Axis Of Evil Update

When you think Ahmadinejad, think Hitler... And when you thing Kim Jong Il, think Mussolini.

North Korea reportedly detonated a nuclear bomb in an underground test. The bomb may have been anywhere between five and fifteen kilotons.

Thanks, U.N. You were a great help with those sanctions. No, really.

President Bush said that Il has "defied the will of the international community," and Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said that this marks the beginning of a "dangerous nuclear age" in Asia.

Proving conclusively that politicians are about as smart as the average sack of hammers, the U.S. and Japan are expected to press for more of those highly effective sanctions.

China also condemned the action, but hey, are they doing anything about it? Nope, because they aren't our friends.

However, the people underneath certain despotic leaders are growing restless:

In Venezuela, a mass opposition rally to Hugo Chavez took place, with the people uniting behind Democratic candidate Rosales.

From the BBC:

"The problem of the opposition is that before we had a lot of candidates and people couldn't make up their minds whom to support," one woman said. "Right now we have just one candidate and I believe that we have a better shot if we have just one candidate against Chavez." For some it was simply a day out to enjoy the sunshine, but for most it was a chance to listen to a speech by Mr Rosales, who declared that Venezuela was "at a crossroads".

I hope Rosales watches his back...

One worrisome thing: Rosales criticizes what he calls Chavez's "check book diplomacy", and says that he is giving away Venezuela's oil wealth to foreign powers.

I wonder what he meant by that...

In Iran, it is reported that 65% of the population are unhappy with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, mostly due to out of control inflation and economic issues.

"Fighting the daily rise of prices and solving the vital question of unemployment in a matter of few months needs a real miracle", said former government official spokesman Anbdollah Ramazanzadeh.

One creepy aspect of the Iranian Press Service story is that they are calling the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadi Nezhad. Is our spelling wrong? Did we get a bad translation? Or is he now calling himself the Mahdi? It's a frightening thought...