Howdy folks! Iīm here in sunny Venezuela watching the people go buy in this weird mall called Sambil. I tell you this, the girls of Venezuela are quite spectacular, and the ones that arenīt spectacular make up for it with plasitc surgery and attitude.

The other day this massive rain storm crashed into the slimy beach where I was huddling in a rum induced stupor. The rum was to get rid of my cold. Sleeping on the beach was to save myself 60,000 Bolivares. This is one of those countries where the lowest currency that will actually buy you anything is 1,000. Love that crap, the beggars on the street are all math wizards because they have to do so much addition just to earn up enough for a cup of coffee.

Iīve been asking people what they think of Hugo Chavez. Chavez, as you may or may not know, is frequently painted as a maniacal dictator who needs to be removed from power by the "always-altrustic-Freedom-Loving" USA. Oh, and Venezuela also has huge oil reserves that make it possible for them to sell 30 liters of gas for a dollar.

Unnecessary observation: We always liberate oil-rich countries. Donīt people suffer in poor countries too?

So I keep asking the people down here what they think of Chavez to try and figure out what the real story is. And it is true, there is some discontent. The rich people recently had a massive demonstration saying that theyīd clean their own toilets if Chavez stepped down. Itīs kind of a weird claim, what it means is that if the poor people who vote for Chavez, decide to change their vote for the Conservative asshole candidate, then the rich people would stop making the poor people clean their toilets.

God rich people have a fucked up way of thinking.

But itīs always hard to decide. Even when a president or whatever is good, half the people are going to hate them because they are fucked up with personal problems. The other half are too stupid to see that in order to make some positive change, sometimes you have to go through growing pains. Then thereīs at least another third that just doesnīt know whatīs going on. And a final ten percent that are relatives of George W. Bush (or members of the Skulls, or fellow drug addicts).

The only things that are facts are that Chavez did win a democratic election, so to call him a dictator isnīt really appropriate. And heīs spending a lot of oil money on social programs to help the poor. The argument against this is that even though heīs making those programs, heīs also stealing a lot of money, or heīs not doing as much as he should. But you know the way the media and politicians spin shit around, I recently watched the "Aviator" and it was funny to see all the guys try to rationalize PanAm's monopoly of the transatlantic airways. There are laws against monopolies, itīs that simple!

So anyway, if Iīm not knifed to death in a day or two, Iīll be back in Lima and things will get back to normal.

Chau.....

The End