Sales Soar of Book Chavez Gave Obama

wonder when he will be on Oprah?

Chavez is desparate for publicity. At least, his choice of book gifts to U.S. presidents has improved. He reportedly gave “W”-MY PET GOAT.

It will make a great movie. Hope it stars Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie as Barack and Michelle and Tom Cruise as Chavez. Maybe Streisand can direct.

I’ve been trying to figure out this Tea Party hubbub and I think I have it. People went to the rallies thinking they were about “No Texas” instead of “No Taxes”, Perry’s secession speak confused them. Frankly, if I thought it was “No Texas” I would have gone too.

Obama probably gave him a signed copy of one of his book. You know the one that described his cocaine use and how he was never thrown in jail.

i just bought the book! Obama is great for everything, including book sales!
President Obama is fantastic for promoting a positive and smart USA image abroad!

Was the book hateful of the U.S.? If so, you know who is going to up late reading it in one night (I’ll give you a hint: it sounds like “mahell”)

Sean Penn would be a good choice to play Obama in the Hugo Chavez movie.
Penn admires Chavez and Obama.
Even though they both oppose gay marriage.
Something Penn tries to forget.

Brian you left out something “gift” while unnecessarily explaining your atheism, and Obama didn’t say that and neither did Bush. Bush was fond of saying that “The liberty we prize is not America’s gift to the world, it is God’s gift to humanity.”
To conclude, I would actually say that Obama thinks HE is God’s gift to the world. Now that’s funny.

I’m not naive to the point that America is “perfect”. And we need to stop acting as if we are. People make up our great country, but I’ve never met a perfect person, have you. Read our history…or just go back 40 years. Is America perfect yet?

“President Obama is fantastic for promoting a positive and smart USA image abroad!”
Half my family lives in Italy and Greece. We discuss current events all the time through email and phone calls. They fear for us.

I’m very impressed with you right wingers who are ready to comment on a book you not only haven’t read, but hadn’t even heard of until now. Impressed with your ignorance and arrogance, that is.
I’ll admit I have not yet read “Open Veins,” but I have read several articles and four other book by Galeano, including his “Memory of Fire” trilogy, a brilliant history of the Americas. I’m very pleased with the news in Tapper’s dispatch. American readers, including our president, can learn a lot from Eduardo Galeano.
By the way, the book is now up to #14 on Amazon.

it’s actually a fantastic book.
if people read it, they would learn a lot about what the real meaning of America is.

This book is just another “been there done, said that” of Noam Choamsky, nothing new, the same old stale arguments of imperialism. I guess Obama read it in Columbia for his political science class

Jake, have you read the book? if not, aren’t you being a little too confident in declaring that it is a book that criticizes the role of US in LA? whatever happened to knowing what you are writing about before giving such a short summary of it

To Bill, who posted a comment at 8:14pm, today:
Hi Bill,
Just a thought: Even “the same old stale arguments of imperialism”, which may be “nothing new” – as you put it – do still leave consequences, results, y’know…. Harm. Sometimes even grievous Harm that stays a while, messes everything up and takes time & energy to fix, to put right…. yes, eh….??
:)

HelloFunnyWorld
“results, y’know…. Harm. Sometimes even grievous Harm” Point taken, but sometimes everyone has a grievance on the past and ride on these as excuses for current failures. Some countries in central America have great issues of corruption, nepotism and racism, big time.
We cannot keep riding on Uncle Sams neck with imperialism. Its like reparations, I agree with Obama, getting the best education and working hard is the best pay back rather than chasing some compensation for issues of 19th century.

“…issues of the 19th century”?
Bill, imperialism isn’t ancient history. Nixon and Kissinger orchestrated the bloody coup that overthrew Salvador Allende, elected president of Chile, in 1973. The Dulles brothers organized the military overthrow of Guatemala’s elected government in 1954. In the 1980s Reagan funded contras and death squads that kept blood flowing through the streets of Central America.
And every American who loses their job when a multinational corporation moves operations to Mumbai or Mexico or China, for cheaper labor, is a victim of imperialism, too.

Hello Bill,
Thank you for your reply. Duly noted. And you are right on all counts:
(1) using past situations as excuses when one fails – that does happen and (2) continually blaming Americans & the U.S. for Imperialism – ditto. It happens. A lot. And (3) a good education & hard work could be the answer.
However, most of our problems, whether due to Race, Religion; Money; Law; the Economy; Capitalism and the links between all that and Equality in Practice – All our problems in the World today, seem to be of the man made variety. No acts of God. No accidents of nature. Not really.
And so, everyone wants, if not a place at the table where the rules are made, then at least, honest and sincere representation at that table and guess
talking to each other properly, is the first step…. right??
Yes…. No…. Maybe..??
____
And a P.S. to Robert B posting at 8:42pm – Jake says he has rules. Just like in Kindergarten.
Specifically: no knocking Jane Austen and definitely, no name calling. No, not even “lefties”. As much as you may like the word.
:)

It is actually a great book, and many Americans should read it.

People dissing this book obviously have not read it. Galeano’s book is a CLASSIC and Obama is intellectual enough to appreciate it. Good pick, Mr. Chavez.

It’s a great book. I still have the copy I read in college 25 years ago. The course was ‘Revolutionary Literature in Latin America’. The Reaganite fanatics in the class were in constant state of freak out. Very Funny.

I haven’t read the book but it does sound like a practical gift, considering the circumstances. Anytime you can get Americans past Taco Bell ads when they think of Latin America, it’s a good thing.

It is pathetic! To buy the book from Amazon because the of the Chavez tell him what to read? Because of the sales went soar? Who wanted to buy it? I wouldn’t. Amazon is just playing ‘politic’.

The book is written in Spanish. And it is a ‘scary’ book to read. I wouldn’t buy it.

this is a must read book for every american who is not afraid of knowing the truculent history of U.S. (but also spanish and british) domination and exploitation of latin america. it may be hard at the beginning but at the end the reader will overcome the orwellian maxime that “ignorance is strenght”!

Yes, I remember when he suggested to Bush I believe to read Hegemony of Power by Noam Chomsky. He has great taste in books and this will probably be very informative of what shoes he is walking in.
Chavez has earned his popularity in Venezuela. Considering he is in a fight to keep corruption at bay, and the CIA and oil companies from the control of his country and people, perhaps I could understand his desire to keep things like term limits as reasons to surrender to the colonizing and dehumanizing effects of the global elite. His people would elect him and term limits are only necessary if everybody in Venezuela votes they are.
He hasn’t done any action that the Venezuelan people haven’t supported in fair elections. Because…hint, hint for Republicans…he EARNS their support by working for THEM! Go figure why he’s Republican enemy #1.

I can see that Jim misses having a president whose reading list did not extend beyond “My Pet Goat.”
But don’t worry Jim, your own beliefs will remain secure as long as you continue to refuse to read anything that might threaten you blissful ignorance.

The book at Amazon sales rank is at nos. 2. It is pathetic! I wouldn’t buy this book because it about the Latin American countries bashing USA. It is written in Spanish. It is a negative book.

It is about time americans wake up to the facts what their government is up to, not only in Latinamerica but the rest of the world. Another american exposed the facts, John Perkins, The economic-hit man, the horrors of american policy of manipulation, assassination, toppling governments, serving the corporations to exploit others nation, etc. Yes, wake up people and stop the pretenses your government serve you…nay! serve the corporations and the industrial military complex.

Obama is not any more a man of religion than George Bush. Claiming to be Christian is a political requirement in this nation if one seeks elected office. But we already know politicians are frauds. President Obama is seeking plenty of good photo ops to bolster his popularity. He will have many battles with Congress where he will need the support of the American People.
Before the American People lend their support, they should examine the former Constitutional law professors positions on Bagram Prison in Afghanistan, Patriot Act wiretap authority, prosecuting CIA torture war crimes, increased drone attacks on Pakistan and banking system bailouts. One will find only deference to the Bush administration policies.
The high number of high level appointees from failed financial institutions and Wallstreet insiders working in his administration is disturbing. So is their influence. Treasury is a revolving door for Wallstreet, administration after administration.
Our government is beholding to large corporate and indutrial interests. Insurance, Banking, Finance and Energy are just few of the players. This is not Democracy.

When I first heard that Chavez gave a book to Obama, I thought, “Wouldn’t it be great if it were ‘The Open Veins of Latin America’”?
For over three decades I’ve said that book should be required reading in all our schools. For many it will be an ice-cold dip into the Reality of the History of this hemisphere. The book outlines 500 years of economic and political history of the region, product by product, country by country.
How many of you realize that Watt’s steam engine (and with it, Britain’s “industrial revolution”) would not have occurred when it did without the financing of precious metals that broken and discarded Indians were forced to dig out of this hemisphere’s mines?
I spent over a decade living in Latin America, and that book was the present I gave to all my friends when I came home.
Not at all about “America-bashing”, it deals with Reality, a concept not so popular with many folks like Union Guy who seem to prefer to base their ideas on heresay and prejudice.

Jim, at 9:28 a.m. you wrote: “well, we americans have much to be ashamed of. whats that you say, we weren’t around 5 centuries ago?”
Latin America’s history includes 300+ years of colonialism, enslavement. mass murder and exploitation by Spain and Portugal. No sooner had they fought for and gained their independence, than the U.S. began interfering, invading, and overthrowing their governments, generally so U.S. business interests could exploit their resources and people.
The difference between you and me is that, seeing the harm our government and corporations have done to our own people, I don’t take it personally when people from other countries complain of what U.S. rulers have done to them, and I’m open to hearing their point of view. Judging from the rise in the Amazon sales ranking of Galeano’s book, a lot of other Americans are as well.

Are they gonna update every time the rank changes? LOL.

It’s now #2.

Great – maybe some people will finally get a clue about why we are so hated. Let’s face it for all we’ve done, the ‘good’ things notwithstanding – we as a country deserve to be looked at as criminals. That’s how we’ve acted for a long time.

Union Guy-
Point taken, mea culpa.
It’s 500+years of exploitation by many: add England, Holland as well as all the Vatican proxies: the pope “gave” half of South America to Spain and half to Portugal — with all those millions who already lived there — how nice! The US just picked up when the others left off.
You can understand how some folks would not like to hear about (much less admit to) such goings on. No amount of prayer or blessing could overcome the guilt generated by such a past.

jim:
America would be a great deal better off if it would have taken many of Carter’s policies to heart……. Reagan was elected, and then he supported and armed Saddam, with that famous pix of Rumsfeld shaking hands with Saddam.
It’s interesting that you consider an open policy discussion with the rest of the world, ‘apologizing’.
re: “so i don’t apologize for whatever america did, we found freedom here. the british subjected my people to unspeakable things.”
and most of the new Americans revisited that oppression you mention by participating in slavery and killing native americans.
re: ” i am a baby boomer and i saw what the far left did in the 60s”
well, why don’t you tell everyone what you think the ‘far left’ did in the 60′s….

mr.tony…….. just so you know it was the british and the french that killed most of the native americans, by the time americans got involved there were not many left. and by the time my people escaped the british it was long over, so none of it was my fault, nor was slavery. both things were[are]repulsive to me. the french and british laced blankets with smallpox killing most of the indians, and my people in ireland were starved and their farms and homes confiscated.i’m old enough to remember some of americas mistakes yet young enough to know that what is written in the history books is wrong. history has nothing to do with what happened, its just ‘his story’, so go on, mr.tony, believe what you want, i tell you i’m a moderate and you doubt me. who cares? the far left and the far right will be the undoing of our country. who will write the history then? probably the chinese.i hope you are young so you see the end, i’m not young and will be dead when the end comes.

How come all these people around the world always brang up what the USA has done to other countries. Like what we did to Latin America. Well, what about what the Spanish did to the Incas and Aztecs, I heard it’s kind of hard to find any of those people.

mr.tony…. you must not have been alive when jimmy carter was president, 17% interest rates, oil shortages,20%inflation, the hostage crisis in iran etc….. yeah he was a great president. even bill clinton dispised him. now i don’t doubt the man’s inherent goodness, but my god, he was perhaps our worst president ever. what ideas did he have that were not installed? he had a democratic house and senate, why couldn’t he get it done?he was an idealist, which is ok if your a college professor, but not a president.a good man?perhaps. a good president?laughable.

That’s the Obama touch!!!

I wanted to say point of view (not you)

To understand the present is important to learn about the past. Americans (from US) don’t know about the history of the Americas. At least, this will make people have an idea of what happened to our countries and then with an open mind will learn why there are Chavez, Castros and Morales in Latin America nowadays.

jim:
so according to you, Carter was directly responsible for all of that?
we might be about the same age if you were born in the early 50′s…..
too bad no one adopted his energy policies, you must have forgotten how much Reagan increased the deficit, supported Iran, Savings & Loan collapse,
re; “i tell you i’m a moderate and you doubt me..”
your love America or leave it sentiment hardly seems moderate.
again, how much better we wouls be now, if Carter’s national energy policy that included conservation, price control, and new technology would have been continued..
while it is true that his last year in office was difficult… to blame Carter for oil shortages and resultant economic problems across America is a shallow argument, ……
and, as much as you like to quote history, to blame Carter for the rise of Islamic fundamentalism, without also giving the history of American involvement with the Shah long before Carter as causative factors , is also shallow…

mr.tony….. if you hold reagan responsible fot the 80′s can i not hold carter responsible for the late 70′s? you seem to judge them by different standards. and with a democratic controlled house and senate carter couldn’t get his agenda passed. see, its not what you wanted to do that you are judged, its what you did.and carter left us worse off then he found us. as far as i’m concerned we have not had even one ‘good’president in my lifetime[born1949].one[lbj] stuck me in vietnam because i was poor, and allowed middle-class and wealthy kids to get a draft deferment.[what was up with that?].nixon was, well, nixon. ford was a caretaker, carter was ineffective, reagan ushered in greed, bush 1 was out of touch, clinton could have been good, [but was selfish]bush 2 was a disaster.thus we find ourselves in the mess we are in today. a whole series of bad to mediocre presidents got us here.as for the french, their government is what i was refering to. the people in paris are like the people in new york, and i would hate for america to be judged by that standard. the french in the countryside, particulary in normandy, are lovely.i am a social liberal,i think the government should help the poor, the disabled,the hungry. but i have been all over the world, and despite our failings i know this is the place with the most opportunity and the best of countries. and while i am prepared to debate another citizen in private and admit we are not always right, i am not willing to apologize to the japanese for hiroshima [as obama did]or slavery[which clinton did]or allow the ‘draft dodgers’ back in the country[as carter did']or pardon nixon[as ford did']or make blacks a permanent underclass[as lbj did']. you see sometimes things look good but turn out bad, and thats what a president gets judged on, how did things turn out,the road to hell is paved with good intentions. by the way, i am a black man.proud that our country elected a black man. but he will not succeed by running us down to not only our allies but our enimies. i want him to be a good president, so do you, i want him to do it with honor, you don’t. there is no honor in appeasement.

jim:
re: you seem to judge them by different standards”
I’m glad you got my point about how easy it is to lump events in a time period together and blame any president, and certainly some Presidents are certainly worse than others,… of course to me, the recent Bush remains in a class by himself.
re: ” i want him to be a good president, so do you, i want him to do it with honor, you don’t. there is no honor in appeasement.”
I would disagree with you that candid historical discussions by an American president with the rest of the world is somehow ‘appeasement’ and ‘without honor’ or ‘runs down the country’.
As to doing everything with ‘honor’ .. that word like ‘truth’ has a way of having a different meaning depending on one’s political slant..
Taliban blows up schools for ‘honor’, women in some countries are murdered for family ‘honor’………
same thing with the word ‘appeasement’,…
Obama is certainly not doing what is known as ‘appeasement’ from WW2 : the foreign policy of British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain towards Nazi Germany between 1937 and 1939.
re: “you see sometimes things look good but turn out bad, and thats what a president gets judged on, how did things turn out,the road to hell is paved with good intentions.”
you can use that same approach to see what a country has done historically,.. I am less concerned about Pres. Obama political speeches around the world than you seem to be……… I don’t view them as a threat to America…….. and I do not believe that the ‘honor’ of America is some how being lost by America coming to grips with it’s past, good and bad…… to me, it’s THAT kind of political strength and character that is ‘honorable’.