[NYTr] Illiterate Bush's Reading Copy of Speech Posted to UN Website

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

[White House went ballistic when the copy of Bush's speech provided to
him for READING at the UN was exposed for all the world to see...
complete with PRO-NUN-SEE-A-SHUN guides for the illiterate moron. 

USA Today Blog - Sep 25, 2007
http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2007/09/white-house-ups.html

"On Deadline"

White House upset over copy of Bush speech posted to U.N. website

Posted by Mike Carney
12:33 PM/ET, September 25, 2007 in Washington

Apparently, a marked-up draft of the president's speech popped up on
the U.N.'s website as President Bush delivered his remarks this morning
before the General Assembly, USA TODAY's David Jackson reports. The
draft included phonetic spellings of some names and countries, and the
cellphone numbers for Bush speechwriters.

Press secretary Dana Perino downplayed the incident, and said phonetic
spellings are used to help interpreters. Asked if the president has
trouble pronouncing some country's names, Perino deemed it "an
offensive question."

"There was an error made," Perino said, noting it was not a final draft.

"It was taken down and there's nothing more to say about it."

Update at 12:43 p.m. ET: See the version they replaced it with on
the U.N. website. HERE:
http://www.un.org/webcast/ga/62/2007/pdfs/usa-eng.pdf

Update at 12:46 p.m. ET: Blake Hounshell at Foreign Policy says he has
a copy of the speech that got the White House so worked up this
morning. Here are some of the phonetic guides it included, according to
the magazine's blog:

    * Kyrgyzstan [KEYR-geez-stan]
    * Mauritania [moor-EH-tain-ee-a]
    * Harare [hah-RAR-ray]
    * Mugabe [moo-GAH-bee]
    * Sarkozy [sar-KO-zee]
    * Caracas [kah-RAH-kus]

Update at 2:33 p.m. ET: Here's an excerpt from the press secretary's
exchange with reporters about the speech snafu. It was released by the
White House.

PERINO:  On the speech -- your question about the speech, the drafts
are circulated, and there was an error made in trying to make sure that
interpreters had what they needed.  I don't know how the draft of the
speech -- it was not final -- was posted, but it was, and it was taken
down.  There's really nothing more to say about it.

REPORTER: And they were phonetic spellings of various countries  -- as
well, we understand.

PERINO:  That's not unusual.  We do that for many speeches.

REPORTER: Does the president have a hard time pronouncing some of these
countries's [sic] name?

PERINO:  I think that's a offensive question. I'm going to just decline
to comment on it.