Is it Me..?

OK... a change from the bad politics of governments and nations to the politics of relationships.

When did "I'm totally ignoring you... nananananana" become a legitimate or even vaguely simian way of ending a relationship between two "mature" adults, however burgeoning.

So I met this guy, on the internet yes, but a nice guy. We date a few times. Not just date, but great dates. Stuff like a museum on Sunday morning followed by brunch at the museum cafe. Dinner at a great hole in the wall (literally) restaurant followed by a moonlit walk in Santa Fe Plaza... much smooching and hand-holding. A dinner at his place, followed by hot tubs under the starlit, mountain scraped skies... that sort of thing... you know?

Then...

Nothing!

A few cursory replies to some emails and pleasantries then... nothing, no replies, phone return calls...

Nothing!

I mean...

Nothing!

WTF!

Is that even human!?

OK he's just not that into me, I get it ... and he's not exactly George Clooney but really. When did men get to be such cowards.... am I wrong am I naive??

Is it me..?

Oh So Many Things!

As an old fashioned Democratic Socialist, I am both heartened and slightly thrilled by events in Moscow and Europe over the last few days. America, with its withering tolerance of intellectualism, even in the best of times, would find it difficult to understand the significance of Garry Kasparov's arrest yesterday.

Russian premier Vladimir Putin was yesterday confronted with a genuine popular revolt. About 2,000 opposition demonstrators gathered in Pushkin Square, defying an official ban on their meeting and threats of arrest. It was the largest-ever anti-Putin rally in the Russian capital.

The man who was supposed to lead it, Garry Kasparov - Russia's former world chess champion - was detained as soon as he emerged from his taxi. Driven off to a Moscow court in a police van, he emerged defiant, during a break in proceedings, to tell about a dozen supporters that in its response to the protest 'the régime showed its true colours'. He was later fined 1,000 roubles - the equivalent of about £20 - and freed.

Guardian, April 15, 2007

And then there's Paul Wolfowitz. One of the architects of the Iraq invasion and a pillar of the Project for the New American Century is at the middle of yet another scandal. Wolfowitz's job as president of the World Bank was hanging by a thread this weekend after a concerted effort by European ministers to shame him into resigning. Governor Bush, whose support of the World Bank president echoes his shameless promotion of favored cronies in Washington, is in stark contrast to the sentiment expressed around the world as Wolfowitz came under pressure to resign from the Washington-based organization.

Whither Iraq? Bush's Search for Mini-Me Fails as Violence Kills Iraqi Parlimentarians

"Three retired generals approached by the White House about a new high-profile post overseeing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and reporting directly to the president have rejected the proposed post, leaving the administration struggling to find anyone of stature willing to take it on."

The Guardian - April 12, 2007

Not only has Governor Bush's "Executive Search" for a quasi-Commander-in-Chief seem to be stalled but the audacity of the attacks in Iraq seem to be growing as the much vaunted "Surge" enters its second month.

One has to ask the obvious question.

"If Bush is not the Commander-in-Chief, who is?"

Much was made in Bush's first 21 months about his Hands-Off, I'm on Vacation, attitude towards running the most powerful country in the world. Then, as he is fond of saying "911 changed everything".

Now it seems that Bush has even grown weary of striding around in a flight suit, "I'm the Decider" persona and is seeking a real man to take over what is arguably and constitutionally his most important role as Chief Executive; running the military at the executive level in a time of conflict.

Washington must be gnashing his wooden teeth and spinning in his grave.

At the same time, the only tangible outcome of the invasion of Iraq, the democratically elected parliament, suffered its greatest blow after a suicide bomber executed the most brazen attack yet on the country's new democratic institutions, detonating a bomb that killed at least eight people including three MPs, inside the much heralded Green Zone.

And yet, while Bush postures about the Congress' passing of the Emergency War Funding Act, by saying that it will mean that more soldiers will serve longer and have less time between deployments, it transpires that this situation is one that will come to pass regardless, because of the Army's estimates of needed troop levels to make any difference in Baghdad, or indeed Iraq, in this latest "surge" of folly.