Right, Because We Want The Russians To Push The Button...

One more for the "Thank heaven this didn't happen under that moron Bush" file:

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, in greeting Sergey V. Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, presented him with a red plastic button emblazoned with the English word “reset” and the Russian word “peregruzka.”

The gift was a play on Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s call in Munich last month for the two countries to “press the reset button” on their relationship.

“We worked hard to get the right Russian word,” Mrs. Clinton said, handing the button to Mr. Lavrov. “Do you think we got it?”

“You got it wrong,” he replied, explaining that the Americans had come up with the Russian word for overcharged.

“We won’t let you do that to us,” she said quickly, with a full-throated laugh.

Hillarity's better recovery would have been "We will never do that to you" - we're the fools who can't get a simple gift right so now we have to accuse the Red Menace of being cheats?  Even better would have been to continue the wise policy adopted during the campaign of keeping Biden swaddled in duct tape, but it's too late for that.

Quel clown show.  My spies tell me that when she goes to Baghdad Hilary has already picked out a thoughtful gift for the Iraqi Prime Minister - a token "Last Helicopter".

GIVE 'EM BOTH BARRELS, THEN BLUDGEON 'EM WITH THE SHOTGUN:  Mark Hemingway is expansive and amusing.

[END OF THREAD]

Comments

[kim]

Damascus? Oh, don't ask us.
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[daddy]

Maybe its a concerted effort to make Biden look intelligent by comparison.

[kim]

She laughed at the mistake, and I'm glad she did, but I wonder what happened to the poor schmuck who went to great effort to get the word right. Or was she just making that up? Or was she set up? Foggy Bottom, how opaque you are.
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[lonetown]

Its breathtaking incompetence.

[kim]

Anybody notice that the symbolism rekindles the Cold War? Insanity at the highest levels, or, at least, mutually assured destruction. What the Hell was she thinking?
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[kim]

Actually, maybe it is a warning to the Russians that there is a tyro carrying the football, so they better watch their steps.
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[pagar]

Or was she set up?

Even through there are probably people that want to do that, I can't imagine how it could be done with out the knowledge of the person who put the words on the actual button. If that person is a State dept employee, I would be very surprised if they continue in that job.

[centralcal]

I bet the Kremlin is laughing their arses off, over their vodka!

[DebinNC]

President Jimmy Carter, visiting Poland, said he understood their "anxiety about democracy" ...which was translated as "desire them sexually". lol

[kim]

Heh, if she was set up, that person now has a new identity, family, and home.
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[kim]

"I am a jelly-roll".
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[DebinNC]

I hope it was Strobe Talbot.

[kim]

New clothes, and new car, too. Skin color change.
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[kim]

Laughing out of the other side of his face, too. Ah, hah, hah, hah.
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[Barry Dauphin]

Maybe this is the definition of working hard in the New Administration. This is what we're in store for with all the new government jobs. After the gift giving fiasco with the Browns, it's clear that the Administration has a unique view of giving gifts. They are a gift to comedy, however.

[ben]

Yep, Bush was the unsophisticated boob cowboy, and the leftist elite intelligentsia was going to show the world what real diplomacy was like....instead we get amateur hour....what's next? A Haitian voodoo doll for the Pope? Kansas City steaks for the Prime Minister of India?

[centralcal]

I saw this over at RedState:

"According to Talkers Magazine, since the Democrats’ conspiracy was put in motion, Rush’s audience has grown from 14 million to 25 million."

[Scott]

Maybe we will insult the British prime with 25dvd's as a state gift. Woops already did that too!
Remarkable diplomacy!!!!

[Sue]

On an earlier thread, I linked to gifts that the Bushes had given foreign dignitaries. The differences between the thought put into their gifts and these idiots running the show now is mind boggling.

I think this was a take on the Office Depot "Easy Button" commercial that backfired.

[Sue]

Obama may be a gift to Bush's legacy. By the end of Obama's 4 years, Bush may even be Europe's favorite president.

[Pofarmer]

I think this was a take on the Office Depot "Easy Button" commercial that backfired.

Buncha pop culture MORONS.

[centralcal]

Well, now Sue - it all depends from what vantage point you look at the "Easy Button."

I would say it "failed" from Hillarity's vantage point.

[Neo]

what's next?
A case of bourbon for Saudi King Abdullah

[Sue]

Po,

I doubt the Russians got the connection.

c-cal,

Yep, failed is a better choice of words.

[bad]

“We worked hard to get the right Russian word,” Mrs. Clinton said,

I remember when Bush was ridiculed for talking of hard work and working hard.

Good to see "hard work" is back in vogue.

[Jim Ryan]

A third-year Russian major getting B's could have picked the right word.

[Porchlight]

Maybe we will insult the British prime with 25dvd's as a state gift.

The legally blind PM...with the Region 1 (US only) DVDs...good show Barry. (Well, I don't know for sure that they were Region 1, but I've yet to see confirmation otherwise.)

If this is the smart diplomacy, I want the dumb diplomacy back.

[narciso]

They screwed up with the first negotiation, giving up on the BMD stations in return for nothing; they mess up a simple
transliteration on a gift; there's something to be said for a chancellor/
foreign minister type who hasn't run anything but her mouth these last eight years. fluent in languages and customs. They are sure to take advantage of the Administration's misteps in Eastern Europe
and the Caucasus next, but frankly they'll come to respect someone with a more steady
hand at the wheel; someone more keenly aware of the Russian American ties over time.

[Rick Ballard]

Condi Rice could have done it correctly without "help" from credentialed moron State staff - and without a dictionary.

Never look for more than second rate in a Clinton or third rate in an Obama.

[interested]

No one at State has the enough Russian language fluency to get the word correct?

Must be all the emphasis on Arabic translators.

[centralcal]

Hey Rick - I bet Condi had one hell of a good laugh over the easy button!!!

[Sue]

Actually, they could have picked up the phone and called Condi, as Rick noted. She is fluent in Russian.

[Ignatz Ratzkywatzky]

Actually, they could have picked up the phone and called Condi, as Rick noted. She is fluent in Russian.

"Hillary" is effluent in any language.

[matt]

"ick been ein frankfurter"

what a weenie move.

[Soylent Red]

I wish I had a big red button. I wish it said "Impeach." I'd be hitting that sucker like Amy Winehouse hitting a morphine drip.

But seriously...

Couldn't they just get a Russian mobster to help out? I'm sure between Obama and Hillary there must be several hundred on their donor lists.

[bad]

lol

[clarice]

ROFLMAO,Soyleny

[clarice]

**SoylenT**

[PD]

Is "reset" such a nuanced and tricky word that it's difficult to translate?

Here what one of my translator widgets comes up with: возврат

Close? If so, five seconds of work.

[PD]

"I am a jelly-roll".

And I am a meat popsicle.

[Barney Frank]

And I am a meat popsicle.

OOOOO, I LOVE THOSE!

[PD]

“We worked hard to get the right Russian word,” Mrs. Clinton said,

Well, let's give Hillary some credit. At least she didn't say "Rooskie."

[bad]

lol

[PD]

Ignatz, I see that you involuntarily slipped back to the previous pseudonym in your enthusiasm.

[Jim Ryan]

Barney, you owe me a keyboard.

[Pofarmer]

Po,

I doubt the Russians got the connection.

Also my point.

[rebellionbrewery.com]

The Associated Press would like Americans to believe that our representatives have no clue what they are doing. Judging from comments on the various message forums Americans are gullibly buying the simplistic explanation that our State department supposedly doesn’t know how to translate the word “reset” into Russian. Nonsense! The Russian word peregruzka appears at the top of the button, spelled in latin letters. If this was meant to be a literal translation, why would the letters be in Latin? The english translation for this word is “overload” and anyone that knows how to type a few letters into an online translation website can easily figrue that much out. An english word appears below the button and that word is “reset”. These words do very much make sense together: when something is overloaded (like a circuit), you reset it.

Continued here:
http://rebellionbrewery.com/?p=312

[Rick Ballard]

Cool. So the Russian FM gave Hillary as hard a slap as Medveded gave Zero.

The Russians don't usually display their disdain for incompetence quite so openly. We need to applaud the clarity of their actions.

And cross our fingers.

[cathyf]

I once read a story about an early attempt at artificial intelligence natural language translation (which is a very interesting and enormously difficult computer problem). The classic test was to "round-trip" a phrase through the program and see what you come up with. The phrase "the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak" made the round trip as "the vodka is excellent but the meat is rancid."

[Annoying Old Guy]

I was wondering the same thing as rebellion brewery -- why was the putative Russian word Latinized? Is it possible that our Secretary of State and her "helpers" are not even aware that Russians use Cyrillic?