Pat Robertson: Assassin for God

Fresh from the "You just can't make this shit up" Department comes the latest proclamation from a guy who is different from the insane street preacher near the bus station only because he owns his own TV network.

I am speaking of Pat Robertson--a founder of the Christian Coalition of America, founder and owner of the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN), and now...Assassin for God.

What Robertson said

On Monday's broadcast of "The 700 Club," CBN's news show, Robertson discussed Venezuela and its president, Hugo Chavez. Media Matters has the video and a partial transcription showing that Robertson said the following:

There was a popular coup that overthrew him [Chavez]. And what did the United States State Department do about it? Virtually nothing. And as a result, within about 48 hours that coup was broken; Chavez was back in power, but we had a chance to move in. He has destroyed the Venezuelan economy, and he's going to make that a launching pad for communist infiltration and Muslim extremism all over the continent.

You know, I don't know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it. It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war. And I don't think any oil shipments will stop. But this man is a terrific danger and the United ... This is in our sphere of influence, so we can't let this happen. We have the Monroe Doctrine, we have other doctrines that we have announced. And without question, this is a dangerous enemy to our south, controlling a huge pool of oil, that could hurt us very badly. We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability. We don't need another $200 billion war to get rid of one, you know, strong-arm dictator. It's a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with.

Pat Robertson is a big dope.

So here we have Robertson, an alleged man of God and one of the leaders of the religious right, expressly calling for the murder of the leader of another country. I will go back and check, but I do not think that my Bible has any statements from Jesus condoning assassination. And yet here is Robertson, a "good Christian man," calling for murder.

And then there is the little matter of assassination of world leaders being expressly against U.S. law.

And what is his justification? Assassination would be cheaper than war. Beside the fact that that is no justification, what this dumbass does not realize is that assassinating Chavez could indeed start a war. Chavez is very popular in Venezuela. The coup that Robertson mentions was engineered by the U.S. (this needs to be addressed in a separate post). It did not fail because Chavez was not killed. It failed because it was not "popular." None of the neighboring countries supported the coup, and many of them were very critical of it. Assassinating Chavez would result in damage to the U.S. in terms of relations with South American countries, and we don't need that.

Pat also is clueless when it comes to oil. Perhaps killing Chavez would not stop oil shipments in a general sense, but it is not like Venezuela has to ship oil here. There's this place called China that has a huge demand for oil, and I say there is a chance that the Chinese would be happy to buy any oil Venezuela would not ship here (and I realize that refinery resources would have an impact on that). In other words, it seems to me that Venezuela does not need us as a buyer of oil as much as we need a supply of oil (and anyone who even tries to say that we can get that oil from Iraq can just pucker up and kiss my ass).

What I want to see happen

I want the FCC to bitch slap this moron. Howard Stern got fined a fortune for being rude and disgusting. The very fabric of existence was threatened by the failure of Janet Jackson's fabric, and record fines were levied. None of that compares to using the public airwaves to advocate murder. If Stern's conduct and the "wardrobe malfunction" required big fines, then Robertson must be assessed a record fine from the FCC.

Now I know what some of you are thinking. "The 700 Club" can't be fined because it comes from a religious organization. Well, guess again. Here is a description of the show from its own web site:

The 700 Club is a news/magazine program that has the variety and pacing of a morning show with in-depth investigative reporting by the CBN News team. Whether reporting live from the scene of a terrorist attack or a natural disaster, CBN News brings coverage on major events affecting our nation. The Washington Bureau reports on news from the capitol and correspondents report on events and trends that shape the world from Moscow to Jerusalem. The 700 Club also includes live guests, special features, and music.

The show is not religious, and, in my opinion, it damn sure ain't righteous either.

Let's see if the FCC has the gonads to go after Robertson. More to the point, let's see if the Bush administration has the gonads to go after Robertson.

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