Harry really just needs to take his money and run to Venezuela permanently if he really believes in what he's saying.

He means millions of trolls and democrats of course.

When will they start cleaning out the UN, including UNICEF?

He is a senile old man, in the company of the ignorant (Mr. Glover) and the deliberately malicious (Mr. West), all of whom, with their host, conspire to pretend that socialism either is, or has, a future. Sadly, reading newspapers and books about the damage of socialism, the immorality of socialism, or the impossibility of socialism does not affect the primary incentive: if the state owns the means of production, and you are in charge of the state, you own it all. Reality can have consequences for those mired in illusions.

Some "embargo." Every country in the world is permitted to trade and do business with Cuba. The US elects not to. Despite the unfettered freedom to do business with everyone in the world (except the US), Cuba is nevertheless still a basket-case economy and its people cannot afford (or find) sugar, meat, analgesics, basic medicines, etc. Embargo, my ass. Harry Belefonte, Danny Glover: traitors.

Weak men with shriveled souls love tyrants.

"Professor" West makes me embarrassed to be a Princeton alum.

I know a lot of Venezuelans...not one of them favors Mr. Chavez.

Since we're not at war with Venezuela by any means you measure it, Belafonte and company could not be traitors.

In any case, I doubt millions even know who Chavez is, much less what he's doing or even if they approve of it.

Shouldn't a goodwill ambassador be a man of goodwill?

By the way, he looks like Robocop when they took the helmet off.

Peter: The authorization to use force is a fully effective declaration of war and allows us to prosecute, convict and punish traitors when we so wish.

We have decided, however, that diarhea of the mouth, by itself, is not treason. That's probably right, though not emotionally satisfying. As for what Belafonte said, he's probably right. You can convince 1 million Americans of any fool thing.

Wow. I knew West was a crackpot, but I didn't know he was that bad.

David:

I didn't know that. Is there any link you can give me to a "Authorization to Use Force for Dummies" kind of site? I'm interested because I've been musing lately on the problem of trying to fight a war when no one feels endangered or is called upon to make any sacrifices for the cause. The housing bubble, tax cuts and bigtime growth are all great news, but we've come a long way from the days we were all glancing nervously up at the sky just after 9/11.

Chris:

I don't think your argument holds. Imagine an American or Brit going to Sweden or Switzerland in WWII and publically calling Churchill and Roosevelt fascist warmongers.

Can we bundle these 3 up with Jimmuh Cartuh and send the whole bunch of them down to their buddy in Venezuela. They can support him in his next faked election when they pronounce it valid even before the votes are counted.

Peter: This is a good place to start.

And here I thought Kwanzaa lasted only 7 days. Silly me.

Malcolm Muggeridge once wrote about meeting proletarian Westerners in the USSR who had read all those glittering intellectual accounts of life in Russia and had decided to become Soviet citizens. Invariably, he said, they deeply regretted their decision and a large part of their time was spent trying to regain their former citizenship status, usually to no avail.

Muggeridge wondered whether those people gave a damn that their inflated accounts of the Soviet Union were negatively affecting the lives of people who had considerably more to lose than their intellectual illusions.

Of course, the short answer is no.

For many years I thought the line in Matilda was: "she took all my money and ran with a sailor." Made sense that way. The real line in Belafonte's 1950s hit was: "she took all my money and ran Venezuala."

Seems prophetic, Doesn't it?

I still don't see how someone saying something nasty about the President and then fawning on a Venezuelean dictator, with whom we are not at war, is in anyway related to treason in regards to a war against Islamic terrorism.

There are people who say Bush is a tyrant and terrorist here in the US, should the FBI arrest all of them? When Abraham Lincoln called the Mexican War unconstitutional, was he a traitor?

Saying nasty things about the President or disapproving of a war is not in and of itself treasonous. If Belafonte can say that here in the US, then why not if he's in Canada, Britain, France, or Venezuela? If he was in Baghdad talking with Saddam during the invasion, or singing Day-O for Osama bin Laden's surprise birthday party, that's treason.

Chavez is a dictator and a jerk, but we are not at war with him.