Saudi King Abdullah has died

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CIA should have found and groomed a general in the Saudi military and then enabled him to stage a coup when Abdullah finally croaked: someone who would let us keep our bases there but also crack down ruthlessly on Saudis funding radical Wahabism and terrorist groups and initiate a campaign to do away with the Sharia and codify rights for women, non-Muslims and other marginalized groups.

This is about as realistic a scenario as imposing a Saudi prince as Texas governor,  to ensure oil dominance of the Saudi Texas for generations to come.

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Interestingly, two of Abdullah's Crown Princes predeceased him (Sultan and Nayef).

The more appropriate word than "interestingly" would be "naturally".

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3 We can't get rid of "In God We Trust" on our coins, there's no chance of getting rid of Sharia in Saudi Arabia. Only of a more moderate interpretation.

Anybody, who is talking about "getting rid of sharia in Saudi Arabia" demonstrates such complete lack of understanding of the words "sharia", "Saudi" and "Arabia" - as well as of every single word possibly relating to those - that a serious discussion is simply impossible.

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Nayef's son Mohammed (55) appointed deputy crown prince.

That is huge! Finally, the next generation - in, I guess, another 20 years or so.

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Venezuela could have done better than Chavez.

Chavez was probably better than most if not all of his predecessors. I'm no fan of his, but we have to recognize that his rise was made possible by the failings of the established political class.

He was not. Not that all recent Venezuelan presidents were nice men, but the standard you set (being less bad - i.e., less damaging to Venezuela - than Chavez) is VERY low. And, then, in any case, there were some truly interesting characters

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%B3mulo_Betancourt

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Comparing U.S. responses to the deaths of Abdullah and Hugo Chavez.

Indeed, it is disgusting that no mention was made of the horrible abuses committed by either dictator.

Chavez was many things, but hardly a dictator.

Have to agree.

In fact, neither was Abdullah. He was a king - in the most traditional sense of that word. You could call him a despot, I guess

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This thread reminds me about how happy I still am about Chavez going to the great shantytown in the sky.

Why? Besides everything else, do you REALLY prefer Maduro?