Bloodthirsty Liberal

Madame Secretary evidently couldn’t tell East Jerusalem from East Jesus—and very likely doesn’t care:

The incompetence of American diplomacy reached a new nadir yesterday in an incident vershadowed by the elections in the US. Hillary Clinton told Al-Jazeera in an interview that the US wants to see an Israeli capital in East Jerusalem. Apparently, the chief diplomat of the United States and the woman who ran on her experience in foreign affairs did not remember that East Jerusalem is primarily Palestinian:

Egypt and other Arab nations reacted with strong concern to remarks Clinton made in Jerusalem on Saturday. She caused a stir when she said with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at her side that his government’s offer to restrain — but not stop — settlement activity in Palestinian areas was unprecedented.

And in a new twist Tuesday, Clinton made what appeared to be an inadvertent slip of the tongue in a television interview with the al-Jazeera network, referring to the goal of “an Israeli capital in east Jerusalem.”

…

Two Clinton aides monitoring the interview alerted her to the mistake and that portion of the interview was retaped so she could correct herself.

In other words, she pressed the re-set button.

If it indeed were American policy to recognize the Israeli capital in East Jerusalem, I would be the first to praise the morality and courage of such a decision. But no, they just hit the re-wind button, and erased history.

What a bunch of rank amateurs.

Watching Vice President Biden in action raises the age-old question: was he born this stupid, or does he have to work at it?

Vice President Joe Biden said in an interview that Russia’s economy is “withering,” and suggested the trend will force the country to make accommodations to the West on a wide range of national-security issues, including loosening its grip on former Soviet republics and shrinking its vast nuclear arsenal.

Mr. Biden said he believes Russia’s economic problems are part of a series of developments that have contributed to a significant rethinking by Moscow of its international self-interest. The geographical proximity of the emerging nuclear programs in Iran and North Korea is also likely to make Russia more cooperative with the U.S. in blocking their growth, he said.

But in the interview, at the end of a four-day trip to Ukraine and Georgia, Mr. Biden said domestic troubles are the most important factor driving Russia’s new global outlook. “I think we vastly underestimate the hand that we hold,” he said.

“Russia has to make some very difficult, calculated decisions,” Mr. Biden said. “They have a shrinking population base, they have a withering economy, they have a banking sector and structure that is not likely to be able to withstand the next 15 years, they’re in a situation where the world is changing before them and they’re clinging to something in the past that is not sustainable.”

So much for Smart Power. Taunting your adversaries is generally a pretty poor way of getting them to see your side of things.

How does he expect Putin/Medvedev to respond?

Natalya Timakova, a spokeswoman for Mr. Medvedev, declined to comment on Mr. Biden’s remarks.

Why comment on moronic comments by a moron? Especially when he wasn’t done:

Despite Russia’s economic and geopolitical difficulties, Mr. Biden said, Moscow could become more belligerent in the short term unless the U.S. continues to treat Russia as a major player on the international stage. He said Russian leaders are gradually beginning to grasp their diminished global role, but that the U.S. should be cautious not to overplay its advantage.

“It won’t work if we go in and say: ‘Hey, you need us, man; belly up to the bar and pay your dues,’ ” he said. “It is never smart to embarrass an individual or a country when they’re dealing with significant loss of face. My dad used to put it another way: Never put another man in a corner where the only way out is over you.”

EXACTLY!!!

“It’s a very difficult thing to deal with, loss of empire,” Mr. Biden said. “This country, Russia, is in a very different circumstance than it has been any time in the last 40 years, or longer.”

He’s not wrong; he’s learned the lessons of America Alone (now in paperback!). But what does this adolescent crowing gain us? This is just the sort of loose-lipped, free-shooting chauvinism that Bush took so much heat for—but rarely if ever committed. Neither he nor Cheney (nor Rumsfeld) ever shot their mouths off like this.

Although she doesn’t use the term much these days, Secretary Clinton’s department still goes on and on about “smart power”, whatever it may actually be. They can’t be too pleased with such a dolt—a “foreign policy expert” dolt—as Vice President.

PS: Well, she thinks she knows what it is:

So around the world we are trying to do what we think is actually smart power, which means you have to work with people you have to be conscious about what their expectations and goals are.

Smart power: “you have to work with people you have to be conscious about what their expectations and goals are.”

Oy.

We’ve already noted that Britain was PO-ed by President Obama’s back door deal with Bermuda to take four of the Uighurs from Guantanamo—adding our own opinion that Obama was either indifferent or amused by Britain’s pique.

How right we were:

A senior US official has told the BBC Washington decided not to tell London ahead of time about a deal to resettle four Guantanamo detainees in Bermuda.

A diplomatic row blew up over Bermuda’s decision to accept the four Chinese Muslim Uighurs on a US request.

Bermuda is a British overseas territory but the US official said Washington had acted secretly to ensure success.

…

Pressed on whether the US had told the British government, an unnamed state department official was quoted as saying: “We did talk to them before the Uighurs got on the plane.”

…

Now a senior US official has told the BBC it was a deliberate decision not to consult London on the resettlement, after other countries came under pressure from China not to accept the Uighurs.

In a highly unusual move, a senior US official said Washington opted to keep details of the deal from London until the last minute to enable Britain to deny all knowledge of the deal and thus avoid China’s anger….

Oh, that’s all right then: “We lie because we care.”

They call it Smart Power because getting bitch-slapped by the leader of the free world smarts.

BTW, how abused do they look to you?

I believe the men in question are the four jolly, plump fellows on the right. When I facetiously wrote once that “Uighurs wobble but they don’t fall down”, again, I didn’t know how right I was. Lock up your wives and daughters, Bermudans—and your papayas.

This is too easy, but President Obama brought this on himself by declaring so openly and conceitedly that he was rolling back relations with Iran to square one. As if the three decade reign of terror in the Islamic Republic were Bush’s fault.

But shooting fish in a barrel is more fun than you might think—and you eat well (if in very small bites)!

Iranian Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami In Friday Sermon:

“The Iranian nation is the same nation that put all options of (former U.S. President George W.) Bush under table and into history’s dustbin. (U.S. President Barack) Obama is now toeing Bush’s line regarding Iran.”

…

“Today there is news [in the U.S.] that Iran is named as the most active country supporting terrorism, and the U.S.’s inexperienced foreign minister [i.e. Hillary Clinton] says that if Iran does not agree with our [i.e. the U.S.’s] directive we will intensify the sanctions… Are you [Americans] after talks? For a long time the world people have been overwhelmed by hearing your (Americans’) empty drums.”

…

Turning to the leaders of the Arab countries, Khatami said: “These are people who see America as their Ka’ba [i.e. their Mecca], and consider it as assuring their existence. If they didn’t flatter America, America wouldn’t protect them… When will you learn that America is your enemy? When will you want to learn that Israel is the occupier and the aggressor? When it gathers strength, it will occupy your lands as well… When will you want to believe this truth - that the defenders of Islam and of the Islamic countries is Iran, who is conscientious for you and your honor?” …

“You (Americans) stepped in Iraq with the lip service of guaranteeing security (there), but everybody knows that the green light of terrorism in Iraq is given by the U.S.

How does this sound, Mr. President?

Oh wait, we already know that Obama has selective deafness. He is congenitally incapable of hearing irrational America-hatred spewed from the pulpit. He probably thinks Khatami is just another crazy uncle.

You know what’s coming.

Another blunder, faux pas, misstep, screw-up, SNAFU from the People Who Are Smarter Than You Are:

In the world of international diplomacy, small missteps can cause big problems. When George W. Bush gave German Chancellor Angela Merkel a quick shoulder rub—in what he thought was a friendly gesture—he was mercilessly pilloried for weeks. Hillary Clinton’s embrace of Suha Arafat dogged her for years. One of the most important tests of a globe-trotting president: picking out just the right gift for your foreign counterpart. Barack Obama is learning this the hard way.

Only a few weeks on the job, Obama created a minor diplo-mess when British Prime Minister Gordon Brown came to the U.S. for a visit. Obama’s historic Oval Office desk, a gift from Queen Victoria to Rutherford Hayes, is made from the timbers of the HMS Resolute. Brown proudly presented Obama with a pencil holder carved from its antislavery sister ship, the HMS Gannet. Classy! Obama lamely reciprocated with a DVD set of Hollywood movies, including “Psycho.” When Brown got back home, he discovered they didn’t work in his European player. “At a minimum you don’t want to give offense,” says a former White House official who helped orchestrate foreign visits for a previous president. “That was really phoning it in.” (The official, like others quoted here, asked not to be named disparaging a sitting president.) Apparently it was a rookie mistake. According to a person close to the situation, Obama hasn’t yet appointed a chief of protocol and his staffers, still unpacking, didn’t realize that the State Department has an entire office dedicated to foreign visits.

But things are getting better, right?

Ever the quick study, Obama did a little better last week when he welcomed Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd with a rare original copy of the sheet music for “The Star Spangled Banner.” Classy! (Brown, clutching his worthless DVDs, must have been like, “What the …?”) But before Obama starts raiding the National Archives whenever a world leader doorsteps the White House, he might take a hint from a few of his predecessors, who had a knack for picking out a little something for the man who has everything.

Why not have Michelle put a finely-toned, rippling-muscled arm around the world leader?

Oops:

When Michelle Obama put her arm round the Queen at Buckingham Palace, some of the more excitable elements of the media - particularly the Americans - suggested she may have been guilty of a breach of protocol.

They missed the real story, however. What was far more interesting was that the Queen put her arm round the First Lady.

It is less than 20 years ago that the Australian Prime Minister was branded “the Lizard of Oz” for committing the supposedly heinous crime of putting his hand on the Queen’s back during an official tour of Australia.

Nice of Lizzie to reciprocate. Helped to avoid an international incident.

I might have wondered if this was a calculated move by the Obamas—but given their willful ignorance of protocol, as evidenced by the story above, I think they just got lucky.

I usually get a punch in the nose when I use that line. Maybe it’s the way I say it.

Because it’s just the latest in the long-running series (too-long-running, if you ask me) of…

During her recent visit to Mexico, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made an unexpected stop at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe and left a bouquet of white flowers “on behalf of the American people,” after asking who painted the famous image.

The image of Our Lady of Guadalupe was miraculously imprinted by Mary on the tilma, or cloak, of St. Juan Diego in 1531. The image has numerous unexplainable phenomena, such as the appearance on Mary’s eyes of those present in the room when the tilma was opened and the image’s lack of decay.

Mrs. Clinton was received on Thursday at 8:15 a.m. by the rector of the Basilica, Msgr. Diego Monroy.

Msgr. Monroy took Mrs. Clinton to the famous image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, which had been previously lowered from its usual altar for the occasion.

After observing it for a while, Mrs. Clinton asked “who painted it?” to which Msgr. Monroy responded “God!”

Clinton then told Msgr. Monroy that she had previously visited the old Basilica in 1979, when the new one was still under construction.

After placing a bouquet of white flowers by the image, Mrs. Clinton went to the quemador –the open air area at the Basilica where the faithful light candles- and lit a green candle.

Leaving the basilica half an hour later, Mrs. Clinton told some of the Mexicans gathered outside to greet her, “you have a marvelous virgin!”

You think the press would have let George Bush get away with this humiliating misstep?

And how’s this for irony?

This evening Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is set to receive the highest award given by Planned Parenthood Federation of America — the Margaret Sanger Award, named for the organization’s founder, a noted eugenicist.

Honoring a religious miracle in the morning, being honored herself by the godless at night. Secretary Clinton may not “get” some faiths, but she sure worships at the altar of liberal post-deism—and is worshipped in return.

Ask (see post below), and I shall receive:

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Wednesday that America’s “insatiable” demand for illegal drugs and its inability to stop weapons from being smuggled into Mexico are fueling an alarming spike in violence along the U.S.-Mexican border.

Clinton said the United States shares responsibility with Mexico for dealing with the violence and that the Obama administration will work with Mexican authorities to improve security on both sides of the border.

President Barack Obama himself said Tuesday that he wanted the U.S. to do more to prevent guns and cash from illicit drug sales from flowing across the border into Mexico. But Clinton’s remarks appeared more forceful in recognizing the U.S. share of the blame.

Well, duh! What are we not to blame for? Seriously, we suck so bad, we should be exterminated. That’s what liberals believe. If we all stopped procreating (breeding, my gay friends call it), the earth would heal from our toxic presence in due course.

Curiously, however, the left never seems to hold responsible those who actually break the law. We are responsible (you, me, Aggie—especially Aggie), not the murderous, inhuman Mexican thugs or the stoners firing up their bongs every chance they get. Give needles to addicts because it’s better we enable their addiction than risk the spread of disease. Maybe it is, but don’t think you’re getting anywhere—anywhere—on the problem of drugs and drug related crime.

Is there anything in Mexico superior to anything here? Anything at all? I’m not denying there is, but other than a ruin or two, I can’t think of anything I’m envious of from Haiti Oeste.

Oh, and speaking of dumbasses wielding smart power, I knew this was too good to be true (which is why we didn’t touch it):

The right side of the web is apoplectic this morning claiming that President Obama doesn’t know who the French president is.

They point to an article in the French newspaper Le Figaro reporting that President Obama last week wrote a letter to former French President Jacques Chirac.

“I am certain that we will be able to work together, in the coming four years, in a spirit of peace and friendship to build a safer world,” Obama is purported to have written.

This has electrified the Internet. Why would President Obama initiate correspondence with Mr. Chirac instead of President Nicolas Sarkozy?

…

Obama was merely replying to a Chirac letter who was writing him as the head of his foundation — the Jacques Chirac Foundation for sustainable development and cultural dialogue.

The foundation is promoting access to water and medicines in west Africa, combating deforestation in the Congo Basin, and trying to save dying languages in Polynesia, according to a spokesman who helped set up the foundation.

Of course, Barack Obama would know who the French president is. And if he didn’t, he could just ask John Kerry.

Has anybody even seen Hillary Clinton in the last month? The girl has been less visible than Bigfoot.

And we’re beginning to understand why:

America’s enemies smell blood and it’s type “O.”

All new administrations stumble a bit as they seek their footing. But President Obama’s foreign-policy botches have set new records for instant incompetence.

Contrary to left-wing myths, I wasn’t a fan of the Bush administration. (I called for Donald Rumsfeld to get the boot in mid-2001.) But fair’s fair. Despite his many faults, Bush sought to do good. Obama just wants to look good.

Vice President Dick Cheney was arrogant. Vice President Joe Biden is arrogant and stupid. Take your pick.

Don’t worry about the new administration’s ideology. Worry about its terrifying naivete.

Oh, I do. All day, every day.

But Ralph Peters is just a domestic hater, right?

Obama’s still loved overseas, isn’t he?

He isn’t?

The president of the European Union on Wednesday slammed U.S. plans to spend its way out of recession as “a road to hell.”

Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, whose country currently holds the rotating EU presidency, told the European Parliament that President Barack Obama’s massive stimulus package and banking bailout “will undermine the liquidity of the global financial market.”

A day after his government collapsed because of a parliamentary vote of no-confidence, Topolanek took the EU presidency on a collision course with Washington over how to deal with the global economic recession.

The blunt comments pushed other European politicians into damage control mode, with some reproaching the Czech leader for his language and others reaffirming their good diplomatic ties with the U.S.

Most European leaders say the focus should be on tighter financial regulation, while the U.S. is pushing for larger economic stimulus plans — but nobody has so far escalated the rhetoric to such strident levels.

Oh God. Getting lectured in sound market principles by European socialists—can it be that bad?

Yes It Can.

Smart Power meets dumbass.

Do you mind if I repeat this? “Vice President Dick Cheney was arrogant. Vice President Joe Biden is arrogant and stupid. Take your pick.”

Oh, that felt good.

If Barack Obama is supposed to embody Smart Power (a term coined by Hillary Clinton), then I guess President Bush would have represented Dumb Hick Power.

I know which one I prefer:

President Obama says he wants a “new beginning” in US relations with Iran – and Moscow is listening intently.

Russia may be the US’s indispensable partner in any fence-mending with Tehran. And Obama’s three-minute video appeal to Iran Friday raises hopes here that Moscow and Washington may also be on the path to better ties.

“There is no doubt that Obama’s expressed readiness to talk with Iran pushes away the threat of war, and is an extremely positive signal in the development of US ties with Russia,” says Yevgeny Satanovsky, president of the independent Institute of Middle Eastern Studies in Moscow.

Sound promising?

Listen closer:

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Rybakov has stated that Moscow has no information indicating that the Iranian nuclear program is for military purposes, and that it will not hold negations with Washington on this issue. Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterovsky stated that Russia would never jeopardize its warm relations with Iran because of “US political games.”

US political games? Like bowling?

You know me: not too sharp, but doggedly (furry and bad-breathed) determined to figure stuff out.

But this Smart Power initiative by the pant-suited plenipotentiary, Madame Secretary Hillary Clinton, has me scratching my head (and ears). We sell out Eastern Europe to make nice with Vladimir Putin’s Stalinist theme park of contemporary Russia.

And we sell out tiny, little, harmless Tibet to curry favor with that defender of individual liberties, China.

Actor Richard Gere told Wolf Blitzer in an interview on Monday that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton “misspoke in the moment” when she said that human rights “can’t interfere with the global economic crisis.”

While on a diplomatic trip to Asia in February, Clinton said that the global economic crisis, climate change and security take precedent over human rights issues when dealing with China. Gere said that Clinton has always been on the “forefront of human rights.”

“Let’s assume she said more than that because she’s more complicated than that,” Gere said. “For me, these are all the same issue. If you want to make it about human rights, that’s perfectly valid. From my point of view, human rights are very important. To an American, human rights are desperately important and you have to say the words.”

When Richard Gere makes more sense than our Secretary of State, haven’t things gone horribly, terribly wrong?

This guy thinks so:

The Chinese government has made life “hell on Earth” for Tibetans during the half-century since a failed uprising against its rule in 1959, the Dalai Lama said Tuesday.

“These 50 years have brought untold suffering and destruction to the land and people of Tibet,” the 73-year-old spiritual and political leader of Tibetan Buddhists said from exile in Dharamsala, India. “Today, the religion, culture, language and identity … are nearing extinction; in short, the Tibetan people are regarded like criminals deserving to be put to death.”

Yeah, well, you gotta look at the big picture, Dal. You buddhists have your heads up your asses (sometimes literally). Your few million wretched slaves are nothing compared to a billion-plus customers—I mean, citizens:

China will never adopt Western-style democracy with a multi-party system, its top legislator has said.

Parliament chief Wu Bangguo said that China would draw on the achievements of all cultures but would not “simply copy” the West.

Communist Party leadership should be strengthened and “the correct political orientation” maintained, he said.

Mr Wu made the comments in a speech to the National People’s Congress, China’s annual parliament session.

He ranks second only to President Hu Jintao in the Communist Party hierarchy.

Hu’s first?

Exactly.

No, I’m asking you.

Hu.

You!

Hu’s first!

How should I know?!

No, How’s third.

Argh!!!

UPDATE
But hey, it seems to be working:

“China has lodged serious representations with the United States, as the USNS Impeccable conducted activities in China’s special economic zone in the South China Sea,” said Ma Zhaoxu, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman. “We demand that the United States put an immediate stop to related activities and take effective measures to prevent similar acts from happening.”