Yet another reason to hate Hugo Chavez

I drive a car that recommends that I use premium gas. I don't. I can't afford it. I can't afford it because very early in his reign, my president (sic) may have been an accomplice in an attempt to topple the government of Venezuela, the chair-state of OPEC, and in retaliation, Hugh Chaves' policies contributed to a gas price hike of nearly 2 dollars per gallon. Now, oil companies making record profits may also be attached to the high price of gas, but for the purpose of this post, I'm fingering Hugo.

Enter the UN. September 19, nut-job makes a speech calling Shrub "el Diablo," among many other barbs. Now liberals like Nancy Pilosi, Chuck Shulmer, and I are in a position we never wanted to be in... defending Bush.

As someone who had a visceral dislike for him long before he ran for president and someone who has voted against every Bush who has run in Florida since 1991, I wince when I rationalize this in my own mind. I still dislike W, his entire cabinet, and every decision he's made domestically and internationally since stealing office in 2000. I hate that people who had a benign dislike for me because of my birth country now feel their bile rise because of Bush; that my class (the middle) is targeted for extinction -- not at the hands of concentration camps, but due to intentionally bad economic policies, i.e. outsourcing and tax cuts; and that we are embroiled in a culture war drawn along religious lines that the president seems to endorse.

That said, he's my (gag) president, and if I want to kick him around, I will. I've earned the privilege by living here and paying the price of his stupidity. You, Mr. Chavez, were really only incovenienced by W for a few days before returning to office. If you want to say something bad about him, you should do it from your own pulpit, not from the podium that is the symbol for the spirit of international cooperation and brotherhood.