From Washington Post
By Eugene Robinson

My but the lesser nations are getting uppity.

I do love that word, uppity. Once upon a time, it was used to describe a black person who didn’t know his place. The word came back to me this week as I heard all that impertinent oratory at the United Nations, most of it aimed at the United States in general and George W. Bush in particular.

Did Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez actually call Bush the devil? And then ostentatiously cross himself? And then complain that the podium, where Bush had spoken a day earlier, still smelled of sulfur? That’s exactly what he did.

And as Chavez continued his monologue, calling Bush a “world dictator” who “looks at your color, and he says, ‘Oh, there’s an extremist,’ ” his audience of world leaders laughed and applauded. Clearly, Chavez had ignored the flashing yellow lights and crashed straight through the guardrails of diplomatic propriety. Clearly, this was no way to speak about the president of the United States. But Chavez, who hosts his own weekly talk show back home in Caracas, had his audience in the palm of his hand.

Read More Firebrands