Hugo Chavez vs. George W. Bush

If you hate the American President, you should absolutely despise the Venezuelan

Whatever President George W. Bush's merits (or lack thereof), President Hugo Chavez has actually done many of the things, Bush's critics mostly suspect Bush of merely wanting to do.

Consider examples. Hugo Chavez:

1. re-wrote his country's Constitution
2. transferred (usurped?) Legislature's powers to the Presidency (has anyone called him "King Hugo"?)
3. violated his new Constitution numerous times
4. tries to maintain the state of fear to prop up his popularity
5. uses the fear to militarize Venezuelan society
6. labels opposition as "foreign spies"
7. tightened the curbs on free expression — mere disrespect for the President is now a crime in Venezuela
8. grossly mismanaged his country's economy — despite the enormous oil windfall of recent years, the per-capita GDP has been shrinking until 2004, when a modest increase was finally achieved (thanks to another spike in oil prices)
9. closed down the only opposition TV-station in the country.
10. openly calls a political opponent "swine" and threatens to jail him.
11. used tear gas, plastic bullets, and water cannons to scatter the tens of thousands of demonstrators protesting his plans to modify the Constitution (again) to allow himself to run for re-election indefinitely.

Is not it amazing, that Chavez not only gets away with all of this, but remains the hero of the American Left and of the anti-Americans world-wide (and the World Social Forum's Guest of Honor), while the mere accusations against Bush of trying to do anything like it invoke grave warning of "growing Fascism in USA" and comparisons with "Germany of 1930-ies"?