Errrr, that wasn't a cannon, Lula. No wonder Brasilian women are so friendly to foreigners.
THE TIMES HERALD.com: "6 ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS ARRESTED IN ALGONAC PARK" (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "ALGONAC -- Uncovered in the darkness by a motion sensor porch light, seven Chinese nationals smuggled across the St. Clair River were arrested Thursday morning near the state park, U.S. Border Patrol officials said. The illegal immigrants told officials they paid between $60,000 and $65,000 each to smugglers who sneaked them via boat from Canada in the middle of the night.")(112302)
CHARISMA NEWS.com: PERSECUTION WATCH: "CHINA" (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "In the weeks leading to the party congress, which began last Friday, the government has banned books, blocked Internet sites and clamped down on other activists. China allows only government-monitored churches, and has harassed and imprisoned Christians who worship outside the official system.") (111102)
WASHINGTON TIMES.com: "CHAVEZ TIED TO COLUMBIA REBELS" by Mike Ceaser (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "Several of the officers, who recently declared themselves in disobedience and demanded Mr. Chavez's resignation, say the government also has opposed their efforts to combat guerrillas active on Venezuelan territory. Also, the Colombian newsmagazine Cambio reported recently that the Vene-zuelan military had sold and at times even given planeloads of arms to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which is classified as a terrorist group by the U.S. government." (112502)
ANANOVA.com: "POLICE FOIL 'REPUBLICAN BOMB ATTACK'" (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "The suspected attack is the latest in a series of terror strikes on Belfast this year. Both the Continuity IRA and the Real IRA have been blamed for car bomb bids in a bid to wreck the Northern Ireland peace process.") (112502)
Brazil already has a massive $250 billion debt and is depending on the International Monetary Fund for a bailout.
One thing I can tell you about nuclear weapons programs is that they are very expensive.
Chavez, opponents say, has brought Venezuela to the verge of bankruptcy with massive spending on social programs. He has cracked down on demonstrators who say his presidency is turning into totalitarianism, while unemployment skyrockets and the national currency deteriorates. Some say the nation is on the verge of civil war, but Chavez refuses to submit to new elections.
If Lula thinks he can have guns and butter let him renounce Brazil’s request for an IMF loan and show the world how a country can support a massive military build up and an equally massive social welfare system.
The Soviet Union tried to do this and ended up on the ash heap of history, a dismal failure. The Soviet Union collapsed under the weight of a huge military industrial complex and an equally huge social welfare system that included universal health care, universal housing, guaranteed employment and public housing for every body.
When the Soviet Union imploded, it left behind millions of its citizens with out a functional political infrastructure or economic system.
Millions of pensioners were left to their own devices for survival as inflation soared and pension pay outs plummeted.
If Lula can succeed were the likes of Lenin, Stalin and Gorbachev failed, he will go down in history as a great leader.
However I suspect he will fail and enter history as a failed leader or a tyrant who led his country away from the hope of prosperity that capitalism engenders and into the surety of universal poverty that is socialism.
Because if you don't we WILL eventually fire at you.