Help wanted

Dear Barack,

What is going on with your appointment of advisers and subordinates - or at least the rumors about whom you will appoint?

Supporter of the Israeli rightwing fringe Rahm Emauel!?

Supporter of the Hindu fascist movement, or "Vedic Taliban", Sonal Shah!?

Eviscerator of civil liberties Jane Harman!?

Ideologue of a patently and proven-to-be false economic theory Robert Ruben, and implementer of that theory (leading to great destruction in Eastern Europe and Russia) Lawrence Summers!?

War criminal (as history will view him; remember, history will not be written by an American proponent of today's conventional wisdom) Robert Gates!?

Pro-Middle East destabilization, anti-Palestinian (hence anti-the-views-on-the-conflict-held-by-95%-of-the-world) Dennis Ross!?


Change and hope, eh? Say it ain't so, Barack, please say it ain't so.