The King of Spain tells Hugo Chavez to shut it

[Joe Republic]

I think it helps Chavez to have Franco's heir criticizing him.

Sure... among people who have next to no knowledge about Juan Carlos, Franco or Spanish political history in general between the '60s and '80s.

As a polite request, could you please stop doing that?  Quoting someone else's post without adding anything of your own is borderline spam.

[Hash]

I think it helps Chavez to have Franco's heir criticizing him.

Sure... among people who have next to no knowledge about Juan Carlos, Franco or Spanish political history in general between the '60s and '80s.

As a polite request, could you please stop doing that?  Quoting someone else's post without adding anything of your own is borderline spam.

Am I the first to do so in the history of the Atlas?

[Undisguised Sockpuppet]

I think it helps Chavez to have Franco's heir criticizing him.

Sure... among people who have next to no knowledge about Juan Carlos, Franco or Spanish political history in general between the '60s and '80s.

As a polite request, could you please stop doing that?  Quoting someone else's post without adding anything of your own is borderline spam.

Am I the first to do so in the history of the Atlas?

I second this.

[J. J.]

I rarely use the term, but FF (and in the Sons of American Revolution as well).

He also stood up against an attempted right wing military coup in the early 1980's in Spain.

[Sensei]

FF

Should have punch him in the mouth too!

[Joe Republic]

I think it helps Chavez to have Franco's heir criticizing him.

Sure... among people who have next to no knowledge about Juan Carlos, Franco or Spanish political history in general between the '60s and '80s.

As a polite request, could you please stop doing that?  Quoting someone else's post without adding anything of your own is borderline spam.

Am I the first to do so in the history of the Atlas?

No, but most people have already learned not to do it, and it does seem that every other post of yours is of this type.

[Jake]

I've noticed that too. If you agree, but can't find anything new to say, you might as well just not post at all.

[CPT MikeyMike]

Now the bastard is demanding an apology.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,311720,00.html

[Undisguised Sockpuppet]

Now the bastard is demanding an apology.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,311720,00.html

How about no? We need to shut down that commie prick. You want a war for oil republicans? Let's invade Venezuela and take it over as a client state. We get more oil from Venezuela than we do the entire persian gulf.

[© tweed]

Now the bastard is demanding an apology.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,311720,00.html

OH NOES TEH NERVE!

[Undisguised Sockpuppet]

Now the bastard is demanding an apology.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,311720,00.html

OH NOES TEH NERVE!

Why do you love communist dictators who are increasingly oppressive towards their people?

[Sensei]

Now the bastard is demanding an apology.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,311720,00.html

OH NOES TEH NERVE!

Why do you love communist dictators who are increasingly oppressive towards their people?

I must agree with Straha here. The King should apologize by no means.

[ag]

Now the bastard is demanding an apology.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,311720,00.html

OH NOES TEH NERVE!

Why do you love communist dictators who are increasingly oppressive towards their people?

Chavez is not a Communist.  He is a Mussolini-style fascist.

[Undisguised Sockpuppet]

Now the bastard is demanding an apology.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,311720,00.html

OH NOES TEH NERVE!

Why do you love communist dictators who are increasingly oppressive towards their people?

Chavez is not a Communist.  He is a Mussolini-style fascist.

Explain his social justice rhetoric then.

[ag]

1. The King got a near-unanimous support within Spain - all major parliamentary political parties, but Communists, have publically praised his behavior.  Interestingly enough, he got public support even from the rather anti-Royalist Basque nationalists (i.e., among people who normally justify burning of his portraits, etc.).

2. The King got a rather wide support within Latin America. Carlos Fuentes, a leading Mexican left-wing writer and intellectual has said at a press conference in Buenos Aires: "it was right time that somebody said this to Chavez, and I am very happy it was the King". Actually, to the best of my knowledge no major Mexican public figure has openly disagreed: not surprizing, given that in Mexico Chavez is not viewed so much as a "leftist" political figure, but as, first and foremost, an "Anti-Mexican" one (his potential supporters prefer never to mention his name, lest they be linked to him). Things vary within Latin America, of course, but I would conjecture, the majority reaction in the region varies between "sorry it had to go that far, but the King had no choice, Chavez forced him" to "Long Live the King".

3. The King has publically said that he is unhappy about what has happened. Still, there is a public consensus in Spain that there is no need to apologize. The King's popularity has gone sharply up (from its already stratospheric levels) since the incident.  

To sum up: the most Chavez can expect as a matter of public appology is what has been already offered: "we are sorry that you forced us to do this unfortunate thing".

[ag]

Now the bastard is demanding an apology.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,311720,00.html

OH NOES TEH NERVE!

Why do you love communist dictators who are increasingly oppressive towards their people?

Chavez is not a Communist.  He is a Mussolini-style fascist.

Explain his social justice rhetoric then.

Mussolini wasn't without that either.  Hey, remeber that Hitler's party was called the National Sociallist Workers' Party of Germany.

[Hash]

Chavez is nuts. Hopefully he won't start building up his military crazily now.

[© tweed]

Now the bastard is demanding an apology.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,311720,00.html

OH NOES TEH NERVE!

Why do you love communist dictators who are increasingly oppressive towards their people?

ignoring the fact that your uncreative epithets are inaccurate, you completely misinterpreted my post.  I'm wondering why so many people seem to care so much about this meaningless story.  probably because the media has taught people to hate Chavez while ignoring Karimov and etc.

[Beet]

I rarely use the term, but FF (and in the Sons of American Revolution as well).

He also stood up against an attempted right wing military coup in the early 1980's in Spain.

Sure, but who suspects that had he supported the coup, not only would the coup government be gone today, but so would the monarchy?

[ag]

Now the bastard is demanding an apology.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,311720,00.html

OH NOES TEH NERVE!

Why do you love communist dictators who are increasingly oppressive towards their people?

ignoring the fact that your uncreative epithets are inaccurate, you completely misinterpreted my post.  I'm wondering why so many people seem to care so much about this meaningless story.  probably because the media has taught people to hate Chavez while ignoring Karimov and etc.

Let me propose four reasons:

1. Nobody admires Karimov (ok, maybe his wife does   ). So, there is a consensus that he is a SOB.  And Karimov is not trying to be on TV outside of his home country 370 days a year. And who (outside Uzbekistan and, possibly, Tajikistan) cares about Uzbekistan, anyway.  So, clearly, not enough interest.

2. Nobody (important) has had the balls to tell Karimov to shut up publically.

3. His Majesty is very popular and highly admired.

4. You don't here HM telling somebody to shut up often.

Karimov is only screwing his own country and a couple of even poorer and more insignificant neighbours in the middle of nowhere.  He has no pretensions to being an international superstar. If Chavez restricted himself to quietly screwing his own country, Nicaragua and Ecuador people wouldn't bother much either.

[© tweed]

Let me propose four reasons:

1. Nobody admires Karimov (ok, maybe his wife does   ). So, there is a consensus that he is a SOB.  And Karimov is not trying to be on TV outside of his home country 370 days a year. And who (outside Uzbekistan and, possibly, Tajikistan) cares about Uzbekistan, anyway.  So, clearly, not enough interest.

2. Nobody (important) has had the balls to tell Karimov to shut up publically.

3. His Majesty is very popular and highly admired.

4. You don't here HM telling somebody to shut up often.

Karimov is only screwing his own country and a couple of even poorer and more insignificant neighbours in the middle of nowhere.  He has no pretensions to being an international superstar. If Chavez restricted himself to quietly screwing his own country, Nicaragua and Ecuador people wouldn't bother much either.

not going to argue with most of what you said - Chavez is on US TV and is a household name in the US because, he tries to be and wants to be.  he's an egotist and spews rhetoric for that purpose.  (but this has led to other things, such as news stories about the internal policy developments in Venezuela, such as rule by decree, provision to suspend habeas corpus, sin taxation, etc.  and people care far too much about them or misunderstand what they're supposedly so angry about.)  and Karimov is (though my experiences on this board, anyway) quietly disliked by the American 'left' and either ignored or quietly admired by the American right, because, he is pro-American.

and I doubt anyone here held any deep admiration for Juan Carlos before this story broke.  I'm sure only a handful of people knew who he was.  I was not one of them, admittedly, so undying respect for the King of Spain isn't a factor in the posts you've seen in this thread.

[Michael Z]

From BBC News:

The king of Spain's recent undiplomatic outburst at the Venezuelan president has become a ringtone hit across Spain.

An estimated 500,000 people have downloaded the insult featuring the words "Why don't you shut up?", generating a reported 1.5m euros ($2m).

[Gustaf]

I rarely use the term, but FF (and in the Sons of American Revolution as well).

He also stood up against an attempted right wing military coup in the early 1980's in Spain.

Sure, but who suspects that had he supported the coup, not only would the coup government be gone today, but so would the monarchy?

Uhm...no one I've ever heard of? I've always understood it as quite the opposite - had he supported the coup it could have been a success. I believe he also was at personal risk in doing it, given that he was after al going against people with guns.