I remember in the early half of the last decade, we heard the screaming from the Left that President Bush had spent our foreign policy capital with the Iraq War – that no one respected us anymore. We were perceived as bullies on the world stage. The I heard during the 2008 campaign that a president Obama would fix all of that – they even nominated him for a Nobel Peace Prize before the inauguration because everyone on that side of the political spectrum had great expectations of the new, young President. So here we are five years later and how’s that all working out for us? From the Associated Press;
President Barack Obama has defended America’s surveillance dragnet to leaders of Russia, Mexico, Brazil, France and Germany, but the international anger over the disclosures shows no signs of abating in the short run.
Longer term, the revelations by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden about NSA tactics that allegedly include tapping the cellphones of as many as 35 world leaders threaten to undermine U.S. foreign policy in a range of areas.
[…]
“The magnitude of the eavesdropping is what shocked us,” former French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said in a radio interview. “Let’s be honest, we eavesdrop too. Everyone is listening to everyone else. But we don’t have the same means as the United States, which makes us jealous.”
“The magnitude” hasn’t been fully exposed yet. Just today, someone has released the bombshell that the NSA recorded 50 million phone calls in Spain. I’m sure there’s some really interesting shit in that. Why would they even do something like that? I spent 7 days in Spain once and I was bored most of the time – the whole country seemed more interested in taking their siesta than anything else – well, except partying.
You all know how I feel about little Eddie Snowden, but this isn’t his fault – it’s the fault of the people who thought this was a good idea. The AP article goes on to lament how this makes John Kerry’s job harder, this administration is reaping what they sowed. They’ve been half-assing every policy this country ever had. If Bush squandered our foreign policy capital with Iraq, then what about Obama squandering the foreign policy capital with which he came into office? The world was his oyster, he was everyone’s huckleberry, and look how far we’ve fallen in just five short years. We’re the world’s punchline. We can record 50 million phone calls in one month in Spain, but we can’t launch a website.
“…But we don’t have the same means as the United States, which makes us jealous.”
There it is, in a nutshell.
Why would they even do something like that?
Lots of steamy Spanish phone sex?
Fell off my chair, laughing so hard I startled Mikey out of a perfectly good nap.
Best article ever, JL. Best ever.
More to come, I’m sure.
Let see, Obama says he didn’t no about the spying on
Russia, Mexico, Brazil, France and Germany. He didn’t
no about the IRS, or spying on reporters or spying on
Americans. Or guns going to Mexico or a website that
does not work. He doesn’t know anything about Benghazi.
Is this guy really the President, or is he just a figure
head, and someone else is pulling the strings.
If the administration had let the NSA launch the Obamacare website, it wouldn’t be as messed up as it is.
And since the administration intends to collect all our private information through it anyway, they could have killed two birds with one stone, and saved some money while they were at it.
I wish I could say that was sarcasm, but it wasn’t.
I’m waiting for someone at a press conference to say ‘These questions are too hard’.
@5
Just another example of the incompetence of this administration. In a way we aught to be thankful.
Further indicates that the pres is really ony in charge of SEAL team 6 as this is the only organization with which he can claim any knowledge of their actions.
I never understood how anyone could think that a freshman senator who only authored 4 pieces of pretend legislation while he co-sponsored other people’s good work could be considered a knowledgeable foreign policy wonk. He had no executive experience whatsoever, no business acumen, no large scale negotiation background, and an extremely limited national legislative experience.
Why would any normal person think that any of that translated into “cool” world leader? The problem was that there was such an anti-Bush emotion on the national stage and the republicans could only post the maverick from Arizona as an opponent, if was left by default for Obama’s cool speech from the previous democratic convention to fill the void. All of these dreamers placed their vision of a world leader onto this dreamer from Illinois, wrongly so, not fair to the junior senator and as it turns out not fair to the nation now as we struggle to recover from ineptitude on a colossal scale.
The lack of respect on the world stage is a direct result of electing an inexperienced junior senator who had not even served a single full term in the legislature and possessed zero executive experience.
That anyone is surprised by this is more of a newsworthy story than the shock over the current state of foreign affairs.
Any bets on how long before Jay Carney mutters to himself “I can’t stand this shit any more” and takes off for parts unknown?
Remember, Rahm Emanuel lasted a year. Ditto Bill Dailey, then they both got fed up with WH shenanigans and blew that popstand for home.
Not sure “Opie” (AKA Carney) here has any place to go home to, Ex-PH2. Mayberry was fictional.
Screw Jay Carney, when you choose to be the mouthpiece for someone whose experience and honesty are sorely lacking whatever happens to you is Karma forcing you to pay up…
Repeat the lies others hand you, and you are still a liar.
WRT Carney, I’ve always found it entertaining to see the revolving door that is the Press Secretary. It doesn’t seem to matter which President, none of them do the job for long.
I’d intended to write something scathing about the regime and it’s incompetent figurehead of a President, but VOV beat me to it in #9. Nicely done.
This place still needs a “like” button for posts.
@10 Remember, Rahm Emanuel lasted a year. Ditto Bill Dailey, then they both got fed up with WH shenanigans and blew that popstand for home.
Hate to say it, but Rahm Emanuel didn’t get fed up, he transplanted WH shenanigans to Chicago, where Obama learned how the politik works in “your own” favor, the best.
“Vote Early. Vote Often.”
@15 I thought it was the other way around with Emanuel bringing shady Chicago to the WH then going back to run for mayor to keep the tradition alive.
Emanuel tried to be the guy in charge, as did Daley. Who do you think blocked that?
They were both WH Chief of Staff. Daley came back to Chicago barely a year after he got the position.
They may both have Chicago-style politics as their background, but does anyone actually think either of them could get past those control-freak she-goat bitches at the gate to the Oval Office? Do you actually believer that either of them would lie their asses off on command?
Whose the WH Chief of Staff now? Rob Nabors, who, as it is now revealed, was the actual source of that ‘can’t stand to look at him’ remark now attributed to Texas Rep. Pete Sessions, and was a blatant lie. http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2013/10/24/sources-word-of-alleged-rude-gop-comment-came-from-wh-deputy-chief-of-staff/
It seems that Nabors is more than willing to spread the lies manifested by the current administration.
Neither Emanuel nor Daley were willing to bend to the will of the bitches in charge. They may have a lot of faults, but neither of them is stupid enough to damage their own reputations at the behest of someone else.
@9 VOV: What you said.
Still stumbling over the title of this post! Like, well, do ya think, maybe? Huh??
Evidently it has come as a huge surprise to some people. Never have we imagined a bunch of fools so proud of their willful ignorance! (Yes, that includes the elected fools and those who elected them.)
@10–given Jay’s snarky condescending attitude and snarky answers, etc., I’d say he’s sucked down plenty of the KoolAid and deserves whatever scorn is heaped upon him.
Remember, only a rational person would tell the kind of bullshit stories Carney the Carnie would tell and find it impossible not to bust out laughing. Carney not only tells it with a straight face, he actually acts surprised when we call him on the bullshit, even though it only rarely happens publicly.
Jay Carney = “The Mouthpiece of Sauron”
(h/t to JRR Tolkein)
In another direction, foreign policy wouldn’t be so hard, if we avoided “foreign entanglements” as President George Washington suggested, if we didn’t keep throwing our hard earned US dollars at so many different countries with conflicting goals and values, if we were the world’s leader instead of trying to be every country’s friend (and failing miserably in the process).
@20 – I don’t argue that, but despite the vague resemblance to Opie, including the cowlick, my cynical side says that even Carney has his limits on BS. And he doesn’t always have a glib, slick response. He hesitates and waffles and then recycles what he said before he waffled and wobbled. He’s running out of ways to deflect questions.
At some time, that asinine charade has to crack. I’m just waiting for it.