THE DAILY BLADE: Think Obama Has Lousy Taste In Gifts Of State?

At their first meeting during the Fifth Summit of the Americas, Venezuelan President-for-Life Hugo Chavez gave President Barack Obama a copy of “Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent” by Uruguayan author Eduardo Galeano, reports Jake Tapper of ABC News: .

 

The book, first published in Spanish in 1971, offers a critique of the consequences of 500 years of European and U.S. colonization of Latin America. …

 

The book also criticizes the U.S. for "spreading and imposing family planning. … In Latin America it is more hygienic and effective to kill future guerillas in the womb that in the mountains or the streets." …

 

The copy of the book Chavez gave Obama appears to be in Spanish, a language Obama does not speak. …

 

President Obama was asked what he thought of Chavez’s gift.

“You know, I thought it was one of Chavez’s books," Obama answered. "I was going to give him one of mine.”

 

And the summit went downhill from there, with Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner giving Obama a dressing down. It seems world leaders don’t like Obama any more than they liked Bush. Who’d a thunk it? Well, anyone who wasn’t an Obamaniac and/or who knows anything about history and geopolitics.

 

For her part, The Stiletto is glad the book Chavez gave Obama is in Spanish, ‘cause our first lady doesn’t speak the language, and if she has started to feel proud of the U.S. this book would have nipped the nascent feeling in the bud. (So ixnay on telling MO there's an English translation.)

 

Editorial Note: With each trip out of the country, it becomes increasingly clear that world leaders regard Obama as a 98-pound weakling. Case in point: French president Nicolas Sarkozy came away from the G-20 summit rather unimpressed with Obama’s much-hyped intellect reports The Times of London:

 

Mr Sarkozy is pouring cold water on President Obama's efforts to recast American leadership on the world stage, depicting them as unoriginal, unsubstantial and overrated. …

 

The American President's call "to free the world of the menace of a nuclear nightmare" was hot air, Mr Sarkozy's diplomatic staff told him in a report. "It was rhetoric – not a speech on American security policy but an export model aimed at improving the image of the United States," they said. Most of Mr Obama's proposals had already been made by the Bush administration and Washington was dragging its feet on disarmament and treaties against nuclear proliferation, the leaked report said.

 

 

NJ Sen. Awakens To Find Robbers In His Bedroom

 

NJ State Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D-Union County) awoke in the wee hours of Saturday morning to find two young men who had broken in his home though a basement window standing just feet from his bed, reports The Associated Press. Surprised to find the home occupied, once of the robbers suggested that he be shot but Lesniak never saw either one brandish a weapon. The men, who took cash and Lesniak’s cell phone, remain at large. Yet another example of criminals victimizing unarmed law-abiding citizens.

 

 

Life Imitates “Snakes On A Plane”

 

A Qantas flight from Alice Springs had to be fumigated after it landed in Melbourne and the baggage handlers discovered that four of 12 baby Stimson's pythons being transported in the cargo hold had escaped from their Styrofoam container and could not be found when the plane was searched, reports BBC News:

 

At first it was thought the reptiles may have been eaten by the other snakes, but this was discounted after they were weighed on landing.

 

Passengers were transferred to other aircraft. The jet was fumigated but the snakes' bodies are yet to be found.

 

"They're not endangered so a decision was made to fumigate … if these snakes turn up they will be very much dead snakes," David Epstein of Qantas said.

 

Stimson's pythons, which can grow up to three feet long, live western and central Australia and are not venomous.

 

[Hat Tip: The Heel, an Ivy-educated attorney with a prestigious New York firm, and occasional contributor to this blog.]

 

 

In Memoriam

 

Jossip.com, 2003-2009

Posted by The Stiletto at April 20, 2009
Categories: The Daily Blade
 

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