I'm here on a chess, whisky and photo trip with an old friend who is a Brooksian moderate squish who used to call himself variously 'conservative' and 'libertarian'. He calls me 'right-wing extremist', ideologue' and 'tosser', oh and now 'spawn of Sarah'. Naturally an old man's thoughts in Venice in the spring turn to US politics. My friend voted for Obama so I'm grinding him into dust with every tick of the stock market and every game of chess. That's the local colour. Now a couple of thoughts:

1. I guess that the market will bottom at about 4,800. It's hitting new lows now at 6,645, down about 46% since Obama permanently took the lead in polls last October.

2. Billary must be grinding their teeth that Hillary accepted SecState. That's gagged Bill. His cutting commentary on Obama was a pleasure of the Nomination contest. If the Harvard Law School dismantling of America goes on much longer, then Hillary would be favourite for Nominee in 2011 except that she's part of the wrecking crew.

One of my young American children is learning 'affirmative names' at public school, eg 'Wonderful Wendy', so her generation may be responsive to therapy-speak in power politics:

Is 'Hilarious Hillary' affirmative? Let's hope Vulpine Vladimir feels the same way about relationships.

I've thought for a while that the sheer jaw-dropping awfulness of this mob - Obama, Biden, Hillary, Geithner, Reid, Pelosi. Frank. Rangel and a vast cast of clowns, morons, moronic clowns and clownish morons - is a gift from God. If this can't inoculate America against what they represent, then nothing will.

Hot Air:

Can we get a re-set button ?

It occurs to me that the Administration got their gifts mixed up. The DVD box-set of American Classic Films was meant for Russia, but the re-set button was meant for the UK. 'Re-set, limeys; we believe in relationships, just not the Special Relationship.'

Afterthought: Cute -

The real views of many in Obama administration were laid bare by a State Department official involved in planning the Brown visit, who reacted with fury when questioned by The Sunday Telegraph about why the event was so low-key.
The official dismissed any notion of the special relationship, saying: "There's nothing special about Britain. You're just the same as the other 190 countries in the world. You shouldn't expect special treatment."

You know what, he's right. It isn't Britain and America now that have a relationship. It's British Obamans and American Obamans as opposed to British adults and American adults. The thing is while the Obamans work thru their infantile journeys of self-gratification, self-congratulation, libertinism, nannyism, socialism, authoritarianism, atheism, superstition and the culture of death....the world still turns and Auden's lines on the fall of Rome sound ever more sinister:

The piers are pummelled by the waves;
In a lonely field the rain
Lashes an abandoned train;
Outlaws fill the mountain caves.

Fantastic grow the evening gowns;
Agents of the Fisc pursue
Absconding tax-defaulters through
The sewers of provincial towns.

Private rites of magic send
The temple prostitutes to sleep;
All the literati keep
An imaginary friend.

Cerebrotonic Cato may
Extol the Ancient Disciplines,
But the muscle-bound Marines
Mutiny for food and pay.

Caesar's double-bed is warm
As an unimportant clerk
Writes I DO NOT LIKE MY WORK
On a pink official form.

Unendowed with wealth or pity,
Little birds with scarlet legs,
Sitting on their speckled eggs,
Eye each flu-infected city.

Altogether elsewhere, vast
Herds of reindeer move across
Miles and miles of golden moss,
Silently and very fast.