s a better universe next door; let’s go.’?”

I believe it was e.e.cummings, Rave.

“You think he was right?”

HAPPY HOLIDAYS: State-Induced Psychological Terror

Raven and I are very busy these days, but we want to say just how horrified we are at the Bush Adminstration's (Petrocrimnals') policy of continuing to terrorize the US public. The latest caper of canceling Air France Christmas flights from Paris to LA--although Air France found absolutely nothing out of the ordinary in regard to passengers on any of the flights--on the basis that terrorists were going to fly to LA and perpetrate an act of terrorism, was another turn of the screw in the campaign to keep folks in the US scared shitless.

We will say it again: here are two regimes in the world that need to be changed ASAP: those of the US and Israel. They are without a doubt the most dangerous, ruthless and cynical regimes in history. Atilla, Genghis Khan, Hitler and Stalin had nothing on these guys.

Raven: "Give them the bird for the holidays. Tar and feather them, too. I will gladly donate my tailfeathers for this project!"

(For those of you who read Spanish, LA JORNADA has an excellent article on this topic today: www.jornada.unam.mx)

Raven and I have been doing some hard travelling. His wings are a little worse for wear, and I am hobbling with an ankle support--thanks to Guayaquil taking a final shot at me before we flew off back to Mexico.

But we're still watching what's going on out there--Bush wants to create paramilitaries in Iraq: Hello El Salvador, Hello Iran-Contra Scandal, Hello Colombia, Hello Chiapas--not to mention the big bummer of Viet Nam! Right Rave?

"You didn't hear it here first, but we'll keep saying it: US past due for a regime change!"

It may go down the drain into that good night, along with the dollar--nosediving against the Euro and the Yen, OPEC threatening to switch to Euro only payments (Uh ah, Chavez no se va.)

RAVEN TOURS LA GRAN SABANA

Raven discovers
that the fort he visited,
El Zamuro, means
vulture; here they are very
prominent in the landscape.

He is invading
their territory: winging
over waterfalls,
swooping down on the thatch-roofed
villages; he is whooping,

shrieking his song
in honor of the tepuis—
table mountains
spread with their feast of secrets
served up by hermetic clouds.

Predator he is:
despite noble intentions
of myth and spirit,
he’s ever on the lookout
for victims of his capers.

Buzzing the capped heads
of waders in the river,
Raven is martial
as the red jasper under
their feet; dodging the arrows

the indigenous
artisans fire at him to
demonstrate their wares,
what, after all, does he care?
He is in his element:

The gold uncontrolled
water crashing on the slabs
imitates his laugh,
the mountains his wingspread
and the grasslands his feathers

ruffling in the breeze.
His beady eyes, diamonds
shining in water,
are carbonized creation
dreaming of becoming stars.


Santa Elena de Uairen
Venezuela

RAVEN'S EYE VIEW, FORTIN EL ZAMURO

Perched on the little
fort's roof, Raven listens to
a guide recounting
stories of the place to a
gaggle of high school students.

Raven has flown here
from the river to hear what
goes on when humans
think they have a bird's eye view,
but he hears nothing startling.

He takes for granted
his privileged position,
and wouldn't trade it
for a rung higher up on
the food chain. He knows the trade

offs well enough to
feel satisfied with his lot
of mobility.
The relativity of
historical consciousness

doesn't bother him:
his is a spirit moving
back and forth in time;
banking his wings cloudward,
or diving down hard for his prey.

He changes his mind
at the drop of a feather;
this is the secret
of Raven: he spins the world
on his axis of caprice.

Ciudad Bolivar
Venezuela

RAVEN IN THE POSADA AMOR PATRIA

Raven is circling
the chandeliers, searching in
their crystals for his
eyes, the shadows of his wings
dancing like black diamonds.

Above the hammock
swaying its pendulum of
Orinoco dreams,
Raven imitates a flute
piping in counterpoint to

the cathedral bells
groaning the hour: five o'clock
in the afternoon,
time to light the chandeliers,
not for nothing called spiders

in Spanish, holding
in their interstices the
webs of fugitive,
but very real spiders
spinning in Raven's dark light.

Raven's is manic
light, creation reflected
over and over
in peeling mirrors whose scales
silver off and disappear

as the light withdraws
into his vital organs.
He is Minotaur
crouching in his labyrinth,
Theseus tracking himself

down, Ariadne's
string dribbling from his own beak.
And still he is lost,
unable to break out of
the egg of unconsciousness,

spread his wings and speak
in rational language.
The bells shout again,
marking another hour in
Raven's crystal conundrum.

Ciudad Bolivar
Venezuela

RAVEN AT THE FINE ARTS MUSEUM, CARACAS, VENEZUELA

Raven is watching
the photographs, waiting for
the crocodiles to
leave their two-dimensional
circumstance, and play with him.

Raven sees his face
in the glass—of jeep trails in
la Gran Sabana;
his is the delirium
presupposing creation

of the earth itself:
in the mountainous darkness
he navegates back
in time to starless, moonless
nights, even days without sun.

How did he miss this
sacred place on the planet
when he scattered stars?
A flat mountain top calls him
to enter the foggy shot

the photographer
has carved from primeval mud.
He tries touching down
on the grass, but the glass stops
his feet in their tracks, and makes

Raven feel anger
ruffling his feathers like wind.
In the mirror of
time well past and time present,
he shivers like the future.

RAVEN PACKS HIS BAGS AGAIN

Raven has returned,
reluctantly, to his digs
in the grey city.
His image is on the door,
but no birds come calling—just

a tiny kitten,
crying in the dark hallway.
Raven is having
nothing of paternity—
adoptive or otherwise.

He is poised to pack
his bags, figuratively,
for Venezuela,
and preens in the mirror to
put his best feathers forward.

Soaring once again
over the Andes, he will
touch down in the dream
of Bolivar, turn loose his
raucus laugh in Caracas.

Guayaquil, Ecuador

RAVEN IN THE FOG

Raven is flying
tired—and without instruments—
through dense mountain fog.
He can barely see his beak
in front of him, but he hunts

for more volcanoes,
needing to see in their mouths
his own reflection.
Black is the color of all
energies combined, he says.

With his wings drooping,
he makes a shaky landing
in snow at the rim
of a crater, peers inside,
and sees absolutely nothing.

Guaranda, Ecuador

RAVEN ENTERS THE WATERFALL FROM WHERE HE IS NOW

Raven is slicing
the water with his wings while
it falls from the cliff,
and keeps falling, forever.
His is this precious instant

repeating itself
in a prism of silver
threads stitching the stones
to the trees to the morning.
His dance becomes the roaring

perpendicular
drop as he dives, beak forward
into the black pool
of volcanic reflection,
erupts in cosmic laughter.


Ba?os de Agua Santa,
Ecuador

SCATOLOGY, OR SIMPLY SCAT?


Raven and I have had a few run-ins with Nescafe instant coffee the past few days. The Bird is adamant: he’s not having any of that.

“This is a coffee-producing country, for Pete’s sake—and they are guzzling this garbage!”

Rave, of course you’re right. The infamous Pete notwithstanding, the Third World folks will never be free until they stop selling their products for peanuts and buying them back again—manufactured, pulverized, petrified and chemically treated—for big bucks. In the meantime, let’s make do with a couple of teabags—barnsweepings from another part of the Third World, undoubtedly.

Raven dunks a bag in his cup and lets it dribble from his beak as he mutters a few well-chosen Third World obscenities which cast a lot of doubt on his mother.

Rave, didn’t your mother ever tell you not to swear with a teabag in your beak?

He leaves the bag in the cup.

“Let’s change the subject. I noticed in yesterday’s LA JORNADA that Durito (note: Durito is a beetle who accompanies the EZLN leader in his meanderings and musings—in short, his muse) ended up with more than half of Subcomandante Marcos’ speech.”

What are you saying, guy? You want to make a speech? You think you’re not getting your fair share of the blogs?

“A speech? Hmmm, I’ll have to think about that. You think Durito took a class in speeches or something?”

I’m not sure they have those classes in the mountains of southeastern Mexico. Anyway, you have as much—if not more—autonomy than Durito.

“Autonomy is not freedom, baby. Remember when ex-president Zedillo sent the federal cops in to break heads in the “Autonomous National University” in Mexico City?

He was still president then—don’t mislead our faithful five readers. But I get your drift. Like the autonomous nervous system isn’t free of the body—it just allows knees to jerk.

“Weak analogy, given that I don’t have knees.”

Raven dumps a bunch of aji (chile sauce, in Ecuadorese) on his scrambled eggs.

Go easy with that stuff. What did Durito have to say in his speech?

“A lot of stuff about anti-globalization. He compared the globe of the earth to a ‘globo’ (balloon), and he labels as ‘tienderos’ (store clerks) people at the head of puppet governments of countries that have given up their sovereignty to the globalizers—multinational companies and imperialist regimes like the U.S.”

Like that gringo in Bolivia, I guess?

“He made no specific mentions. But he says that it doesn’t matter that they have no idea how to govern—just that they know how to watch the “tienda” (store) and render clear accounts to the owner—Big Money.”

Durito is pretty sharp, Rave. Almost as sharp as you?

“And equally as modest. His final point was that therefore in the globalization of power the world no longer is round, like an inflated bladder, but it bursts—and in its place there’s a big store. And those stores, as everybody knows, are square—not round. And that’s how, he says, globalization functions—or as if we were to call it ‘bladderization’.”

Bladderization? I take it all back, guy. You wouldn’t come up with a goofy term like that! Or would you?

Raven lets loose with one of his ear-splitting cackles.

“Why not? If Bush can block the congressional investigation into 9/11—which he and his henchmen engineered—why couldn’t I popularize as asshole term like that?”

Asshole? No, Rave—the bladder is for doing Number 1, not Number 2.

“With folks like the Bush Gang bladderizing the world barrio—folks who in terms of normal activities cannot find their butts with both hands—Numbers 1 and 2 are the same.”

He might have a point, that Birdbrain.

Raven under the Volcano

Raven rose early;
like smoke from the volcanoes.
He was fluttering
his inky wings all morning,
landing with a coat of ash

on his feathers, and
a tender smile on his beak;
his eyes are glassy
and green from his dive bombing
cows in their grassy pastures.

On his way to bathe
in the waterfall, he shakes
his feathers free of
ash, set for his next attempt
to wash himself white again.

Above him, laughing,
Tungurahua spews his
black birds every
few minutes. He knows Raven’s
doomed to be black forever.

Baños de Agua Santa, Ecuador
October 26, 2003

Raven has been raving about the latest CIA shenanagins in Venezuela. He's also, however, traveling in the Andes with me, as the poem below will confirm:

RAVEN IN THE CURVE OF CUENCA

Raven is transfixed,
frozen like a Morris Graves
bird on a canvas,
lapis lazuli pastels
barely whimpering his tune.

It’s the mountain light
that snagged him in its talons:
bird caught by cloud’s
song. Circling the cathedral,
mocking its bricks and mortar,

suddenly he saw
his Raven face reflected
in the dome. Behind
his flutter of feathers: clouds
burled by the sun, blue stone sky

poised like a closed vein
to receive Raven’s knife cry
as he roughly cuts
himself free, bathing the late
afternoon sky with his blood.

Cuenca, Ecuador
October 14, 2003

JUSTICE FOR THE GOOSE, BUT NOT FOR THE GANDER?

Raven is napping on a cushion in one of the rattan chairs. He looks tuckered out, so I tiptoe around as I make myself a cup of tea and a sandwich.

“What kind of sandwich is that?”

Raven is perched on the cushion, suddenly bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Sort of.

The typical: ham and cheese on raisin. I thought you were crashed for the morning.

“So did I. I was trying to escape.”

He yawns, flutters over to the table and edges toward my sandwich.

From me?

“From the latest round of patent hypocrisy, double-talk—you know—the Bush Gang’s usual M.O. This time expounded by Condoleezza Rice. About Bolivia.”

Raven extracts a raisin from my sandwich.

Don’t be a martyr, guy. I’ll make myself another one.

“Thought you’d never offer.” He tucks in.

So what did Miss Petrobucks say about Bolivia?

“You’ll love it. She announced to the Sociedad Interamericana de Prensa that it was absolutely imperative to support the “constitutional government of Bolivia”!

Constitutional? The US IMPOSED Sanchez de Lozada! The US Ambassador advised the Bolivian Congress that if they put Evo Morales in the presidential chair that the US would call in all loans and they would never see a red cent of loans or aid in the future.

“Don’t you see something else a bit strange?”

Yes, Rave, I do. The Bush Gang is insisting on propping up that guy—whom everybody calls “The Gringo” because he has spent most of his life in the US, and speaks Spanish more poorly than I do—as the supposed constitutional president of Bolivia, while at the same time they are doing everything they can think of to overthrow Hugo Chavez—who IS the constitutional president of Venezuela!

Raven buzzes over to the computer screen, cocks a dark eye at me?

“Double standard? Racism, perhaps? Here’s another good follow-up quote, from US spokesman Richard Boucher: ‘The internacional community and the United States will not tolerate any interruption of constitucional order and WILL NOT SUPPORT any regime which arises through antidemocratic means.' Wow! And they couldn’t wait last year to be the first to announce their support for the government—in quotes—of Carmona in Venezuela."

Double-speak, Rave. In the case of Bolivia, they know that if Sanchez de Lozada falls—and 4 of his ministers resigned yesterday—they won’t be seeing the gas shipments. And, in the case of Venezuela, we know they want to control the oil AND the gas from there.

“Not to mention that they hate Chavez because he doesn’t kiss their asses.”

Crude language, Rave.

“Crude situations call for crude language. Any more raisin bread around here?”

TWO, THREE, A HUNDRED IRAQS? AFGHANISTANS?

Tomorrow we commemorate the 36th anniversary of the assassination of Ernesto “Che” Guevara in a pesthole called La Higuera, Bolivia, at the hands of the CIA , the Green Berets and the Bolivians—yellow for the general cowardice displayed by the majority of the actors in that scenario.

Raven and I made a little poster of Che—with the famous Korda image above one taken by an undesignated photographer in Bolivia—probably in November or December of 1966, as he still looks partially in the disguise he created in order to get into the country. While Che was in Bolivia in April of 1967, cut off from Cuba and from just about everything else apart from the stands of jungle in front of the machetes of his companions, his famous “Message to the Tri-continental” was published in Cuba. This was the “Create two, three, many Vietnams” speech. Rather than talk about it, we’re going to give you an English translation of just part of that speech, as it rings very current for something written in 1966:

Vietnam and the World Struggle for Freedom
(Message to the Tricontinental)

published on April 16, 1967

"It is the hour of the furnace, and the light is all that can be seen."
-- Jose Marti

An excerpt:

….Everything seems to indicate that peace, the precarious peace that bears that name only because no global conflagration has occurred, is again in danger of being broken by some irreversible and unacceptable step taken by the United States.

What is the role that we, the exploited of the world, must play?

The peoples of three continents are watching and learning a lesson for themselves in Vietnam. Since the imperialists are using the threat of war to blackmail humanity, the correct response is not to fear war. Attack hard and without letup at every point of confrontation--that must be the general tactic of the peoples.

But in those places where this miserable peace that we endure has not been broken, what shall our task be?

To liberate ourselves at any price.

The world panorama is one of great complexity. The task of winning liberation still lies ahead even for some countries of old Europe, sufficiently developed to experience all the contradictions of capitalism but so weak that they can no longer follow the course of imperialism or embark on that road. In those countries the contradictions will become explosive in the coming years. But their problems, and hence their solutions, are different from those facing our dependent and economically backward peoples.

….Little by little, the obsolete weapons that suffice to repress the small armed bands will turn into modern weapons, and the groups of advisers into U.S. combatants, until at a certain point they find themselves obliged to send growing numbers of regular troops to secure the relative stability of a power whose national puppet army is disintegrating in the face of the guerrillas' struggles.

This is the road of Vietnam. It is the road that the peoples must follow. It is the road that Latin America will follow, with the special feature that the armed groups might establish something such as coordinating committees to make the repressive tasks of Yankee imperialism more diffcult and to help their own cause.

….We must definitely keep in mind that imperialism is a world system, the final stage of capitalism, and that it must be beaten in a great worldwide confrontation. The strategic objective of that struggle must be the destruction of imperialism.

The contribution that falls to us, the exploited and backward of the world, is to eliminate the foundations sustaining imperialism: our oppressed nations, from which capital, raw materials, and cheap labor (both workers and technicians) are extracted, and to which new capital (tools of domination), arms, and all kinds of goods are exported, sinking us into absolute dependence. The fundamental element of that strategic objective, then, will be the real liberation of the peoples, a liberation that will be the result of armed struggle in the majority of cases, and that, in Latin America, will almost unfailingly turn into a socialist revolution.

In focusing on the destruction of imperialism, it is necessary to identify its head, which is none other than the United States of North America.

We must carry out a task of a general kind, the tactical aim of which is to draw the enemy out of his environment, compelling him to fight in places where his living habits clash with existing conditions. The adversary must not be underestimated; the U.S. soldier has technical ability and is backed by means of such magnitude as to make him formidable. What he lacks essentially is the ideological motivation, which his most hated rivals of today--the Vietnamese soldiers--have to the highest degree. We will be able to triumph over this army only to the extent that we succeed in undermining its morale. And this is done by inflicting defeats on it and causing it repeated sufferings.

….Our mission, in the first hour, is to survive; then, to act, the perennial example of the guerrilla carrying on armed propaganda in the Vietnamese meaning of the term, that is, the propaganda of bullets, of battles that are won or lost--but that are waged--against the enemy.

We must carry the war as far as the enemy carries it: into his home, into his places of recreation, make it total. He must be prevented from having a moment's peace, a moment's quiet outside the barracks and even inside them. Attack him wherever he may be; make him feel like a hunted animal wherever he goes. Then his morale will begin to decline. He will become even more bestial, but the signs of the coming decline will appear.

….Let us sum up as follows our aspirations for victory. Destruction of imperialism by means of eliminating its strongest bulwark: the imperialist domination of the United States of North America. To take as a tactical line the gradual liberation of the peoples, one by one or in groups, involving the enemy in a difficult struggle outside his terrain; destroying his bases of support, that is, his dependent territories.

This means a long war. And, we repeat once again, a cruel war. Let no one deceive himself when he sets out to begin, and let no one hesitate to begin out of fear of the results it can bring upon his own people. It is almost the only hope for victory.

We cannot evade the call of the hour. Vietnam teaches us this with its permanent lesson in heroism, its tragic daily lesson of struggle and death in order to gain the final victory.

Over there, the soldiers of imperialism encounter the discomforts of those who, accustomed to the standard of living that the United States boasts, have to confront a hostile land; the insecurity of those who cannot move without feeling that they are stepping on enemy territory; death for those who go outside of fortified compounds; the permanent hostility of the entire population. All this is provoking repercussions inside the United States. It is leading to the appearance of a factor that was attenuated by imperialism at full strength: the class struggle inside its own territory.

How close and bright would the future appear if two, three, many Vietnams flowered on the face of the globe, with their quota of death and their immense tragedies, with their daily heroism, with their repeated blows against imperialism, forcing it to disperse its forces under the lash of the growing hatred of the peoples of the world!

And if we were all capable of uniting in order to give our blows greater solidity and certainty, so that the aid of all kinds to the peoples in struggle was even more effective--how great the future would be, and how near!

....Wherever death may surprise us, let it be welcome if our battle cry has reached even one receptive ear, if another hand reaches out to take up our arms, and other men come forward to join in our funeral dirge with the rattling of machine guns and with new cries of battle and victory.

*******
And a final comment from Raven: “Hasta la victoria siempre!”

WRITING WITH YELLOW….

Raven is reading, with increasingly narrowed eyes, an article in the online version of US News and World Report.

“These guys have some nerve.”

What’s happened now, Rave?

Raven reaches for his cup of Ceylon tea, slurps, then smears peanut butter on a cracker.

“These shills for the Bush Gang of petrocriminals are at it again. First, Chavez calls a press conference to announce he has recommended that OPEC increase the price band from 22 to 28 dollars a barrel to 25 to 32 dollars a barrel. Second, oil futures rise. Third, the US News and World Report comes out with this 100% libellous story, “Terror Close to Home”—four pages of spurious reportage and quotes from unnamed US government sources saying that Chavez is sponsoring the minions of Al Qaeda, lodging Colombian guerrillas all along the border, and that Cubans are involved in paramilitary operations in Venezuela.”

Interesting fantasies. This goes way beyond yellow journalism. Venezuela doesn’t have any paramilitary operations.

“I know. Gregory Wilpert takes the article apart on www.venezuelanalysis.com. And apparently Sha-perro, the Ambassador, was supposed to appear for a meeting at the chancellor’s office to discuss this latest round of attacks on Venezuela.”

Reeks of oil, Rave. Remember that surfer scene in “Apocalypse Now” where Robert Duvall says, “I love the smell of napalm in the morning”? Sounds like the Bush Gang, by accusing Chavez of “flirting with terrorism”, is more than flirting with a libel action. The smell wafting off the polluted waves on Lake Maracaibo must have addled their pates.

“More than usual? That’s like saying there is a degree lower than Absolute Zero.”

Raven is now scraping out peanut butter with his claw.

I know you’re outraged, Rave. But Chavez can take care of himself. He didn’t say he was going to be in the snipers’ crosshairs for many years just to be saying something.

“No, whistling “Dixie” he wasn’t.”

Nor would he be inclined to that tune, anyway. I think we need to get you something better to eat than peanut butter and crackers. You’re too agitated.

“The cupboard is bare,” sighs Raven.

I know. But the shelves of Supermaxi aren’t. Let’s fly out of here.

“You’re not just whistling “Dixie”, either.” Raven looks dramatically less dour. “I vote for tortellini.”

Whew. I thought, with your Venezuela fixation, you’d be demanding arepas.

“Not a chance. Those are for playing pool with. Not eating.”

Raven is looping the loop in the hallway, his feathers shining like oil in the leaden afternoon sun of Guayaquil.