Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Tuesday, May 15th, 2012
Seattle party Bus Rentals..
One more summer of frustration lies ahead for drivers heading into West Seattle, because the new ramp from First Avenue South to the West Seattle Bridge won’t be ready for traffic until early September.
City officials used to say the ramp would open in late 2011. The job has been hindered by a late start, weather and the complexity of rebuilding a nearby road deck while traffic whizzes by.
The ramp is one stage of the Spokane Street Viaduct widening, initially scheduled to be done in July 2012. The city is only two months behind on a very complicated project, said Stuart Goldsmith, project director for the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT).
The entire corridor is likely to be completed Sept. 7, according to the latest chart by contractor PCL.
Drivers seethed last year when the unfinished First Avenue ramp caused the city’s worst choke point during the “Viadoom” construction closure of Highway 99, causing traffic jams of more than an hour.
Until the up-ramp is finished, commuters leaving Sodo remain hostage to a surface route where freight trains, port trucks and drawbridge openings can block the road home.
“We would love to see it completed,” said Dave Montoure, chairman of the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce. In particular, he hears from residents who work at Starbucks Center and “get trapped by trains from time to time.”
New steel girders were recently hoisted into place after a delay in obtaining them from a supplier. But even if the westbound ramp were completely paved by now, it couldn’t be used until the entire $168 million Spokane Street Viaduct expansion is done, “most likely late in the summer,” says a mailing from the SDOT.
This is because it would be too dangerous for traffic to merge into what’s currently a narrow, four-lane detour route along one edge of Spokane Street, already so tight that it’s posted with a widely ignored 25-mph speed limit.
Much-used corridor
The West Seattle Bridge carries about 101,000 vehicles per weekday, and 70,000 use the Spokane Street Viaduct.
During the administration of former Mayor Greg Nickels, voters approved partial funding to rebuild Spokane Street in the 2006 “Bridging the Gap” property-tax levy. By 2008, the City Council approved a plan that called for the widening by 2010.
Then-SDOT Director Grace Crunican, in particular, discussed her goal of finishing in time to give commuters an escape valve by 2012, which was Gov. Chris Gregoire’s announced deadline to tear down the Alaskan Way Viaduct. The city even sent public mailings with a 2011 completion date.
That was before a bidder challenged the contract award. The project was rebid in September 2009, based on an expected completion by July 2012.
The next year, a new loop ramp to Fourth Avenue South was finished three months early, in August 2010, providing a new path to Costco and downtown.
At that point the city still said the First Avenue South ramp would be done in 2011. Early in the work, part of the ramp had to be broken apart and rebuilt due to a measuring error, but that fix took only a few days.
Meanwhile, the state accelerated its Highway 99 work in Sodo and set a nine-day construction closure for October 2011. SDOT tried to get the First Avenue ramp done by then, but PCL couldn’t get the girders in time.
“There’s an urban myth that the First Avenue South improvements were supposed to be completed before the nine-day closure,” said spokesman Rick Sheridan. (The closure known as “Viadoom” ended up lasting only seven days.)
Even if the ramp up to the high bridge had been opened to traffic last fall, it would have closed again this spring for safety because of tight space atop Spokane Street, Sheridan said.
Officials point to challenges including wet weather, Highway 99 road closures, and a three-week change order to improve the project by laying concrete instead of weaker blacktop for the East Marginal Way South truck route.
Rare compliment
Mike Peringer, president of the Sodo Business Association, said city transportation staff members and police have done a particularly good job at keeping north-south traffic flowing on First and Fourth avenues south through intersections in the construction zone.
“You don’t hear people say nice things about city transportation too much, but from the very beginning, they kept us informed,” he said.
On May 22 or 23, the old eastbound offramp down to First Avenue South will be closed to avoid conflicts with nearby repaving, while the Fourth Avenue South loop ramp reopens after a monthlong closure. Traffic shifts will happen throughout the summer.
The final Spokane Street will be earthquake resistant and provide two traffic lanes, a merge-exit lane and a shoulder in each direction.
Work is 90 percent done.
Goldsmith said Friday he recently asked PCL if its workers could speed up the job by paving 24 hours a day. “Even for money, they won’t change it,” he said. Among other reasons, concrete needs a fixed time to cure.
“The one way we could have gone faster on this project would be to shut Spokane Street down, and that would be unacceptable to West Seattle,” he said.
If SDOT avoids further delay, the job will be finished in time for the area’s next big traffic convulsion — when Metro reshuffles its entire Westside bus network on Sept. 29 and adds a new west-east Route 50 to the traffic party in Sodo.
Mike Lindblom: 206-515-5631 or mlindblom@seattletimes.com. On Twitter @mikelindblom.
More Local News
McGinn: DOJ plan to cost $41M; but feds say that’s ‘simply wrong’
Monday, May 14th, 2012
Seattle Party Bus Rentals
Friday, May 11th, 2012
Seattle Party Bus Rentals
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, going au naturel, is all smiles while on official business in Kolkata, India on May 6. YOU GO, GIRL.
By Jada Wong, Styleite
Sometimes Secretary of State Hillary Clinton just wants to be normal and do normal things, like wearher hair in a scrunchie, party with her girlfriends, and go out without a stitch of makeup.
Clinton visited Bangladesh last weekend to promote democracy abroad, popping up at official events in glasses and without makeup (except for a bit of lipstick). Of course, people criticized her; on Monday, Fox News said she looked “tired and withdrawn.” But you know what? She doesn’t really care what they think.
On Tuesday, she
explained her personal philosophy to CNN‘s Jill Dougherty:
“I feel so relieved to be at the stage I’m at in my life right now, Jill. Because you know if I want to wear my glasses I’m wearing my glasses. If I want to wear my hair back I’m pulling my hair back. You know at some point it’s just not something that deserves a lot of time and attention. And if others want to worry about it, I let them do the worrying for a change. It doesn’t drive me crazy anymore. It’s just not something I think is important anymore.”
Yeah, she rules. Check out Hill in all her barefaced glory below:
Munir Uz Zaman / AFP – Getty Images
She looks a bit relieved, no? A makeup-less Hillary Clinton looks on during a press conference in Dhaka on March 5.
Shannon Stapleton / AFP – Getty Images
Fearless Hillary Clinton speaks to students at the Dhaka International School in Dhaka May 6.
Shannon Stapleton / AP
She might be going easy on the makeup, but she still has an eye for colorful fashion: Clinton holds a sari in Kolkata, India, on May 6.
What do you think of Hillary’s views and makeup-less look? Let us know in the comments section!
More from Styleite: Hillary Clinton Just Can’t Let Go Of Her Scrunchies
Is This The Most Amazing Makeup Tutorial Of All Time?
Beauty School: How To Hide A Hangover
Tuesday, May 8th, 2012
Seattle Party Bus Rentals…
An alleged al-Qaida plot to blow up an underwear bomb aboard a jet headed to the U.S. was stopped by the CIA before it could be launched. NBC’s Pete Williams reports.
By NBC News and msnbc.com news services
Updated at 5 p.m. ET: The CIA foiled a plot by al-Qaida’s affiliate in Yemen to bomb a U.S.-bound airliner this month, senior U.S. officials told NBC News.
Officials said the plot involved a bomb that improved on the one that had been sewn into the underpants of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who failed in a plot to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day 2009. That device did not detonate.
This bomb had a more refined detonation mechanism and was “totally non-metallic,” which officials told NBC News would have made it more difficult to detect by traditional screening processes.
A U.S. counterterrorism official told NBC News there were “refinements on reliability” in particular that made this bomb more sophisticated and more likely to explode.
Michael Leiter, former director of the National Counterterrorism Center, talks to TODAY’s Ann Curry about al-Qaida’s failed plan to bomb an airliner headed to the U.S. and what the foiled plot tells us about the current state of al-Qaida.
In addition to being a threat to commercial planes, the official said this type of bomb could be used in crowded places, on other transportation systems or for assassinations.
The official noted that the bomb “was never near a plane” and “never posed a risk.” The plot was disrupted well before it threatened Americans or U.S. allies, the official added.
John Brennan, President Obama’s chief counterterrorism adviser, talks to TODAY’s Ann Curry about al-Qaida’s failed plan to bomb an airliner headed to the U.S. and says the would-be bomber is “no longer a threat to the American public.”
The U.S. received the device last month. The FBI is currently conducting technical and forensics analyses on it.
The official would not specify which international security service provided the intelligence that led to the unraveling of the plot, as there is concern about retaliatory attacks against U.S. targets inside Yemen.
Counterterror officials deem the thwarted plot a “success story,” NBC News reported. The FBI said in a statement that the successful operation was the “result of close cooperation with our security and intelligence partners overseas.”
Related: More than 30 Yemeni troops killed in militant attack
NBC’s National Security Analyst Michael Leiter explains the latest terror threat may lead to more stringent screening overseas, especially now that growing instability in Yemen has left the region open as a safe haven for terrorism.
According to The Associated Press, the would-be suicide bomber was instructed to buy a ticket on the airliner of his choosing and decide the timing of the attack.
The U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the case, said the individual is not a threat but would not say where he is located. He did not provide information about the individual’s nationality or age.
It’s unclear who built the bomb, but the device does bear similarities to other explosive devices built by master bomb-maker Ibrahim al-Asiri. However, Asiri may not have been directly involved in this plot.
Related: Reports: Al-Qaida leader wanted in USS Cole bombing killed in Yemen airstrike
According to one official, there is “evidence that Asiri has passed along his bomb-making knowledge to others.” The official would not say whether Asiri or an apprentice were involved in this plot.
In an exclusive meeting, a senior U.S. intelligence official told NBC News that Asiri posed the single most dangerous threat to the United States.
According to the official, Asiri is the most capable of carrying out al-Qaida’s threat to launch a significant terrorist attack to kill Americans inside the United States.
Asiri designed the first underwear bomb that failed over Detroit and he was also the maker of the printer ink cartridge bombs that were discovered before they were shipped to the United States.
The senior official said counter-terrorism officials were seriously troubled by the ink cartridge bombs because they were “particularly sophisticated.”
Related: Al-Qaida kidnapped Iranian envoy in bid to free bin Laden kin, colleagues
Related: Bin Laden fretted about al-Qaida affiliates’ missteps, letters show
Related: Bin Laden in hiding: Hatching horrific plots despite crippling attacks on al-Qaida
Asiri has also implanted a bomb inside his brother in a failed attempt to assassinate Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, the Saudi deputy interior minister. The minister survived, but Asiri’s brother did not.
Asiri is not just a bomb maker but has also taken to “training the trainers,” sharing his skills with others. Officials believe he is responsible for this bomb, the one sewn into Abdulmutallab’s underwear and the one used during the attempted assassination attempt of Nayef. As director of Saudi counterterrorism, Nayef is one of the United States’ most trusted allies in the fight against al-Qaida.
For each bomb, officials are seeing a new level of refinement and sophistication.
The U.S. counterterrorism official said the thwarted attack and the recent drone death of Fahd al-Quso, an FBI “most-wanted terrorist,” was a “one-two body blow” to al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, which U.S. officials have recently described as the most aggressive of the al-Qaida franchises.
They also believe that al-Quso, director of external communications for the franchise, would have had to approve the planned May attack.
Officials also say the plot had no apparent ties to the anniversary of the killing of bin Laden. One official told NBC News the timing was coincidental.
A White House statement said President Obama was told of the plot in April.
“The disruption of this IED (improvised explosive device) plot underscores the necessity of remaining vigilant against terrorism here and abroad,” the statement read.
Reporting by NBC News’ Jim Miklaszewski and Robert Windrem and The Associated Press is included in this report.
More world news from msnbc.com and NBC News:
Sunday, May 6th, 2012
Seattle Party Bus Rentals…Eli Manning’s hosting gig on “Saturday Night Live” paralleled his usual performance as Giants QB — a clean showing, solid highlights, no major fumbles.
Eli Manning scores big with Saturday Night Live “Little Brothers” sketch.Watch it here.
He even got in a dig on big brother Peyton, who struck “SNL” gold when he hosted in 2007.
And yes, if you stuck through the end of the show, you saw Eli wearing big hair and mascara and lipstick for a drag show skit, the kind of image that could leave die-hard Giants fans with indigestion.
Manning does that during some of his games, too. He is known for the occasional errant pass.
But this is a guy with two Super Bowl wins, two gut-check victories in front of more than 100 million worldwide TV viewers. You experience those moments, and suddenly live sketch comedy does not seem so daunting.
Eli’s monologue saw him introducing his offensive line in the crowd and calling Saturday “definitely the third-most exciting night of my life” following those two Super Bowl wins over the New England Patriots.
“I finally feel like a real New Yorker,” he said. “It took a few years, but now I’m an expert.”
The “expert” then fielded questions from the audience, instructing them to go to Olive Garden (in New Jersey) for good NYC Italian food. “Hey, I play for the New York Giants, and all my games are played in New Jersey,” he said.
He professed his love for the musical “Cats” — it ended its Broadway run in 2000, by the way — then discussed one of his favorite hobbies.
“I get some bulky shopping bags and three of the fattest kids I can find … then we all walk hand-in-hand next to each other in Times Square, slow as heck,” he said. “It’s so fun.”
The fun continued with a mock ad for the “Little Brothers” program, a send-up to bro Peyton’s “United Way” skit.
“Little Brothers” starts with Eli providing mentorship to some children in a park. A nice, happy scene. Then things turn dark, with Manning dispensing wedgies, swirlies, arrows and abuse to bullying big brothers.
In one image, Eli stands over an open trunk, a boy (Andy Samberg) lying inside.
“Maybe now you’ll learn to treat your younger brother with some respect, Peyton!” Eli says.
“My name’s not Peyton!” the bullying older brother replies. “Whatever,” Eli says as he slams the trunk.
Friday, May 4th, 2012
Seattle Party Bus Rentals..
Adam Yauch, who helped make hip-hop a worldwide cultural force as one-third of the influential crossover group the Beastie Boys, has died after battling cancer. He was 47.
The band’s publicist said in a statement that Yauch died in his native New York on Friday morning. Yauch, also a film director who co-founded the distribution company Oscilloscope Laboratories and an organizer of several charitable concerts, including the Tibetan Freedom Concerts, was first diagnosed with a cancerous tumor in his left salivary gland in 2009.
His death was reported by GlobalGrind, a media company partly funded by Russell Simmons. Simmons and Rick Rubin co-led Def Jam Records as it rose to prominence in the 1980s thanks to acts including the Beastie Boys andRun-DMC.
With bandmates Mike D (Michael Diamond) and Ad-Rock (Adam Horovitz), Yauch started the Beastie Boys in the late 1970s as a hardcore punk outfit. But they evolved into a sneering, comedic rap group that, under the guidance of producer Rubin, broke through by mixing hip-hop beats and classic guitar riffs — the same formula often employed by Run-DMC.
The Beastie Boys’ lighthearted approach — and whiteness in a genre dominated by African-Americans — helped them achieve mainstream success at a time that hip-hop was often dismissed as urban braggadocio set to music, despite the artistry behind it. MTV’s heavy rotation of the Beastie Boys’ “Fight for Your Right to Party,” and Run-DMC’s “Walk This Way” helped expose millions of young people to hip-hop for the first time, paving the way for every massive act that has come since, from Public Enemy to Kanye West to Eminem.
But the Beastie Boys became one of the longest-lasting acts the genre has produced by evolving constantly. While their breakthrough record, “License to Ill,” was full of fratty party jams, their follow-up, “Paul’s Boutique,” was one of the first albums to recognize the vast potential of aggressive, whimsical, multi-layered sampling. It made so many lists of “underrated” hip-hop albums in the ’90s that it quickly shed that status. For the follow-up, “Check Your Head,” Yauch and his bandmates played their own instruments, deftly combining hip-hop, grunge, jazz and psychedelic influences.
Bing: Listen to Beastie Boys songs
As the group continued to experiment and evolve over the next two decades — and pack stadiums — Yauch branched out into directing. Under the alias Nathanial Hörnblowér, he directed several videos for his group, and later helmed the Beasties’ 2006 concert film “Awesome; I F—–’ Shot That!” He also directed the 2008 basketball documentary “Gunnin’ for That #1 Spot,” and founded Oscilloscope in the same year.
He said after his cancer diagnoses in 2009 that it was “very treatable,” and the group delayed tour plans and the release of its album “Hot Sauce Committee Part 1,” which was finally released last year in slightly different form as “Hot Sauce Committee Part 2.”
He is survived by his wife and daughter.
On Facebook: Share your thoughts about Adam Yauch
Related articles from TheWrap:
Thursday, May 3rd, 2012
Would you pay $100 to put your carry-on bag in an airplane overhead bin? If you fly Spirit Airlines this fall and don’t pay before you get to the gate, you almost certainly will.
This week, the low-cost carrier announced that it will not only start charging a C-note for that particular privilege — the current fee is $45 vs. $30 if you pay online before you check in — but will also raise the price on roughly two dozen other baggage fees, effective Nov. 6. Depending on whether you pay those fees online, via phone or at the airport, most of the other increases are a more modest $2 to $10 per bag.
Click here for a complete rundown of Spirit Air’s baggage fees.
Spirit, of course, is the airline that has built its business model on charging for everything from making reservations and printing boarding passes to complying with the “unintended consequences” of government regulations. It’s a model that has earned the ire of many travelers even as it has allowed the carrier to offer low fares and maintain profitability.
“Our pricing continues to offer customers savings and time at the airport if they book their bags in advance on Spirit.com,” said spokesperson Misty Pinson. “By encouraging self-service, Spirit is able to lower our costs and pass those savings along to customers by way of low fares.”
And that $100 charge for last-minute carry-on bags? “We don’t want any of our customers to wait until they get to the boarding gate to pay for their carry-on bags as this delays the boarding process for everyone,” said Pinson. “We expect that our new $100 fee … will ensure that customers purchase their bags before arriving at the gate.”
Other would-be customers, however, are likely to see the move as another reason to avoid the carrier altogether. Two years ago, the airline’s policies led to the creation of a Boycott Spirit Airlines Facebook page; today, the page has more than 20,000 “likes,” a number that has been growing rapidly in the two weeks since the carrier refused to provide a refund for a Vietnam veteran with terminal cancer.
Protests, however, are unlikely to sway the carrier, which has clearly found a business model that works, as evidenced by the first-quarter financial statement it released on Tuesday. During the first three months of the year, the airline’s operating revenues totaled $301.5 million, up almost 30 percent over the same period a year earlier. Profit for the quarter topped $23.4 million, up from $7.9 million the year before.
And à la carte fees played a significant role in those results. During the quarter, the airline earned $51.68 in non-ticket revenue per passenger per flight segment, up 21 percent over the year before, even as its ticket revenue dropped 6.9 percent, from $82.30 to $76.65 per passenger per flight segment.
In other words, the average Spirit passenger booking a round-trip flight paid just over $100 in add-on fees for bags, boarding passes and other ancillary services. Meanwhile, a mid-June round-trip ticket between Las Vegas and Oakland will set you back less than $82.
“It obviously works for them,” said George Hobica of AirfareWatchdog.com. “They’re profitable; they haven’t gone bankrupt, and their fares are lower than the competition. They’re going to continue to try to keep fares low, entice people to book and then hit them with the fees.”
On the other hand, says Hobica, travelers still have one fee-free card to play as Spirit’s fees for carry-on bags only apply to bags that go into the overhead bins.
“Just pack a bag that fits under the seat in front of you,” said Hobica. “If you don’t put it in the overhead bin, you don’t pay the fee.”
Rob Lovitt is a longtime travel writer who still believes the journey is as important as the destination. Follow him at Twitter.
More stories you might like:
Saturday, April 28th, 2012
Seattle Party Bus Rentals…
Heavy drinking and bringing foreign nationals back to hotel rooms on trips abroad is now banned by the U.S. Secret Service in the wake of a growing scandal over allegations that agents consorted with prostitutes in Colombia this month.
The new rules of conduct issued on Friday also ban visits to “non-reputable establishments,” presumably including strip clubs, and say staff must obey U.S. laws even while abroad. A copy was provided to Reuters by the Secret Service, and a spokesman said they were effective immediately.
The new rules were issued two weeks after the scandal erupted over allegations that Secret Service agents and military personnel brought prostitutes to their hotels during a night of drinking and carousing in the Colombian city of Cartagena, just before President Barack Obama arrived for a summit.
The Secret Service this week began looking into allegations of similar misbehavior before a 2011 presidential trip to El Salvador, a report that would appear to contradict official government arguments that the Colombian episode must have been an aberration.
The rules were issued as the agency sought to close a chapter in its worst case of alleged misconduct in decades, which embarrassed the United States and overshadowed Obama’s participation in the Summit of the Americas.
The new rules issued on Friday say that “foreign nationals, excluding hotel staff and official counterparts, are prohibited in your hotel room.”
Alcohol limits
“Alcohol may only be consumed in moderate amounts while off-duty on a TDY (temporary duty) assignment, and alcohol use is prohibited within 10 hours of reporting or duty,” the rules say.
Furthermore, alcohol may not be consumed at all at the hotel where the person being protected by the Secret Service is staying once that person has arrived.
From now on, a member of the agency’s professional responsibility section will accompany staff who travel on “car planes,” and give staff ethics briefings before they leave, the rules say. The employees in Cartagena were support personnel who came over on the plane to Colombia that brought the president’s armored vehicles.
Secret Service investigates new report of debauchery
Twelve Secret Service employees were implicated in the Colombia matter. Eight have left the agency, three were cleared of serious misconduct and one is being stripped of his security clearance. Twelve members of the military were also implicated and that investigation is ongoing.
House may send investigators to Colombia
Earlier, a senior lawmaker said his committee is considering sending investigators to Colombia in the coming weeks to gather information in an expanded probe of the misconduct.
Representative Peter King, the Republican chairman of the House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee, said his staff will move to a “full-scale” investigation after it receives answers to 50 questions the panel posed to Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan about this month’s incident.
Neither King nor another senior House lawmaker, Democratic Representative Elijah Cummings, said they saw a weakening of support for Sullivan in Congress despite reports of other Secret Service misbehavior.
“In my estimation, he is doing all he can do. … Rumors are coming in and he’s following each one of them. He’s looking into every single rumor that comes in,” Cummings told Reuters.
Cummings, the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which also is looking into the matter, said Sullivan plans to have 100 top Secret Service employees participate in a “very intense” ethics course next week.
‘Morality cop’
“I’m not into being a morality cop, but what happened in Colombia was clearly wrong because it put security at risk,” King said outside the House chamber, adding that his committee “probably in the next few weeks” would send investigators to Colombia as part of the probe.
The Secret Service so far has not been able to validate the allegations about El Salvador made in a report Thursday by KIRO-TV news in Seattle, King said. The station is part of the CBS-Cox media group.
“They have gone through the trip file, and spoke with some of the people who were on the trip, the supervisors, and so far it’s nothing,” King said. “And they are talking to the reporter and trying to find out who his sources are.”
More content from msnbc.com and NBC News:
Wednesday, April 25th, 2012
Seattle Party Bus Rentals
Beyonce, the international superstar singer, wife of Jay-Z and mother to four-month-old Blue Ivy has been named People magazine’s world’s most beautiful woman, it was revealed on TODAY Wednesday morning.
People
Magazine senior editor Alexis Chiu told TODAY’s Matt Lauer and Ann Curry that Beyonce is “flawless, she’s gorgeous, she’s at the top of her game career-wise, she’s this music icon at 30 years old and on top of it she has this glow going on … She’s a new mom.”
“I feel more beautiful than I’ve ever felt because I’ve given birth. I have never felt so connected, never felt like I had such a purpose on this earth,” Beyonce told People in an interview to appear in the issue, which will hit newsstands April 27.
“The best thing about having a daughter is having a true legacy,” she added. “The word ‘love’ means something completely different now.”
Also included among the mag’s “most beautiful” categories are names that include Jennifer Aniston, Michelle Obama, Jennifer Hudson, Kristen Wiig, Jennifer Lawrence and Selena Gomez. TODAY’s Kathie Lee Gifford and NBC’s Meredith Viera also made one of the lists.
“All beautiful women who are very of-the-moment,” said Chiu.
Last year’s choice was Jennifer Lopez.
Lauer wanted to know if there anyone bald had ever made the list. “We’re thinking about you for next year,” said Chiu, who said they’ll take it under advisement.
Related content:
Tuesday, April 24th, 2012
Seattle Party Bus Rentals – A healthy sounding President Hugo Chavez called Venezuelan state television from Cuba on Monday to dispel rumours fanned by a nine-day silence that he had died undergoing cancer treatment at a hospital in Havana.
“It seems we will have to become accustomed to live with these rumours, because it is part of the laboratories of psychological war, of dirty war,” the 57-year-old socialist leader said in the telephone call.
His unusually long silence stirred speculation about his health and raised doubts about his political future as he campaigns for re-election in an October 7 vote.
Chavez said the cancer therapy was “hard” and he needed to rest, but that he was recovering and planned to return to Caracas on Thursday – although he would need another radiation session.
“Some people would like to see me leave here sprinting … not yet, let me recover. I have to rest and look after my diet, the treatment and the hours I keep,” Chavez said. “These rumours sometimes are damaging.”
He said the rumours about his health were so strong they even had his mother worried and he had to call her.
Photos released by the Venezuelan government showed Chavez wearing a track suit and strolling in a garden in Havana with Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro, playing bowls with his brother, Adan, and kissing a crucifix as he hugged his daughter, Maria Gabriela.
Information Minister Andres Izarra posted the photos on his Facebook page with the title “Chavez alive and kicking.”
Opposition candidate Henrique Capriles criticized Chavez for running the oil producing nation remotely by Twitter from a Havana hospital bed. One of the president’s first acts when he returns will be to sign a new labour law to take effect on May 1.
Chavez’s political ally and president of the National Assembly legislature Diosdado Cabello accused the opposition of having a “morbid obsession” with the former soldier’s health.
“The truth is that these embittered people don’t learn. They’ve been saying for days that the Comandante died,” he said.
“The only thing that is lifeless here is that loser,” Cabello added on Twitter, referring to Capriles, the opposition’s best hope for ending Chavez’s 13 years in power.
‘GOVERNING BY TWITTER’
Chavez’s opponents have criticized him for keeping the country in the dark about the extent of his illness, raising suspicions that his cancer may have spread from an initial baseball-sized tumour that was removed from his pelvis.
Before leaving for Cuba earlier this month, Chavez acknowledged that radiation therapy was physically tiring and he skipped the Summit of the Americas in Colombia this month on the advice of his doctors.
Despite his cancer, Chavez is seeking a new six-year term at an election that is shaping up to be the toughest political fight of his career due to his ill health and a serious opposition challenge.
“President Chavez seems to be in a paradoxical situation in which he cannot win the election unless he continues his campaign, but, if he continues, the stress could shorten his life expectancy, preventing him from being the final nominee,” Barclays Capital said on Monday.
Capriles, a youthful state governor who is the opposition’s “unity candidate” to face Chavez, sharply criticized the all-dominant leader for not doing his job properly.
“Governing by Twitter, approving laws by Twitter without consulting anybody, is an insult to our people. The country’s problems cannot be resolved by Twitter,” Capriles said.
Chavez’s government faces potentially embarrassing accusations about links to drug trafficking from a former Supreme Court justice who fled the country and has reportedly become a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration informant.
Chavez remains very popular among poorer Venezuelans who have benefited from his social programs, which redistribute some of the country’s vast oil wealth.
Almost all recent opinion polls have given Chavez a comfortable double-digit lead over Capriles, and his frequent trips to Cuba for treatment appear not to have changed that.
A survey released on Monday by local pollster Hinterlaces showed 53 percent of voters planning to back Chavez in October, versus 34 percent for Capriles, a 1 percentage point gain for the president since a similar poll last month.
