I'm Adolph Hitler Und I Approve Zis Message

[Tuckerfan]

And we thought the Clinton/Obama spats were nasty.

Mexico’s top electoral body ordered broadcasters to stop running a controversial TV ad on Monday that compares a firebrand leftist leading a siege of Congress to dictators Hitler and Pinochet.

The TV ad, funded by a Mexican businessman angry at a blockade of Congress by opposition lawmakers trying to derail an oil reform plan, says the antics of protest leader Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador are endangering democracy.

“The complaints committee decided unanimously to order the withdrawal of the spot from today,” a spokesman for the Federal Electoral Institute told Reuters.

Leftists seized Congress podiums on April 10 to block a government proposal to lower barriers to private investment in the oil sector, controlled by the state since 1938. The action has left Congress paralyzed.

“Who shuts congresses? In 1933, Adolf Hitler in Germany. In 1939, Benito Mussolini in Italy. In 1973, Augusto Pinochet of Chile,” the ad says, over grainy footage of the Nazi leader, his fascist ally in Italy and Chile’s late military dictator.

And we better hope that Pemex (which is what inspired the ad) get’s its act together.

Mexico’s state-run oil company said Monday that oil production fell 7.8 percent to 2.91 million barrels a day in the first quarter as current reserves dwindle.

Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, has struggled with falling reserves, especially at its main Cantarell oil field, and lacks the money and expertise to launch new drilling projects. Pemex only has enough proven oil reserves to last nine years at current production rates.

President Felipe Calderon this month proposed an energy reform that would allow more private and foreign investment to jump-start new projects, but opponents argue the bill is a veiled attempt to privatize the industry, which they consider a symbol of national sovereignty.