rone | newsflash: hugo chávez is an annoying jerk

The King of Spain asked Hugo Chávez, "¿Por qué no te callas?" Apparently, Chávez was all butthurt because he claims the Spanish ambassador showed up at the Venezuelan presidential palace during the failed coup in 2002, thus signifying support from the King and from then-Prime Minister José María Aznar (from what i can gather, the temporary president, Carmona, did meet with the Spanish and US ambassadors, but it's not clear where it happened). Relations between Spain and Venezuela have degenerated since then. While today's event was amusing in that the King got pissed off and told Chávez off, he displayed a lack of professionalism on par with Chávez's, and he seems to lack Chávez's gift of gab (this summary takes the King to task for using the informal "you" to address a head of state, but fails to take Chávez to task for later addressing the King as "Mister King").

This could have all been avoided if the King had hired a Usenet veteran to teach him how not to feed the trolls.