Binghamton tragedy, doubled

There's an astonishing response by the Binghamton chief of police, and city DA, after this week's massacre.

The first 911 calls came in at 10:30 a.m., Police Chief Joseph Zikuski said at a news conference. The callers spoke broken English, and it took dispatchers two minutes to sort out what was happening, he said.

The first patrol cars arrived at 10:33 a.m.

Officers were on the scene five minutes before a wounded receptionist called police to report a gunman in the building, Zikuski said. Police had earlier said it was that call that brought them to the immigration center.

A SWAT team entered the building 43 minutes after the first call to police.

When police got there, the gunfire had stopped, so they believed there was no ''active gunman'' in the center and decided to wait for the SWAT team to arrive, Zikuski said.

He compared the scene with the 1999 Columbine High School shooting in Colorado, in which 15 people died, including the two teenage gunmen.

''At Columbine, there were numerous shots ringing out and law enforcement stood by,'' he said. ''I was quite frankly horrified when I knew that.''

Zikuski said his officers would have gone into the building if shots had still been flying.

''If you arrive on the scene -- the first two to four guys -- and there's an active shooter, they enter,'' he said.

Pressed on why police didn't go into building, Zikuski said information they were getting from the receptionist was still uncertain enough to warrant caution.

''He was dead. We didn't know it,'' Zikuski said. ''If there's a bunch of cops laying on the floor shot trying to rescue somebody else, it's not going to help anybody.''

When reporters repeated the line of questioning, Mollen jumped in to defend the police chief.

''I don't think it's fair to ask Chief Zikuski to respond to hypotheticals,'' he said, adding that there would be a full review and report on the shooting, including the police response.

"If there's a bunch of cops laying on the floor shot trying to rescue somebody else, it's not going to help anybody."

For cops to wait outside a building because they don't hear gunshots, not knowing if people are bleeding to death or if a shooter is still on the loose, is ridiculous.

It's precisely the job of cops to risk their lives every day trying to rescue other. That's why we honor them.

Michelle Obama vs. Diana vs. Jackie

I never understood why people were gaga over Diana; maybe because I have no conception of nor do I care about how different she was from past British royalty.

For me, that always seemed more a deficiency in her predecessors than any notable distinction in her.

Besides which, Diana always seemed so much more about herself, her clothes, her loveless marriage, then any sort of real issues.

Unlike Michelle Obama, as the Guardian's Carole Cadwalladr pointed out this week:

There was a strange stillness last week in Islington's Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Language College on the last day of term. It wasn't just that the school had finished a day early and it was a training day for staff and a revision day for pupils soon to take their GCSEs. Nor even that the sun had finally decided to shine for the start of the Easter holidays.

It was that, 24 hours earlier, an event so surprising and extraordinary had happened in this very ordinary-looking London school that the few people milling around its lobby had the air of having experienced some freak natural phenomenon - a hurricane, perhaps, or a tidal wave or, as actually happened, a visit by the first lady of the United States, Michelle Obama.

At the culmination of the Obamas' first visit to Britain, she visited the school on Thursday and, the next day, staff and students all seemed to be suffering some sort of post-traumatic international celebrity icon syndrome. In the hallway, I met Nuria Afonso, 15, and Shereka Phipps, 15, both wearing the dazed expressions of people who still can't quite believe what has just happened.

"She hugged us!" said Nuria. "Can you believe that? She. Hugged. Us! It was amazing. Amazing." ...

Newspapers on both sides of the Atlantic endlessly commented on her clothes, her shoes, her fashion choices, the "controversial" blue plaid cardigan that she wore to visit the school, even though the only remotely "controversial" aspect of it was that certain female, waspish fashion writers decided not to like it and, which, according to Google, has so far drawn 1,925 news articles all its own, including one from the Huffington Post, which gave it the inevitable moniker "Argyle-gate".

And yet, what the fashion commentators nearly missed was that the visit to the school not only produced the most emotional moments of her entire visit, but that the speech was also a profoundly moving, very personal statement of her political purpose and the new role that she is still in the process of creating as the president's wife.

It was the only speech she made during her trip, and the school had, apparently, been deliberately chosen: girls-only, inner-city, its pupils, of whom 20% are the children of refugees or asylum seekers, speak a total of 55 different languages and 92% of whom are from a black or minority background. It was her first speech, she pointed out, as first lady on a foreign visit; she mentioned it several times, in fact, as if she was having problems believing it herself. And then, carefully, using personal stories and anecdotes, she drew parallels between her life and those of the girls in front of her, at times appearing close to tears.

"I want you to know that we have very much in common. For nothing in my life's path would have predicted that I would be standing here as the first lady of the United States of America. There was nothing in my story that would land me here. I wasn't raised with wealth or resources of any social standing to speak of...

"If you want to know the reason why I'm standing here, it's because of education. I never cut class. Sorry I don't know if anybody here is cutting class. I never did. I loved getting As. I liked being smart. I loved being on time. I loved getting my work done. I thought being smart was cooler than anything in the world." ...

Both Nuria and Shereka closely followed the US presidential election and said that, even before her visit, Michelle Obama had inspired them both, girls born thousands of miles away, personally.

"You can relate to her story. She said, 'I'm a working-class girl.' And more or less all of us are working-class. She made it. And it made me think: if she can do it, so can I."

For a lesson in how to empower young women, you could do no better than to listen to Michelle Obama's speech in its entirety. The news bulletins picked up its highlights, the point where, very close to tears, she said: "When I look at a performance like this, it just reminds me that there are diamonds like this all over the world. All of you are jewels. You are precious and you touch my heart. And it's important for the world to know that there are wonderful girls like you all over the world." ...

But for all the hugs, Michelle Obama is no Diana and it was her visit to the school, and more particularly the speech that she delivered there, that thwarted the attempt by the Anglo-American press to reduce her Democratic politics and feminist principles into nothing more than a fashion cypher whose sole purpose is to have her clothing choices beatified by their mutual consent.

She's as much an ideologue as her husband and, while Barack Obama is having to make hard choices in an ever-worsening economic climate, what the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson speech demonstrated is how Michelle Obama has become the political yin to his yang; the up to his down.

Really, the dumbing-down of our society occurs when blogs like the Huffington Post and papers like the Washington Post choose to feature breathless pieces on Michelle Obama's outfits or lack thereof, rather than pay real attention to what she says and does while wearing clothes.

One of the great things about the Obamas is how focused they are on substance; aware of style and symbols, but always more interested in reality.

I think it's slowly starting to dawn on people around the world that they're a once-in-a-lifetime political phenomenon, not because of the glitz or celebrity-like coverage, but because of who they really are.

They're no Kennedys--they're much better.

AP photo

Obama's America vs. Old Europe

A.A. Gill has a pitch-perfect piece in the Times that captures what President Obama's visit to Europe has been all about.

IT’S invariably the little things, the unconsidered, off the cuff, in passing, unrehearsed things that snag our attention, and seem to be telling of the bigger things. In the case of Barack Obama’s first visit to London and the Group of 20 conference to save the endangered habitat of bankers and real estate salesmen, it was the handshake with the bobby that seemed to be emblematic. In a forest of waving palms, this handshake meant more.

As the president stepped up to 10 Downing Street, he leant over, made eye contact, said something courteous, and shook the hand of the police officer standing guard. There’s always a police officer there; he is a tourist logo in his ridiculous helmet. He tells you that this is London, and the late 19th century. No one has ever shaken the hand of the policeman before, and like everyone else who has his palm touched by Barack Obama, he was visibly transported and briefly forgot himself. He offered the hand to Gordon Brown, the prime minister, who was scuttling behind.

It was ignored. He was left empty-handed. It isn’t that Mr. Brown snubbed the police officer; he just didn’t see him. To a British politician, a police officer is as invisible as the railings.

But the rest of us noticed. Because in this country that still feels the class system like a phantom limb, being overtly kind to servants is the very height of manners, the mark of true nobility. Being nice to the staff is second only to being nice to dogs as a pinnacle of civilization. Remember: a butler’s not just for Christmas. Apparently, the Obamas searched every cupboard and closet in Downing Street to personally thank all the servants for looking after them. That’s classlessly classy. ...

The Obamas were likely also surprised at how black the old white colonial country is. Ethnic diversity is shamelessly and embarrassingly pushed to the front of every publicity shot. Michelle Obama went to a girls school where a gospel song was performed and where she made a surprisingly moving speech. All the world leaders’ wives are herded together in cultural outings of excruciatingly bland probity, but Mrs. Obama rose above it, and seemed to really inspire this group of young girls. It was noticed. The rest of the women grinned and clutched their handbags, apparently wondering when they could get away to Harrods.

Reading into Obama

One of the worst-headlined Times article of all time, "Obama Calls on Security Council to Punish North" -- it's about President Barack Obama's comments about North Korea's rocket launch today during his speech in Prague -- has a great kicker from one of the thousands of Czechs in the crowd.

Not all were effusive about Mr. Obama’s appearance. Miloslava Krulova, 76, who worked in a bank before she retired, said she was worried that Mr. Obama’s disarmament drive could prove detrimental to global peace.

“I came here today because I admire Obama’s intelligence. He is also a good husband and father. But I am skeptical of his words because trying to get the world to disarm might have the opposite effect.” Noting the throngs of mesmerized youth, she added: “I was shocked that I seemed to be the only elderly lady here. Maybe people of my generation are afraid, that they might not understand Obama and his policies.”

I love how she says he's a "good husband and father"!