Jackson and Chavez

I was frankly surprised at how difficult it was to find any real news on topic. There are a bunch of Venezuelan news cites, but they are a bit scary on the topic.

In any case, Jesse is out playing diplomat again. In the world of crack-pot diplomacy he ranks right up there with Jemma.

"“U.S. and Venezuela must be good neighbors,"” said Jackson, pointing out how important commercial relations are for the two countries and how geographically close they are to each other. "“I hope there would be a detente on hostile rhetoric. We need each other,"” added Jackson.

“I would hope the talk of isolation, name-calling, hostile rhetoric, threats of assassination and kidnapping give way to aggressive diplomacy."” "“I hope that weÂ’ve done something to facilitate a detente on threatening rhetoric," Jackson said. "We're not going to have an oil war."

Makes you wonder what Jackson actually thinks on the governments support of Robertson's moronic statement? He's even come out asking the president to condemn Robertson's statement. That is a nice sentiment, but should a sitting president have to condemn any foolish statement that is stated by a citizen? I don't think so.

Not to mention the official denials related to use of assassination.

The United States quickly distanced itself from the comments, calling Robertson a private citizen who does not speak for the administration. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld added that assassination is illegal and not a policy of the United States.

Well, assassination may be sort of illegal, unless you are using cruise missiles. I'd say that illegality isn't based on legislation, but upon an Executive Order (11095 later continued by Reagan as 12333) put out by Gerald Ford. I've seen a couple of web-sites stating that Bush rescinded that EO, but I can't find any real evidence of an EO that he issued saying such.

In any case, Jackson has been playing the old "can't we all play nice" horn again. It of course lets Chavez get in the injured party rhetoric.

Chavez emphasized that his government was interested in having good relations with the U.S. and pointed out that during the Clinton administration relations were "“very cordial, normal, and constructive,"” even though many of the same differences existed between the two countries. "“We never lose hope that we'll regain a good tone with Mr. BushÂ’s government," said Chavez.

Just makes your heart bleed doesn't it? Too bad his actions with respect to the US don't prove out his desire for cordiality. Don't forget the expulsion of the DEA agents who were "spies."

They also got in their offer to "assist" the poor in the US.

Jackson also spoke about Chavez's offer to provide discounted oil and perhaps gasoline to low-income communities in the U.S. Jackson called the proposal a "“good idea,"” whose details still needed to be fleshed-out. Jackson also pointed out that there is a program in the U.S. to provide assistance to low-income families for heating oil, known as the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP).

That's wonderful, just as long as it remains an NGO and has no official sanction by the US government. You think that can happen? I don't. Chavez wants the program to be utilized and sanctioned by the US government for a propaganda device in Latin America. It would be typical of his actions to date.

Well, I suppose Jackson needs to get out into the world once in a while to make sure he can appear to be a major political entity in the US.