Obama's Inauguration

The festivities around Obama's inauguration are already receding into the mists, but I've been "challenged" to write something on my blog about the big event, so here goes.

The main thing that strikes me about Obama's election is the aura of unjustified high expectations that came with it. Maybe it's just the contrast with his hated predecessor -- the excellent syntax; the air of calm, unflappable on-top-of-it-ness he exudes; the sense one gets that his positions on various issues, whatever they are, are the products of thought and not just the received obstinacies of a child of privilege; these are all to the good. However welcome the contrasts, though, Obama's supporters have a habit of reading into him whatever they most want to see. I think most of them are destined for disappointment.

To be sure, there have been some encouraging developments so far, beginning with Obama's first order of business: an executive order to shut down the extralegal Guantánamo Bay prison hole as soon as possible, and in no less than a year. Of course, a commitment to constitutional government and basic human rights is the least one should expect from any politician, much less a trained constitutional lawyer. Still questionable, though, is Obama's commitment to impose accountability on the individuals, like Donald Rumsfeld and Alberto Gonzalez, who did so much to turn the U.S. into a torture state run by executive fiat in the first place. (Bush and Cheney themselves are more than likely untouchable.)

Other things are simply not on the table, although I think a lot of the people who voted for Obama think they are. Although I'd love to be pleasantly surprised, I doubt that Obama will ever apply his message of "change" to the parts of America's political system that really need it, like electoral finance, for example. (Rick MacArthur agrees with me.) What exactly were people expecting? Candidates who look like they might rock the imperial boat get weeded out long before they get near the presidency. In the last election, the Republicans rejected a serious conservative like Ron Paul and went ga-ga over, God help us, Sarah Palin. The roots of the sickness run deep.

The real change that Obama represents is not what he plans to do, but the changes that made him possible, going back to Brown v. Board of Education and the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 60s. That's the kind of change, change coming from below because people demand it, that makes a real difference. In the end I expect Obama to be more change's beneficiary than its agent. We'll see.

Whoops

The cell phone has been showing two bars a lot lately. It was becoming increasingly clear that the battery is dying and wouldn't take a charge, so today I finally bought a replacement. Toted it around all day, then finally cracked it open this evening to put it in and get it charged up.

It... doesn't fit. Darn, they sold me the wrong battery. My fault too, though, I never checked. Back it goes tomorrow.

OFTAA Towers Strikes Again!

It's baa-aack... Or more properly, it never went away.

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

The Apartment Building From Heck! Oh OFTAA Towers, without you, where would I be?