Blurbs from the "What are they thinking???" files

Chavez gets powers to rule by decree
By Christian Olive (Reuters, Caracas), appearing on SwissInfo.org

Venezuela's Congress on Wednesday granted President Hugo Chavez powers to rule by decree for 18 months as he tries to force through nationalizations key to his self-styled leftist revolution.

The vote allows anti-U.S. leader Chavez, who has been in power since 1999, to deepen state control of the economy and other sectors of public life such as defence and security.

What is the Venezuelan Congress thinking? And how many citizens are truly regretting their voting in of these representatives?

And please, please... spare me you bozoheads trying to compare this to a vote by our Congress to use force in Iraq if necessary. That is a comment... predictable to expect from any sound-byte-education anti-war type... that only a 6th grader could be excused from making. If you insist upon making that comparison, do us all a favor. Get an education and start reading before ya kill us all with your uninformed voting!

The lawmakers, all loyal to Chavez after opposition parties boycotted the 2005 congressional elections, flaunted their populist credentials by taking the unusual step of holding their vote in public in a square in downtown Caracas.

Note to disgruntled conservatives here. See what results boycotting elections can produce?

Kerry’s continued mincing just proves he’s not so Swift
By Howie Carr, Boston Herald Columnist

Sen. John Kerry could learn something from ex-Gov. Jane Swift.

Namely, shut up! When you’re yesterday’s news and you couldn’t get elected dogcatcher and nobody expects you to do anything, keep your big trap shut and just order another drink - or cruller, as the case may be.

Notice the different ways these two political has-beens have been behaving this week. First, Kerry - he’s in Davos, with the Beautiful People, and he just can’t help himself, can he?

The United States he says, is an “international pariah,” apparently because of the war, which, as we all know, he was for before he was against it.

Then he throws on for good measure, “When we walk away from global warming.”

That would be the Kyoto protocols, a proposed treaty that was defeated in the Senate in 1995 on a 95-0 vote. And one of those 95 no votes came from - this is just too easy, isn’t it? I guess you could say John Kerry was for global warming before he was against it.

What’s the old saying? Sometimes it is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt.

snip

What was he thinking? Not sure the man ever "thinks" before opening his mouth to change feet.

Iran still "2-3 years" from atom bomb
By Mark Trevelyan (LONDON Reuters), appearing in SwissInfo.org

Iran is at least two to three years away from being able to produce a nuclear weapon, a leading global think-tank said on Wednesday.

But the International Institute for Strategic Studies said pressure on the United States to stop the programme, including possibly through military strikes, would increase this year as Tehran mastered the process of enriching uranium.

snip

uh huh. And how long for them to get a nuke or supplemental needs from their N. Korean buds?

Study Group Advisers Surprised, Upset by Israel-Iraq Linkage
By Nathan Guttman, Forward.com

Several advisers to the bipartisan Iraq Study Group were surprised and upset by the decision of panel leaders to argue that American success in Iraq depends in part on progress in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Forward has learned.

Issued eight weeks ago, the Iraq Study Group’s final report asserted that “the United States will not be able to achieve its goals in the Middle East unless the United States deals directly with the Arab-Israeli conflict.” The two co-chairmen of the panel — James Baker, who served as secretary of state under the first President Bush, and Lee Hamilton, a former Democratic congressman from Indiana and vice-chairman of the 9/11 Commission — have since advanced the argument in media interviews.

snip

This is about as dense as those who think Iraq had to be linked with 911 to make it viable. I'll make this simple. Cockroaches run... they run from Afghanistan and need a place to go. What more obvious choice of real estate then where Zarqawi called home since 1998, and land that possesses massive natural resources in water and oil. That would be Iraq, folks... the garden spot of the ME for resources.

This one has me scratching my head, wondering why these theoretically educated pols and experts can't draw the connecting lines between radical Islam and their unified hatred of Jews, westerners, and democracy with the Palestinian-Israel conflict? Is it not all some form of radicals bent on anniliation of others? Duh wuh....

A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words....

Okay. Last in today's "what are they thinking" files.... Below is an aerial of John "Two Americas" Edward' estate. Now I'm all for capitalism and the pursuit of happiness (and wealth, if that's your particular modicum of happiness). But isn't it just a tad ingenuous for him to publicly whine about "two Americas" on the campaign trail, then so prominantly place himself in the group he obviously despises??