ScissorTales » Foreign Affairs

Out on a limb

lindsay walle — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 17:28:29 +0000

AP Photo/CareerBuilder.com

Budweiser’s Clydesdales, Coca-Cola’s polar bears and CareerBuilder.com’s chimpanzees have all achieved fame through Super Bowl commercials. If Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoo were in charge of casting, however, the suit-and-tie-clad chimps would be in danger of losing their starring role. The zoo is campaigning to stop CareerBuilder from airing its scheduled commercial Sunday, claiming that the anthropomorphized portrayal of the endangered species will make viewers less concerned about wildlife conservation. The company has been featuring chimps in Super Bowl ads since 2005, but a new Duke University study has added fuel to the critics’ fire. The study’s leader, assistant professor of evolutionary anthropology Brian Hare, is especially worried that Africans will be misled and attempt to capture and sell the wild primates to Westerners as pets. We’ll go out on a limb and say that television viewers around the world are highly evolved enough to recognize the entertainment value of a commercial without going bananas, unlike the researchers.

Not mincing words

owen canfield — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 21:32:10 +0000

The criticism continues to roll in over President Obama’s decision last week scuttling (for now) construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. The 1,700-mile pipeline would move crude oil from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico and would produce thousands of jobs along the way, including here in Oklahoma. In a memo to employees, Bill Klesse, CEO of Valero Energy, shared the statement that the company had issued to media after the decision. The statement called rejection of the plan “absurd” and said the administration’s policies would force companies such as Valero (which has a refinery in Ardmore) to buy more oil from sources outside the United States and Canada. It also said the decision “throws dirt into the face of our closest ally and largest trading partner.” In an aside to his employees, Klesse said the administration’s decision wasn’t about pipelines in potentially sensitive areas of the country. Instead, “This is politics at its worst.” Well said.

Photo by Paul B. Southerland, The Oklahoman

Have a nice trip? Yuk, yuk, yuk

mark green — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 16:41:00 +0000

Is it really news when a big-name politician takes a prat fall — on stairs, boarding planes, etc.? Think about it: What is the “news” in Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stumbling as she boarded her plane in Yemen the other day? That she’s clumsy, perhaps clumsier than the average person? Please. London’s Daily Mail newspaper had a full report on Hillary’s trip (har!), with several photographs — and, of course, video. Yep, Hillary ended up on her knees alright. So what? Most people can’t fathom how many flights the secretary takes, and most of the time she boards them using the old-fashioned mobile staircase instead of the passenger-friendly jet ways most people use — for the obligatory photo of her smiling and waving. Or in Yemen, stumbling. Hillary will have to be more careful. Back in the 1970s, President Ford had a run of missteps, caught on cameras, that fed into a media-driven perception that Ford was a klutz. No matter that Ford, a former University of Michigan football player, actually was well-coordinated. A few more false steps from Hillary and she’ll be peppered with cracks like the one from someone in Texas, logged into the Mail’s comments section: “She probably tripped over her ego.” Hilarious.

P.U.

mark green — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 17:38:21 +0000

Actual headline, seen on a national cable news network: “United Nations evacuated for suspicious odor” (Eye roll.) Next!

Richard Holbrooke

mark green — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 02:16:36 +0000

The U.S. foreign policy community suffered a shocking blow Monday with the death of super special envoy Richard Holbrooke from complications related to weekend surgery to fix a torn aorta. Holbrooke was a 45-year diplomatic veteran and one of America’s ablest emissaries. He was ambassador to the United Nations during President Clinton’s second term. He was the Obama administration’s diplomatic point man for Pakistan and Afghanistan. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., said Holbrooke’s work saved lives all over the world. He’ll be missed.

Asleep no more

mark green — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 19:35:15 +0000

Remember the little band of Russian “sleeper” agents arrested on the East Coast and deported to the motherland in July? The New York Times reports they received top government honors from Soviet — er — Russian President Dmitri Medvedev on Monday. The story of the deep-cover spies, their use of fake names and invisible ink, recalled the Cold War era while evoking images of Maxwell Smart’s running battle with KAOS. One, Anna Chapman, was fond of Bond girl cocktail dresses and posted saucy photos on Facebook when she wasn’t passing encrypted messages to Russian officials from a Manhattan bookstore. Back home, Chapman and the others were regaled as heroes at a Kremlin ceremony. From the ashes of defeat …

USS Cole, 10 years later

mark green — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 17:06:19 +0000

Ten years ago today crew members aboard the USS Cole were getting ready for lunch in the destroyer’s galley when a small boat packed with high explosives rammed the ship as it refueled in the Yemeni port of Aden. Seventeen sailors died, 39 more were injured and the stricken Cole, with a 40-by-40-foot hole in her port side, was saved only through the heroism of surviving crew members. Military blogger Susan Katz Keating has a tribute video by the Navy on her site, as well as a link to reflections by the Cole’s commander at the time, Commander Kirk Lippold. The suicide attack on the Cole wasn’t al-Qaida’s first on a still-slumbering United States, but it was one of the boldest — a harbinger of an even bolder, more deadly assault less than a year later. Lest we forget.

Prized possession

mark green — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 18:40:21 +0000

Talk about a study in contrasts. On Friday jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for trying to bring greater personal freedom and human rights to his homeland — efforts that currently have him serving an 11-year sentence in a Chinese jail. Liu has been in and out of prison over the years for his activities. He’s just the third Nobel winner to receive the award while imprisoned, and Chinese officials welcomed the news by implementing a blackout on his selection inside the country. Now the contrast — the one between Liu, recognized for a life of self-sacrificial (and dangerous) work for individual liberty, and last year’s winner, President Obama, recognized for … well, the potential to do great things.

For tolerance

mark green — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 15:50:55 +0000

New York Times columnist Tom Friedman has taken some lumps here, but today, a little praise. Friedman weighed in on the ground zero Islamic center/mosque controversy on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” the other day. While stressing the right for the center to be built a couple of blocks from where the Twin Towers stood, he added the real place tolerance needs to grow is in the Middle East — pointing to strife between differing Muslim sects. Friedman didn’t call for greater tolerance of Christians and Jews in the Muslim world. But still, he rightly redirected attention to a part of the world that’s distinctly intolerant, as far as most Americans can tell. Bottom line: Americans who’re lectured on tolerance quite often would feel a lot better about it if they felt it was a two-way street.

Delay on the inbound

mark green — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 19:07:15 +0000

Folks in Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington, D.C., complain all the time about traffic. They can just stop it right now. Chinese officials report a 62-mile traffic jam on the outskirts of Beijing that makes snarls on the I-5 in LA and the Capital Beltway look like joy rides. Road construction is being blamed for hanging up all those Chinese cars and trucks. The jam began Aug. 13, and one official said things might not be normal until Sept. 17, when the road work is scheduled to be finished. As much as it may disappoint The New York Times’ Tom Friedman, who has opined on the Chinese government’s efficiency in dealing with problems, even a dictatorship apparently is no match for one of the byproducts of last year’s globe-leading 13.6 million auto sales to Chinese buyers.

Spanish holiday

mark green — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 19:37:39 +0000

Likening Michelle Obama to Marie Antoinette seems harsh, yet there’s no question there’s some political danger to the first lady in her current Spanish vacation with 9-year-old daughter Sasha. Exhibit A is a New York Daily News article comparing Mrs. O to the ill-fated French queen. The White House calls the trip “private,” which suggests the Obamas are paying for all of the reported $375,000 cost, including travel on a government 757, meals, accommodations at a swank hotel — perhaps even the Spanish cops who cordoned off about 100 yards of beach for Michelle, Sasha and their entourage. But, hey, it’s their money, right? Even so, the political backwash is a perception of extravagance at a time millions of Americans are out of work — and especially after the first family already has vacationed in Maine, Massachusetts, Hawaii and other venues during the past year and a half. Again, they’re entitled to spend their dough however they want, but that won’t shield them from criticism — and comparisons with President Bush, whose general idea of good downtime was whacking brush at his Texas ranch and turning in before 9.

NASA’s alternative universe

mark green — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 19:04:07 +0000

From the “What the Heck Was He Thinking?” Dept.: NASA Administrator Charles Bolden recently told Al Jazeera his “foremost” mission from President Obama is to “find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations, to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science and engineering.” Curious. Lots of Americans probably assumed NASA is about space exploration — maybe a mission to Mars. Nope. It’s Muslim outreach, Muslim validation. Fox News’ Brit Hume said Bolden’s revelation sounded like what you say when your agency is broke and needs outside partners. Maybe that’s it. And maybe, too, Bolden’s remarks were playing to the Al Jazeera audience. But for the naysayers among us, there’s a sneaking feeling the comments are part of Team Obama’s “we are the world” strategy, where mutual interest trumps all things and everyone gets a juice box after the game — a far cry from when President Kennedy started a full-court press to beat the Russians to the moon.

Grammatically speaking

mark green — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 19:46:12 +0000

OK, we’ll play the ugly Americans for a minute. Soccer’s World Cup is into its second week, and while it’s truly a spectacle, the play-by-play broadcasts and their odd British grammar is getting annoying. We know: The verb in that last phrase is wrong. It should be “the play-by-play broadcasts and their odd British grammar ARE getting annoying” — because the subject is plural. That’s the beef with these WC broadcasters, who’re constantly telling us “England ARE lucky to still be alive” or “the United States ARE gearing up for a big match against Algeria.” In both cases Americans use the verb “is” — because that’s just the way it is in the Colonies. But not in World Cup. We can handle British-isms like calling the playing field a “pitch,” a team practice “training” and soccer “football,” but this grammar deal is fingernails on a blackboard. Worse, color man John Harkes, of Kearny, N.J., apparently is along for the ride, echoing the subject/verb quirkiness of his British booth-mate. Blimey! Now, about the on-screen graphics showing distances in meters …

Stock answers

mark green — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 21:06:30 +0000

Globalization refers to the interconnectivity of the world through various means including trade and communications. And oil spills. The Gulf of Mexico gusher isn’t just an American concern. While the British no doubt care about environmental damage to the U.S. Gulf Coast, they’re really exercised about the plunging value of British Petroleum stock, currently at a 13-year low. The London Evening Standard reports the Brits think President Obama is partly to blame for billions of dollars in lost stock value. The newspaper says a number of leading Conservative Party members wish Obama would just knock if off already with criticism of BP. One Tory called Obama’s conduct “despicable,” and London Mayor Boris Johnson demanded an end to “anti-British rhetoric, buck-passing and name-calling.” They can save their breath. So far, BP hasn’t generating much sympathy in the colonies and besides — no matter what the sign on the president’s desk says — the oil spill buck is too large for Obama not to send BP’s way.

Helen Thomas steps in it, quits

mark green — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 14:31:15 +0000

Veteran journalist Helen Thomas abruptly retired Monday after treading into some deep doo-doo with recent remarks in which she said Israelis should “get the hell out of Palestine.” Thomas, 89, a fixture in the White House briefing room for decades, apologized on her Web site on Friday but still faced fallout as the new week began. Her employer, Hearst Newspapers, announced her retirement soon after the White House called the Israel/Palestine remarks “indefensible.” Before the announcement the board of the White House Correspondents Association reportedly was considering action, and Thomas was dropped as commencement speaker at a suburban Washington high school. Thomas was a pioneer for women in journalism, working for UPI for 57 years before joining Hearst in 2000 as a columnist. During the Bush administration her liberal leanings increasingly showed in edgy questions put to the president and his representatives. National Review Online’s Jonah Goldberg writes Thomas’ comments weren’t surprising. “Can we do away with all of the shock and dismay at Thomas’ statement?” Goldberg wrote. “Everyone knows she is a nasty piece of work and has been a nasty piece of work for decades.” Nasty no more.

On ice

mark green — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 18:06:50 +0000

Wacky story of the day (maybe of the year): Former Philippine first lady Imelda Marcos using the refrigerated corpse of her husband, Ferdinand, dead 21 years, as a photo-prop in her current campaign for a congressional seat. According to The Washington Post, Mrs. Marcos, now 80, is letting herself be photographed with her husband’s glass-enclosed, chilled, remains in an effort to win a seat being vacated by her son, who is running for the national Senate. Voting is scheduled May 10.

Ferdinand Marcos was president of the Philippines more than 20 years before he was forced from office in 1986, accused of corruption and implicated in the slaying of political rival Benigno Aquino Jr. in 1983. Marcos died in exile in Hawaii in 1989. Imelda had his body brought back to his home province in 1993, to a mausoleum next to the Marcos family home. “I see him as often as I can,” she told The Post. “He is right there next door.” One day she hopes to secure a state funeral and grand burial for her husband. For now, the top rung of the Creepy Quotient will have to do.

Hillary Drudged

mark green — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 18:26:04 +0000

Ya gotta love Internet aggregator Matt Drudge. No one’s better at marrying up a sensational headline and the perfect “gotcha” photograph. Exhibit A: On Thursday, Drudge linked with a Washington Times story about the State Department’s booze bill, which at nearly $300,000 last year was about twice as much as the previous year. State buys Jack Daniel’s whiskey and other alcoholic beverages for its embassies and missions, which hold receptions and other events all over the world. The Times dutifully quoted a watchdog group that thinks the expense, though a tiny fraction of State’s overall budget, reflects badly on stewardship when so many Americans don’t have jobs, etc., etc., etc. Likewise, the paper quoted a State spokesman, who noted the department doesn’t serve alcohol at every single event. Phew!

Back to that marriage of headline and photo. For this story Drudge found a photo of a smiling Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a glass of something in hand, rolling her head back in delight while standing in the aisle of her jet, steadying herself with the other hand on the overhead luggage bin. Who knows when the photo was shot, if Clinton was secretary of state then or if the beverage in her hand is Jack Daniel’s or lemonade? For Drudge it’s the perception that counts.

Blame it on global warming

mark green — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 14:22:57 +0000

In the interests of fair and comment, if Pat Robertson gets an eye roll for blaming the Haiti earthquake on Let’s Make a Deal with the devil, then actor/activist Danny Glover gets one for blaming it on global warming. In an interview with an Australian news outlet Glover said the Haitian quake is linked to the lack of progress at the recent climate change conference in Denmark. “When we see what we did at the climate summit in Copenhagen, this is the response, this is what happens, you know what I’m sayin’?” Uh, no. Earthquakes are older than any conceivable human influence on the earth’s temperature. Tectonic plates and all that. Glover and Robertson prove the political spectrum has its fringe at both ends.

Nobel’s prize

mark green — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 16:12:37 +0000

Members of the Nobel Peace Prize committee must have missed last week’s “Saturday Night Live” skit in which an actor playing President Barack Obama ticked off a long laundry list of non-achievements. No worries. The Nobel people awarded Obama the prize anyway, suggesting it was more for what Obama promises for the world than anything he’s achieved. It’s the only plausible rationale, because the Nobel application deadline came less than two weeks after Obama took office. Nobel’s highest-profile prize is its most political and often serves as a platform for its left-leaning views. “It’s the committee’s preaching to America — this is the way to go,” former United Nations Ambassador John Bolton told Fox News. The White House didn’t try to hide the fact it was caught completely off guard. Hours later, Obama offered humble remarks, saying he didn’t consider himself as worthy as other past winners. Still, not bad for a fledgling presidency more noted for flowery speeches than concrete accomplishments, which prompted one Web wag to ask, “What’s next? The American League Cy Young Award?” Funny.

Called third strike

mark green — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 14:11:13 +0000

Is it really all that surprising that Iran has had another nuclear fuel processing plant covertly under construction for years? Shouldn’t be. Iran’s nuclear intentions have been pretty thinly veiled. Still, President Barack Obama, France’s Nicolas Sarkozy and Great Britain’s Gordon Brown sounded dismayed as they accused the Iranians of cheating on international nuclear protocols for at least the third time.

The allies have known about the site for years but waited to publicly challenge Iran until after the Iranians tried to pretend the facility was a “pilot” project in a recent letter to the International Atomic Energy Agency. The leaders sounded tough but stopped short of threatening Iran with anything more than more economic sanctions if it doesn’t abandon its nuclear weapons ambitions. An Iranian official shrugged off more sanctions, telling Fox News that Iran has coped with sanctions for 30 years and will continue to do so.

So, there’s another line in the sand for Iran. Past usually is prologue, which means the Iranians probably won’t hesitate to call the world’s latest bluff.