Who Owns the UN's Computer Systems?

by emptywheel

Via ThinkProgress, USA Today reports that the cheat sheet for Bush's speech got placed on the UN website today.

Apparently, a marked-up draft of the president's speech popped up on the U.N.'s website as President Bush delivered his remarks this morning before the General Assembly, USA TODAY's David Jackson reports. The draft included phonetic spellings of some names and countries, and the cellphone numbers for Bush speechwriters.

Press secretary Dana Perino downplayed the incident, and said phonetic spellings are used to help interpreters. Asked if the president has trouble pronouncing some country's names, Perino deemed it "an offensive question."

"There was an error made," Perino said, noting it was not a final draft.

"It was taken down and there's nothing more to say about it."

Apparently, Bush spent his time with Sarkozy in Maine drunk or something, because the French President's name is one of the ones included in Bush's pronunciation guide.

• Kyrgyzstan [KEYR-geez-stan]
• Mauritania [moor-EH-tain-ee-a]
• Harare [hah-RAR-ray]
• Mugabe [moo-GAH-bee]
• Sarkozy [sar-KO-zee]
• Caracas [kah-RAH-kus]

Now, Dana Peroxide says it was a mistake. But I'm reminded of another little technical gaffe that Bush had once at the UN. In September 2002, after Powell and Blair (on one side) and Cheney and Rummy (on the other) had been arguing for a month over whether Bush should call for a UN resolution on Iraq or whether the US should just bypass the UN process altogether. In the end, Bush agreed to include a call for a new resolution. But mysteriously, when Bush read the speech from the teleprompter, that line had been removed. From Woodward's Plan of Attack:

At the Podium in the General Assembly Hall on September 12, Bush reached the point in his speech where he was going to ask for new resolutions. But the change had not been put into the copy on the TelePrompTer, so he read the old line, "My nation will work with the U.N. Security Council to meet our common challenge."

As he read along with Draft #24, penciling in any ad libs or deletions the president might make at the last minute, Powell felt his heart almost stop. The sentence about resolutions had somehow vanished. The president had not said it--the crucial line!

But as Bush read the old sentence, he realized that the fruit of his war cabinet's heated debate was missing. With only mild awkwardness, he added, two sentences later, "We will work with the U.N. Security Council for the necessary resolutions." (183-4)

Now, perhaps these really were both errors (the teleprompter incident was explained away as a technical problem). Maybe no one in Bush's Administration substituted out the real speech. Maybe no one chose to embarrass Bush by publicizing his pronunciation guide.

But gosh--Bush seems to experience technical problems when he's at the UN.

Comments

[oldtree]

He can't pronounce a city's name that he had baseball players on his team from? Isn't he supposed to speak some Spanish? Why would America have voted for something like this? don't answer. please, don't answer.

[Mad Dogs]

Shorter Junya: "Don't worry, ya'll aren't experiencin' technical problems. It's jest me."

[jonno]

The DEE-Side-Urrrr

[lunylegume]

If the president does it , it is divine .

[azportsider]

I just wish some WH elf would put the proper pronunciation of 'nuclear' into one of that cretin's speeches.

[MaryOGrady]

Bush speaks only a few phrases of Spanish. Spanish-speakers are lucky: if Bush could speak more of their beautiful language, he would undoubtedly do to Spanish what he routinely does to English.

[Dismayed]

Oh come on. This is the kind of vulture crap that makes MSM a bunch of punks.

I'd want the damn pronounciations on the prompter, even for a few things I do know how to pronounce. Speaking in front of people is not the same as speaking to a buddy. It's always better safe than sorry, and with Bush perhaps more so.

I don't like MSM acting like a bunch of smart assed, self important assholes. Even when they beat up on Bush. This is the kind of crap that hurts both sides and media that glams on it should be bitch slapped.

[P J Evans]

Dismaayed, I'd expect Shrub to know how to pronounce Mugabe by now; he's been running Zimbabwe for a lot longer than Shrub has been president. That they have to put that pronunciation in indicates that there's serious problems they aren't willing to bring up in public.

[emptywheel]

Dismayed

My point was not (primarily) whether Bush can pronounce Sarkozy. It's wtf this version of his speech was published.

[prostratedragon]

Speaking of needing some kind of cheatsheet, here's an interesting thing from El País (Spain), courtesy of TPM, with my rough trans-a-phrase.

The Ruperéz Minutes: "Bush told Aznar [on February 22, 2003] that he would be in Baghdad in March, with or without a UN resolution."

Javier Ruperéz is the Spanish diplomat whose notes served as a basis for the article. He also translated, among other things, from Italian to English for Condi Rice when Berlusconi called in by phone during the meeting. Blair also participated by phone, if I understand that correctly. Others present in Texas were Daniel Fried, an NSC official from the Europe section, and Alberto Carnero, an international affairs adviser to Aznar.

It seems as if the account concerns mostly Bush's arm-twisting of Aznar for Spain's support (Aznar complains that public opinionn is strongly against, there having just been a huge anitwar demonstration), and the conflicting set of evidence produced by Powell at the UN on the one hand, and inspectors under Blix and El Baradei on the other. The newspaper describes the tone of these talks as directo, amigable y hasta amenazador, or direct, friendly, and almost threatening, which I take to mean that Bush smiled when he told Aznar "my way or the highway."

Josh Marshall is looking for a real Spanish translator for the whole article.

[BlueStateRedhead]

This is from the WH that calls Obama "intellectually lazy."

[dalloway]

If I can pronounce those names, the President of the United States should be able to pronounce them without a cheat sheet. Come on, folks. Don't we want our president to be the smartest person in the room, not the dumbest?

[lunylegume]

Divinity trumps smartitudity

[bmaz]

BOO-sh is [DUM-fuk]

[PhoenixRising]

After quickly skimming the article in El Pais my translation is, Holy mole.

Roughly, the article says: Bush met with Aznar, then-PM of Spain, and told him that the US was going in as soon as troops were ready, and that he better get on board despite the strong popular opinion in Spain against a war on Irak.

The unstated premise that may not be familiar to all readers is, There are a couple of major US air bases in Spain, so without some cooperation from the Spanish any war in the ME is going to be compromised.

Overall, the conclusion drawn above about the content of the article--that our only President assured foreign leaders that he was going with or without the UN--seems accurate to me.

[Alyx]

ha ha ha bmaz....wink....Broc-co-li
from wiki:
"United States President George H. W. Bush was known to have an active disdain for broccoli, having actually said so in an offhand remark during his presidency.[15] In response, a powerful broccoli agriculture lobby sent several tons of it to the White House. This broccoli was promptly donated to the Capital Area Food Bank.[16] His son, President George W. Bush, mentioned during a 2004 question-and-answer session that he doesn't mind broccoli, but does prefer the florets to the stalk"