But last night’s Obama commercial was just too much. I was pretty nervous about it to be honest; it seemed like over-kill. But there is a surprisingly large segment of the voting public that still has not made a decision in this election. (Sedaris has a really funny piece on that phenomenon.)

I can’t get over the fact that he did not even mention McCain once. Not once. He’s on the air for 30 minutes and all of his focus is on his plans, the future of the country, the people he wants to serve. It was an astonishingly good piece of film and a true testament to the sort of campaign he has run and the kind of administration he will lead when in office.

Watching it made me realize I had been holding on to something like a superstition: I didn’t want to say he was going to win for fear that he would not win. I was pretty shocked when Mr Bush won both of his elections, and like many people, that probably made me a bit gun-shy.

But if there is any audacity to hope, then I have to say that I am confident he is going to win. God bless America.

It’s a bit early to start talking about the ebbing of American power. Far too early. And I don’t think that Mr Keller has it right that somehow ‘now’ we are seeing a resurgence of authoritarianism; or that this is somehow springtime for Hitler.

And while freakish apologists for Russian expansionism like Dimitry Rogozin aren’t worth their weight in dirt, the man does have a point:

the United States and NATO can use brute force where they want to, and Russia has to abstain from it even if it has to look at thousands of its own citizens being shot? If [that]’s not hypocrisy, then what IS hypocrisy?

International Herald Tribune

(Rogozin, by the way, was pretty chummy with that butcher Mladic, back in the day.)

The insanity of last week’s escalation is still not easy to digest; clearly, the Russians were anticipating something of the kind -

In fact, Pentagon and military officials say Russia held a major ground exercise in July just north of Georgia’s border, called Caucasus 2008, that played out a chain of events like the one carried out over recent days.

New York Times

(I can’t believe Saakashvili didn’t have access to that intelligence; it probably provoked him into taking some kind of action, thinking Putin was trying to bully him. But man, those Russians just completely dominated; nothing could withstand them.)

And so in the midst of that carnage, with the State Department waving its ominous and provacative agreement with the Poles and our idiot President playing nice with the thuggish Chinese government, who among us could not sit shame-faced, wondering who bears the torch - or even a candle - for liberty and democracy? Who can sit and be proud of the blundering, myopic, insipid and craven pile of lies and half-thoughts that our government has passed off as ‘foreign policy’?

Oh, I’m sure there are plenty who can actually. But not me; not me.

I have no connection to Serbia or to that awful war; but I remember Srebenica and the embattled Bosnian 5th Corps; I remember the awful fate of Sarajevo (I remember when the Olympics were there; and I remember when that beautiful city was shelled into rubble because of men like Arkan and Karadzic).

And I remember that it was a joy to see American air power rip Serbian warplanes out of the sky and send their army scurrying for cover, but it was far too little and too late. All those lives were senselessly cast away while we sat and watched, and then again, like so many times before, muttered ‘never again’. Darfur, anyone?

The pro-western government that ostensibly aided in apprehending him will pay a heavy price I think; it’s not like the nationalists in Serbia have just rolled over. Neither, I think, are they a dying breed.

But this is a good day, a happy day; whether or not justice is served, he will not likely ever go free.

In fact, in Iran in 1994,

the intervention of Pope John Paul II and others won a Christian convert a last-minute reprieve, but the man was abducted and killed shortly after his release. Likewise, in 2006 in Afghanistan, a Christian convert had to be declared insane to prevent his execution, and he was still forced to flee to Italy.

Muslim apostacy, unlike many others, is a very, very serious crime, mitigated only by “modern” law.

I guess at the least it will be useful to review and monitor his presentation on Al Jazeera and other networks. In particular, I’d like to know how the Wahhabi Muslims in Saudi Arabia would deal with him - is it actually worse than dealing with just a non-Muslim?

1. The decent from the upper level down to Howard from the Yerba Buena/Moscone complex looks like something out of Logan’s Run. The heterogenous complex of buildings and the panoply of the city beyond - I stopped just before the walkway bridging Howard and stared. I thought, not unhappily, of Trantor.
2. Then the other night some hitler channel show on trains and a long segment on the maglevs. I remember reading about these, as ideas, when I was in high school, in ‘Science Digest’. (I once got beat-up for reading that. Good times.) In excess of 25 MPH the entire train is no longer touching the ground. I still can’t really get my head around that, even with a good appreciation of thermodynamics.
3. And now today, Obama. A black american man is poised to become the President of the United States, the most powerful nation-state human society has ever produced. I know there has been a lot written about that versus the first woman president; Senator Clinton (who I do not admire) aside, I just don’t feel like that is such a big deal. Really. Western democracies have had Thatcher and others, and there are numerous women who have been prime ministers and such in the rest of the world.

   But a non-white American president? It still boggles my mind. Perhaps I’m just too cynical about race and thus easily amazed? (The New York Times’ photo was certainly intentionally black-and-white. Perhaps to evoke a connection with Kennedy? The Sunday Times is usually in color, but maybe I have that wrong.)

Knowing this makes me somewhat less angry about the paper in general; it is not, at least, quite as reactionary and freakish as the San Diego Tribune. But maybe I just need to have a look at the Tribune again.

Anyway, 18 pages into the paper I finally encountered something to do with subjects other than hollywood productions, the wildfires, and the corrupt sheriff’s department: the “Nation & World” section of the paper (four pages, not counting the full-page ads).

Every story is from the AP, so I should direct my ire there I suppose, but at the least I would expect the story about Bush beating the war drum to somehow make it to the front page, ahead of say, “Seinfeld on his new movie and enduring TV series”.

I am not quite so grim in my views that I expect us to go to war with Iran; the Turks are more of a problem at this point, massing their troops on the northern Iraqi border. But I do remain grim in my views of Iraq, and cannot for the life of me find a silver lining anywhere. Neither, apparently, can the AP as they stretch to report something not awful from the hell we have created:

Five corpses were found in the capital [on Thursday] - a low figure compared with the scores found every day several months ago.

The title of the article was Death takes it easier in Iraq.

I disagree. After the Nazis murdered all of the Jews in Warsaw, it would be insane to suggest that things had quieted down because there were fewer shootings. Same in Baghdad: there are just fewer people to kill. The “insurgency” has met with wild success, and we are hanging on with our fingernails, with the help of murderous, hired goons.

Lately I have thought of General Roosevelt, landing on the wrong beach in Normandy: “We’ll start the war from right here!”

So I’m going to just start here, like this. Hope you like it!

After today, consider me gone

Roses have thorns, and shining waters mud
And cancer lurks deep in the sweetest bud
Clouds and eclipses stain the moon and the sun
And history reeks of the wrongs we have done

After today, consider me gone

I’ve spent too many years at war with myself
The doctor has told me it’s no good for my health
To search for perfection is all very well
But to look for Heaven is to live here in Hell

After today, consider me gone

I have some recollection that the call was from the president himself, but I don’t know that for sure. It came from the White House. And it came through and the call was taken in the hospital.

Is Mrs. Ashcroft next to testify?