Obama's Ugly America

Brazil got the Olympics over Spain, Japan and the US

Clear-eyed observers predicted it, because they know that despite Obama's election and ensuing apology tour, our "image" hasn't improved.  We still think they are surrender monkeys and they still think we are torturers.  Stereotypes are stubborn things 
 
Anybody who has lived in Europe knows this old joke:

Heaven is the place where the lovers are Italian, the police are English, the mechanics are German, the cooks are French and the place is run by the Swiss.

Hell is where the lovers are Swiss, the cooks are English, the mechanics are French, the

police are
German and the place is run by the Italians.

Obama's embarrassing failure in Copenhagen this past week reminded me of the Bernd Debussman article where he asks, What ever happened to the Ugly American? Seems we're not such ugly tourists anymore, based upon the results of a recent global survey. In fact, we now rate the 9th best on the strength of our tipping and attempts to speak the local language.

Despite our improved behavior when visiting foreign lands,much of the rest of the world still sees the US as a racist country. Because of this they are enamored of the idea of Obama.

So how could the Olympic committee reject Obama if he is so loved by the rest of the world? 

The answer is, they don't love Obama. They love the idea of Obama. A black man who now sits atop the power pyramid of the most powerful nation on earth. A nation much of the world still deems irredeemably racist. Beloved symbol he may be, but he will never be one of them.

Brazilian President Lula Da Silva, on the other hand, is a genuine man of the left, and he is truly loved by the international set.

Unlike Lula, President Obama will never be more than a totem to them, standing in the museum next to the wax figure of the inarticulate cowboy. To the international left, Obama is still an American, no matter how he strains to ingratiate himself.

President Obama thought that he could just breeze in there and beat out Brazil and their president who has years of street cred in the global community. That doesn't make him an Ugly American, just an arrogant one.

FP - Why Brazil Won
Bernd Debussman - Ugly American Stereotype
Obama - NYT
RCS - Ron Flatter

Olympics Tip Sheet: Corruption, Socialist Beaches, or Global Warming?

Everyone is giddy waiting to see who the IOC will pick to host the 2016 Olympics.  The scandal-ridden international body is due to announce around at noon eastern.  Here's a quick tip sheet for those who couldn't care less:

USA - Chicago
As First Lady Michelle told us, this is for the children too fat and too dumb to ride bicycles.  But most of all, it's for the rich, over-privileged children of Barack and Michelle's millionaire slumlord cronies who stand to make millions if the committee is stupid enough to actually select that crime-ridden hell hole.

Odds:   2-1.  We kill and jail terrorists while laughing at global warming, so we have a few strikes against us.  But never underestimate the power of graft, corruption and international bribery.

Japan - Tokyo
Closed and xenophobic, Japan apparently had little to offer besides those little tiny cell phones and mp3 players.  But then their Foreign Minister broke down and cried about how the earth would likely burn up in less that a decade, making 2016 the last Olympics before the death of Gaia.

Odds:  4-1.  Who want to go to expensive, racist Japan?  Anyway, the committee probably saw these desperate histrionics for what they were.  Unless he shoved a pile of cash under the table during his crying jag, Japan is toast.


Brazil - Rio de Janeiro
Vibrant, lefty in a happy and prosperous kind of way, sexy, well-tanned as Berlusconi might say, Brazil is the odds-on favorite.  Anyone who has been there knows that Brazilians are happy, good-looking people, including their children.  There are 13-year old girls on the beach who have no business looking like that, and neither did I, so I forced myself to turn my head...

Odds:  1-1.  This is a goldmine for the perverts and pedophiles who infest self-important seats of international corruption like the IOC.  Throw in some good old-fashioned Latin American bribery (they learned it from Chicago) and Brazil is the clear winner.  

Spain - Madrid
Has anyone seen Spain lately?  Last I heard it was being threatened by terrorists.  Someone should knock on their door and check on them.  They may be dead in there...

HT to Dr Dave at Feed your ADHD for giving me this idea by posting a commentary much funnier than mine.

Shock! & Surprise! at Chinese Censorship

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is just one more stupidly delusional international organization. Reporters aren't much better. Both groups are mad because the Chinese government has censored their internet access.

News Flash: China is a Communist country. They deny their people basic freedoms that we here in the free world take for granted, like criticizing the government and watching YouTube. Was the "We are the World" globalist crowd really so naive as to think that granting Red China the Olympics would transform them?

This is how international organizations and their fellow travelers in the press gain a reputation for naivety and stupidity. The IOC actually thought that the country that swallowed Tibet whole would grant total internet access to foreign reporters.

Another point: Notice how the world's progressives have no problem with China denying it's own people freedoms, but complain when China does the same to them? Anyway, here's quick survey of what the newspapers are saying:

Here's a quote from Reuters:

"This blatant media censorship adds one more broken promise that undermines the claim that the Games would help improve human rights in China," Amnesty East Asia researcher Mark Allison said.

The NY Times, a paper more sympathetic China's communist politburo than it is to the Bush Administration, blandly reported on the situation without a hint of criticism directed at China's dictatorial regime. The Toilet Paper of Record uttered not a peep as China cited terrorism concerns as an excuse for restricting freedoms. I guess the Times only gets upset at imaginary restrictions of freedom:

The restrictions, which closely resemble the blocks that China places on the Internet for its citizens, undermine sweeping claims by Jacques Rogge, the International Olympic Committee president, that China had agreed to provide full Web access for foreign news media during the Games. Mr. Rogge has long argued that one of the main benefits of awarding the Games to Beijing was that the event would make China more open.

“For the first time, foreign media will be able to report freely and publish their work freely in China. There will be no censorship on the Internet,” Mr. Rogge told Agence France-Presse just two weeks ago. (The commies lied. Imagine that! --Silverfiddle)

Timesonline of London had the best take:

The 2008 Games will be held under the slogan “One World, One Dream”. As was only to be expected, the world and the dream will be defined by China. Hopes that the Olympics would change the People's Republic have been shown up as an illusion, just as the idea that economic progress would bring multiparty democracy on Western lines to China has been exploded by reality. The International Olympic Committee probably calculates that it has no alternative but to go along with all this. Now, as the Games reflect broader issues in China, the question is whether the IOC stands as a mirror for foreign governments' dealings with Beijing.

Reminds me of an old saying: Lay down with dogs, wake up with fleas...