Hugo Chavez, TV Critic

The left's favorite South American dictator, Hugo Chavez, is tightening the noose of Socialism in Venezuela by snuffing out the main opposition television network:

CARACAS, Venezuela — As the clock struck 11:58 p.m., all of Caracas, Venezuela, seemed to hold its breath.

Moments later, the country's most popular television station, Radio Caracas Television (RCTV) went to black … for good.

It wasn't that RCTV, after 53 years, had lost its popularity; nor was it that an economic downturn had dictated the station's fate. It was that Hugo Chavez, president of Venezuela, decided that RCTV — one of four privately owned television stations in the country and the only one do maintain its opposition to Chavez — was a threat to his government.

You may recall the scenes of America's favorite antiwar nutjob Cindy Sheehan smooching it up with Chavez. Now that she's broken with the Democratic party, maybe Chavez will give her her own show on his new network.