Topic: Who is your favourite dictator, one living and one from history?

[kaceyf2]

From events in Egypt, Yemen, Libya, etc, it would appear that the role of (openly) being a dictator might be coming to an end. It is to this end that I thought it may be prudent to have a discussion over who everyones favourite dictators are and have been.   There are a lot to choose from,but I thought it may be best to vote for one living and one dead from history. The alternative would be to put them all in one bag, and that would be unfair on the living ones to be compared against the dead ones, because the living ones may still do a really massive dictatoral thing in the future , whereas the dead ones deeds are all done and dusted....
So , who will it be in the land of the living, Gaddaffi maybe...good choice, and he may yet go on to further heights.
Maybe Castro? (he went down in my personal list of top ten dictators when he allowed guantanamo on his land, he must have took a backhander, which is usual for dictators I admit, but consorting with the enemy?)
Anyways, from history what about a tasty Roman Empire Dictator...Calligua maybe, sex with mother sex with sister, kills mother etc, makes himself a god, makes his horse a senator..etc.
Or polpot, changes Time itself with the year zero thing... an excellent and brave choice (not for the faint hearted) 
How about Idi Amin, anyone remember him?  Or even Robert Mugabe, a classic african chief type dictator from a long family tradition of dictating.
maybe you will play safe and go for Franco, Napolean, or even Hitler, a very strong choice in a kinky uniform. A vote for Oliver Cromwell (a tricksy little dictator with a worse haircut than hitler) might be in order, he hated fun of any kind, no parties, no music and no loose ladies....
Then there are the dictators of the "new holy roman empire" The popes of course who dictated in their own special way.. remember the inquisition? And the Bourgias (Rodrigo) pope? (special pope name "Alexandria the sixth")
Some may take a more "modernist" tack and vote for Margeret thatcher or condelina rice, thats Okay too.
(allthough some may say that technically Condelina isnt a true dictator, Intent is paramount .)
Anyways, theres just a few to get the ball rolling..........
over to you.

[myhondas]

king george III and barack obama
both will force the citizens into rebellion

[boatsdickson]

Well yu beat me to the punch. Mite as well get my votes in before this becomes a locked topic.

Past: Adolf 'one nut' Hitler
Present: The current dark man in Washingtons white house - boats

[kaceyf2]

oh it shouldn't get locked surely its only for fun!!!  King George 111 eh? very good choice..one of "ours" from the UK complete nutjob, BUT,he did have to give up dictating though through a small case of total insanity which saw the prince (prinny) regent in.... But not before "no taxation without representation" had happened and folk had dumped their tbags into the briny. 
 And Hitler, a very safe choice ...for favourite dictator, and as dictators go maybe an extra prize for kinkiest uniform.... (especially if worn by ladies but thats off topic a little...)
I am not entirely sure if Obama qualifies as a dictator just yet, maybe here in the Uk we just have not heard about his skills as a master dictator? Could he be so craftily cunningly dictating away in an underhand manner  that folk in the UK have failed to notice his dictatorial abilities???  maybe his "best" is yet to come and he will turn out to be as good at dictating as mussolini was? 

[BeSeeingYou]

If Obama was a dictator he would have made John Bohner really cry by stripping him of his tanning privileges, forced Newt Gingrich to share a one bedroom apartment with all his ex wives, and made Mitt Romney own up to the fact that he is actually the one who invented ObamaCare when he was governor of Taxachusetts.

For living ya gotta hand it to Fidel Castro.  He has outlasted 10 U.S. Presidents so far and he was a hell of a baseball player in his youth. And his crappy little country has been like a thumb up Uncle Sam's anus for the last 52 years.

For dead, Stalin would be my pick.  Those purges were so bloody and unpredictable and he did wonderful things with curtains (iron that is).  He was short too so you know he was compensating.

Honorable mentions:

For sheer lunacy and weird hair there is of course Kim Jong il.

Dick Cheney did have the potential for becoming the world's first cyborg dictator but he blew it when he started hanging around with some guy named Scooter while they both fantasized about yellow cakes and a chick named Valerie.

[kaceyf2]

Srust58, excellent choices there , and a wonderfull contribution to this poll/thread. Thank you. wonderfuuly informed choices of dictators too...  This whole thing came up about a week ago when me and my son discussed our "favourite" dictators, and whilst we had favourites, I was unsure just how far this might extend into the wider community..fears allayed now.. I particularly am endebted to you for the wonderfull pictures you added and the time and trouble you went to.. are these genuine pics or where they done in "dictator-shop" (like photo-shop but more hardcore) lol.  Kim Jongs hair is indeed worthy of further study, and I am finding it hard now to asses his dictatorial-ness without being unduly influenced by said hair. Could this be a way of "spotting" up and coming future dictators, by their hair...mmmm.
You have made me want something,
something that I had never wanted before,
something that I never knew existed before,
IS there a Baseball card depicting Fidel Castro in his team colours??  I really hope so.

[BeSeeingYou]

I just grabbed the photos off Wiki or where ever I found them.  As far as Castro goes, local legend has it that our baseball team, the Minnesota Twins who were known as the Washington(DC) Senators back in the 1950's, had a minor league affiliate in pre-revolution Cuba.  They had either signed or at least tried out a promising young pitcher named Fidel Castro.  How would history have changed if his fastball had a bit more velocity?

The question has to be asked.  Can you take someone seriously with such silly hair?

Looks like Gaddaffi could be the next ex, and if not careful, the next dead dictator.

[kaceyf2]

It seems that Gaddaffi has just made a last minite bid for "dictator of the month" by bombing his own people and legging it.....? The stupid sun newspaper stated "gaddaffi, age 68 blah blah.." but how they know how old he is beggers belief as Gaddaffi himself doesn't know!