Free Republic

The always outspoken Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen calls actor Sean Penn "a loser" for his comments after a trip to Venezuela. Guillen also says in the interview with Yahoo! Sports that he'll personally show parts of his native country the Oscar-winning actor may not have toured during a short trip to Venezuela. "This is Venezuela bro," Guillen says about rougher areas of the country he'd show Penn. "This is Venezuela. Not the one they show you."

Public participation, accountability and transparency are keys to honest and efficient government. There are only five levels of executive and legislative levels of government in the American political system - municipal, township, county, state and federal. The principles of accountability and transparency should apply across the board. This means that at every level of government elected officials ought to be held accountable. It is easier said than done. People who are elected to do a job must step forward and do what they promised to do during their campaigns. The public has a major role to play in the process....

There's nothing unusual about a mayor being trailed by a bodyguard -- unless, that is, he needs to be protected from assassins working on behalf of the president of his own country. But then, Leopoldo Lopez of Caracas is not your usual mayor and Hugo Chavez of Venezuela is not your usual president. Lopez -- 36, educated at Harvard's Kennedy School of Public Policy, and mayor of Chacao, one of five municipalities within Caracas -- has emerged as one of the most visible challengers to the increasingly authoritarian Chavez regime. That's a dangerous undertaking. Lopez recounts three assassination attempts --...

Do you remember Hugo Chavez at the United Nations last year? Do you remember what he said? "The devil came here yesterday," Chavez exuded, his voice dripping mock wonder, making the sign of the cross at the podium where Bush had spoken the day before. "Right here, and it smells of sulfur still today." The antics of the Venezuelan strongman were inspired by his being in the well of the General Assembly. The spotlight was on him, and he was going to make the most of it. Now imagine how Chavez would behave were he to stroll out into the...