The new political landscape and agenda is looking bleaker than ever and their ultimate promises of passing hate crime laws, FOCA and the fairness doctrine, etc. will divide us more. How long will I be able to publically lament the modern massacre of innocent babies in the womb or how long will it be before it becomes a crime to state the obvious that marriage is a sacred bond between a man and a woman?

Ya, the adversarial world plods on and the sadness of human affairs presses around us like the cold North wind.

Russia does not want to piss off Europe so they said the gas will flow, but some of it's former states like Georgia has already been cut back.

This is what happens when your lips are surgically sewn to your enemies gas supply. We are not much better off than Europe though and the drill at home mantra has seamed to dim as of lately. Why can we not learn any lessons before it's too late?

Joe Kennedy deserves Chavez. Write Hugo a letter have you ever heard of anything more ridiculous? I wonder how many of those "poor" voted for change... as in don't drill in the US. Now there is a hard lesson for the entitlement crowd, if you don't agree with the left be prepared for the consequences. The right is so terrible for trying to make people self reliant. A tear is coming to my eye now, darn it ruined my letter to Hugo.

Okay, I think I'm missing your point here. You're bashing Liberalism (a term which can mean everything from free market champions to tree-huggers these days) based on the examples of Venezuala's radically far left ideology and the current political thought in Russia... which is pretty much centerist politically. Russia and Venezuala's activities in these instances seem to have more to do with their authoritarian tendencies than any social or economic ideologies on their part.

It's funny, the original "Liberals" were essentially libertarian, being big proponents of free-market ideology and keeping government out of their business. Nowadays the same term means a thousand different things to a thousand different people. It's no wonder that it's impossible to have rational political discourse these days when it's impossible for people to agree on terms of identity affiliation...

Under the Fairness Doctrine, you will have complete freedom - to criticize anything on their approved list you want.

LIke I said, they are not the USSR any more, but they still want to be.

They did not think of that - just the MONEY they were going to get.  But like you said, lips sewn to the pipe you have to suck what is in it by those who put it there.

Actually the common thread was in the first sentence (and yea I kind of used the word liberal as a perjorative).  The "liberals" love those 2 for what they thought (or did not think since I dont think they can) they were doing for the poor and opressed.  Not that Putin is liberal (although Chavez clearly is - in the current american sense), just that they are darlings of the air heads of hollywood liberalism.

Yea, I wrote a similar themed piece about a month ago.  Funny how things have changed so much.

And you are right.  I have to qualify my terms with descriptives as in American Liberals (which are anything but according to a classic definition), versus what European or Commonwealth nations think are liberals.

It has never worked to put political labels on Russia...USSR to current edition.  They were called "communists" but never practiced communism in any real way.  They started being called a democracy...but never were.  What Russia has always been is a mafia-like power structure where the guy with the biggest guns and largest following got to make all the decisions.  Putin came into power through the KGB, and his rule more closely resembles the Godfather than any political organization.  Georgia first and now Ukraine are being made offers they can't refuse (Russia is still stung and embarassed over the Aircraft carrier grab made by the Ukrainian captain when the SSR fell apart).  The idea that the cold war was over was silly.  Russia hasn't changed in any positive way in almost 100 years.

As for Hugo...another banana republic dictator who will someday be replaced by another carbon copy of same.

You like to spoil all my fun!

But I do agree with most of your statements.  As I told starstriker1, it was more a poke at American liberals than the countries or men themselves.  They are what they are (a cold war warrior and tin plated dictator), but American liberals love them anyway.

It may have something to do with lack of understanding or appreciation of freedom.

They are not intelligent enough to understand.  They only know one thing - hate.