At least Obama didn't hand this clown a popularity boost and then excuse his public attack on American-led globalization as "a nice gesture." Think how awkward that would be right now!

The last time this particular phrase got dropped, it was being used by one of Sarajevo's most powerful imams to describe Jews. It's nice to see that Chavez is getting something from the Muslim world beyond Iranian military ties and Iranian-Syrian weapons boats. Because linguistic and discursive diffusion - that's the way civilization advances:

When Chavez says "rich," do you think there's any chance he means...? Probably not, right? Because Sean Penn insists that he's a "warm and friendly man," and warm and friendly men would never use the exact same rhetoric the Nazis used to demonize the exact same people the Nazis demonized. Or the people who the Nazis' modern day Islamist descendants demonize.

In other news, Russia is helping Venezuela get nukes:

Almost unnoticed in the chaos created by recent terrorist events is the nuclear agreement signed between Russia and Venezuela signed when Russian president Medvedev visited Caracas last week. His visit coincided with the arrival of Russian naval ships for joint operations with the Venezuelan navy... Under the accord, Russia would help Venezuela build a nuclear energy plant. Joint gas projects were also approved. Military co-operation is also high on the agenda of Mr Medvedev's talks with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. None of this would be alarming if Chavez were not a known sponsor of violent and radical movements across the hemisphere, from the FARC in Colombia to the worst elements (and a small minority of the overall parties) of the Sandinistas in Nicaragua and the FMLN in El Salvador.

Change!

References and previously after the jump...