The democrats' hero?

From Cindy Sheehan to Danny Glover to Harry Belafonte, to former U.S. Representative Joe Kennedy, to Hollywood liberals, the leftists have been having a love affair with Hugo Chavez, who as much as proclaims himself the second coming of Fidel Castro.

Why the love affair? You got me.

(Read the whole story here)

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- President Hugo Chavez announced plans Monday to nationalize Venezuela's electrical and telecommunications companies, pledging to create a socialist state in a bold move with echoes of Fidel Castro's Cuban revolution.

"We're moving toward a socialist republic of Venezuela, and that requires a deep reform of our national constitution," Chavez said in a televised address after swearing in his new Cabinet. "We are in an existential moment of Venezuelan life. We're heading toward socialism, and nothing and no one can prevent it."

Chavez, who will be sworn in Wednesday to a third term that runs through 2013, also said he wanted a constitutional amendment to eliminate the autonomy of the Central Bank and would soon ask the National Assembly, solidly controlled by his allies, to give him greater powers to legislate by presidential decree.

The nationalization appeared likely to affect Electricidad de Caracas, owned by Arlington, Virginia-based AES Corp., and C.A. Nacional Telefonos de Venezuela, known as CANTV, the country's largest publicly traded company.

"All of that which was privatized, let it be nationalized," Chavez said, referring to "all of those sectors in an area so important and strategic for all of us as is electricity."

To all our leftist "friends":

Is this the "utopia" you're looking for?

You talk about "human rights." Yet you choose to support third world tinhorn dictator thugs like Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez.

Are human rights respected when government seizes control of private property in order to "nationalize" it?

Are human rights respected when the only ones who get rich (or even have a chance to get rich) are the few who are in power?

Does a socialist state mean that all are equal? Or are some merely, as George Orwell put it, "more equal than others"?

Is this, the natural extension of leftism in our own nation... what you long for?

Is this the "end game"?