At the NY Times

The clock had just struck midnight. Most of the country was asleep. But that did not stop President Hugo Chávez from announcing in the early hours of July 16 that the latest phase of his Bolivarian Revolution had been stirred into motion. 

Marching to the national anthem, a team of soldiers, forensic specialists and presidential aides gathered around the sarcophagus of Simón Bolívar, the 19th-century aristocrat who freed much of South America from Spain. A state television crew filmed the group, clad in white lab coats, hair nets and ventilation masks, attempt what seemed like an anemic half-goose step.

At the WP

WHILE THE United States and Venezuela's neighbors silently stand by, Hugo Chávez's campaign to destroy his remaining domestic opposition continues. On Thursday night state intelligence police raided the Caracas offices of Guillermo Zuloaga, the president of the country's last independent broadcast network, Globovision. They claimed to be looking for evidence of irregularities in the car dealership that Mr. Zuloaga also runs. In fact this was a thinly disguised escalation of an attack that Mr. Chávez launched this month against Globovision. The channel has been officially accused of "inciting panic," based on its accurate reporting of a mild May 4 earthquake in Caracas; under the regime's draconian media control law it could be shut down. Few doubt that that is Mr. Chávez's intent: Two years ago he revoked the license of the country's most popular television network after a similarly trumped-up campaign.

at DanielNews

There is that fascinating US ritual, the State of the Union speech where the sitting president comes to Congress to make his report and lay out his plans for the next year. It never changes, it does not matter who is president, who has majority in Congress, it is always a very civilized activity where all who politically matter in the US set aside their differences for one evening to remind the country that there is something bigger than their own career. At any of these events if you could pile high the amount of virtual daggers that these people threw at each other in the past year there would be no room left for the assistance. But tonight Barak Obama is speaking to the nation while an all smiles Hillary Clinton crossed the floor before sitting to listen to HER president. Not to mention that Republican Senators gave a heartfelt standing ovation after the first line of Obama (1).