Showing posts with label olympics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label olympics. Show all posts

Friday, February 7, 2014

Russian Laugh Olympics ~ #SochiProblems

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The design of the opening ceremony in Sochi looks magnificent, but even that was beset by a few, um, problems. #SochiProblems - such as the fifth Olympic Ring being replaced by a snowflake. At least that was more whimsical than the bad hotels where the journalists are staying, which prompted the #SochiProblems hashtag in the first place. Others might say the spoiled Western mainstream media is making a big deal out of a few inconveniences. Still - pretty funny.



















































Then there's the water . . . ick . . .







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Bob Costas of NBC seemed to have caught Pink Eye from Sochi Water

























And Epic Hotel Problems:














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Define Spy for Us ~ Greenwald and the Snowden Secrets

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Previous Related Posts:
Snowden Finally Leaves Russian Airport
Snowden Supporters Applaud His Empty Chair in Berlin
Greenwald Poutrage: Reuters is a Pro-U.S. Government Activist Ring
Miranda Was Carrying Passwords When Stopped in the U.K.
Was Miranda a Mule or a Journalist?
U.K. Detains Greenwald's Partner, Twitter Wars Erupt
Greenwald Threatens to Spill U.K. Secrets

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Olympics have begun in Sochi, Russia, but that won't stop the Snowden controversy juggernaut that keeps rolling on both sides of the Atlantic. Is he a traitorous spy putting the U.S. in danger or a hero saving the First Amendment? Is he a Russian Puppet or a pawn of over-zealous journalists who hate the U.S.? Suffice it to say, Edward Snowden still remains a mystery even to the government that used to employ him.



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Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said a week ago that Snowden’s activities have placed the lives of intelligence officers and assets at risk. Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican from Maine, said if one were to stack the documents stolen by Snowden it would be three miles high. On Wednesday, Rep. Mac Thornberry, the Texas Republican who is next in line to be the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said the damage done by Snowden “will certainly cost billions to repair.”
~ The Daily Beast

For personal gain, (Greenwald is) now selling his access to information, that’s how they’re terming it…. A thief selling stolen material is a thief
. . . If I’m a newspaper reporter for fill-in-the-blank and I sell stolen material, is that legal because I’m a newspaper reporter?
~ House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) talking about journalist and possible Snowden accomplice Glenn Greenwald

If you’re a newspaper reporter and you’re hawking stolen jewelry, it’s still a crime.
. . . It’s an issue that can be complicated if it involves a news-gathering or a news promulgation function.
~ FBI Director James Comey, in reply to Mike Rogers

I’m going to go back to the U.S. for many reasons, but just the f***ing principle is enough … On principle I’m going to force the issue
~ Glenn Greenwald, via Brian Beutler on Salon.com







The Public will never know the full cost, and therefore will never be able to truly understand the damage Snowden did. A true 'Patriot,' which he claims to be, would have given the documents to Congress and stayed in the U.S. to face the consequences. He's a coward.
~ A National Security "Insider" quoted anonymously on National Journal

A new website led by investigative journalist Glenn Greenwald will launch next week with a focus on the remaining treasure trove of leaked documents from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.
. . . Journalists Laura Poitras and Jeremy Scahill will work with Greenwald on the publication, which has also added Peter Maass as senior staff writer, Marcy Wheeler as senior policy analyst and Ryan Gallagher as a reporter.
"First Look will uphold the rights of journalists everywhere to report on the sensitive and often controversial information that they learn from sources. We are launching the new site as a public service, committed to reporting on one of the most pressing issues of our time in a transparent and responsible manner," Omidyar and former Rolling Stone editor Eric Bates wrote in the blog post.
~ Mashable

Like It or Not, Glenn Greenwald Is Now the Face of the 1st Amendment
One reason to stand up for Greenwald is that there is no evidence suggesting that he's acted as anything other than a journalist on the Snowden story. Another reason to defend Greenwald is that whatever one thinks of him personally, or his politics, or his attacks on various mainstream-media figures over the years, prosecuting him as a criminal would set a precedent affecting all journalists.
~ The Atlantic

Snowden has abdicated moral responsibility by handing off much of what he stole to Laura Poitras, a freelance journalist, and Glenn Greenwald, formerly of the Guardian, and allowing them to decide what should be published. Greenwald says encrypted copies also have been given to other parties and that, if something happens to Snowden, "all the information will be revealed and it could be [the government's] worst nightmare."
One problem with the reporting by Greenwald and Poitras has been that, in relying so heavily on the documents supplied by Snowden, it fails to provide context. From reading their stories, for example, you'd know little about official steps to minimize NSA privacy threats.
~ Ex-CIA 70's Whistleblower Frank Snepp





Greenwald is a frequent guest on Russian propaganda organ Russia Today. And Russia has provided safety for his cash cow Snowden, which Greenwald has parlayed into an entirely new media venture funded by libertarian tech billionaire Pierre Omidyar. It takes a special cognitive dissonance to be a gay man who fled the US for its stance on gay marriage to remain silent on a country where homophobia is official state policy.
. . . The fact that Greenwald can dismiss Russia's atrocious human rights record because, in his estimation, it's right in this instance of supporting Snowden should make any real journalist's hair spin. Strange bedfellows are the commonplaces of international relations. But putting lipstick on a pig doesn't make it Marilyn Monroe.
~ Liberal Librarian on The People's View

What are Snowden's prospects of exiting Moscow for a new life in western Europe? Left-leaning politicians, intellectuals and writers have called on the German government to grant him asylum. There was even a campaign to rename a Berlin street next to the US embassy "Snowden Strasse". (An artist erected a new street sign, and posted the video on Facebook.) But Germany's strategic relationship with the US is more important than the fate of one individual, at least in the probable view of Merkel, now chancellor for a third time.
So it is in Moscow that Snowden remains. Kucherena gently reminded the world that if he did try and leave, he would forfeit his asylum status. He is a guest of the Russian Federation, whether he likes it or not. And, in some sense, its captive. No one quite knows how long his exile might last. Months? Years? Decades?
~ Excerpt from "The Snowden Files" by Tony Harding, published in Guardian UK



We know that the Russians target people like Snowden. The actions he took are the sort of thing they would very much like. Now he’s in Moscow where we can’t ask him about it. If they did approach him, they would have concentrated chiefly on developing and exploiting his psychological weaknesses, massaging his ego and corroding his bonds of loyalty to his employer. Once he was fully detached psychologically from the NSA, they would have put him in touch with someone from the Wikileaks or hacker milieu. The effect from their point of view would be like a chemical reaction. No need to do anything much, just stand back and watch.
~ From an interview in InterpreterMag with Edward Lucas, author of the ebook The Snowden Operation: Inside the West’s Greatest Intelligence Disaste

Mr. Snowden's allies—the Snowdenistas, as I term them—lack the skills to keep the material safe, or redact it to limit the damage. Their claims to the contrary are not credible. Moreover, they seem oblivious to the idea that we in the West have enemies and competitors. Yet if we suffer, they gain.
. . . the damage done by Edward Snowden dwarfs the impact of Cold War traitors and defectors. Western agencies now assume that the NSA material is in the hands of Moscow and Beijing, or will get there eventually. Many worthwhile intelligence operations must be shut down or started anew: A serious spy service does not risk lives on the hopeful assumption that the other side will not exploit its blunders.
. . . Far too little attention has been paid to the political agendas of people such as the bombastic Brazil-based blogger Glenn Greenwald, the hysterical hacktivist Jacob Appelbaum and the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who cloak their extreme and muddled beliefs in the language of rights, liberties and justice. Their actions are bringing about the greatest peacetime defeat in the history of the West. That is not a noble crusade.
~ Edward Lucas writing for WSJ


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Saturday, August 10, 2013

President Obama: Snowden is not a Patriot

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President's Remarks at Press Conference 8-9-13
As I said at the National Defense University back in May, in meeting those threats we have to strike the right balance between protecting our security and preserving our freedoms. And as part of this rebalancing, I called for a review of our surveillance programs. Unfortunately, rather than an orderly and lawful process to debate these issues and come up with appropriate reforms, repeated leaks of classified information have initiated the debate in a very passionate, but not always fully informed way.
. . . these steps are designed to ensure that the American people can trust that our efforts are in line with our interests and our values. And to others around the world, I want to make clear once again that America is not interested in spying on ordinary people. Our intelligence is focused, above all, on finding the information that’s necessary to protect our people, and -- in many cases -- protect our allies.
. . . We shouldn’t forget the difference between the ability of our government to collect information online under strict guidelines and for narrow purposes, and the willingness of some other governments to throw their own citizens in prison for what they say online.
And let me close with one additional thought. The men and women of our intelligence community work every single day to keep us safe because they love this country and believe in our values. They're patriots. And I believe that those who have lawfully raised their voices on behalf of privacy and civil liberties are also patriots who love our country and want it to live up to our highest ideals. So this is how we’re going to resolve our differences in the United States -- through vigorous public debate, guided by our Constitution, with reverence for our history as a nation of laws, and with respect for the facts.

Julie Pace. Q Thank you, Mr. President. I wanted to ask about some of the foreign policy fallout from the disclosure of the NSA programs that you discussed. Your spokesman said yesterday that there’s no question that the U.S. relationship with Russia has gotten worse since Vladimir Putin took office. How much of that decline do you attribute directly to Mr. Putin, given that you seem to have had a good working relationship with his predecessor? Also will there be any additional punitive measures taken against Russia for granting asylum to Edward Snowden? Or is canceling the September summit really all you can do given the host of issues the U.S. needs Russian cooperation for? Thank you.

THE PRESIDENT: . . . President Putin -- who was prime minister when Medvedev was president -- came back into power I think we saw more rhetoric on the Russian side that was anti-American, that played into some of the old stereotypes about the Cold War contests between the United States and Russia. And I've encouraged Mr. Putin to think forward as opposed to backwards on those issues -- with mixed success.
. . . I know that one question that's been raised is how do we approach the Olympics. I want to just make very clear right now I do not think it's appropriate to boycott the Olympics. We've got a bunch of Americans out there who are training hard, who are doing everything they can to succeed. Nobody is more offended than me by some of the anti-gay and lesbian legislation that you've been seeing in Russia. But as I said just this week, I've spoken out against that not just with respect to Russia but a number of other countries where we continue to do work with them, but we have a strong disagreement on this issue.

And one of the things I'm really looking forward to is maybe some gay and lesbian athletes bringing home the gold or silver or bronze, which I think would go a long way in rejecting the kind of attitudes that we're seeing there. And if Russia doesn't have gay or lesbian athletes, then it probably makes their team weaker.

Q Are there going to be any additional punitive measures for Russia, beyond canceling the summit?

THE PRESIDENT: Keep in mind that our decision to not participate in the summit was not simply around Mr. Snowden. It had to do with the fact that, frankly, on a whole range of issues where we think we can make some progress, Russia has not moved. And so we don't consider that strictly punitive....
~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chuck Todd. Q Thank you, Mr. President. Given that you just announced a whole bunch of reforms based on essentially the leaks that Edward Snowden made on all of these surveillance programs, is that change -- is your mindset changed about him? Is he now more a whistle-blower than he is a hacker, as you called him at one point, or somebody that shouldn’t be filed charges? And should he be provided more protection? Is he a patriot? You just used those words. And then just to follow up on the personal -- I want to follow up on a personal --

THE PRESIDENT: Okay, I want to make sure -- everybody is asking one question it would be helpful.

Q No, I understand. It was a part of a question that you didn’t answer. Can you get stuff done with Russia, big stuff done, without having a good personal relationship with Putin?

THE PRESIDENT: I don’t have a bad personal relationship with Putin. When we have conversations, they’re candid, they’re blunt; oftentimes, they’re constructive. I know the press likes to focus on body language and he’s got that kind of slouch, looking like the bored kid in the back of the classroom. But the truth is, is that when we’re in conversations together, oftentimes it’s very productive.

So the issue here really has to do with where do they want to take Russia -- it’s substantive on a policy front. And --

Q (Inaudible.)

THE PRESIDENT: No. Right now, this is just a matter of where Mr. Putin and the Russian people want to go. I think if they are looking forward into the 21st century and how they can advance their economy, and make sure that some of our joint concerns around counterterrorism are managed effectively, then I think we can work together. If issues are framed as if the U.S. is for it then Russia should be against it, or we’re going to be finding ways where we can poke each other at every opportunity, then probably we don’t get as much stuff done.

See, now I’ve forgotten your first question, which presumably was the more important one. No, I don’t think Mr. Snowden was a patriot. As I said in my opening remarks, I called for a thorough review of our surveillance operations before Mr. Snowden made these leaks.

My preference -- and I think the American people’s preference -- would have been for a lawful, orderly examination of these laws, a thoughtful fact-based debate that would then lead us to a better place. Because I never made claims that all the surveillance technologies that have developed since the time some of these laws had been put in place somehow didn't require potentially some additional reforms. That's exactly what I called for.

So the fact is, is that Mr. Snowden has been charged with three felonies. If, in fact, he believes that what he did was right, then, like every American citizen, he can come here, appear before the court with a lawyer and make his case. If the concern was that somehow this was the only way to get this information out to the public, I signed an executive order well before Mr. Snowden leaked this information that provided whistleblower protection to the intelligence community -- for the first time. So there were other avenues available for somebody whose conscience was stirred and thought that they needed to question government actions.




~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Edward Snowden, Patriot
President Obama’s news conference today was … weird.
. . . the White House could have led that thoughtful, fact-based debate, and despite Obama’s protestations to the contrary, they didn’t. They prevented it. If this conversation, and these reforms, are as positive for the country as Obama says they are, then it’s hard to escape the conclusion that Snowden did the country a real service — even if the White House can’t abide crediting him with it.
~ Ezra Klein in Washington Post













Today the President of the United States validated Edward Snowden’s role as a whistleblower by announcing plans to reform America’s global surveillance program. But rather than thank Edward Snowden, the President laughably attempted to criticize him while claiming that there was a plan all along, “before Edward Snowden.” The simple fact is that without Snowden’s disclosures, no one would know about the programs and no reforms could take place. As Thomas Jefferson so eloquently once stated, “All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.” Luckily for the citizens of the world, Edward Snowden is one of those “people of good conscience” who did not “remain silent”, just as Pfc Bradley Manning and Daniel Ellsberg refused to remain silent.
. . . Today was a victory of sorts for Edward Snowden and his many supporters. As Snowden has stated, his biggest concern was if he blew the whistle and change did not occur. Well reforms are taking shape, and for that, the President and people of the United States and around the world owe Edward Snowden a debt of gratitude.
~ Wikileaks Founder Julian Assange

I think some people on the far left are giving Snowden way too much credit. It is not as if he “exposed” anything that we all didn’t know was already going. In most ways, the Snowden/Greenwald circus has hurt the discussion by taking attention away from the issue. I don’t believe that there is anything patriotic about what Snowden did. A true patriot doesn’t abandon the cause and run to Russia to save his own skin. Patriots don’t put themselves first. Obama pointed out that what Snowden revealed was the prospect that these programs could be abused, not actual abuse of the programs.
I think more transparency is a wonderful idea, but do you what’s even better than transparency? Getting rid of the Patriot Act.
~ Jason Easley, PoliticusUSA






























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Thursday, September 20, 2012

Ann Romney Thinks Her Horse is Classier than the 47% Dems

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My horse has more style and more class in its hoof than they do in their whole deal.
~ Ann Romney quoted by Lyn Mosbacher, a Romney large-money donor, via Washington Post

Now that wasn't very elegant.
~ comment by radiotherapy on Wonkette

I've never seen somebody put a horse's foot in their mouth.
~ comment by EatsBabyDingos on Wonkette

"Dynasty" has more class than the Romneys.
~ comment by radcoolcatdaddy on Wonkette

The horse received a tax deduction, so the horse is officially a "job creator" but if the horse had received food stamps or housing assistance, then it would be a an entitled, filthy, hobo victim.
~ comment by Eve8Apples on Wonkette











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Monday, August 13, 2012

NBC Really Loves Their Monkey

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Another stumble in NBC's near perfect show of incompetence in the Olympic games, as it cut away from Ray Davies singing Waterloo Sunset to air Animal Practice, which is "a show about a fictional animal dr" according to a disgruntled tweet from Glee star Kevin McHale.
NBC cut out Kate Bush, The Who, and Muse, causing #NBCfail to trend worldwide.
The New Statesman

NBC Halts Olympics for Monkey Show
~ Headline in the St. Louis Tribune

Is NBC's Animal Practice the Most-Hated Show on Television?
Headline on Forbes

I don’t think NBC has ever run full pilots inside the Olympics before, which hopefully will drive a lot of attention. If we have 30 million viewers or 25 million viewers pouring into one of these previews, we’d be thrilled.
~ NBC entertainment head Bob Greenblatt, apparently clueless that fans would be furious if NBC screwed up once again.

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Sunday, August 12, 2012

Tom Brokaw's Olympic #NBCFAIL

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"Their Finest Hour," a look at Britain's role in the war, aired on Saturday night at 8 PM, where sports usually would be seen. It was an hour-long love note to the host country of the 2012 games, used rarely-seen or recently uncovered archival footage, and was hosted by one of the most famous chroniclers of the period, Brokaw. It even got great reviews! Who could have a problem with that?
Lots of people, it would seem. Because the documentary took time away from actual events -- even tape-delayed ones -- Twitter turned into a seething cauldron of rage at Brokaw, Winston Churchill and the plucky Brits who stared down the Nazi menace all those years ago.
~ Huffington Post

Saturday’s primetime Olympics telecast was an interesting piece of work: It started on a surprising note with the Tom Brokaw-hosted WWII-themed short film Their Finest Hour. While fascinating, it probably went on too long (like, 30 or 40 minutes too long) for viewers who’d tuned in to see Usain Bolt anchor Jamaica’s 4 x 100m relay team to a new world record, or the U.S. women’s 4 x 400m relay team strike gold, or our Olympic Stud of the Day David Boudia become the first U.S. diver to win on the 10m platform since Greg Louganis in 1988.
~ Entertainment Weekly

Tom Brokaw reminds us of THE national narrative of Britain – bulwark of freedom against Hitler’s Nazi tide. I guess you could say that, then as now, the US was on a taped delay. It is a moving and stirring piece – an hour long, moving and stirring piece – touching on Dunkirk, the Battle of Britain, the Blitz, and the 12 hour fire bombing of Coventry. As a history nerd and confirmed Anglophile I love it, but come on! Those batons aren’t going to relay themselves! Porny stills of Tom Daley aren’t going to screencap themselves! And Brokaw interviewing Coventry raid survivor, Mike Logan, who was left orphaned at age 7 when a bomb killed his parents? My heart! How do you make a tonal shift back to competition after THAT?
~ Houston Chronicle































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Thursday, August 2, 2012

Rafalca Romney at the London Olympics

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She was consistent and elegant. She did not disappoint. 
She thrilled me to death.
~ Ann Romney discussing Rafalca's Olympic performance

Romney's horse and rider unfazed by hype
~ Headline on Reuters UK

At one point, she appeared to give a snort of exhilarated delight, although, to be fair, it's not easy to say precisely what emotion a huge horse is aiming to convey; it could equally have been a snort of ennui or a snort of frustration at the Obama administration's glee over Mitt's gaffe-spree. Perhaps it was just her way of telling the predominantly British crowd that, like the Romneys, she was just happy to be in the UK.
~ Guardian UK

It’s a little silly, which we all agree on. It’s an athletic sport, and they’re going around in a top hat and tails. The attire is antiquated. It’s hard to understand, and it’s expensive. . . . At the lower levels, it is more accessible. It’s not like yachting. There’s no yachting for Joe Schmo. Anyone with a horse can learn from it.
~ Sara Lieser, managing editor of the "Chronicle of the Horse," in Wall Street Journal

Ann Romney's horse, Rafalca, competed in the individual dressage at the Olympics today. The horse's rider, USA's Jan Ebeling, got an overall score of 70.23 and is currently in 9th place.
The horse was not expected to medal, and Ann said after the event that she's "thrilled to death" by the performance.
The sport of dressage is actually incredibly boring. Here's a sampling of Rafalca's performance. It's pretty much this for 8 minutes (see gif below):
~ Business Insider


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gif via Business Insider

The liberal group MoveOn is putting its anti-Mitt Romney message into his horse’s mouth in a new TV ad released Thursday.
The ad purports to feature Rafalca, the dressage horse co-owned by the Romneys, speaking to the camera about her upkeep.
~ The Hill



In our ad, voters hear the truth about Mitt Romney straight from the horse’s mouth: Romney seems to think many Americans deserve to be treated worse than a horse. There’s nothing wrong with taking good care of a horse, but there’s something messed up about a millionaire who spends twice what most Americans make in a year caring for a horse, but wants to take away people’s health care and offshore their jobs. We’re rooting for Rafalca and all of our Olympians to bring home the gold, but we’re sure not rooting for Mitt Romney to send jobs overseas. Voters had best steer clear of Romney unless they’re looking for a ride on a one-trick trickle down pony.
~ Justin Ruben, Executive Director of MoveOn.org Political Action



















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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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