SPECIAL PURCHASE: FREEDOM

Currently there are more than 70 countries in the world that are ruled by dictators.

These despots hold authority over their citizens that is arbitrary and capricious.

They cannot be removed from power in their countries through legal means.

It is beyond the scope and purpose of this post to list all 70+ of them, but I would like to briefly highlight 20 of them.

I will list them alphabetically by country.

There is a point to this, so read on and learn.

Belarus: Aleksandr Lukashenko. Has eliminated democracy and free speech.

Burma: Than Shwe. Known for his use of forced labor.

Cameroon: Paul Biya. Credited with the most creative innovations in phony elections.

China: Hu Jintao. Known for abysmal human rights violations.

Cuba: Fidel Castro (via brother Raul): Has kept Cuba's economy in shreds.

Ethiopia and Eritrea: Isaias Afwerki and Meles Zenawi who teamed up to save their respective countries from Ethiopian dictator, Mengistu Haile Mariam, but who have presided over the killing of tens of thousands of their own people.

Equatorial Guinea: Teodoro Obiang Nguema. This West African millionaire 700 times over keeps his constituents to an average wage of less than $1.00 per day in an on-going family criminal conspiracy.

Iran: Seyed Ali Khamenei. Yeah...we hear about Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but he has little power in the country. Above the elected government in Iran is an unelected 12-man Guardian Council of mullahs, headed by Ayatollah Khamenei.

Laos: Choummaly Sayasone. He heads a stultifyingly dull collective dictatorship.

Libya: Muammar al-Gaddafi. This pseudo peace-nic still runs a brutal dictatorship in which he maintains complete control over all aspects of Libyan life.

North Korea: Kim Jong-il. This clown, a very clever politician, domestically runs the most tightly controlled society in the world.

Pakistan: Pervez Musharraf. This supposed USA ally against Islamist terrorism, believes, "...the country is more important than democracy."

Saudi Arabia: King Abdullah. By law, all Saudi citizens must be Muslims. Abdullah's control over oil is all that keeps US and others from kicking him out...that and appeasement.

Sudan: Omar al-Bashir. Responsible for the killing of hundreds of thousands of people in Darfur and Sudan, which MSM calls a "humanitarian tragedy" instead of the genocide that it is.

Swaziland: King Mswati III. He allowed his country to slide into extreme poverty, with 69% of the Swazi people living on less than $1 a day. Swaziland has the highest HIV/AIDS rate in the world: almost 40%.

Syria: Bashar al-Assad. Has made sure the people of Syria are not free to express their political opinions, much less choose their leaders.

Turkmenistan: Saparmurat Niyazov. What a case! This guy has created the world's most pervasive personality cult, and criticism of any of his policies is considered treason. Among the most bizarre recent examples of his government by whim are his banning of car radios, lip-synching, and the playing of recorded music on TV and at weddings. In 2005, Niyazov also closed all national parks and shut down rural libraries. He has also renamed the month of January after himself and April after his mother.

Uzbekistan: Islam Karimov. In 2005, he ordered the massacre of hundreds of his citizens.

Zimbabwe: Robert Mugabe. Mugabe has overseen the drop in life expectancy in Zimbabwe from sixty-two years to thirty-eight. With each year that has passed, he has turned increasingly dictatorial.

Most of these despots came to power with the promise of the government doing great and new things for the citizens.

With some, the take over was immediate and the results catastrophic.

With others, the situation evolved little-by-"government in control" little.

Their citizens looked forward to CHANGE and faced the future with HOPE.