Keep talking

One would almost feel sympathy for Barack Obama. He ran for president in 2008, based solely on the thunder of his speech at the "Democratic" convention four years earlier. He delivered a great speech, ergo he's qualified to be president.

Now, I suspect, he's having second thoughts. He has no answers for anything, his health care law has been declared unconstitutional, the economy is still in the doldrums, and now his entire foreign "policy" is in freefall.

Had he studied a bit of history before running for president, he would realize that since before World War II our Federal government has supported a truly evil cluster of dictators worldwide, all with the intent of being the dominant force on the planet. Obama may or may not have known this, but he has shown no signs of reversing this "policy" towards the rest of the planet. In today's Huffington Post the lead headline is "OBAMA BACKS GRADUAL TRANSITION LED BY SULEIMAN." They actually link to an article in the New York Times, which details the "plan." The Suleiman in question is Omar Suleiman, "Egypt's" newly anointed vice-president and former head of intelligence for the country. He is widely reputed to have personally conducted the torture of prisoners, most notably men who have been "rendered" in "extraordinary" manner by the "U.S." "CIA."

Thus is complete Obama's descent into a hell of his own making. He may not have started out as a backer of the worst evils on the planet, but he now is in full embrace.

The descent was rapid. He wasted no time upon assuming office to show his support for the worst human rights crimes of the Bush regime. Now he has painted himself into a corner. The whole world knows about Suleiman, but Obama and his clique of department secretaries and advisors seem to believe rolling out another eloquent speech will be enough.

It won't. The world is likely tired of him. He's all talk, and his talk has become pro-forma, predictable, and boring. Before becoming a bore he gave a speech in Cairo in 2009 that may have unwittingly inspired the unrest that led to the protests of the past week-and-a-half. That's the risk you take when you inspire people. They might just decide to act on your inspiring rhetoric.

That includes, of course, people right here in the "USA." Nothing has been done, and nothing is intended to be done, about climate change (witness the State of the Union Speech). Nothing has been done or is intended to be done about the criminality on Wall Street. Indeed, Obama's administration is well-staffed with the very people who got us into the economic mess in which we now find ourselves trapped. Obama pre-gave in on letting the Bush tax cuts for the rich expire, supposedly to be "bipartisan," but likely for ruling-class cohesion (or something similar).

What I would like to see is for Barack Obama to give more speeches. A lot more speeches. He's doing a heckuva job, to coin a phrase, inspiring the masses of the planet to overthrow tyrannical regimes.

Punxsutawney Phil predicted four more weeks of winter a few days ago. Ahh, spring. My favorite season.
________________________________________________

I offered another take on the "Egypt" situation in a comment to an article in Salon a few days ago. This too.

Egypt Unrest: Didn't U.S. Intelligence See It Coming? (I wrote a comment to this one, it appears on the third page)

I was going to weave these articles into the story, but it took a slightly different direction:

Tahrir Square Gunfire: Egypt Protests Continue Overnight As Mubarak Supporters Attack

The New Face of Revolution: After Tunisia and Egypt, the World

Challenging America's Pharaoh

Mubarak Defies a Humiliated America, Emulating Netanyahu

Robert Fisk: Obama Administration Has Been Gutless and Cowardly in Dealing with the Mubarak Regime

As Violence Grows In Egypt, U.S. Influence Shrinks
_______________________________________________

Here's a song that fits.

Here's another.