Restoring our image around the world. . . Part II

PARIS (Reuters) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy, initially dubbed Sarko the American for his pro-U.S. stance, is finding it much tougher to deal with Washington than he had anticipated and is recalibrating his policies accordingly.

Stung by perceived snubs from U.S. President Barack Obama and encouraged by the growing importance of the G20, Sarkozy is increasingly reaching out to non-aligned states in an effort to extend France's international influence.

He has forged especially close ties with Brazil, is seeking alliances in central Asia and is intensifying his activities in the Middle East, using multi-billion dollar military and civilian nuclear trade deals as his calling card.

During the early days of the war all we heard out of the Left was that George W Bush was acting "unilaterally" and being a "cowboy" because we entered the conflict alone without a coalition of nations along with us.

Now the reality was that we were heading an alliance of a number of nations but it seemed that in whatever the Left uses for a mind no coalition could possibly be a true coalition unless it numbered France as one of its members.

The reality of the situation was that the Left's attitude that no possible action of the United States could be considered legitimate unless it was done in concert with France was born out of their certain knowledge that the men who were leading France at that time would never sign off on any genuine effort to remove Saddam Hussein from power.

The reason for that was that those French leaders were literally on Saddam's payroll. Millions of dollars from the Oil for Food Program were being siphoned off by Saddam and part of that money went into the pockets of French politicians as payment for acting as obstructionists against any plan which would put the UN imprimatur on a plan to oust Hussein from power.

We were told with confidant, even smug, assurance by the Democrat party the George W Bush's invasion of Iraq (in concert with a number of other nations and with congressional approval) had done terrible damage to our international reputation and our relationships with important allies - like France.

We were told with confidant, even smug, assurance by the Democrat party that the election of one Mr. Barack Hussein Obama (otherwise known as the little tin messiah) to the office of President of the United States would instantly heal our torn international relationships and restore America to a place of respect on the world stage.

So why then is the little tin messiah alienating our European allies?

First he issues a series of calculated insults to the United Kingdom, discarding the bust of Churchill which was a gift from their government to ours after 9/11, giving the Prime Minister a cheap box set of DVD's which won't even work in a European DVD player and giving the Queen an iPod with his own speeches on it - as though the greatest gift he could impart to the sovereign of the British Empire was a collection of his own gaseous teleprompter readings.

Then at the United Nations he undercuts France and Germany's plan to publicly confront Iran's pint-sized lunatic president with yet more evidence of his nations nuclear weapons program - so that it won't diminish the impact of his big speech (yet more gaseous teleprompter readings) to the world body.

Now we find that he as so alienated France that they are seeking military and nuclear deals in the Middle East and central Asia.

How's that "Hope and Change" working out?

In a Johnny Walker world tasteless grain alcohol wouldn't sell for $25.00 per bottle

MEXICO CITY — The Absolut vodka company apologized Saturday for an ad campaign depicting the southwestern U.S. as part of Mexico amid angry calls for a boycott by U.S. consumers.

The campaign, which promotes ideal scenarios under the slogan "In an Absolut World," showed a 1830s-era map when Mexico included California, Texas and other southwestern states. Mexico still resents losing that territory in the 1848 Mexican-American War and the fight for Texas independence.

But the ads, which ran only in Mexico and have since ended, came as the United States builds up its border security amid an emotional debate over illegal immigration from their southern neighbor.

More than a dozen calls to boycott Absolut were posted on michellemalkin.com, a Web site operated by conservative columnist Michelle Malkin. The ads sparked heated comment on a half-dozen other Internet sites and blogs.

"In no way was it meant to offend or disparage, nor does it advocate an altering of borders, nor does it lend support to any anti-American sentiment, nor does it reflect immigration issues," Absolut said in a statement left on its consumer inquiry phone line.

Does this mean that we aren't going to get to trade some land and John McCain for a bunch less Democrats in the House and Senate? Damn!

Since Absolut is owned by Europeans it is possible that they were that tone deaf, but I doubt it.

In a Jack Daniels world we would have taken all of Mexico. Then we wouldn't be having all these problems.

The latest advertising campaign in Mexico from Swedish vodka maker Absolut promises to push all the right buttons south of the U.S. border, but it could ruffle a few feathers in El Norte.

The billboard and press campaign, created by advertising agency Teran\TBWA and now running in Mexico, is a colorful map depicting what the Americas might look like in an "Absolut" -- i.e., perfect -- world.

The U.S.-Mexico border lies where it was before the Mexican-American war of 1848 when California, as we now know it, was Mexican territory and known as Alta California.

Following the war, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo saw the Mexican territories of Alta California and Santa Fé de Nuevo México ceded to the United States to become modern-day California, Texas, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado and Arizona. (Texas actually split from Mexico several years earlier to form a breakaway republic, and was voluntarily annexed by the United States in 1846.)

The campaign taps into the national pride of Mexicans, according to Favio Ucedo, creative director of leading Latino advertising agency Grupo Gallegos in the U.S.

Ucedo, who is from Argentina, said: “Mexicans talk about how the Americans stole their land, so this is their way of reclaiming it. It’s very relevant and the Mexicans will love the idea.”

Some conservatives are angry at this. I just can't help thinking how many fewer Democrats there would be in the House and Senate. Tell you what, if Mexico will take John McCain as well as the land we'll have a deal!

Oh, and a memo to the Mexicans who persist in pissing and moaning about how we stole their land. There isn't one square inch of habitable land on this planet which hasn't traded hands due to conquest at some point in history. Before the white man got here the indigenous peoples of North and South America were doing it to each other with as much gusto as the Europeans ever showed. If you doubt this look at how the Aztecs conducted themselves.

The reason that the Europeans were able to take the land away from the natives was simply that they were orders of magnitude better at warfare than the natives were.

And the reason that the American Southwest is American rather than Mexican is that the British/Northern European Protestant culture that the US got from its British mother country and all of its English, Scots, Irish, Welsh and German immigrants was superior to the Spanish/Latin Roman Catholic culture that Mexico got from its Conquistador founders.

Sorry if that offends anyone, but it is self evidently true. In the cold cruel world (otherwise known as the real world) a nation only truly owns what it can successfully defend.

BTY, I'm not a vodka guy but in the future if I must have vodka I'll drink something other than Absolut.