Obama

Inspirational. Thanks to all the brave people of Zimbabwe and the world.

"Historic debate" !! screams "The Washington Post". What's historic about teacups ? While Cheney was clunky ( who'd support waterboarding publicly but a complete moron ? ), Obama was famously flatulent -- "We enlisted other peoples in the common effort of liberty ". That "enlisted" setting off the "common effort" !! Wish the audience had suddenly sprung Cyrano with his rapier or a carving knife, to chase this melodramatic Montfleury off the stage.

And which history book has Obama been reading ?? Which enemy soldiers of which country in which war were gladly surrendering ( as Obama would have it, & he made it sound like a regular trend ) to the U.S. Army on the basis of which american value rather than trust his own government ??? Think of the man's mind level, think of the "great american people" as well, if they have to come up with such stuff for morale & reference, think of the "Post's" own caliber of journalism if it calls such an exercise "historic" !!

Last night saw a world press photo exhibit . One of those pictures was a big one of Obama speaking to a small audience of seemingly middleclass people who sat all around him. They all looked like comfortably off people, mildly liberal, white & very safe, non - wild, and no one was having any trouble at all seeing or hearing the speaker, but he was --- --- standing in the middle of the room --- -- on a rough wooden crate, like a packing box. That crate was completely unnecessary & silly, stupid, a ham's stage prop -- but maybe he wanted for once to look like Jimmy Hoffa talking to the Teamsters' Union -- except for the placards around the room, with the , yes, "Change" slogan i've never said so i won't now. On the floor by the crate, a plain mineral water bottle -- nice touch.

You could see his socks. i think i know now why the journalist Alexander Cockburn is against journalism awards.

Amnesty's analysis of Obama's 100 days is almost in line with its expectations of the bloke from day 1. The analysis is a tad better than the expectations -- Amnesty's just starting to acknowledge the writing on Bagram's walls -- that Guantanamo's walls are not "really" coming down, its captives are not being released anytime anybody knows of, rendition & torture won't stop, just the names will change, and no torturer will be punished . Even China & Iran are quicker in releasing prisoners when they decide to than is america, which has an image problem which would outlast Narcissus in indifference to anyone else's interests. And Narcissus never wasted anyone's time but his own.

Yet one of Amnesty's systemic shortcomings has been to ignore the woods ( of current history ) for the trees ( of technical detail ). While scrupulously balancing Obama's record on its scales Amnesty neglects to weigh the very sources of the war crimes it considers -- Afpak, Swat & now Iraq, phase 2. Looking at the war's prisoners while avoiding glancing at the war robs analysis of its goal --- the acquisition of lessons with foresight. Amnesty has made "Obama 100" look like a Bush postscript instead of what it is -- Obama Rex, Overture.