Is it safer to walk around in Baghdad than it is in Caracas? Hugo Chávez's socialist "sea of happiness" resembles a war zone.

…which nation shows average civilian deaths at 33 a day in the last third of 2007?

asks Investor's Business Daily.

Now name the one where civilian deaths average 19 a day? If you guessed Iraq and Venezuela, you'd have it backward.

…This is Hugo Chavez's Venezuela, the place wildly praised by Hollywood eminentos like Oliver Stone and Sean Penn, and its crime is so bad it tops that seen in actual warfare.

People like Stone and Penn frequently criticize the Iraq war effort and its progress toward peace. But not once have we seen any of them express outrage at the slaughter brought to the streets of Venezuela courtesy of Hugo Chavez, a supposed champion of the poor.