Will the Real Dr. Doom Please Stand Up?

...Up stands the plump, marshmallowy, Jackson Peep..more formally known as Jackson Diehl, member of the Washington Post editorial board. For a bit of background, we turn to one of Borev's final posts:

Followers of the Jackson Diehl oeuvre will remember that Chavez was totally on the cusp of being shitcanned two years ago over his economic policies. The polls said so! In November 2007 it was the HUMILIATION following dumb comments from the King of Spain that signaled his impending end. In March of that year the RCTV flap was going to do him in any day now. The polls, the polls! Those glorious/portentous/uncited polls!

Well, today we are treated with the latest installment, a Diehl blog post titled, "Hugo Chavez's implosion continues in Venezuela". It seems like we're back to the argument from two years ago...economic policies. And of course, we get more of "those glorious/portentous/uncited polls!":

The caudillo’s popularity rating around Latin American is now below 40 percent, and his backing in Venezuela has dropped below 50 percent.

Wow, below 50 percent...putting him in illustrious company with...Barack Obama, who we all know is facing his imminent demise!

Maybe next time we hear from Jackson Peep, when he writes the following he'll be referring to maladjusted:

When I pointed out back in January that Chavez’s revolution was collapsing, a chorus of left-wing bloggers rose up in protest.

(image via who else, Borev)

At Long Last....

...Chavez has his blog. This should make for some fun. I guess the tweeter just wasn't enough....no character constraints here:



And so every blogger's dream has come true...

Is Sarah Palin in Bed With Hugo Chavez?

Now that is a particularly truthy headline and you may be asking yourself what I am currently smoking, and that’s fair, but consider this from the WaPo Politics and Policy blog:

But Palin's anti-Venezuela sentiments do not appear to extend to her husband, whose snowmobile racing team was sponsored by a division of Citgo, the retail arm of Venezuela's state-owned oil and gas company.

Todd Palin's Iron Dog snowmobile team competed this year under a sponsorship from Mystik Lubricants, which was founded in Texas in 1922 but now resides under the Citgo corporate banner.

Oh snap!

So Sarah might not be in bed with Chavez, but her husband’s snowmobile team is! Or at least is in bed with an obscure subsidiary of the Venezuelan state owned oil company.

The real question though is who is more pissed about this connection? I mean neither is much of a fan of the other.

On the one hand you have Sarah Palin, who described Chavez as a “dictator” during her veep run. Them are certainly fightin’ words, and her connection to Chavez might make Glenn Beck’s head explode, which would actually be a net positive for the rest of us.

On the other hand you have Chavez, who described Palin as "a beauty queen that they've pulled out to be a figurehead." Well, I would replace “beauty queen” with “local Alaskan sports reporter”, but point well made.

It’s a tough call really, but I would have to say Chavez has more to be upset about being connected to Sarah Palin then vice versa. What do you think?

Who should be more pissed about being connected to the other?

Oh The Irony

So it appears that Chavez and Uribe are close to another reconciliation man hug, with Uribe even defending the Venezuelan Government from the Spanish court's accusations about involvement between the ETA, FARC and Venezuela. Never mind that the accusations are based on the infamous magic laptop of right wing lore. According to Colombia Reports, Uribe said:

"The fact is that if it is necessary to investigate a government official for participation in terrorism, that doesn't mean that that government or that state are terrorists or even participating," Uribe told a Medellin forum.

Honest Al, coming to the defense of his Venezuelan brothers. Or just defending his actual brothers? The Colombia government's connections aren't to left wing terrorists, so no big deal, but Al has got his own ties to worry about. I mean if someone wants to equate a Venezuelan government official with ties to terrorism to the Venezuela state sponsoring terrorism, they are going to have some tough questions to answer about Colombia. Shit, two weeks ago big Al's cousin (and former president of Congress) was arrested for ties to paramilitaries (right wing groups can be terrorists too!). Colombia Reports takes it from there:

The arrest took place after the Supreme Court gave an order to detain him on charges of conspiring with various members of paramilitary organizations to commit crimes. Uribe is allegedly linked with former paramilitary Jairo Castillo Peralta, aka "Pitirri," and Salvatore Mancuso, who commanded the Northern Bloc of the AUC (United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia).

No big deal though, because as Al says, "to investigate a government official for participation in terrorism…doesn't mean that that government or that state are terrorists…"

Hugs all around!