CONDOLEEZZA RICE -- UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF STATE

One of the most remarkable persons in the Bush Administration has been Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. In my opinion, she has done an incredibly admirable job as Secretary of State and deserves to be praised and celebrated.

As the first female African-American Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice has tirelessly traveled around the world in her mission t broker peace and attend meeting and I am very proud of the work she has done.

She has never complained about anything, she has always maintained a dignified front and has given her all to the work she has been entrusted with. That is my perception from the sidelines anyway. And I am very sure it is an accurate observation of Condoleezza Rice.

President George W. Bush and the rest of his honchos, on the other hand, have been nothing but disappointment. President Bush's people, especially the utterly evil and remorseLESS Dick Cheney, have mostly been a curse and a bane to the world at large. All semblance of morality and accountability has been flushed down the toilet not only in the US (where the woeful state of of the corporate entities clearly bear this out!) -- but the trickle effect around the world has been profound.

Hope, as always, springs eternal, and the world again looks to the United States for leadership and it looks like great promise is held by Barack Obama!

(Photo of Condoleezza Rice by Stephen Crowley for New York Times)
(Illustration of Condoleezza Rice by Nathan Fox for New York Times)

CNN GOES TASTELESS

Oh dear, CNN's "Tour of Prison reveals last days of Saddam Hussein" has to be the most tasteless thing that CNN has ever aired. The tone of the segment shown on TV is a mocking one -- mocking Saddam Hussein.

In Asia, we do not mock the dead. We do talk about the wrongs that people have done but that is about it. The gravity of the insurmountable evil that resided within Saddam Hussein, unfortunately, does not carry the same weight around the world as it does in the self-delusional Bush administration. Bush's invasion of Iraq (READ: HALLIBURTON's EXPANSION) is seen by the rest of the world as a violation of a sovereign nation. And now the Iraqi debacle has caused many innocen Iraqis to be killed and murdered as they get caught up in the swirl of viciousness from the lethal cocktail of patriotism and religion. Let's face it, the Iraqi's in the insurgency are neither intellectually sound or superior and their world view is a different one from that of most western-skewed intellectuals around the world.

CNN has badly misread how people are going to react to the CNN segment, which is in very bad taste.