Showing posts with label diplomacy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label diplomacy. Show all posts

Monday, November 25, 2013

Senator John Cornyn R-TX - Iran Peace Deal Just "Distraction" from Obamacare

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From CNN
. . . on Sunday, diplomats made history when Iran and six world powers came together on an agreement over Iran's nuclear program.
The deal dials back Iran's ability to work toward a nuclear weapon and at the same time loosens the choke hold of international sanctions on Iran's economy.
. . . That the diplomats came to any accord at all represents a momentous budge in a nearly 35-year deadlock marked by distrust, suspicion and open animosity between the United States and Iran, which broke off diplomatic relations after Iran's revolution in 1979.
It was the first such agreement in 10 years of attempts to negotiate over Iran's nuclear program.

Senator John Cornyn, R-Texas tweeted that President Obama made the historic and ground-breaking Peace Deal with Iran just to deliberately "distract attention from Obamacare." Then after most people on Twitter responded in disbelief, he doubled down instead of backing down.












































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Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Romney Shambles Review

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Romney Shambles Day One: Disconcerting London Gaffes
Romney Shambles Day Two: British Press Pounces
Romney Shambles Day Three: On to Israel
Romney Shambles Day Four: Bomb Bomb Bomb Iran
Romney Shambles Day Five: Not Too Kosher
Romney Shambles Day Five: Poland
Romney Shambles Day Six: Warsaw Speech
Romney Shambles Review

"Romneyshambles" is a bastardization of the word "omnishambles," which itself comes from a popular BBC sitcom called The Thick Of It. The show, which will air its fourth season this fall, is a black-hearted, profanity-laden satire of UK politics, set in the government's fictional Department of Social Affairs and Citizenship (DOSAC). A typical episode begins when the department's minister or staff makes a huge political blunder, which the Prime Minister's PR enforcer (an acid-tongued Scot named Malcolm Tucker) has to then fix.
. . . but the popularity of the word "omnishambles" didn't really take off until April of this year, when Labour party leader Ed Milliband famously used it to describe Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron's budget.
. . . Since then, the word has formally entered the British political lexicon. Scottish journalist Alex Massie even wrote an article for the American magazine Foreign Policy with a title that labels Cameron, "Mr. Omnishambles." Now, with #romneyshambles penetrating American political consciousness, our own political vocabulary just got a little more colorful.
~ From MSNBC



It's been a great trip.
~ Romney Advisor, Stuart Stevens

Is there anything about Romney's Rolling Ruckus that would inspire confidence in his ability to lead US foreign policy?
~ David Axelrod on Twitter

I realize that there will be some in the fourth estate or whatever estate who are far more interested in finding something to write about that is unrelated to the economy, to geopolitics, to the threat of war, to the reality of conflict in Afghanistan today, to a nuclearization of Iran.
They are instead trying to find anything else to divert from the fact that these last four years have been tough years for our country."
~ Mitt Romney to Fox News, blaming the press for covering his gaffes

I don’t know how he’ll handle the head of state job. He’s made a mess of being a tourist.
~ Rahm Emanuel, Mayor of Chicago

Who is this klutz, this clodhopper, this lawn sprinkler of national insult? Well, he`s Mitt Romney. Remember him, the guy who promised to restore and upgrade the special relationship with Great Britain and has instead barfed on the Buckingham Palace lawn? The guy who promised to restore peace and security to the land of Israel and has instead managed to raise the level of strife still higher, also the level of fear when his spokesmen said just yesterday that Romney would back Bibi Netanyahu, no matter what he did to Iran, before Romney once again had to walk back his yet another global gaffe.
~ Chris Matthews on Hardball, Monday July 31, 2012

Romney wants to project bold confidence. Instead, he radiates blind certainty. All around the world, people can tell the difference.
~ Eugene Robinson in a Washington Post called "Gaffepalooze"

I tell you, they should call this the moonwalking tour because any time Mitt Romney speaks, he has to then walk backwards while seeming to go forward. You know, how many remarks, you know, can you walk back?
~ David Corn of Mother Jones

Romney is fully in step with the party he leads. Today's Republican Party is characterized by a kind of bellicose ignorance towards the world, contemptuous of Obama's attempts to show respect to foreigners, crudely aggressive towards those deemed the enemies of the US, uninterested in its friends. Take the response of Romney's allies to the London debacle, his surrogates professing that ''we're not worried about overseas headlines'', while one media cheerleader dismissed Cameron as ''limp-wristed'' and Britain as ''a second-rate, semi-degenerate nation''.
~ Sydney Morning Herald

Look, Mitt Romney wondered aloud whether London was ready for the Olympics, and I think it’s clear that voters in this country wonder aloud whether Mitt Romney is ready for the world. And I think the world is not yet ready for Mitt Romney.
Literally to go overseas, stand in the county of our strongest ally — in the Olympics that they had been preparing years for — and question whether or not they’re ready does make you wonder whether or not he ready to be commander in chief.
I thought it was embarrassing for our country.
~ Robert Gibbs quoted in Huffington Post

Mitt Romney, Like Errant Drone Hits Wrong Targets . . .
A drone is a mechanical or virtual intelligent agent without a human pilot on board. Its flight is either controlled autonomously by computers in the vehicle, or under or with guidance, typically by remote control.
. . . Mitt Romney’s European tour was intended to bolster his political bona fides but his gaffs are proving him to be a dangerous political drone. Romney’s first target was London.
. . . Romney obviously subscribes to 19th Century columnist John O. Sullivan’s idea that America’s (Anglo-Saxon) success through expansion and exploitation is a result of manifest destiny. He must also subscribe to terms like “American exceptionalism” and former President George W. Bush’s term, “American internationalism”.
The collateral damage from Romney’s attacks could be devastating and long-lasting.
~ Black Star News, New York
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Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Romney Shambles Day Six: Warsaw Speech

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Romney Shambles Day One: Disconcerting London Gaffes
Romney Shambles Day Two: British Press Pounces
Romney Shambles Day Three: On to Israel
Romney Shambles Day Four: Bomb Bomb Bomb Iran
Romney Shambles Day Five: Not Too Kosher
Romney Shambles Day Five: Poland
Romney Shambles Day Six: Warsaw Speech
Romney Shambles Review

Romney's Complete Speech in Warsaw Poland

Romney Aide Curses At Press in Poland
~ Headline on Talking Points Memo

Transcript
CNN: “Governor Romney are you concerned about some of the mishaps of your trip?

NYT: “Governor Romney do you have a statement for the Palestinians?

Washington Post: “What about your gaffes?

NYT: “Governor Romney do you feel that your gaffes have overshadowed your foreign trip?”

CNN: “Governor Romney just a few questions sir, you haven’t taken but three questions on this trip from the press!

Gorka: “Show some respect”

NYT: “We haven’t had another chance to ask a question…”

Gorka: “Kiss my ass. This is a Holy site for the Polish people. Show some respect.”





Gorka subsequently called a pair of reporters to apologize, saying he lost his cool. “It was inappropriate,” Gorka said. Romney was at the square to visit the Polish Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. After he did that, laying a wreath and greeting Polish military veterans, the GOP hopeful decided to walk down to a monument on the other side of the square. Romney has not held a media availability for his traveling press corps since taking three questions outside 10 Downing Street in London last Thursday. ~ Politico.com


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Sunday, July 29, 2012

Romney Shambles Day Five: Not Too Kosher

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Romney Shambles Day One: Disconcerting London Gaffes
Romney Shambles Day Two: British Press Pounces
Romney Shambles Day Three: On to Israel
Romney Shambles Day Four: Bomb Bomb Bomb Iran
Romney Shambles Day Five: Not Too Kosher
Romney Shambles Day Five: Poland
Romney Shambles Day Six: Warsaw Speech
Romney Shambles Review

From ABC News
There were hundreds of Jewish worshippers praying at the site on this holy fasting day of Tisha B’Av and cell phones were out snapping photos of Romney. Many chanted at him as he walked slowly toward the wall.
One man started clapping. “Good luck to you,” he told Romney “God bless you.” Another shouted, “Here comes the next president!” “He is for Israel!” shouted another.
. . . The Wailing Wall, as the wall is also known as, is the outside wall that surrounded the second temple. Today is said to be the day that the Romans destroyed the Second Temple, leading to the Tisha B’Av

From Bloomberg
. . . “This is the campaign for American Jews,” Channah Nebi said in Hebrew, as she peered over the divide separating men and women to watch Romney.
New York lawyer Phil Rosen, a campaign fundraising bundler, was permitted past the machine-gun carrying Israeli soldiers protecting a security perimeter, to embrace Romney. Like any tourists in a foreign land, the two took a quick snap-shot to remember the moment.
. . . Tomorrow, around 50 top donors — largely from the U.S. – will join the candidate for a kosher breakfast and question-and-answer session in the luxurious King David hotel. Casino magnet Sheldon Adelson will attend, as will Eli Simmons.


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by By Latuff Cartoons


The headlines are rolling. The diaries are scrolling. Editors and producers are choosing which breath-taking declaration will win the lede, unilateral, amateur diplomacy or unilateral, amateur warmaking.
It doesn't matter, but for those following along, both the Washington Post and New York Times have chosen "Romney Declares War on Iran" over "Romney Declares War on Palestinians." Still, as I say, it doesn't matter. Mitt Romney, a half-formed man-child who made a splash in the corporate takeover game and mailed in a term as a state governor, has single-handedly undone decades of careful diplomacy and put the United States and its armed forces in danger.
~ Crashing Vor in a Daily Kos Diary called "Mr. Romney Has Ceased to be Amusing"




















As you come here and you see the GDP per capita, for instance, in Israel which is about $21,000 dollars, and compare that with the GDP per capita just across the areas managed by the Palestinian Authority, which is more like $10,000 per capita, you notice such a dramatically stark difference in economic vitality.
And as I come here and I look out over this city and consider the accomplishments of the people of this nation, I recognize the power of at least culture and a few other things. . . .
~ Mitt Romney to Sheldon Adelson and other donors at the King David Hotel Fundraiser

What is this man doing here? Yesterday, he destroyed negotiations by saying Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, and today he is saying Israeli culture is more advanced than Palestinian culture. Isn't this racism? Israelis and Palestinians have a conflict, but they are people, they are equal, it is not a better culture or advanced culture.
It's Israeli occupiers and Palestinians under occupation, and that's why Palestinians cannot realize their potential.
~ Palestinian Official, Saeb Erekat









From the Washington Post
Romney also boasted of meeting the founder of Under Armour in London, when he visited the Olympics. Romney spotted him wearing a pullover with the Under Armour logo, and he soon discovered he was the founder. Naturally, Romney asked how he had created the company.
“He said he was playing football and the cotton underwear that they would wear would get all moist and crinkled up and create pressure points and so forth, and he decided to go buy some stretchy fabric, cut it and sew it together, which he did and it was very comfortable,” Romney recalled.

I think your heart would have to be made of stone not to feel what is still here, with the molecules, the stones, and everything still testifies of something that was so extraordinary that happened in this placesaid. And it is a magical place and it is a place which makes us turn to our inner soul and to our hearts and to listen with a different voice.
And that’s why I think it’s so important for people to be here and to understand what a significant and wonderful place this is. So it is with quiet ears that we can hear and listen to all that is around us and of the beauty and all of the extraordinary history that’s here.
~ Ann Romney at Mitt's Jewish Fundraiser in Israel











...continued here: Romney Shambles Day Five: Poland
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