Obama - Real Change or Status Quo?

Barack Obama is generating hope in the hearts of many - in America, in Europe and all around the world - that, if elected president, he will bring about a real change in American policy that will lead to a greater chance for peace and justice in our troubled world.

But American policy in some areas is so entrenched that there is some doubt whether any real or significant change is possible. By his own words, he is standing firm with the current stance of solidarity with Israel, and belligerance towards Iran.

Will Obama be brave enough to alter the premises of American policy, does he even question their fundamental correctness? Will he be a real choice for change or will he simply be the "lesser of two evils"?



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Obamania in Germany - Obama Wows the Germans

Barack Obama made a stirring speech in Berlin at the Teirgarten Park. The crowds were rapturous, and clearly got what they were waiting for. It's estimated that the crowds numbered about 200,000.

Obama appeared pretty majestic and presidential, drawing criticism from some quarters that he was being presumptuous - making a presidential-like address when he's still only a presidential candidate.

Be that as it may, he wowed the Berlin crowd that was in attendance. His speech, while lacking in details, was passionate and his delivery was pretty well flawless. What a change to see and hear someone like him, in contrast to the bumbling and mumbling style of Bush (when he's at his best).

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Bill Clinton Announces Support for Obama

Bill Clinton has announced that he will support Obama in the presidential race. This is not surprising as the time for a unified front for the Democrats cannot be delayed.

There will be a joint rally coming Friday, held by Obama and Hillary Clinton. Husband Bill will be absent as he will be on a trip to Europe.

It will be interesting to see what slot Hillary Clinton may fit into. But the bitter fight she put up for the nomination may have alienated a large number of Obama supporters. And it may be counter-productive for her to be Obama's running mate. Many other positions are of course viable.

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Obama Is Not Pathetic

Barack Obama's wife does not find him pathetic, although that is what she seems to have told Barbara Walters on the TV morning show The View. She told Walters that she did not want him to be president and found him to be "sweet and pathetic".

Spokesman for Obama said what she had actually said was that Obama was "sweet, empathetic".

We shall see, in the course of time, which epithet will best describe him. Some people feel that in his victory speech to the US-Israeli lobby group (AIPAC) in Washington he was neither sweet nor empathetic, at least not to the Palestinians.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat was unhappy with Obama. "His remarks on Jerusalem cast doubt over the chances of peace," Erakat said.

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Hillary Clinton Won the Battle But Losing the War

As many have predicted, the Puerto Rican support for Hillary Clinton was huge, and she had a major victory. She has indeed won that battle, but Barack Obama is winning the war, and they both know it.

Despite her declarations that she will not give up, even after the primaries are over, the clear signs are that it would be a futile exercise, wasting money and resources. Even her husband Bill said ominously in South Dakota that this might be the last day of his campaign involvement. I think Hillary should take the strong hint there.

A graceful acknowledgment of defeat and exit from the race is still achievable. The more she delays, the more pathetic she will look.

Obama is understated, but he is clearly confident of final victory for the Democratic nomination.

Tonight (Tuesday) night will be the end of the primaries. Hillary Clinton has had a doggedly full run. When it's time to go, it's time to go.

Obama's Stance for Talks with Cuba Supported by Cuban Dissidents

Obama's Stance for Talks with Cuba Supported by Cuban Dissidents

Barack Obama said the U.S. has to talk to its enemies. He said he would lift restrictions on family travel and remittances to Cuba. Against this, Hillary Clinton is at one with John McCain, opposing any change.

A group known as Women in White, relatives of political prisoners in Cuba, has endorsed Obama's position. They hope a change in policy will help their relatives in Cuba.

Cuba has a new leader, though also a Castro. Surely the old bogeyman (in Americans' eyes), Fidel, should be relegated to history. Times 'a changing. A new U.S. president with a new policy and new hopes - will that not lead to a better world for all?

Musicians in Havana

Bush Hails Victory in Iraq | Logic and Reason in Politics

Five years ago Iraq was invaded by the US. President Bush marked the fifth anniversary of the invasion with a speech hailing victory in Iraq. Politics is a power-game, but does logic and reason play any part in it?

According to Barack Obama, the answer is no. He has said the invasion was on ideological grounds and not based of reason and facts.

Except for the die-hard, it is now accepted that the "fact" of Iraq possessing an arsenal of weapons of mass destruction is a fiction, a factoid used emotionally to engender fear and support for launching an attack that was bound to and has caused many Iraqi and American lives.

The dictionary definition of "factoid" is "an invented fact believed to be true because of its appearance in print". I would add also: appearance in the media and public speeches.

Politicians often resort to factoids. They expect something to be believed because they say it is so, and surprisingly because they have said it many accept the factoid to be a fact.

Bush says that the terrorists who murder the innocent in the streets of Baghdad want to murder the innocent in the streets of American cities. Fact or factoid? Were there terrorists in Iraq before (or even after) the invasion?

"Defeating this enemy in Iraq will make it less likely we will face this enemy here at home," he also says. Fact or factoid? Was there an Iraqi enemy massing to fight in the streets of American cities?

And victory in Iraq - that may be the mother of all factoids.

Just Deserts for Spitzer's Girl Ashley Dupre (aka Kristen)?

Eliot Spitzer has fallen from grace and resigned as governor of New York. He was outed as being embroiled in using the services of high-priced call girls from the prostitution ring the Emperors Club, in particular with a girl called Kristen. Kristen has now been identified as Ashley Dupre. What of her now?

While the mighty have fallen, Ashley Dupre seems now to be soaring into the limelight and may well be coming into the riches that she must have been dreaming of. Magazines are lining up to make lucrative offers, some of which she will probably take up.

At 22, Ashley Dupre appears to have come from a broken home, which she left at age 17. Her singing in the shower so impressed her then musician boyfriend that she started touring and singing professionally. Yet clearly she had not quite made a success of her musical career, and somehow joined the ranks at the Emperors Club.

Is she any different from thousands of her age, who think anything goes to make a living? In America moral values are not what they used to be. Everyone can define his or her own morality.

Dupre says she does not want to be thought of as a monster. Yet will she redeem herself, or will she seize the opportunity to reap the riches that are awaiting her, justifying her decision within her own self-defined moral values?

What should be her just deserts?

Ashley Dupre

BWE panelists Paul F. Tompkins and Jessica St. Clair act out Governor Spitzer's resignation speech
...the way it should've been.

The State of the Union and President Bush

The actual state of the union and what President Bush has to say about it are two different things. In his opening remarks, he said the state of the union has never been stronger. Is that really true?

In the course of his presidency, America has gone from crisis to crisis. The nation has been plunged into wars in far off foreign lands. Iraq has been destroyed on the empty rhetoric of “weapons of mass destruction”. Hundreds of thousands have been killed. American soldiers have sent on a brutalising mission. Abu Ghraib has sent disturbing images around the world of a nation that does not practise what it preaches.

A new term, “enemy combatant”, which still has no real legal meaning has been coined to deprive prisoners of war of their rights and of due process, and even American citizens could be held as an enemy combatant.

Torture has been redefined. There is no such thing as American torture. It's only practised by foreign nations.

People have been kidnapped and sent to secret prisons in foreign countries by way of extraordinary rendition, beyond the control of any court of law.

The economy is in or is facing imminent recession. Many have lost their homes in the recent so-called sub-prime mortgage fiasco. The ordinary American has not been better off in terms of social security or medical care.

American power has never been stronger, but some might say that he state of the union is in a shambles.