http://www.attytood.com/2006/12/snow_queen_vodka_alcoholic_int_1.htmlSnow Queen Vodka: Alcoholic Intoxicants for Make Benefit Glorious Christmas Party of Dick Cheney
Does anyone else think this is weird?
The vice president's annual Christmas party has an "official liquor sponsor"?
Of course, our vice president being Dick Cheney, his choice of a liquor sponsor is also drowning in the one fluid that Cheney is really addicted to, and that's oil. Is there nothing this man does that doesn't have a whiff (in this case, an odorless whiff) of Central Asian intrigue?
First, the scoop, from the Examiner (by way of the Huffington Post):
Borat wasn’t on the list, but at least one product of Kazakhstan managed to gain access to Vice President Dick Cheney’s holiday party on Tuesday night at his Massachusetts Avenue residence.
Snow Queen vodka, a product of the central Asian country, was the “official liquor donor” at the 400-strong party of high-powered pols and their staffers. Among those on the list who braved the “blinding” lights on Mass Ave. and the long security procedure to rub elbows with the Veep: Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Afghan Ambassador Said Jawad, Jordanian Ambassador Karim Kawar, former Speaker Newt Gingrich and Rima Al-Sabah, wife of the Kuwaiti ambassador.
Journalists are in love with Kazakhstan this days -- who can resist the chance to make a "Borat" joke, or a pseudo-joke in this case.
But, at the risk of sounding like a total prude here, what are the ethics of a sponsor (presumably) donating booze for the purpose of a vice president's holiday party? Does that have to be reported anywhere? We always thought that taxpayers footed the bill for this type of official entertainment? Sure, it's not a big deal, but what if the next state dinner at the White House is sponsored by Outback Steakhouses?
Look, we don't think Dick Cheney can be bought...for a few bottles of rotgut, anyway.
But the annoying political significance of this may not be the ethics so much as the embarassing depths to which Cheney will go to suck up to any nation or any thing that has some connection to large reserves of oil -- in this case, the energy-rich but anti-democratic Kazakhstan, with a human rights record that even the U.S, admits is "poor." That hasn't stopped Cheney from making warm relations with Kazakhsran -- "Borat" notwithstanding -- the top priority of his one-man foreign policy, as evidenced by this pilgrimage in May.
We just hope their weren't any hunting rifles in or near the Naval Observatory. We hear that shooting and drinking don't mix.
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doing business is the name of their game
being in charge of america only means they can do business however they want
and can use us americans however they want
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