Ever since Guevara lost his life to violent and involuntary Bolivian lead poisoning in '67, there's been a real paucity of revolutionary poster boys. Desiccated apologist wetboys like Chomsky never did fit the spec; besides, tenure just ain't that sexy. And while the press adore that hot-blooded, espanol rhetoric, Fidel's just too damned old and Raul is capable of doing nothing more than a very silly Fredo Corleone impersonation.

Chavez was a shoo-in. And at 52, he's still young enough to get away with having his own t-shirt franchise.

Let's try some speculation. One day very soon, Castro mistakes his cigarra mucho grande for a hunk of chorizo and chokes to death. Raul gets stage fright, sells the Bay of Pigs to Miami's infamous Rosario Brothers in a billion dollar real estate deal, and retires to Cabo Wabo.

Now, since Chavez currently has Cubans doing everything from his laundry to his security, does he exploit this unique position and fill the vacuum, or does the US finally bite the bullet and make Cuba the 51st state?

Cooper Union is mainly an art school, with a weirdly attached undergraduate engineering program whose students take their more advanced science and humanities courses at NYU. As in all art schools, most of their students are militantly anti-intellectual. What do you expect?

Thanks for posting this. I find it to be deeply disturbing.