Poop Shute

Politics Can Be Fun Day!

If you've ever been to The Onion before or watched The Daily Show you know that sometimes... or oftentimes, as the case may be, politicians have a tendency to leave themselves open to satire or an obvious joke here and there.

Well, sometimes they just say hilarious shit all on their own. Our President, for example, tends to stutter, mispronounce and misuse words that I've known since 1st grade, and just outright make up his own words. We've all seen it.

You think he's bad at PR? Meet Silvio Berlusconi, Prime Minister of Italy. The man has an incredible knack for shoving his foot right into his mouth without hesitation. It's breath-taking really.

Most of the time I am proud of my Italian heritage.

Signore Berlusconi makes it hard.


Che's Lounge

Some of you may have noticed the piece with the doctored picture of Ernesto "Che" Guevara I posted a week or so ago. This was not actually the first piece of Che satire I have seen recently.

A friend named David made a similar piece, but involving Alan Greenspan's image instead of the bear.
After his Greenspan, and my Fred The Bear pic, it occured to me that neither of us really knew a lot about the man. I mean we knew he helped install Fidel as ruler of Cuba, and that he eventually died in another communist revolution elsewhere, but that was it.

So, I looked into it. And here's what I found:

Che Guevara was definitely a charismatic man. He was good-looking, and he was an accomplished writer and public-speaker. He was idealistic and intransigent and focused in his fight against any and all establishment.

For these reasons I could see why activist types seem to flock to his memory. BUT--oh come on, you had to see the "but" coming-- these qualities, when compared with the details of his life seem to get lost in the shuffle to me. Here goes:

- gains a reputation for himself for "cold-hearted cruelty" by staging mass executions of remaining Batista supporters

- once he and Fidel were in power in Cuba he pushed the economy so hard and so fast into communism that he temporarily crippled it

- he called himself "Marxist" and "Leninist" but Che's own brand of communism would not have sat well with these men, and his leaned more toward that of Mao

- 1965: due to his complete obstinant and intransigent behavior toward any and all establishment (including and especially the Soviets) Fidel Castro is forced to drop him. Not officially, but in practice

- after leaving Cuba he traveled the world looking for other rebellions to use as a means to install another communist government. One such rebellion in Bolivia is where he was eventually captured by the opposition and executed.



So, yeah. I think I'll plaster my room with posters of him, and line my book-shelves with his biographies.
The funny thing is that in my search I tried to get sympathetic views of his story, so I got most of my info from leftist sources.
I'd hate to see the pictures painted of him by the conservatives.