Is it possible that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's antics are really just a cry for attention? Having started his own talk show "Alo Presidente" and now a cable TV network, Telesur (aka La Jazeera or al-Chavista) maybe Chavez is really just a failed media personality who had to takeover his government to make it to the top. (History repeating itself as a farce.)

If Hugo wants attention he has finally gotten it - he was just ridiculed on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. The Daily Show, a fake news show that regularly beats the real news shows in the ratings, has become a cultural barometer. The apolitical and apathetic watch it, insiders watch it, even my parents tried it.*

For people who live and breathe this stuff, Hugo's dangerous antics are old news. But now, perhaps a wider audience will learn about him. Could it galvanize the U.S. into action defending human rights and liberty in Venezuela. Probably not - but it is at least a small step towards the U.S. paying attention to dangerous developments in this hemisphere.

* Personally, I am grateful for The Daily Show, it makes treadmill time a joy. Besides Hugo, this episode featured Stewart skewering NARAL for its ads implying that Supreme Court nominee John Roberts had defended abortion clinic bomber Eric Rudolph. Roberts had filed a brief on a specific civil rights issue relating to the pro-life movement in 1991, several years before Rudolph began his bombing spree. Stewart generally leans to the left - but he readily pings dopes in every shade of the political spectrum. Tonight also included a Tish B'av reference (the saddest day in the Jewish year.) Televised references to this day on mainstream television are rare - and this was probably the only one that was funny, ever.