Rep. Howard Berman calls out Sarah Palin

By GottaLaff

Hong Wrong Sarah dissed our president in her first Big Outing and got called out:

Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.), the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has this to say about it:

“In remarks before business leaders in Hong Kong, former Governor Palin urged China to ‘rise responsibly.’ As she continues on the lecture circuit, Ms. Palin would do well to take her own advice. Leaving aside the propriety of criticizing the president while on her first trip to Asia, the assertion that the United States is ignoring areas of disagreement with China is flat wrong. The Strategic and Economic Dialogue launched by the Obama Administration earlier this year has provided the right forum to discuss a wide range of issues involving common interests as well as significant policy differences between Washington and Beijing. And when I met with Chinese leaders in August, they were very open about aspects of trade, human rights and global security on which we still are seeking agreement, but were overwhelmingly positive about the current state of the U.S.-China relationship. I believe this is the direct result of the work that the Obama Administration has done to put this relationship on the right course.”

VIDEO- Sarah Palin's Hong Kong speech “long, humorless and George W. Bush-like”

By GottaLaff



This relatively positive video sure paints a different picture than what you're about to read:

Sarah Palin’s first ever visit to East Asia began with a monologue that invoked the spirit of Margaret Thatcher, sounded “unmistakably” like a pitch for the 2012 presidency and was described by several members of the audience as
“long, humorless and George W Bush-like”.

Described by some as “safe” and by others as “uncomfortable”, the speech called for closer ties between the United States and China, and attacked the recent decision of the Administration of Barack Obama to impose heavy tariffs on imported Chinese tyres.[...]

Several audience members reportedly walked out of Ms Palin’s speech 30 minutes before the end, citing “more important things to do” or describing the talk as “too partisan and too much like a speech at the Republican convention”.

One senior fund manager told The Times that the 80-minute lecture, and the lack of an opportunity to fire any questions at Ms Palin, was a disappointment. “You would think that with her team of speechwriters and a supposedly media-free environment Palin could have afforded to be either funny or thought-provoking, but she was neither,” she said. [...]

Besides its political impact, the speaking engagement is understood to have brought substantial financial relief to Ms Palin, whose recent legal battles have left her with bills of about $500,000. CLSA’s refusal to reveal the fee paid to Ms Palin added to the general mood of secrecy surrounding the event, but it is thought to be in the range of between $170,000 to $220,000.

Need more excuses for all the secrecy? Here ya go:

Questions are prearranged...

A US delegate leaving early with a colleague said: “it was awful, we couldn’t stand it any longer.”

Melvin Goodé, a property consultant who attended Palin’s speech, was interviewed about Palin’s speech by the Wall Street Journal. When asked how he thought she did, he “shrugged his shoulders…[and] said that she generally did all right, given that she ‘wasn’t supposed to know anything about the continent.’”

I'm sure we'll soon be able to read all about how unfair these appraisals were and who's to blame on Death Panel Barbie's Facebook page.

I see China from my house! Palin to address U.S.-China relations in Hong Kong speech

By GottaLaff

Because everyone knows what a foreign policy expert Sarah the Also is:

Sarah Palin will deliver an address on the state of U.S.-China relations in a speech in Hong Kong this week.

2012... 2012... 2012....

"We have asked her to address U.S. foreign policy, to discuss her views on governance, healthcare and, of course, China," Jonathan Slone, CLSA's CEO, told Agence France Presse.

Why bother to have her speak? We can provide her views right here at TPC, and for free!

Foreign policy: Always have good binoculars handy on a clear day.

Governance: 3 words-- Quit, quit, quit.

Health care: What's Chinese for death panels?

U.S.-China relations: Stare blankly and ask your dining partners to pass the Moose-goo gai pan.

By the way, her address will be closed to the press.

"She said, 'If I do that with the press in the room, I will have to say different things.' "

And by different things, she means the truth.

There is one more option: To save everyone a lot of time and expense, she could stay home, the investors could put up a big screen and simply project her latest Facebook entry.

Sarah Palin's Hong Kong speech to be closed press

I keep having this vision of people for whom English is a second language trying to wrestle their way thru Palin's bassackwards run-ons and sentence structure. I hope booze will be served. And for a 6 figure fee, she better do some fancy shooting for an encore...

[A] spokesperson for CLSA, one of Asia's top investment houses, said that Palin's session with the moneyed audience will take place in private.

"Some of our keynote sessions in previous years were also closed to the media. So this is not the first time," she told AFP, declining to be named.

"Ms Palin has not yet confirmed with us the topic of her speech," the spokesperson added.

Did Hong Kong punk Palin?

By GottaLaff

Previously, I posted about Death Panel Barbie's Big Speaking Engagement at a Hong Kong investment forum. That seemed a little like inviting Glenn Beck to a spelling bee. I had even asked what could have possessed them. I mean, D.P. Barbie being paid the big bucks to speak at such a Very Important and Serious Venue was crazy! Far fetched! Ludicrous!

But wait. What have we here?

Think she'll cancel, claiming she had never committed to the engagement to begin with? At least she has a humiliating track record of unreliability and, well, quitting, to back herself up.

If this is what it appears to be, then I only have one word: Suh-nap!

Remind me to send a thank you note to CLSA.

H/t: Mudflats

Sarah Palin to speak at Hong Kong investor forum... but will she show?

By GottaLaff

Sarah the Quitter isn't the most reliable date keeper, now is she? Nor was she a very reliable governor. She continues to turn the phrase, "I just can't quit you" on its head:

According to this story in the Anchorage Daily News, people counting on Palin to be their keynote speaker sometimes get stood up. "Organizers of an Anchorage event that has been billing Sarah Palin for weeks as a star speaker were left scrambling Wednesday after learning that the former governor won't be there for tonight's event and claims to have never been asked," the newspaper reported last Wednesday. "It would be at least the fourth time in recent months that an anticipated Palin speech has fallen through after Palin and her camp disputed they had ever confirmed it. That includes the brouhaha over whether she'd speak at the annual congressional Republican fundraising dinner in Washington, D.C., this summer."

So how insulted would CLSA be if she backed out of this speaking date? Or will she once again claim that she had never committed to it? Why, that could spark an international kerfuffly kerfuffle! You betcha:

CLSA, the Hong Kong-based brokerage, announced today that the hockey mom who quit her job as Alaska governor last month will be the keynote speaker at its annual investor conference in September.

Maybe they could invest in some I.Q. points for her while she's there.

Come to think of it, why exactly did they ask her, of all people, to speak? What possessed them? That is a question for the ages...

The CLSA forum is a big deal, having attracted not only Clinton, Gore and Greenspan in the past but also heavyweights like Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former Walt Disney boss Michael Eisner and scientist Craig Venter (who founded the Institute for Genomic Research and led the team that sequenced the human genome). [...]

The press release from CLSA also has this surprising bit of news: The trip to Hong Kong will be Palin's first trip to this part of the world. [...] During last year's campaign, the governor touted her state's proximity to (the Asian part of) Russia as proof of her foreign-policy bona fides, so I'm surprised to read that she has never actually been here.

I'm not.