Understatement of the week - at least

Illegal Israeli settlement

"Israel's continued settlement building could hurt Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations."

-- Condoleezza Rice
-- US Secretary of State
-- (15 June 2008)

Call me naive, but until I ran into the above picture I had no idea this is what's referred to as a "settlement". Its a fucking small town.

Note: Headline links to source.

Rice: NATO mission in Afghanistan 'bumpy'

Condoleezza Rice at age 5

I can think of many words to describe the situation in Afghanistan. But "bumpy" ain't one of them.

Where do they find these Pollyannas? Just asking.

And I wonder if she still believes in Santa Claus.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says the NATO-led military mission in Afghanistan is "bumpy," and the international aid effort needs firmer coordination among the many nations participating.

Rice said she hopes a new candidate will be chosen quickly to replace a respected British diplomat who had accepted a job as overall international coordinator of aid, government and economic projects in Afghanistan but backed out because of objections from Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

The choice for the job would probably be a European, not an American, Rice said as she traveled to Britain for meetings Wednesday on Afghanistan strategy and other matters. The United States is trying to bridge a rift among NATO allies participating in unequal measure in Afghanistan.

"It's bumpy and it's a lot of maturing that the alliance is having to do to do this," Rice told reporters.

Why can politicians never come out and say they are optimistic in the long run because..., but right now its the equivalent of a shit storm and it doesn't look good?

Via Chicago Sun-Times.

No comment

AP/Charles Dharapak

Who am I trying to kid here? I always have a comment. That's the reason I blog.

How the fuck did that woman get so close to Condi with bloody hands? That must have been a phenomenal feat.

So much for keeping terrorists at bay when they can't even keep this woman away from the Secretary of State.

BTW, I give Blogger props for consistency. When a picture is vital to a post or, in fact IS the post, I get this error message:

Error uploading your photo

There was a temporary error uploading your photo. Please try again in a few minutes.

Now to be fair, they always solve the problem after just a few attempts to upload a picture, but its frustrating as hell while I'm waiting.

Via Dependable Renegade (watertiger).

Irony on a plate

After some 60 years, it boils down to a "moment" and Condi just happens to be there.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Wednesday that Israelis and Palestinians have a new "moment of opportunity" to forge peace despite the eruption of fresh tensions between the two sides over preparations for a U.S.-hosted Mideast conference.

And, realizing this will brand me an anti-Semite, why the fuck is such a small nation always and I mean ALWAYS in the news? Even Paris Hilton isn't such an attention hog.

Israel is almost the epitome of a flea on an elephant's ass.

Yeah, I could have said an elephant's trunk, but that ain't me.

On a larger map, you can't even find Israel unless someone Photoshops® a big red arrow.

Via Yahoo!® News.

Rice

I'm not gonna defend rice/Rice, the food or the politician. And I certainly won't defend the media.

Left I carefully reads the news so you don't have to.

Check this out.

Oh, you have to try the Rice

It seemed its been a while since I'd read anything about Condoleezza Rice. Ya know, that Secretary of State person?

Well, I searched and found she is in the news, but not prominently.

Blog Critics magazine: "Hillary Clinton was outraged [over the Imus incident], so Condoleezza Rice had to be indignant also."

FMNN: "Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, fired another pointed letter off to Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice on Monday, again demanding information regarding the fraudulent claim that Niger supplied uranium to Saddam Hussein."

Nieman Watchdog: "Her trip may have irked George W. Bush, but the overseas press, especially that of the Middle East, was overwhelmingly in favor of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to the region. Her talks with Syrian president Bahshar Al-Asad in early April were widely considered more productive than the various tours that Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice has made there."

The City Paper: "Author and journalist Leslie Montgomery has written extensively on issues of faith and women, and one of her subjects in was current Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, Ph.D."

MWC News: "The World Bank's staff association said on Friday that Wolfowitz, the ex-US deputy defence secretary, had "destroyed" the trust of employees and should quit.

"He must act honourably and resign," the de facto union said in a letter to the World Bank's 10,000 staff.

The bank's 24 executive directors said the ethics committee had not been involved in the decision to award Shaha Riza rises that gave her a salary greater than that of Condoleeza Rice, the secretary of state."

Well, they go on like that, but I'm sure you get the picture. Not too much Secretary of State stuff going on there.

US to grow rice containing human genes

File under: The Twilight Zone. This is just too strange.

Genetically-modified rice containing human genes is about to be grown in the US for commercial production.

The laboratory-created rice which produces some of the proteins found in breast milk and saliva would be used for children’s medicines to help fight diarrhoea, dehydration and other illnesses.

The US government gave preliminary approval for Ventria Bioscience to grow over three-thousand acres of the GM rice in Kansas.

(read more)

Ridiculous

And tragic at the same time. Condi is saying the US is not trying to wipe out the Sunnis? She can be such a joker sometimes.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Iraqi leaders Saturday that the Baghdad security operation needs to "rise above sectarianism" and noted that no U.S. or Iraqi forces have yet moved into the capital's major Shiite militia stronghold, an Iraqi official said.

The official, who was familiar with the discussions, said Rice told Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki that the initial stage of the crackdown, which began Wednesday, appeared to focus on Sunni areas and had left Sadr City, stronghold of the Mahdi Army militia, nearly untouched.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to release the information to the media.

He said Rice stopped short of accusing the Iraqis of displaying pro-Shiite bias in the operation and said it appeared that the security crackdown was going well.

Top Sunni politicians have also complained that Sunni neighborhoods have been targeted for raids and searches while Sadr City and other Shiite militia hideouts have been spared.

She told the Iraqis that the operation must "rise above sectarianism" and that this was the "last chance for success," he said without elaborating.

And as for "going well"? Hahaha. She's such a card.

(read more)