LA Weekly

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Sen. Lincoln Chafee, Republican of Rhode Island, isn't getting as much attention as Sen. Barbara Boxer got for speaking up in the Condoleezza Rice hearings. Other than Amy Goodman's show on the hearings yesterday, I could only find this one nugget on AP:

"At the Senate confirmation hearing of Condoleezza Rice, nominated to be secretary of state, Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee said the United States appears to have "a hypocritical approach to our foreign policy in some ways," by dealing differently with countries such as Russia and Pakistan than with Venezuela and Iran."

It's worth noting that Chafee is a loyal environmentalist championed by the League of Conservation Voters, a staunch defender of the Clean Water Act (and now the chair of Fish, Wildlife and Water, so there's still hope for the survival of the Endangered Species Act).

Chafee, along with Senators Christopher Dodd and Bill Nelson, traveled to Venezuela recently to improve bilateral relations. Petroleum World wrote about it:

"On Chávez's stated desire to look for other oil markets for Venezuelan crude oil rather than the US markets, the senators played down worries, particularly by selling oil to China. Sen. Christopher Dodd, the ranking member of the delegation said the United States receives 13 percent of its oil from Venezuela and Venezuela sells 50% of its oil exports to the US."

And here's a BBC report on Chávez's "oil-for-literacy-and-health" deal with Cuba:

"The Venezuelan government says it's taught over a million adults to read and write in the last year - they say it may be the biggest literacy programme the world has ever seen. Many of the teaching methods used here - like almost all the 13,000 doctors and dentists working in the local surgeries that have also sprung up in Venezuela's poorest communities - come from Cuba. In exchange, Venezuela sends Cuba 53,000 barrels of oil a day at preferential prices. "

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