posted September 21, 2006 03:20 PM            

Leading Bush critic at home calls Chavez a "thug"


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Sep 21, 12:43 PM (ET)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - One of President George W. Bush's fiercest political opponents at home took his side on Thursday, calling Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez a "thug" for his remark that Bush is like the devil.

"Hugo Chavez fancies himself a modern day Simon Bolivar but all he is an everyday thug," House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said at a news conference, referring to Chavez' comments in a U.N. General Assembly speech on Wednesday.

"Hugo Chavez abused the privilege that he had, speaking at the United Nations," said Pelosi, a frequent Bush critic. "He demeaned himself and he demeaned Venezuela."

Simon Bolivar led the fight for independence against Spanish rule in several South American countries in the early 19th century and is cited by Chavez as a political model.

Chavez, a vociferous critic of Bush and the United States, has allied himself with U.S. opponents Cuba and Iran and has led a resurgence of left-wing populism in Latin America.

"The devil himself is right in the house. And the devil came here yesterday. Right here," Chavez said as he stood at the U.N. podium where Bush spoke the day before.

"It smells of sulfur still today, this table that I am now standing in front of," Chavez said.

His remarks drew applause from many of the delegates.

Bush administration officials have not responded directly to Chavez's remarks.

"I am not going to dignify a comment by the Venezuelan president to the president of the United States. I think it is not becoming for a head of state," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Wednesday.

_______________________________

I am sure, however, that there will be several questionable politicans that will stand up for Chavez and Ahmadinejad, just like there are several people here that probably fell in love with the two US haters for what they said...

------------------
The democratic world believes that it is not the terrorists that are to blame, but us. Us, the westerners.
WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And the sooner you eliminate this misconception from your minds, the better.
We are NOT to blame. It is the freaking terrorists and the freaking terrorists only!!!! They are the bad guys. They do not understand concepts like peace, democracy, and respect for human life. They are, pure and simPle, EVIL!!!!! Behind all their political manipulations, if you carefully look at the actions of these MONSTERS, they are EVIL!!

http://www.mideastweb.org/log/archives/00000489.htm

posted September 21, 2006 04:13 PM            

"But Wednesday's spotlight was Chavez's address to the General Assembly, in which he called Bush "the devil."

After the speech, Chavez reached out to an audience of Americans, saying he sees himself as a friend of the United States. He spoke to hundreds of New Yorkers who filled a college hall Wednesday night, saying he hopes Americans choose an "intelligent president" in the future.

"I'm not an enemy of the United States. I'm a friend of the United States . . . the people of the United States," Chavez said during his speech to an audience including union organizers and professors. "They're two very different things - you the people of the United States, and the government that's installed there."

He drew a standing ovation when he said Bush committed genocide during the war in Iraq.

"The president of the United States should go before an international tribunal," Chavez said as applause filled the hall at The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. He compared the Bush administration's actions to those of the Nazis.

With his bitter and theatrical address to the U.N. earlier Wednesday, the leftist leader, long at odds with Washington, appeared to be making one of his boldest moves yet to coalesce international opposition to the Bush administration. Chavez began Wednesday's speech noting that Bush spoke from the same podium a day earlier.

posted September 21, 2006 04:51 PM            

This leftist clown has forgotten all about 9/11 and the reason US foreign policy changed.

Harkin defends Venezuelan President's U-N speech against Bush
by Darwin Danielson

Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, a democrat, today defended Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's United Nations speech in which Chavez called President George Bush the devil. Harkin said the comments were "incendiary", then went on to say, "Let me put it this way, I can understand the frustration, ah, and the anger of certain people around the world because of George Bush's policies." Harkin continued what has been frequent criticism of the president's foreign policy.

Harkin says Bush came to office saying he wanted a new humility in foreign policy in reaching out to other countries, but Harkin says Bush's actual policy has been heavy handed. Harkin says the anger against Bush is generated from the Iraq war, which Harkin says was "unnecessary."

posted September 21, 2006 05:02 PM            

How can they, with good conscious, think it is appropriate to accept gifts from this man? First off, I don't even believe his offer is true about the lower cost for oil for low income people. He can't even take care of his own people- yet the idiots here salivate at his pseudo promise to help their plight as well as they believe his statement that he is a friend of "the US".

posted September 21, 2006 05:17 PM            

But, it's serving a purpose. The rest of America is getting a good long look at these people and what they stand for.

posted September 24, 2006 12:40 AM              

by Elliot D. Cohen, Ph.D

Submitted by BuzzFlash on Sat, 09/23/2006 - 6:57am

In his famous essay, "On Liberty," John Stuart Mill made plain the danger of censoring the opinions of others.

"The peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion," he said, "is that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it.

If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error."

In our democracy, freedom of speech also means the right of Neo-Nazis, Ku Klux Klan, and other hate groups to express their views.

The point is not that these groups speak the truth and are therefore entitled to speak openly.

Rather, we tolerate the expression of these views because the danger of silencing the opinions of others with whom society or government disagrees means that any view -- no matter HOW credible -- may end up on the chopping block.

As Mill also recognized, the danger of being cocksure of oneself is that one takes no pains to subject one's views to the court of public opinion.

Witness the recent remarks of Donald Rumsfeld in which he likens those who disagree with the Bush administration's stand on the Iraq war to Nazi supporters.

And witness the President's own recent accusation that a media that questions his Iraq policy is aiding the terrorists -- and thus by implication is on their side.

In a true democracy, the formidable power of the state should be checked by an almost absolute right of political free speech -- so long, said Mill, as the speech in question does not place anyone in imminent danger.

It is therefore ironic that some of the most ardent opponents of the Bush administration have elected to place themselves on the very side of the government regime they so ardently oppose.

I am referring here to Democrats such as Nancy Pelosi and Charlie Rangel.

In addressing the United Nations, Hugo Chavez made no bones about his scorn for the President of the United States when he referred to him as "The Devil."

No term of endearment, this gesture of ill-will is likely to prove abundantly less "incendiary" and dangerous than the President's own demonizing denouncement of entire nations as members of "The Axis of Evil."

Just how incendiary the President's remark is perceived to be obviously depends on what side of the axis you are on.

The point is not that this damning rating of nations such as Iraq, Iran, and North Korea (and more pointedly, of their leaders) was degrading, provocative, and foolish -- it was all that.

The point is rather that ours is supposed to be a nation that embraces freedom of speech, and if a President is entitled to indiscretions without censor, then, lest we face the fact that we live under a totalitarian regime, so too are others so entitled.

About Chavez's remark, Nancy Pelosi stated, "Hugo Chavez abused the privilege that he had, speaking at the United Nations;" and Charlie Rangel stated, "You do not come into my country, my congressional district, and you do not condemn my president."

He told Chavez that he shouldn't "think that Americans do not feel offended when you offend our Chief of State."

For such "champions of democracy" to gloss over the distinction between indiscretion and offensiveness, on the one hand, and the right to free speech on the other, is not unlike a President who condemns the media for disagreeing with his war policy.

The fact that Chavez's remark came in the form of a personal attack is irrelevant from the perspective of freedom of speech.

In a democracy no federal government authority -- Democrat or Republican -- has the right to hold itself out as the arbiter of what etiquette freedom of speech MUST embrace.

In the United States, there are civil courts that exist for such purposes.

If Chavez or anyone else who rightfully has the bully pulpit wants to get up in front of a distinguished body of statesmen or a crowd at a rock concert and proclaim the President of the United States a devil, that is surely their prerogative.

If the speaker demeans himself or his nation -- as Pelosi said of Chavez -- that is clearly the speaker's problem.

It is the nation's problem only if this indiscretion is censored.

From Mill's perspective, we are then prevented from "the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error."

To be credible......Democrats like Pelosi and Rangel.....need to stand firm against a government that likens those who dissent to its policies to Nazis and terrorists.

In order to do so, they need to stand firm for freedom of speech.

The main issue was not that Chavez was right or wrong; discrete or indiscrete.

The important point is that he was exercising free speech -- and they (all of us) should support the right to do so, even if this means recognizing the right of another (even a foreign leader such as Chavez) to call the President of the United States The Devil.

Elliot D. Cohen is a media ethicist and author of many books and articles on the media and other areas of applied ethics. He is the 2006 first-place recipient of the Project Censored Award for his Buzzflash article, Web of Deceit: How Internet Freedom Got the Federal Ax, and Why Corporate News Censored the Story.

posted September 26, 2006 09:15 PM              

quote:

---

As I said.. can you believe any True AMERICAN would support that?

---

Are you questioning my loyalty to my country, Pid, because of my belief in free speech?

Get this straight!

I AM just as much an American as YOU are, and am highly offended that you would even dare question my loyalty to my country, citizenship being something I revere dearly.

You're walking on some sacred ground here, so please refrain from further impudent discussions regarding my loyalty to my country...

posted September 26, 2006 09:20 PM              

Looks like name calling continues...*sigh*

posted September 26, 2006 09:27 PM            

"acting like a lunatic"

There is quite a difference. Someone may be acting like they had hurt feelings, but they were not hurt. Someone may act happy, but inside they are not.

Based on how you "went" off in your post, another of your mis-managed diatribes- I called it as I saw it "acting like a lunatic".

You will not goad me into a battle - I've already been there done that and I've proven my point.

You keep proving it again and again for me. I am sure you will start another thread about this, maybe even send a post to Randall saying I called you a name. Do what you want- hey maybe you could even do one of your cut and paste numbers to try and make it look more inflammatory than what it is - you're great at that.

Enough with the Martyrdom- I would tell you to grow up and start acting your age and I would also point out your slanderous, bitter, disrespectful remarks to Bush- but you never seem to take ownership for it- blaming yet another conspiracy theory or stating he is not your president.

posted September 26, 2006 09:30 PM              

Stop defending..and do the right thing..
actions speak loud clear..of who and what
you stand for..
if you stand for disrespecting the President..
how do you think that makes you look???

posted September 26, 2006 10:08 PM              

and I still fall..it's so hard..to walk the line..the balance..Earth School is one of the hardest paths..but oh..the senses..and realize the great rewards..from good work!

posted September 27, 2006 02:38 PM            

None of us are Saints Although I come close (JUST KIDDING).. hee hee...

We have all crossed the line and said things we later regret. Life would be boring if we were always perfect all the time

posted September 27, 2006 05:21 PM            

There's a nationwide boycott in progress against Citgo by some groups ticked at Hugo.

I'm sure the Goon Swoon Squad will see that as unfair. After all, Hugo had a right to call Bush Satan.

Before the Goon Swoon Squad gets too far out in front of their coming unfairness crusade, let me remind them, US consumers have a right to exercise decision making authority over where we spend our money.

7-Eleven Drops Citgo as Gas Supplier
NewsMax.com Wires
Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2006

DALLAS -- Convenience store operator 7-Eleven Inc. is dropping Venezuela-backed Citgo as its gasoline supplier at more than 2,100 locations and switching to its own brand of fuel.

The retailer said Wednesday it will purchase fuel from several distributors, including Tower Energy Group of Torrance, California, Sinclair Oil of Salt Lake City, and Houston-based Frontier Oil Corp.

A spokeswoman for Dallas-based 7-Eleven said its 20-year contract with Citgo Petroleum Corp. ends next week. About 2,100 of 7-Eleven's 5,300 U.S. stores sell gasoline.

Citgo is a Houston-based subsidiary of Venezuela's state-owned oil company, and the foreign parent became a public-relations issue for 7-Eleven because of comments by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Chavez has called President George W. Bush "the devil" and an alcoholic. The U.S. government has warned that Chavez is a destabilizing force in Latin America.

7-Eleven spokesman Margaret Chabris said that, "Regardless of politics, we sympathize with many Americans' concern over derogatory comments about our country and its leadership recently made by Venezuela's president Hugo Chavez."

Chabris said 7-Eleven's decision to sell its own brand was based on many factors, including Citgo's decision to stop supplying stations in parts of Texas and other states to focus on retailers closer to its refineries in Corpus Christi, Lake Charles, La., and Lemont, Illinois.

"Certainly Chavez's position and statements over the past year or so didn't tempt us to stay with Citgo," she added.

Citgo officials did not immediately return calls for comment.

Chabris said a boycott of Citgo gasoline would hurt the 4,000 employees of the U.S. subsidiary, who have no connection to Venezuela.

posted September 27, 2006 05:40 PM              

quote:

---

I said what I said, if you took offense that is your problem.

---

posted September 27, 2006 05:59 PM            

As to your desire to keep beating a dead horse- keep it up, you are only proving that you can't let things go.

posted September 27, 2006 11:33 PM              

quote:

---

....... if you can call the president the devil I can question your loyalty

---

You can question my loyalty to bush all you want (which is stupid, because I don't claim any loyalty to him, anyway).......

.....but me calling bush the devil does not make me disloyal to my country.....because you see....

bush is NOT my country....(it's really quite a simple concept - if you think about it)

posted October 08, 2006 08:56 PM            

The rally was on a scale not seen since 2004
Tens of thousands of people have marched through the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, in support of the main opposition candidate, Manuel Rosales.
Mr Rosales will face President Hugo Chavez in December's presidential poll.

The march, which filled the main avenues of the city centre, was the biggest opposition rally Venezuela has seen since early 2004.

Then, protesters made an unsuccessful bid to oust Mr Chavez from power in a recall referendum.

Chance to unite

Young and old took to the streets to throw their weight behind the campaign of Mr Rosales, a middle-class Social Democrat who governs the state of Zulia, on the Colombian border.

Many claimed that they were seeking liberty and democracy and that made Mr Rosales their only option:

Rosales criticised Chavez's policy on Venezuela's oil
"The problem of the opposition is that before we had a lot of candidates and people couldn't make up their minds whom to support," one woman said.

"Right now we have just one candidate and I believe that we have a better shot if we have just one candidate against Chavez."

For some it was simply a day out to enjoy the sunshine, but for most it was a chance to listen to a speech by Mr Rosales, who declared that Venezuela was "at a crossroads".

Mr Rosales condemned what he called the cheque book diplomacy of Mr Chavez, accusing him of giving away Venezuela's oil wealth to foreign powers.

If Mr Rosales can keep up this kind of pressure against his rival, the election results may not necessarily be a foregone conclusion.

But for now, Mr Chavez still enjoys a clear lead in opinion polls because of a sense of loyalty that poor and working-class voters feel towards him.

posted October 08, 2006 10:29 PM              

by Lubna Takruri

WASHINGTON - Hundreds of people called the Bush administration's policies a crime and held up yellow police tape in front of the White House on Thursday amid a nationwide day of protest against the president.

The 500 demonstrators were among many who gathered for similar events in more than 200 cities to protest Bush on issues ranging from global warming to the war in Iraq.

"We are turning the corner in bringing forward a mass movement of resistance to drive out the Bush regime," said organizer Travis Morales with the activist group World Can't Wait.

Some dressed in costume, including a hooded prisoner in an orange jumpsuit, a devilish rendition of President Bush and two grim reapers.

One man wore a red cheerleader outfit with "Radical" emblazoned on the jersey.

The demonstrators held up yellow police tape along a three-block stretch in front of the White House.

Thousands of protesters clogged New York City's streets as they marched from the United Nations headquarters.

Some people lay down in the middle of the street, while others carried signs saying "Expose 9/11" and "This war should be over."

They also handed out fliers reading, "Drive out the Bush regime."

Lydia Sugarman, 82, of Manhattan, said she believed in the power of demonstrating.

"That's how we got our civil rights," she said.

"If we didn't protest we wouldn't be Americans."

White House spokeswoman Nicole Guillemard defended the administration's Iraq policy.

"Our constitution guarantees the right to peacefully express one's views. The men and women in our military are fighting to bring the people of Iraq these same rights and freedoms," she said. "The president believes it is important to stay on the offense in Iraq."

World Can't Wait was founded in 2005 and has organized several marches since then, including a nationwide protest coinciding with Bush's State of the Union address in January, according to the group's Web site.

Supporters listed on the site include Edward Asner, Ed Begley Jr. and Jane Fonda and activists such as the Rev. Jesse Jackson, the Rev. Al Sharpton and Cindy Sheehan.

In Seattle, a person carrying a rifle wrapped in a blanket was among five people arrested.........

......The march through Seattle's streets was peaceful as protesters chanted, waved signs and wore costumes mocking administration officials.

One woman dressed as a pageant queen with a sash that read, "I Miss America."

In Portland, Ore., at least 10 people were detained because they did not follow police instruction to get out of the street during a protest march through downtown.......

An estimated 800 people, mostly college age, chanted "Impeach Bush" and carried signs, including one that read: "We Can't Wait for 2008."

Hundreds marched in Los Angeles, carrying caskets draped in U.S. flags to a federal courthouse, where protesters held a mock marriage of church and state.

In Asheville, N.C., dozens of University of North Carolina students walked out of classes.

In Chicago, thousands of people flooded Michigan Avenue waving anti-Bush signs.

"We are at a defining moment for this country and our people," said World Can't Wait's Rick Strandlof in Reno, Nev.

Copyright © 2006 Associated Press

posted October 09, 2006 01:09 AM            

WORLD CAN'T WAIT

Revolutionary communist movement that stages protests against the Bush administration
Organizes college and high-school students

Founded in June 2005 by Charles Clark Kissinger, a longtime leader of the Revolutionary Communist Party, World Can't Wait (WCW) is a direct action movement seeking to organize "people living in the United States to take responsibility to stop the whole disastrous course led by the Bush administration." The organization asserts that removing President Bush from office "will be like removing a forty-pound tumor from your gut." WCW vows "to send Bush, Cheney and the rest of those fascists packing. ... After that, there are people in 'World Can't Wait' who are working for everything from reforming the Democratic party, to building a 3rd party, to revolution."

On October 13, 2005, WCW organized a protest "encampment" near the White House. Participating activists spent the ensuing twenty days counting down to the "end of the Bush regime." The campers were treated to visits from "national voices of conscience" who had endorsed their efforts. Most prominent among them was anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan. Sunsara Taylor, a WCW organizer, declared that the "encampment is a premonition. Soon, all the pent-up anger and outrage -- of the hundreds of thousands of Black people betrayed during [Hurricane] Katrina, of the millions of women who refuse to give up abortion, of the immigrants who have been demonized and rounded up, of the majority that is fed up with the lies and lies and lies -- will come forward in a movement to drive Bush out."

The WCW movement encourages the harassment and intimidation of those opposed to its agendas. On October 24, 2005, two Los Angeles-based WCW activists infiltrated a West Hollywood appearance by conservative speaker David Horowitz. Professing themselves determined to "shut this fascist down," the activists had to be forcibly restrained and removed from the theater, and later boasted that they had disrupted a "Nazi Rally."

Another target of WCW attacks is Berkeley Law Professor John Yoo, who incurred the organization's wrath after advising the Bush administration that the detainees being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba were not eligible for Geneva Convention protections accorded to prisoners of war. In late October 2005 a number of WCW organizers stormed into Yoo's class, accompanied by student activists outfitted in orange jumpsuits meant to symbolize those worn by detainees in Guantanamo Bay.

A number of college campuses host WCW chapters, and many of the group's activities center on student organizing on both the college and high-school levels - exhorting young people to engage in civil disobedience, distribute political literature, and participate in such activities as "walkouts" and "campus shutdowns."

A key date in WCW history was November 2, 2005. To hasten the coming of its eagerly anticipated communist revolution, the organization designated this date, the one-year mark of President Bush's reelection, a day of "society-wide resistance" in cities and college campuses across the United States. There were small-scale protests in a number of cities -- including New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, San Francisco, Atlanta and Chicago -- aimed at helping to ignite the communist revolution for which WCW organizers candidly agitate. At the San Francisco rally, the festivities began with the reading of a statement from the Revolutionary Communist Party. That was followed by a taped message from convicted cop-killer Mumia Abu Jamal, a supporter of World Can't Wait. Cindy Sheehan also delivered a speech.

A comprehensive list of WCW's individual and organizational endorsers can be viewed on the WCW website. Among the names on the list are: the After Downing Street anti-war coalition, the ANSWER coalition of New York City, Aris Anagnos, Ed Asner, Mumia Abu Jamal, Bill Ayers, Code Pink, Harry Belafonte, Bob Bossie, Ward Churchill, John Conyers, Michael Eric Dyson, Eve Ensler, Jodie Evans, Gloria Steinem, C. Clark Kissinger, Frances Kissling, Martin Sheen, Jane Fonda, the Islamic Circle of North America, Islamic Association of America, Jesse Jackson, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, Michael Lerner, the National Lawyers Guild, Armando Navarro, Not In Our Name, Michael Ratner, Cindy Sheehan, Gore Vidal, Carl Dix of the Revolutionary Communist Party, Alice Walker, Leonard Weinglass, Cornel West, Sean Penn, Harold Pinter, Maxine Waters, Al Sharpton, Susan Sarandon, Progressive Democrats of America, Major Owens, Mark Crispin Miller, and Howard Zinn.***note** The most grubby, greasy, grimy list of communists as could be found in the United States.

Virtually all of the foregoing individuals and groups were signatories to a December 12, 2005, WCW paid advertisement that appeared in The New York Times, accusing the Bush regime of "setting out to radically remake society very quickly, in a fascist way" by "waging a murderous and utterly illegitimate war in Iraq … openly torturing people … moving each day closer to a theocracy, where a narrow and hateful brand of Christian fundamentalism will rule … [and] enforc[ing] a culture of greed, bigotry, intolerance and ignorance." Also signing this advertisement was the radical attorney Lynne Stewart.***Note** Yeah, that Lynne Stewart..the lawyer who aided terrorists by passing messages from the convicted 1993 WTC bomber.

On September 20, 2006, WCW ran another ad in The New York Times, promoting its upcoming October 5 rally "to drive out the Bush regime." Billed as a set of concurrent "protests in cities all across the country," the ad exhorted people to skip work and school that day in order to participate in the demonstrations. The declared aim of the protests was to bring "to a halt" the U.S. government's alleged pursuit of "endless wars," its routine use of "torture," its indifference to the victims of Hurricane Katrina (in 2005), and its quest to transform the United States into a "theocracy."

To fund its various protests and appeals, WCW relies partly on individual contributions and in the main on the Alliance for Global Justice, a Washington D.C.-based 501(c)(3) charity "focused on human, environmental and worker rights"
http://www.discoverthenetwork.org/groupProfile.asp?grpid=7213

posted October 10, 2006 01:11 PM            

We are close to 300 million people in this country yet some people think a few thousand that protest against our President is somehow representative of the whole.

posted October 10, 2006 03:01 PM              

...so let me use block letters and draw pictures for you......

I was pointing out that Hugo Chavez is not the ONLY one who has people protesting against him....

....and nowhere did I state that the few thousand that protested against bush is somehow representative of the whole!!!!!

Where do you come up with this stuff???

posted October 10, 2006 03:14 PM            

Equating a huge protest against a real live dictator to a few thousand people (over a HUGE country like the US) out of 300 million to make a statement is a joke.

So please tell how the posting of people demonstrating against Bush is equal to those showing support for a new candidate in Venezuela since they are tired of being oppressed by a tyrant?

IN fact, your article would have made more sense if it was about people showing up in Support in the U.S for someone running against Bush.

Jwhops article:

"The rally was on a scale not seen since 2004
Tens of thousands of people have marched through the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, in support of the main opposition candidate, Manuel Rosales.
Mr Rosales will face President Hugo Chavez in December's presidential poll."

Rainbows article

"Thousands Nationwide Protest Bush
by Lubna Takruri

WASHINGTON - Hundreds of people called the Bush administration's policies a crime and held up yellow police tape in front of the White House on Thursday amid a nationwide day of protest against the president.

The 500 demonstrators were among many who gathered for similar events in more than 200 cities to protest Bush on issues ranging from global warming to the war in Iraq. "

Yep.. both are so NOT similar LOL....

posted October 10, 2006 03:24 PM              

Look about you, girl!

Our own dictator gives himself more and more POWER every day!!!