The Eloquence of Walid Jumblat. Last year, in one of his fawning articles about the Lebanese demonstrators who "look like us"--the White Man, I guess--Robert Fisk, unaccompanied by his driver Abed, said that Walid Jumblat, his close friend, is "eloquent." The ability of Robert Fisk to judge the eloquence of Arabic speakers is equal to the ability of members of Congress to judge the quality of coverage on AlJazeera (Arabic). So I am hereby translating verbatim from Walid Jumblat's speech today since this part will be missed in most US and French news coverages--always fawning about the March 14th: "...We came to the Freedom Square to say to you, o tyrant of Damascus, o monkey not known by nature; o snake that other snakes flee from; o whale rejected by the seas; o monster from the monsters of wilderness; o creature of half-men; o product of Israel over the remains of South Lebanon and the people of South Lebanon; o liar and Hajjaj [bin Yusuf] in Iraq; o murderer and killer in Syria and Lebanon." He then went on to quote from the vulgar and (easily accessible) poetry of Nizar Qabbani.
PS Megan Stack of the LA Times was the only one who cited the speech in US newspapers (from I saw).