Robertson's Call for Chavez Assassination

[apothecary]

WASHINGTON -- Televangelist Pat Robertson's call for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez provoked a storm of criticism today, triggering condemnation from his fellow religious leaders and international outrage, while the Bush administration said he was a "private citizen" whose remarks were "inappropriate."

Robertson remained publicly silent during the furor, in which he was criticized across the political spectrum in the United States by former Republican presidential nominee Bob Dole as well as several liberal Democratic members of Congress and the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

The head of the National Assn. of Evangelicals said Robertson was endangering the lives of Christians in Venezuela.

Robertson, the founder of the Christian Coalition of America, was a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 1988. His conservative Christian fans tune in to his 700 Club television show daily.

On Monday's program, Robertson said that the Venezuelan leader would make his nation "a launching pad for communist infiltration and Muslim extremism all over the continent."

Killing Chavez, an ally of Cuban leader Fidel Castro, would be "a whole lot cheaper than starting a war," Robertson said.

In Venezuela, Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel said today that Robertson's remarks were "terrorist statements." He condemned them as incitement to commit murder, and called on U.S. officials to make clear that the law applies "even to such Christians."

Speaking at a news conference in Caracas, Rangel said, "The ball is in the U.S. court after this criminal statement by a citizen of that country. 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."

Robertson's remarks caught the deep tensions that have existed between the Chavez and Bush administrations, as Chavez seeks to maintain his political foundation with open hostility toward the United States. The U.S. government, wary of Chavez, nevertheless looks to Venezuela as a reliable supplier of oil.

The scope of Robertson's influence drew considerable debate. His syndicated television program, which had only recently been described as reaching an audience of at least a million, has drawn an average audience of 863,000 a day during the 2004-2005 television season, according to Nielsen Media Research.

His political reach was at an apex in the 1988 presidential campaign.

However, a leading national evangelical figure said Robertson's influence among evangelicals in the United States had ebbed.

"He's an old man and there's a group of old women and old men who watch him," said this leader, who asked to remain anonymous because he said he respected Robertson's past ministry and also did not want to alienate Robertson's followers. "The spokespeople for evangelicalism are significantly distanced from him politically and spiritually. The Moral Majority days are long gone. It's a different world."

Robertson's office did not respond to a telephone call and e-mail message seeking comment.

[Agamemnon]

Yes just reinforces the fact that the US is the biggest terrorist nation on earth with a 19th century gunboat diplomacy mindset, armed with nuclear weapons...what a delightful recipe for world peace and harmony...NOT!!! :mad:

[Torsten]

I think it's ironic how these christians ramble on about jihad being the basis of Islam, and that it needs to be destroyed because of it, even though they themselves are constantly on crusades.

Is assassinating people the christian way?

[Heywood_Jablowme]

Perhaps the good reverend has some oil or health insurance holdings.

Chavez offers cheap gas to needy Americans

Reuters News Service

HAVANA - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, popular with the poor at home, offered Tuesday to help needy Americans with cheap supplies of gasoline.

"We want to sell gasoline and heating fuel directly to poor communities in the United States," the populist leader said at the end of a visit to Cuba.

Chavez did not say how Venezuela would go about providing gasoline to poor communities. The Venezuelan state oil company, PDVSA, owns Citgo, which has 14,000 gas stations in the United States.

The offer may sound attractive to Americans feeling pinched by soaring prices at the pump but not to the U.S. government, which sees Chavez as a left-wing troublemaker in Latin America.

Chavez said Venezuela could supply gasoline to Americans at half the price they now pay if intermediaries who "speculated ... and exploited consumers" were cut out.

Chavez and Cuban President Fidel Castro also offered to give poor Americans free health care and train doctors free of charge.

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/printstory.mpl...l/world/3322759

Most likely, Robertson is testing the waters for the neocons/evangelists Republicunt lobbies, in the guise of a "useful idiot".

"Useful idiot"

In political jargon, the term "useful idiot" was used during the Cold War by certain anticommunists to describe communists in western countries (particularly in the United States). The implication of the insult was that the communist in question was naïve, and that he or she was being cynically used by the Soviet Union or another Communist state, thus unwittingly being a traitor to his or her home country.

The term is sometimes claimed to have been coined by Vladimir Lenin to describe those western reporters and travellers who would endorse the Soviet Union and its policies in the West. This story is apocryphal, since no reference to a communist being called a "useful idiot" was made in the United States until 1948, and not until decades later would the attempts to attribute the phrase to Lenin be made. Lenin never wrote it in any published document, no one has ever claimed to have heard him say it, and it also contradicts almost every document Lenin wrote and every speech he made in reference to the Comintern.

[-YT-]

"Is assassinating people the christian way?"

I think the real Question here is WWJD

[devance]

I know he had some african diamond creek explorations, but that means nothing as he could have had good motivations.

But such statements he made is not what the christian bible would say.

Communism is simply a extreme and primitive idiological response to the the captalistic/historical facts.

I don't believe its a better system but then again I haven't been shown by vivisting the benefits which would be under the careul direction of communist security people which we all know and love for their tolerance.

Democracy has another benefit as in not being less afraid of the government.

[woof woof woof]

OhhhhhhwwwwwwwGAAAAAAAAWWWWwd??!! Shit, if the heat ever turns up - I will be smack in the middle of it!

OhWell on the lighter side of it,.... then I will open a HookerBar and sell drugs for profit to the Americano gringos! he eh eh :D

[devance]

Brian

As in Casa Blanca with Humphrey Bogart a well run casino would fit the bill for a rich and funfilled time.

Just need a permit.

And some banking connections.