Karen Hughes is a moron

I heard an interview with Karen Hughes - Dubya's "Make America's Image Better" envoy - on NPR this morning.

Wow. If we're relying on her to make America a little less-hated, we're in serious trouble.

Her big plan, which she made seem as if it were the sole cause of all the dislike of the US and its policies these days, was to make airports more welcoming.

I'm not kidding.

She talked about "welcome signs" in airports, with "vidoes explaining our way of life," presumably running in the long lines foreigners face when arriving back. She thought that airports "weren't very welcoming," in part because there's one line for non-US citizens and another for citizens/green card holders (which I like very much - getting stuck behind a plane from Seoul is seoul-destroying).

She dodged questions about torture ("we have to take it for what it is - a crime." Well, yes. However, punishing the crime might be a good first step), and said that the decline in America's image has been going on for "decades" - thus, of course, implicitly absolving Dubya of any responsibility.

So let's see: the US is off invading Iraq, dropping out of the Nonproliferation Treaty, the Kyoto Protocol, the Geneva Convention, threatening to break its treaty obligations with Canada and drill for oil in the Arctic, preaching free trade while not practicing it, torturing arabs, keeping them locked away beyond the reach of due process - and making a few "Welcome To America!" signs is going to help?