Manuel Rosales

You may not have heard of him, but as December 3 nears, his name is going to be seen almost daily in U.S. newspapers.

Rosales is the challenger to Hugo Chavez in the Venezuelan Presidential Election scheduled for the 3rd of December.

I don't know much about him, but he's got to be a better choice than Chavez, who seems to want to be the next Castro. Rosales may have a chance of winning as long as Jimmy Carter isn't involved in validating the election results this time.

I won't be surprised if Rosales is the target of an assassination attempt before the election. Hugo isn't going to give up his stardom easily, and the Cubans he rented from Castro for the (supposedly rigged) recall election a couple of years ago would come in handy if Rosales gets to be too popular.

If Rosales survives and wins the election, you can expect to hear accusations that the U.S. (CIA) was involved in rigging the elections. Sadly, most of those accusations will probably come from those Americans who hate Bush - you know, leftists.

The Company You Keep

Hugo Chavez called the President of the United States the "devil" in his shameful address to the UN General Assembly. I say shameful, because his childish rant was unbecoming of a leader of a nation - any nation.

This is not the first time a national leader has insulted the U.S. in an attempt to capitalize on anti-American sentiment around the world, and, since it can be done with apparent impunity, there's no reason to think it will be the last.

Hugo reminds me of Mussolini - just another posturing buffoon.

It's time we shunned tin-pot dictators by cutting off all diplomatic and economic ties with their countries when they decide to bite the hand that feeds them - so to speak. Without support from the U.S. government (us taxpayers) and the American economy, they would soon understand the real meaning of "third world."

The same should apply to any country whose government leaders scorn ours. Just like with undesirable people, we should not associate with undesirable governments.

We can certainly do without them.