Venezualian prez calling Bush "The Devil"

Nobody cares. Tell that to your friends, who might appreciate it.

Seriously, I don't care if politics are thrown into ANYTHING, so long as the idea is in some way profound. This, pardon me for saying, is puerile.

"Protect terrorists when we want to."

*cough cough taliban cough*

Me, I think it's annother no-name-until-now politician trying to get attencion

Then you're goddam ignorant, no two ways about it. Chavez is not a "no name" politician, you just have no idea what you're talking about.

trick people into thinking he's a threat

I'm not even going to begin here, other than to say if you think that Bush is good president (and note: I'm not saying that you DID say that. You might think that both Bush and Chavez are terrible. But it comes off as you being slightly pro-Bush) then you need to check into a mental health clinic.

I find it immature. Alot of politians have grown immature recently.

Is art not appreciated here?


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There is an open seat for teh U.N. security council that is earmarked to represent Latin/South America. The two contenders are Guatamala and Venezuela. For obvious reasons, the U.S. and Europe are not backing Venezuela. The Economist just did a big article about it, and they point out that Chavez may be trying to feed off of anti-american sentiment in order to gain votes for the seat (they site also his massive gifts to other countries in the region, including an offer for a $300 million roadway to Jamaica, even though his country has a poverty rate of over 30%, despite record oil export profits). All this info (and more!) can be found in the September 30th- October 6th issue of The Economist.

It's our CIA making a mess for him that's got him pissed off. I can't blame him. He's just pointing out the obvious. I love how our press has begun painting him up so that in a few years we'll be able to invade them. (remind you that the people there love him)

I'm sure all the idiots will be out waving thier flags and goose-steping all the way.

Well gallagher, thats not quite true. One of my co-workers is from Venezuela, he has fond memories of sitting on the roof of his house with an AK-47 because Hugo's thugs were wandering around taking whatever they could from anyone who couldnt protect themselves.

Chavez is far from loved in his own country. In fact good 'ol Hugo has a habbit of demolishing roads to prevent public transportation whenever a protest is planned. It tends to keep local populations in place, and prevents people from easily massing.

With his interst of late in buying Soviet hardware and gaining a liscence to build native Aks on top of his anti-Bush rehtoric (please dont attempt to read into my own political opinions) Chavez is lucky that all the CIA is doing is "making a mess for him"

I think Gallagher that if you were to examine facts and then draw conlusions you may get some very different perspectives than if you drew conclusions and then tried to find facts to back them up.

Bush isn't a good president. But he's a hell of a lot better then Chavez.

The comments were immature.

Well I'm not religious so I don't think that "Devil" is the right word. But it is perfectly true that the US has supported and protected people who by any reasonable definition of the word are terrorists.

Including Osama bin laden....

Chavez is a Communist. Communism doesn't work. Bush is certainly an Ass, but for a foreign leader to come to the US and immaturely call the Prez (like him or not) is an insult.
New York City should reclaim that property (the U.N.) and trun it into more high-priced condos!
Move the UN to Switzerland, I say.

No matter what your political orientation, you can't really dispute the fact that the US is now reaping what it has sewn in south america (especially here, america's "back yard"), afghanistan (taliban) and the middle east (israel perhaps... but more importantly the support it gave to iraq and saudi).

Chavez is God compared to Bush, whether we like him or not. His ideas are groundbreaking in that he actually tries to help the poor. Last winter when low income people in the northeast couldn't afford to pay their heating bills, our own government had the audacity to publicly ask the oil giants to lend a hand. Only one company sent aid, Citgo, aka Venezuela. Did Chavez sieze property and goods, probably. But I think the bigger picture was to take from the uber rich and give back to the needy, something the rich and politically inspired (they are both one in the same btw) in this country care nothing about. Our country is all about how much can I get for myself while depriving everyone else of opportunity. As far as Bush, he is no leader, he is not intelligent (except maybe like a fox), and he isn't in touch with reality. Neither are any of his ex CIA goons like Rumsfeld and Cheney.

Chavez a communist?? That´s a good one! It´s funny when someone is not a right wing capitalist is a comunnist or anti-market...

I won't claim to know much about politics but Chavez calling Bush the devil is not all that surprising to me. Unpopular, incompetent, threatened and/or dictatorial leaders often suffer from an unrulier populace which hampers their efforts to follow their agenda. It is common practice for those people to create a foreign threat since that forms a feeling of unity on the domestic front. Even if the populace doesn't like their leader, they will often support him/her just because they feel they should. If you balance that with the correct level of oppression you're in the zone.

Chavez's remarks could be viewed as such. He isn't popular in his own country and he doesn't make a lot of progress on his election promises (or so I hear). By turning the US into an enemy and creating an atmosphere of fear, he can convince his underlings to support him. I'm not saying that's why he is doing that or even whether he is doing a good or bad job (I just don't know) but it could be an explanation.

Chavez, however, wouldn't be the only one doing this. North Korea and Iraq used similar techniques, and ironically, the US have used it as well at times. I would guess that the possibility of such a thing occurring is linked to the power the central government can exhert on for example the media.

Chavez is God compared to Bush, whether we like him or not. His ideas are groundbreaking in that he actually tries to help the poor.

Chavez has oil money. In a macroeconomic sense (or GC2 sense) money is power. We have handed him his power by buying oil, as we have handed power to Irag, Iran and the rest of the Middle East while making our own oil reserves off-limits for environmental reasons. Until we can find another power source we will be listening to third world jackasses who have oil money filling their pockets.

Say what you want about Bush, or Clinton, or Nixon, or FDR, or how we treat our poor, or healthcare, etc. The rest of the world is literally risking their lives to get here, and I don't see any families in Florida building rafts to paddle to Cuba. We do many things wrong, but we do a whole lot more right. I'm glad to be living here - if only for the entertainment our political system provides!

Chavez is a Communist. Communism doesn't work.

Chavez is a Socialist. Its different. And whether he is truly a socialist, or another authoritarian dictator using an "extreme left" government as a guise for his regime (aka China & USSR) is yet to be seen. He *has* started many initiatives to help his country's poverty, to prevent starvation, to raise the standard of living, etc.

I for one have an open mind, and would like to give this radically different President's methods a chance... it could be that the ends will justify the means, and he will be vindicated. Or it could be that he ends up just another two-bit dictator only concerned with himself, his citizens be damned.

In any case, America definately supported Saddam Hussein in the 80s and the Taliban during the Cold War. We have helped terrorists when it suited us, plain and simple. Furthermore, based on how America likes to meddle, I could see that people from the Third World would consider us evil and our leader "the devil".

Certainly seems like a reasonable viewpoint when you look at things from someone else's perspective, but that might be too hard for those Americans who have never been to a third world country and seen *real* poverty first hand... poverty that isn't helped out with welfare checks, people who can't turn on a faucet and get clean water, or apply with their government to find subsidized housing.

All I'm saying is that I'm personally not offended or upset; I think that based on America's track record, and on the flimsy reasons of our "preemptive" Iraq war, his attack on our President is at least understandable.

It is common practice for those people to create a foreign threat since that forms a feeling of unity on the domestic front.

Doesn't this describe what Bush and his cronies have done? Wow, I mean your comment was dead on with relativity to our own situation here at home! Think about that one for a minute.

If you don't like it in the US then move. One less idiots freedom of speech I have to protect.

Nowhere wants americans tho... there is no reverse brain drain

Unpopular, incompetent, threatened and/or dictatorial leaders often suffer from an unrulier populace which hampers their efforts to follow their agenda. It is common practice for those people to create a foreign threat since that forms a feeling of unity on the domestic front. Even if the populace doesn't like their leader, they will often support him/her just because they feel they should. If you balance that with the correct level of oppression you're in the zone.

Hmmm...does this sound familiar to anyone?

Amen Fuel Chief... Amen.

If you think Chavez is a good leader, feel free to fly down and become part of Venezuela. If you don't like America or the leader the American people voted in - why don't you be part of the next wave of immigration, and strap some stryo-foam to your front door - throw the kids and wife on it, and head to cuba. I'm sure ol'Castro will welcome you with open arms. Yep- Face it if you want a better life, your not going to get that in America anymore. We are washed up- stick a fork in it ma, and tie a ribbon around the tree because its all over. But hey, Cuba, Venezuela, Iran, North Korea, China- they'll be more then happy to take you and give you the better life you long for

The sooner we can start thining out these American whiners, the sooner we can get back to being the rightful lone World Superpower and not feel guilty about it.

If you don't like it in the US then move. One less idiots freedom of speech I have to protect.

Another intelligent response as expected. Ahhh, I can count on those to show their true intellect whenever there is an interesting post. Gotta love this forum.

(Citizen)PolarpawnOctober 5, 2006 14:23:44Reply #21Amen Fuel Chief... Amen. If you think Chavez is a good leader, feel free to fly down and become part of Venezuela. If you don't like America or the leader the American people voted in - why don't you be part of the next wave of immigration, and strap some stryo-foam to your front door - throw the kids and wife on it, and head to cuba. I'm sure ol'Castro will welcome you with open arms. Yep- Face it if you want a better life, your not going to get that in America anymore. We are washed up- stick a fork in it ma, and tie a ribbon around the tree because its all over. But hey, Cuba, Venezuela, Iran, North Korea, China- they'll be more then happy to take you and give you the better life you long for The sooner we can start thining out these American whiners, the sooner we can get back to being the rightful lone World Superpower and not feel guilty about it.

Ahh the old superpower comment, man that just cracks me up! You won the cold war 20 years ago. Yeah your a superpower! Imagine what your country could actually do for the world instead of spending it on weapons! Its gotten to the point where you create a problem somewhere so you can go fix it with your armed forces. Am I the only one who remembers the old saying "absolute power corrupts absolutely".

I also wouldnt start pointing fingers at other countries regarding quality of life, US has a massive amount of poverty for such a rich country.

The sooner we can start thining out these American whiners, the sooner we can get back to being the rightful lone World Superpower and not feel guilty about it.

If you don't like it in the US then move. One less idiots freedom of speech I have to protect.

I love how some people think that the US government and way of life are perfect... its not, nobody and nothing is perfect as things stand. Am I un-American to question some things that we do? Is it wrong to not agree blindly with everything our government says? Remember, America was founded on men who didn't like the way England was doing things, and they decided that they could do it better. If anything, I'd say that the definitive "American spirit" is the opposite of blindly trusting your leaders and out right dismissing anything that any opposition has to say.

I'm not a Democratic attacking a Republican, or anything like that. I'm just a person exercising his ability to think for himself. Its a shame that "Freedom of Speech" seems to be something that one should be ridiculed for exercising, according to people who follow our government blindly.

Well, there's the thing. What is the US supposed to do? They're in the diplomatic bad books of everyone on the planet, so their armed forces are about all they can use. Liberating Afghanistan and Iraq, regardless of whatever ulterior motives Bush may have had, were both positive actions for the world as a whole and went a long way towards cleaning up the mess they had to make their to win the Cold War.

As far as the original argument goes: I dislike Bush., but only as far as I dislike all American politicians. I approve of the war on terror. I approve of the war in Iraq, but only because of the goal to create a real democracy there. I don't know enough about Chavez to form a significant opinion on him one way or the other. I believe that the anti-American attitutde prevalent in the world today is unfair, and that Chavez's comments are nothing new, and no reason to invade.