Greenwald writes: "None of this is to suggest a substantive equivalency between the U.S. and North Korea or Iran."

That's true. Neither members of the "Axis of Evil" have launched preemptive war on nations in recent history and have never attacked the US. Also, both nations have been attacked by the US in their history, one directly (N. Korea) or the other indirectly (Iran, through our proxy government at the time: Iraq's Saddam Hussein).

Okay, okay, Bush isn't REALLY Satan - but figuratively?

Who in the history of this country has done more damage to America than George W. Bush?

Osama was responsible for the deaths of 3,000, but if you total up needless deaths in Iraq, the Gulf Coast, from environmental hazards and failures of the government to regulate, plus the potential damage from the largest deficits in the history of the Republic and the terrible damage Bush has done to perceptions of the USA around the world: war mongerer, torturer, criminal weiretapper, scoff-law, treaty-breaker - Bush is ahead of bin Laden, and if you ask me whether Bush governs at the will of God or Lucifer, I'm pretty sure God is not a George W. Bush fan.

I watched the speach on CSPAN this morning while I was on a stairmaster. I noticed that several other people in the gym were also watching the speach. It's unusual to see so many of the little televisions tuned to CSPAN.

I loved the speach. From my perspective, George W. Bush *is* evil. I loved what Chavez said about American imperialism under Bush and America's attempts at hegemony. I loved what he said about Bush seeing extremists everywhere. I loved what he said about democracy imposed by military force. I loved that he was waving around a copy of Hegemony or Survival. He is so right about so much.

I'm reminded of the Far Side cartoon where the two smallest cowboys in a bar call each other out: "You looking at me?"

As far as moral authority, that's where the U.S. is at to the rest of the world. We can act aghast at Chavez doing his best Idi Amin impersonations and publicly announcing that all Condoleezza Rice really needs is a hot Venezuelan injection, but to the rest of the world, he's a clown, but we're dangerous clowns.

--WKW

As usual, Glenn, you have a knack for getting at the heart of the matter. We have absolutely no room to criticize Chavez for demonizing us, when we've done little but demonize our opponents for 50+ years. Since 1945, the threat has been Communism. Since 2001, the threat has been Terrorism. In both cases, whatever legitimate threat each might have posed has been obscured by the inflamed rhetoric employed by the US, making it seem marginal to those not inclined to jump every time D.C. says "Boo!" The greater threat, it seems, is posed by our own government, not a Hugo Chavez.

If you actually listened to the speech, or read it, then you can see that much of what Chavez said wasn't all that bad. Yes, calling Bush Satan may have been over the top, but then again, Bush did send some agents to Venuzuala to try and organize a coup and install a more pro-Bush government, so some anger on Hugo's part is to be expected. You can read the whole thing here: http://www.counterpunch.org/chavez09202006.html, but one of the better parts of the speech that was ignored is this:

The president then -- and this he said himself, he said: "I have come to speak directly to the populations in the Middle East, to tell them that my country wants peace."

That's true. If we walk in the streets of the Bronx, if we walk around New York, Washington, San Diego, in any city, San Antonio, San Francisco, and we ask individuals, the citizens of the United States, what does this country want? Does it want peace? They'll say yes.

But the government doesn't want peace. The government of the United States doesn't want peace. It wants to exploit its system of exploitation, of pillage, of hegemony through war.

It wants peace. But what's happening in Iraq? What happened in Lebanon? In Palestine? What's happening? What's happened over the last 100 years in Latin America and in the world? And now threatening Venezuela -- new threats against Venezuela, against Iran?

Chavez didn't demonize the American people, he didn't call for military force to be used against us. He basically said that the UN needed to let developing nations have as strong a voice as the U.S. and the rest of the permenant security council and that the security council's veto had to go since is basically put the entire UN at the mercy of the security council. That's not such a crazy proposition.

It's not that uncommon for heads of states in other countries to fume and vent at the United States. They just don't usually do it at the United Nations. But what really struck me about Chavez's speech is that L'il Georgie is so sensitive to criticism, so shielded by enablers and courtiers, that even something as commonplace as a fiery speech from a Latin American president would have a devastating impact if you could somehow drag George out from behind Tony Snow and Condoleeza. It would easily reduce him to quivering incoherence, or possibly a meltdown.

He was hilarious! Great sense of humor and absolutely on-target. Such a wonderful change from the incredibly boring, staid, and falsely polite speechifying by heads of state. It's Bush and Bolton who are clowns - Chavez is an entertaining guy with intelligent, informed stuff to say. Something neither Bolton nor Bush understand. How often can you be entertained by a head of state making a speech?

I find it simply wrong to call Bush Satan. Everybody knows he's the Anti-Christ. Jeez!

Rumor has it that Satan has filed a slander suit against Hugo Chavez, seeking punitive damages and a permanent injunction. The venue hasn't been determined yet, but given the list of witnesses, it's likely that the trial will be held in Satan's home district.