As a Canadian, a social democrat and generally peaceful guy, I have a hard time believing that I'm going to say this but I think it may be time to deal with Hugo. Either reign him in somehow (carrot or stick or both) or if neccessary by force, if that's the only way to do it. This is our hemisphere and seeing him invite the Russians in with open arms and while threatening to throw out our legitimate businesses and destroy the value of our investments is just one step too far for me. These guys are out to hurt us and I don't see why we should allow that to happen. It's only going to get worse if we don't stand up to him now.

The moral justification for this is cocaine. I don't know about where you live but I can tell you that in Montreal where I live that we are swimming in it. Crack cocaine, with dealers everywhere sucking in anybody foolish enough to put that pipe in their mouth. Mothers, fathers, sons and daughters, I could give you a long list of people that I personally know who have lost everything because of this scourge. And Chavez and Morales are up to their eyeballs in it. I don't think that the Russians could give a flying f*** about us or the health of our families and economies. Putin is one ruthless MF and we might as well get used to the fact that the cold war is back and this little love affair with Chavez and the Russians is just the beginning.

I don't think that VZers want what Chavez is offering. I don't think that they want to be the next Cubans or East Germans or Chechens. The Russians exported repression, terror and economic failure for decades. It's hard to believe that anybody can take them seriously as saviours.

The world is watching here. If the Russians can come in to our hemisphere (with warships no less), destroy our investments and help the major producers of coke to continue sending poison into our cities, well then folks, we've been bitch slapped and if we take it lying down we will never, ever be the same.