Life in the workers paradise of Venezuela

From Reuters:

Venezuela's Chavez hails 'perfect' democracy, mocks tyrant image
An ebullient President Hugo Chavez on Tuesday hailed his comfortable re-election as evidence of Venezuela's "perfect" democracy and mocked his foes' depiction of him as a dictator.

The long-serving socialist leader won Sunday's poll with 55 percent of the votes on record turnout of 81 percent. The result was quickly accepted by losing opposition candidate Henrique Capriles.

Emphasis mine -- to do otherwise would be a death warrant. Capriles served as a foil for Chavez' dirty election -- hey, I have an opponent, this is a democracy. A bit more:

Chavez won in 22 of Venezuela's 24 states, thanks to his personal chemistry with the poor, together with heavy government spending on welfare projects in the slums.

This is the bald face of tyranny. If Chavez was a good leader, there would be no slums. He is spending Venezuela's wealth for the purpose of keeping the poor poor and handing them bread and circuses instead of allowing them to build their own wealth and get rid of the slums. He needs this dependent voting bloc. This is exactly what Obama is trying to expand. There are already 47% of the people in the USA whose income is so low that they do not pay any federal income taxes. The growing move towards urbanization is flat out slum-building.