Now for something really funny

In Bananaland:

Chávez diz que reagiu a ato 'grosseiro' do Congresso brasileiro
Na quinta-feira, Chávez disse que o Congresso brasileiro é um "papagaio que repete o que diz Washington" - depois que o Senado em Brasília aprovou um requerimento pedindo que o presidente venezuelano autorizasse a RCTV a voltar a funcionar.

Chávez makes brazilian politics look reasonable.

Now back in the Unique Nonsense bubble:

U.N. Team Still Looking for Iraq's Arsenal
Every weekday, at a secure commercial office building on Manhattan's East Side, a team of 20 U.N. experts on chemical and biological weapons pores over satellite images of former Iraqi weapons sites. They scour the international news media for stories on Hussein's deadly arsenal. They consult foreign intelligence agencies on the status of Iraqi weapons. And they maintain a cadre of about 300 weapons experts from 50 countries and prepare them for inspections in Iraq -- inspections they will almost certainly never conduct, in search of weapons that few believe exist.

The best part of this is that these same guys say the US could never have gone to war because the weapons didn't exist.

The King of low cost

No, I am not talking about Wal-Mart. It’s Chapolin Colorado! He wants to steal some more of the companies in Venezuela, and the excuse is the usual. Check it out:

"Chavez threatens to nationalize banks, steel

“Private banks have to give priority to financing the industrial sectors of Venezuela at low cost,” Chavez said. “If banks don’t agree with this, it’s better that they go, that they turn over the banks to me, that we nationalize them and get all the banks to work for the development of the country and not to speculate and produce huge profits.”
...
“If the company Sidor ... does not immediately agree to change this process, they will oblige me to nationalize it,” Chavez said.
...
“Sidor has to produce and give priority to our national industries ... and at low cost,” he said."

Voting with your feet - Venezuela edition

This is the future. Be afraid!

Exasperated by Chávez, more Venezuelans leave

"Middle- and upper-class Venezuelans are leaving the country in droves
...

U.S. embassy officials say inquiries for U.S. visas rose by one-third from March 2006 to March of this year, and requests to obtain U.S. passports — mostly by people claiming to be sons and daughters of U.S. citizens — have doubled over the past two years. Inquiries for Canadian visas are up 69 percent since last year, officials at that embassy say."

Last one out turn the lights off.

How many zeros are in a loser?

Venezuela is knocking three zeros off the bolivar, its currency, and renaming it the "bolivar fuerte" (strong bolivar).

Agora vai.

Another step towards dictatorship

So it looks like Venezuela continues its path towards dictatorship. No more editorials making jokes of Chávez.

Now here in the US, the country where civil liberties are being exterminated by Bush (also know as “The Devil”) the situation is a little different. Yesterday I watched the new George Lopez special on HBO, and among all the jokes about how the Mexicans actually own the US, George Lopez talked about a new acronym he invented specially for Bush: FTP. That is Fuck That Puto.

If what you want is newspaper's Bush bashing, you can check today’s Doonesbury, Pat Oliphant, Sargent and Tom Toles.

I am only talking about the NYT, of course.

The classic cycle of socialism

Chávez Threatens to Jail Price Control Violators (assinantes UOL: Chávez ameaça prender quem violar controle de preços).

How many times has the world seen this?

How can there be people who still believe this kind of stuff will somehow work?

The only question here is whether Venezuela will follow the hard line path (of the USSR, Cuba and tutti quanti) and start using violence to “make the system work”, or if it will take the more soft approach and slowly crumble like Brazil and so many others.

I’d bet on the former.

A telling silence

Até a pinky imprensa brasileira admite que Chávez esta matando a democracia na Venezuela. O tom desses artigos é um tanto "pacífico" but hey, beggars can't be choosers.

Agora, aonde está a revolta do povo? Procuro algum sinal de preocupação nos blogs daqueles com "consciência social" e não acho nada. Procuro uma manifestação de rua, de estudantes brazucas a bleeding heart democrats, e não vejo ninguém...

Now can you imagine what would be happening if we had a socialist democracy being turned into a capitalistic dictatorship? Can you imagine the editorials, the first page headlines, the UN outrage, and most of all, the huge rallies full of celebrities and politicians from many different countries?

Democracy is just a tool for socialists. It is easy to forget the many lessons taught by the great USSR experiment.

Honestly, I don’t understand how capitalism has survived this far.

Quantas pernas tem um comuna?

Chávez pede poder especial e amplia nacionalização

Conheço um pessoalzinho muito bobinho que, na época da nacionalização do petróleo na Venezuela, dizia que o Chapolin não era comunista. "Comunista não existe mais! Você está vivendo no passado!", me diziam.

Tudo isso me lembra uma piada bobinha, acho que do Abraham Lincoln. Mais ou menos assim:
How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg?
Four; calling a tail a leg doesn't make it a leg.

That's about it. Acorda Brasil.

Politicians, clowns and the real world

The US State Department says:

"We look forward to having the opportunity to work with the Venezuelan government on issues of mutual interest."

Chavez, el bufón, says:

"It's another defeat for the devil, who tries to dominate the world. Down with imperialism. We need a new world."

Reality shows:

"US Exports to Venezuela were $4,888.4 millions between January and July, 2006, which is more than all the US exports to Venezuela in 2004 and a 140% more than the US exports in the first semester of 2005.

According to a statistical report of US Census, made public yesterday by US Commerce Department in Washington, Venezuela is the 10th US oil supplier in the world, mainly of petrol.

Venezuela also is in the group of the 10 more important commercial associates of US, only after China (the first in the list), Japan, Canada, Germany and Mexico and before France, Brazil and Russia.

These numbers will increase at the end of 2006, because during September, October and November the commercial activity is usually much more important than in the first 6 months of the year, explained Joe Tafchinski, US Commerce Department’s speaker in Washington, who made the statistical analysis.

The balance of trade with USA benefited Venezuela, who obtained a superavit of about $15,000 millions, which at the end of 2006 could increase more than $30,000 millions."

Just get out

Hugo Chavez accomplished what seemed impossible: He’s got the Democrats on Bush’s side. And I am not talking about Joe Lieberman. He’s got Charles Rangel and Nancy Pelosi sounding like Karl Rove. Now that’s something.

To be honest that’s a huge relief, especially after the whole “I am a loon that sells Chomsky books on the side” schtick at the UN. For a moment there I thought the Democrats were taking the Federalists road to the blue light.

In any case, the show is not over. Today he went to Harlem to promise discounted heating oil to needy Americans. This of course makes total sense given the lavish living standards of the Venezuelan people.

It gives a new meaning to the word pathetic.

And just tell me again, why do we need to put up with all this nonsense? Why do we need to invite these (and many others) buffoons here?

We buy his oil, he buys weapons from Russians… Isn’t that bad enough?

I concede one thing though. The buffoon is right when he says that the UN is a pony show.

However, that’s no reason to be parading this jackass around here.

It's hard to get along - 2

Bush tries to boost embattled Palestinian leader
Chavez Calls Bush 'the Devil' at U.N.

Chavez reads Chomsky. Surprise, surprise.