Back Again, Involuntarily

Conditions: Warm! Sunny! Dry!


He Said What?

At the dawn of the Obama administration, we were reassured that things would be different. That the old way of skulduggery and shadows would be over. That the legacy of keeping everything a dark and sinister secret had ended.

Washington - President Barack Obama will try to block the court-ordered release of hundreds of photos showing U.S. troops allegedly abusing prisoners, reversing his position after military commanders warned the graphic images could stoke anti-American sentiment and endanger soldiers.

And so the inevitable slide into the shoes of the previous tyrant begins. The America Obama represented when he was running for president was unafraid of the outcomes of truth, that truth itself was worth anything, any cost it could bring. And that crucially the only way to fix the moral hole America had dug itself was to remove the blindfolds that had enabled the hole to be dug in the first place.

Word of Obama's decision on Wednesday came after top military commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan expressed fears that publicizing the pictures could put their troops in danger. When the Abu Ghraib photos emerged in 2004 of grinning U.S. soldiers posing with detainees, some naked, some being held on leashes, they caused a huge anti-American backlash around the globe, particularly in the Muslim world.

Obama decided he did not feel comfortable with the photos' release, and was concerned it would inflame tensions in Iraq and Afghanistan, put U.S. soldiers at higher risk and make the U.S. mission in those two wars more difficult, according to White House officials.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters that the president was concerned that the photos' release would pose a national security threat, an argument the administration has not made yet in the courts.

"The president does not believe that the strongest case regarding the release of these photos was presented to the court and that was a case based on his concern about what the release would do to our national security," Gibbs said.

What happened to America the brave? What happened to Obama the strong? How did we end up right back in this position? And does anyone really think these photos aren’t going to eventually be released to the public, that eventually they’ll get out somehow? And are people going to be more or less mad when they do so unofficially?

The new case is a contrast to Obama's decision last month to release documents that documents that detailed brutal interrogation techniques used by the CIA against terror suspects. Those also came out in response to an ACLU lawsuit.

A military group said it was relieved Obama would fight the photos' release, adding that soldiers' lives could otherwise be put at risk. Brian Wise, executive Director of Military Families United, said the pictures "will only serve as propaganda to our enemies who will use the images as a recruitment tool to enlist terrorists."

"The president has said that he wants to improve the image of America throughout the world," Wise said in a statement. "This is not the way to accomplish that. These photos represent isolated incidents where the offending servicemen and women have already been prosecuted. There is no good that can come from releasing these photos."

- truthout.org/

What about truth? What about justice? Are these no good anymore? Is that the lesson we’re meant to take away from this decision.

Well frankly, yes. Yes it is.



Film Review: Star Trek 11

Well, here we are. After a number of disappointing attempts by the Next Generation crew to make a decent movie, Paramount has finally pulled the plug and gone back to the well, one more time, So, they’re back. Kirk, Spock, McCoy, etc are back on screen again. As a prequel, obviously, given the age and lack of life, in some cases, of the original actors. So a prequel they have made, in yet another attempt to reboot the franchise, and what better way to reboot the franchise than by having the bad guy travel through time and rewrite history. So now it’s all on, all of the previous films and T.V shows are rendered moot and assigned to a different reality, and we can boldly start again afresh.

Despite this, and because of the large cast of known characters, the film is a series of massive coincidences where future Enterprise crew-members keep bumping into each other. This is annoying, but tolerable. The casting mostly works, Zachary Quinto being the toughest sell. Due to his time playing a psycho on television you can never really erase that from his performance, despite the ears. McCoy however is brought back to life brilliantly by Karl Urban, doing a bang-on job and injecting some well-needed cantankerousness into proceedings. Kirk is fairly, grudgingly, well done. Played as impulsive, plucky and arrogant, childish and without the more calmer tinge Shatner and Shatner’s age brought to the role. But it does mostly work, despite me not wanting it to. Frankly, I’m uneasy about this idea. I prefer a character to belong to an actor, not get passed on like a quality suit. But that’s immature, good roles are immortal, and it seems the crew of the Enterprise may qualify.

They all need something better to do, though. The plot is ridiculous. Near the end we find out that the planet Romulus was somehow surprised by an exploding star and destroyed, despite Spock’s best efforts to stop it. So a surviving Romulan (Eric Bana: wasted) then somehow travels back in time in a mining ship, with Spock (who is, by far, the scariest-looking thing in the film. Lord I hope that was make up), in order to destroy the planet Vulcan. The Enterprise can’t do a thing to stop any of it. All they can do in the end, as Earth is threatened yet again, is just transport Kirk and (young) Spock aboard by themselves who proceed to shoot up the joint, transporting out at the last second. Relying on the transporter to save the day is starting to get a little old. In fact, it’s starting to get a lot old. Director JJ Abrams shakes the camera around for all he’s worth to try and wring some suspense out of a film where, despite all the apparent danger, no one can actually die. Pity, because the sequences looked as though they might have been quite good if we could have seen them.

So, to sum up, it’s a stupid, well acted film, populated with great characters that’s a desperate attempt to restart a franchise yet again. Furthermore, does this film really deserve any credit when it’s simply using characters and their implied chemistry that was forged by other people decades ago? And looking ahead to the next film in 2011, how can you have legacy and familiarity, the things that made the original movies work, when the crew are all kids again? A grudging Three and a Half stars out of Five.


- Peace out