Especially if you're also a pig - hard to open a lipstick with those little cloven hooves........

That sounds like something the Wizard pulled out of his bag of junk at the end of the Wizard of Oz.

Besides cash a hefty paycheck at the tax payers' expence, do we really know what she did?

Oh, brava, Ms. Rice...

mission of transformational diplomacy

Wow, what a knack for euphemistic, obfuscatory narrative Condi Rice has! And using that to dress up the less-than-nothing Hughes actually accomplished, too! Were all the military aid deals in the Middle East the US recently brokered part of that "transformational diplomacy?"

Given that the Bush administration's & the neo-cons' main goal in life is to see that we are perpetually at war, Karen's done a bang-up job (sorry). How would we be assured of perpetual enemies, if we were liked throughout the world?

Since Bush's term in office began, my own opinion of American Values has been in steady decline. And I'm an American! I'd love to see the results of the same poll, conducted in the United States among American citizens. I'll bet it would indicate the same decline.

Oh, Miss Condi the word merchant!

When I asked Karen to come, I asked her to come and to help us make public diplomacy strong and central to the mission of transformational diplomacy, and she has done that.

Transformational diplomacy, what does that mean in Bushworld?

Condi: Karen delivered for us. She transformed our diplomacy with variables and change and function and smoke and mirrors, coordinating our diplomatic operations through public assertions, deletions and permutations, all the while coordinating her transformational efforts with Karl Rove. And I am here today to tell you that Karen deserves our heartfelt thanks for doing, what seemed, the impossible in a very short time. The world despises us, but that does not deter us. No. That makes us stronger, bolder, more sure that we are right and the world is wrong.

...and so on

Clearly, Hughes didn't organize enough happy-talk fake news conferences to get the job done. Happily, that guy Philbin from FEMA is now available....

Cutting through all the process BS.

Even the weakling AP managed to summarize Hughes' disappearing act with "Polls show no improvement in the world's view of the U.S. since Hughes took over."

If the consequences of her and her team's ineptitude weren't so tragic, this episode would be near comedy. The mainstream media's failure to take up these failures speaks volumes about why they have proved inadequate to the task of covering today's world.

I wonder about the timing of all the Bushian resignations, especially Karl Rove. Do they see so little left to accomplish? To put it differently - don't they wonder how much further they can take this abysmal failure of a presidency into the abyss? Underachievers!

There is virtually nothing Karen Hughes could do to make a substantially dent in improving the U.S.'s image abroad.

The world frowns on us because we went into Iraq. When we leave Iraq (because we will), the world will frown a little less. But the damage has already been done for generations. Our long-time allies (like the British) will forgive us sooner. But the Arab World will rightfully sneer at us for a long, long time.

Thank you, Bush Administration, for inflaming Muslim (extremist and moderate) hatred of America. I feel so much safer.

Hughes, who admittedly was effective for Bush early on, was an abject failure in this last position.

There is a remarkable similarity in fate between Ms Hughes and the CPA(Iraq authority). Armed with western values and a rigid neocon ideology, both went forth to "conquer" the heathens, both returned "on their shield".

...Karen Hughes has played a supporting role in damaging the image of the U.S. abroad.

Could she put a dent in improving the damage? Not damned likely, because as a long-time member of Team Bush, her role has always been to prop up GWB and his so-called policies, no matter what it takes.

She made the choice to be a public voice for the worst administration in United States' history. She deserves our scorn.

As Rice's benediction showed, there's no actual government successes to speak of, just political eye wash. That's what the Busheviks do.

They're incapable of actual governance, but they're brilliant at PR spin and political skullduggery. Neither bodes well for the future.

Bush and the rest of the GOP sociopaths just show up in suits, going though the motions, and the corporate media maintains the fiction that they're actually governing despite the obvious lies and incoherent policy pronouncements.

Condi forgot to mention the fantastic video Karen Hughes commissioned to promote U.S. tourism and welcome foreign visitors. Like every other attempt to gloss over the Bush administration's image, glaring errors are made . . .

From Canada's "The Globe and Mail" online:

A Disney-produced promotional video released last week by the departments of State and Homeland Security highlights majestic American landscapes, from New England's colourful fall foliage and the Grand Canyon to the Rocky Mountains and Hawaii's pounding surf.

About four minutes into the seven-minute production, viewers are treated to the impressive sight and sound of water roaring over Niagara Falls before the screen shifts to the Lincoln Memorial.

In showing the natural wonder, Disney's filmmakers, however, chose the Horseshoe Falls, the only one of Niagara's three waterfalls to lie almost entirely on the Canadian side of the border separating western New York state from southern Ontario.

In a separate "making of" video, Jay Rasulo, the chairman of Disney Parks and Resorts, speaks over the falls footage about the importance of showing would-be tourists "the great sites, the great vistas that they dream about all their lives when they dream about America."

Making matters worse, a visitor to the United States would not even be able to get the same view of the falls in the video because the scene was shot from a vantage point in Canada, according to Paul Gromosiak, a Niagara Falls, N.Y., historian and author.

Also, he said the video leaves out the two cascades that actually are on U.S. territory, the American Falls and Bridal Veil Falls.

"This is not the United States, this is 100 per cent Canada, shot from the Canadian side," Mr. Gromosiak said after reviewing the video. "This is an insult."

The political boundary is not marked with a line through the Niagara River that divides the two countries and connects Lake Erie to Lake Ontario. The distinction, however, is clear to most who have visited the Falls looking for a picture postcard photo to take home.

But it seems to have escaped the notice of the producers and those at the State Department and Homeland Security Department's Customs and Border Protection agency who presumably vetted the video before endorsing it and posting it to their websites.

Karen Hughes, the undersecretary of state for public diplomacy, said in a posting to the department's blog Thursday that the production has the administration's blessing.

"This video clearly says: 'We want you to come to America, you will be most welcome,' " she said.

Ms. Hughes said she commissioned the work, which Disney shot and produced at no charge and donated, to overcome the pervasive post-Sept. 11 perception abroad that the United States is hostile to foreigners. She said the video is to be given maximum exposure.

"We're going to play it in waiting rooms and at embassy events - and we hope it will inspire many who otherwise might not have thought about travelling to America to come and see it for themselves," she wrote.

Or maybe Canada.

You've done a heckuva job, Karen!