Rankled

Al Kamen at the WaPo has a contest to suggest next career moves for Mike Brown. I sent in an entry myself, but I have to bow to the master, whatever ironist put Brown in charge, evidently, of investigating FEMA’s failure to respond adequately to Katrina. I forget, who was the head of FEMA at the time? because he must really be quaking in his boots right now.

How did I not know that Hugo Chavez’s father was the governor of a Venezuelan province? Anyway, here’s an AP headline that gave me warm fuzzy feelings: “Land Reform Rankles Venezuela Businesses.” Isn’t it just too, too bad when business feels “rankled”? And isn’t that a fun word? Rankled rankled rankled. Er, anyway, the state just seized a disused plant from a large food company under a program under which economically idle property can be expropriated (and then, what, sold? used by the state? stories like this one never manage to say). The business federation Fedecamaras is bitching; its president says, “Businesspeople are indispensable for fighting poverty and underdevelopment, that’s what we are here for.” Wow, that’s what they’re there for. One had wondered. He didn’t explain how a food plant not actually in use was fighting poverty and underdevelopment. He also said that Fedecamaras would cooperate in land reform, but demanded that private property rights be respected. I know there’s a contradiction in there somewhere, just can’t put... my finger... on it.

The Dept of Heimat Security has taken a dive in its prosecution of Luis Posada Carriles, if prosecution is the correct word for a case in which no witnesses were called against the terrorist. His claim that he would be tortured if deported to Venezuela went unrebutted and indeed, the government lawyer suggested that under the Venezuela-Cuba Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty, Cubans could go to Venezuela to interrogate and torture Posada.

Bush has finally called for sacrifice. “Don’t buy gas if you don’t need it,” he said. So those of you who bought gas you didn’t need in order to pour it out onto your driveway in a display of conspicuous consumption to impress the neighbors with your wealth, and those of you who kept full gasoline cans on your mantles as decorative items, stop it.