Are they going to bomb us?

But Hugo is just such a punching bag for some bored folks. Or other reasons.

For that I am thankful. I posted it because the cult of personality that has been built up around Hugo Chavez is not amenable to portraying Hugo as anything but brilliant, ideologically pure, courageous, generous, beneficent, and heroic. There is a large enough contingent of Chavez supporters on DU that these threads more often than not engender a lively discussion on the pros and cons of Herr Hugo, including witty banter, clever catchphrases, and accusations of skullduggery from every direction.

you're just here to insult DU posters and throw shit.

I haven't insulted anyone, nor do I intend to. As for throwing shit, that seems to be a bit of projection on your part given what you assume to be my motive for posting the news article.

I thought the purpose of a discussion forum was to discuss topics of interest? For whatever reason, people tend to have strong feelings about Chavez, either positive or negative. I've found that topics about which people have strong feelings tend to generate the most interesting discussions, hence the reason I posted the article.

The Colombian government would just shoot Capriles in the face and dump him over the Panamanian border. Opposition party? What opposition party?

come up with this??

As do... "auxiliaries" to the government.

But they're our buddy, don'cha know.

over twenty years, and never saw any particular interest on the part of the Colombian government in killing foreign politicians/leaders. Perhaps you could enlighten me?

I'm not saying that Colombia is going to go after Capriles.

I'm saying that Colombia has a history of "liquidating" its own opposition parties and activists.

So while all the hipsters on DU are wringing their hands over how mean and terrible Chavez is for insulting his opposition, the fact is, it's just shit-talk. If Capriles were to be running an opposition campaign in the nation next door, he'd stand a very real chance of "disappearing."

It's simply a call for perspective from the people who are going on as if Chavez were some terrible monster for flinging crude insults.

mendacious? really? Isn't that a bit over the top?

Reminds me of the nuttier RW accusations against President Obama, of being a Nazi, Communist and Islamist all at the same time.

It's hard enough finding a Nazi Zionist, let alone one who is gay to boot. But it's Hugo, so I see one of three explanations:

1) His opponent at least partially deserves the slur. Because the opposition is bad.
2) Hugo didn't really mean it.
3) We shouldn't even be talking about it . . . instead look over there at this worse thing that has nothing to do with Chavez or Venezuela.

Just don't act like he's roasting babies or something, for fuck's sake.

Failed mis-direction is Failed.

He's not the first politician to do so, of course. And using slurs against the opposition is a far cry from killing them. But you see this trend on every Chavez thread, including this one. I can't think of a figure who more invites the 'but look over here!' than Chavez. And I think it's because some of his supporters are trapped into a frame of mind where they think they are doing something wrong if they criticize him at all. Why? I don't know.

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