05/22/2009
Yesterday, among other things, Secretary Clinton, as shown above, attended President Obama's speech on closing the Guantánamo Bay detention facility. (Sitting with her are U.S. Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), far left, and CIA Director Leon Panetta.)
another great article by Preeti Aroon:
Today, she moves on to accepting an award from the National Coordinated Effort of Hellenes. One of the main issues the group appears to tackle is the highly sensitive “FYROM”/”Republic of Macedonia” name issue. Greece wants the “Republic of Macedonia” to instead be called the “Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia” (or “FYROM” for short). The U.S. State Department currently states on its background note for the country that the “official name” is “Republic of Macedonia.” To people not familiar with the centuries of history behind the name dispute, it might sound like a trivial issue, but actually it’s sensitive enough that it caused rioting last year and is affecting “FYROM”/”Republic of Macedonia”‘s ability to enter NATO and the European Union.
The official schedule for today:
9:30 a.m. Receive Award from the National Coordinated Effort of Hellenes in the Treaty Room.
11:30 a.m. Bilateral with His Excellency Karel De Gucht, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belgium.
Update: When asked about the name issue at the award presentation, Clinton said:
Well, we have been very committed to that. I have spoken out about the need to resolve the name issue in a way that is acceptable to both parties. And Deputy Secretary [James] Steinberg was recently in the region making that case.
We have picked up this issue with a lot of commitment early on in our administration. Obviously, this has to be resolved by the parties themselves, but we are urging that resolution. We think it is in everyone’s best interest. As you said, it would open the way for movement toward another nation joining the European Union, which we think promotes stability in the region, so we are very committed to doing what the United States can to facilitate that.
Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images
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UPdate: And in true Hillary fashion, she is heading to Greece on Tuesday for speaking in person to all who have a stake in an amicable resolution to this dispute .
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Hillary Unleashed 
There’s a new book just published which I have ordered already after reading reviews. I don’t think any serious student of politics, gender issues, or any one of us who has witnessed Hillary’s heroic run (diminished by the DNC and media misogynist fratboys) should be without it:
“Almost Madam President” by Nichola Gutgold, Associate Prof. Pennsylvania University’s Political Communications.
We should encourage our friends to get copies. I haven’t read it, but trust the source and the 5 reviewers on Amazon so far!
I will never forget Hillary’s June ’08 Speech at the Historic Building. Wonder where we can get a video of this as it was posted on “Hillary Grassroots” sometime ago….thx for comment
Thanks for your comments. We’re all on the same page as Hill supporters.
Didn’t George Stephanopulos of ABC work as communications chief for the Clinton White House? Unlike most partisan ‘journalists’ he’s always been more objective. God knows HIllary was attacked in a most sexist fashion by the American media while they promoted Obama during the infamous campaign.
Anyway, Hillary will have a great time in Greece. It’s a great place and especially their lovely islands. She had broken her elbow earlier when scheduled to go to Italy,Greece and Russia.
Great for her to receive the Hellenic Award and let’s just say:
Enjoy yourself, (almost) Madam President! You’re the best!
nice rant, mps. Unfortunately too long between the cup n’ the lip for a response.
The region called “Macedonia” has been Greek since King Philip, his son Alexander and the great Greek philosopher Aristotle walked on its ground. These historical figures represented ancient Greek history and philosophy and, incidentally, they did not engage in a “Slavic” dialect as today’s name usurpers (slavo-macedonians) do. They spoke in Greek. Not Slavic. Their culture was Hellenic/Greek. The slavic migration from the northern part of the Balkans witnessed an altering in the ethic makeup and the Slav part wants to use the name that belongs, historically, to Greece alone: Macedonia. It is a province of Greece. Thousands of Greeks were slaughtered both by the Ottoman Empire and the slavs of the north.
To allow the use of the name of the Greek Province of Macedonia to be used and falsified by “Slavo-Macedonians” is a travesty of History!
The Muslims and the Slavs have been slaughtering Greek minorities for centuries. The Armenians were slaughtered by the Turks but so were hundreds of thousands of prosperous Greeks who were made refugees, like their Armenian cousins, by the thousands.
Slavs and muslims of Bosnia have skeletons that still creak. I the Second World War the Turks and the muslim populations of Albania and Croatia and other slavs sided with the Nazis and slaughtered thousands of Greek Jews. Ask President Sarkozy when he visited Greek Macedonia to honor his Greek Jewish grandfather’s graveyard.
Please do not FALSIFY HISTORY.
Is she coming to Macedonia? Cause if not, then she will not be “speaking to all that have a stake in the dispute”.
By the way, it’s not about history, it’s about Greece being a bully toa much smaller and weaker neighbor, denying the Macedonian people in Macedonia and Northern Greece their identity and language.
They do this in order to hide the ethnic cleansing of the Macedonians in Northern Greece (Aegean Macedonia) which has managed to turn that region from a majority Macedonian to a majority Greek region in less than a hundred years.
The Greeks have a lot of bones in the closet.