ROTFLMAO!!!!!

Don't Know Whether To Believe

...this or not.


That's making more sense.

Good Grief!!

What's obama up to now.?!



Gotta help those Muzzies I guess.

Arrest, detention of Indian diplomat in New York triggers uproar

She was strip searched. Real classy. The only thing missing was rape.

Tough Shit!

UPDATE:  Forgive me for being female, but that Mexican President is really good looking:

But he's way too young. And I'm sure the drug cartels will get to him.

 ==========Original Post Starts Here==========

 Mexico 'Really Mad' At Canada

"The Mexican ambassador to Canada says his country is "really mad" at the Harper government for the continued imposition of a visa on its travellers here. Ambassador Francisco Suarez told The Canadian Press in an exclusive interview that Mexico is so upset that if the issue isn't resolved by next year, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto might have to postpone a planned visit to Canada."

BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Leftards Will Be Leftards

Oppostion questions diplomatic skills of former Mountie chosen as next ambassador to Jordan

I would think, given the conflicts their job gets them involved in, policemen (and women) would be masters of diplomacy.

But, leftards will be leftards.

The Back Story?

Last week the Harper government severed ties with Iran. This week the story du jour is the protests throughout the Muslim world over a grade D You Tube movie trailer. I happen to think the two are related.

First of all, the protests began on the anniversary of 9/11.  That should be no surprise, even the dullest of diplomats in embassies could have predicted that something would happen on September 11th. Perhaps Harper had more intelligence (I'm referring to the diplomatic kind, not the kind associated with learning and mental acuity, although he has plenty of that, too.) Perhaps an attack on Canada's embassy in Iran was in the plans, and/or the murder of one or more of Canada's diplomatic staff in Iran.

It would seem logical to me that some mole in the Muslim world gave a heads up to at least one Western intelligence agency that the old bearded ones were planning to stir up shit by spreading lies to their poorly educated, easily provoked masses, especially to those who wanted to earn a bit of money by showing up at a protest. And that intelligence was shared, at least throughout Western ambassadors in the Muslim world. Perhaps The One got the memo, too, but being the enemy of his people, he may have failed to do what was necessary to protect his diplomatic staff in Libya.

In any case, it all makes sense to me. Old goats orchestrate protests using some lame excuse that none of their followers would have the smarts to refute.  Middle Eastern oil money pays for it. Western diplomacy is dealt another blow and most of the West goes back to sleep.

On a related topic, some day I'm going to do an entry on Tarek Heggy, and my theory that Islam is going through the same sort of process that took place in Europe during the reformation and enlightenment eras. I don't know how much of an audience Heggy has, but he certainly is a reformer and his name belongs up there with the great thinkers of the West who brought us from the Middle Ages to the modern era. Do read his essay at the link.

Related.

Great rant here:

The Message Can't Be...

...much clearer than that, and still be in the realm of diplomatic:

Keystone may be revived after U.S. election: Canada official

To Mr. Obama and the American electorate, in the event you are reading this, we want someone else in the White House later this year. Got it?

Oh Those Middle Eastern Dictators...

...can always be counted upon to give their people exactly what they want. After all, that's what our leftards tell us. But what are they gonna do when they're at odds with the hallowed UN?

Syrian onslaught in Homs appalls UN

"The High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, told the UN General Assembly that Syria was launching indiscriminate attacks against civilians and accused the Syrian army of implementing a “shoot-to-kill” policy.

“The nature and scale of abuses committed by Syrian forces indicate that crimes against humanity are likely to have been committed since March 2011,” she said.

“I am particularly appalled by the ongoing onslaught on Homs,” Ms. Pillay said, noting that government forces have been using tanks, mortars and artillery in the assault on the city.

Her comments came as European powers welcomed an Arab League decision to ask the United Nations to send a joint peacekeeping force to Syria, although Moscow cautioned a ceasefire is needed before peacekeepers can be deployed."

Of course, I would have to ask, what's the point of sending "peacekeepers" in where there is no peace to keep. If anything, what's needed is a full-scale force of fully equipped warriors. But does the West have the stomach for it?

The Chief thug in Syria certainly knows how to oppress his people. But that's what they want, right? And the UN is as useless bedraggled alley cat.

Wanna Know My Theory...

...about the attempted Iranian assassination of the Saudi diplomat in the US?

The guy looks and acts like he's gay. That's why they tried to off him.

That's probably why the Saudi's shipped him off to the diplomatic corp, too. Big embarrassment for the House of Saud.

A pox on all their houses!

When In Afghanistan...

...don't fart.

Read the comments. I feel your stomach cramps.

(And how 'bout that list at # 18!)

Oh. My. God.

This is just hilarious. I suppose the Globe and Mail thinks this is shocking news:

Documents show Canadian diplomats kept Kabul embassy bar well stocked

"Canada’s diplomatic corps in Kabul did not go thirsty.

Hospitality forms show embassy staff and dignitaries drank plenty of booze while posted to Afghanistan, an Islamic country where imbibing is not just taboo, it’s against the law.

The embassy consumed close to 3,000 bottles of alcoholic beverages from mid-2007 to last November. The tab for the beer, wine and hard liquor was at least $20,000."

[---]

"The Canadian Press obtained hospitality diaries from the Canadian embassy in Kabul under the Access to Information Act.

The forms give the Foreign Affairs Department the cost of the embassy’s food and drink orders, along with guest lists and descriptions of lunches, dinners and other functions.

It is not clear whether the department provided all the hospitality forms. While there were dozens of forms in 2008 and 2010, there was just a single sheet for all of 2009.

Foreign Affairs also did not provide any forms for all of 2006 and the first half of 2007 – even though they were requested – so the booze bill could actually be much higher."

Oh the horrors!!!

Look, I was married to an Arab Muslim for fourteen years. I met many members of his family and many friends, as well. Except for a few in his parent's generation, every single one of them drank liquor, and many of them ate pork, too. And that was way back in the 1970s.

Yo! Globe and Mail! Do you know what the purpose of an embassy is? I'll give you some hints. Networking. Hob nobbing. Talking. Talking. Talking. Talking. Not just with the locals, but more especially, with the diplomatic staff from all those other embassies in the same city. They learn stuff, not just from the host government, but from diplomats from all over the planet, who just might talk a bit loosely, and sink a few ships, when they've had a few drinks. The subjects discussed, often as not, have nothing to do with the host country, and for good reason.

Get over yourselves, media. You're becoming a sick joke. Read the comments and learn.  The point about the legal status of an embassy is well worth contemplating.

Note to the World's Leftards

Let this be a reminder for you:

Libya stalemate presents diplomatic challenges

"Every move in the diplomatic play-book has so far been thrown at the embattled Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and yet he is still hanging on to power."

Your much vaulted diplomacy costs lives.

Putin Comes Is Allowed In From the Cold?

Part of NATO's realignment?

Putin calls on EU to determine visa scrapping terms and schedule

Putin Proposes European Trade Zone Stretching `From Lisbon to Vladivostok'

A very interesting analysis: Western views of Russia take a turn to reality

"The West has not had a very good record of seeing Russia as it is; more often it has been a palimpsest on which the visitor has written his notions. I recommend Martin Malia’s Russia Under Western Eyeswhich starts with Voltaire’s imaginary ideally-governed Russia or David Foglesong’s The American Mission and the 'Evil Empire' which details a century of American obsessions about a Russia seen as a disappointingly stubborn and backwards twin brother.

But it is certain that change there has been since August 2008. Here are some indicators.

* The famous “reset” of the Obama Administration. Some of the fruits, apart from a new nuclear weapons treaty have been:
o The US State Department finally put the leader, but not the organisation itself, of the Caucasus Emirate on its terrorist list (the jihadist foundations of the second war in Chechnya has been one of the West’s persistent misunderstandings).
o The abandonment of strategic missile defence in Poland and the Czech Republic. Although the deployment had little support in either Poland or the Czech Republic, it was strongly supported by the political classes in each country. Another example, it seems, of democracy becoming geopolitics.
* The air crash that killed Polish President Kaczynski and the open and sympathetic reaction of Russians has opened possibilities with Poland, previously one of Russia’s most implacable opponents inside NATO.
* The financial crisis has hit many of the former post-USSR success stories quite hard and made them re-think relations with Russia. Latvia is a pertinent example.
* Relations with NATO are changing rapidly. NATO expansion has been dealt a blow: it’s clear that Ukraine will not join and no one wants to share a table with Saakashvili. But more to the point, NATO has, after a dozen years of treating Russia with contemptuous indifference, realised that it needs Russia in Afghanistan. While the General Secretary of NATO says different things to different audiences (for example in Tbilisi saying that Georgia will be a member of NATO one day), he has also been making overtures to Moscow, calling a few weeks ago for a “true strategic partnership.” I suspect that Paris and Berlin (and perhaps now Warsaw too) are pushing him.
* For several years, President Medvedev has been calling for a re-think of the European security system. At first dismissed as “an attempt to split Europe” his idea is receiving better reception.
* Crying wolf – what more ridiculous example can there be than this hyperventilation: “Putin’s shadow Falls over Finland” – is losing its effect. Russia’s neighbours have not been bludgeoned into slavery by the “gas weapon”, Russian troops did not “conquer Georgia” and annex the pipelines. After these and (many) other predictive failures, new doom-filled warnings are that much less believable.

The metaphorical sweater is unravelling rapidly. If Ossetians and Abkhazians regard Russians as their protectors, one cannot believe the story Tbilisi has been telling us for years. If Yanukovych won a fair election, perhaps it was the “Orange Revolution” that was the fraud. If Armenia has had its gas prices go up as much as Ukraine, then it can’t be a “gas weapon” to reward friends and punish enemies. What was stopping Russian troops from seizing large parts of Georgia proper? perhaps Putin neither wants the empire back nor to control the pipelines. If Russia’s principal enemy in the North Caucasus is a “terrorist”, then what’s really going on there? If China and Zimbabwe are members of the WTO, why isn’t Russia?

Paris and Berlin continue to lead: at the three-way summit in Deauville, overtures were made as was clear from the press conference. President Sarkozy said “We are certain that Russia, Germany and France share common positions in many respects” and that “we live in a new world, a world of friendship between Russia and Europe.” Chancellor Merkel said “we need to put relations between Russia and NATO on a rational track. After all, we face some of the same threats in the world today.” Medvedev, for once not the suppliant, was less forthcoming but made it clear he was listening.

These are, to be sure, straws in the wind but there are now quite a few of them and more come every day. Barring some unexpected catastrophe, I expect this development to continue. Paris and Berlin (and perhaps Warsaw) are leading developments but others will join in. The coming NATO summit will move the process a step further.

The end result, for perhaps the first time in history, will be a Western view of Russia more nearly as it actually is; no longer an imagined reflection. As an important player with its own interests Russia will have to be accommodated. Not an enemy, not an opponent, not necessarily an ally, but an important player that, in fact, marches in the same direction most of the time. And when it doesn’t, disagreements can be discussed and reasonable compromises made. In short, a Russia that is seen to be “in the box”."

Yup. The Cold War is well and truly over. All eyes now on the Muslim world.

Whose Move Now?

So, if Israel takes out Iran's nuke capability, does that mean there will be peace in the Middle East? Nah. I didn't think so either, but gosh this is an interesting statement from one of Iran's closest neighbours.

Who are they more afraid of? Iran or the little Satan?

"Mr. al-Otaiba made his comments in response to a question after a public interview session with the Atlantic magazine at the Aspen Ideas Festival here. They echo those of some Arab diplomats who have said similar things in private to their American counterparts but never this bluntly in public."

[---]

"John R. Bolton, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said the comments reflect the views of many Arab states in the Persian Gulf region that "recognize the threat posed by a nuclear Iran.

"They also know — and worry — that the Obama administration's policies will not stop Iran," he told The Times in a separate interview.

Arab leaders, Mr. Bolton said, regard a pre-emptive strike as "the only alternative.""

[---]

"Mr. al-Otaiba said that his country would be the last Arab country to cut a deal with Iran, if Tehran were to go nuclear. But he predicted other wealthy Arab states in the Gulf would dump their alliances with the U.S. in favor of ties with Tehran if President Obama does not stop the Islamic republic's quest to become a nuclear power.

"There are many countries in the region that if they lack assurance that the U.S. is willing to confront Iran, they will start running for cover with Iran," he said. "Small, rich, vulnerable countries do not want to stick their finger in the big boy's eye if they do not have the backing of the United States."

The ambassador also said that "talk of containment and deterrence really concerns me and makes me very nervous."

He said Iran has not been deterred from supporting terrorist groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah now, when it doesn't have a nuclear arsenal. So why, he asked rhetorically, would Iran be more cautious in its support for terrorism if it did."

It seems to me there's some signaling going on here and some mad and furious behind the scenes diplomacy as well. Diplomats from at least one county that talks to both Israel and the Arab nations are working overtime.

Interesting times.

So. I was Standing In Front of the Urinal Taking a Whiz, When...

...who should walk in but Japan's Minister of Finance....so we got to talkin'.

Real summit deals happen at dinner

"G8 and G20 leaders will sit down for hours in Toronto and Huntsville this weekend, discussing pressing issues during long formal meetings.

But often the most important conversations at these types of summits happen outside the board room, during dinners, coffee runs, sessions at the gym and even bathroom breaks."

[---]

"U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair bumped into each other at a hotel gym at 6 a.m. during the G8 summit in Kananaskis, Alta.

Running side-by-side on treadmills, they launched into a discussion of foreign policy.

"They hammered out a lot of the agreement on what would happen with Iraq,""

[---]

"While some may argue that summits are too costly to stage, with billions spent to bring leaders together, Graham said the face-to-face meetings and all the informal chances for conversation are invaluable.

Leaders get to know each other and feel they can call one another whenever an issue arises. The same goes for ministers and even staff members. This kind of interaction can't be achieved through a teleconference or over the internet..,"

[---]

"...one Japanese finance minister was able to carry on a discussion of economic policy with his U.S. counterpart in the bathroom..."