Seems Colin Powell was not received politely yesterday at the Global Summit:
Repeatedly interrupted by jeers and protests, Secretary of State Colin Powell defended the United States’ environmental record and its efforts to help the poor in the developing world Wednesday, the closing day of the World Summit.
I guess I should be Secretary of State (or maybe I shouldn’t), because the first time it happened I would have stopped, looked at the hecklers, and said, “You know, folks, the United States can take its ball and go home any time. And you lose big time if we do.” Instead:
As Powell spoke, delegates from non-governmental groups in the audience repeatedly interrupted him, shouting “Shame on Bush.” Two people held up a banner reading, “Betrayed by governments.” At least two people were removed by security.
Sounds like it wasn’t enough.
Powell looked annoyed, answering back “I have now heard you,” at one point, then soldiering ahead with his speech.
Too moderate. Chew their ass, for chrissake, Colin! Weren’t you a general once? Surely you were an NCO on the way up.
South African Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, who was chairing the session, yelled at the hecklers to stop and called the outbursts “totally unacceptable.”
Duh. Well, at least one of the freeloaders woke up and smelled the “what happens if the US takes its ball and goes home” coffee.
The boos and jeers began when Powell criticized the government of Zimbabwe for exacerbating the food crisis in that country and pushing “millions of people to the brink of starvation.”
Heil Mugabe.
[]Sen. Bob Brown from Australia’s Greens party lambasted the energy compromise.
“The wealthy nations have their heads in the sand,” he said. “The world’s being let down. The interests of the next generation have been appallingly disenfranchised.”
Hmm. Maybe in the Third World, where most of their leaders have disenfranchised them by stealing their foreign aid, murdering them, and starving them to death.
And besides that, how exactly do you disenfranchise “interests”? “Interests” are intangible. A franchise extends to people, not to intangibles. Learn to speak your own language, you left-wing Aussie blowhard.