The Useful Idiot Overstepped His Bounds This Time

After hearing about Pat Robertson’s idiotic assassination threats against Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Venezuela’s government is—surprise—not especially happy about it.

Pat Robertson's call for American agents to assassinate President Hugo Chavez is a “terrorist” statement that needs to be investigated by U.S. authorities, Venezuela said Tuesday. The Bush administration quickly distanced itself from the religious broadcaster.

Robertson's suggestion Monday that the United States ”take out” Chavez to stop Venezuela from becoming a ”launching pad for communist influence and Muslim extremism” appeared likely to aggravate tensions between the United States and the world's fifth-largest oil exporting country.

[…]

The United States is the top buyer of Venezuelan oil, but Chavez has made it clear he wants to decrease the country's dependence on the U.S. market by finding other buyers.

And he should have no problem with that, since China is industrializing at a rate of something like 15% a year.

By the way, I love how the Bush administration has decided to “quickly” distance itself from Robertson, now that his bullshit might cause an international incident that affects them personally—in their damn pocketbooks. Meanwhile, for years, when he’s been spewing bullshit about Muslims, Hindus, Jews, atheists, liberal Christians, socialists, gays, women, non-whites, etc., they’ve had no problem whatsoever with him. And the sad part is that if he’d said the exact same thing about Jacques Chirac, I don’t think anyone in the White House would be too concerned about it.

Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel said the U.S. response to Robertson would be a test of its anti-terrorist policy and that Venezuela was studying its legal options.

“It's a huge hypocrisy to maintain this discourse against terrorism and at the same time, in the heart of that country, there are entirely terrorist statements like those,” Rangel said.

Heh heh. Mr. Rangel, when you reach the point where such hypocrisies have driven you to the edge of not being able to take it anymore, do what we do in America: start a blog. Just a little tip from me to you, to preserve your sanity.

Winding up a visit to Cuba, Chavez said in response to questions from reporters about Roberston's [sic] remarks that such comments did not matter to him and that he would prefer to “talk about life.”

“I don't even know who that person is,” said Chavez, standing next to Cuban leader Fidel Castro at Havana's airport.

Slam! Good one, Hugo.

Of course, he probably really doesn’t know who that vile imbecile is. Imagine a life never having to know who Pat Robertson is. Or Jerry Falwell. Where “the 700 Club” might mean a collection of 700 model airplane aficionados, for all you know. Oh, bless. I’m moving to Venezuela.