Sorry.

And it's Bayh.

At a site launched this week, humanitarians, foreign policy experts, activists and others are remembering the life of the UN's Sergio Vieira de Mello, and discussing how his legacy and principles might inform a smarter American foreign policy. Jonathan Prentice, who works today as UN Human Rights Adviser in Indonesia, wrote a beautiful piece yesterday on the importance of empathy. An excerpt:

Let's be clear: traditional diplomacy's vital importance is beyond question. But it would be wrong to conflate importance with intelligence sufficient to supplant the need to consult with those most affected by decisions being taken (or not taken).

Intelligent empathy will mean finding effective ways to hear the views of those most affected and bring them into dialogues from which they are typically excluded - and to do this at the outset of a policy initiative, not as an afterthought. It will mean recognising that these individuals must own a process as much as those in power or the international community do. It will require patience and the imagination to find, and find ways of reaching out, to new partners; it will require a willingness to deal with messy assymmetry; and it will require a conviction that the end goal of a just and sustainable outcome rather than a quick victory really is worth striving for – that the pragmatic and the ideal can be united.

Please join us on the site at www.chasingtheflame.org and let us know what you think. It's very much worth a look.

I know this story has been posted elsewhere, but I don't think we can
overestimate how much this says about McCain as a person - and what we
might expect from him as a world leader.

Publicly hoping for the
death of another person is disgusting to me, and would appear to run
counter to the values of voters on the Christian Right who McCain is so
desperately trying to attract. That said, I suppose there's a few
Americans out there who are not at all disturbed by such talk. So
that's not the point.


The story here for me is how, once again, McCain is so incredibly
irresponsible with what he just thinks is witty banter. What sort of
message does it send to Cuba - to the world - that a man who could very
well be the next president of the United States wants another world
leader dead?


The media loves McCain because he's apparently a
straight-shooter.... that he says what he thinks. Well, that's only a
good thing when what's being shot from the hip is well-thought and
responsible. Heck, if this is is "straight talk," I'd rather have lame,
poll-tested, base-targeting Bushspeak.


That McCain actually hopes Castro will die soon is very
unfortunate. That he thinks it's funny is sad. That he would say so
publicly is just plain irresponsible.

In the end, I hope it is this very type of crap that will show voters
that the guy is just too instable to have his proverbial finger on the
button.