International
Obama Snubbed Again
It got very little play in the press, but President Obama was recently snubbed again on the world stage when 15 Asian nations formed a Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership without the United States. Obama had traveled to Phnom Penh in an effort to “sell a US-based Trans-Pacific Partnership excluding China.” He failed.
Add this to a growing list of major failures by Barack Obama on the International Stage. He failed to bring the Olympics to Chicago. He failed to produce progress on the Israel-Palestine front (it’s actually getting worse). He’s failed to create any sort of consensus on what to do about Syria. He has failed to inhibit Iran’s progress toward a nuclear weapon.
There is no doubt that U.S. influence is waning under Obama. Maybe that’s exactly what he wants.
Obama Insults Poland While Honoring Famous Pole
The Amateur-in-Chief is at it again. The flap occurred during a ceremony where Jan Karski was being awarded a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom for his actions during WWII. Somehow, Obama managed to insult Poland by referring to “a Polish death camp” instead of a “Nazi” death camp.
Poland was not amused.
Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski took to Twitter to unleash a particularly pointed chiding of Obama’s “outrageous… ignorance and incompetence” (screencap to the right, untranslated; see Google translation). The Economist reports that “the reaction in Warsaw was incendiary.” Polish media is reporting Obama’s comment as “scandalous.”
The White House dispatched a troll from NSC who issued a half-hearted apology which neither apologized nor recognized the mistake, but did manage to credit Obama personally for “demonstrating in word and deed his rock-solid commitment to close alliance with Poland.”
No shortage of humility in this administration, no sir /sarcasm
Curiously, this so-called “apology” says President Obama is committed to the “close alliance with Poland“ rather than with Poland itself. Poor choice of words? Accidental truth-telling? Nothing surprises me with this administration.
Obama will undoubtedly “clarify” his remarks, as well he should. It will be interesting to see if he shows any true humility, or if he will find some way of making it seem like Poland is overreacting.
Either way, this latest snafu is just one in a growing list of buffoonery perpetrated by one of the most inept Presidents in history. Take a look at some of his previous gaffes:
- Obama sent back the Churchill bust… loaned to us after 9/11
- Obama forgot Sarkozy was the President of France… and sent a letter to Jacques Chirac instead
- Obama snubbed the British Prime Minister… proving he is less classy than his predecessor
- Obama gave cheap DVDs to legally blind Gordon Brown… and they wouldn’t even play on European DVD players
- Obama gave the Queen an iPod… preloaded with speeches of himself
- Obama refuses to eat with a variety of allies… even when he was staying just across the street
- Obama mispronounces “corpsman”… repeatedly
UPDATE: Additions to the list (thanks to all who posted!)
- Obama messed up his Memorial Day Speech… by forgetting the meaning of the holiday
- Obama messed up another Memorial Day Speech… by getting the facts wrong
- Obama continued to speak over God Save the Queen… like talking during our National Anthem
- Obama thoroughly snubbed Israel PM Netanyahu… who was a guest of our nation at the time
- Obama confuses the Malvines with the Maldives… proving he should leave speaking another language to a President more capable, like GWB
- Obama thinks Austrian is a language… it isn’t; the people of Austria speak mostly German
- Obama insulted the Dalai Lama… including having him escorted past a giant pile of garbage
- Obama bowed to the Saudi King… the Saudis may not have been insulted, but we certainly should be
- Obama insulted special needs people and the Special Olympics… on purpose, and because he thought it was funny
- Obama cracked a tasteless joke about Nancy Reagan… she was 87 at the time
Which is your favorite? Any I’ve missed? Let me know.
Another Reason to Never Buy GM: They Sponsor Communist Propaganda
It’s bad enough that General Motors agreed to accept $80 billion in taxpayer-funded bailout money. It’s bad enough that GM let the government become the de facto head of their own company. And it’s really bad enough that they allowed their bondholders to be completely hosed in favor of big payoffs to the UAW.
But today I find out that not only has GM been working with the government of China to move production lines and research and development to the red empire, they’ve also been sharing secrets and sponsoring Chinese government propaganda celebrating Communism.
And this isn’t even breaking news. Most of this happened a year ago or more. No surprise that, despite some outrage, the MSM didn’t cover it at the time (and won’t cover it now), considering it would obviously be damaging to the Obama administration’s narrative that the bailout worked.
I was clued in by a video that’s making the rounds. Watch if you don’t mind being irritated for the next 9 minutes:
Now I’m not so naive as to be ignorant of the realities of the global marketplace. Nor am I particularly critical of the necessity of the CEO to speak to his audience. Indeed, I understand that China is a huge market and I sympathize with the fact that Big Labor and progressive governance has made it extraordinarily difficult for multinationals to compete while using a primarily U.S.-based workforce.
But my sympathies with the reality of globalization ends when a U.S. company (especially one that received money from the U.S. taxpayer) starts sponsoring Communist propaganda. That’s enough to make me never buy another GM vehicle ever again.
