Only the perverse hide or refuse such truth ...

One of the most notable aspects of the remarkable -- and inspiring -- revolutionary events in the Middle East is how most (though not all) of the villains at the heart of the depicted drama -- the Evil, Dictatorial Regimes -- are and have long been such close and cherished allies of the United States. That fact isn't much acknowledged in American media narratives, but it's certainly been long and well-known in that part of the world. And the true faces of our allies are now being exposed in a way that not even we can look away from. Imagine if Americans lived under a brutal, repressive, dictatorial regime for decades, and one foreign nation devoted huge amounts of its resources to empowering and propping up that regime for years. Might that generate some intense hostility toward that foreign power?

Obama and the Nobel Peace Prize ...

TPM has an interpretation of Obama's Nobel Peace Prize that helps with my reaction that isn't this too soon? That Obama actually talks to other nations, is not an embarrassment and has command of the English language are some of the things that I like about him:

This is an odd award. You'd expect it to come later in Obama's presidency and tied to some particular event or accomplishment. But the unmistakable message of the award is one of the consequences of a period in which the most powerful country in the world, the 'hyper-power' as the French have it, became the focus of destabilization and in real if limited ways lawlessness. A harsh judgment, yes. But a dark period. And Obama has begun, if fitfully and very imperfectly to many of his supporters, to steer the ship of state in a different direction. If that seems like a meager accomplishment to many of the usual Washington types it's a profound reflection of their own enablement of the Bush era and how compromised they are by it, how much they perpetuated the belief that it was 'normal history' rather than dark aberration.

I guess I'm jaded but I still feel that the reward is being given before the performance. Then we just 'hope' that the performance follows. Not unlike the rest of political and corporate structure in these here --no-health-care, decimated-retirement funds, increasing joblessness, increasingly homelessness for the not-rich and not-elite-- United States.

Is Bush's special friend getting tired of him ...

BBC News reports that Saudi King Abdullah refers to the "US presence in Iraq as an illegitimate occupation."

And what fiction is the US giving out today?

"The United States is in Iraq at the request of the Iraqis and under a United Nations mandate. Any suggestion to the contrary is wrong," said National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe.

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Saudi: US Iraq presence illegal