Fuhrer Chavez

Here's one for all those loony leftists who've spent the last six years trying to make a tyrant out of Bush.

A couple of days ago Venezuelan leader and liberal darling Hugo Chavez was granted the power to rule by decree by the Venezuelan legislature which is stacked with Chavez's friends and cronies. To those who don't know, rule by decree means that Chavez can make any law he wants, no questions asked. Who's acting like Hitler now, Jay Bennish?

Of course, Bennish, Cindy Sheehan, Danny Glover, Harry Belafonte and all the rest of the Hugo-worshiping, Bush-hating cabal won't make a fuss about this turn of events. In fact, I'm sure they'll be on the tv soon offering all kinds of Orwellian rationales for Chavez's dictatorial power grab. What they'll most likely point out the most is that Chavez's rule by decree is only supposed to last 18 months. But if Fuhrer Chavez can make any law he wants, why not make one giving himself emergency powers indefinitely? That's the way tryants operate.

What tyrants don't do is allow the opposition party to win control of the legislature. And tyrants don't allow their citizens to criticize their policies. And tyrants don't allow anti-government newspapers to publish. And tyrants don't allow opposition bloggers to operate freely. And tyrants don't allow their people to travel abroad, criticize them, then return home with no fear of arrest, or worse. Tyrants don't do any of those things. All of these things are going on under President Bush as I write, yet Bush is "the world's greatest tyrant", according to Belafonte.

A part of me hopes that Chavez will crack down murderously on his people. No, I don't want to see Venezeulans suffer, but I fear that that will be the only thing that'll shake the loony leftists out of their Chavez-adoring stupor and bring them back to reality. On the other hand, other tyrants like Castro, Ho Chi Minh, Che, and Stalin remained--and still remain-- gods to the left in spite of the blood dripping from their hands. Obviously, "tyrant" means something very different to leftist ideologues than it does to normal people. So I guess we'd better get used to the cries of "Heil Hugo!" that will soon be echoing on the streets of Venezuela and San Francisco.
And that's sad.