Posted on 11/04/2004 5:44:29 PM PST by GulliverSwift
Brits to America: You're Idiots!
Well, 51 percent of you, anyway.
Americans who think post-election anti-red-state recrimination is a U.S.-only phenomenon should check out the cover of Thursday's Daily Mirror: Over a picture of President George W. Bush, the paper asked, "How can 59,054,087 people be so DUMB?" Inside, the left-leaning British tabloid headlined its editorial, "WAR MORE YEARS." In a clear demonstration of the trans-Atlantic culture gap, the paper's description of the president's beliefs—clearly intended to strike Mirror readers as a radical agenda—is simply an accurate, if crude, précis of his platform: "Mr Bush opposes abortion and gay marriage, doesn't give a stuff about the environment, is against gun control and believes troops should stay in Iraq for as long as it takes."
The Mirror wasn't the only British paper with a striking cover. The Guardian's "G2" section was fronted by a page of solid black containing just two small words: "Oh, God." Meanwhile, the Independent ran the headline "Four More Years" along with iconic images from the first Bush term: kneeling prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, tortured prisoners at Abu Ghraib, soldiers fighting in Iraq, oil-drilling machinery, sign-wielding religious extremists, and a smirking Dubya. In France, Libération ran a picture of the president under the headline, "L'Empire empire"—"The empire declines."
Many of the British commentaries followed a consistent formula: We wish the other guy had won, but Bush scored a convincing mandate this time around, so we have to live with it. As the Guardian put it: "We may not like it. In fact … we don't like it one bit. But if it isn't a mandate, then the word has no meaning. Mr. Bush has won fair … and square. He and his country—and the rest of the world—now have to deal with it." In a fit of double-negativity, the Independent's editorial added: "This does not mean, however, that we do not contemplate the second Bush term with considerable trepidation. Another four years of a president in thrall to the religious right and the neo-conservatives is another four years in which the United States risks sliding back into an earlier age of bigotry and social injustice." Writing in the Times of London, Simon Jenkins' condescending sigh of disappointment typified the genre:
Mr Bush's election will give the rest of the world a collective heart attack. It expected a Kerry win. At the very least it expected Americans to somehow rein in a man it sees as naïve and dangerously belligerent. … Americans declined to rein him in. They legitimised him. The rest of the world has been roundly snubbed.
An op-ed in the Guardian went to great lengths to describe negative stereotypes of the American electorate, then rejected them much less convincingly: "Americans are seen as unsophisticated, wilfully ignorant, obsessed with such issues as abortion, guns and gay marriage, and wedded to a device which seems calculated to impede the wishes of the majority—the electoral college. … Americans are far more complicated and unpredictable than we understand them to be."
The conservative press cheered Bush's victory. Rupert Murdoch's Sun said: "The world is a safer place today with George W Bush back in the Oval Office. His re-election is bad news for terrorists everywhere." The Daily Telegraph agreed: "The triumph of his Churchillian conservatism will … strike fear into all enemies of America and the west." The Telegraph's version of the "get used to it" theme was more positive: "[America] is diverging from Europe: it is younger, more self-confident, more prosperous, more devout, more diligent, more democratic and, in short, more conservative. Europe must come to terms, not only with Mr Bush, but with the nation that has elected him." The Times encouraged Bush to let recalcitrant foreigners woo him: "The President should not waste time trying to appease or win over those who have no time for him. There is the chance, perhaps, that with the passage of time the qualities which Americans see in this politician will become more obvious to others."
In Spain, leftist El País urged Prime Minister José Luis Zapatero to "accommodate the new reality, even though the result isn't what he hoped for" and fix the country's strained relationship with the United States. "This doesn't mean turning the page or starting over from the beginning, but leaving behind the unfortunate declarative politics on both sides." Conservative ABC—in what may have been a subtle dig at the Spanish voters who elected the Socialist Party, which had pledged to withdraw troops from Iraq, after the March 11 attacks—praised Americans for their steadfastness: "[Bush is] a president firm in his convictions and ready to fight to the end, until victory, against the threats that hang over America (and over all of us, even if we don't want to see it)."
Elsewhere in Europe, France's leftist Libération got with the program: "A new reactionary majority … has cemented its hold on American democracy. The rest of the world may deplore it, but it will have to adapt to this reality." Turkey's Hurriyet also echoed the familiar grin-and-bear-it theme: "American voters have once more brought someone they deserved to the presidency. In this case, what is left for us is to bear it and to protect our own interests with maximum sensitivity." But Sovietskaya Rossiya defaulted to quaintly archaic Cold War rhetoric: "Bearing in mind that Bush's policies are prompting increasingly powerful rejection in the entire world, mankind will inevitably unite against the common evil—American imperialism."
"Mr Bush opposes abortion and gay marriage, doesn't give a stuff about the environment, is against gun control and believes troops should stay in Iraq for as long as it takes."
Are you sure they're talking about Bush? sounds more like me.Oh, and about 53 million other voters.
(From the people who gave the world Lucas electrics.)
Triumph owner? hey I loved my bonnie, when it ran it was fast as hell then the wiring caught fire.
Strange ... coming from a supposed ally...
Well, to be fair, there are other papers over there who have congratulated/endorsed Bush on his victory.
There is only one thing in general that I have to say to the European anti-American, anti-Bush media/public opinion.
The fact that the vast majority of these clueless, worthless, spineless socialist cork sockers HATE President Bush is absolute incontrovertible proof that we have made EXACTLY the right choice. :-)
As Johnathon Hunt said, many of these people are still mourning the loss of the old Soviet Union. I can believe it.
GOP_Raider to Brits: Bite Me!
NOSE HAIR THE LATEST FRENCH FASHION CRAZE!
OOH-LA YUCK!
THE NEWEST beauty fad to hit Parisian modeling runways is long, luxurious nose hair.
Gorgeous supermodels showing off this season's fashions are also sporting a pair of soft tresses that start inside their nostrils and reach their waistlines.
"It's very happening, very now, very hip," says French designer Yves St. Mauron.
"Soon, every woman will have luscious nasal locks running down the front of their blouses."
The look, called Proboscis Pigtails, is achieved by gluing lengths of synthetic strands high inside the nasal cavities. The Pigtails come in all colors and can be cut to fit a woman's preferences.
"Some gals chop it to chin length because they don't like nose hair in their lunch," says St. Mauron.
Pic
http://www.weeklyworldnews.com/features/chamber/61558
America to Brits: Are we gonna have to kick yer @$$ again?
great "chicken run" reference. My son has watched that so many times, I couldn't mistake it.
Hey Brits, "Kiss my Royal Irish A$$!"
Let's see, we should care what the Brit's think because.......??
They won't let us have their bland food, warm beer, wet weather, Airbus jets,....?
OBTW, have the Brit's thought about increasing their birthrate sufficient to maintain control over the increasing mid-east influx?
is that picture for real or is it one of the modified pictures? I can't believe that he would do it in a place that the media could record it.
Perfect! ;-D
Quintuple ping!
Fall into the Thames, you Torrie scum!
This author should console himself by taking a global test, or something. That'll calm his nerves.
"tortured prisoners at Abu Ghraib"
For the last freaking time, there were no TORTURED prisoners at Abu Ghraib.
Ok, someone is going to have to explain the teeth thing to me.
Apparently, these eurowimps are more afraid of "extremism" from Christians than from Islamists.
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