Bush's UN Speech Full of Fone-eh-tick Pronunciations for World Leaders

[Hi There, Am Pam]

This isn't really politics, and it's barely news, but a speech has leaked (http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2007/09/bush-speech-has.html) which shows the phonetic pronunciation of difficult to say leaders & territories.

Ok, so I probably wouldn't be able to read through the speech and pronounce every name. But I'm also not president, you know... the job where you're supposed to know who world leaders are.

I don't want to make too much of it though. It's more just emblematic of Bush, and, let's face it, hilarious. What I find most interesting is that this explains so much about how Bush delivers his speeches. He always has this look of "See, I got it right!" after saying any difficult name. Plus, he always emphasizes things unevenly. You know what I mean, "The killings in Bots-WAnna must not got unpunished".

It all makes sense now.

[Static Split Screen]

it doesn't surprise me at all.

[Drunkenmaster]

:zzz:

[Kris K]

Did Hugo Chavez speak again?

The whole "And it smells of sulfur still today," comment murdered last years assembly. Good speech (can be viewed here (http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0920-22.htm)), too, if not a bit over the top. At least it was relevant.

[Hi There, Am Pam]

That reminds me of how over the top the coverage of the Amna... Iranian president's (I don't have time to look up the correct spelling) speech was. So much was focused on whether he should be allowed to speak or not, and this fake, drummed up controversy, that people missed the point. While he was good at stating his position (possibly spin) on a lot of issues, he looked ridiculous when he said Iran has no homos.

It's a perfect example of how people get all fired up over something, and they end up missing the bigger picture.

[Kris K]

Yeah, it's funny how it's a big deal for this stuff to happen in Iran yet there are no protests when members of the Saudi ruling family visit. It's essentially the same type of country, just with a Sunni dominance rather than a Shi'ite one.

[Kris K]

Not to mention that the majority of foreign insurgents in Iraq are Saudi nationals.

[Suede]

Women are not allowed to drive or ride bicycles on public roads in large cities.

Saudi Arabia has the best human rights record in the world.

You think they'll be Operation Saudi Freedom anytime soon?

Bush and his criminal friends make billions off their Saudi friends, who cares about the women there.

[Kris K]

What did you do to Kran?

[Mary Alice]

while it isn't a very big issue that he has help with pronouncing words, I am an international relations major and would have no problem saying any of those words with no help. It is sad that the leader of our country isn't expected to do his research and learn a bit about other cultures BEFORE we go to war with them rather than after. It's not like all Americans have to know enough about foreign affairs themselves to know when our leader was truly knowledgeable or not, that's a big expection. Still I wish we WERE more knowledgeable as a nation. Just as a personal preference it pisses me off that it is so low on the priority list here and that we allow ourselves to have a leader with this sort of attitude to the rest of the world. The fact that he needs so much help saying these words does truly show his lack of familiarity and he could, if he was doing his job, be saying these words daily with advisors and staff, etc. Like I said, until we're at war, it's just not a priority for him to learn about this stuff, but it should be. It's like preventative medicine, you know, you take care of things before they get crazy, do your research and be knowledgeable and smart, and you can stop a lot of bad things from happening. And it's sad that we don't even expect this quality in the person we elect president, that it just doesn't seem to be a deciding factor in who we elect.

[Suede]

What did you do to Kran?

i got the french to neg him and 2goldfish or something sent him a pic of a naked guy with needles (i think it was) stuck on his ass.

[Kris K]

Haha!

Well done.