SwiftVets.com

[SBD]

[PhantomSgt]

Hopefully someone will give Chavez something for his headache with this Cardinal. Maybe Chavez will get a 9MM aspirin from one of his trusted inner circle.




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Retired AF E-8

Independent that leans right of center.

[SOLTC]

How about a .50 Caliber exorcism?

[PhantomSgt]

Go Pat Robertson!

New York Times

August 23, 2005
Robertson Is Pilloried for Assassination Call
By LAURIE GOODSTEIN

Pat Robertson, the conservative Christian broadcaster, has attracted attention over the years for lambasting everything from feminists and "activist" judges to the United Nations and Disney World.

Now Mr. Robertson has set off an international firestorm with his comments on his television broadcast that the United States should kill Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, a leftist who sits atop the largest oil reserves outside the Middle East.

"If he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it Mr. Robertson said on his program, "The 700 Club" on Monday. "It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war. And I don't think any oil shipments will stop."

Today, Mr. Robertson's statements were denounced by both the State Department and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. In Caracas, Mr. Robertson was criticized by the vice president of Venezuela, and in Cuba, by President Fidel Castro.

Vice President José Vicente Rangel of Venezuela said: "This is a huge hypocrisy to maintain an antiterrorist line and at the same time have such terrorist statements as these made by Christian preacher Pat Robertson coming from the same country." He told reporters, "The ball is in the U.S. court now."

Mr. Rumsfeld dismissed Mr. Robertson's call for Mr. Chávez's assassination, saying to reporters: "Certainly it's against the law. Our department doesn't do that type of thing." He added, "Private citizens say all kinds of things all the time."

Sean McCormack, a State Department spokesman called Mr. Robertson's comments "inappropriate." Mr. Robertson unsuccessfully sought the Republican presidential nomination in 1988. He has often used his television program and the political advocacy group he founded, the Christian Coalition, to drum up support for Mr. Bush.

"Mr. Robertson has been one of the president's staunchest allies," said Bernardo Álvarez, the Venezuelan ambassador to the United States. "His statement demands the strongest condemnation by the White House."

Some of Mr. Robertson's conservative Christian allies distanced themselves from his comments. Rev. Rob Schenck, president of the National Clergy Council in Washington, released a statement calling on Mr. Robertson to "immediately apologize, retract his statement and clarify what the Bible and Christianity teaches about the permissibility of taking human life outside of law."

The Rev. Richard Cizik of the National Association of Evangelicals said in an interview that he and "most evangelical leaders" would disassociate themselves from such "unfortunate and particularly irresponsible" comments.

"It complicates circumstances for foreign missionaries and Christian aid workers overseas who are already perceived, wrongly, especially by leftists and other leaders, as collaborators with U.S. intelligence agencies," he added.

But other conservative Christian organizations remained silent, with leaders at the Traditional Values Coalition, the Family Research Council and the Christian Coalition saying through spokesmen that they were too busy to comment.

A spokeswoman for Pat Robertson said today that he is not giving interviews and had no further comment.

Liberals, however, were not silent. The Rev. Jesse Jackson called for an investigation by the Federal Communications Commission, just as it did when Janet Jackson's breast was exposed during a Superbowl broadcast. "This is even more threatening to hemispheric stability than the flash of a breast on television during a ball game," he said.

One liberal watchdog group, Media Matters for America, sent a letter urging the ABC Family network to stop carrying Mr. Robertson's program. Another group, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, asked President Bush to repudiate Mr. Roberson personally.

The program is broadcast by ABC Family, which agreed to carry it as part of the deal ABC made in 2001 to buy Fox Family Worldwide, which previously aired it.

In a statement today, ABC Family said the network was "contractually obligated to air 'The 700 Club' and has no editorial control over views expressed by the hosts or guests."

It added, "ABC Family strongly rejects the views expressed by Pat Robertson in the Aug. 22 telecast of the program."

Mr. Chávez, who won office in 1998, has become the Bush administration's most vocal antagonist in Latin America, accusing President Bush of terrorism for the war in Iraq and of trying to impoverish developing countries by pushing market reforms for their economies.

Mr. Chávez has often accused the United States of trying to assassinate him. The White House quickly welcomed a coup against Mr. Chávez in April 2002, but the Venezuelan president was returned to power two days later.

Today, Mr. Chávez was visiting Mr. Castro in Havana, where he shrugged off Mr. Robertson's assassination call. But Mr. Castro, standing beside the Venezuelan president, said of Mr. Robertson's remarks, "I think only God can punish crimes of such magnitude."

Mr. Robertson made his comments on his program immediately followed a segment about Venezuela. Speaking live in the studio, Mr. Robertson asserted that Mr. Chávez had "destroyed the Venezuelan economy" and was turning Venezuela into "a launching pad for communist infiltration and Muslim extremism."

"Without question this is a dangerous enemy to our south, controlling a huge pool of oil that could hurt us very badly," Mr. Robertson said. "We have the ability to take him out and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability. We don't need another $200 billion war to get rid of one, you know, strong-arm dictator."

"The 700 Club" has an audience of about one million people, according to Mr. Robertson's Web site.

Mr. Robertson has a history of getting attention for inflammatory remarks. In May, he argued that the threat to the United States from activist judges was "probably more serious than a few bearded terrorists who fly into buildings." In 2003, Mr. Robertson said "maybe we need a very small nuke thrown" at State Department headquarters "to shake things up."

In 1998, he warned that hurricanes and other natural disasters would sweep down on Orlando, Fla., because homosexuals were flocking to Disney World there on special "gay days." And he has often denounced the United Nations as a first step toward a dangerous "one world government."

Juan Forero contributed reporting from Bogotá, Colombia, for this article.


I must agree with Pat we must excise this cancer with a premptive strike before it grows larger.


_________________
Retired AF E-8

Independent that leans right of center.

[I B Squidly]

What a can of worms. Dan Ortega is still alive because we don't need another martyr like Allende.

BTW when Pat Robertson ran for the White House he coughed up a bogus military record.
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"KILL ALL THE LAWYERS!"

-Wlm Shakespeare