Por que no te callas?

This is just the short version of the video (and it's in Spanish) so let me set it up for you. You can easily find longer clips on YouTube.

Saturday (November 10), at an Ibero-American summit in Chile, Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez repeatedly referred to Spain's former Prime Minister as a "fascist". Normally this would just be a standard "Hugo-ism" and wouldn't get much press outside of Venezuela. But the summit was attended by Portugal, Spain and representatives of most of the countries of Central and South America so this was a little different.

When it came his time to speak, the current Prime Minister of Spain urged Hugo to be more diplomatic. A reasonable request, right? Not for Hugo Chavez! He just keeps talking back and interrupting the Spanish PM (Hugo's mic was turned off because, remember it's not his turn) and finally Spain's King Juan Carlos leaned forward and said to Hugo "Por que no te callas?!" (loosely translated: "Why don't you shut up?!"




I heard about this because the King's "Por que no te callas?!" is being sold in Spain as a cell phone ring tone and has, according to this story, already (by Monday November 19) generated over $2.2 million in ring tone sales alone.

Figures for t-shirt sales were not included but some sources mention that t-shirts with the phrase have been seen in Spain and in Venezuela worn by Chavez opponents. (sweet)

In his illustrious career and rise to power, Hugo somehow missed basic common courtesy (maybe he slept through that class?) and is now demanding that King Juan Carlos apologize to him! Can you say "clueless"? I knew you could.

As John Gibson put it in his FOXNews.com piece:

Also a winner is Spain's king Juan Carlos. He told Hugo Chavez to shut up. Hugo never hears that anymore because if it's not a king who says it, he thinks about having that person shot, or run over, and most often they just get locked up.

I have nothing against Hugo Chavez. Except the fact that he's a jerk. (and that's the nicest thing i can say about the guy - my mom sometimes reads this blog)

Even if you don't speak Spanish you shouldn't have too much trouble understanding this:



As long as we have politicians, comedians will never be out of work. :-)