>I suppose the first is so in the U.S.
>
>But I did think slander was a civil, not criminal thing. Someone can be thrown into jail for slander? Seems a tad harsh to me.

Apart from slander (calling Chavez a dictator, which I doubt), there's the part where he tries to incite "undisclosed recipients" into a political assasination of a democratically elected president of a foreign country.

(Oooops... politically correct version: president of an international country.)

Now calling others to kill someone is at least hate speech, or inducing terrorist activity. Your freedom of speech doesn't apply here, this is the Patriot Act material.