Twitter This Commentary In The News: The 'summit meeting' this morning between the Obama administration and congress over the Heath Care Reform bill began with prayer, and the bill is going to need it as the administration asks for Republican cooperation. There's no hope for anything resembling a 'public option' (ie. insurance for the average American who doesn't already have it). Expect the reform package to shrink even more. Fortress America. You know about the shoddily constructed $700 million dollar built-by-slave-labor (Congressional testimony, more from the New York Times) Baghdad embassy.. you've heard tell of the $800 million dollar embassy in Pakistan, now the US has unveiled plans for a $1 BILLION DOLLAR embassy in London, complete with a moat (will it have the complementary crocodiles?). O One thing for certain, the Brits LUV it! "Where's Mayne's design (unchosen) is all openness, courtyards, and curves, the comparatively bunker-like KieranTimberlake proposal looks like it can, in a pinch, be fitted with huge American flags and missile launchers." More from Stephen M. Walt at Foreign Policy:

What troubles me is what this tells us about America's place in the contemporary world, and the tensions between its global ambitions and its willingness to accept the consequences of them. On the one hand, the United States defines its own interests in global terms: there are no regions and few policy issues where we don't want to have a significant voice, and there are many places and issues where we insist on having the loudest one. But on the other hand, we don't think we should get our hair mussed while we tell the world what to do. It's tolerable for the United States to fire drones virtually anywhere (provided the states in question can't retaliate, of course), and Americans don't seem to have much of a problem with our running covert programs to destabilize other regimes that we've decided to dislike. We also aid, comfort and diplomatic support to assorted other states whose governments often act in deeply objectionable ways. But then we face the obvious problem that some people are going to object to these policies, hold us responsible, and try to do what they can to hit back. So we have to build embassies that resemble fortresses... [More]

Argentina has filed a complaint with the United Nations (NYTimes) (IPS) over Britain's plan to begin leasing for oil drilling operations off of the Malvinas Islands, known by the British as the Falkland Islands, an island chain under territorial dispute for years that caused a short war between the respective countries in the 1982 when the advent of steam injection deep water drilling made it possible to drill in the almost Antarctic freezing waters off the island chain. In the oil & gas extraction industry, the vultures stir. The House of Representatives, in an almost unanimous vote, strips the anti-trust exemption from health insurance industry on a vote of 406-19. ...and finally, SeaWorld visitors get more than they paid for (subtitled, "If it were a movie they'd all be cheering the Whale...") Killer whale attacks, kills trainer at Orlando SeaWorld as horrified guests watch I wonder what's going to happen to this abused mammal? Will the victim be blamed? Captain Paul Watson, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society:

"Another Sea Shepherd critic is Sea World, whose enslavement of Orca whales and dolphins has generated hundreds of millions of dollars in profits. And now, once again a Sea World captive – Tilikum - has killed his third human being. I can’t really blame Tilikum. If I was taken from the ocean and plopped into a concrete prison cell for four decades I would be inclined to get a mite angry also. No reasonable person would walk unescorted across the exercise yard of a maximum-security prison, and it is irresponsible to expect a frail human being to turn his or her back on a stressed-out, angry, captive orca - the most formidable predator on the planet. By the way, I’ve met Tilikum. Way back in the 80’s, I toured SeaLand of the Pacific as a special guest of Bob Wright, the owner of the facility. He wanted me to see first hand what his business was all about. I sat by the pool and patted the big Orca on the head. I also put my hand in his mouth and put my palm on his tongue so he could taste that I was not afraid of him. I remember looking into the left eye of that magnificent predator, and what I saw there was resignation and sadness. He was not a happy whale." [In Full]

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