White House upset over copy of Bush speech posted to U.N. website
Apparently, a marked-up draft of the president's speech popped up on the U.N.'s website as President Bush delivered his remarks this morning before the General Assembly, USA TODAY's David Jackson reports.
The draft included phonetic spellings of some names and countries, and the cellphone numbers for Bush speechwriters.
Press secretary Dana Perino downplayed the incident, and said phonetic spellings are used to help interpreters.
Asked if the president has trouble pronouncing some country's names, Perino deemed it "an offensive question."
"There was an error made," Perino said, noting it was not a final draft.
"It was taken down and there's nothing more to say about it."
Update at 12:46 p.m. ET: Blake Hounshell at Foreign Policy says he has a copy of the speech that got the White House so worked up this morning. http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/node/6408
Here are some of the phonetic guides it included, according to the magazine's blog:
Update at 2:33 p.m. ET: Here's an excerpt from the press secretary's exchange with reporters about the speech snafu.
It was released by the White House.
PERINO: On the speech -- your question about the speech, the drafts are circulated, and there was an error made in trying to make sure that interpreters had what they needed. I don't know how the draft of the speech -- it was not final -- was posted, but it was, and it was taken down. There's really nothing more to say about it.
REPORTER: And they were phonetic spellings of various countries -- as well, we understand.
PERINO: That's not unusual. We do that for many speeches.
REPORTER: Does the president have a hard time pronouncing some of these countries's [sic] name?
PERINO: I think that's a offensive question. I'm going to just decline to comment on it.
> White House upset over copy of Bush speech posted to U.N. website
> Apparently, a marked-up draft of the president's speech popped up on > the U.N.'s website as President Bush delivered his remarks this > morning before the General Assembly, USA TODAY's David Jackson > reports.
> The draft included phonetic spellings of some names and countries, and > the cellphone numbers for Bush speechwriters.
> Press secretary Dana Perino downplayed the incident, and said phonetic > spellings are used to help interpreters.
> Asked if the president has trouble pronouncing some country's names, > Perino deemed it "an offensive question."
> "There was an error made," Perino said, noting it was not a final > draft.
> "It was taken down and there's nothing more to say about it."
> Update at 12:46 p.m. ET: Blake Hounshell at Foreign Policy says he has > a copy of the speech that got the White House so worked up this > morning. http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/node/6408
> Here are some of the phonetic guides it included, according to the > magazine's blog:
> Update at 2:33 p.m. ET: Here's an excerpt from the press secretary's > exchange with reporters about the speech snafu.
> It was released by the White House.
> PERINO: On the speech -- your question about the speech, the drafts > are circulated, and there was an error made in trying to make sure > that interpreters had what they needed. I don't know how the draft of > the speech -- it was not final -- was posted, but it was, and it was > taken down. There's really nothing more to say about it.
> REPORTER: And they were phonetic spellings of various countries -- as > well, we understand.
> PERINO: That's not unusual. We do that for many speeches.
> REPORTER: Does the president have a hard time pronouncing some of > these countries's [sic] name?
> PERINO: I think that's a offensive question. I'm going to just > decline to comment on it.
The offensive part is that the question is 100% valid in the case of this moron.
> White House upset over copy of Bush speech posted to U.N. website
> Apparently, a marked-up draft of the president's speech popped up on > the U.N.'s website as President Bush delivered his remarks this > morning before the General Assembly, USA TODAY's David Jackson > reports.
> The draft included phonetic spellings of some names and countries, and > the cellphone numbers for Bush speechwriters.
> Press secretary Dana Perino downplayed the incident, and said phonetic > spellings are used to help interpreters.
[snip]
Phonetic spellings of English are used to help interpreters? What a load of bullshit. Or is it because Bush's pronunciations are impossible to understand in any language? Perino is as big a lying sack of shit as her predecessors.
> White House upset over copy of Bush speech posted to U.N. website
> Apparently, a marked-up draft of the president's speech popped up on > the U.N.'s website as President Bush delivered his remarks this > morning before the General Assembly, USA TODAY's David Jackson > reports.
> The draft included phonetic spellings of some names and countries, and > the cellphone numbers for Bush speechwriters.
> Press secretary Dana Perino downplayed the incident, and said phonetic > spellings are used to help interpreters.
> Asked if the president has trouble pronouncing some country's names, > Perino deemed it "an offensive question."
> "There was an error made," Perino said, noting it was not a final > draft.
> "It was taken down and there's nothing more to say about it."
> Update at 12:46 p.m. ET: Blake Hounshell at Foreign Policy says he has > a copy of the speech that got the White House so worked up this > morning. http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/node/6408
> Here are some of the phonetic guides it included, according to the > magazine's blog:
> Update at 2:33 p.m. ET: Here's an excerpt from the press secretary's > exchange with reporters about the speech snafu.
> It was released by the White House.
> PERINO: On the speech -- your question about the speech, the drafts > are circulated, and there was an error made in trying to make sure > that interpreters had what they needed. I don't know how the draft of > the speech -- it was not final -- was posted, but it was, and it was > taken down. There's really nothing more to say about it.
> REPORTER: And they were phonetic spellings of various countries -- as > well, we understand.
> PERINO: That's not unusual. We do that for many speeches.
> REPORTER: Does the president have a hard time pronouncing some of > these countries's [sic] name?
> PERINO: I think that's a offensive question. I'm going to just > decline to comment on it.
Bush was there to compete with Rush, O'Reilly and Hannity for a shot to suck Ahmadinejad's massive dick.
I can see the newspaper ad now.
WANTED: Iranian to translate Bush's speech to the American people and also needed to mediate dialogue between Fox news pundits and Iranian president. Must have own defibrillator, crack pipe, assless chaps and kevlar vest.
> White House upset over copy of Bush speech posted to U.N. website
> Apparently, a marked-up draft of the president's speech popped up on > the U.N.'s website as President Bush delivered his remarks this > morning before the General Assembly, USA TODAY's David Jackson > reports.
> The draft included phonetic spellings of some names and countries, and > the cellphone numbers for Bush speechwriters.
> Press secretary Dana Perino downplayed the incident, and said phonetic > spellings are used to help interpreters.
> Asked if the president has trouble pronouncing some country's names, > Perino deemed it "an offensive question."
> "There was an error made," Perino said, noting it was not a final > draft.
> "It was taken down and there's nothing more to say about it."
> Update at 12:46 p.m. ET: Blake Hounshell at Foreign Policy says he has > a copy of the speech that got the White House so worked up this > morning. http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/node/6408
> Here are some of the phonetic guides it included, according to the > magazine's blog:
> Update at 2:33 p.m. ET: Here's an excerpt from the press secretary's > exchange with reporters about the speech snafu.
> It was released by the White House.
> PERINO: On the speech -- your question about the speech, the drafts > are circulated, and there was an error made in trying to make sure > that interpreters had what they needed. I don't know how the draft of > the speech -- it was not final -- was posted, but it was, and it was > taken down. There's really nothing more to say about it.
> REPORTER: And they were phonetic spellings of various countries -- as > well, we understand.
> PERINO: That's not unusual. We do that for many speeches.
> REPORTER: Does the president have a hard time pronouncing some of > these countries's [sic] name?
> PERINO: I think that's a offensive question. I'm going to just > decline to comment on it.
