When Liberals Attack! Hollywood Loves Hugo

What possesses Hollywood actors to hang out with world dictators? No one seems to know, except for the fact that for now, Hugo Chavez, the dictator of Venezuela, is leftist chic.

Consider the long line of celebrities who seem to go out of their way to meet him. Tim Robbins sings his praises. Kevin Spacey visited him in September 2007. Edward Asner, Jesse Jackson, Dennis Kucinich, and Howard Zinn signed a letter of solidarity for Chavez in 2004. Zinn is a revisionist historian who has written and produced some left-wing documentaries with Matt Damon. Even shoe-throwing supermodel Naomi Campbell visited Chavez for a photo op.

Singer turned buffoon Harry Belafonte visited Chavez to show his support for his "revolution" and took the opportunity to call then-President Bush "the greatest terrorist in the world" and "the greatest tyrant in the world." In September 2009, Oliver Stone walked the red carpet with Chavez to promote his documentary South of the Border, which tries to convince us how wonderful and progressive the dictators of South America are.

In March of 2009, Benicio del Toro met with Chavez as part of his promotional tour for "Che," a film about the life of Communist revolutionary Che Guevara. During his visit, del Toro was given a tour of Cinema Town, a production facility built with government money to encourage the production of films to counter what Chavez calls Hollywood's "cultural imperialism." Apparently, Del Toro failed to ask if spending $13 million on a film studio was a good use of money when millions of Venezuelans live in poverty.

In 2007, Sean Penn hung out with Chavez for the day, proclaiming that he had "found a great country" in Venezuela. It is probably because Chavez had imprisoned most of the government's critics, and shut down the media, except for those under his control. With the country's oil dollars being funneled into Chavez's immediate circle of allies, Penn and other visiting celebrities are never taken to the slums where the common folk live, who bear the brunt of the policies of communist dictators and socialist regimes.

When the San Francisco Chronicle criticized his visit, Penn struck back at the liberal publication by calling them "lame-brain," "desperate," and saying they were "Mad Magazine for small-minded cowards and former writers of substance."

Danny Glover is a vocal supporter of Chavez, for good reason. The country's Congress approved the use of $20 million dollars to finance two of Glover's films. That must help Glover sleep at night, since he has never mentioned the thousands of Venezuelans who protest in the streets for freedom and an end to Chavez's regime.

Where is the criticism for Chavez attempting to change the country's Constitution to make him President for life? What about his crackdown on individual freedom? Hollywood leftist elitists push such concerns aside, because Chavez does one thing they love: he criticizes former President Bush and America in general. It doesn't exactly distinguish him from the rest of the world's dictators, but it does give him plenty of attention. Not bad for a third-rate dictator with an uncanny resemblance to Fred Flintstone.

For more information on the "When Liberals Attack" series, visit WhenLiberalsAttack.com.

Sources: Scared Monkeys, New York Daily News, RethinkVenezuela.com, YouTube, Newsbusters.org, FreeRepublic.com, BNet