Bloodthirsty Liberal

About this much:

President Hugo Chavez has turned to his friends in Cuba for help in tackling Venezuela’s energy crisis, drawing criticism for seeking advice from the communist-led island that has struggled with its own electricity woes.

Chavez gave few details on Wednesday about what is expected of Cuba, but insisted that “it’s valuable experience that’s serving us well.” He said that he spoke for hours Tuesday with Cuban Vice President Ramiro Valdes after his arrival in Venezuela to lead the consulting team.

The decision to seek help from Cuba bewildered Venezuelans coping with the nation’s power shortage.

“It’s laughable that he’s looking for help from Cuba,” said Aixa Lopez, director of the Committee for People Affected by Power Outages, which monitors the extent of current energy shortages and rationing in Venezuela.

Laughable, but logical. Who better to consult on the abject failure of the socialist so-called economy to provide for the betterment and welfare of the people than the abjectest failure of all, Coo-ba? Batisita may have been corrupt, but under Fulgencio, the island shone brightly indeed (there’s a bilingual pun in there if you care to look for it); under Fidel, it’s all drab, all the time.

Enjoy that “high literacy rate” and that “low infant mortality rate”, Venezuelans—there’ll just be nothing for you to read (or even watch on TV, once Hugo shuts down all the stations) and no jobs for all those literate and healthy children when they grow up.

Socialism is that remarkable process which can turn wealth and abundance in natural resources into inflation and poverty.

We can but marvel:

President Hugo Chávez announced a sharp devaluation of Venezuela’s currency on Friday night, a move that reflects the financial stress faced by his government since the price of oil, the country’s top export commodity, fell from its peak as a result of the global financial crisis.

The action, which Mr. Chávez had repeatedly ruled out in the past, came after Venezuela’s economy contracted by 2.9 percent in 2009. Hampered by disarray in the oil industry and nationalizations that have shattered business confidence, the economy is expected to remain sluggish this year even as other large Latin American economies show signs of vibrancy.

“This is all about one objective: revitalizing the productive economy,” Mr. Chávez said in a cabinet meeting that was broadcast live on state television.

One could sympathize with Tubby the Two-Bit Dictator when oil was down in 30s a barrel—sympathize, or laugh garlic breath in his fat face, my preferred approach. But oil is over $80 a barrel, and gas is rising at the pump. It takes a specially skilled market-wrecker to ruin an economy with that kind of IV hooked up to your country’s coffers.

“Revitalizing the productive economy”: those words spoken by an avowed Socialist should make any investor’s blood run cold.

And plagiarizes us to boot! Hugo, you dog! You fat, sweaty, Bolshevik dog!

BTL yesterday:

Liberals are growing more disillusioned with this guy, but they won’t disown him—or their politics. Their disillusion may yet turn into un-illusion, but for the time being—as with the pot they smoke and the coke they toot—they still like the hallucination.

Tubby the Two-Bit Dictator:

“Let’s not kid ourselves: the Obama illusion has finished, and the shameless interventionism of the American administration shows that,” wrote Chavez.

For the record, we posted ours at 10:56 am (doubtless while Huge-O was still eating breakfast, no small feat). The Reuters story is timelined 12:33 pm (just before Chow-vez retired to a two-hour lunch).

How does it feel, Obamoids, to have your beloved Chavez disown your beloved big-eared galoot?

I’ll tell you how it feels for us to be in agreement with the Caracas crackpot. It feels weird. I would say something about strange bedfellows, but I haven’t had breakfast, and I don’t want to lose it before I have it.

This is a few days old, but he’s part of our beat, so…:

President Hugo Chavez is praising Carlos the Jackal, the imprisoned Venezuelan once notorious for a series of Cold War-era bombings, assassinations and hostage dramas, saying he was a “revolutionary fighter” and not a terrorist.

The Venezuelan president lauded Carlos — whose real name is Ilich Ramirez Sanchez — during a speech Friday night saying: “I defend him. It doesn’t matter to me what they say tomorrow in Europe.”

Ramirez is serving a life sentence in a French prison for the 1975 murders of two French secret agents and an alleged informant.

He has testified that he led a 1975 attack that killed three people at the OPEC headquarters in Vienna, Austria. He also has been linked to the 1976 hijacking of an Air France jet en route to Uganda.

“They accuse him of being a terrorist, but Carlos really was a revolutionary fighter,” Chavez said during a televised speech to socialist politicians from various countries, who applauded.

I don’t care what the say in Europe tomorrow either, but let’s look at a few of the Hefty Jefe’s other friends:

Chavez sought to defend other leaders he said are wrongly labeled “bad guys” internationally, including Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe and Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Chavez called both of them brothers and said he now wonders whether Ugandan dictator Idi Amin was truly as brutal as he was reputed to be.

“We thought he was a cannibal,” Chavez said, referring to Amin, whose regime was notorious for torturing and killing suspected opponents in the 1970s. “I have doubts. … I don’t know, maybe he was a great nationalist, a patriot.”

But of course there’s one reason above all others for Tubby the Two-Bit Dictator to love and admire Carlos the Jackal:

Chavez […] called him “one of the great fighters of the Palestine Liberation Organization” at the time.

Yes, Venezuelan solidarity with Arabs has a long and storied tradition. They are neighbors, after all.

Is Obama weakening our position in the world?

Check out this editorial in the NY Times:

Horrors! A Handshake!

Published: April 23, 2009

Republicans have been predicting the decline of American power ever since President Obama was photographed at last week’s hemispheric summit shaking the hand of President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela and — gasp! — smiling. Former Vice President Dick Cheney warned that that act of civility would be viewed as a sign of “weakness.” Newt Gingrich, who may be honing his attack skills for a presidential run, said Mr. Obama’s behavior was bolstering “enemies of America.”

We have no patience for Mr. Chávez. He was elected as a champion of the poor and has turned himself into a standard-issue autocrat — playing the anti-America card to divert attention from his failed economic policies and ever more outrageous power grabs.

But Venezuela is no strategic threat. And this country has paid far too high a price in both power and influence for former President George W. Bush’s bullying.

Mr. Obama got elected on a pledge to do things differently. At the summit, years of antagonism gave way to eagerness for new relations with Washington. Mr. Obama undercut Mr. Chávez’s bluster with that handshake and his promise of a “new beginning” with Cuba.

Of course, Mr. Obama has to go further: offering more to, and asking more of, his interlocutors. Even as he reaches out to Cuba by easing (and, we hope, eventually lifting) the counterproductive embargo, he must press Havana on human rights and democratic reforms. He must press Mr. Chávez on the same issues.

The logic of his Iran strategy is to give Tehran a chance to come in from the cold with offers of engagement and economic and security incentives. If Tehran does not take him up on the offer — early signs are not hopeful — he must build support for tougher international sanctions to constrain Iran’s nuclear program.

The president will also have to ask more of America’s friends. Europe treated him like a rock star on his recent continental tour, but he still did not win enough support for NATO’s mission in Afghanistan.

None of this will be easy. And Mr. Obama will be held accountable for his record — not just his rhetoric and photo ops. But starting with a handshake rather than a fist makes sense to us.

We at BTL assume that the next President will be perfectly free to shake hands, hug, and kiss anyone in the world, not matter what their policies or stated views. If Europe produces a leader that is openly hostile to Africans, that President will smile and maybe have a glass of wine with the offender. Who are we to judge? There are no off-limits behaviors, only stodgy people who have yet to realize this.

And, aside from the ethical questions raised by Obama’s troubling approach to Chavez, we wonder if maybe the naysayers aren’t right? Perhaps the NY Times is missing the lovely nuance of the situation Mr. Obama has created. Everybody loves us but nobody is eager to help with the work. We are the Little Red Hen and Europe are the hungry friends who want to eat the bread but don’t want to bother to mill the wheat or do the baking. That is probably worse now than it was before because the world knows how desperate we are to be popular.

- Aggie

I should have warned them. They wouldn’t listen to me, but maybe I could have reached out through some soft-hearted, lib blogger like, I don’t know, Andrew Sullivan.

President Obama can’t travel—at least not overseas. Maybe when be goes to someplace domestic like Omaha or Canada he can refrain from bad-mouthing his own country.

But once he strays from the friendly confines of the 57 states, it’s as if a case of relapsing/remitting Tourette’s comes over him, and he starts talking about the America like, well, like the rest of this flea-bitten world:

Latin American leaders continued to pile on the US at the Summit of the Americas on Saturday.

Barack Obama defended himself from attacks aimed at America today- but would not defend the United States.

…

In his 17-minute address to the summit, Obama departed from his prepared remarks to mildly rebuke Ortega.

“To move forward, we cannot let ourselves be prisoners of past disagreements. I’m grateful that President Ortega did not blame me for things that happened when I was three months old. Too often, an opportunity to build a fresh partnership of the Americas has been undermined by stale debates. We’ve all heard these arguments before.”

Actually, I quite agree. And since no living American, or his daddy, or her grandma owned slaves, by the president’s own argument, we can put to rest any further arguments for reparations of any kind. The “stale debate” (nice phrase, sir!) over slavery has indeed undermined opportunities to build fresh partnerships among the races here at home, just as he (and many conservatives) said. Bringing diverse people together: just call him Johnny Uniter!

But I am a little disappointed by his embrace of all manner of tyrants, despots, and blowhards, based solely on their scorn and hatred of this little country we like to call America.

When he wasn’t practicing homie handshakes with Tubby the Two-Bit Dictator…

… he was dirty-dancing with Raul Castro:

Okay, I exaggerate a bit.

But not by much:

Ten days after telling Europeans that the United States had been divisive and derisive toward its allies there, President Obama publicly tells leaders of the Americas that his country has been too disengaged and even dictatorial toward its more local neighbors.

He was warmly applauded. Critics of Obama’s European jaunt felt such criticism of his own country was inappropriate abroad. Supporters find his different approach change to believe in.

It didn’t take long on this trip — the fourth paragraph of the very first event.

…

I know that promises of partnership have gone unfulfilled in the past and that trust has to be earned over time.

While the United States has done much to promote peace and prosperity in the hemisphere, we have at times been disengaged, and at times we sought to dictate our terms.

Will someone tell the president that’s what you have to do when you’re the leader of the free world? Would he not have dictated terms, like President Kennedy, during the Cuban Missile Crisis? Were we disengaged when President Reagan liberated Grenada? Maybe he thinks it’s all Riccardo Montalban and Salma Hayek down there (don’t we wish!), but some very nasty ideas, from the fascist to the Marxist, have led to some very regrettable behavior.

I like to think we’re a good country on absolute terms—because we are—but compared to most of these papaya autocracies, we’re Shangri-La.

He has two lovely daughters. Does he negotiate bedtime and dinner menus with them on equal terms? Okay, maybe you think it’s arrogant to compare sovereign nations to pre-pubescent children—and I have to agree. Sasha and Melia would never machine-gun a crowd of unarmed peasants or kidnap people for ransom and hold them for years in remote jungle lean-tos.

Chubby cholo Hugo Chavez offers a word to the wise—well, a word to President Obama anyway:

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Friday called upon US President Barack Obama to follow the path to socialism, which he termed as the “only” way out of the global recession. “Come with us, align yourself, come with us on the road to socialism. This is the only path. Imagine a socialist revolution in the United States.”

We don’t have to imagine, Huge, It’s taking shape every day.

“The American empire is coming to an end. It’s not about the end of the United States, or its institutions, or its people. That murderous, genocidal empire has to end and someday a leader will come that will better interpret that people and lead it to a superior destiny, and not give it the sad destiny of a murderous power, an aggressor hated by the whole world.”

…

“Obama, take care of yours [the American people] and I’ll take care of mine […] show a little intelligence… Here the DEA supported the drug traffic.” Carries on about torture in Iraq, Americans killing Iraqi children, Israel committing genocide, and concludes with,

Go wash your *ss, Mr. Obama. Go wash that *ss.

Look who’s talking. That keister could wipe out whole Kurdish villages.

But I apologize for not linking to this story earlier:

President Hugo Chavez boosted state control over Venezuela’s economy, ordering the expropriation of a U.S.-owned rice plant and threatening to seize food companies that don’t sell enough products at official prices that are meant to stem inflation.

Fatty the Fascist has to seize the food companies to safeguard his supply of Doritos and Ho-Hos. It’s just too rich.

Well, a little further south (sorry, Mexico).

With the installation of el jefe for life, Hugo Chavez, Venezuela’s Jews can look forward to a lot more of this:

Assailants threw an explosive at a Jewish community center on Thursday, but nobody was hurt in the blast — the second assault against Venezuela’s Jewish community this year.

Abraham Garzon, president of the Jewish Community Center, told the local Globovision television news channel that a small explosive resembling a pipe-bomb was lobbed at the building in Caracas before dawn on Thursday. The explosion damaged the doors to the center.

“It seems there are people in the country dedicated to sowing terrorism,” Garzon said.

Yeah, Abe, like the president.

A Caracas synagogue was ransacked and vandalized last month. The assailants shattered religious objects, spray-painted “Jews, get out” on the temple’s walls and stole a computer database containing names and addresses of Jews living in Venezuela.

Authorities have arrested 11 people, including eight police officers, suspected of participating in the attack. Investigators believe the assailants forced their way into the temple to steal a large amount of cash they believed was inside. The vandalism, authorities say, could have been aimed at turning attention away from the true motive behind the crime.

On Thursday, Sergio Widder of the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center criticized Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez for failing to take steps aimed at curbing anti-Semitism.

Chavez should strongly criticize pro-government Web sites and newspapers that have carried articles and columns that many Venezuelan Jews perceive as anti-Semitic, he said.

“This is outrageous, it’s turning into an escalation,” said Widder, the center’s representative for Latin America. “It’s the government’s responsibility to stop this.”

They’ll get right on it, Sergio, right after they hold a fair election.

I don’t want people to suffer more than necessary, but a little suffering—for the greater good—never hurt anybody:

The collapse in oil prices has hit OPEC nations hard, but perhaps none more so than Venezuela. Hugo Chavez apparently put more of his profits into his socialization programs than in paying contractors for their work. Now they have stopped working altogether as Chavez has no money to pay their past-due notices, which will curtail production just when Chavez needs it most:

Venezuela’s state oil company is behind on billions in payments to private oil contractors from Oklahoma to Belarus, some of which have now stopped work, even as President Hugo Chavez funnels more oil revenue to social programs.

…

With prices plummeting by more than half, PDVSA is trying to renegotiate some contracts. But analysts say hardball tactics to reduce charges from crucial service providers could backfire by lowering Venezuela’s oil output. And foreign debt markets are reflecting jitters about Venezuela’s finances.

Hard times sink all boats. Cinch your belt a notch tighter in the knowledge that Tubby the Two-Bit Dictator has to cinch his six or seven notches.

Recipients of free heating oil from Citizens Energy will just have to warm themselves with the certainty their socialist, tinpot, banana Fascist (don’t call him a republican) provider has nothing but holes in his pockets.

Socialism’s a bitch. And it don’t heat your house.

Eww, thanks but no thanks:

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez offered words of support for the Palestinians in a message read during an anti-war rally in northern Israel Saturday.

…

In his message to the protestors, which was read to the crowd during the event, Chavez said: “We are not united by one nationality; rather, what unites us is…The blood shed in Gaza is the blood of humanity. Venezuela kisses each and every one of you and stresses that it supports the Palestinian people and all those who suffer from the occupation.”

You take one step closer to me, Fat Boy, and the support you’ll need is a truss.