Useful tips you got there. If you are keen to read more related news, you really need to check out my blog….

Knowing Hillary from the reports of her temper through the years, I have to image she is kicking ass and taking names (and replacing them!) to reduce these errors.

Again, they may seem like little things to most of us, but in Diplomacy they often take on much bigger meanings. Otherwise, why would the State Department have an Office of the Chief of Protocol reporting directly to the SOS?

Nonetheless, many of us Latinos are not 'slapped in the face' at all. We are more interested in teaching people/strangers than in scorning them. We are interested in returning not to the ways of some of those who oppressed us, but another way that follows a better path… We know war doesnt make progress, flailing at people doesnt create. This is just my two cents worth. I've written about it, referencing Jazz's article here, at the top of TMV, just now.

I often wish those similar perhaps to those who Jazz notes, those who are enraged at one or ten nations in this world, would go face off with Than Shwe and Mugabe and others, confronting those who murder daily. It seems it might help. I'm not sure, but it seems people who go up face to face with monsters turn their angers to heroisms. I could be wrong.

dr.e

Your point is well taken.

BTW, I criticize Democrats with ease….I'm not a “strong” Democrat….very moderate actually.

I suppose my comment was made after reading this article, as well as others, pertaining to the so-called gaffes, so I should have reined my feelings in a little better in response to this article per se.

Touche'

After 200+ years as next door neighbors, we're entitled to get a bit testy. As an author of a Mexican history, I'm personally annoyed that the people in the United States too parochial a mindset to show even a smidgen of interest about a very large country — and it's second largest oil supplier I might add — on it's own border.

To us, it's not a gaffe, it's a slap in the face.

I guess it is simpler for you to just go off half-cocked and try to turn everything into an anti-Bush rant than accept any criticism of anything Democratic, even as in this case when it was deserved, and decidedly low-key.

D.

Hillary is a very studious one…she is known for her insatiable appetite for knowledge, and she rarely disappoints. I find it amusing when Bush Admin. groupies quip, “can you imagine if Bush had done this”, because God Help us, there are legions of books on nothing more than “bushisms”. Bush and his Admin. didn't have the chance to be criticized for mispronouncing names because we didn't intend on speaking with those leaders in the first place…why worry about names!

Any Hillary gaffe will be amplified, afterall, it's Hillary!! I'm sure she's accustomed to being under a more magnified scope. It comes with the territory of being Hillary. I'm a huge supporter of hers, and am more and more impressed as time goes by……

Of course we see from cynicalone's comment that some on the left STILL won't stop using those kinds of criticisms.

But when someone in the administration actually screws up, as long as the criticism isn't blown out of proportion- I don't see anything wrong with criticizing it. That's not taking the low road, it's just a legitimate means of holding people accountable. If someone used this incident to claim overall incompetence, they'd be exaggerating wildly, but that's different from saying that there have been a few incidents indicating a need for staff to step up a bit.

Jazz raises an interesting question, namely after years of criticizing the left for taking the low road shouldn't the right try to take the high road themselves? The answer should be yes, although human nature being what it is it will be tough to do. I think many would see it as taking a debating tactic away from their side while the other side retains it.

All in all though this Clinton faux pas is no big deal.

When Katrina happened- Bush was on Vacation ( although he found time to have Cake With McCain) and Condi Rice was watching Spamalot….AND now we learn that Cantor was at the Circus ? Britneys Lusty Teen Circus and no it was not a family outing where he took his daughter…he went he claims doing GOP Business ? We are in the Middle of a HUGE Economic Crisis and he was at the titilating Britney Performance ??? He skipped Obama 's 2nd Presser to focus on What ? on Brittany's Dancing ? Virigina you deserve better representation…you really do.

Hurricane Katrina …. Press Conference. Am I missing something here?
Perhaps you could ask Mr. Gandelman why he thought this “story” needed to be featured on his blog.

LOL, or 'Wow, you get a lot of tourists here, don't you?”

BTW, the picture is more than local lore. It's a popular symbol used all across Mexico and by the Mexican diaspora here in the U. S.

Again, it is the pattern of not having key facts, language phrases, etc., that is troublesome. I do not expect perfection from the State Department, but I do expect basic competency on these types of issues.

And it was only an 'obvious' question if you were blissfully ignorant on what you were looking at. Would you consider it an obvious question if she had looked at Mecca and asked, 'Wow, interesting architecture. What is this used for?'