NYT: Kerry Says He Is Preparing Proposals on Syria Crisis

[beachmom]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/14/us/politics/kerry-says-he-is-preparing-proposals-on-syria-crisis.html

Secretary of State John Kerry said on Wednesday that he had ideas about how to persuade President Bashar al-Assad to agree to a political transition in Syria and planned to raise them on his first foreign trip this month.

“We need to address the question of President Assad’s calculation currently,” Mr. Kerry said after a meeting with Jordan’s foreign minister, Nasser Judeh. “I believe there are additional things that can be done to change his current perception. I’ve got a good sense of what I think we might propose.”

...

“I can assure you my goal is to see us change his calculation, my goal is to see us have a negotiated outcome and minimize the violence,” Mr. Kerry said. “It may not be possible. I am not going to stand here and tell you that’s automatic or easily achievable. There are a lot of forces that have been unleashed here over the course of the last months.”

That's pretty ambitious. But clearly, this is a Secretary of State who is going to take risks.

[Mass]

1. Ambitious, and displeasing the RW

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2013/02/did_obama_pick_pollyanna_for_secretary_of_state.html

But once again, the media cannot seem to be happy with Kerry.

They have criticized his culinary tastes (does not like celery), his attempt to free funds for the PA, his choice for a spokewoman (democratic message meister), but they seem to have a hard time finding anything positive.

And now, they are critical of the Heinz sales to Buffet as if Kerry had anything to do with this. When my husband started to joke about this this morning, I told him somebody would complain, and here it is.

http://www.businessinsider.com/john-kerry-heinz-ketchup-2013-2

My favorite sentence:

According to Open Secrets, last year then-Senator Kerry disclosed his 2011 assets, which included a valuation of $3,000,003 worth of HJ Heinz Co.
It's unclear what the more recent number is at this time, but for purposes of this report, we're going to use that number and do some simple math.

Otherwise said, we do not know, but we will complain anyway.

[beachmom]

2. Ugh, that first site is a total Swift Boat outfit.

Plus what is happening with the Hagel nomination is making me very angry. They just make stuff up, and hope it sticks. Sheesh.

[Inuca]

5. Correction

They make ugly, stupid, disgusting stuff up

[wisteria]

3. America Thinker has never like Kerry.

Short of suggesting bombing and going to war with everyone we don't agree with, they dislike every other proposal. They need to go look up the meaning of diplomacy. I mean, Kerry has been clear about Syria, he is approaching this situation with eyes wide open.

Oh, and my local Scaife owned paper is now going to have a monthly foreign policy columns written by........John Bolton. Th notion that people were pushing that the Republicans wanted Kerry as SOS is being proven wrong.

[wisteria]

4. I read the article on Kerry's culinary tastes, I really did not think it was bad.

So, he doesn't like celery. It was a story about nothing really.

What was awsome, was the smile on SOS Kerry's face at the beginning of the State of the Union. He seems really pleased with his new position.

[Inuca]

6. I noticed that :-) n/t

[Mass]

7. So, it turns out they had sold their stock in Heinz already.

http://www.menafn.com/menafn/272610f4-16c5-445c-892e-183129964c13/Some-Heinz-investors-sell-stock-too-early-miss-boat-on-share-price-for-companys-sale?src=MWHEAD

Kerry, who is married to Teresa Heinz Kerry, heir to the ketchup fortune, sold holdings in the company worth at least 4.2 million in November, financial disclosure filings show.

Kerry had held about that much in H.J. Heinz shares, according to a 2011 estimate by OpenSecrets.org, which analyzes government financial disclosures. It estimated his net worth at about 184.3 million that year, the latest figure available.

Talk about a lot of noise about nothing.

Which was my point about both celery and this. Our media are more busy gushing about non issue than actually trying to figure out what is really happening. Googling Kerry for the last four years has been an amazing comparison between the foreign media actually caring about what was happening and the US/European media caring about things that are immaterial. It was the same for Hillary Clinton. Most of the articles were puff pieces or pieces about 2016, while policy issues were ignored.

[wisteria]

8. So true. n/t