Venezuela's Congress Grants Chavez Special Powers to Remake Country

A congress wholly loyal to President Hugo Chavez approved a law Wednesday granting the Venezuelan leader authority to enact sweeping measures by presidential decree.

Meeting at a downtown plaza in a session that resembled a political rally, lawmakers unanimously approved all four articles of the law by a show of hands.

"Long live the sovereign people! Long live President Hugo Chavez! Long live socialism!" said National Assembly President Cilia Flores as she proclaimed the law approved. "Fatherland, socialism or death! We will prevail!"

It's good to be king.

I liked this:

Hundreds of Chavez supporters wearing red...gathered in the plaza, waving signs reading "Socialism is democracy"

The whole exercise is a good demonstration of the properties of democracy and socialism. The former inevitably leads to the latter, but the road back is closed.

As well, there was this:

"If you have all the power, why do you need more power?" said Luis Gonzalez, a high school teacher who paused to watch in the plaza, calling it a "media show" intended to give legitimacy to a repugnant move. "We're headed toward a dictatorship, disguised as a democracy."

...and then just two paragraphs later:

"Dictatorship is what there used to be," Rodriguez said. "We want to impose the dictatorship of a true democracy."

So, there is your truth, Luis. Democracy is dictatorship.

Venezuela is a wealthy nation. Chavez will not last like Castro has. Someone with money and connections will take him out, eventually.