Don't get me wrong, I wasn't inferring that I'd rather be dictated to by Chavez than Bush. At least here we're supposed to have a mechanism that prevents the dictation. Maybe someday Congress will wake up and work instead of just trying to get re-elected.

Sort of on the same topic, I've just started reading Al Gore's "The End of Reason". I'm completely captivated so far. He's articulating so many of the things I have been frustrated by and providing an interesting historical context for much of it. The notion that he did his senior thesis at Yale about the effect of television on politics is very interesting. Too bad then that he invented the internet, which is one of the largest weapons used in the assualt on reason. ;)