24 August 2005

Pat Robertson: stooge

Funny how when prominent people say really stupid things, the first line of defense is always to blame the media for misquoting them.

In the case of American televangelist, erstwhile Republican presidential candidate and typical fruitcake, he was quoted accurately by Associated Press and everyone else who has listened to his comments on Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez.

Here's the CNN story, which includes a link to the video of Robertson.

Robertson thinks that Chavez is such a threat to American interest that the American government should "take him [Chavez] out." Both the words themselves and the context in which they are made make it clear that Robertson is talking about assassination.



Now here's the funky thing about Robertson's comments: there isn't a shred of evidence that Chavez is doing anything vaguely like planning to export "communism" and "Islamic terrorism".

Nope. The only thing Chavez has been doing is supporting Castro and thereby extending Venezuelan influence in a little country that people like Robertson think is their personal property. In other words, it's an old fashioned power issue with people like Robertson misleading people right and right. (Robertson could never do anything left and right.)

The other thing that Robertson is likely looking at is Venezuela's large oil stocks. With people across the United States paying high prices for gasoline, it's pretty easy for a demagogue like Robertson to find a scapegoat in Chavez.

Irony in all this is that only a short while ago, the supposed Christian Robertson was advocating dropping a nuclear bomb in the middle of Washington and at the same time claiming that the Quran advocated violence.

Apparently Robertson never heard of the part of the Bible that maps out a set of simple rules to live by.

They are called the 10 Commandments.

Robertson might want to check out the one prohibiting murder and killing.