Posted on 08/28/2009 11:21:29 PM PDT by bruinbirdman
Dictators who cavort like billionaires and draw the tabloid lens.
Move over, Hollywood, Bollywood and all the rest of you glitterati. The world has entered the age of the Celebrity Tyrant. Hardly a week goes by without the exploits of some despot or other snatching the headlines--whether it's North Korea's Kim Jong Il hosting Bill Clinton for dinner and a detainee pickup; Muammar al-Qaddafi celebrating the parole of one of his Lockerbie-bombing terrorist agents; or Burma's Than Shwe milking the hostage-politics racket for a house call from Senator Jim Webb.
Not that despots are anything new. But about a generation back, they were a lot less bold and a lot less rich in cachet. What with the 1991 Soviet collapse and the waves of democratization then sweeping Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America, dictatorship had become something of an embarrassment. Even just a few years ago, despots were a breed largely beyond the pale, with the late Saddam Hussein hiding in his spider hole, al-Qaddafi trying to placate the American cowboy and Syria's Bashar al-Assad teetering on his dynastic perch.
No longer. With regime change off the table, and President Obama dishing out "mutual respect" faster than the rulers of Tehran, Tripoli, Pyongyang or Caracas can spit their contempt right back in his face, tyrants are becoming ever more weirdly trendy. They are globalized, in our face, on the Web, on television--and as New York braces for the September opening of the United Nations General Assembly, some of them, with considerable ceremony, are coming to town.
The most flamboyant among them enter a VIP orbit, in which they may be officially reviled, but also eagerly sought after. Recall the banquet hosted by Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last September at the midtown Manhattan Grand Hyatt for 1,000 or so of his
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
Forbes Magazine can take full credit for helping elect Obama. They employ guest columnist John Rogers one of Obama’s very very closest Chicago confidants and early financial backs. Thanks Forbes - the main resaon I cancelled your magazine after 20 + years. Buh bye! I will not be back.
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I agree...well done
Why is it that American Liberals have this desperate need to be loved by everyone? I mean, ok, no one likes being unpopular, but you just have to accept that there are folks out in the world who just simply dont like the US. Why is the concept that you have and will always have enemies so difficult for them to grasp?
They don't. They are political opportunists. The leadership is amoral. Anything goes.
yitbos
"Others cultivate the false modesty of casual clothes."
yitbos
Sometimes very good analyses emanate from the insiders themselves.
I’m not so sure. If that was the case, they’d have to be getting something out of being insulted by every tinpot, cracked pot, 2 bit dictator out there.
Frankly, I think its just a false concept of Humanity that they hold.
Hussein al-Obama has said he will change the very foundation of the United States.
Bowing to, coddling, negotiating with dictators validates the tyrants. Dictatorship is welcomed. If they bash the U.S. all the better for his purposes. Afterall, the guy is a Marxist Black Liberation Theologist.
Whom has he validated thus far? Saudi King (bow), Syrian dictator (special envoy), North Korean dictator (ex-president, two party visit), Iranian dictator (negotiate without preconditions), Libyan dictator (terrorist bomber release), Venezuelan dictator (fist bump), Palestinian Hamas (foreign aid), all Mohammedan dictators (special televised speech)
yitbos
Get Whitey
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I wasnt thinking about zero. I was referring to all the guilt laden white liberals that are his support base.
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