Hopeful but not audacious enough!

This seems to sum up US President Barack Obama’s much vaunted speech to the Muslim world.

Comments and analysis from the Arab street as reflected on the screens of al-Jazeera, CNN and BBC suggest that while Obama’s message is generally welcome, skepticism abounds.

This is mainly due to a bitter price paid by many in the Muslim world by trusting American governments more than necessary. The other is as a result of knowing that actions speak louder than words – and that as yet Obama’s speech contained no more than articulate sounds.

What is intriguing though, is that while global anticipation of ground-breaking decisions to “mend Muslim fences” heightened expectations; it’s the re-affirmation of neoconservative rationale that seemed at odds with his “re-imagination”.

As much as he sounded like a Sunday school preacher or to be closer to his global Muslim audience, like an Imam, Obama retained a military quality.

Almost a month has passed since the Senate Foreign Relations committee approved Harold Koh to serve as Legal Advisor (head lawyer) at the State Department. As Dean of Yale Law School and an expert in international law with a long track record of human rights work, he is the perfect person to help our nation move forward with international legal affairs.
However, despite strong support from fair-minded lawyers all across the political spectrum (including lawyers he opposed in his inspirational work to help Haitian refugees in the early 1990s - see
Yale Alumni Magazine
Koh's nomination is bottled up and needs your help.
Senators Collins, Snowe and Voinovich are Republican senators whose support is needed to bring a vote on Koh's nomination.
Would you mind taking 5 minutes right now to help Harold? Here is a phone script you can use:
Phone script

Here is contact info:
* Collins:

BANGKOK, Thailand -- Burma's military regime wants the world's most famous political prisoner, Aung San Suu Kyi, to confess why she allegedly broke the law to shelter an American Mormon who "had a vision," sneaked into her mildewing villa, and made a video.

Burma's military, which seized power in a 1962 coup, regards Mrs. Suu Kyi as a repeat offender who allegedly provided illegal hospitality to the same American, John Yettaw, five months ago without her being punished.

The current trial of Mrs. Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, hinges on her association with Mr. Yettaw, 53, from Falcon, Missouri.

Police said Mrs. Suu Kyi and her two female aides, who live in her two-story villa, fed Mr. Yettaw after he emerged, dripping wet, at her door at 11 p.m. on May 3 from his swim across Inya Lake which laps her spacious garden.

Voluntarily allowing Mr. Yettaw to then spend two nights at her home would defy Burma's law against permitting any foreigner to remain unregistered at any address overnight.

Her lawyers reportedly said she asked him to leave soon after he arrived.