The story of the day, although not dealt with nearly as much as it apparently should have been, is the WikiLeaks leak today of a bunch of raw correspondence between. US "diplomats" and spies and government chiefs in Washington D.C. This morning the mainstream media was mentioning it, reporting that this document dump was coming and could be potentially damaging and embarassing to the U.S. government. By this afternoon, when the contents of the documents were starting to be circulated around the world, it was headline news. Even Andrea Mitchell, mainstream of the mainstream reporter from NBC, said on NBC night news this evening that this is a game changer in our relationship with other countries because they won't trust us anymore.

The US mainstream media is reporting this afternoon that these cables discuss all kinds of international characters. For example, NPR reported that one of the subjects was the relationship between Vladmir Putin and Sylvio Berlesconi. And that's not to mention that the White House has directed our united nations diplomats, apparently, to out and out spy and collect all kinds of personal information, including, for example, DNA, from united nations representatives from other countries. Ouch. Between that and the failure of the senate to ratify the newest START treaty with Russia, I'm sure that our international relations with Russia and other countries are going to be taking a dive. Just what we need when we're trying to fight two wars and North and South Korea, who we are responsible for in a way, are on the verge of war.

Could it be that we, thinking that we are the world policeman, have spread ourselves too thin and can't properly cover all of our obligations? That's very dangerous, because a cornered animal is very dangerous because it will do whatever it has to to escape. With the U.S., that means turning to our formidable, well, no, terrifying nuclear arsenal? Would we use it? It's scary to think about.

The continued problem with our international relations is that we are arrogant, and that comes across strongly in these leaked communiques. We are always out to get an advantage, and our representatives have no regard for the truth. All they care about is maintaining an advantage for us. Now they have gotten caught. I just hope that it turns out that Obama and Clinton weren't aware of it, or had been mislead, because if they are directing this, this is going to seriously further split the democratic party.

I'm an open government advocate. I think the world overall is better off the more open that governments are, and I'm not just talking about ours. Ours is more open than a lot.

I hate to see anyone put into the danger of violence, especially working on behalf of my country. But if this kind of information was required to be made public regularly, those folks representing us overseas might be more careful in what they write and say and do. I'll just leave my commentary at that.