And here was me thinking Kerry may be better than Bush. I was always iffy about him being a member of Skull and Bones. Pilger: Bush Or Kerry? Look Closely And The Danger Is The Same

But now it seems, aside from fairer taxes and maybe fewer corporate paycheques tying his hands behind his back, Kerry is only going to continue Bush's imperialism.

It really makes you wonder about US politics. Is there any real difference between the leading politicians of either party? It seems to depend how closely you look at them.

I feel Kerry won't be as corrupt, which is a start, but I have a feeling still more blood will be spilt in Kerry's name or Bush's.

We can only wait and see.

BBC NEWS | Business | Weak jobs data spooks US markets
Oh, Bushie boy! You really are looking like a no hoper for the election. This is looking more and more like the Democrats' election to lose.

Here's my retrospective breakdown of Bush's 9/11 speech:

September 11, 2001 8:30 P.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT: Good evening. Today, our fellow citizens, our way of life, our very freedom came under attack in a series of deliberate and deadly terrorist acts.
I thought it was the government and some big buildings that came under attack. Can someone explain how your "way of life" and "freedom" came under attack? Rhetoric of the most transparent kind.
The victims were in airplanes, or in their offices; secretaries, businessmen and women, military and federal workers; moms and dads, friends and neighbors. Thousands of lives were suddenly ended by evil, despicable acts of terror.
True.

The pictures of airplanes flying into buildings, fires burning, huge structures collapsing, have filled us with disbelief, terrible sadness, and a quiet, unyielding anger.
Again, true.
These acts of mass murder were intended to frighten our nation into chaos and retreat.
Huh? Retreat? From where? Or What? Are we supposed to guess? Or was there some sort of "war" going on before 9/11 that he didn't mention? Sorry, I'm really confused.
But they have failed; our country is strong.
Well yeah. Was, is and always will be unless some schmuck messes it up.

A great people has been moved to defend a great nation. Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America. These acts shattered steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve.
In other words, terrorists can't really threaten America very much. They can chip away but no great harm will come to the nation as a whole. So why the massive constitutional changes and other enormous measures to counteract this minor threat - as he admitted on 9/11? Why does he now hark back every objectionable policy to 9/11 when he said that al Qaeda can't dent America?

America was targeted for attack because we're the brightest beacon for freedom and opportunity in the world.
Yeah, no other reason in the world. It's just because America's ace, isn't it. Jeez.
And no one will keep that light from shining.
So in other words terrorists can't really threaten America very much...

Today, our nation saw evil, the very worst of human nature.
And the very worst in scramble jet response times!
And we responded with the best of America -- with the daring of our rescue workers, with the caring for strangers and neighbors who came to give blood and help in any way they could.
But not the best by way of reacting to the hijackings immediately and instead not getting a single jet up to any of the FOUR jets in time. Still, you weren't to know that quite so soon after the event.

Immediately following the first attack, I implemented our government's emergency response plans.
What's that? Immediately? OK. So you immediately got the emergency response plans in action and then sat in front of some school kids for 20 minutes even after the second plane hit? My god, you're the man. Whoa!
Our military is powerful, and it's prepared.
Should have been prepared before, though, shouldn't it.
Our emergency teams are working in New York City and Washington, D.C. to help with local rescue efforts.

Our first priority is to get help to those who have been injured, and to take every precaution to protect our citizens at home and around the world from further attacks.
And hide Dick Cheney until god knows when.

The functions of our government continue without interruption. Federal agencies in Washington which had to be evacuated today are reopening for essential personnel tonight, and will be open for business tomorrow. Our financial institutions remain strong, and the American economy will be open for business, as well.

The search is underway for those who are behind these evil acts. I've directed the full resources of our intelligence and law enforcement communities to find those responsible and to bring them to justice. We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them.
Yeah, well that's a lie because otherwise Saudi Arabia would have been invaded first. And making no distinction of that nature is surely disregarding the non-negotiable Geneva Convention. Still, that little convention never seemed to concern him...

I appreciate so very much the members of Congress who have joined me in strongly condemning these attacks. And on behalf of the American people, I thank the many world leaders who have called to offer their condolences and assistance.

America and our friends and allies join with all those who want peace and security in the world, and we stand together to win the war against terrorism.
Oh here we go. The first mention of a "war" against terror. Within hours he's devised this little idea that terrorism is not criminal (because it's non-governmental) but an act of war. The first little clue as to how misguided his whole future policies will be. Tonight, I ask for your prayers for all those who grieve, for the children whose worlds have been shattered, for all whose sense of safety and security has been threatened. And I pray they will be comforted by a power greater than any of us, spoken through the ages in Psalm 23: "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me."
Comforted? How? Oh, they have to be Christians. I get it.

This is a day when all Americans from every walk of life unite in our resolve for justice and peace.
Guantanamo Bay, amongst many other terrible acts, kinda lets you down on the justice front, though, doesn't it.
America has stood down enemies before, and we will do so this time.
But America has also lost a certain war that has striking similarities to the two you have now waged
None of us will ever forget this day. Yet, we go forward to defend freedom and all that is good and just in our world.
Defend freedom? It's that old crappy rhetoric again, isn't it.

Thank you. Good night, and God bless America.
Why America in particular? Can God not just, y'know, bless all mankind equally? I think I saw that somewhere in the constitution...Anyway...

There you go. Sometimes you just have to get certain things out of your system.

Bush really can't help himself, can he: Scotsman.com News - Latest News - Bush Accused of 'Slap in Face' to 9/11 Victims

The man keeps suggesting he can somehow win a "war" on terror. He also insists on identifying the US as officially "at war". He really thinks it's like WW2 or something. It isn't. All international terror cannot be beaten yet he still chides Kerry for "not coming up with strategies to win the war (on terror)". He must call it a war, though, so he can push through Patriot Acts and similar dangerous anti-constitutional policies.

This is really 1984 type stuff. Evoke an unwinnable, eternal war and rubbish the opposition for not suggesting how to win it!

He always seems to forget to mention that both the Iraq and afghan invasions were started by the US.

He really invents recent history as he goes along.

"I'm George Bush and I approve of this message."

Oh really? Oh, OK, I'm sure the US will vote for you in their droves, then.

Jesus.

BBC NEWS | Americas | Bush launches ad campaign

BBC - BBC Four - Audio Interviews Just a hint at how cool it will be when the BBC opens up it's archives on the web fully. Some great stuff here.

BBC NEWS | Politics | VAT mistakes 'costing billions' Meanwhile, we lost billions due to fraud and errors in VAT (up 12%, double the average council tax rise). That's Britain for you...

Quite why no one bothered to suggest that this tax - SocietyGuardian.co.uk | Society | Q&A: the future of the council tax - was just as rubbish as the rates system and only marginally better than the Poll Tax at the time it was introduced is beyond me. It's quite clear that any tax that costs so much should be related to income and not house value. Come on, how many piss poor people do you know who have a a property of some pretty good worth? I know quite a few, mainly retired, people.

Incidentally, Council Tax only makes up 5% of the taxes we pay individually. Surprising, isn't it. And we're one of the lightest taxed countries in Europe!

I certainly hope we can get this sorted as soon as possible and do the decent thing and get an income-related tax system worked out. The point of taxes is that those with can help those without and provide some ground level services that must be guaranteed to everyone (like rubbish collection), not just to syphen off as much as possible from everyone, whether they can afford it or not.

President and Mrs. Bush's Dog Spot Passes On

US service men and women are dying almost daily and yet the White House website is somewhat bereft of tributes to them anything approaching the detail of his DOG!!

Oh yeah, check it out. Video (in two formats!!), cute piccies and a biog(!!!!) for Spot.

The hypocrisy is almost clinical. I just stared at it in utter disbelief. Surely this is galling even to pro-war Americans? That this man can care so much more for his 15 year old dog than the 500 young men and women that have been blown to pieces in an illegal war? Make no mistake, Bush pushed through this war, he sold it to America (like Blair failed to sell to the UK but went through with it anyway). He has declared himself a "war president". Such a war president that he'd rather spend taxpayers money building a multimedia tribute page to his pet than do anything of the kind for his soldiers.

In fact, searching the White House website I can find only one occasion where Bush has so much as visited even injured soldiers since the start of the war 12 months ago. Now don't say "ah, but it's not his responsibility". If it's not the Commander In Chief's responsibility to pay tribute to his soldiers, then who's is it?? In fact, responsibility has nothing to to with it. All Americans should pay tribute to them. But, because services are kept out of sight as much as possible, the American public are only peripherally aware of them because they don't witness them.

In the same way that many things are out there "hidden in plain view" that should anger people to the hilt (like WTC7 was demolished on the instructions of the WTC owner - the owner himself has said it on camera - yet FEMA reported that it just collapsed due to fire) there are actions and demonstrations of Bush's shameless hypocrisy, like this, that are so up front that people - and the media in particular - just, kind of, blank them. Something so in-your-face heartless is just too much to deal with and you try to push it away to pretend Bush isn't so callous. But he is and America must see this and get rid of him.

This is the kind of thing that shows how utterly foolish the overwealthy consumer is. This will sell fine because people think, for some reason, that water in a bottle is somehow better than from a tap. BBC NEWS | UK | Soft drink is purified tap water

I'm prepared to believe that if you're on the hoof and want a drink and choose water in a bottle (for easy carriage) from a shop, then that makes sense. But that can really only account for a certain percentage of total sales. Most are in restaurants and supermarkets, drunk at work (where there are taps) or at home.

At my work all water is Brita filtered and it's completely tasteless. Yet people pay a fortune to filter their water at home. We're just so damn rich we've lost all perspective, if you ask me.

The amount of water per head has fallen by two thirds in the last 30 or 40 years. And the rich world is using more than ever. The UN has been warning for years that the water table is dangerously low and we're doing precisely nothing about it.

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | TV and Radio | Peter Andre: Return of the six-pack

Sigh, sometimes you just have to accept the world is mad and move on.......

Must say congratulations to Peter Jackson for claiming 100% of his nominations for LOTR Return of the King. It was an achievement not only to get a film made and a script crafted from the books but also to assemble such a massive team that were all more than up to the job to assist him. And he sourced so many from tiny New Zealand. A great feat.

The trilogy is a masterwork and I already have the first two extended DVDs so I'll certainly get the third. Nothing like this will be made again for a very very long time.

A fascinating look at how the leftwing Mirror and the rightwing Sun newspapers cover the same story. In this case the publishing of some Columbine video evidence. This is the Mirror's take: Mirror.co.uk - THE COLUMBINE KILLERS' VIDEO and below is the rather shorter Sun version (I have to paste it as the site charges for archives):

"A SICKENING video showing Columbine High School killers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold was released yesterday.

Shot for a school project shortly before the 1999 horror, it shows them as hitmen killing bullies.

(Caption under picture taken from video) Madman ... Harris pretends to kill pupil in video

Harris, 18, is seen shooting at pupils and wielding a gun. Klebold, 17, screams at the camera.

The pair shot dead 12 kids and a teacher before killing themselves.

The footage is part of an exhibition of evidence released by Colorado cops in the wake of cover-up claims."

Notice how the Mirror asks why society/law enforcement failed to get to these kids and find a way of stopping them going over the hill and becoming suicidal murderers whilst the Sun just spouts revulsion without any attempt at illuminating the reader to anything. It just carps on about how "mad" these kids were. The Mirror focusses on how the whole community stood by and these kids sink slowly into a state where their only instinct became Mayhem. Indeed, it is incredulous that this video was made in public and nothing was done. A reader of the Sun would just think "good riddance" to these kids, while a reader of the Mirror will think "how could no one have managed to connect with these kids and stop this tragedy?".

Which version strikes you as dealing with the story in the best way?

This story - I quit because the war against Iraq was illegal, says former government lawyer - is surely yet further proof of how shaky even the basic legal justification of the Iraq war really was. Quite frankly, I believe the Afghan war was illegal too. Did Afghanistan attack America?

Al Qaeda (if it was they) did not commit an act of war against the US as they are terrorists. They can only commit politically motivated criminal acts. The US wanted Bin Laden handed over. The Taleban wanted evidence before they did so (this is called extradition and is standard procedure around the world). The US refused to provide proof so the Taleban refused to send Bin Laden to America. So the US, with a few pals, invaded Afghanistan.

As Chomsky pointed out, this is a "do what we want or else we attack you" scenario. Or terrorism in any other vocabulary. The Taleban were evil, hateful religious thugs but the US government is not so it should not do hateful, thuggish things in the name of justice.

Afghanistan is still an expensive hell hole and Bin Laden is still free. Iraq was never a danger to anyone anymore, let alone the US and now is it a political source of much hatred in the Arab world and a pot into which every fanatic and Iraqi nationalist has poured its paramilitary resources. Both were sovereign countries who had never attacked the US militarily. Iraq had fought wars but never against democracies and in one of those two wars America helped it.

The irony is that the Gulf War was ostensibly about protecting Kuwait's sovereignty (because the dictator king was reinstalled after the war) and yet this second war completely breaks the rules about invading sovereign countries pre-emptively. The war was not about humanitarian reasons (Wolfowitz and Blair freely stated that) - certainly this alone is not enough in the perpetrators eyes to justify the war. It would make no sense if it was as Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan are allies (they have appalling human rights records). The war was not about WMD as there weren't any and many experts suspected that even if they did, they weren't particularly dangerous. Even those who said he was a "threat" really meant that he hated the west and wouls hurt them if he could. But he couldn't. Colin Powell said before 9/11 that his capability had not been restored. In fact, it turns out that Libya was much nearer to WMD than Iraq ever was post 1991.

My own theory about the crap western governments were fed about WMD was stuff they received from the Iraqi National Congress and the like who funnelled defectors and their testimonies to the CIA and British to encourage an invasion (after all, they wanted power). This seems to have worked really well. When a fired up Bush was advised by the CIA that this sort of uncorroborated "evidence" was at best not something to be termed as fact Bush didn't want to hear and kept repeating this drivel. Colin Powell, to the UN, said his presentation was based on hard and reliable intelligence. Apparently not.

The war was not about terrorism as Saddam had nothing to do with Al Qaeda.

So what are we left with? We're left with this: http://www.newamericancentury.org/iraqclintonletter.htm