Karen Hughes says all her problems were caused by bad translation

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N29401931.htm

U.S. image a tough sell for Hughes on Mideast trip

SHANNON, Ireland, Sept 29 (Reuters) - U.S. goodwill envoy Karen Hughes was in the midst of explaining her "four E" strategy to an audience in Jeddah when reality dawned.

"They probably don't translate very well into Arabic," she said with a laugh.

On a five-day trip to Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Turkey, her first as undersecretary of state for public diplomacy, Hughes learned that a lot more than engage, exchange, educate and empower have been lost in translation between Americans and Muslims abroad.

"I was very cognizant that this was a challenge," she said of her mission to find out why so many Muslims have such a hostile view of the United States and what she can do about it.

Hughes is a close confidante and image-shaper of President George W. Bush with no previous experience in foreign diplomacy other than accompanying him abroad during trips in the first years of his presidency.

[MN ChimpH8R]

1. It doesn't matter how much lipstick you put on a pig

it's still a pig, and no one is going to think it isn't.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

10. That was her problem

Pigs are unclean and forbidden to be used as food in Islam.

[Carni]

41. I think her problem was she should have put a bag over her head before

she gave the speech...

Flame away but that woman is ugly, unpleasant, unethical and stupid.

I am a woman, but if all women looked, acted and thought like her...
I would encourage the sharia laws of Saudi Arabia.

[barbaraann]

2. GOP excuse #5,147,653

"It was the translator's fault."

[Merlot]

3. "no previous experience in foreign diplomacy..."

No suprise there. You think this might be why she's having so many "troubles?'

[etherealtruth]

31. What ... ?

Are you implying that the Chimp would appoint someone that is not qualified to a position such as this?

:sarcasm:

[SammyWinstonJack]

36. Since Chimpy is the ultimate non qualified person to hold the position he

holds, what else would anyone expect from him? The Extreme five appointed an unqualified non elected idiot to the highest office in this Country and we expect that person would do better in appointing leadership positions under his charge? :rofl:

[etherealtruth]

40. ...But "Brownie did a heck of a good job," didn't he?

:sarcasm:

[ChairmanAgnostic]

4. Translate this, you moronic mommy figure.

It's their fault that they don't fall on the ground and worship our plans, because they misunderstood the brilliant reasons for our invasion. It's their fault that they mistakenly worry about civil war caused by our incompetence. It's their fault that they don't embrace our values like we tell them they should - and it IS for their own good.

F U C K - U,
Karen. There is where you can find some great interpreters.

[MisterP]

11. Mommie Dumbest?

[ChairmanAgnostic]

17. it is a mistake to think that they are dumb. They are not.

Evil, misguided, power-hungry, evangelically brain damaged, PNAC-warped and greedy, yeah. But dumb? not really. They (and Mommy dire-est included) could not have run Texas, then run our country if they were dumb. Sly, crafty, craven, wrong, arrogant, insane, inane, and incapable of admitting error? absolutely.

Then again, MrP, I thought about just what her message was in three venues to date, and I have to reconsider what I wrote above. I think that you are right. She is dumb. Her message is misdirected, inept, inappropriate, and guaranteed to fail.

[Carni]

42. I want your mother's phone number

Don't you dare insult mom's out there by lumping them in with that pig...I want to call YOUR mom and telling her to whip your ass into shape! ;)

[ChairmanAgnostic]

45. please carni, may I have another? Please Carni, may I have another?

:)

[Carni]

46. Ok animal house is not my forte

But I am not a SIR--thank you very much!

[Beaverhausen]

5. ah...another one of Bush's incompetent appointees at work

"gee, I didn't know it wouldn't translate to their language. I mean, like, don't they speak english over there?"

[Wilms]

6. .

:rofl:

[Rex]

7. No blame here!

The Blameless Administration.

[burythehatchet]

8. Its friggin Ray Nagin's fault

[AspenRose]

14. WAIT I thought it was Clinton's fault....

I'm so confused :dunce:

[Carni]

43. Nope it's Nagin's

Ok maybe a little bit Blanco's fault too-but it's not huge's fault!

[Rabrrrrrr]

9. I'm sure it has nothing to do with Fuckstick appointing people

to jobs for which they are wholly unqualified and have no actual experience, nor even training, doing.

Can't be that at all.

And I'm sure it has nothing to do with PigWoman never bothering to learn anything about the people with whom she's interfacing, and that she just goes on the assumption of "I don't need to know about them, the problem is that they don't like us, and I need to tell them why they are wrong. Why should I bother learning about them? They're the ones who are wrong."

Can't be that at all.

And it certainly can't be that the stuff she's talking about, which is incredible important ASSUMING we actually want to be friends with those people, is, to her, so laughably UNimportant that she feels free to laugh about it PROBABLY not being something that would translate well, and it certainly has nothing to do with the fact that she should have thought about it whether it would translate well BEFORE she went there.

Can't be that at all.

Nope, it's the fault of the translators.

Because we all know, republicans never make mistakes. While we never see them actually take personal responsibility for anything, the sole reason is that they never do anything for which they are responsible, otherwise they WOULD take responsibility.

No, can't be that at all, either.

[pitohui]

12. it's always somebody else's fault w these guys EOM

,

[jane_pippin]

13. Hi! I'm a PR person, but it just never dawned on me that cultural

differences or translations might cause some confusion about my message. Yes, I am employed in a very high position, and yes, I am an idiot. Further, I expect people at home who for the most part speak the same language as me to actually believe this excuse and not question my superior message-making skills. Who am I?

(say it with me kids) I'm Karen Hughes, Crony At Large!

[Carni]

44. You know actually..she doesn't translate well in any language EOM

[charlie]

15. Bite the wax tadpole n/t

[louis-t]

16. Lies and * neocon bullshit usually don't

translate well. Into any language. Dumbass.

[NNN0LHI]

18. Guess how Karen spells translator?

BILL CLINTON

Don

[gratuitous]

19. What, infantile talking points don't translate?

Some people need a little more than just being yammered at 24-7? Who knew?

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

20. Karen was one of the members of the International Arabian Horse Assoc.

She was one of the steeds, actually, and Bush thought she might have some perspective on Arab affairs. Bush should now appoint her to head FEMA since she can't seem to do anything else.

[Pithy Cherub]

21. Condi & dumbya told hughes and she didn't "get it..."

Got it. The three blind mice cooked up a plan to market America by using the worst of America to pitch the message. Having no credibility usually obliterates a dictators message - Hughes needs communications 101. the culture of corruption GOP never believes its their fault.:eyes:

Another republican incompetent blaming somebody else. The republican blame game continues. Episode MCVXII tomorrow...

[SalmonChantedEvening]

22. You can NOT pre-screen the Muslim World and get

A friendly audience to nod and cheer on cue Karen.

THAT's what you're missing. Smiling adoring faces, already in love with W and his policies, whether they be sound or not. They can see through the BS, just like most Americans and they won't be told they are simply out of step, or bitter anti-W partisans should they disagree with you.

There's no Faux, no townhall, no Novaks or Goldbergs to run your flag up and salute it there. No Coulters to scream TREASON, no Hannity to shout over the objections, just people. Not Americans, so the "Anti-Murkin" card is already unplayable.

You have to talk to these people as equals. As adults. As partners.

Good luck learning these new job skills. They will be essential. And they will actually require Hard Work.

[burythehatchet]

59. no kidding

you'd get the same reaction here in murka Karen, if you dared to listen to the public.

[rodWA]

23. I wonder how you say

"what a steaming crock of horse shit, you repugnant cow" in Arabic.

[SillyGoose]

24. Let me get this straight....she has no previous experience in foriegn

diplomacy but * appoints her as undersecretary of state for public diplomacy? We have another Brownie on our hands here.

[Justpat]

25. Her problems were caused by the fact that the women she

was supposed to inundate with her buddy's propaganda were found
to be capable of thinking for themselves.

According to a piece in today's NY Times, she has been smacked
down by the Saudi women she spoke to on Tuesday and then on Wed.
she ran into a group of Turkish women who were not impressed with
her Bush administration bs.

Her trip was based on the assumption that all these foreign women
want to be like US women. Imagine her surprise to find that the
Saudi women informed her that US people are misinformed about their
respect for their own traditions.

Then with the Turkish women she had an even more difficult audience.
One women told her that they were ashamed of their country's
participation in the Iraq war. So Ms Hughes said, "I can appreciate
your concern about war. No one likes war." Yeah, right,Karen.
No one except your boss.

Then Karen went on to say: "my friend President Bush" did all he
could to avoid war in Iraq. At this point in the article, my
head felt like it was going to explode, but I plowed on through
the rest of it. One of the women told her that she didn't think
Democracy could be installed by force. Hughes then said that
"sometimes you have to engage in combat in order to confront
terrorism."

[spanone]

26. It's an insult to send this woman to do this job. Jimmy Carter perhaps?

Bush* could care less what the world thinks of us.

[Toots]

27. If the pResident's personal envoy can't get a good translator think about

our troops in Iraq. :shrug:

[ChairmanAgnostic]

47. oh don't even consider the possiblity of the thought crossing your mind.

Of course, you go on a heavily armed "peace tour" with the translators you have, not the ones you want.


which brings us back to john ashcroft's cutting of budgets in the face of warnings of arab terrorist warnings.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

28. It's true because"Neo-con" translates into "Asshole."

In every language in the world.

Even cuneiform! -----------> (*(

[YouthInAsia]

29. Shouldnt the person who hold Hugh's position SPEAK ARABIC??!!!!

[EstimatedProphet]

30. She's right. "We want to kill Arabs for sport" doesn't translate well.

The real problem is, she doesn't translate well.
She's not very palatable in English either.

[IChing]

32. THE WOMAN IN TURKEY SPOKE TO HER IN ENGLISH !!!!!!!!!

The last line in the story.................

"Asked if her job were meaningless because she did not appear to have changed many minds, Hughes shot back, "Should I just throw up my hands and say I give up?""

YES AND GO BACK TO TEXAS

[Pithy Cherub]

33. ROFLMAO!

:rofl: Hughes didn't understand her own language...:rofl:

[ChairmanAgnostic]

48. i second the motion.

I suspect that hughie, after earning her medal of honor, will tuck tail, meet with rove & cheney, throw up her hands in dismaydisgustdisbelief&disregard and return to Texas.

My gawd what dolts. Did they actually expect the rest of the world to sit up, beg, shake paws, roll over and lie down at her command? Honestly? then, their incompetence exists on so many levels, that we can easily lose count.

[blondeatlast]

34. Alliteration rarely translates well...

What a maroon! :rofl::rofl::rofl:

[bobbieinok]

35. !?!?!?'why so many Muslims have such a hostile view of the United States '

hasn't the RW message all along been that it's unAmerican to try to find out 'why so many Muslims have such a hostile view of the United States '

there are many people in the US, Muslim and non-Muslim, who can at least begin to answer this question

but OF COURSE bushco doesn't want to know WHY, they just want to pound everyone into agreement with them

[GoldenOldie]

39. All her problems begin and end with Karen, herself.

What part of "Diplomacy," doesn't she understand?

[lillilbigone]

37. Asked if her job were meaningless

Asked if her job were meaningless because she did not appear to have changed many minds, Hughes shot back, "Should I just throw up my hands and say I give up?"


YES, PLEASE

[devinsgram]

38. Gee, just imagine that

Something you cannot blame Clinton for.

[tanyev]

49. Let's hear it for the Rainbow Tour!

It's been an incredible success
We weren't quite sure, we had a few doubts

Would Karen win through?
Yes
And no
And yes
And no
And yes
No.

[Bluebear]

50. And HOW much is she getting paid for this shit? nt

[BiggJawn]

51. They speak Arabic in Turkey?

And besides, didn't the women she met with speak better English than Karen's boss?

[Disturbed]

52. Midlle Class Amerikan Tax Payers...

are paying for this wretch to laugh at people from the ME. This is disgusting! I hope she is stupid enuff to try what Zanax Laura Bush did and a crowd gets to get up close and personal to her.

[onager]

53. That's odd. I work with lots of Ay-rabic speaking people...

...in Egypt and we don't have any trouble understanding each other.

Egyptian grammar schools have started English lessons in Third Grade for years. The schools have just recently started the English in First Grade, as soon as the kids enter public school. (Unlike the U.S., where we believe the English language alone is good enough for us because it was good enough for Jesus Christ...)

And let's see, I lived in Saudi Arabia for two years, same story. Lots of Saudis speak and understand English quite well.

No, Karen, the problem wasn't translation.

[philarq]

54. DUH--isnt that her job?---nt

[4nic8em]

55. I submit...

that all of these women understood what she was saying perfectly...and correctly concluded that she (Karen) is indeed, full of shit.

[Tower]

56. Hughes is really the Bush Administration's ambasador to the *U.S.A.*

She's meant to paint a pro-Bush picture of foreign policy to the US public. That's all she is; PR. That's all they ever have.

[Warren DeMontague]

57. Who translated her comments equating pro-choice marchers to terrorists

last year?

Fire that fucker, STAT!

[FreedomAngel82]

58. I think you can find out your answer Hughes

from just looking at Iraq. :eyes: She's full of crap.

[cassiepriam]

60. All repugs are beginning to sound like Bagdad Bob... funny... eom

[salin]

61. The High Priestess of Propoganda still doesn't realize

that she can't change the world view - esp in the Middle East - about the awful realities caused by our policies - simply by crafting a "better message".

[baldguy]

62. Arrogant Ignorance

[0007]

63. How come the Whore Networks can get Middle Eastern

women that can speak perfect english as well as their mother tongue on program after program and Karen can't find anyone?