Segacs's World I Know

Posts Tagged ‘dubya’

It’s official: Barack Obama was sworn in today to the office of the President of the United States.

I’m normally a cynic, but even I’m finding it difficult not to be a little idealistic today. Obama has a real gift for oratory and for inspiration, and you could feel the change in the air watching the whole thing.

Sure, expectations for Obama are so high that he has nowhere to go but down. And sure, the US and indeed the world are in messes from which it’s going to take an awfully long time to climb out from.

But the much-maligned, misunderestimated Dubya was perhaps the most hated, divisive president of modern times. Obama’s inauguration today was met with a worldwide sigh of relief, and of optimism for things to come.

Anyone would be better than Bush, right?

Maybe that low standard is the reason why this year’s field of primary candidates – both Democrat and Republican – seems almost more devoid than ever of anyone worth voting for. It’s not as though I’m naive enough to expect inspiration, integrity or brilliance. I’d just like to see some real choices, for a change. And I certainly don’t envy the choices of our neighbours to the south. Is it just me, or does anyone else feel that Stephen Colbert would have made a better president than any of the “real” candidates currently running? (The Democrats missed a golden opportunity for media coverage on that one…)

Anyway, this is just my time to revive my election pledge from the last election: No election coverage until next September. None, nada, zilch.

That means no daily analysis of the primaries, no odds-making, and no commentary on Hillary Clinton’s hair. (Though if something really out-there happens, I reserve the right to mention it.)

I hope you’ll, once again, find it a better blog because of it.

The Canadian blogosphere is abuzz today about Barack Obama’s gaffe:

U.S. Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama has been trying to burnish his foreign policy credentials. So it didn’t help when he called Canada’s leader a “president” during a debate Tuesday.

Asked what he’d do about the North American trade deal, Obama said it needs changes, so he’d “immediately call the president of Mexico (and) the president of Canada.”

A mistake worthy of… Dubya Bush.

To some people, this might indicate that Obama should spend more time reading up on the governmental systems of the different countries of the world, particularly the US’s neighbours.

To me, it just indicates that he clearly hasn’t heard Joe’s rant.

They just keep flocking to the race to succeed lame-duck Bush. The latest to throw his hat into the ring? Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, rising star in the Democratic party and many people’s Great Black Hope.

It’s still early for analysis, but this piece in The Independent has an interesting – if perhaps a bit optimistic – perspective on how things might play out.

Nicholas Roach of Brossard, who writes in a letter published in today’s Gazette:

U.S. ambassador David Wilkins is mistaken when he assumes all Canadians would be offended if our prime minister’s name were placed in the same sentence as Kim Jong Il and Osama bin Laden. I believe that it is insulting to put Kim Jong Il and Osama bin Laden’s names in the same sentence as Stephen Harper’s and George W. Bush’s.

Why? Because Kim Jong Il’s country is not destroying the planet’s environment and bin Laden is not in bed with Saudi oil anymore. They are not the reason future generations will die from global catastrophes. Future generations will hail North Korea for its lack of energy use and bin Laden for fighting imperialists who mess up the environment.

Yes, just as future generations today hail Adolf Hitler for tackling that pesky problem of overpopulation in Europe.

Syria wants to talk with the United States:

“Syria is ready for dialogue with the United States based on respect and mutual interest,” Mekdad told Reuters in an interview. He said the solution to the crisis lies in an immediate ceasefire brokered by international powers, followed by diplomacy.

The United States hasn’t lifted a finger here, but Syria has to be dismayed at the severe ass-kicking that its proxy, Hezbollah, is receiving at the hands of the Israelis.

Syria will posture and bluster a lot about “international powers” and try to get the U.S. to commit to a deal that will benefit nobody but Syria. Nobody’s expecting much to come of this.

But none of that matters. Syria is blinking first.

Israel was never prepared to launch another war with Syria, and the United States isn’t too keen on getting entangled in another military conflict. But Baby Assad is obviously taking Bush’s rhetoric seriously enough to call for dialogue. If this has been a giant bluff, it’s clearly working – at least as far as Syria is concerned.

Iran? I wouldn’t hold my breath.

Everyone’s making a really big deal about the remarks that Bush made at the G8 summit without realizing his microphone was on, and the fact that he *gasp!* swore!

Bush replied: “See, the irony is what they need to do is get Syria to get Hizbollah to stop doing this shit and it’s over.”

Gee, you think?

Some people find Bush’s candor refreshing. Others seem to have a more realistic take:

No one in the media seems to notice (or maybe they notice but they don’t care) that this isn’t candid, frank or dramatic. It’s the kind of simplistic blowhard chitchat my relatives exchange during ‘NFL Today’ commercials. You know… just git ‘em to do it. Git someone to git ‘em to do it.

Is that the best Bush can do?

My question exactly.

There’s been a long-running debate among observers of Dubya as to whether he really is that dumb, or if his “plain-spokenness” is partly an act to help him win votes. Certainly his aversion to words with more than two syllables is nothing new.

But if, even off-camera, Bush’s understanding about the political situation in the mideast really is that oversimplified, then I think we all ought to be more than a bit concerned. Even if he was, in this case, perfectly right in what he said, it still has that “duh” quality to it that’s so pervasive in so much of what Bush says even publicly.

This afternoon, while baking in the hot sun waiting to get into Parc Jean-Drapeau to see Bon Jovi, we received a panicked phone call from a friend whose entire family lives in Israel. “They’re attacking Haifa!” She calmed down a bit after speaking to her family and being assured that everyone was safe, but the fingernail-biting nervous tension didn’t exactly dissipate.

Nor, I fear, will it for a while.

To say that the matzav has heated up would be putting it mildly. Nobody was injured in the Haifa attack, but sadly, in the North, people weren’t so lucky; rocket attacks killed 2 people and injured at least 120. Meanwhile, Israel is attacking Beirut, targeting Hezbollah stronghold areas. Israel may be after Hezbollah, but it’s Lebanon and Israel that are now engaged in what can only be called war.

Even as things escalate with the Palestinians, Hezbollah, and Lebanon, it’s not ending there. Hezbollah’s primary backers, Syria and Iran, are dancing close to the flame as well. Iran is threatening to retaliate if Israel strikes Syria. Meanwhile, Israel claims it has intelligence that Hezbollah is trying to transfer the kidnapped Israeli soldiers to Iran, which, of course, Iran is denying. The chances that Syria and Iran could get dragged into this mess are looking high.

Nor can Israel count on the unqualified backing of the United States. Bush is giving his cautious support even while Condi Rice is urging “restraint” – an all-too-familiar ploy that will end with Israel being falsely painted as the aggressor even by its allies.

Tonight, my friend’s family is doing the only thing they can: bunking down, biting nails, and waiting. Millions of Israelis and their friends and loved ones around the globe are doing the same thing tonight, and, I fear, for far too long to come.

This isn’t a song and dance about how war is never the answer. I’m not urging anyone to sit down and sing kumbaya. Israel needs to defend itself, and everyone here knows I support her actions 100%. But I can’t help the fear, the trepidation, the sense of dread. Unlike Israel’s enemies, who go straight into every war joyously envisioning wiping the “Zionist entity” off the map, Israel has never and will never go into war happily. Every war fought by Israel has been because there was no other choice, and every decision made by the Israeli government primarily considers the safety and security of the Israeli people. All I can do is echo the statements made in editorials and on blogs around the world: Israel will win because there is no other choice.

But I can’t help being afraid.

Love Castro. Hate Bush. Be popular. At least that seems to be the general idea for one soccer star:

Argentine soccer hero Diego Maradona promised Cuban President Fidel Castro on Thursday he would be at the front of an anti-Bush march in Argentina next week.

[ . . . ]

“I think Bush is a murderer. … I’m going to head the march against him stepping foot on Argentine soil,” Maradona said, appearing on Cuban television with Castro.

“I promised the ‘Comandante’ that I would do it and I will,” the 44-year-old football legend said, referring to Castro.

“For me he is a god,” Maradona said of the 79-year-old left-wing Cuban leader, whom he considers a friend and a father figure who helped him kick drugs.

Oh, get a room, you two!

Somehow I think these guys would tend to disagree with Maradona’s assessment of the ‘Commandante’:

The 40-member National Chorus of Cuba, which specializes in patriotic songs about the glories of the Revolution, is touring Canada. Twenty members just defected en masse in Toronto.

But of course, what would they know? Unlike Maradona, they’re actually Cuban.

There’s nothing better than satire done right. This week’s headline: Bush Nominates First-Trimester Fetus To Supreme Court:

WASHINGTON, DC — In a press conference Monday, President Bush named a 72-day-old gestating fetus as his nominee to fill the Supreme Court seat that opened following the death of Chief Justice William Rehnquist.

“Already, this experienced and capable embryo has demonstrated during his or her in utero existence a deep commitment to the core principles of the Constitution,” Bush said. “It is with great pride that I nominate this unborn American patriot to the highest court in the land.”

If confirmed by Congress, the bean-sized vertebrate would be the nation’s first prenatal Supreme Court justice.

I bet if Bush could find a way to do it, he would.