On Leadership

Something to ponder:

Iosef Stalin was a Failed seminarian.
Fidel Castro was a Failed major league pitcher.
Hugo Chavez was a Failed coup plotter.
Adolph Hitler was a Failed artist.
Joseph Goebbels was a Failed chicken farmer.

Notice what they all have in common?

Kennedy Blarney

The most dysfunctional family in the United States continues to garner media coverage.  How dysfunctional you may ask?  Psychology Today put together a list of the top seven Kennedy sex scandals.  Go read them, it is shocking.  Then there was Ted Kennedy trying to collaborate with the USSR to destroy Ronald Reagan. But old Ted can justly claim he was just following in the family tradition, his father Joesph Kennedy Sr was a real piece of work in his rampant hatred of the Jews and love of German National Socialism.  Kennedy, after fleeing London as the Blitz petered out, was sacked by Roosevelt and replaced as Ambassador to the Court of St. James by John Winant.

That the Kennedy family continues to garner media coverage and thought to be representative of America can only be ascribed to the pushing of a false narrative.  It is a bundled package of smaller lies that hide behind the tragic assassination of John F. Kennedy in Dallas, TX in 1963.  To point out all the failings and outright crimes of the Kennedy family is to endure the ceaseless tirade of being unfair to the slain President.  As in do you have no decency?  History cares not for decency when it records a leader's achievements and failures, Kennedy's greatest failure at the Bay of Pigs lead directly to the Cuban Missile Crisis because the USSR read Kennedy as weak after that failed invasion.  That is why the world almost vanished under multiple mushroom clouds.  Daley Plaza can't cover that up.

So where am I going with this recitation of the Kennedy family crimes?  Just the latest lambasting from the Kennedy Holier Than Thou pulpit.  Robert Kennedy Jr, being a Kennedy, is no stranger to the spotlight.  Oddly three days after filing divorce papers on his second wife, she was arrested on a DUI.  He campaigned for Rep. Dennis Kucinich in that man's losing primary run, Kucinich lost to fellow Democrat Mary Kaptur and he was not graceful in his concession speech.  Kennedy has also harangued about the danger of mercury in vaccines causing Autism.  Notice how many corrections are at the end of the article, including a gross inflation of a percentage.  For a less strident discussion, the FDA has a good precis including an incident in Australia in 1928 that gave rise to requiring a preservative in vaccines, out of 21 inoculated 12 died.

Now that I have established Robert Kennedy Jr's questionable track record in the public and private square that shows he lives in a large glass house, here is his latest cheap shot of record.  Because Sen. Infoe is a skeptic and critic of man-made global warming, Robert Kennedy Tweeted a comment that would get Imus suspended and Carbonite to quit Rush.  He called Sen. Infoe a prostitute in the employ of the oil companies.  That is really discussing the heart of the matter there Robert, smear your opponent.  Did you call Joseph P. Kennedy II a dictator's prostitute when he got cheap heating oil from Hugo Chavez of Venezuela?  I bet you didn't. 

Pesky Oil

The President now thinks releasing some oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is just the ticket to solve the current high gas prices.  The man assumes everyone, except him, is a gullible fool.  Which makes him a con-man of the lowest sort.

Here is a suggestion for our sitting on his hands President.

Open the local oil/gas tap.  Drill.  What will this action do?

1. First it will create thousands of jobs.  Jobs that pay taxes. 
2. It will also boost corporate revenues so they will pay more taxes.
3. It will turn the United States into a global exporter of oil.  More tax revenue.
4. It will increase the amount of slack in the global oil market, so will drive down the price of oil.
5. It would give this country a tool to help allies.  It would buffer countries like Britain and France from being held hostage to the likes of Libya or Iran.
6. It will also reduce the outflow of American capital to oil producing countries that have horrible human rights records.  For example Venezuela.

I hope this polite suggestion helps the President of the United States understand all the positive benefits for increased oil exploration and production.

Murder Inc. - Venezuela

Outgoing Miss Universe Stephania Fernandez waves the pre-Chavez Venezuelan flag in Las Vegas. Many are taking this as a sign of protest against Chavez and his totalitarian government, especially people inside Venezuela. Photo - Reuters.

Why is everyone upset with the Chavez run government? Maybe because the murder rate in the capital Caracas has skyrocketed from 34 deaths per 100,000 via gun violence in 2007 to the staggering rate of 233 deaths per 100,000 now.

Investors Business Daily article linked above argues this spiralling death rate is part of Chavez's plan to subjugate the country under his iron fist. It has happened before in history. If you can afford to hire thugs to do nothing but intimidate people; the average person who needs to work and feed the family will leave the political scene to tend to those needs while the thugs stay. So the employer of the thugs wins. Ask Lenin. Though in Chavez's case it seems he has outsourced the killing of people to more common street gangs.

What is even more troubling in the IBD article is how deeply FARC and other narco-terrorists have wormed their way into Chavez's government. What a cheery thought it would be for New York City to find its whole Port Authority suborned by organized crime. That is what is being reported in Venezuela. So the writer of the IBD article wonders how long will Chavez stay in power with this kind of rot going on.

To bolster the argument/contention from Colombia that Venezuela does harbor narco-terrorists like FARC comes this article. My Spanish is not the best but the map is pretty telling. Pin-pointing camps on the Venezuelan side of the Venezuelan-Colombian border like 1,500 FARC thugs along with where various drug kingpins might be found.

It would be the ultimate irony if Chavez is ousted not by Colombia or a concerted effort from the OAS, but from the inside. By the narco-terrorists who want to ensure their sanctuary does not vanish on them. Sometimes the enemy of your enemy is also your enemy.

FARC-Hugo

The South American tin-pot dictator is at it again it seems. As his economy contracts another 3% and his neighbor Colombia's expands by 2.7%, Chavismo would seem to be edging closer and closer to collapse. Further highlighting differences between the two countries, Colombia just had a successful election and transition of power from Uribe to Santos. Only rose-coloured progressives could believe the last election in Venezuela was as free as what Colombia just experienced. And there is still the matter before the Organization of American States where Colombia is accusing Venezuela of harboring the terrorists of FARC. Naturally Chavez is denying this and has broken off diplomatic relations with Colombia over these charges. But we can't forget the raid into Ecuador against the FARC that netted three laptops that Interpol says has untampered evidence of FARC/Venezuelan cooperation, death of a FARC leader, and the removal of Mexican fellow-travellers from the FARC order of battle. Or the death of a Colombian drug lord who seemed to have sanctuary in Venezuela. So there is evidence that Chavez has tampered with the internal affairs of a neighboring country.

Will this lead to war? In the past the answer has been no. Even though Chavez has blustered, called George Bush a devil, and generally frothed at the mouth over alleged Yanqui Imperialism; he has never crossed the line and moved against Colombia. Another thing entering the equation is Colombia's military is more combat experienced, better equipped, and better trained than Chavez's, even though Venezuela has traded billions of dollars in oil to Cuba to get weapons. Hopefully the United States continues to stand firm with its long-standing ally of Colombia against the covetous gaze and lustful longings of Chavez for a Greater Venezuela with him in charge.

Actually to think of Chavez as brave and a bold leader is to laugh. We must remember when Chavez first tried to seize power in Venezuela, the harbinger of Chavismo cowered under a table in the library and wet himself. Too bad the then democratic country of Venezuela and its institutions of justice spared Chavez's life. All he did was plot again and succeed this time, much to the detriment of his own country and everyone around him. Lets hope the intrinsic coward's heart that beats in that large chest of bluster again blinks and the tensions lessen.

Obama the Lesser

Well we can see how President Obama's apology tour of Latin America has affected the perception of the United States down there. We just have to look at the drama around Honduras' internal affairs. Well if it was Iran, it would be internal affairs.

Both Hugo Chavez and President Obama want the same thing. Proto-Marxist and now ousted President Zelaya of Honduras back as the leader of that country. As negotiations continue in Costa Rica to resolve the crisis, the Zelaya buddy and printing press for the illegal ballots Hugo Chavez does his best to swagger and steal the spotlight.

He is blasting the United States for being timid. He wants the US to recall its ambassador, impose economic sanctions, and even use the US military forces who have been training with the Hondurans to do 'something.' This gives Chavez cover for his failure to invade Honduras, as he has promised, to reinstate Zelaya. He can now turn to the rest of Central and South America and say "I showed solidarity with Zelaya and argued for his forceful return. If the interfering and imperial United States could do nothing because President Obama is fearful and blocked any such forceful action, then how could I do anything." Factor in President Obama's worldwide tour to reset US relations with various countries which is being seen as 'I do humbly apologise for the United States being such a powerful nation.' and many will believe him and Chavez becomes a greater statesman for the region as the US influence becomes weaker.

Obama is proving to be a weak horse on the world stage and those with no honorable intentions are sharpening their knives because they see the United States as weak as a logical corollary. Instead of Alinksy, Obama should have read Nicolai Machiavelli.

Amatuer in Charge

Not even a month and the image of Barack Obama as President has become much clearer. Unfortunately, what he is projecting is not Mr. World Leader but more like a mongrel cur begging for attention.

The first clue came when he signed the Executive Order promising to close Gitmo in a year. He had no clue what the plan was for dealing with the prisoners after the closing nor did his advisors, yet he still signed the thing.

When he asked other countries to house some of the prisoners when Gitmo closes, the answers were illuminating. France only wants the non-dangerous ones, not surprising since their dangerous ones are burning cars. Italy flatly said no since there are no Italians incarcerated.

While France and Italy were closing their doors to the Obama overture about Gitmo. Obama himself was busy barricading a door that has stood open for more than half a century symbolizing steadfast alliance. The President has managed to annoy our long time ally the United Kingdom with just one action. Without prompting from Britain, he cavalierly returned to the UK a bust of Sir Winston Churchill that has been in the Oval Office since 9/11 when it was loaned to the United States. Not sure what to do with this unasked return, the bust now resides in the UK ambassador’s office.

He spent much of the campaign advocating the invasion of Pakistan. Now the country is unraveling. So it comes as no surprise when President Obama asked Pakistan to keep the father of the Pakistan atomic bomb A.Q. Khan in prison least he pass more nuclear secrets to North Korea or Iran, Pakistan let him go free.

His first interview with a foreign news service was with Al-Jazeera. When his pre-written speech was parsed for meaning, it was very simplistic. He basically told the radical Islamic world to give him a chance to show how nice he can be to them.

The new U.S ambassador to the U.N. just apologized to the likes of Libya and Cuba for not being nice to their countries under the Bush administration. Meanwhile they sent praise to Venezuela for the people striking down term limits so Hugo Chavez can try to become despot for life.

Vice President Biden went to Munich to meet with European allies and Iran to try and get Iran to give up its nuclear ambitions. Instead Iran launches a satellite and proceeds ahead to becoming a regional nuclear superpower.

The piece de la resistance in lap-doggery has to be the newly enacted stimulus bill. When one wades through the 1,000+ pages of it, this size rivals that of the still stalled EU Constitution when collated, one does not see President Obama’s fingerprints on it. With all the little earmarks and special allocations, one sees the greedy and grasping claws of Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Sen. Harry Reid, and their Congressional allies on it. But like a well trained circus act, he signed it.

Breaking America

As various politicians vie for air time over the outrageous gas prices, there is one symptom no one is talking about. Yet.

As oil production stays pretty steady while the demand for oil increases, this fuels the speculators who have dollar signs dancing before their eyes. So we are seeing a rise in price even while there is no 'shortage' like we saw after Hurricane Katrina. Naturally this is eating many pocketbooks alive and making people put the SUVs in the front yard for sale.

There are a few more pocketbooks that are being raped by these outrageous prices and we, the taxpayer, are paying for it. I am talking about the fuel budgets for local, state, and federal governments. I am betting the budget gurus last year did not factor in such a steep jump in price. So all these people are staring at budgets about to hit bottom.

Which means there will be a reprioritization of fuel usage at all these levels of government. Hopefully the first to get axed are the vehicles for people like supervisors and mayors. Some governments will first slap on an emergency tax instead of trimming budgets. Which means the citizens will be taxed to keep government vehicles running while they themselves further tighten their belts. But if prices keep going up and the available funds vanish, then even the most tax happy government will have to cut back. And just think if the first thing to go is the transit buses before the mayor's car? Or police department has to cut back on patrol cars. Or a fire truck cant respond to a fire due to lack of fuel. Not a pleasant thought. Now add to these stressed budgets, power bills that are also going up.

Now imagine this at the federal level as various agencies go, hat in hand, to Congress for more money for fuel and power. And Congress goes into debate mode. The military will have to scale back fuel supplies for non-combat deployed units while bases get even more manic on electrical conservation. Coast Guard will have to scale back. Agencies will have to cut back on vehicle use and start adjusting their computer controlled thermostats along with hunting down lights in unused offices to turn off.

So with a whimper, the vaunted US military is felled because Congress would not vote for domestic drilling that would rob the speculators of their money model that allows them to make a profit. Denies US energy independence from such jolly fellows as Chavez as they oppress their people using money earned from US consumers. And keeps many American citizens in the poor house due to poor decisions by the US Congress.

'When in the course of human events...'

Oh FARC! Its True!

Venezuela is a state sponsor of terrorism according to Interpol. The international police organization has ruled the files on the laptops recovered from Colombia's raid into Ecuador have not been tampered with. President Hugo Chavez's government has been more than a vocal supporter of the outlaw terrorist group FARC it seems.

More than a dozen internal rebel messages detail several years of close cooperation between top Venezuelan and FARC officials, including rebel training facilities on Venezuelan soil and a meeting inside Venezuela's equivalent of the Pentagon.

The report chides Colombia for some breaches of accepted computer forensics, which I expect the slobbering Chavez supporters to latch onto in a vain attempt to keep denying a reality as obvious as the colour of the sky, but goes on to say nothing contained on the three laptops, external drives, and USB drives was tampered with.

How much data was recovered from this raid that saw one of FARC's chief killers killed?

The drives contained a vast trove of information — 610 gigabytes of data including 210,888 images, 37,872 written documents, 22,481 Web pages, 10,537 sound and video files, 7,989 email addresses and 452 spreadsheets, Interpol said. Ten Interpol computers ran nonstop for two weeks to crack the 983 files that were encrypted, Noble said.

So expect even more revelations to emerge that will probably shock and embarrass many people worldwide as they are exposed as terrorism supporters. Almost 8,000 email addresses to run through. And I have to wonder if those 983 encrypted files have more bombshells like the 60 pounds of depleted uranium deal. Not to mention safe house locations and bank account information.

I find it interesting in the INTERPOL press release, they offered to meet with Ecuador and Venezuela twice and since the press release fails to mention any positive response, one is forced to conclude their offer has been rebuffed by both countries. Now who are the outlaws in this incident again?

Obama's Secretary of State

I guess with Sen. Clinton's very solid win in Pennsylvania, the Obama camp decided they needed some good PR. Preferably foreign policy PR to buff up Obama's very thin resume in that area. So zooming off to bolster the candidacy he has endorsed, the Governor of New Mexico Bill Richardson has gone off shore to foreign climes.

Where did Richardson go in search of boosting Sen. Obama's wafer thin foreign policy resume? Was it Colombia? Was it Poland? Or maybe Taiwan? Nope, none of the above. Taking a page from Jimmy Carter, we find Bill Richardson in Caracas Venezuela and Hugo Chavez.

Why is Bill there? He is there to try and help restart the process of freeing hostages. What hostages? Why some of the 700+ being held in crude prisons in Colombia by FARC, those wonderful Communist revolutionaries who have sunk to kidnapping for profit. Which of these hostages? To score points back home, the three American contractors that FARC took captive in 2003 when their helicopter went down in FARC territory. Though the name of Ingrid Betancourt is also trotted out, the French have so far failed to wrangle her release from FARC. Make no mistake, Richardson's mission is to free those three Americans to help Obama's quest.

How come the US has not negotiated with terrorists? Policy, the US does not negotiate with hostage takers for the well founded fear of encouraging these thugs of kidnapping more Americans. One has to look at Mexico City where kidnappings are out of control, security services and armored vehicles are in high demand, and ransom is always paid to the kidnappers. Follow the money as they say. Which is also why FARC has taken to kidnapping, its where the money is for their revolution. Even though it has alienated the populace against FARC. This good will could be regained if FARC stopped kidnapping people, but with their financial links to Venezuela exposed by Colombia's raid into Ecuador plus the earlier drying up of Communist support when the USSR vanished, they need the money even more.

Do we need another Jimmy Carter conducting foreign policy for the United States? Someone carrying out lone wolf diplomacy to bolster the image of a hopeful Presidential candidate? My answer is no. Richardson is playing into the hands of Chavez who has recently vowed that his mission is overthrow the American idea of capitalism. This one more chance to poke that devil Yanqui George Bush in the eye by Chavez if he gets FARC to cooperate and release some hostages. And there is Bill Richardson shaking hands and talking to this guy.

A Long Bloody War

For a good understanding of the woes facing the FARC, please read Dr. Radu's post over on VCrisis. The 66 pounds of depleted uranium is just further proof that FARC's power is on the wane and why they should not be removed from the list of terrorist organisations. If you rob, murder, and kidnap to keep your revolution going; then you just a bunch of hoodlums and not belligerents. Be akin to granting the US Mafia the same belligerent status. Not going to happen.

After reading this, one finds similar patterns between Colombia and Iraq. As the country itself stabilises and the economy improves, the terrorist organisations must find recruits where they can and at what price. So one sees an influx of fellow travellers from foreign lands, which further erodes the claims of a native insurgency and instead becomes something of an attempted foreign occupation. This in turn further alienates the locals from supporting the insurgency, why should they cover for a bunch of foreigners? There is no bond between Marxist-Leninist fanatics and the people who actually live there, all that clap-trap about the common struggle is just that clap-trap.

And it seems Mexico suffers the same problem the United States and other Western countries do. The only place where Marxist-Leninism can survive is in the rarefied atmosphere of academia. So these institutions become the cadre breeding grounds the likes of Reyes noted FARC needs to keep operating. Luckily the Colombian military/police forces and the Iraqi military/police forces are getting better at defeating their respective terror groups, be it FARC or the Mahdi Army.

Now is not the time to get weak in the knees and declare things lost. The upswing in violence in Iraq is an attempt by the Mahdi Army and others to reshape a far more important battlefield than the physical one. Even as al-Sadr sends more fools to die for his lust for power, they are mere bloody window dressing for a bolder operation aimed at the United States. General Petraeus is due to report back to the Congress soon on how things are progressing in Iraq. So the killers in Basra and elsewhere are trying to make the Surge a failure just before this report, to negate the validity of the strategy. This is the Mahdi Army's Battle of the Bulge, their all or nothing last gasp attempt to defeat the elected government of Iraq and the United States not on the battlefield, but on the field of perceptions. And if history is any guideline about battlefield results then the Mahdi Army will get its ass handed to it again, this time by Iraqi forces with US support which will mean al-Sadr will again flee to Iran to let things cool down while his fighters also reach room temerature.

Victory is often not won within a span of a few minutes of daring, luck, and Divine Providence as witnessed by the US Pacific Fleet at the Battle of Midway. Often victory is wrested one centimeter at a time at horrendous cost as witnessed by the battle for Iwo Jima or on the beaches of Normandy. Victory is attained sometimes by one combatant hanging on just a little while longer. FARC and the Mahdi Army are betting that the US and its allies wont hang on for the one extra second needed to win. Lets prove them dead wrong.

Wordsmith in his post on Basra will be just another comma, made me think of something else to add to the above post. How different effective leadership can be on impacting results. The FARC have been rattling around trying to overthrow the government of Colombia for 44 years, to apply the American Democrats' yardstick for victory against that record, the FARC are stuck in a quagmire and should just plain surrender. President Uribe has been in office less than eight years and yet has managed to make the economy boom, marginalize the FARC, winnow its ranks, and kill two of its top commanders. Al-Maliki is trying to do the same thing in Iraq. Just think if someone other than President Bush had been in office these past eight years, would Uribe and Maliki even be close to defeating their opponents? Probably not because someone like Al Gore would have tried to ignore it since it would be a distraction to his true goal about fighting Global Warming or some other Quixotian cause.

Is The Fuse Lit?

Whether Colombia will suffer war it seems lays in the hands of Hugo Chavez's Venezuela. Not in Colombia or Ecuador. What a scary thought.

Even as the Organization of American States dispatches investigators to the site of Colombia's attack with the blessing of Ecuador and Colombia, it seems Chavez is still rushing troops to his 1300 mile border with Colombia to 'protect' his country.

The OAS investigation can be the catalyst towards resolving Colombia's violation of Ecuadoran sovereignty in pursuit of FARC terrorists in a way both countries can agree to. Colombia has not rushed any new troops to its borders in an obvious attempt to not escalate the matter. Ecuador has accepted the investigation. So why is Chavez still rattling his saber?

Could it be there is some truth to the allegations Chavez has funneled $300 million to a group of murdering kidnappers called FARC? If Reyes' laptop does have such evidence and experts determine the evidence is genuine, then it becomes Chavez who is the one truly meddling in other countries' internal affairs. The hero of the Bolivarian Revolution will be proven to be a greater imperialist than he accuses President Bush and President Uribe of being.

There will be many who will insist the evidence was planted or manufactured by Chavez's enemies. This will help Chavez in the short run as people will rally around him. But how long can he keep a whole country in the grip of invasion fear when this country has already rejected his bid to be President for life, a country that is suffering food shortages, and a country that has alienated its biggest local trading partner - Colombia. Which means Chavez' time just maybe running out and this may cause Chavez to launch an attack in an attempt to keep himself in power.

Will Chavez really launch a war? It all depends upon the Venezuelan military that forced Chavez not to rig the elections and accept his defeat. A military that Chavez taught it could mutiny and overthrow the government. A military that seems to have a will not totally in step with Chavez. The ten battalions along the Colombia border are there now, but will they attack? I hope and pray that uncertainty will keep Chavez from doing something truly stupid that many people will regret for years to come.

Declarations of War

When neighboring countries give aid and shelter to para-military forces bent on overthrowing a country, it was considered tantamount to war. Why else would have Nixon gone into Cambodia? Except to stop that country from being used as a supply highway for the North VietNamese Army and its Viet Cong allies.

Now we see another country besieged and it is far closer than VietNam. The country in question is Colombia, a place that has known much bloodshed in the past 40 years as an avowed Marxist revolutionary group called FARC has waged a murderous campaign to oust the government.

Colombia's military forces have already sealed off the border with Venezuela as that country has become the drug lords and their FARC lackey's conduit for supplying cocaine to the United States. In response to this, President Chavez has sent ten battalions to the Colombian border.

Ecuador has also been sheltering FARC rebels it seems and Colombia has decided to send them a message akin to what Turkey just did to the PPK in Kurdish Iraq. They bombed them and killed a FARC leader. Naturally Ecuador is screaming about the unilateral actions and sending troops to the border while pulling its diplomats. And it has turned into a war of the laptops as Colombia produces Reyes' laptop to show Venezuela has funneled $300million to FARC while Venezuela has produced another laptop showing the Colombian national police chief is involved in the drug trade. The Organization of American States is attempting to mediate things. Venezuela can ill afford to alienate Colombia since trade with that country keep's Chavez's country afloat.

This all could have been avoided if Ecuador had Controlled its borders and enforced its sovereignty. Instead they decided to play host to a bunch of murdering kidnapping drug smugglers who once were communist. And now Colombia has called them on it. Good on Colombia for defending its people and borders.

And luckily in the US, President Bush is in office and has been a true ally to Colombia as they have striven to drive all these evil people out. May the US stay a true ally even if Obama becomes President, but from his rhetoric of invading Israel and Pakistan to enforce his idea of Pax Americana I would bet Obama would invade Colombia also. Someone needs to ask Sen. Obama and Sen. Clinton what would they do if they were President and having to deal with this building crisis.

Caracas Crash?

Seems things are getting a bit difficult in the beautiful country of Venezuela. Even as the denziens of the barrios voice their love of Hugo Chavez, his hosanas might soon be coming to an abrupt and perhaps bloody end.

The promises of a bountiful future under Chavez's leadership has lead to some interesting results. As any serious student of what nationalization does to a country's economy could have predicted, so it goes in Venezuela as the government raids private property to seize staples.

As Reuters reports: CARACAS, Feb 17 (Reuters) - Shoppers in oil-rich Venezuela often can't find basic food items in stores but the government of President Hugo Chavez on Sunday turned up a huge stash of milk and chicken in a private health clinic.
Inspectors from the consumer protection agency Indecu found the shelves of the upscale Caracas Policlinica Metropolitana stocked with half a tonne of milk and a similar amount of chicken.

Meanwhile it is becoming more and more obvious that Chavez's government is meddling in the internal affairs of Colombia. How obvious? How about one FARC leader, Luz Dari Conde Rubio, caputred along the Venezuelan border. Rubio lead the team that captured the three Americans when their plane crashed so just perhaps these three men can finally be rescued. Rubio, like much of FARC, was also deeply involved in the cocaine trade. Speaking of cocaine, its strange that one of Colombia's top drug lords met his untimely demise in Venezuela, but that is what happened to Wilber Varela.

For a group who's aim was to replace the existing government of Colombia with a Communist one, FARC has instead become a tool of the drug lords. Plus running a kindapping for ransom ring that just resulted in five FARC being sentenced to death by bullets. It seems FARC has followed other terrorists organisations down the rode from revolutionary to being a bunch of thugs, like the Black Panthers and Weather Underground before them. Uribe and the people of Colombia are winning their war against FARC and its in the United States interests to see they succeed.

If that was not enough, the sacred cash cow of the Venezuelan economy is down to skin and bones. I am talking of course about PVDSA, the Grail Hugo turns to to feed those of the barrios to keep them complacent. The Economist article on this is more disturbing. Anyone who has handled accounts receivable should all sit up and take notice that PVDSA has changed the normal billing cycle of 30 days to pay to a mere 8 days. Can we say liquidity problems on PVDSA's part? Then to add insult to injury, eight super-tankers of fuel oil went begging at the end of January. Plus lack of investment spending on top of plumetting oil production signals significant troubles ahead as revenues vanish. One could almost say Exxon's legal manuevers to freeze PVDSA's assets is just the coup d'grace. Notice how fast Chavez has now changed his tune and wont cut off oil shipments to the US?

Since Chavez uses PVDSA as his personal ATM to pay off people, once PVDSA stops spitting out its money Chavez just may wish he stayed under that table in 1992 wetting his pants and never thought of leading a coup.

Hugo goes begging

Got to love this. Muy loco el Presidente Hugo has sent a plea to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for them to intervene and stop the freezing of PvDSA's $12billion in assets.

Venezuela's ambassador to the U.S. has asked Sen. Richard Lugar to press Exxon Mobil Corp. to drop legal measures that have frozen $12 billion in assets worldwide.
"Through tactics that can only be compared with the very discredited strategy of pre-emptive war, Exxon Mobil has clearly violated the terms of the arbitration process," Bernardo Alvarez, Venezuela's ambassador to the U.S., said in a letter to the Indiana Republican that was released by the embassy Friday. Lugar is the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Of course Venezuela would not be over a barrel and begging the war-mongering gringos of the United States if they had abided by the contract they had with Exxon. Instead Hugo Chavez thought, since he was in charge, that he could merely violate a written contract between the country of Venezuela and Exxon to fully exploit an oil field in the name of social justice. Exxon has merely acted in the interest of its shareholders, who's money is invested in this oil field, to protect its investments, to keep sacred such contracts in the future, and to prevent anyone else from trying this trick.

Until Hugo Chavez returns these oil fields to their rightful owners and honors the contracts his country entered into in solemn good faith, he can cry me a river. The Orinoco in fact.

Exxon Puts the Squeeze on Chavez

In the Newtonian world, every action has an equal and opposite reaction. So it should come as no surprise to any reasonable person, that Exxon would react to autocratic seizing of their Orinoco project assets by Venezuela.

Unfortunately, Chavez and his cronies are far from reasonable. They expected that a company that pulled in $40billion in profits to just roll over. Exxon has secured injunctions in the US, Europe, and the Carribbean against PvDSA to prevent them from selling any of their $12billion in assets before arbitration over Venezuela's seizing of the Orinoco site. The spin from Venezuela is - this is an attempt to create anxiety in the country.

Notice in the article they claim to be producing 3.3 million barrels a day. According to OPEC, the production declined to 2.37 million barrels a day in 2007. Inflation is running at 22.5% and the economy shrunk by 5.3%. Venezuela is a country on the cusp of imploding due to gross mis-management. So what does Chavez do to keep himself in charge? Promise to keep doling out the cash as if oil production is not falling. Which any student of history knows is a recipe for disaster. One day the bread will run out and the people will rise up and reclaim their country.

Now if Exxon wins their case against Venezuela and Chavez has to repay, my what interesting times Hugo will live in. Now if the rest of the country can survive.

AP Spins, You Parse

The roller-coaster ride of fear and uncertainty are finally over for two prisoners of FARC. This weekend, the communist guerilla group released two hostages. After initially announcing their release weeks ago and Hugo Chavez turned into a media circus, they and FARC were no shows. Leaving the President of Venezuela looking like he had been bamboozled by FARC.

Adding to the political egg on his face, it was determined that one of the hostages had been dumped into the foster care system in Bogota years ago, little Emmanuele Rojas. As this pundit speculated it might have been FARC's inability to retreive Emmanuele that caused the hostage release to fizzle. Perhaps it is because the government of Colombia made the effort to test this child's DNA against Carla Rojas' family that has resulted in the latest miracle. Namely Carla Rojas and Consuelo Gonzalez have been released.

The AP article on their release makes for some interesting reading between the lines. Carla Rojas had been a prisoner of FARC for almost two years before she became pregnant and later she had to suffer a jungle Ceaserean section that resulted in little Emmanuele suffering a broken arm at birth. Now if FARC was truly noble and all that clap-trap, they should have released Carla Rojas immeidately after it became apparent one of their soldiers raped her. But no, for four more years, they kept her hostage and never told her the fate of her little boy until Bogota radio broadcast the news he was alive and in foster care.

And people wonder why most in Colombia and elsewhere think of FARC as evil scum. I just hope the Rojas family can put their lives back together. Now FARC how about all those others you have taken prisoner like Betancourt? When are you going to release them? The world wants to know you kidnappers.

Chavez Gets FARC'd

It seems Hugo Chavez's feverish mind never stops formulating ways to annoy his neighbors while adding luster to his own over-inflated ego.

His latest scheme was to negotiate with the Colombian communist rebel group FARC and to secure the release of some of the civilians FARC hold in durance vile like Clara Rojas and Bettencourt, both women have been in captivity for over six years. This scheme would have made Chavez seem like a humanitarian and publicly humiliate Colombian President Uribe who has continued the decades long battle against FARC. Another factor on the Chavez animus towards Uribe is, the United States supports Uribe and his desire to create a peaceful and whole country.

So El Presidente Hugo Chavez clattered into Colombian airspace just a few weeks ago with an entourage that included American film-maker Oliver Stone to secure the release of a few hostages, including a child. So there sat Hugo for several days waiting and waiting. And the FARC never showed up. So the grand ploy was instead a grand bust it seemed as Hugo and company sweltered.

But just when everyone thought this small play had run its three acts, to many there was a fourth act that is just now unfolding. It seems back in 2005 a child ended up in Bogota's social services system as a foster-child. Acting on a tip, the Uribe government had this child, named Emmanuel - good name for the Christmas season, genetically tested against members of Clara Rojas' family and they found a match. This child was the child the FARC was supposed to release into Hugo Chavez's custody as the cameras snapped pictures. Which might explain why the swap never happened; very bad PR if you can't cough up one of the hostages. The Colombian government is asking for European assistance to run a second DNA test to verify their findings. But the true match will not come until Clara Rojas is released by the FARC from her six years of captivity. Meanwhile in Venezuela they are sniffing disdainfully at this news because they were never consulted, my how haughty they are.

As we all celebrate a new year full of hope, lets add all those held in captivity by FARC find freedom - including the three American civilian contractors the FARC captured when their plane went down.

Where is Hugo?

After being told to shut up by King Juan Carlos of Spain at one gala event and by the King of Saudi Arabia at another; wanna-be thug El Presidente for Life Hugo Chavez has flown to a country where he knows he can get some love.

He is chumming it up with the half-sized picayune madman of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad today. Rotten peas in a pod.

Ginn's Infidel Warrior Babes

The above has been inspired by Ginn over at Death By A Thousand Paper Cut's own goddess, Ginn. Enjoy and if you have complaints, aim at me; this is all my nefarious doing. Bwahahahaha!!!! :)