that in post after post where Tom brings this subject up, none of the non-righties on this board seem to be defending someone like Chavez so my guess is we simply don't care what's going on in some third world country that's pretty much out of our control and has little effect on our daily lives.

I happen to think Chavez is a thug but no more or less than other thugs around the world that fall on all sides of political ideology.

With Tom though Venezuela seems to be some obsessive thing about pointing out where our country will end up if any semblance of liberal and/or socialistic programs are allowed to creep into our own society. That is probably why most of us could care less. The dynamics involved in a country like that compared with this country makes this more than even an apples and oranges comparison. It's more like apples and galaxies.

I appreciated the post but there really was nothing to argue about unless I took some unnatural position that I felt some real love or admiration for Chavez which is the farthest thing from the truth.

Here's the bottom line. A few airheaded Hollywood celebs compared Chavez with our own pinheaded dictator-wannabe and saw a few traits they liked better. They should be slapped for feeding the rabid right some talking points nothing more. Next story.

Art