Sawzaw, you asked: "LH: Why does Chavez see fit to change the laws and the constitution in Venezuela in his favor?"

I already alluded to that in my previous post when I said:

"And he's a man with a big ego who would like to have more extensive powers than he ought to have. In other words, like you said awhile back, he gets some things right and he gets some things wrong...same as the rest of us."

Chavez is not perfect. Neither are you or I or McCain or Obama. I'm just saying that Chavez is better, on the whole, than a number of Latin American dictators who have run outright police states in their countries with the full cooperation and approval of the USA.

The USA doesn't mind Chavez because of anything undemocratic or autocratic in his nature...in fact, his democratic election victories have really annoyed them. ;-) They mind him because he is not cooperating with USA big business concerns as they would like him to.

If he did cooperate with the USA's big business concerns, then he could freely execute and torture thousands, imprison thousands, rape villages, be a 100% dictator, and terrorize his population and all you would hear about from the State Department would be "our good friend Hugo Chavez in Venezuela".

It's sheer pragmatism and corporate self-interest in action, Sawzaw. Nothing to do with morality or democracy. The only "democracies" which are tolerated are those which obey orders from Washington. Those are not real democracies, they are controlled surrogates...controlled mostly by American money. If the money fails, then they are controlled by military intervention or a CIA-sponsored coup which overthrows their government. (that has been attempted in Venezuela, but it failed, much to the chagrin of planners in Washington, and now the USA is a bit too busy elsewhere to settle their Venezuelan "problem", which is simply an independent nation that won't bend over and let itself be used in a certain way by American business interests).