Dictator Watch - Aug 30, 2011

It's been a while since I've focused on foreign dictators in a Dictator Watch post.  Perhaps none have been so light-hearted as this one.  But that's just a result of the subject matter.  Hugo Chavez looks like John Candy.Vlad Putin looks like a latter day Nero, Assad looks lonely, and Qaddafi looks like...well Qaddafi, but on the run.

Really dude?

I always figured Russian soon-to-be-supreme-leader-again Putin was a millionaire mobster more than a former Soviet KGB apparatchik. It appears I was wrong.  He's more of a Hell's Angel biker gang thug.  But that's just this week.  I'm thinking he's perhaps losing touch with reality and going senile.  Topless photos, hot chick car washes, biker gang photos all seem like a Nero who wants to live a fantasy life with his power and wealth while his country falls apart around him.  I wonder if anyone in Russia finds this comedic debacle in poor taste coming right after a serious rocket failure that is impacting the International Space Station operations.

Click to enlarge head.

Cool Candy

Then there's Socialist strong man Hugo Chavez.  He recently went to medical 'powerhouse' Cuba for cancer treatment.  Judging from the baldness it included chemotherapy.  Cancer is no joke, even though Chavez is.  I'll not belittle the illness but doesn't Hugo look a little like the drummer from The Queenhaters (a.k.a. John Candy).

Out of the two of them I think John Candy would have made a much cooler dictator.  If you are interested in where the John Candy picture is from, it's from his Second City SCTV days.

The Chavez picture meanwhile just reminds us that some people will hold on to power no matter what.  Chavez may indeed believe he is the only hope for Venezuela and that his personal health doesn't matter, but the optics sure seem like he is clinging to power for power's sake.

Bashar Assad in Syria is looking more and more like even his Arab allies are abandoning him.  That's a good thing because gunning down your own people really should be universally frowned upon.  Of course if President Obama had shown a little more spine with Assad like he had with an ally like Mubarak, maybe this seeing the light by other nations could have come sooner.

Via Time;

Assad's ability to outlast calls for his ouster by his many foes is one thing; antagonizing his friends is another. Assad, it seems, has forgotten the age-old Arabic saying: "If your sweetheart is made of honey, don't lick it all away." The Syrian president has done just that; exhausting the patience and ignoring the advice of his allies by pushing ahead with his vicious campaign of violence against largely peaceful pro-democracy protesters. More than 2,000 people have killed in six months of anti-regime demonstrations which show no sign of abating. The violence seems to have emboldened protesters, rather than cowed them, and pushed the tolerance of Syria's allies.

Like my curtains?

He's just evil, so he doesn't even get a picture.  Unlike fellow evil-doer and erstwhile dictator Mummrmmerrr Gkqaddafyhi (spelling of all versions of his names combined). 

Qaddafi is on the run in Tripoli finally as the rebels, while not entirely western-friendly will be a welcome change from a terrorist sponsoring, seemingly drug-addled, incoherent freak.

While we'll miss the zany crazy antics of this stooge, his ouster is most welcome.  Whether the effort to support the rebels was well thought out is an argument for another time.  For now let's just wish him well in his upcoming prison stint and/or hanging.  

Exit question: When they hang him, will it be on a curtain rod?