U.S. HATED BY MORE THAN TERRORISTS ~ "HOPE" THINGS CHANGE in 2009

When I first traveled to Europe, I was in Europe when President Nixon resigned. I was so warmly welcomed by the people of Luxembourg, France, Switzerland, Italy and Spain for the six weeks I was traveling alone. Since I have taken many trips to Europe. But I got more than a "cold shoulder" when I was in Italy in November 2005. Not so "cold" in Austria and well, Germany was not pleasant. But the German I sat beside on the way over the Atlantic, told me that I would find the Germans not so polite ~ well she wasn't even that nice about her descriptions of Germans. She was going back home to visit family, as she lived in the USA. Not everyone was as mean to me as the man behind the counter in the Munich tourist office. And the three weeks apart of the two times I encountered this man, his second time of blatant disdain was an equal match to the first time. But the second time I walked around and gathered my courage and thoughts and returned to tell him politely that "kindness is kindness in any language". After telling him that he was rude three weeks earlier, he questioned me that it was him. When someone is mean to me, my memory is quite reliable.

Bush thinks he is right with his "decider" record. A man so right can be wrong. When 911 happened he made a statement that he didn't know why we as Americans were so disliked. And NOW, we are in a whole new category of "dislike". We are hated and I don't mean by terrorists. I mean by ordinary citizens of the world. Reasonable, rational people hate us. This is not good for United States citizens' security. No war, threat of war or arsenal of nuclear weapons can protect us and coddle our national security as much as having the respect of the world via our policies, national respect for justice and behaving as a democracy. And torturing is frowned upon even when we do it as the USA.

How can we not be sullied by the continuous stream of bad behavior and decisions from the Bush administration? Bush can act blind to this stuff. But the world pays more attention to us than we pay to them. The world is watching. And they see the dirt. More than we do. I get some of my best information about what is happening in the USA from foreign websites.

I have written about this before, but when I found this article it just reinforced what I have experienced in Europe. I have enjoyed traveling in Europe so many times. But the last time was a markedly different experience, especially in Italy, a country that was one of the "coalition of the willing". Turns out the Italians themselves weren't willing. Remember when he said "you are either for us or against us"? Well, most are against us, NOW. Bush has hurt us and the U.S. in the world more than our populace has a clue. We are not in good standing. And this fact does not serve us well.

Here is an except from the Newsweek article:

America’s Bad Rep

Bush’s Austria trip has underscored just how much Europeans dislike the U.S. president.

By Richard Wolffe and Holly Bailey | Newsweek Web Exclusive
Jun 21, 2006

(Richard Wolffe, in Salem, New Hampshire January 6, 2008, while covering Barack Obama)

Good news can fade fast. Last week George W. Bush enjoyed a slight bump in the polls—and, perhaps more importantly, a morale boost—with news of the death of Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, a surprise trip to Baghdad and word that Karl Rove will not be charged in the CIA-leak investigation. But as Bush arrived in Austria on Tuesday night, the world looked very different. Although he's the first sitting U.S. president to visit the country in 27 years, one of the first things Bush saw from his speeding motorcade was a group of protesters flipping him the finger and struggling to unfurl a massive handmade sign. GO HOME, it read.

Indeed, Bush’s public-relations problems back home are nothing compared to his unpopularity here in Europe. Ahead of Bush’s whirlwind visit to Vienna—where he is meeting with leaders of the European Union—and Hungary, recent surveys show disdain for Bush and Americans in general are at all-time highs. A survey released last week by the Pew Research Center found that, with the exception of Great Britain, a majority of Europeans polled have a mostly unfavorable view of the United States.

Yet it’s more than just simple dislike. A Harris Interactive/Financial Times survey released Monday found that 36 percent of Europeans view the United States as the world’s greatest threat to “global stability.” By comparison, 30 percent of those polled named Iran as the biggest threat, while 18 percent named China.

In Austria, that unpopularity is particularly acute: a recent poll by the Vienna-based News magazine found that 72 percent of those surveyed found Bush to be unlikable and a danger to world peace. Throughout the city’s downtown area, lampposts and tree stumps have been plastered with anti-Bush signs. One features a black-and-white photo of Bush waving, with the palms of his hands stained blood red. On Wednesday, several thousand people marched near Bush’s hotel to protest his visit during a rally that featured an appearance by Cindy Sheehan, the U.S. antiwar activist whose soldier son was killed in Iraq.

But it’s not just the American president feeling the brunt of unpopularity here in Vienna. When a group of reporters attempted to hail a cab outside the Hilton Vienna hotel (where the White House press corps is staying) on Tuesday night, one driver waved the group off with a string of anti-American expletives. Calling Bush a modern-day “Hitler,” the driver told the reporters they were “nasty Americans” and said he wouldn’t permit them to step foot into his car.

Why do Americans have such a bad rap in Europe? While a significant percentage of people continue to oppose the war in Iraq, the outrage seems more centered these days on other developments, including incidents of prisoner abuse at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison, charges of a civilian massacre in Haditha and the “renditions” of terror suspects to secret CIAprisons to countries outside the United States.

And the article ends with: Pointing to the polls, Bush said, “People will say what they want to say, but leadership requires making hard choices based upon principle and standing by the decisions you make. And that’s how I’m going to lead my country.”

Bush hasn't so much "led" the country as metaphorically raped our reputation as well as the U.S. Constitution.

The remainder of this article can be found here

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Link to Keith Olbermann and Richard Wolffe

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Special Comment
by Keith Olbermann including Bush's lack of integrity

A sneak peak at the HBO documentary, Ghosts of Abu Ghraib.

If you have the courage to see the truth go to this link:
Abu Ghraib
Text from the Youtube poster, journeymanpictures :
Shocking pictures have come to light revealing the extent of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib - and it's much worse than anyone imaged.


The photos depict new incidents of homicide, torture and sexual humiliation and indicate a broader pattern of abuse than was previously understood. "We now know there was systemic and widespread abuse", states ACLU lawyer Amrit Singh. She hopes the photos release will lead to a proper inquiry.