¡Venezuela si! [updated]

Well, I'm going to bed cautiously happy, once I've marked a bunch of first-year assignments, that is.

More later this week about the shameless propaganda to which we've been subjected for weeks--consisting mostly of newspaper headlines that remind me a bit of Le Moniteur on the progress of Napoleon after his escape from Elba. But here is a ripe one, from CTV:

If Chavez wins, the victory would allow him to run for office as many times as he wants, strengthening his grip on the oil-rich country of 26 million people.

Good God, we can't have this! Run as often as he wants? What kind of democracy is that? "Strengthening his grip?" Oh, yes, and "oil-rich": nice resonances there--as though the monster is about to seize what's rightfully ours.

And this has been typical, absolutely typical, of press coverage here. I can't wait to get into all the polls that showed him losing by a healthy margin, too. Later.

Quick UPDATE: (December 2)

Paulitics lists some of the major reforms just approved that could have been approved.

UPDATE: (December 3) Damn. Should have waited until later this morning. The No side won, by less than 2%. Just announced a few minutes ago. Ah, the bitter taste of words being eaten. But not all of them, by any means. My comments about propaganda stand: I'll enlarge on them later in the week.