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The hen house in Venezuela

On Thursday Reuters reported that Russia "sold 24 aircraft and 53 helicopters to Venezuela, defying the United States which has urged Moscow to halt arms sales to Venezuela's populist president Hugo Chavez." Venezuela's arms deal with Russia is part of a package worth over $3 billion and other purchases may include surface-to-air missiles and a submarine.

CNN reports that Chavez was in Tehran today meeting with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad. The two "pledged mutual support for one another," with Chavez vowing that Venezuela would "stay by Iran at any time and under any circumstances." Said Ahmedinejad: "Iran and Venezuela are next to each other and supporters of each other. Chavez is a source of a progressive and revolutionary current in South America and his stance in restricting imperialism is tangible."

Chavez also plans to open a (Russian) Kalashnikov rifle factory in Venezuela and said his country might become an exporter of guns and munitions to Bolivia and other allies.

The vinaigrette is crimson

Today Greg Palast says: "The failure to stop the bloodletting in the Middle East, Exxon's record second-quarter profits and Iran's nuclear cat-and-mouse game have something in common—it's the oil." Just follow the money, he says. Of course, that money trail also leads to the global industries producing munitions: the military-industrial complex can't be complaining.

Meanwhile, a news item at Insight Magazine is suggesting that the president may soon be saying, "Condi, you're doing a heck of a job." Inner-circle Busevik allies apparently have a revolt underway against Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, with accusations that "she is incompetent and has reversed the administration's national security and foreign policy agenda." The revolutionaries want someone who will create an aggressive, stiff-necked, fast-responding State Department as the US is shoved into the early stages of World War III.

They will paint the Middle East red

I don't think I've seen this much bleak news in a single day. Here is a list of 15 headlines from the 21 news stories reported at Democracy Now! today:

Do you hear the flush? At the bottom of this good news swirls what's left of the Bush administration's failure to do anything on behalf of American citizens to repair the lives of the people in the Middle East. This administration is like a humongous slug: it's slow to act and leaves a trail of slime wherever it slithers.