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Slim Pickings today.
Three items on Hugo Chavez. First is from WaPo on the remark of King Juan Carlos.
King Juan Carlos of Spain told Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to zip his lip on Saturday and the Spanish-speaking world went nuts.
Overnight, the king’s “Por que no te callas?” — Why don’t you shut up? — became a YouTube sensation and a downloadable ring tone. One industrious composer turned the king’s choice words into new lyrics, giving the old warhorse “Que viva Espana” new, and somewhat amusing, life. …
Real Clear Politics gives another review.
A few days ago, Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero of Spain hosted a conference of leaders of Spanish-speaking countries in Chile. Among those attending was that democratically-elected gangster Hugo Chavez, president of Venezuela (but soon to be dictator). Mr. Chavez loves to make long anti-American leftist harangues, and
when his turn came to speak, he decided to go after former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, a long-time ally of the U.S. who, when in office, supported President Bush in Iraq. Mr. Zapatero, a socialist, defeated Mr. Aznar (and the two remain bitter opponents), but he found himself defending his rival to Mr. Chavez as “a man who was elected by the Spanish people.” Mr. Chavez does not care about this principle (he said he will sidestep the Venezuelan constitution to stay in office beyond the alloted two terms), and kept interrupting Mr. Zapatero
(a fellow socialist) in a most boorish fashion.Finally, a man seated next to Mr. Zapatero, leaned over and in a loud vice said to Mr. Chavez, as if they were two men in a working class tapas bar in the Madrid rastro (flea market), “Why don’t you shut up?” (“Por que no te callas?”)
The man, of course, was the Spanish head of state, King Juan Carlos, and not one known for crude talk. Nevertheless, his riposte has now become a cheer throughout the Spanish-speaking world, and in not a few other places as well. ..
WSJ reports on the milking of the Citgo cash cow by Chavez.
In 1997, one of every 10 gallons of gasoline U.S. drivers bought came from a Venezuelan-owned refiner, Citgo Petroleum Corp. That year, a student at Oxford University wrote a thesis saying Citgo was cheating Venezuela’s people by investing too much in the U.S., and should send more cash home.
The student, Juan Carlos Boué, drew scant attention until four years ago, when Venezuela’s populist president, Hugo Chávez, took control of the state oil apparatus. Today, Mr. Boué is an influential member of Citgo’s board. And Citgo, which Venezuela bought two decades ago to market its hard-to-refine heavy oil, now has a different focus: feeding cash to Mr. Chávez’s program to build socialism in Venezuela.
In recent years, while other U.S. refiners have invested heavily to take advantage of historically wide profit margins in the business, Citgo has been slimming down. It has slashed its investment and sold off U.S. assets, most recently by agreeing last week to shed a unit that turns crude oil into asphalt. In keeping with Mr. Boué’s nostrums, Citgo has sent the extra money to its sole shareholder, the Venezuelan government. Citgo has raised its annual dividend to more than $2 billion, from $225 million in 2000.
The changes at Citgo are altering the U.S. fuel landscape. Citgo owns 5% of U.S. refining capacity, a significant chunk at a time when U.S. demand for fuel is growing faster than domestic production, and no new refinery has been built in three decades. Citgo’s production will stagnate, adding to pressure on pump prices and fuel imports. …
The Captain wonders why there is not more outcry.
Jackson Diehl takes note of the undiplomatic smackdown delivered by King Juan Carlos of Spain to Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez last week, but turns the question around. Rather than just applaud the king’s public chastisement in asking Chavez, “Why don’t you just shut up?”, Diehl wants to know why more of the world’s leaders haven’t spoken up against Chavez’ scheme to transform Venezuela into a Cuba with oil. Chavez will accomplish that in less than a fortnight:
Crude and clownish, si, but also disturbingly effective. Borrowing the tried-and-true tactics of his mentor Fidel Castro, Chávez has found another way to energize his political base: by portraying himself as at war with foreign colonialists and imperialists. Even better, he has distracted the attention of the international press — or at least the fraction of it that bothers to cover Venezuela — from the real story in his country at a critical moment. …
Maureen Dowd with a good column on Obama/Clinton flap.
Most of the time, Barack Obama seems like he’s boxing in the wrong weight class. But Monday in Fort Dodge, Iowa, he delivered an unscripted jab that was a beaut.
At a news conference, the Illinois senator was asked about Hillary Clinton’s attack on his qualifications. Making an economic speech in Knoxville, Iowa, earlier that day, the New York senator had touted her own know-how, saying that “there is one job we can’t afford on-the-job training for — that’s the job of our next president.†Her aides confirmed that she was referring to Obama.
Pressed to respond, Obama offered a zinger feathered with amused disdain: “My understanding was that she wasn’t Treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, so I don’t know exactly what experiences she’s claiming.â€
Everybody laughed, including Obama.
It took him nine months, but he finally found the perfect pitch to make a trenchant point. …