As a result - I can't ping on them for this.
UPDATE: True to form - another class act by the Obama Administration.
Last night's Guildhall dinner in honour of Ronald Reagan's centenary was a truly glittering and warm occasion.You voted for him. Bask in it.
The British roasted lamb and the sunny Californian chardonnay evoked the close Anglo-US relationship of Reagan and Thatcher as much as the fine speeches by Condi Rice and William Hague.
But guests were left asking, where on earth was the American ambassador to London, Louis B Susman?
"Our ambassador should be here," said Lynn de Rothschild, the American entrepreneur who is married to Sir Evelyn de Rothschild and was one of Hillary Clinton's key fundraisers in 2008 as well as a supporter of several Republican presidential candidates. "This was an historic dinner to mark Reagan's centenary and to celebrate him as the man who ended the Cold War. What could not be more important?
"Why is our ambassador not here on Independence Day? No excuse. How is it that America is not represented in this room by our ambassador? It is appalling that no representative of our government is in this room. This has the feel of petty partisanship."
Ambassador Susman is, of course, a long-standing Democrat fundraiser, nicknamed the vaccuum cleaner for his skill at sucking donations out of the wealthy. And his efforts to fill Obama's campaign pockets was said by many to be his main qualification to come to London.
According to the US embassy spokesman: "Ambassador Susman was pleased to be invited to the dinner but was unable to attend."
GASP! A statue to Reagan?! And Condie is speaking without a teleprompter! And, what is this, a Priest to do a Blessing and Benediction?! Barack Obama, Eric Holder CALL YOUR OFFICES!
ReplyDeleteYay to our good friends. Someday we will get the nimrod out of the WH and put someone in who appreciates our friends, With the British insanely audacious ideas and our can-do attitude, there's no end to the havoc we can wreak together on the bad guys out there.
ReplyDeleteSomeday...
There is precident for this sort of thing. During the American Civil War, the working men of Manchester refused to process southern cotton in their mills, and tjey went on strike, The strike spread to the dockworkers who refused to unload southern cotton from vesseks, and to others who refused to transport it to warehouses, etc. Thousands of families were near starvation because of principle. When word of this action reached the North, groups formed to raise money for their assistance. More than 10,000 pounds sterling was raised for their relif, a very large sum in those days. In addition to those funds, Lincoln arranged for 13,000 barrels of flour to be sent as relief.Greatful Mancunians sent a letter to Lincoln, and he responded to them positively.
ReplyDeleteFinally, the mills relented and agreed not to process any southern cotton, and the men returned to work. The Mancunians never forgot, and they secured a statue to Lincoln. The plinth on which it stands us engraved with the words of his letter.
Here's a pic of the statue.
http://www.wkiri.com/albums/1003-manchester/IMG_9184.jpg
another one -surpris, surprise - gets home in Budapest, home of 1956 anti-Soviet uprising...
ReplyDeletehttp://newsbusters.org/blogs/brent-baker/2011/07/04/video-reagan-statue-unveiled-budapest-and-street-named-him-prague
About the Waterloo celebration, lack thereof. I'm not surprised. Napoleon was the ruler of an authoritarian government, purpotedly "revolutionary" in nature and "for the common good of the people", but that had a ruthless efficiency imposed by the central goverment and that ended up being more about the glory of the state than anything else; a template and antecedent for many of the ways that modern Europe is goverened today (or that the elites would like it to be ruled).
ReplyDeleteI'm quite sure that there are many in the U.K. government who think the wrong side lost. Birds of a feather, and all.
According to the US embassy spokesman: "Ambassador Susman was pleased to be invited to the dinner but was unable to attend."
ReplyDeleteTo borrow a simple, yet sublime, question from below: Why?
Susman has succeeded in doing exactly what Body Odor sent him there to do: kill the special relationship.
ReplyDeleteAnother bone headed stunt. Here's to hoping that someone gets elected who understands that we are close, very close cousins and asks for Winnies head back, please?
ReplyDeleteDang auto start! Why can't the Telegraph get its digital house in order? The Grauniad always has the bestest digital PDA geegaws, and the Telegraph is nowhere to be seen and its video autostarts...
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry - I tried to get around autostart - but there doesn't seem to be a way.
ReplyDeleteNice! I was surprised when I discovered in 1991 that Prague's main train station (Hlavni Nadrazy) is dedicated to Woodrow Wilson. I wonder where the Reagan street is?
ReplyDeleteI don't mean to throw base aspersions on character around, but this is not exactly unknown behavior from our Progressive friends. Given this example, why should one not conclude that the only way the Democratic party will ever allow an American to be acknowledged as someone worthy of honor is if he is/was a Democrat, and one useful to their current causes/campaigns? For so it would seem.
ReplyDeletePerhaps they should change their name to the "Churlish Party"...
A graceless, inept, ill-mannered, partisan foreign policy that has succeeded in offending and isolating our allies and emboldening our enemies.
ReplyDeleteYeah, bask in it. The willful destruction of your country.
B Hussein may have been born here, but his hatred of the land of his birth has been thinly concealed. Elect him again, and we stand the chance of being governed by United Nations mandate. As I recall, they have no Bill of Rights.
Is is possible the ambassador was really busy? I suppose so. It is probable that he was a partisan hack and that's the reason the didn't attend? Absolutely.
ReplyDeleteFCC - go to Pilsn (I love that city both for the beer and the spirit!)
ReplyDeletehttp://mommylife.net/archives/2011/05/memorial_day_cz.html
sorry about the website, but the blog entry is good...
Or for those too lazy to read:
While I agree this is a boneheaded move by the Ambassador, apparently the Prime Minister (its a Conservative government!) couldn't be bothered to attend either.
ReplyDeleteSorry, andrewb. One is a head of state. The other, the US diplomatic representative to the UK, in an event where an American President is being honored.
ReplyDeleteThe diplomatic faux pas is entirely and completely ours.
Thanks much!
ReplyDeleteSal - did you leave out the last para on purpose...showing that the Amb was at the unveiling of a statue of Pres Reagan earlier that day on purpose? Lol. Not enough room for the whole story? Personally, I don't give a hoot about Pres Reagan's birthday, or parties for same, geez it isn't like he was F.D.R. He deserves one ninth of the credit for being in office and holding the line, like the other Cold War Presidents, no more, no less. All else is revisionist bunk.
ReplyDeleteIt's a Conservative-led coalition government, not a Conservative government.
ReplyDeleteBollix.
ReplyDeleteOn further examination, even the CDR would find this was not a guberment event. It was the "Friends of Reagan" or sommat.
The Ambassador was busy, I gather, hosting the annual 4th of July picnic - and attending the private "Friends of Ronald" event. Typically, I was not invited to either.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-13989455
In my day, our QMCS would not stand for such sloppiness.