Random Nuclear Strikes

I get free long distance from my phone service provider.

This guy, not so lucky

150,000 witness North Korea factory boss whose crime was making international phone calls

A North Korean factory chief accused of making international phone calls was executed by a firing squad in a stadium before 150,000 spectators, a South Korean aid group reported.

Public executions had declined since 2000 amid international criticism but have been increasing, targeting officials accused of drug trafficking, embezzlement and other crimes, the Good Friends aid agency said in a report on the North’s human rights.

Can’t he just demand the guy call collect?

But I did. And so did just about anyone who has actually read Marx and understood it.

Venezuelans struggle to find food

The lines formed at dawn and remained long throughout the day _ hundreds upon hundreds of Venezuelans waiting to buy scarce milk, chicken and sugar at state-run outdoor markets staffed by soldiers in fatigues.

President Hugo Chavez’s government is trying to cope with shortages of some foods, and the lines at state-run “Megamercal” street markets show many Venezuelans are willing to wait for hours to snap up a handful of products they seldom find in supermarkets.

“You have to get in line and you have to be lucky,” said Maria Fernandez, a 64-year-old housewife who was trying to buy milk and chicken on Sunday.

The lines for basic foods at subsidized prices are paradoxical for an oil-rich nation that in many ways is a land of plenty. Shopping malls are bustling, new car sales are booming and privately owned supermarkets are stocked with American potato chips, French wines and Swiss Gruyere cheese.

Yet other foods covered by price controls _ eggs, chicken _ periodically are hard to find in supermarkets. Fresh milk has become a luxury, and even baby formula is scarcer nowadays.

And all of this is, as expected, not making the people stay “in love” with Senior Hugo

Poll says Chavez loses Venezuela referendum lead

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has lost his lead eight days before a referendum on ending his term limit, an independent pollster said on Saturday, in a swing in voter sentiment against the Cuba ally.

Forty-nine percent of likely voters oppose Chavez’s proposed raft of constitutional changes to expand his powers, compared with 39 percent in favor, a survey by respected pollster Datanalisis showed.

Just weeks ago, Chavez had a 10-point lead for his proposed changes in the OPEC nation that must be approved in a referendum, the polling company said.

Despite the swing, company head Luis Vicente Leon said he did not rule out a comeback by the popular president.

You can click that link, its from Reuters, who seem to be rooting for Chavez in the rest of the article.

Their enthusiasm is misplaced though, for Hugo knows how to get the people to vote for him.

Threats!

Chavez threatens opponents of reform

The Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez, today threatened to strip the country’s industrialists of their assets if they continued to oppose his indefinite presidency.

Chávez faces a vote at the weekend on his proposals to change 69 articles of the constitution, including scrapping the limit on the number of terms a president can serve.

Venezuela’s largest business chamber, Fedecámaras, to which thousands of large and small businesses belong, has called the planned reforms an “illegal act”, and called on voters to oppose their passage “by every possible legal means”.

That last link is from al-Guardian, who uses all the semantics they can gather to not actually call Hugo a dictator.

They save that word for Bush.