The Parrot repeats Washington's Chávez propaganda

But first...Not so fast, Ms. Rice. You may have passed the confirmation committee, but there's more formality yet.

Senate Democrats intend to delay Condoleezza Rice's confirmation as secretary of state at least until next week rather than grant her Inauguration Day approval, a spokesman said Wednesday.

"There are a number of Democrats not on the committee that want to have a chance to debate her nomination a couple of hours," said Manley, a spokesman for Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.

He said Democrats would not seek to prevent Rice's confirmation as the nation's top diplomat, and he predicted her approval within a matter of days.
  ABC News article

Showing the extent of their powerlessness. And pissiness, as well.

Okay, on with the parrotage....

Rice reinforced a barrage of U.S. criticism of Chavez over the last few days as the Bush administration worries the firebrand nationalist has rejected its overtures to improve ties after the nations clashed over democracy last year.

``We are very concerned about a democratically elected leader who governs in an illiberal way, and some of the steps he's taken against the media, against the opposition, I think are really very deeply troubling,'' Rice said at her Senate confirmation hearing.

``We have a long and good history with Venezuela. I think it's extremely unfortunate that the Chavez government has not been constructive,'' she said.
  NY Times article

Geez. Governs in an illiberal way? Not constructive? Whatever that means.

Most of what passes between the two countries is noise, but the U.S. has been proven to fund opposition to the Chávez government, and has been implicated in the attempted overthrow of the government in the coup of 2002. I don't think the Chavistas think of that as a "good history".

''I think it's extremely unfortunate that the Chávez government has not been constructive,'' she said. ``And we do have to be vigilant and to demonstrate that we know the difficulties that that government is causing for its neighbors, its close association with Fidel Castro in Cuba.''

She said the United States would work with other countries in the region and the Organization of American States to ensure that ''leaders who do not govern democratically, even if they are democratically elected'' are held accountable.

However, some senators criticized Rice for taking such a hard line on Chávez. ''Repeating these statements over and over again only digs the hole deeper and deeper,'' Dodd said. And Sen. Lincoln Chafee, R-R.I., said her comments were ''disrespectful of the Venezuelan people'' who in August ratified Chávez by a broad margin in a referendum.

[...]

Rice's criticism of Chavez was sharper than the tone outgoing Secretary of State Colin Powell has taken with Venezuela.
  Miami Herald article

The Parrot has a personal reason to be disrespectful of Mr. Chávez:

Chavez once called Rice illiterate and has joked about her name, calling her "Condolence."
  Reuters article

How dare he? Especially when its true meaning is a misspelled reference to sweetness. She should be glad he didn't call her the name my friend uses for her: Cuntoleezza.

"We have to view the government of Venezuela as a negative force in the region," Rice said. "We can work with others to expose that and to say to President Chavez this kind of behavior is really not acceptable in this hemisphere."

He will be amused, I'm sure.

This month U.S. officials and the Senate committee's chairman Sen. Richard Lugar, a Republican from Indiana, warned that Chavez could stop supplying oil to the United States.

[...]

Venezuela cannot easily redirect its oil sales from its main buyer. But political analysts say Washington is worried that a Chavez visit to China late last year signaled he may be aiming to eventually shift exports to the communist nation, which would not criticize his democratic credentials.

I have to correct something I wrote in my last post on Venezuela. I said the opposition didn't claim that the government disappeared or imprisoned opposition members. Actually, they do claim the latter.

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Update 8:00pm:


Scary Parrot. Will claw your eyes out.