ANOTHER GREETING FROM OUR SOUTHERN FRIENDS - AT 12:44 P.M. ET:  If I recall correctly, President Obama, in the spare time he'll have after reshaping America and remaking the world, wants to establish a better relationship with Venezuela.   He might want to bookmark this article first:

BOGOTA, Colombia, July 18 -- A report for the U.S. Congress on drug smuggling through Venezuela concludes that corruption at high levels of President Hugo Chávez's government and state aid to Colombia's drug-trafficking guerrillas have made Venezuela a major launching pad for cocaine bound for the United States and Europe.

Since 1996, successive U.S. administrations have considered Venezuela a key drug-trafficking hub, the Government Accountability Office report says. But now, it says, the amount of cocaine flowing into Venezuela from Colombia, Venezuela's neighbor and the world's top producer of the drug, has skyrocketed, going from an estimated 60 metric tons in 2004 to 260 metric tons in 2007. That amounted to 17 percent of all the cocaine produced in the Andes in 2007.

COMMENT:  Undoubtedly, this is just another cultural misunderstanding.  Can't we all just get along?

July 19, 2009