Free Republic

Politics: Joe Kennedy's back, playing Santa Chavez with a new sleigh full of Venezuelan heating oil for "the poor." The tropical dictator's politicized "gift," however, comes with strings. We see Joe dancing on them.Kennedy made a loud production of his new $25 million shipment of oil for the poor, courtesy of the Venezuelan-government-owned Citgo, to be distributed through his Citizens Energy. Cameras rolling, Kennedy ostentatiously lumbered into Braintree, Mass., on a tanker with red-jacketed acolytes all around him. In the cadence of a docker, Kennedy made no bones about this being political. "Our government gets their panties in a knot...

Leadership: As unrest over freedom's end grows in Venezuela, out comes Jimmy Carter's Center, expressing "concern." That's rich. Carter played a leading role in trashing the press there, making dictatorship possible. Jimmy Carter often wins praise as an international mediator, but it was precisely his mediation in two events in August 2004 that led to the turmoil now seen across Venezuela. Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans have taken to the streets crying "freedom" for two reasons: they're ruled by a dictator who's gathering absolute power, and they can't even complain because he's effectively ended free speech. On May 27, dictator...