We have all heard of Sean Penn’s most recent outbreak of insanity when he suggested that the critics of his efforts in Haiti “die screaming of rectal cancer.” Of course his whole life has been filled with controversy. But when he opens his mouth some of the most nasty, ill informed, un-patriotic trash spews out.
Of President Bush on the Iraq war he stated: “I am more patriotic than this president, who I consider a traitor of human and American principles.”
The Cambridge dictionary online defines “patriotic” as “showing love for your country and being proud of it.”
I don’t believe patriotism equates to calling ones President “a traitor of human and American principles.” It is not up to Sean Penn or any of his Hollywood friends like Susan Sarandon, Charlie Sheen, and Tim Robbins to decide our President is a traitor. Our system of government has a method to identify traitorous Presidents. Over the course of President Bush’s eight years in office he was never identified as a traitor. So how much truth is in Penn’s allegations?
Accusing the leader of one’s country to be a traitor without any factual proof could only be done by some kind of a (in the words of Bill O’Reilly) “loon.”
“Loony” is defined as “silly or stupid.” Certainly Mr. Penn fits that description. To further prove my point what follows are some more examples of his loony bloviating. (Thanks to Bill O’Reilly for teaching me the definition of bloviate.)
In Oakland, California, at a town hall meeting in March of 2007, Penn directs more of his misbegotten rhetoric towards President Bush and the war in Iraq with this brainless rant:
“You and your smarmy pundits – and the smarmy pundits you have in your pocket – can take your war and shove it. Let’s unite not only in stopping this war but in holding this administration accountable.”
Well Mr. Penn, I don’t hear you saying that to President Obama and he doesn’t seem to be “stopping this war.” Don’t you want to hold him “accountable?” I am sure if President Bush were still in office you would continue to badger him about the war. So why do it to one President and not the other?
It would seem that Mr. Penn is infatuated with President Obama when he said:
“I sat on the edge of my bed with my wife, son and daughter, tears streaming down my face, as Barack Obama spoke for the first time as the president-elect of the United States of America.”
His infatuation doesn’t stop with Obama. We all know of the ongoing relationship he has with the Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. He has visited there a few times and has gone to Cuba to meet with Raul Castro. In October 2009 he flew back to Cuba in hopes of meeting Fidel but apparently that did not happen.
I guess meeting with our adversaries makes one “patriotic.” But when was the last time our Secretary of State under this administration and President Bush’s administration met with Saddam Hussein, Hugo Chavez, or Raul Castro? On Penn’s visit to Iran his interpreter had to translate a prayer service where 6000 worshipers chanted “Death to America.” I don’t remember him criticizing that in any of his moronic ravings.
And of Hugo Chavez, Penn said, “It’s true, Chavez may not be a good man. But he may well be a great one.”
According to an article on Foxnews.com in August of 2007 Chavez met with Penn privately and praised him as “brave” for promoting the impeachment of President Bush. During this visit to Venezuela Penn applauded as Chavez gave a speech that included, “In the name of the peoples of the world, President Bush, withdraw the troops from Iraq. Enough already with so much genocide.” Sure Penn agrees with Chavez here but accusing us of genocide should have sparked a criticism.
In an issue of “Talk” magazine Penn is quoted:
“I think that people like the Howard Sterns, the Bill O’Reilly’s and to a lesser degree the Bin Ladens of the world are making a horrible contribution [to society]. . . . I’d like to trade O’Reilly for Bin Laden. . . . This is not a man sitting on the toilet with a smile on his face. He’s a grumpy, self-loathing joke. There’s a long history of people who capitalize on the lowest common denominator of people’s impulses, Adolf Hitler being one of them. Not everybody wants to hit the wall in a violent rage and break their knuckles, so [O’Reilly] does it for them. He’ll get very rich and get his rocks off that he’s powerful. . . . These guys–Joe McCarthy, Bill O’Reilly–die like everyone else. And when they do, their legacy is one of damaging the spirit of good things, and they become rather broken, pathetic figures. And that is going to happen to him.”
Well the “nut” doesn’t fall far from the tree, according to an article titled “The hypocrisy of Sean Penn” by Mark Newgent of the Baltimore History Examiner, Sean Penn’s father was a supporter of Stalin, called Franklin Roosevelt a war monger, was on Hollywood’s blacklist of communists and refused to cooperate with the House Un-American Activities Committee.
In March of 2007 Penn wrote “An Open Letter to the President…Four and a Half Years Later.” Despite all of his ranting about President Bush, full-page newspaper ads against the war and his visits to our adversaries, his praising of Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro, he said, “I don’t consider myself specifically political, you know?”
He accuses Congress of being incompetent and says they have “misused” their power “to become our country’s and our Constitution’s most devastating enemy.” Then he accuses his country of relishing “fear-based religion, corrupt government, and an entire white population living on stolen property that they murdered for and that is passed from generation to generation.”
How can one make sense of it all when he makes so many un-patriotic statements yet doesn’t consider himself “specifically political. And he contends that Hugo Chavez is “a great man.”
Yet an article published in the Wall Street Journal online on February 25, 2010 reports:
“The Organization of American States, in a rare and forceful critique of a member state…issued a scathing report that accuses Venezuela’s government of human-rights abuses, political repression, and eroding the separation of powers among government branches in the oil-rich country.” The report “offers a detailed analysis of shortcomings in areas including ‘political rights and ‘participation in public life,’ ‘independence and separation of public powers,’ and ‘freedom of thought and expression.'”
Should we expect to see Mr. Penn criticizing this article and defending his “friend” Hugo Chavez? Certainly Mr. Penn should now realize that the citizens of Venezuela do not have the privilege or the right to criticize their president or their own government. And now Mr. Penn should ponder the fact that he would be in prison if he were a citizen of Venezuela and called Hugo Chavez a “traitor.”
In his own words, “These guys…die like everyone else. And when they do, their legacy is one of damaging the spirit of good things, and they become rather broken, pathetic figures. And that is going to happen to him.” Yes Sean this is your legacy too!
And in the words of Forrest Gump aka Tom Hanks, Penn may want to start using this sentence, “I am not a smart man”
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