Speaking of Blair - as I was in my last post - and somehow I wish I hadn't mentioned the name, but I recall the false dawn of 1997 when his New Labour replaced the dreadful Tory Party in government in the UK. We were ecstatic. Then came the sad realisation that Blair and his crew were even more right-wing, devious, miliaristic and imperialist than the Conservatives. I know that the election of Barack Obama is of much greater significance than even what we expected from the change of goverment on the UK - it is of fundamental importance to African Americans, to black people worldwide and to the people of the World that an intelligent, well educated and humane person is about to take the most powerful job on the planet: I just hope it will not be a false dawn.

I, for one, am optimistic that it will not be such.

It really is a bit rich for Tony Blair - of all people - to be advising President-Eelect Obama about the importance of peace in the Middle East. The gall of the man - Blair should be in the Hague answering charges for war crimes for the illegal invasion of Iraq, the pointless and tragic involvement of British forces in Afghanistan and his support of the muderous Israeli invasion of Lebanon.