It's shameful that Joe Kennedy, in his oil aid program for the needy, had to rely on Chavez for the oil. Where's the support from the Oil industry. It's disgusting. Big Oil gets billions in tax breaks, but doesn't give to Kennedy's program. Instead Kennedy had to acquire it from a despot.

Time and again we are shown that when the inequalities of wealth grow to disproportional levels unrest follows.  As a devout capitalist I can't help but wonder when we will put aside the ideological nonsense and recognize the inherent dangers to the system if imbalances are not corrected.  Even Adam Smith recognized the dangers of unrestricted wealth yet it seems the economic system cannot be contained by an electoral system that is bought and sold.   Venezula is a good example of the political results of these imbalances.  I don't want to hear "socialist" claptrap the fact is Chavez was a direct result of this imbalance in an economic system.  People do not abide poverty in the midst of wealth.

Maybe Farah can win the Walter Duranty  Pulitzer Prize. Just another apologist for a leftist dictatorship.

I see you're a fan of Mark Twain, tsynchronous?  The same Mark Twain that painted heroic portraits of everyday Americans, while simultaneously deploying wit to try and bring some justice to this world?  Were you aware that (from Wiki): 

Mark Twain, was 'an outspoken critic of American involvement in the Philippines and China',^[1] and "one of the mammoth figures in anti-imperialism, and certainly the foremost anti-imperialist literary figure."  To this day, he's honored by the Chinese as one of the greatest Americans.

Yet, when you see "the story" of Hugo Chavez, all you see is the fact (yes, fact) that he was a dictator, but none of the motivation/history behind this turn of events?

"The mania for giving the Government power to meddle with the private affairs of cities or citizens is likely to cause endless trouble, through the rivalry of schools and creeds that are anxious to obtain official recognition, and there is great danger that our people will lose our independence of thought and action which is the cause of much of our greatness, and sink into the helplessness of the Frenchman or German who expects his government to feed him when hungry, clothe him when naked, to prescribe when his child may be born and when he may die, and, in time, to regulate every act of humanity from the cradle to the
tomb, including the manner in which he may seek future admission to paradise. - Mark Twain

 Venezuela  choice was not colonialism/socialism - it is freedom/socialism.

 I don't see the US military involved in any shape or form - in Venezuela under any recent administration.

  So

"but none of the motivation/history behind this turn of events?"

Essentially this means the final outcome justifies the means. Mr. Stalin was a fine person because he brought equality to his society - never mind about the 30M+ people he killed.

 A lot of these "real" revolutions completely destroyed their societies.

 Cubans are not better off under Castro then the prior dictator.

 Argentina had one of the strongest world economies before Peron.

 France is still struggling with the results of the French revolution.

 Russia is completely messed up.

 Cambodia worked out really well too.

Another example of why  we should be drilling and owning our own prospects

Interesting discussion. Not sure what to chime in here, except to say that I do agree that revolutions are often difficult events that take years to produce real progress. Upending a system is by definition a traumatic process, and bound to be chaotic until a new system is put in place. However, I don't think Chavez changed things as much as you are giving him credit for, tsynchronous. Like the others before him, he doled out the oil money to a group of people that supported him and kept him in power. This time, it happened to be the poor. An energy expert wrote to me today thanking me for the article, but pointing out that despite all of the rhetoric from Chavez, the Venezuelan oil industry remains more open to foreign/private foreign investment than Mexico. It is worth noting that despite all the vitrol Chavez lobbed at Americans, and vice versa, he never cut off the oil. He kept selling it to us, and we kept buying it. 

PS If it makes you feel any better, SingleVoice, I do not think you are defending a dictator. Chavez was indeed dictatorial, but he was elected four times in elections that were widely viewed as fair.  

"Britain haters"?  Many of us are unimpressed but surely not "haters".

I would just once in awhile like to see a discussion on economics where it doesn't break down into "capitalism" vs "socialism" as if there is no room for improvement in capitalism.  Chavez may not have been the brightest bulb in the package but he like many leaders in Latin America are still looking for another answer, perhaps a mixed answer.  I know for zealots there are no other choices but it is apparent some evolution of the system is necessary in Latin America as well as here in America.  "Socialism" isn't an answer.  "Libertarianism" is a joke a knee jerk reaction to modernity.  What is needed not just here but across the board is a new vision of an old system.  A hybrid, a system better than the good system we have, but something that answers the failures we see developing.

"Kitch"  No not "social democracy" although that works pretty well in the low countries.  But we're not them.  I'll be honest I really don't know what the solution is, but I do know that a system that leads to wide spread poverty, that based upon the concept that people must lose is anathema to the modern world.  I'm looking at it in a bigger picture.  A world in which the gaping divide between rich and poor within a nation and within the world is right there in everyone's face 24/7.  At some point there is a price to pay if the gap becomes to great.  I am greatly concerned not for today, but for the future that unless we can find a way to make our system work better, reward more people that we are heading for a cliff that will make the fiscal cliff look like a step. That we have to look at a bigger picture or face grave dangers in the future.  Every stat, every number I have seen shows a rapidly expaning gap between the well to do and the working poor in this country and throughout the world.