Chavez's Halo

Hugo Chavez makes me laugh. This probably goes over really well with the Theocrats.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called President George W. Bush "the devil'' and "world tyrant'' in a speech to the United Nations General Assembly in which he urged the member governments to fight U.S. domination.

"The devil came here yesterday,'' Chavez, 52, said in remarks that included accusations that the U.S. is plotting to overthrow him and that the UN is helpless to combat the threat posed by U.S. power. He said the podium in the General Assembly hall still "smells of sulphur today,'' a reference to what is termed the devil's element in mythology.

World leaders and diplomats in the hall applauded his remarks, which included an appeal to read Noam Chomsky's book, "Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance.'' The U.S. had only a young note-taker in its allotted seats for the appearance by Chavez.

Chavez, whose country is the third-biggest producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, has allied himself with Cuba, Iran and other countries at odds with the U.S. and its superpower status.

"The U.S. is the "greatest threat looking over our planet, placing at risk the very survival of the human species,'' Chavez said. "We appeal to the people of the U.S. to halt this threat, like a sword hanging over our heads.''

And

He said it would take a psychiatrist to analyze Bush's speech to the General Assembly yesterday, and that his ambitions for world domination would make an "Alfred Hitchcock movie'' that he said could be titled "The Devil's Recipe.''

'Sees Extremists'

"Everywhere he looks he sees extremists and you, my brother, he looks at your color and says there is an extremist,'' Chavez said of Bush. "But it is not that we are extremists. The world is waking up and people are standing up.''

Sounds like Hugo is a touch paranoid. Funny that he characterizes Bush as seeing extremists everywhere, but he seems to see US plots against him at every corner. But then, I suppose he's not buying all these new weapons from Russia because he's feeling particularly secure.

Well, at least you can predict that he'll always turn that rhetoric up another notch at the UN.