You know, we've got serious trouble brewing in Venezuela:
CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuela's leftist President Hugo Chavez on Sunday promised hundreds of thousands of supporters he would win a resounding victory in his December 3 reelection bid he describes as a challenge to Washington.
[...]
"We are confronting the devil, and we will hit a home run off the devil next Sunday," said Chavez, who ruffled feathers in October by calling President Bush the devil in remarks at the United Nations.
"On December 3 we're going to defeat the most powerful empire on earth by knockout," Chavez said.
That a South American President is campaigning using language that makes it sound like he's running for President of Iran should be scaring people. That it appears to be playing is seriously disturbing. That Chavez's rallies look like something out of the Castro play book may be the most disturbing by far:'
Donning red like most of his supporters, Chavez delivered a two-hour speech marked by his signature combination of fiery leftist rhetoric and crowd antics typical of pop music concerts.
He spent nearly ten minutes trying to see which of four groups of demonstrators could cheer louder -- then told them all to be quiet.
"Whoever talks first will turn into a donkey," he thundered, only to break into his unmistakable giggle.
I honestly haven't spent enough time and energy tracking what's going on down there to even pretend to know what the motivating factors are or how we could realistically diffuse this madness, but I sure hope someone's working on it. I have no idea if Chavez believes this garbage, but I have no doubt that some of his supporters do. And there's only one logical course of action if you believe the leader of a foreign country is the devil incarnate and it ain't good.
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