The Revenge of the Kettle

A story in the Miami Herald about Latin American reaction to the US bailouts:

"No one in Latin America has been making more hay of Bush's turnabout than Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez, a self-proclaimed socialist who is the U.S. government's biggest headache in the region."

'If the Venezuelan government, for example, approves a law to protect consumers, they say, `Take notice, Chávez is a tyrant!' '' Chávez said in one of his recent weekly television shows.

'Or they say, `Chávez is regulating prices. He is violating the laws of the marketplace.' How many times have they criticized me for nationalizing the phone company? They say, 'The state shouldn't get involved in that.' But now they don't criticize Bush for having nationalize . . . the biggest banks in the world. Comrade Bush, how are you?''

The audience laughed and Chávez continued.

``Comrade Bush is heading toward socialism.''

Amen, Hugo, but somehow I can't seem to get myself to laugh about it.

hat tip to Greg Weeks.