Did anybody not see this coming?

Venezuela stripped the world's biggest oil companies of operational control over massive Orinoco Belt crude projects on Tuesday, a vital move in President Hugo Chavez's nationalization drive. [...]

The four projects are valued at more than $30 billion and can convert about 600,000 barrels per day (bpd) of heavy, tarry crude into valuable synthetic oil. [...]

"Open investment will never return," he [Chavez] said on Monday to thousands of cheering workers dressed in the signature red of his self-styled leftist revolution at a rally for workers rights.

"We are sealing up that open investment era and burying it deep down in the Orinoco oil reserve," he added. [...]

Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez has said there may not be compensation in some cases and that Venezuela will only consider agreements on the booked value of the projects rather than their much larger current net worth. [...]

Industry analysts fear Venezuela's state oil company PDVSA could ultimately run into production and safety problems when it loses the management and technology of the experienced majors.

It's just a matter of time until they start digging mass graves in Venezuela. And to ensure that Venezuela has to go it alone when their economy collapses, Chavez announced that Venezuela will be pulling out from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

On the bright side, Hugo Chavez's bestest buddy Fidel Castro missed the annual International Workers' Day parade in Cuba due to health issues. The clock is ticking.

Labels: Dead Dictators, etc, politics, Wish You Were Dead

The mystery surrounding Che Guevara continues to this day.

Miami Cuban emigre Gustavo Villoldo, 71, a veteran of the failed US-backed Bay of Pigs invasion, said he buried Guevara and two colleagues in October 1967 in a pit in Vallegrande, Bolivia, after cutting a lock of the hair of the Argentine-born revolutionary hero.

What if Guevara didn't actually die? What if he faked his own death to avoid further assassination attempts? Surely for someone of Che's status would have no problem finding sanctuary in a friendly country, such as Canada. And surely there is no greater supporter in Canada of radical socialism than the CBC and the academic community.

Is it just a coincidence that David Suzuki started working for the CBC just two years after Che Guevara was killed? Would it not be easy for the academic community to vouch for their poster-boy under a fake name? What if that fake name was David Suzuki? If thats not enough to think about, there's the visual evidence:

Labels: Dead Dictators, Dirty Liberals, Environment, Funny, Photos, Y2Kyoto

In about two hours time from this writing, Saddam Hussein will be hanged for Crimes Against Humanity.

He will not be alone, he'll be hanged alongside two of his half-brothers for the same crimes. They will have hoods over their heads, and their hands bound behind their backs. If the world were a just place, they'd be able to have the gallows in a very public Baghdad square. Alas, they will surely die in a heavily secured secret location with very few eyes in the room.

To some this may seem to be a horrible, lonely, painful end to a life. However, it should be remembered the evil this particular life perpetrated on humanity.

• The use of poison gas and other war crimes against Iran and the Iranian people during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war. Iraq summarily executed thousands of Iranian prisoners of war as a matter of policy.
• The "Anfal" campaign in the late 1980's against the Iraqi Kurds, including the use of poison gas on cities. In one of the worst single mass killings in recent history, Iraq dropped chemical weapons on Halabja in 1988, in which as many as 5,000 people -- mostly civilians -- were killed.
• Crimes against humanity and war crimes arising out of Iraq's 1990-91 invasion and occupation of Kuwait.
• Crimes against humanity and possibly genocide against Iraqi Kurds in northern Iraq. This includes the destruction of over 3,000 villages. The Iraqi government's campaign of forced deportations of Kurdish and Turkomen families to southern Iraq has created approximately 900,000 internally displaced citizens throughout the country.
• Crimes against humanity and possibly genocide against Marsh Arabs and Shi'a Arabs in southern Iraq. Entire populations of villages have been forcibly expelled. Government forces have burned their houses and fields, demolished houses with bulldozers, and undertaken a deliberate campaign to drain and poison the marshes. Thousands of civilians have been summarily executed.
• Possible crimes against humanity for killings, ostensibly against political opponents, within Iraq.

These rotten bastards are getting off easy compared to the horrors they brought to the people they were supposed to protect.

Tomorrow morning Iraq will awaken to a better world, with a few found freedom. Will Iraq become a friendly country over night? Highly unlikely. But it will be a better place, and people will be able to feel more secure knowing that The Butcher of Baghdad was bagged and died.

God bless the freedom loving people of Iraq, and God damn anybody who stands in their way. See you in Hell Saddam!

Labels: Dead Dictators, democracy, Treason

The numbers speak volumes.

Those who think Afghan President Hamid Karzai is a lost cause should think again. So says the evidence from a recent poll of what Afghans think, five years after the fall of the Taliban. "The current Afghan government retains broad support," concludes the survey by Charney Research, with 68 per cent of Afghans approving Karzai’s work.
(snip)
While the Taliban are active throughout south and west Afghanistan, their suicide bombings and attacks on schools and government buildings are not winning them any supporters. Nearly 90 per cent of Afghans have unfavourable views of the Taliban, with 76 per cent saying they have "very unfavourable" views. The only thing with a worse rating: Osama bin Laden.
(snip)
Another indication of the trauma of Taliban rule is that 85 per cent or more Afghans are thankful for the US invasion, grateful for the presence of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation troops in the country and prefer the Karzai government – despite its inability to provide law and security or stamp out corruption – to the Taliban.

All the while Jack Bin Layton, Gilles Duceppe and Stephane Dion talk about how the mission is a failure. They want to quit now that we're on the verge of victory. The Taliban are hated in Afghanistan, and they need to be exterminated.

Oh, and is this what it looks like to "force our lifestyle" on another culture? Because I think they like it.

Labels: Afghanistan, Bloc Quebecois, Dead Dictators, democracy, Fun With Polls, NDP, politics, Stephane Dion, Stephen Harper, Treason

Finally, protesters are doing some good in the world:
On Wednesday, thousands of students demonstrated on the campus of Tehran University, chanting "death to despotism," and "death to the dictator."

The protest seems to be gaining traction:

Three days ago, Iran's dictator, Supreme Leader Ayatollah ali Khamenei, was rushed to the vast medical facility traditionally known as "Vanak" hospital, a 1200-room facility that saves half of its beds for the leadership.

Khamenei is known to be suffering from cancer, and taking considerable quantities of an opium-based pain killer. He has lost more than 17 pounds in the past ten months, and was told last spring that he was unlikely to see another New Year.

The sooner the bastard bites it, the better.

Labels: Dead Dictators, Iran, Wish You Were Dead