TOYAKO, Japan (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush on Monday kept up his tradition of informal relations with fellow world leaders by summoning Prime Minister Stephen Harper with a brusque "Yo Harper!"
Bush and Harper, a rather stiff and shy figure, are in northern Japan for a summit of leaders of the Group of Eight major industrialized countries.
Television footage of a G8 lunch with African leaders showed Bush talking to Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua and saying "Yo Harper! The president of Nigeria."
At a G8 summit in 2006, Bush landed ally Tony Blair in some trouble by calling out "Yo Blair!"
Critics said the greeting showed what they described as the unequal nature of Bush's relationship with Blair, then the British prime minister.
And at the same summit, Bush shocked German chancellor Angela Merkel by briefly massaging her back as he walked behind her chair.
Harper's ties with Bush are sensitive, since critics of Canada's right-wing Conservative government regularly accuse it of taking orders from Washington.
It was not the first time that Bush has surprised Harper in public. In July 2006, after the two men met at the White House for the first time, Bush publicly called the Canadian "Steve."
Analysts said at the time this might actually help Harper dispel questions about the closeness of his relationship with Bush, since no one who even slightly knew the somewhat wooden Canadian leader would ever think of him as "Steve."
Bush has since referred to Harper in public as "Stephen."
Asked for a reaction to the "Yo Harper!" comment, Harper's spokeswoman said she had not been at the lunch.
aerius: I'll vote for you if you sleep with me. Lusankya: Deal!
Say, do you want it to be a threesome with your wife? Or a foursome with your wife and sister-in-law? I'm up for either.
In any other job, this would be sexual harassment.
Whoever says "education does not matter" can try ignorance
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A decision must be made in the life of every nation at the very moment when the grasp of the enemy is at its throat. Then, it seems that the only way to survive is to use the means of the enemy, to rest survival upon what is expedient, to look the other way. Well, the answer to that is 'survival as what'? A country isn't a rock. It's not an extension of one's self. It's what it stands for. It's what it stands for when standing for something is the most difficult! - Chief Judge Haywood
------------ My LPs
FSTargetDrone wrote:
Um, excuse me? He did this, for real and no kidding?
I'm surprised you don't know that one. It was big news on the national media. Hell even Fox News ran with it.
They say, "the tree of liberty must be watered with the blood of tyrants and patriots." I suppose it never occurred to them that they are the tyrants, not the patriots. Those weapons are not being used to fight some kind of tyranny; they are bringing them to an event where people are getting together to talk. -Mike Wong
But as far as board culture in general, I do think that young male overaggression is a contributing factor to the general atmosphere of hostility. It's not SOS and the Mess throwing hand grenades all over the forum- Red
Nah, I'd say '80's. 'Sup is the new ghetto greeting.
Still wrong. At least on the east coast, "What's poppin'?" or "What's good?" are newer. Sup or Hey are the older phrases.
I am the hammer, I am the right hand of my Lord. The instrument of His will and the gauntlet about His fist. The tip of His spear, the edge of His sword. I am His wrath just as he is my shield. I am the bane of His foes and the woe of the treacherous. I am the end.
-Ravus Ordo Militis
"Fear and ignorance claim the unwary and the incomplete. The wise man may flinch away from their embrace if he girds his soul with the armour of contempt."
