"Heaven Here On Earth"
I'll Take The Tenth Circle, Myself
By Pejman Yousefzadeh Posted in Featured Stories | Foreign Affairs — Comments (5) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Hugo Chavez cracks me up (read on):
The President of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, on a tour of Latin America, has launched a stinging attack on the US.
Visiting Bolivia, the firebrand leftist leader said that capitalism was "the road to hell".
Mr Chavez underlined the billions of dollars of aid Venezuela is ploughing into Bolivia's economy at a time when the US is reducing its contributions.
US President George W Bush has avoided discussing his rival's regional trip during his own visit to Latin America.
"Those who want to go directly to hell, they can follow capitalism," Mr Chavez said in the town of Trinidad in Bolivia.
"And those of us who want to build heaven here on earth, we will follow socialism," he added.
The notion that Heaven is being constructed by Hugo Chavez deserves a laugh and a half in response. The article goes on to discuss all of the foreign aid Venezuela is throwing around the region. Charity, of course, begins at home, and where it counts the most, Hugo Chavez is exceedingly uncharitable.
Incidentally, it constitutes yet another failure of the Bush Administration's communications apparatus that it does not respond to Chavez's demagoguery. It is one thing to say that one is above a rival. It is quite another to let that rival continually define you. If Chavez is throwing around "stinging attacks," maybe it is time that the Bush Administration finally sting back. After all, the liberties of the Venezuelan people are at stake (yes, this has been blogged, but it deserves mention yet again):
Venezuelan authorities have arrested a retired National Guard general on accusations that he plotted to overthrow President Hugo Chavez, the suspect's attorney said Wednesday.
Agents from Venezuela's Military Intelligence Directorate arrested Gen. Ramon Guillen Davila on Tuesday on allegations of "promoting a military rebellion to oust the president," Guillermo Heredia told The Associated Press during a telephone interview.
Heredia denied that his client was involved in a purported plot to oust Chavez, but said the retired general "is opposed to the communist regime in Venezuela because it violates democratic principles."
Venezuelan authorities could not be immediately reached to confirm Guillen Davila's arrest.
Chavez has repeatedly warned that opponents are conspiring to overthrow his left-leaning government.
Paradise.
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When the INE (National Statistics Institute) report came out showing a poverty rate of 53% (an increase over 10%), Hugo, being wise and compassionate, ordered a 'new methodology' for data collection and thus the official poverty rate is now a 'heavenly' 40%.
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"Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm." -- James Madison
...I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.
:)
quoting Scripture. I was just gonna point out "you can't take it with you," so maybe El Diablo has a point ;)
I may have to settle for the other place.
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"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
-Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 4, 1777