Buh-bye
posted by The Blue Devil @ 12:19 AM
Lakenheath Old Boys
We are all former students at Lakenheath High School and other public schools in East Anglia. We were in school in the 70s and 80s and drank deeply from the well of British culture of those decades - the pints, the telly, and of course the footie!
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Lakenheath Old Boys
We are all former students at Lakenheath High School and other public schools in East Anglia. We were in school in the 70s and 80s and drank deeply from the well of British culture of those decades - the pints, the telly, and of course the footie!
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9 Comments:
What a horrible picture! I cannot imagine Obama ever mugging like that for a picture. Good riddance, Shrub. Let's have some dignity back in the White House.
Absolutely! The sad thing is that when I simply plugged in the phrase "Bush looking stupid," Google spat out pages of these kinds of images. Bush doing a tap dance on the White House steps, Bush mugging while playing African drums, Bush giving Angela Merkel a backrub. It's endless.
I'm skeptical about Barack's ability to affect real social change because I don't think he represents a paradigm shift in thinking; however, it's going to be a breath of fresh air to have someone with a bit of competence and dignity in the office for a change.
I'm streaming the events live from BBC 1 via the Adthe.net website. How about the rest of you?
There's one major contradiction in Obama's line that "America must be a friend to all countries...and is ready to lead."
People around the world don't want U.S. "leadership." They've had bellyload of U.S. imperialism over the past century. They merely want the U.S. to "Go. Away."
Unless they're having a problem, and then they're whining for us to lead them through it. So I think the call for proper and respectful leadership (as opposed to imperialism) is an appropriate goal.
His quote of First Corinthians in his inaugural address really struck me. It's the passage that's usually quoted at weddings (about love enduring all things, bla bla bla) but the bit he quoted was about "putting away childish things". Has there ever been a more childish president than Shrub?
That's a fair point. The problem with imperialism is that disempowers and infantalizes others so that they have to turn to imperial power when things do go wrong. Ironically we have the old "White Man's Burden" now voiced by Barack Obama.
The U.S. is at the same kind of turning point that European empires faced after WWII. The country can either trudge on in the role of world cop in a situation of diminishing economic prospects or it can accept what say Britain did in the 1960s: that people can live well (in fact better) as one country among many in a situation of global partnership.
Did Cheney's arrival in a wheelchair not make you jump up and say "Dr. Strangelove!"
Today's not a day to pour cold water over the sense of hope and renewal that this new Presidency brings with it. It's a day to reflect on what we can do to turn around the 8 years we've been through.
This country needs a galvanizing leader. One to help us pick ourselves up, and dust ourselves off. But also to deflect the shame that I feel that I've spent that time bitching to you guys and to others who felt the same way, but did very little else.
I need this new administration to lead me so that I can wash these years off me for good. That's why I hope that he establishes a truth and reconciliation hearing before Congress, held in the same spirit that the South African's held theirs. They needed closure for the years of Apartheid, we need ours to hear the truth of what happened and to galvanize ourselves to turn ourselves around. I want Cheney, Rummy, and Condi to have a permanent stain of indictment that the Watergate conspirators have/had, so that they live their lives with one eye over their shoulder, like Pinochet had to. I want them to fear that one day, their flight will touch down in some country, and Interpol will be there to frog-march them to the Hague so that their names will always be remembered along with Milosovic, Arkan, Charles Taylor, and that Rwandan bloke they're prosecuting now.
I'm completely with you on the need for Congressional hearings and indictments handed down to the war criminals that have run things for the past eight years. But the Obama team gives me no confidence with their statements that "we're moving forward, not looking back" that they'll lead unless we the people hold their feet to the fire.
Btw, love the Dr. Strangelove reference. I was thinking the same thing!
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