Vzla: Chavez the gutter mouth

Sounding like the bore and bully that he is,

Chavez recently stepped up his anti-U.S. rhetoric. On Sunday he called President Bush an "a--hole" and accused him of meddling in Venezuela.

He also threatened to cut off oil supplies to the United States if it tries to invade or blockade Venezuela, which is its fourth largest oil supplier.

Although couched in hypothetical terms, Chavez' comments and the violence helped push oil prices to their highest level since shortly before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March last year. U.S. crude touched $36.45 a barrel.

Chavez is playing to the gallery here. Here's what this blog reported last week:

Venezuela's state oil company said it will double planned spending on government agricultural and social programs this year, increasing contributions before a recall vote sought by the President Hugo Chavez's opponents.

Petroleos de Venezuela President Ali Rodriguez said the company will provide a total of 2.3 trillion bolivars ($1.2 billion) -- about half for social programs and the rest for farming.
...
By turning to PDVSA for more funds, Chavez risks cutting into investment needed to boost production by the world's fifth- largest supplier of oil, said analysts such as David Voght, managing director for IPD Latin America, an energy consulting company with offices in Caracas.

So, it looks like Chavez is mouthing off so that no one notices that Venezuela's oil companies cannot boost production. Moreover, Chavez needs U.S. oil dollars. How is he going to pay for his social and agricultural programs without the U.S.? It's a nice bluff, risky. However, Chavez ought to know that GWB had a rep of being one of the best poker players at Harvard Business School. See GWB: HBS MBA.