The results are in, and Chavez has won. Check out that line for people waiting to vote! The New York Times reports that 60% of the eligible population came out to vote (compare that with the 45% we get here in the US). The AP notes:

With more than 8.5 million votes cast, Sunday's referendum shattered the previous record of voter turnout, when 7.5 million Venezuelans cast ballots in the 1988 presidential elections. Former President Carter, who monitored the vote, said it was the largest turnout he had ever seen, and lines extended for more than a mile in some places.

Not surprisingly, the opposition has rejected the result and is claiming fraud. In addition to the Carter Center, the Organization of American States [OAS] monitored the election, and doesn't seem to agree with the charges of fraud. The Times quoted an unnamed OAS official as saying: "The opposition is basically saying there was computer fraud, but that's almost impossible." The owner of the machines used in the vote was quoted as saying "The servers are in a highly secure area. The system is impenetrable." (As skeptical as I am of electronic voting machines, the independent polling seems to correlate with the official results, suggesting that fraud is unlikely.)

But as Justin Podur points out, that may not matter.

Carter apparently thinks that the vote ought to be accepted. [OAS official] Gaviria believes that some kind of "solution" should be sought in spite of the clear vote. . . . If Gaviria and the opposition have their way, it will be an abhorrent message from the world to Venezuelans, that they are on their own in trying to defend their democracy and that international bodies have no credibility to tell them anything. . . .

According to the Coordinadora Democratica's own figures (not really sure how they were collected, but some way far more reliable than the double-system of the machines), of 8 million votes counted, SI had 59% and NO 40.6%. . . .

This claim, without evidence like virtually every other claim of the opposition, gives the Carter Center, OAS, and international press a real choice. Will they respect the vote of the Venezuelans and their electoral authorities, which they have been praising all day, or will they opt for sleazy, evidence-free claims that are designed to sow chaos and undermine progress?

I guess we can only wait and see.

UPDATE: Carter and Gaviria have declared that there is no evidence of fraud.

Meantime, the BBC has an interesting piece on why US officials dislike Chavez. ("They don't like him because he's a populist, because he's also against some of the things they want for Latin America, like the Free Trade Area of the Americas," says Mark Weisbrot of the Centre for Economic and Policy Research.) And why do the middle and upper classes of Venezuela dislike him?

Edgardo Lander, sociology lecturer at Venezuelan Central University, says before Mr Chavez arrived on the scene, Venezuelan politics were "like an upper-class party in which everything was very refined and educated and cosmopolitan.

"All of a sudden these people from the outside come into the party - people who smell, who are Indian and black, who have no manners."

I'm going to assume Sr. Lander is merely representing the view of Venezuelan elites, and not revealing his own feelings.


Nonviolent Palestinian Watch

As an American, I'm really baffled by these stories I keep seeing about Palestinians seeking to find ways out of the violence in their homeland. I mean, aren't all Palestinians soulless monsters intent of destroying Israel and pissing on the ashes? Gulf News reports that Palestinian militants are working on a plan (authored by Intifada leader Marwan Barghouti) to halt all violence and give up their weapons if and when Israel withdraws from the Gaza Strip.

Hamas leader Khalid Mesha'al and Islamic Jihad leader Ramadan Shalah, both based in Damascus, Syria, have responded "positively, in principle," a source close to Barghouti said. Egypt, serving as mediator between Israel and the Palestinians on the terms of a Gaza pullback, has also received a copy. . . .

His plan said that after the Israeli withdrawal, militant groups would declare a halt to attacks on Israel from Gaza, though not from the West Bank. Within three months of the withdrawal, militants would have to sell their weapons to the security forces.

Insofar as Israel was ordered by the UN to withdraw from these territories in 1967, this plan seems eminently logical.

Now I find that Arun Gandhi (grandson of former Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi) has been invited by Palestinian actvists to kick off a new campaign for unarmed struggle against the Israeli occupation. Wha!? (Actually, I think it's high time those Palestinian children find something else to do with their time other than throwing rocks at Israeli tanks.) Pic at right is a painting by a kid in Palestine, illustrating what life is like for them.

As for the Palestinian prisoners who are staging a hunger strike to protest their inhumane treatement -- Israeli prison officials are responding with tact and concern.

Prison officers are setting up barbecues outside cells and have told guards to eat in front of prisoners. . . .

Israeli prison officials have already begun monitoring prisoners' body weight and will consider force-feeding inmates who became critically emaciated, reports say.

Did Jennifer Harbury have to endure anything so insidious?


HalliBush Wars, Inc.

In Afghanistan, US citizen Jonathan Idema -- who was arrested in July and charged with torturing Afghans in a private jail (some of them "were found dangling upside down") -- claims that his trial in Kabul is "insane" and "crazy". (He does this loudly; the BBC says he is given tp "shouting out at both the judge and prosecutor".)

Idema said he had not been given an English copy of the charges against him. "How can I defend myself when I don't even have a copy of the indictment?" he demanded.

That is unfair. Thank the gods that we don't treat our prisoners like that! From that last story:

Former Middle East hostage Terry Waite . . . told BBC Radio 4's Today Programme the methods the US used were "almost identical" to his own experiences at the hands of kidnappers in the Lebanon.

Wow. Meanwhile, in Iraq, over 2000 civilian human shields have flocked to Najaf to protect holy Shia buildings and resistance leader Muqtada al-Sadr. The US forces, in response, have expelled all journalists from the city. Sounds like something good's about to happen! Don't go into the basement!

And finally on the HalliBush Wars front: A Pentagon report investigating abuses at Abu Ghraib has been leaked in part to the Baltimore Sun, and sources say it completely exonerates Donald Rumsfeld.

"This is a whitewash - a carefully orchestrated one," said a lawyer who has liaised with military officials involved in the case.

"People in the Pentagon have been coming to me in a fury because of the way this has been handled. By naming military intelligence officials as well as the seven military police who have been charged, it will look like action has been taken. But basically it's still the same storyline of just a few bad apples, way down the food chain."

TPCQ: "Five-o kills again / Gets off with a grin"

Random

Today I stumbled upon WorldNews, and I'm completely stunned that I'd never seen it before. It's easily the most incredibly huge collection of global news sources anywhere online -- much bigger than Yahoo, for instance. The section on Africa is enormous, featuring even foci on Lesotho and sport(s) in Gambia. Admittedly, many of the articles are the same in the different sections, but still the scope is breathtaking. If ABC or CNN or FoxNews or any of the other supposedly "world news" outlets had any respectability at all, their international sections would look like this.

They even have a page on East Timor! That's how I found out that Timorese and Australian negotiators have reached an agreement on the Timor Gap oil. The Timorese have agreed to a de facto border for a big oil reserve (instead of a firm, logically-derived border); in return, East Timor has received "promises of more revenues". And we all know how valuable promises from Australia have been for East TImor, don't we?

Enjoy these epic posts while I have time for them, people -- school starts in two short weeks.

John Wilson has a good piece up on AlterNet about Alan Keyes.

During a campaign appearance in Bedford, N.H., in 2000, Keyes asked a class of fifth-graders, "If I were to lose my mind right now and pick one of you up and dash your head against the floor and kill you, would that be right?" He then went on to tell the children that some courts and politicians think it's OK to murder 6-month-old children.

And finally (whew) -- Wal-Mart has launched a new PR blitz.

"We've really been in the spotlight, and I think that's made us especially sensitive to the need for balanced coverage," said Mona Williams, a spokeswoman for Wal-Mart.

Man, and here I thought that floating smiley face was more than enough to convince people that their predatory corporate practices, hiring of illegal immigrants, and destruction of local economies was all for the best. Thanks goodness we'll now be receiving "balanced coverage."

Bleah! Enough of this. I need lunch!

TimeWaster™

Frank is pretty cool, if a bit slow-going at first. (And slow-loading, alas.)

Today I'm listening to: The Coup! (News: Boots and Stic [from dead prez] are working on a side project. Woop!)