Our new Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, presented her Russian counterpart with a symbolic “reset” button as a gesture of the US commitment to restoring US-Russia ties (GW’s fault of course; apparently, their illegal invasion of Georgia was so long ago that it is just water under the bridge). Unfortunately, for the Obama Administration, however, they wrote the wrong Russian word on the gift, so that it actually read “overcharged” not “reset”.
I mean, come-on, Russian might be a foreign language, but it is not an EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL language! You’re telling me they can’t find ONE person in the US to double-check their spelling?!
FYI Obama, when you want a pizza delivered to the oval office; push the button that reads “intercom” not “nuclear annihilation”, thanks.
This is quite unbelievable. It's not like we have been at odds with Russia for the past 60 years or so. I'm sure there are hundreds (if not thousands) of old Russian linguist anaylsts still work at the CIA who could have assisted. The Obama adminsistration's distain for the organization probably precluded them from asking for the CIA's assistance. Instead, they relied on some junior staffer right out college who said he took two semesters of Russian.
ReplyDeleteTo continue, the 'reset' button can be found on almost any modern electronic device. Surely they could have consulted a Russain version of any electronic systems user guide (maybe an iPod) to get the proper spelling. God help us when they start rewriting nuclear treaty documents.
ReplyDeleteI heard Bush had one of those "EASY" buttons, from staples, on his desk to help him with the tough decisions.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if Bush had a English linguist working for him?