Friday funnies

Since it is Friday a couple of pictures to amuse you

Now we know why Chavez was such a defender of Zelaya in Honduras.  As you can see in the below self explaining picture, there is/was a drug shuttle between Honduras and Venezuela (courtesy NYT).  Note: not Nicaragua, Honduras.  The Sandinista beloved leader might be a child abuser but he is not crazy enough to go into drug traffic full speed....  The more so when booze seems to be enough for him......

The other picture is too good to pass. In an era of Photoshop, no matter what the regime tries to do to impress the uncouth masses, the humorists find a way to trash it, and fast... See a couple of post before if you do not get the humor.

No wonder Chavez is pissed even further at Capriles now that it has been revealed that Capriles is a distant relative of Bolivar....

Ah!  Venezuela!  never a dull moment....

Can Capriles campaign square the circle?

Well, he is trying but he will not succeed at it since like for the famous mathematical problem his own problem has its own transcendental π number that cannot offer a finite solution.  Capriles transcendental number is the chavista nomenklatura, too corrupt, too impregnated of Cuban nincompoopness and violence to be able to surrender power just through the ballot box.  Still, he needs to try and hope to find a good enough approximation to the solution and hope that it will pass.  The good news is that in my 10 days observation since I came back, he has made great progress.  At least as seen from his sweat drenched shirt today in Barlovento.

The game rules

La degradación de Simon Bolívar

No voy a entrar en una larga discusión de como la figura del Libertador ha sido degradada aun mas, hoy en el día de su cumpleaños. El divertido y ácido @ChavezOfficial nos da el mejor balance con su brillantísimo fotoshop, amablemente reproducido en esta página (observen bien si no lo captan a primera vista).

Digamos que ofrecer la recreación en 3D de la imagen de Bolívar basada en sus violados restos es una pobre excusa para tal profanación. Y no debería ser necesario insistir en que Bolívar fue ampliamente retratado en vida y por lo tanto el ejercicio chavista fue algo absolutamente innecesario.

Lo que Chávez está haciendo concienzudamente desde ya 13 años es alabar para mejor despachar. Nada es sagrado para el: todo se cambia, se tergiversa, se reinterpreta, se agranda hasta el ridículo o se minimiza al grotesco. El objetivo es bastante claro, hasta podríamos decir simplista y obviamente infantil. En la historia de Venezuela habrá solamente una etapa memorable: cuando Chávez nos tuvo bajo su bota. Si después de 13 años usted no estaba claro con esto, espero que la “imagen” de Bolívar y del pavosísimo mausoleo, que en realidad fue hecho mas para Chávez que para Bolívar, le despeje la mente de una buena vez.

The degradation of Simon Bolivar

I am not going to get into a lengthy account on how the figure of Simon Bolivar has been further degraded today, on his birthday. Funny @ChavezOfficial makes the best case with his brilliant photoshopping, graciously brought by this blog on the right (look closely if you do not get it at first).

Let's just say that offering the recreation of a 3D image of Bolivar based on his desacrated remains is a poor excuse for such desecration.  Never mind that there is a substantial iconography of Bolivar during his life time that makes such an exercise one in futility.

No, what Chavez is doing consistently through the years is to heap praise to better dispatch.  Nothing is sacred for him: all is changed, reinterpreted, magnified to ridicule or minimized to the grotesque.  The objective is quite clear, even if simplistic and so obviously childish.  There will be only one thing of value in Venezuelan history: the period in which Chavez held us under his boot.  If you still did not get that after 13 years, I hope that this "picture" of Bolivar and the ghastly mausoleum, who is really made for Chavez more than Bolivar, will set you straight.

Tasconian musings....

The current mayor of Washington DC is under fire because during his 2010 campaign he, or his staff, used a database of 6,000 public housing recipients so as to contact them for whatever electoral purpose his campaign wanted.

Let's think about this for a few seconds, shall we?

Return to the campaign abuse and fraud

Well, it is harder than expected to go back on the key board thread mill.  And even harder to try to go back over one month of missing campaigning.  Thus I have decided stop trying, pretend than nothing happened since I left the country for 3 weeks, and write down the little bit I have been able to gather before giving up.  In no particular order.

Polls

Maria Anastasia O'Grady on Venezuelan election

This is as clear and concise an analysis of the current Venezuelan election as you are bound to find in foreign press (Reuters lately is the example on how it should not be covered). But then Maria Anastasia O'Grady has been on Chavez since day one and I doubt that any current observer of Venezuelan election is as well informed, as knowledgeable, and to the point as she is.



(Hat Tip AM. Nice to find that in my mail box as I resume the coverage chores!)

Back to paradise. NOT!

Sigamos Juntos: let's stay together (vote for me airport welcome)

Today when you arrive at Maiquetia you are welcomed by two things: a deficient do-it-yourself immigration for Venezuelans only and a gigantic poster of Chavez asking athletes and kids to stick with him, violating who knows how many tenets of the constitution and electoral laws.  I am sorry that it does not show any better since my blackberry had limitations from the distant line I was forced to follow. On the right the bottom of one of the many pendant of TVES promoting its "exclusive" Olympics coverage, because, you know, CADIVI makes sure that only TVES has the dollar to pay for the rights.

A Waldoniel stop over

Guessing the site may not be too dificult.  But guessing the restaurant "térrasse" from where this shot was taken would put you in the list of the all time winners. Of course, I am kind enough not to ask for the fish and wine ordered....

Alek Boyd reaparece en Paraguay

El artículo en ABC color.

Where is Waldoniel: 2012 edition

Still out of Venezuela, I did walk in front of this bookstore window and of course I could not resist to renew with the "where is Wladoniel" series, hated by some, appreciated by others.

Today it is an easy one: after all there are only so many countries where such a window set up could exist. The winner is the first one to guess the country, with a bonus point if you can name 5 countries where the odds of such a display are realistic.

Click for details.

The Paraguay MERCOSUR fiasco: the loser list

It is difficult to overestimate the disaster implied by the removal of Lugo and the quick ejection of Paraguay from MERCOSUR.  If there is a case where there is no winner, it is that one.  Thus the following lists of losers, trying to simplify the issues.

PRESIDENTIAL SYSTEM

Once again we are reminded that today presidential systems are the least suitable systems of government for our countries, even though none of Latin America countries have dared try a parliamentary democracy to prove me right or wrong.  Our distasteful and dysfunctional "presidential institution" has become even more of a burden in an age where media reigns sovereign and is not afraid to manipulate everything, from opinion to outcomes. As such we get phenomena like Chavez or skillful manipulators like the Kircheners and even Lula or Uribe.