From Chavez' Mouth to Obama's Ears.

Remember when in the not so distant past, an act like this was considered unconscionable in the United States of America?

Reporting from Bogota, Colombia, and Caracas, Venezuela -- Amid deepening shortages of food and household supplies, President Hugo Chavez on Wednesday ordered the seizure of a Venezuelan unit of U.S. agriculture giant Cargill, the latest in a series of takeovers of foreign-owned companies.

In a speech during a ministers' council meeting broadcast over state-run television, Chavez also threatened to seize control of privately owned Polar, the country's largest food conglomerate and brewer. The actions came less than three weeks after Chavez won a referendum that will allow him to run for unlimited terms as president.

"If you want to take on the government, you'll find out that this revolution is for real," Chavez said, directing his comments to the family that owns a controlling interest in Polar.

Impossible in the United States, you say? Think again:

U.S. Seeks Expanded Power to Seize Firms

The Obama administration is considering asking Congress to give the Treasury secretary unprecedented powers to initiate the seizure of non-bank financial companies, such as large insurers, investment firms and hedge funds, whose collapse would damage the broader economy, according to an administration document.

The government at present has the authority to seize only banks.

Giving the Treasury secretary authority over a broader range of companies would mark a significant shift from the existing model of financial regulation, which relies on independent agencies that are shielded from the political process. The Treasury secretary, a member of the president's Cabinet, would exercise the new powers in consultation with the White House, the Federal Reserve and other regulators, according to the document.

The administration plans to send legislation to Capitol Hill this week. Sources cautioned that the details, including the Treasury's role, are still in flux.

Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner is set to argue for the new powers at a hearing today on Capitol Hill about the furor over bonuses paid to executives at American International Group, which the government has propped up with about $180 billion in federal aid. Administration officials have said that the proposed authority would have allowed them to seize AIG last fall and wind down its operations at less cost to taxpayers.

Aside from the fact that I'm having a hard time trusting a guy to run a multi-billion dollar corporation that can't even be trusted to fill out his income taxes, never in my wildest dreams would I have thought I would live to see the day when the government of the United States of America would, as the headline suggests, be so ravenous with power as to indiscriminately seek to seize and to nationalize private-sector businesses!

When George W. Bush was president, the Left of this nation was particularly fond of utilizing the bromidic term, "fascist" when speaking of his administration; without any accompanying evidence that it was anywhere near the truth.

I wonder if they knew they were going to get the real thing when they voted for Barack Hussein Obama:

In 1933, Mussolini created the Istituto per la Ricostruzione Industriale (IRI) with the special aim of rescuing floundering companies. By 1939 the IRI controlled 20% of the Italian industry through government-linked companies (GLCs), including 75% of pig iron production and 90% of the shipbuilding industry.

Mussolini also adopted a Keynesian policy of government spending on public works to stimulate the economy. Between 1929 and 1934, public works spending tripled to overtake defense spending as the largest item of government expenditure.^[44]

And Chavez thought that he was the only fascist in the Western Hemisphere.