State Rep. John Blust wants the world to know he's still proud of America.

The Greensboro Republican filed a resolution, entitled "Attacks on America," that would repudiate recent remarks by Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez and Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at world forums.

Blust said he did not feel President Obama responded "vigorously" enough to their criticism of America.

"Many of these people doing the criticizing don't really have very good records of their own as far as human rights," he said. "We're still a great republic. We still have courts that enforce people's individual rights. We still provide aid all over the world."

The resolution calls for a copy to be sent to the president, each member of the state's Congressional delegation and the governors and legislative leaders of all 50 states. 

The resolution has 34 cosponsors, all Republicans. 

President Obama's handshake with Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez during a summit of Western Hemisphere leaders left many Republicans steaming.

Republican Sen. John Ensign of Nevada called it "irresponsible for the President to be seen kind of laughing and joking with Hugo Chávez," Jim Morrill reports.

But eight years ago this week, it was a Republican laughing and joking with Chávez — in of all places, Hickory.

It was the only U.S. stop Chavez made on his way back from a Summit of the Americas in Quebec. He spent two days with then-GOP Rep. Cass Ballenger, who hosted a barbecue dinner for the leftist leader at his home.

The two also toured several businesses, including Ballanger's, and visited a day care center.

Ballenger, chairman of the Western Hemisphere Subcommittee of International Relations, had met Chávez on a trip to Venezuela and said the two "hit it off."

Chávez took home a pair of baseball socks made for him at Catawba County Community College and a favorable impression of at least one corner of America.

"We've seen Cass' business, we spoke with his workers," Chávez said at the time. "This should be the idea of capitalism."