The Implied Observer Returns

A couple of developments in the Implied Observer’s life. Sorry I was AWOL there for a while. I had a rather important job interview at my work. This would be a transfer to another position at my same place of work. For this reason, I have been uber-focused on work and haven’t had a chance to read as much. Yesterday I found out that for all intents and purposes I have gotten the position, although an offer is not yet on the table.

I did have one amusing insight that I wanted to share on the blog. Jake was helping me with interview questions, and he said at his work one of their favorite interview questions to ask prospective employees is for the person to describe their biggest failure. The philosophy at Jake’s work is that if you are good at your job, you will be able to describe a failure because you will be able to recognize what went wrong in a certain instance and what you learned from it. The idea is that all of us make mistakes, but not all of us learn from them. In addition, if you are totally lying about your experience then describing a failure will be nearly impossible. You just won’t have the details to accurately describe a situation like that.

As soon as Jake gave me this wisdom, I immediatly thought of person who would have failed a job interview at Jake’s work.

At a GOP Presidential debate in 2000:

When a local TV reporter asked the candidates what their biggest personal mistake as an adult was, the crowd shouted her down in a tangible display of the hostility many feel toward the media.

Bush, who many assumed the question was aimed at, had a joke ready: noting that when he was managing partner of the “mighty Texas Rangers, I signed off on that wonderful transaction: Sammy Sosa for Harold Baines.”

I think you get it.

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My first reaction to Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize

Well, it was easy: What does Glenn Greenwald think? I’ve really appreciated the fact that Greenwald since January has continued to criticize both Obama’s policies and continuation of policies which contradict Obama’s promises during the election. While I agree with Greenwald that there is still time to right the wrongs of the Bush Administration, I too am troubled by how slow we are going about doing so. The column is a must read.

Update: An LOL quote from Jake Tapper:

apparently the standards are more exacting for an ASU honorary degree these days

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Quote for the day

“I know lots of stupid people who went to Ivy League schools.” Karl Rove.

Yeah, we know.

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A little late

It seems that now Republicans all of a sudden care about preserving white house emails.

A California Republican congressman has called on President Obama to put in place a system that ensures all White House emails be preserved even if official business was done through private e- mail accounts.

Rep. Darrell Issa, the senior Republican on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, made the request in a February 18 letter to White House Counsel Greg Craig.

Issa specifically mentioned the new administration’s brief use of Gmail accounts after Obama was sworn in last month, as they waited for the official White House e-mail accounts to become active.

“As you know, any e-mail sent or received by White House officials may be subject to retention under the Presidential Records Act (PRA),” Issa wrote Craig in the letter.

“The use of personal e-mail accounts, such as Gmail to conduct official business raises the prospect that presidential records will not be captured by the White House e-mail archiving system. Consequently Gmail users on the President’s staff run the risk of incorrectly classifying their e-mails as non-records under the [Presidential Records] Act.”

This is the problem Republicans face today. Even when they bring up a perfectly reasonable idea, they have absolutely no credibility whatsoever in the matter. And it will be like this for a long time.

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The George W. Bush we never knew

This video is actually not difficult to watch at all. If you have a George W. Bush phobia you can handle it. I suppose because he’s nothing like what we’ve come to hate.

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The Bush Legacy by David Horsey

What I love about David Horsey is the attention to detail.

See the original in full here.

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They don’t give up power easily, do they?

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich is in federal custody on corruption charges, a law enforcement official said Tuesday.

Blagojevich and his chief of staff John Harris are charged with conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and solicitation of bribery, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Northern District of Illinois.

Federal prosecutors say Blagojevich, Harris and others conspired to gain financial benefits in appointing President-elect Barack Obama’s Senate replacement, according to the statement.

The Bush Administration has been pretty effective pulling out all the stops when it comes to squashing their opponents.

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US spied on Tony blair

That’s what David Murfee Faulk, a former Arab linguist who worked at a secret NSA facility, has told ABCNews.com. Murfee Faulk says he saw and read a file on Blair’s “private life” and heard “pillow talk” exchanged between Al-Yawer and his then-fiancee.

The U.S. and Britain have pledged not to collect information covertly on each other, several former intelligence officials told ABCNews.com — though this would by no means be the first time the U.S. was found to have done so.

Last month, Murfee Faulk and another former worker at the NSA facility revealed to the news network that the agency had listened in on private calls made by American journalists, aid workers, and soldiers stationed in Iraq. A Senate panel has said it is investigating those claims.

It all makes Tony Blair’s downfall a little more tragic. He was deceived by being given faulty “intelligence.” There was the ultra-embarrassing “yo, Blair” moment. Now we learn, the poor man was spied upon. Tony Blair is young. He could have had the tenure of a Thatcher. Instead, what is he?

I don’t know what’s worse: thinking Tony Blair knew WMD’s was a sham or that he was foolishly misled by George W. Bush. Either way this report is pretty depressing.

Via TalkingPointsMemo.

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It’s all in the marketing

Once again George W. Bush explains that the failings of his presidency were due to bad marketing — his choice of poor words “that conveyed the wrong message.” If only he could have sold himself better, everything would have been A-okay.

“I regret saying some things I shouldn’t have said,” Bush told CNN’s Heidi Collins when asked to reflect on his regrets over his two terms as president. “Like ‘dead or alive’ and ‘bring ’em on.’ My wife reminded me that, hey, as president of the United States, be careful what you say.”

The interview, aboard the USS Intrepid in New York, came after the president addressed a Veterans Day ceremony.

Shortly after the attacks of September 11, the president said of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden: “I want justice. There’s an old poster out West that said, ‘Wanted, dead or alive.’ ”

Bush was also criticized in 2003 for his answer addressing insurgents in Iraq.

“There are some who feel like that the conditions are such that they can attack us there. My answer is, bring ’em on,” he said then.

On Tuesday, the president also referenced the moment aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln on May 1, 2003, during which he declared an end to major combat operations in Iraq.

“They had a sign that said ‘Mission Accomplished.’ It was a sign aimed at the sailors on the ship, but it conveyed a broader knowledge. To some it said, well, Bush thinks the war in Iraq is over, when I didn’t think that. But nonetheless, it conveyed the wrong message.”

I can’t wait until the day when we have a president who has the marvelous ability to self-reflect.

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Pro-life women for Obama

Slate features pro-life women who used to vote on the single issue alone and are now voting for Obama despite their beliefs. Meanwhile I’ve been going in the opposite direction. I’ve gone from thinking voting on a single issue was silly to now thinking that maybe some issues (war, torture, abortion) are important enough. What has George Bush done to the Republican party?

It isn’t that Turnbach’s stand on abortion has shifted any, she says. But her view of the Republican Party’s commitment to seeing Roe overturned has: “Even if McCain does get in, he’s not going to do anything” that would lead to a reversal of Roe. The legality of abortion “is not going to change,” she’s concluded, “and I really don’t think it should be an issue” in this presidential race.

Like others who told me they had based their vote on the single issue of abortion the last two times around, Turnbach’s says her ’08 calculus takes other matters—like the economy, the economy and the economy—into account: “McCain was on my nerves the other night, prancing around” at the debate in Nashville, she says, while Obama” strikes her as “level-headed, intelligent, and someone who doesn’t fly off the handle; I like him.” Age is another strike against McCain in her view: “McCain is so old,” says Turnbach, who is retired. “If he passed away, we’d have someone so inexperienced it’s scary.” Most of her pro-life friends who went for Bush in 2000 and 2004 are also Obama grandmamas now, she says, including one who is really sweating the switch but “doesn’t think McCain is mentally stable.”

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Sarah Palin from my mom’s point of view

I’ve written before about my discussions I’ve had with my mom where I’ve gotten insights into the world outside of mostly-liberal Seattle. We’ve discussed the failing of banks and a lot about Barack Obama. The latter conversation was particularly difficult for me because as a person of mixed race it is hard to hear your own mother, an immigrant to the United States no less, draw negative conclusions of a stranger based on race. It was tough.

I hadn’t intended to talk to my mom about Sarah Palin in our weekly discussion, but my mom was ready to talk to me about her. What do you think of her, she said. I told her that I couldn’t give a damn about her personal life, but it highly pisses me off that she’d lied to the media on several occasions and I don’t agree with her philosophy on literally anything. My mom said, you know I don’t trust her. She said, I looked at her and saw the way she was standing and saw the way she talked and I don’t believe a word she says.

It’s funny we bemoan the use of gut feeling and emotion over hard cold facts when a person takes a position different than our own, but if that person is using their gut and agreeing with us so be it.

I really wish people used their heads a bit more. I’ve often said, if being a politician is so gosh darn easy that anyone can do it than maybe we’re paying them too much.  An action movie star for governor of California? A comedian in Minnesota? A wrestler in Minnesota? A hockey mom in Alaska? Clearly a distinguished resume can get trumped by a memorable name or story.

But I digress. The good news is that mom swears there is no way she can vote for McCain because she thinks he’ll be exactly like Bush (who she voted for in 2000 btw.) However, she’s still not voting for Obama. We’ll see if she changes her mind.

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Republican Strategy: Find Bin Laden

Do you get the idea that George W. is finally looking for the guy now that it is politically expediant to do so? Keep the fear alive while you’re in office, but if your party is having trouble then find him and make it a security success.

President Bush authorized U.S. special forces to conduct ground assaults inside Pakistan without seeking Islamabad’s permission first, a senior American intelligence official said Thursday.

“We have had the president’s OK for months,” said the official, who declined to be identified because the order is classified. “It is my understanding that the Pakistanis are well-aware of the change.”

The official would not elaborate on the exact nature of the order.

The official says Pakistan’s leaders will be notified during an assault or after the fact, depending on the situation but “most definitely after a decision has been made and things set in motion.”

National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe declined to comment on the report.

Thursday’s report comes after a statement from Pakistan’s armed forces chief on Wednesday that no foreign forces will be allowed to operate inside Pakistan.

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David Horsey on target as usual

The link is here.

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Lieberman as Vice President

Via TalkingPointsMemo I found this piece from the Financial Times:

Joe Lieberman, the former Democratic vice-presidential nominee who has endorsed John McCain, is being vetted as a potential running mate for the Republican presidential hopeful, according to an adviser to Mr McCain’s ­campaign.

Mr Lieberman, who has campaigned for the Arizona senator, has long been ­considered an unconventional but plausible choice for Mr McCain.

I wouldn’t be surprised at all if McCain chose Lieberman for VP. In fact, I would be more surprised if he didn’t. But what does this say about Republican politicians?

Lieberman is clearly the brains of the operation. He knows the difference between Sunni and Shiite. He knows that there is no Iraq Pakistan border. He knows that Czechoslovakia is no more and let’s be honest, he has an ideology of the Middle East, a region which I doubt I-don’t-know-much-about-foreign-policy-John-McCain has ever been interested in.

Does it not seem that Joe Lieberman whispering in John McCain’s ear is exactly like Dick Cheney lurking in the bushes?

The point I’m trying to make is that the Republican party has transformed themselves into the party of lazy frat boy talking heads. They select a figurehead of average intelligence who really has no interest in politics as anything more than a career where they can get a lot of admiration without a lot of work. If John McCain had any interest in foreign policy it would show in that he would know basic facts about foreign lands.

George W. cared so little about being President that he had no problem giving the reigns to his Vice President. He probably thought let’s get someone else to do all the work for me so he could still keep track of baseball.

Now, John McCain would seem to be doing the same. You would think that after going through all the hassle of getting elected President (the most powerful position in the world) that either of this men would actually want to be in charge. You would think wrong.

I guess we should expect that this is future of the office of Vice President when a Republican is in office. From now on the Vice President will be the most powerful position in the world — the man (and we’re talking Republicans here so it will be a man) behind the puppet.

Or, we could try to elect someone who actually wants to be President — someone with the smarts and desire to lead.

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Fascist Control

Two pieces of news interested me today. First that Barack Obama was asked by the Pentagon to not visit wounded American troops in Germany because it would be seen as politically partisan. Second that State Department had instructed its employees to not attend Barack Obama’s speech in Berlin to “maintain a pretense of neutrality.”

We’ve never heard about this sort of micromanagement before. What makes any of us think these fascists will give up their power so easily?

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Crawford, Texas

Warning, the following audio is extremely disturbing.

By now, the blogosphere is abuzz with the astonishing fact that President Bush only bought a ranch in Crawford, Texas because it fit into the narrative that George Bush is a cowboy who loves to clear brush just like good small town southern folk. Here you can see Bush admit that he and his wife can’t wait to escape to Dallas.

I remembered from early in the Bush years listening to a simple commentary on NPR from a Crawford resident about how great it was that George Bush had a ranch in Crawford. The guy had the voice of a sweet endearing man. I looked it up and have transcripted some of the more tragic quotes, but really you should listen to it all.

I found myself nearly crying while listening to it. This man just hasn’t a clue how awful our current president is. Guys like Marshall Whitman really have been taken advantage of.

What links me with the president is that we both summer near Crawford Texas. President Bush does it voluntarily; I do it because that is where my parents raised me.

The president evidently can’t get enough of Crawford. He hops on Air Force every chance he gets to escape Washington and go to small town Texas. It is his fortress of solitude.

It’s his escape from the dreaded chattering class. It’s the buckle in the Bible belt.

It may not be the Hamptons, the Vinyard or the Cape where the liberal elite summer, but Crawford located deep in the heart of Texas is the perfect place for our compassionate conservative president.

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The Heckler

For all that’s been written about the ”disastrous” Clinton campaign it certainly was miles ahead of the McCain one. The strategy appears to be same – that is the kitchen sink strategy, but McCain’s execution is terrible. If John McCain is trying to dispel the idea that he is a crotchety old man he’s not doing a very good job. Obama’s message doesn’t require the existence of McCain; he rarely brings him up, but McCain’s message is “don’t choose Obama.” I can’t help but think of Statler and Waldorf, the old muppets in the theatre boxes.

Look at this last week:

Michael Goldfarb: “Today he says ‘never again.’ A year ago stopping genocide wasn’t a good enough reason to keep U.S. forces in Iraq. Doesn’t that strike you as inconsistent?”

McCain: “I had the courage and the judgment to say that I would rather lose a political campaign than lose a war. It seems to me that Sen. Obama would rather lose a war in order to win a political campaign.”

“If he had his way … we would have had defeat. And my friends that would have been a catastrophe for the United States of America. He was wrong then, he’s wrong now and he still failed to acknowledge … that the surge succeeded.”

I also note the ever-changing message as to why we can’t leave Iraq. No matter the success of Obama, and I would say having the Iraqi Prime Minister agree with your withdrawal plan is a success, McCain wants to somehow twist it into a failure. But again, the lack of consistency makes me think of those dang Muppets.

Al-Maliki appeared to back the idea of a timetable in an interview with the German magazine Der Spiegel over the weekend, but an Iraqi government spokesman said later the prime minister’s comments were “misunderstood, mistranslated and not conveyed accurately.” (The magazine has said it “stands by its version of this interview.”)

The Bush administration has opposed timetables for troop withdrawals, but al-Maliki and President Bush last week agreed to a “general time horizon for meeting aspirational goals” on troop cuts.

McCain shrugged off the suggestion that Obama’s talks with al-Maliki undercut his message.

“It doesn’t in the slightest undercut the fact that it’s based on the conditions on the ground,” he said.

McCain pointed to comments made by Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who said Sunday that the consequences of Obama’s withdrawal plan could be “dangerous.”

“I hope [Obama] will pay attention to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, particularly someone who has no military experience whatsoever,” McCain said.

It just gets worse.

I don’t know about anyone else, but I find it really hard to follow or get enthused with anything McCain says. He’s the guy who’s resentful when he doesn’t think of an idea first and so he needs to trash anyone and everyone else’s opinions in order to feel important. How do you get inspired by that?

What’s more interesting is that that is the exact obstinacy that has led to George W. Bush’s abysmal approval ratings. The people don’t want a person that has no ideas of their own, but only seeks to trash everything else. People want leadership. The people want a person who is open to new ideas and resilient. Obstinacy is a fatal flaw of the current administration and I don’t think voters want to return there.

I thought the Republican primary voters had done a good job in choosing McCain. He was the one person I thought that could seem like he wasn’t a Republican while still being one. Sadly (or happily since I support Obama) he’s been an utter disappointment.

Image via http://www.blazesoftball.com.

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White House Bullies

In response to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s endorsement of Barack Obama’s withdrawl plan, Dana Perino makes what certainly sounds like a threat to me.

“We don’t think that talking about specific negotiating tactics or your negotiating position in the press is the best way to negotiate a deal,” Perino said after Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was quoted in a magazine article supporting the 16-month troop withdrawal timeline proposed by Obama, the Democratic presidential candidate.

Frankly I don’t think openly threatening the Prime Minister of a country you claimed to have liberated is such a good idea either. Let’s face it the White House pushed al-Maliki into this position. Had they not tried to firm up a permanent presence in Iraq in the last few months of Bush’s presidency maybe Maliki wouldn’t have had to have pushed back.

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Goodbye from the world’s biggest ass

This story has been well reported, so I don’t expect anyone reading this will be surprised, but I thought it might bring about a good topic for discussion and that is “is this guy psychotic or what?”

Bush has said many times that history will vindicate him as a president. I just have to wonder how can he possibly think that when he behaves so contemptibly. There is no doubt that humans are responsible for climate change which will have devastating consequences. History tells us this. So why blacken your name for the next century as the man who was such an idiot that he made a joke out of being the worst polluter at an environmental summit. It’s beyond belief and truly pathological.

I’ve only worked at country club, not been a member of one, and I think I can safely say this is the guy in the corner with the martini glass laughing at everyone. This is the guy at the country club who pisses on the cars. This is the guy who staunchly believes in wars and people dying in wars so long as it’s not him. What can you say about America, knowing that either this man was either elected president or stole the presidency and no one did anything about it. The country is just not worth verbally defending. When it comes to November, this country will truly get the leader it deserves.

The American leader, who has been condemned throughout his presidency for failing to tackle climate change, ended a private meeting with the words: “Goodbye from the world’s biggest polluter.”

He then punched the air while grinning widely, as the rest of those present including Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy looked on in shock.

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It’s almost like they want us to leave or something

It’s encouraging to know that it is the Iraqis themselves who may end this war and thus control their own destiny. Think about every justification you have ever heard about the war from George Bush. Those justifications are tremendously hollow when the liberated people don’t want you there.

Iraq will not accept any security agreement with the United States unless it includes dates for the withdrawal of foreign forces, the government’s national security adviser said on Tuesday.

The comments by Mowaffaq al-Rubaie underscore the U.S.-backed government’s hardening stance toward a deal with Washington that will provide a legal basis for U.S. troops to operate when a U.N. mandate expires at the end of the year.

On Monday, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki appeared to catch Washington off-guard by suggesting for the first time that a timetable be set for the departure of U.S. forces under the deal being negotiated, which he called a memorandum of understanding.

Rubaie said Iraq was waiting “impatiently for the day when the last foreign soldier leaves Iraq.”

So Congress, including a Democrat-controlled House of Representatives, have failed to end this war. The Iraqis must be very proud to know they have the power to end it on their own.

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Do we stay the course?

I’m the type of person who worries a lot. If I have nothing to worry about, I assure you I will think of something to worry about. My worries are primarily comprised of rare happenings like terrorist attacks, plane crashes, car seat problems, medical mishaps, child abductions, exploding cell phones, re-useable plastic bottles — you know the things that pop news tells me to be worried about.

The Republicans aren’t doing very much to assuage some of my fears. In fact, they seem to be hoping that something will happen to re-heighten my fears.

• Lieberman told the show’s host, Bob Schieffer, “Our enemies will test the new president early. Remember that the truck bombing of the World Trade Center happened in the first year of the Clinton administration. 9/11 happened in the first year of the Bush administration.”

• First, Black described the assassination of Pakistani political leader Benazir Bhutto in late December as an “unfortunate event” — but one that boosted McCain’s stock just before the must-win New Hampshire primary. The candidate’s “knowledge and ability to talk about it reemphasized that this is the guy who’s ready to be commander in chief. And it helped us,” Black said. Then the longtime Washington lobbyist went further. Asked what the political ramifications of another terrorist attack on U.S. soil might be for McCain, Black told Fortune, “Certainly it would be a big advantage to him.”

• John McCain predicted the general election race would come down to the buzzer Friday, declaring himself the underdog but quipping that he’d ride to victory in the last “48 hours.”

Now just what could they be planning? BTW, if Lieberman is supporting the Republican candidate for President then he is a Republican in my book.

The question is whether we carry on with the same course because we are too afraid of an alternative? Do we stay the course as George Bush wants us to? There is no question in my mind that diplomacy leads to a safer country. The ideals of the conservatives do not include being diplomatic or playing nice. They rule (or not as the case may be) by force. To them the answer to all of our problems is force. Yet this war is proof that their strategy has no credit to it. We as a country are less safe, and this country has lost a bit of its intimidation factor. Do we continue with a course that is failing us because we are too afraid of an alternative? Do we stay the course?

The Republicans want you to be afraid of taxes, of environmental regulation, of the price of gas, of your money being taken away. But we already know what their answer is. We pay more for gas, we pay more for food, we pay more to repair the damage done by hurricanes and floods than environmental protection would have cost, and our money is being taken away and given to the richest individuals in this country. To quote Dr. Phil: how’s that working for you. Do we stay with a known course of folly or do we try an alternative?

The politics of fear are very powerful. Voting out of fear — how is that working for us?

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Interesting Correlation

An independent market-research firm, AIMRCo (Adult Internet Market Research Company), has discovered that many websites focused on adult or erotic material have experienced an upswing in sales in the recent weeks since checks have appeared in millions of Americans’ mailboxes across the country.
According to Kirk Mishkin, Head Research Consultant for AIMRCo, “Many of the sites we surveyed have reported 20-30% growth in membership rates since mid-May when the checks were first sent out, and typically the summer is a slow period for this market.”

Via Huffingtonpost.

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Defining Obama

From The Huffingtonpost:

As a rule, Republicans appreciate the value in defining the Democratic presidential nominee, and the GOP is usually pretty good at it. In 2000, Al Gore, they said, was an “exaggerator.” This was not only effective, thanks to a quick embrace by the media, it was also part of a narrative — when Gore takes credit for some of the successes of the ’90s, don’t believe him because he exaggerates

In 2004, John Kerry, they said was a “flip-flopper.” This, too, was relatively effective, and was once again parroted by the media. The narrative here was equally clear — in the first post-9/11 election, in a time of war, we don’t want someone who’s inconsistent.

Four years later, the effort to define Barack Obama is proving to be more difficult for Republican attack dogs. The GOP keeps experimenting with new memes, but not only are they not sticking, some even contradict each other.

It’s true the GOP are great at branding. If the GOP is the Bud of marketing, then the Democrats are the Coors (the Coors founder famously didn’t believe in marketing.) I marvel at the fact that I’ve heard repeated the nonsense that somehow Barack Obama is an elitist but George Bush, John McCain and even Hillary Clinton are everyday ordinary folks. It’s powerful stuff.

What’s really interesting is that John Kerry and John McCain are virtually the same person. They are both war heroes from rich and established families and both of their second wives are rich heiresses. But you rarely hear the jabs about John McCain’s wealth that we heard about Kerry. And certainly John McCain is the biggest flip-flopper of them all.

Marketing is key to the Bush Administration. Time and time again we have heard them describe their failures as being image problems only. Rumsfeld regretted calling the war the War on Terror as if it was called anything else it would have been a success. George Bush recently said:

Bush “admitted to the Times that his gun-slinging rhetoric made the world believe that he was a ‘guy really anxious for war’ in Iraq. He said that his aim now was to leave his successor a legacy of international diplomacy for tackling Iran. Phrases such as ‘bring them on’ or ‘dead or alive’ [in reference to Osama bin Laden,] he said, ‘indicated to people that I was, you know, not a man of peace.’

So why is the GOP having a hard time branding Obama? I have two suggestions to add to the mix. Americans are weary of the Republicans right now and almost everything they say lacks credibility. It’s a case of the boy crying wolf too much. People are suspicious of their attacks knowing that the alternative they offer is bleaker. Fear was a decider in the 2004 election. People may feel duped that they voted out of fear and got something far worse in return. We have nothing to fear but fear itself. Second, the Republicans are sounding increasingly like whiners. What America desperately wants right now is a positive message to put forth and the Republicans are coming up short.

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Our Articulate President

Upon meeting me for the first time, it’s fairly regular for a person to tell me how much they like Thai food since I am part Thai. I understand it, after all that may be the only connection a person has to Thailand. Better that then mentioning a sex show you saw in Thailand (sadly that happened to me.) Another is “oh, you’re Taiwanese” (happened!). So I guess it’s really understandable that our President, the guy who rubbed the shoulders of a female head of state, would say the following to Gloria Macapagal Arroyo President of the Philippines:

Madam President, it is a pleasure to welcome you back to the Oval Office. We have just had a very constructive dialogue. First, I want to tell you how proud I am to be the President of a nation that — in which there’s a lot of Philippine-Americans. They love America and they love their heritage. And I reminded the President that I am reminded of the great talent of the — of our Philippine-Americans when I eat dinner at the White House. And the chef is a great person and a really good cook, by the way, Madam President.

Actually, it is kind of embarrassing isn’t it?

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Picture of the Day

One has to give credit to the BBC for the juxtaposition of this photo and headline. The article is here.

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