Post Convention-ness

Two epic American conventions and by god they were as American as they've ever been! Yes, we had the usual theatrical gimmicks, lack of any political debate of any kind, talking points co-ordinated, wheeled out and used as if video tape didn't exist before September 2008. And such tree melting disingenuousness and cynicism the moon turned green instead of its usual brain grey.

Can we please pause for a moment to applaud the McCain VP pick. Not because it was a good pick or because it is in any way clever or was even presented well but because of the 1000-watt-torch-in-your face blatant cynicism which it demonstrated. I mean, a cursory watch of the average Daily Show will show you ever deepening examples of McCain's power-hungry pandering in stark contrast to previous remarks but this Palin move is the most staggering yet.

He's hardly met the woman, she's hardly held office in anger, she's helped her constituencies pork out like bandits and she holds more core policies in opposition to him than I do! And she has similar genitalia to a certain failed Democrat Presidential candidate. Forgot about that...nearly.

This is a metaphoric wave of McCain's bare arse to American women and in particular Clinton supporters who should see it as worthy of pure contempt. It is also a work of pure evil genius in countless ways not least of which is the delight I have had in watching the GOP contort itself into strangulating positions in order not to weep into their hands on Meet the Press.

McCain: "Boo, hiss to lobbyists!"

Fact: McCain's senior campaign staff are leading lobbyists.

McCain: "Obama is just not experienced enough to be President!"

Fact: McCain has selected a VP who's sole significant political office is governor of the least populous state in the US for under 2 years and who is younger than Obama.

McCain: "I'm an agent for change."

Fact: McCain has voted with his party almost the whole time in recent history.

You could go on for pages...

************************************************

I must confess I didn't watch the Obama speech or much of the Dems. I just kinda thought it'd go well no matter what and it seems everything basically went swimmingly. It's good to see that Obama is calling the GOP out when it really starts taking the piss with the reality-reversing "spin". He'll not call it lies but he'll use pretty much every term in the English language it equates to.

Amazingly, Gordon Brown has come out in favour of Obama. I don't know whether that's a good or bad sign...

The rest of the world favours Obama too but then they also favoured Kerry so it simply don't mean much. I'm really gonna just watch it all play out.

The Daily Show has been truly on the ball throughout the last two weeks. I watched the DVD of the 2004 election season a while back and it was not a patch on this year. This week they have effortlessly slain every single "selling point" of the GOP McCain/Palin/Guiliani/Thompson et al have put forward by laying out as clear as day their 180 degree about faces on subjects and O'Reilly being only one of the guilty many.

I'm tired now but some immediate reaction is now up. :-)

Tim Russert

RIP, Tim Russert.
 
I haven't been in a position to watch Meet the Press over here in the UK for that long but it was a very worthwhile program and ensured the audience had not had an interview choking in fluff. He was revolutionary in trying almost obvious things and by all accounts was decent, instinctively neutral and open minded (ideal for a journalist) and very human.
 
A giant in the political scene in Washington, it is a very sad event and I don't think Meet the Press will ever be the same again.

America...can't decide 2008

Well we're finally tiptoeing through the Election Season proper of the US 2008 presidential election and it's starting out rather farcically, if you ask me.
 
Four different winners, none of which were predicted in December and some which weren't even predicted 12 hours before the primary itself!
 
Well, I have to say as politicians go, I do feel there is a fair range of talent out there, so I can imagine this could be a strong factor in making both GOP and Dem races so open. But most of the Republicans are either unpalatably right-wing or religious (e.g. Huckaby and Romney) or unpleasant buffoons (e.g. McCain, Romney and Giuliani). McCain is bland and too hawkish, although well versed in Washington cross-party dealing, and the others smell of fakeness, power hunger, or plain wrongness (anti-evolution Huckaby).
 
The Dems have a Robert Kennedy, a schoolteacher with teeth and a little southern man with nice words.
 
Obviously, all breath should be held until Super Duper Tuesday (only in America!) where the real shakedown will start. Literally no one can confidently call it for either party so it just boils down to who you want to win yourself.
 
Me, if Obama really is a force powerful enough to even get into the whitehouse, then he will be a good president. Just getting the whitehouse for him will be such a massive achievement that the talent, energy and policies he would have to have put forward will have to have been so good as to mean he would have to perform well. So I think in this sense, the process will find him out, will flush out whether he really has got what it takes. So if he wins the election then I'll be happy because of this rationale.
 
If he wins the nomination but not the presidency, I will have rather Hillary had won the nomination. I hope this makes sense!
 
To break it down beyond the nomination, I would like to see Edwards as VP nom, whoever wins. Imagine a black president and woman VP or vice versa, crikey, the US (middle class) wouldn't recognise itself!
 
On the GOP side, the least worst is unquestionably McCain. Giuliani is incompetent, Romney is sleaze personified, Huckaby is unacceptable, Paul is a libertarian mentalist (no income tax, my arse) and I can't even remember the other fella.
 
Meanwhile, I'm hungry and have to go. :-)

Unspeak

I've read the book and I read the blog.

This is essential for all literate human beings to do, in my opinion, brilliant stuff.

http://unspeak.net/

Rhys Jones

OK, so we've got some more hype over a killing. Now it is a very sad death and no one can possibly argue otherwise but the hype is incredible.

I have to say though that in many ways I go along with it because it serves a purpose. It serves to show the whole city united in horror and disgust at the murder and to possibly shame some key youths into squealing. It appears to be working and I expect it to die down now.

The whole problem with youth violence and other lower level crime is that the media have to report significant incidents but it is not reflective of the situation. What I mean is that it can't be denied that plenty of crime is committed by youths but it simply isn't anarchy UK either. Crime is falling but crime is still "bad" and should be combated and this tension beign mishandled by the media makes for a distortion of the wider truth.

Nasty crimes and accidents always come about in the school holidays but the obvious signs that adolescents can get their hands on guns is a worrying development. I'm sure the police are working on getting to grips with this supply but in a more intelligence driven method, not so much in the public glare. Too much hype will make getting guns trendy, the next must have after some make of trainer or other. They should try to calm fears and suggest only scumbags use guns. Make it unglamorous.

Gonzales has buggered off at last. But, as with Rove, the timing seems a little too convenient and will only serve to reduce the damage further Senate probing can cause. The impeachment of Bush is long overdue and he has been protected solely because the US is in two wars it can't get out of. If this were a peace-time president and all the non-Iraq scandals had happened, he'd have been out on his ear within 4 years. But Iraq did happen and that is the biggest of all reasons for an impeachment, ironically. If Iraq had been over by now, again impeachment would be more than just a dream.

I saw Barack Obama on the Daily show recently and the difference between him and Bush is like the difference between Cartman and Stephen Fry. America needs someone like him to bring some semblance of sanity and real humanity to the White House. I think Americans are sick to the back teeth with dogma and rhetoric and want someone who will shake sense into the Beltway and the Executive.

He seems to be essentially a more bearable Clinton with all the charisma of a Kennedy but less of the ultra-elite-wanting-to-run-the-show about him. All other candidates in the far-too-long campaign are either far too hot, blunt and thuggish or so cold and/or calculated they make Thatcher seem homely. We appear to have a wily but ultimately passable prime minister in office here and if we can just get Obama in power over there we would have a fairly decent pairing on our hands. I just think that having Obama as president would be too good to be true and therefore, something will stop it. It will either be more GOP corruption messing with the election or something else.

The GOP candidates range from the annoying - Guiliani - to the most cynical politician on this side of the universe - Romney. Not one of them have learnt from Bush's utterly miserable presidency. Not one. In fact, several of the front-runners seem to think that acting like Bush on steroids is the way to go! What are they on??!

Rove

Ah, can you feel the sun on your face even when indoors? Can you hear the sound of children laughing whilst on a subway train? Well that's probably because Karl Rove has finally quit.

 

Rove sets just about everyone's teeth on edge not because he is a Spin Doctor, not because he looks a bit like a Hitler toady, not even because he has been perceived to be the brains and, some say, ventriloquist for Bush but because he has done virtually nothing else his entire life but run (dirty) campaigns for Republicans. What I mean is he has, since he just left short pants, been playing Machiavelli behind the scenes of local and national politics. He has never been a politician but he has backed up and, indeed, crushed them consistently for his entire working life. What sort of person does that? And that's why he gets such an instinctively negative reaction from virtually everyone.

 

We think of him as a sort of bullied nerd getting is own back in a nerdy way. As a nerd who uses the swaggering jocks, like Bush, who probably used to goose him and trip him up in corridors to "beat up" other jocks that use words the middle classes automatically grimace at such as "social justice" and "pro-choice". He seems like a self-satisfied proxy-bully, if you will.

 

His conduct in political battles has been bruising and gloves-off his whole career and yet the god damn American public (or, at least enough of them) bought it all and voted for his man. The sheer breath-taking success of his strategies to shape debates and even vocabulary to his aims using the, let's face it, not-exactly-resistant media truly is a modern wonder.

 

A couple of examples:

 

"Tax relief": - Rove got Bush talking about "Relieving the tax burden" and coining the term "tax relief". Why? Because that meant journalists could ask Democrats, "Are you against tax relief?" Now who would say "no" to that and want to win elections? By painting taxes as fundamentally evil without caveat and then describing tax cuts for the rich as tax relief, it makes it sound like the solution to a problem. Everyone got suckered into it. Very clever.

 

"The surge":- This little piece of spin has worked internationally even if journalists choose to precede the word surge with "so-called" as if to excuse them for peddling it. The increase, basically escalation, of troop numbers is open-ended and the extension of the presence of these troops is being continually pushed by the White House so how is this a "surge"? The use of the word "surge" suggests a temporary increase, a short-term spike. This is simply not the case with this tactic. Troop numbers are simply being increased to nearly invasion levels and doing their best to strangle the insurgent-fostered civil war. They're just send more men in. It's not a surge as there's simply no date set for these numbers to lower. Would another increase in numbers be termed another "surge"?

 

So he's been effective and for that he gets objective kudos but then, so might the architects of the holocaust for so efficiently building such a monstrously efficient genocidal infrastructure. The purpose and motives of their "inspiration" is far too wrong for us to contemplate really praising the git. Merely getting Bush elected (speech marks should be added to that word for the 2000 election, of course) should be enough for him to be damned to Hades.

 

August

Got a spare twenty minutes so my pronouncements here won't have links but nothing I'll say here can't be discovered yourself.

 

We have a new prime minister and Karl Rove is departing. We see the White House maintaining the line that the US has gotta stay there and be more aggressive, if anything. We also see Bush employ Vietnam in his argument to continue in Iraq and, in the process, make several false statements about the East Asian debacle. I notice only a lone reporter on MSNBC actually came up with the truth on that.

 

I've also just watched John Pilger's latest film about principally South America and how it serves as the most illuminating example of America's imperial tendencies. Although far from neutral - the tea and cakes interview with Chavez was a little desperately unchallenging - it nevertheless had a very strong case.

 

It can be found to view on Information Clearing House so have a watch. In it, you will see a former CIA agent expounding the overarching policy the US has to decide when and where it will overthrow governments, democratic or otherwise, as it sees fit. There is no moral imperative here, just self interest or "national security". You'll also see the true story of the coup that attempted to topple Chavez of Venezuela and how the White House and American media perpetuated the lies the fascists who were involved had concocted.

 

Chavez is, without doubt, a bit of a tosser. He is, however, a classic Latin American politician "of the people". Larger than life, bombastic, fiery and passionate. He is a true leader and he takes risks. When he came to power, a constitution was written and articles of it are written on food packets to drive home that the people are the government. In a country as lopsided but as wealthy as Venezuela, the only way to have enough change in a short enough time so that equality can be reached is to use some form of socialist model.

 

I'm not a socialist but when you've had decades of capitalists, fascists and corrupt officials taking the piss, you need to swing the other way for a time before you settle down. I strongly suspect that had Cuba not been stamped on and ostracised by American when Castro turned up that by now Cuba would more closely resemble Portugal. Instead, to keep the country together, authoritarianism was unavoidable. 

 

Well, my 20 minutes is up. I hope to write a bit more later. 

YouTube - What George W. Bush Really Did At Emma E. Booker

YouTube - What George W. Bush Really Did At Emma E. Booker:

The good old MSM

I've been grateful for the last week or so that I have access to non-UK news channels. If I hadn't I would have been largely snoozing my non-work hours away. Why? Because of this extremely tiresome missing girl story that is dominating the news networks.

 

I'm entirely empathetic towards the family affected but I'm being asked to care exponentially more about this particular missing child than any other. This I think is offensive.

 

It seems to me entirely arbitrary that her story has been picked up so heavily. Each news organisation has flown out some top names to cover this thing just because she's a cute little 3 year old. It's not like they have the excuse that it's a slow news period.

 

The end of the football season is looming, Blair has announced his resignation and Brown has walked on stage finally, the Iraq war is still in stalemate whilst Afghanistan gets scarcely a mention. In the days since Maddy's disappearence, dozens of Iraqis have died and several other kids have gone missing unreported.

 

The fact is I believe that something like 1000 kids (it might be people but either way...) go missing every year in Britain and one woman a week is killed by her partner. So what the hell makes this story any more worthwhile telling? There is no answer other than "because it caught on".

 

Live feeds of church services, reporters spending minutes on air reading cards on some street or other, interviews with anyone who shares blood with the kid, jingoistic criticism (learnt from Fox News, I shouldn't wonder) of the Portuguese police and all whilst a kid has not been found. It's a week long rolling report on essentially nothing happening and it bores me mental.

BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | US Iraq troops 'condone torture'

BBC NEWS World Middle East US Iraq troops 'condone torture'

Another wonderful achievement by George W Bush. Mission accomplished, mate.

The time has long since passed that I have had to proselytise in my own words, simply giving you links to facts and reality basically show you the state of things for what they are. *sigh*

The Blog | Tom Tomorrow: What They Said | The Huffington Post

How the American right-wing talked bollocks on Iraq from beginning to... well, there hasn't been an end. Click on image to view full page.
The Blog Tom Tomorrow: What They Said The Huffington Post

Sweet Bill Maher clip

Fantastic Bill Maher Op Ed clip on Bush

Thanks to CrooksandLiars.com.

BBC NEWS | World | Americas | 'No proof' of Iran nuclear arms

BBC NEWS World Americas 'No proof' of Iran nuclear arms

Well, there you are. I said this was a complete fabrication, as per the usual Neocon strategy from the 70s onwards. And as it usually runs, they are pronouncing certainty that Iran is developing weapons without anything like solid proof of it actually happening.

Neocons turn on Bush for incompetence over Iraq war | Special reports | Guardian Unlimited

Neocons turn on Bush for incompetence over Iraq war Special reports Guardian Unlimited

Ah, but thousands if not millions of us were saying well before the war that an invasion would be countrerproductive and end in tears. It didn't take "Delphic" (to quote Perle in thsi article) powers to see where we'd end up. Let's face it though. We went WAY WAY WAY beyond incompetence in describing Bush et al, a long time ago...

BBC NEWS | Business | US stops audit of Iraq rebuilding

BBC NEWS Business US stops audit of Iraq rebuilding

Well I'm stunned. Absolutely stunned.




Not.

BBC NEWS | World | Americas | Sex-row US pastor 'bought drugs'

BBC NEWS World Americas Sex-row US pastor 'bought drugs'

Jus' puttin' it out there, in the unlikely event that you missed it.

Real life really is better than fiction.

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | 'Only 50 years left' for sea fish

BBC NEWS Science/Nature 'Only 50 years left' for sea fish

Have a read of this see if at the end you think a damn thing will be done about this.

Why why why do I think not?

Must read article re: Supreme Court's terror tribunal ruling

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/06/29/do_mess_with_texas/ superb. Read it before the mainstream media try to squish the facts.

Must Read

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/10432334/was_the_2004_election_stolen

Pretty much everything you need to know that the guy was not only a thief in 2000 but also in 2004. The Mainstream Media wilfully ignore not only the massive corruption in the Whitehouse (and the Bush family) but also the pretty blatant destruction of democracy the Republicans have been responsible for. If the GOP does "much better than expected" in this year's elections you can bet your life it won't be down to the public vote.

Chron.com | Katrina funds earmarked to pay for Neil Bush's software program

Chron.com Katrina funds earmarked to pay for Neil Bush's software program

Surprised? You shouldn't be. How dark and deep can this Bush family slide? It really is stunning how twisted and taudry their activities are throughout the generations.

American Bar Association - barely reported

American Bar Association accuses Bush of violating constitution and law. Who else is gonna jump ship this year?

This is a pretty damn conservative group: http://www.abanet.org/

BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | US official admits Iraq aid theft

BBC NEWS World Middle East US official admits Iraq aid theft

The words "tip" and "iceburg" spring to mind.

BBC NEWS | World | Americas | US 'selected' Iraq intelligence

BBC NEWS World Americas US 'selected' Iraq intelligence

Now, if he doesn't know what really went down, then no one does. Case closed, in my opinion. Any doubters out there who read this?

KRT Wire | 02/07/2006 | State Department sees exodus of weapons experts

KRT Wire 02/07/2006 State Department sees exodus of weapons experts

Take note. Bush wants war and there are ever fewer dissenting voices in government that might be able to do anything about it. America is in big big trouble. And the world is going to suffer it as well.

BBC NEWS | World | Americas | US plans to 'fight the net' revealed

BBC NEWS World Americas US plans to 'fight the net' revealed

Hey, sit back. Relax. The US is only looking out for us!

Unbelievable.

Abu Ghraib

Abu Ghraib Damn good page summarising some startlingly blatant lies from Rumsfeld et al. Plus a a summary of the whole issue.

WAR IS FOR SUCKERS

http://warisforsuckers.com/clip.php?id=890&p=0 - watch and learn something you may not know.

Yet another "coincidence"

Investing - The Tamiflu Tug of War - FORTUNE - Page: "Among the beneficiaries of the run on Tamiflu is Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who was chairman of Gilead from 1997 to 2001 and owns at least $5 million of the stock, which has jumped from $35 in April to $47. Former Secretary of State George Shultz, who is on Gilead's board, has sold more than $7 million worth of Gilead in 2005. As the bird-flu issue heated up earlier this year, according to a senior Pentagon official, Rumsfeld considered unloading his entire Gilead stake to avoid any perceived conflict of interest. He sought the advice of the Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the federal Office of Government Ethics. When those agencies didn't offer an opinion, Rumsfeld consulted a private securities lawyer, who advised him to hold on to the stock and be vocal about his earlier recusal from all matters involving Gilead, rather than sell and run the risk of being accused of insider trading. Holding on has paid off; it's made the Pentagon chief, already one of the wealthiest members of the Bush cabinet, at least $1 million richer."

Well, well. Another obscure company gets rich, which makes a current government member rich and this is all just sheer happenstance. The simple fact that Bird Flu is scarcely more than a fairy story similar to that of Saddam's weapons is neither here nor there, of course.

Why America can't cope

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10214.htm

A simply fantastic article from The New Statesman which articulates much of my sentiments about the situation. The nation has been let down by decades of erosion and governmental stagnation. Not to mention the slow starving of government of liquid cash to pour into vital projects like levees.

Katrina has taught America some valuable lessons but it's anybodies guess if the country will actually realise what they are.

Busy

For the 0 readers out there salivating for more posts, I'm incredibly busy at the mo. So hang tight and I will return!

zzzzzooooooooooooommmmm!

MI5 links Iraq to terror motivations

Guardian Unlimited Special reports MI5 links Iraq to extremists in UK

Blair et al should admit how wrong they are, wouldn't you say? Ah, but then they'd have to change their rhetoric...

Former Bush aide turns critic as Iraq inspector

Former Bush aide turns critic as Iraq inspector

The tip of the iceburg. Just the tip. And the US government and its political minions tries to claim the UN is hopelessly corrupt or incompetant!

I name the four powers who are behind the al-Qaeda conspiracy

I name the four powers who are behind the al-Qaeda conspiracy

This article by former Tory MP Matthew Parris perfectly encapsulates and explains my motivations for my approach to the entire phenomenon of the war on terror.

This describes the situation perfectly in why I have felt uneasy from the very beginning - and by that I mean 9/11 and the reporting of that onwards.

BBC NEWS | World | Africa | World 'ignores' Niger food crisis

BBC NEWS | World | Africa | World 'ignores' Niger food crisis

Not one word in G8 about this. Just shows how full of rhetoric and bluster 1st world politicians really are.

BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | Conflict 'kills 25,000 Iraqis'

BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | Conflict 'kills 25,000 Iraqis'
This is, if anything, an underestimation of deaths and, believe me, all insurgent deaths known to anyone at all will be reported (it serves the authorities to report them, to show how lethal and to be combatted they are) so what are we left with?

We have most deaths by disenfranchised/greedy criminals and occupation forces killing most Iraqis. And more than ever.

And, meanwhile, our leaders walk around in some deluded stupor.

We have another famine, this time in Niger, which had been warned about for months. Guess what, nothing was done and so yet more poor people are dying of nothing but hunger. Angry is not the word...

Newsday.com: 18 Killed in Clashes Near Afghan Border

Newsday.com: 18 Killed in Clashes Near Afghan Border: "Pakistani soldiers fought militants in a northwestern tribal region near the Afghan border, the military said Sunday. Eighteen people, including one soldier, died in the clash.

A military statement said some of the dead were women and children, while a military official told The AP that a majority of those killed were women and children who were believed to be members of the militants' families. "

We are really gonna burn if so many of our allies (nevermind the US) are so "clumsy" as to kill women and children of Muslim/taleban/militant fighters. This is so counterproductive.

Hunting of terrorists - whoever they may be - is entirely necessary but it's gotta be done properly. A bit less bulldozing, rocketing please and massacring has got to be avoided.

BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | Iran-Iraq talks heal old wounds

BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | Iran-Iraq talks heal old wounds

Please god this sort of, as the Americans will see it, entanglement with Iran will make it politically impossible for the US to support invasion or even Israeli bombing - which the Israelis have all but threatened on more than one occasion and, in fact, performed already once.

Mirror.co.uk - News - EXCLUSIVE: WAS IT SUICIDE?

Mirror.co.uk - News - EXCLUSIVE: WAS IT SUICIDE?

The first couple of hours I noted the lack of Allah Akhbar cries. I would not be in the least bit surprised if they were manipulated in a clinically cold way and that they didn't expect to die.

Newsday.com: Poll: Bush Approval Rating at 42 Percent

Newsday.com: Poll: Bush Approval Rating at 42 Percent

This'll get Bush smiling. Not.

Further thoughts...London Bombings/investigation

Ok, so things are happening.

Can I just say that I do genuinely trust the police on these kinds of matters. I think they are now so skilled in this sort of case and would be so averse to deliberately participate in any inside job or get suckered into a goose chase by some Israeli plot or any other similarly extreme explanation. So on this matter I'm gonna just believe what they say.

There were four suicide bombers, the bus bomb is believed to have been an accident. They were second generation Pakistani/British lads from Leeds.

This shows how shortsighted and simply stupid these xenophobic calls for watertight borders are. Ideas can pass through borders undetected. The affront many Muslims feel about British and American actions toward other Muslims penetrates people wherever they are regardless of how many Xray machines you have on our borders.

It also betrays the lie that they bomb us because they hate our freedoms. They have enjoyed our freedoms from birth. They know our society first hand and still they would rather blitz themselves and other people in a tunnel 120ft below the streets of London.

This must lead any sane person to ask the question, "why?". Every reason offered by received wisdom, "common sense" and unimaginative media for bomber's motivations (hatred, desperation, wanting to destroy the west, to turn Britain Muslim, poverty etc.) has never been proven to be true by the simple fact of who these bombers are.

We must also not forget that those who knew the Middle Eastern Islamic society best - namely those of that descent - never give those as key reasons. They say it is Western policy and the frustration of collusion within Mid-East governments in this policy that focuses minds enough for this terrorism. Al Qaeda represent merely a notion. It is one (poster boy) example of radicalised Muslims who want to turn to terrorism to hit back at the West. Many more small organisations exist with similar goals and philosophy but, importantly, not identical. Bin Laden's Islamic philosophy is significantly different from the Taliban's. He likes to use modern technology, like radio, video cameras, etc. but the Taliban made it illegal to use radio or listen to music in Afghanistan. The only thing that bound the two was simply the growing hatred and distrust of America. Plus the cold hard cash Bin Laden will have paid them.

We'll learn ever more details about the bombers and then I hope our country will learn that the basis for this terrorism is rooted in our behaviour. As I have said in a variety of locations, the existing members of these groups are past appeasing but it is certainly within our power to act in such a way that the cooking pot from which terrorists scoop volunteers is kept below boiling point and then reduced to a cold, congealing mass, useless to them.

BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | Iraq's treasures still being looted

BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | Iraq's treasures still being looted

If you didn't look for this stuff, you wouldn't know how little control anyone has out in Iraq. This is just one example of how the invasion has impoverished Iraq.

BBC NEWS | UK | Police appeal for bombing footage

BBC NEWS UK Police appeal for bombing footage

"On Sunday, three people were arrested at Heathrow Airport under anti-terror laws, but no link to the attacks was made. They were later released without charge."

Just more examples of how terrorism continues to be played up in the media. Two sentences devoted to the releases but many more devoted to the original arrests.

My post here also contains interesting stuff I've found: http://forum.digitalspy.co.uk/board/showpost.php?p=4775076&postcount=27

The hype and jitteriness was entirely expected. But how planned was all this? If the secret service network is involved it would be so easy for them to pull the strings it's not funny.

This is a scathing article, worth reading, by John Pilger as published in the New Statesman:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9432.htm

I have noted with interest, more American commentators acknowledging that al Qaeda (and its followers/sympathizers) are not motivated by simple hatred and a desire to wipe Western civilisation from the face of the earth but simply as revenge and an extreme (and, of course, unjustified) protest at the horrors and humiliations inflicted on Muslims and Arabs directly and indirectly by the West. Western policies feed the hate that breeds terrorists. And it looks like potentially the debate is turning (at the speed of an oil tanker) in that direction. Especially as Iraq is stagnating, and indeed rotting, in a swamp of violence. The pitiful stupidity of the invasion is hitting home and the masses in America (where the majority were simply not informed enough to judge Bush's choices) are realising the spectacular poverty of Bush's foreign policies.

Bush's pathetically asinine response to a question on ITV1's Tonight show about the aid provided to murderous Islam Karimov, president/dictator of Uzbekistan, and the lack of conditions on that aid in contrast to those pressed for by Bush for African aid was completely telling. A dictator who boils people alive, merely receives "encouragement" to stop boiling people alive and still gets millions in US aid because he is "an ally in the war on terror". In short, he lets the US have an air base there and he massacres and tortures Muslims for fun.

Great. And we think that Islamic terrorists are fuming because they hate our freedoms?????!!

London Bombed

No surprise from me. Just anger and I feel simply sick of it all. Sick of pointless causes being used to justify evil violence.

I knew it would happen eventually, mainly because it was so easy to do and required so few people to do it that no amount of MI5 activity would pick it up.

I have said on Digital Spy that me and a mate could do it for little more than £500.

The timing was devastating and it is sad that the achievements of G8 and the Olympics have been massively overshadowed by warped idiots who somehow think terrorism has any chance at all of achieving their aims.

I used to live in London and I have ridden on the number 30 bus which was blown up and I have travelled quite a lot through Liverpool St station and Kings Cross, of course. Had my life panned out differently, I could have easily been dead today.

But I am so tired, bored and sickened by this violence. I just want it to end. But as we re-energize these fools with wars that we start and by being so close to an America that sits on its hands over Israel, it quite simply won't. As long as there are Muslims that still follow this fundamentalist ideology, it simply won't.

It is a sad, sad day.

Live8

Live8, or Live 8, is underway and I am very split on it. I hate how the combined worth of the stars performing (don't forget, Paul Mccartney's there) totals the GDP of probably the poorest 5 African countries, are performing their latest singles.

I hate how Tony Blair sees this as a fantastic opportunity to get the electorate behind him again (distracted from Iraq) and to once again cast him as a crusader.

But it would be truly great if acceptable debt relief was agreed upon. Where the rich countries opened their markets to the third world on a truly fair basis. If this works, thanks to the overwhelming publicity Geldof has generated, then all the queasiness I feel will be worth it.

The fact is that when people (50,000 a day) die from preventable, cureable diseases and plain hunger we have to act. Now I know this has been going on for the best part of 25 years but now it seems those with true, treaty signing, exchequer manipulating power are going to do something concrete to allow poor nations to end the horror - I see this word as no exaggeration.

Bush keeps on lying

I'm watching Bush lying again on Fox. He is making his Iraq speech. He keeps claiming that the US will "leave" when the job is done. This is not true as there will be permanent US bases there whatever happens. See: http://www.globalsecurity.org/org/news/2004/040323-enduring-bases.htm and http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/21/AR2005052100611.html They include official denials, of course, but, let's be realistic, when will the "insurgents" really give up? I'd bet never.

He has just directly linked Iraq with 9/11 again. And he has said the challenge in Iraq is to defend democracy again. "Iraq is where the terrorists are making their stand". There were no terrorists there before you invaded!!!!

There really is no end to his delusion, is there.

I assume somewhere here you'll find his full remarks: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,160958,00.html

Throughout his entire speech (as usual) it looks like he is reading the words for the first time. And he has just "advertised" the concept of joining the US military (I wonder why) http://www.americasupportsyou.mil - Need I say more?

Jesus. If this man hasn't done anything impeachable, I don't know who has.

BBC NEWS | World | Europe | Crucified nun dies in 'exorcism'

BBC NEWS | World | Europe | Crucified nun dies in 'exorcism'Yes, folks, this sort of madness still goes on in the 21st century. Stunning.

Bush haemoraging support

Bush at all time low
So the US electorate is seeming to be seriously regretting re-electing him. It took less than a year.

Let's also not forget that GOP senators are also grumbling.

The main problem with all this is that it is all after horse has bolted and things are gonna keep going like this until 2008 (!). Iraq, Social Security and some serious leaks about Bush's approach to the invasion are damaging but I really don't think this will oust him early.

I confess, my main thought about all this is that the US public must be mainly thinking "Doh!". They elected Mr Burns when they should have elected a Lisa Simpson.

Revenge of the Sith

So I've seen it and I have to say it did pretty much everything I thought it would do. It's a film that has to be viewed within the confines of the saga itself - and the foibles therein previously exhibited. All the usual faults are there; substandard dialogue and inconsistent acting (diarmid is superb but McGregor is, ahem, weak).

This, like you would hope, is very reminiscent of Empire Strikes Back. It's a sad conclusion to the first half of the saga (bar the births of what know now to be the key to the defeat of the Empire). But the feel good factor is (possibly unique in cinema) that you have witnessed all the loose ends, from both the sequels and prequels, tied up rather neatly and you are satisfied that the sinking into the dark side of Anakin is fully believable and is shown to be a far from simple decision. There is quite a complex piece of writing going on here.

I felt elated after coming out of the cinema simply because Lucas didn't cock it up. This was a big fear. But no, he embraced every aspect of modern filmic technology, regained his focus on the twelve year old target audience and answered every IV V and VI question posed in a highly satisfactory way.

I'm not going to go into content as that would spoil it but I can promise you that if you were waiting for an episode III that did what a Star Wars fan would want an Episode III to do then George has done just that.

So we can now relax, save up for a high def DVD player and for the I-VI High Def DVD box set.

Nerf Herder!

Revenge of the Sith

Come back soon when I'll review the final Star Wars film once I've seen it today.

ABC News: Saudi Prince Accused of Drug Smuggling Avoids Prosecution

ABC News: Saudi Prince Accused of Drug Smuggling Avoids Prosecution
My god. The US (and the Bush family) really knows how to pick its friends, don't it.

The Connecticut Post Online - News

The Connecticut Post Online - News

This story is interesting. Just imagine the scandal if this had happened in Britain. This sort of thing reaks of Banana Republic.

The General Election: my take...

Strange

Ah, the 2005 general election. An election where the turnout fell (if you strip out postal voting), the winner's share fell to as low as Simon Amstell's trousers and where the Tories somehow managed to gain 50 seats yet grew their share nationally by something like 0.5% (roughly the percentage of hairs on Paul Mccartney's head that are their real colour).

Strange indeed. So we now have a prime minister whom the 4th estate will be pushing out of office by rumour mongering alone and a Tory party seeking a fourth leader since Major (ah, currie shagging Mr Peas, doesn't it seem decades ago since he was PM? And it was only 1997!). I was saddened at the lack of progress from the Lib Dems but, you cannot forget that the swing to them was most probably shallow and temporary due to voters wanting merely to wag their fingers at Blair about Iraq than get close to allowing the yellow party to usurp the Tories as the official opposition.

Honest

My feeling is that the Lib Dems are at least honest. What party would not be honest whilst it pledges to add a layer of income tax for the top 1%? How credible and talented their MPs are in comparison I really don't know. It's a bit like Shaun Murphy winning the snooker World Championship, he didn't look like a world-beating professional sportsman but he turned out to be a record breaker. Is this how the Lib Dems may surprise us if they ever sniffed the Brasso of Number 10's knocker?

Majority reduced

But Blair has lost 100 seats and this means he cannot assume all legislation will fly throw the Commons any longer. Which can only be a good thing. And George Galloway is still an MP. And, by god, will he make full use of this fact!

I fully expect Blair to stay as party leader and PM until the European Constitution referendum (you'd forgotten about that tedious debate hadn't you) and then, regardless of the result, resign as party leader but stay as PM. Then, the new party leader is elected and Blair hands over the reigns probably as the next election hoves into view. This is my prediction based on virtually no evidence.

Good riddance

Good riddance, Howard, by the way. The man makes my food go cold as I watch his Gollumish face contort to a friendly grandfather's in trying to explain why every problem in the nation from immigration to MRSA boils down purely and simply to discipline and law and order. In other words, his facial "velvet glove" is trying to soften the iron fist he was attempting to apply to every area of government responsibility. Of course, pretty much all of his measures have no guarantees that they will make the slightest improvement in the country. But that's the Tories for you.

Now, when Israel bombs Iran, we'll see what happens and who is prime minister at the time. I only hope to god that, if Brown becomes PM, he doesn't lick cowboy arse quite as much as Blair.

Sky News : The Tough Battle To Get Into Britain

Sky News : The Tough Battle To Get Into Britain
Any Chance of the Tories shutting the hell up about this now?

Only once they lose the election, I suspect, and then move on to a new leader. Sheesh.

XML Feed

Incidentally, if no one's noticed, I've put a link to this blog's XML/RSS feed in my links to the right. So you don't have to remember to visit every time and can be spoonfed the stories I find, the stuff I write and the other things I put into the blog that most likely 0.000 people read. Hell, an average blog probably only gets the writer as its sole reader, so this ain't out of the ordinary. Though, I have noticed some hits coming from search engines (one for gay schoolboy stories!) that never really seem appropriate for what I'm doing here.

Still, I know Monkey75 has read it. Once. Or twice. So that makes this blog ABOVE average!

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=2491

CNN.com - Berlusconi under pressure on Iraq - May 3, 2005

CNN.com - Berlusconi under pressure on Iraq - May 3, 2005
There was 90% popular opposition to Italy taking part and now it looks as if those in government are crumbling. Much like the coalition in general, with Hungary and Poland and Spain withdrawing.

Of course, it's highly likely that this sort of thing will only make headlines in the US if the British did the decent thing and pulled out in time for the end of the UN mandate. I think this would reduce violence and let Iraq settle down to itself. I only want a phased withdrawal but I think it has to happen.

Gallup: 50% of Americans Now Say Bush Deliberately Misled Them on WMDs

Gallup: 50% of Americans Now Say Bush Deliberately Misled Them on WMDs

And yet the fool was re-elected!

Go figure...

Proof Blair was told war could be ruled illegal

Proof Blair was told war could be ruled illegal
Blair didn't want to hear it.

Some scripts

Just posting some material from last month that didn't get performed in the end. I like them, though.


"Making Thinroads"

RACHEL HUNTER COMES ON STAGE.

HUNTER: Hello there, I'm Rachel Hunter and welcome to “Make me a Supermodel”. This is the show where young, thin, young, female, thin and...thin ladies compete for a lucrative modelling contract. We're going to be at least as strict as we would be in the real modelling world so watch out ladies! Ok, first up is Daisy.

A WIRE COATHANGER WITH A BLOUSE HANGING ON IT COMES ON STAGE. IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT THE COATHANGER IS HANGING FROM ITSELF BUT SOMEONE DOES HAVE TO CARRY/PUSH THIS ON.

HUNTER: OK, Daisy. Now you've been on a photo shoot with the rest of the girls and we've had a look at the results. I've got to say, the camera does seem to add a few pounds on to you. One too many cafe mochas, would that be?[PAUSE] Ah, the enigmatic type. Fine. Well, what I'd suggest if you really want to be a supermodel is watch that weight, get some discipline with what you eat and..for god's sake try to avoid the fate of so many hopefuls; of ending up as just another quick fix replacement car aerial.

LIGHTS OUT.

END.

Song spoof:

TO THE TUNE OF TONY CHRISTIE'S AMARILLO.

(Verse)
Went to get a new phone,
It's got that crazy frog ringtone,
I can play some games and,
Listen to songs by my fav'rite band,
I can email my mum,
I can text rude words,
But there's just one problem,
I think is so absurd,

(Chorus)
Show me the way the make a phone call,
The bloke in Carphone Warehouse knows fuck all,
Just wanna make a bloody phone call,
To sweet Marie who waits for me,
Show me the way the make a phone call,
Customer services made me bawl,
Crying cos I simply can't call,
My sweet Marie or anyone,
(MAYBE SHOUT “3G” WHEN MUSIC DOES THE BAH BAH AT THE END OF THE BELOW “LA LAS”)
Sha la la la la la la X3
How the hell does this thing work?

(Verse)
Look my phone is ringing,
That sweety chick is singing,
When I try to pick up,
I will always get the same hiccup
It can open tin cans,
Show my Horoscope,
But the flaw in this plan,
Makes me lose all hope,

(Chorus)
Show me the way the make a phone call,
The bloke in Carphone Warehouse knows fuck all,
Just wanna make a bloody phone call,
To sweet Marie who waits for me,
Show me the way the make a phone call,
Customer services made me bawl,
Crying cos I simply can't call,
My sweet Marie or anyone,

Sha la la la la la la X3
How the fuck does this thing work?
Sha la la la la la la X3
What's so great about 3G?
(End)


"The BBCheap"

V/O ANNOUNCER: and now on BBC 1, Strictly Dance Fever!

A BIT OF MUSIC AND THEN A MAN IN A BROWN OVERCOAT SHUFFLES ON STAGE, HE IS QUITE OLD. STRONG COCKNEY ACCENT.

MAN: Alright? Dave's the name. I knows you were probably wanting that glittery bloke off Channel 4 but we've had some cutbacks y'see. Thousands of jobs gone and they thought Mr..Mr Norton was a bit pricey. They got the freebees off 'im on Comic Relief, though, eh. Heh heh...Yeah, so this is Strictly Dance Fever. Like the set, eh? Bloody marvellous. Amazing what you can do with a used birthday card and a stuffed womble toy. Cor! Now we were gonna have 12 contestants on the show but we could only afford two. And they're me mates. Come on Smithy, you an'all, Sandra.

SMITHY AND SANDRA COME ON STAGE. THEY'RE PRETTY SKANKY.

MAN: Now these two are gonna compete to see who you like the best. Now we were gonna have a series of this shit but we thought, nah, no point, so we're gonna have 10 minutes dancing and then you lot vote on £2 a second premium rate number to vote for the best. Gotta pay for me taxi home, y'know.

THE STAGE LIGHTS FLICKER THEN GO OUT.

MAN: Oh, bloody 'ell! Anyone got shrapnel for the meter?

END.

MediaGuardian.co.uk | Broadcast | Row as BBC cuts Bafta speech

MediaGuardian.co.uk | Broadcast | Row as BBC cuts Bafta speech
Must say I was very pleased to see this excellent documentary win major TV awards. I am also not in the least bit surprised that this speech was cut entirely. But his point is entirely correct. When journalists, especially broadcast journalists, extrapolate consequences and expand ideas from slivers of fact that is when irresponsibility creeps in and we get a very warped message of the true threat to "the nation".

Why We Fight

Why We Fight
A superb documentary.

BBC NEWS | World | Europe | Pope John Paul II dies in Vatican

BBC NEWS World Europe Pope John Paul II dies in Vatican

A shining example of pure religious zeal

My assessment of the pope.

He was a shining example of pure religious zeal. And a marvellous example of the deep flaws the church has never really rooted out.

He naturally spoke out forcefully against atheist communism, but only once he was safely in Rome as Pope was anything more than an agitant.

Catholic doctrine rather than Christianity

He allowed the scandalous cover up of paedophile priests which cost the church money and incalculable damage to its reputation. He pushed Catholicism into Africa and (perhaps relative to its anti-contraception rule) witnessed the fastest spread of AIDS anywhere in the world in that wretched continent.

He did not so much stick rigidly to Christianity as to Catholic doctrine. The abortion, contraception, the unmarried/celibate priests, the anti-gay stuff, the canonisation of Mother Theresa (who didn't attempt to treat the sick, merely gave them a place to die - a commonly misunderstood fact) and other such highly objectionable stances were sourced from Catholicism in large part.

A man of peace

For my particular theological position, you can read it in the Anada archive and in Digital Spy (quick google search should do it). In short, I'm a fully paid up atheist.

That all said, he was, without question, a man of peace - although, his affect on the real world to establish peace cannot exactly be described as profound. During his time in office, more Catholic countries than ever before have been embroiled in wars (civil and cross-border) and turmoil (such as brutal dictatorships). Italy, itself, was wracked with corruption for at least a decade of his office but then we have Guatamala, Columbia, Ecuador, Panama, the Philipines, Argentina, Chile and so on all suffered despite the Pope's countless windowsill speeches.

But no, he was a man who passionately loved peace and sought to keep peace at the top of the world agenda - as do I (although, he had a bit more clout than I). He was a man who inspired his Catholic followers in clear ways but whether this was simply because he turned up rather than sipping wine in his golden palace is another matter.

What good did he do?

In the real world, and I think this is the only angle from which a non-Catholic can have any interest in judging him, I still have to ask what good did he actually do?

The sole answer I can conjure is in inspiring Solidarity in Poland. This was a Catholic-driven grass routes workers movement which formed just months after the new Pope's first visit to his homeland. It slowly reached a critical mass whilst the Polish communist government simultaneously withered and eventually, a bloodless handover of power from the communists to democracy (and a Solidarity government) took place. Now, this was good but how fundamental was Solidarity's (and, therefore, the Popes inspiration) existance to the tearing down of Poland's Red government? Had this happened out of the blue and in absolute isolation then I would have said "very". But, let's face it, Communism was doomed from the mid-80s and the Iron Curtain was due to fall anyway. Communism had eaten itself alive - the Communist (not Marxist) experiment had been shown to have a finite lifespan, more finite than even the West had guessed - and so Solidarity, it could be argued, was simply there to fill the vacuum. This in itself was good too, as many Eastern Bloc states did not have this comfy sofa of a back-up government to fall into, post-Communism. So for this, the Pope could rightly be given credit.

He was more Catholic than all the clergy put together and doubled

I am never one for eulogies of someone given simply because they are recently deceased. Just because they are dead, their faults and achievements survive still in equal measure.

One thing you cannot criticise him for is any kinks in his faith. The man was cut through with Catholicism. He was more Catholic than all the clergy put together and doubled. And in many ways he was the perfect example of a head of a church. Dedicated, passionate, intelligent, energetic and driven by faith and nothing else.

I have already outlined where this clashed with the real world but that is an argument not so much with the man as with the doctrine. He was not the first and he won't be the last to follow it so what I take issue with is the doctrine itself.

So I listen to many people spreading messages on radio such as "without John Paul II the map of Eastern Europe would be very different today" - nonsense. And we hear various representatives of other faiths paying their respects. Fine. And we hear hours and hours of coverage of this long expected event. I now look forward to seeing who the next Pope will be. Until then, what else is there to say?

New Torture Memo Implicates Top US General + Powell sort of apologises

New Torture Memo Implicates Top US General

Colin Powell only now feeling uneasy about the US's pre-war behaviour. Bit late, mate.

General suggesting techniques that, shock horror, we saw in US prison camps but yet he claims he never gave permission for them to be used. Hmmm.

FOXNews.com - Politics - Fifty-Nine Ex-U.S. Diplomats Oppose Bolton

FOXNews.com - Politics - Fifty-Nine Ex-U.S. Diplomats Oppose Bolton

It virtually goes without saying that this plea (as sensible as it is) will go unheeded. It's not like it's the first time a collective if experts has proclaimed abhorrence at a Bush policy or decision.

USATODAY.com - Bush approval slips to 45%, lowest of his presidency

USATODAY.com - Bush approval slips to 45%, lowest of his presidency

It took twice as long to get this unpopular in his first term. Hmmm...America regretting its decision?

BBC NEWS | World | South Asia | US to sell fighters to Pakistan

BBC NEWS World South Asia US to sell fighters to Pakistan
Of course, the US is not really selling them to Pakistan, it is buying them from the arms industry for Pakistan. The US is providing over $3bn dollars in aid to this dictatorship which has already wriggled out of blame for its top scientist providing nuclear technology to Iran.

In many ways it has echos with Iraq and Iran and how they were played by the US. Saddam was considered and ally and helped militarily. Then he turned bad. Admittedly, India is far from an enemy from the US but clearly has little respect from Bush, otherwise this decision may, at the very least, have been arrived at in consultation with them. Musharaf is a dictator, an ally and is recieving more in military aid than some countries' entire GDP.

I hope that this repetition of such a risky and purely pragmatic strategy does not end up in yet more blowback for the US and the world.

Like all dictatorships, we see plenty of this - for more detail you should click here.

Still, as with Saudi, Kuwait, Panama (in the 80s) and Uzbekistan, the US says good words but you can always tell a lot about someone by who their friends are. And what they do with people in Guantanamo Bay, of course.

Wow, I'm writing!!

I'm actually writing again! It just happened. I sat down and in two days I have about 6 sketches, which have already gone to the Treason Show. The script editor just invited me to send stuff to the Newsrevue as well, so we'll see where that takes me. I really love writing and it is ball crushingly frustrating when I can't get ideas flowing.

So, I'll put some of the better scripts up here once they've been picked out by the editors. Even if they don't get used (I'm up against something like 60 writers) then I'll still put the best ones up.

Bit stuck now for a sketch but I do wanna write something tonight. Better go, having a ding dong on Digital Spy forums with Monkey75 (what a pro-war card he is, very droll, but not so often with me, for some reason).

BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | Israel confirms settlement growth

BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | Israel confirms settlement growth

The simple truth is that if Israel had the slightest interest in peace where both sides win they would not be doing this. It's insanity of the most inexcusable kind.

BBC NEWS | Programmes | Panorama | Blair's case for war questioned

BBC NEWS | Programmes | Panorama | Blair's case for war questioned Stunned? Me? Not in the least...

What I don't know...

Hmm, I sometimes forget that I can have opinions, opine until I start repeating myself, but I am shamefully low in a lot of knowledge many I look up to take for granted.

Sure, I had a brief bit of Latin at school, I have a smattering of Spanish, I know something of history, geography and sociology. I have a deep interest in psychology and communications media. I have a passive interest in cosmology and physics.

But I know very little about the technical nitty gritty of computers, HTML, classical literature, political history, art, poetry, anthropology, biology and many other topics.

In non-UK and US current affairs I really feel undone. I really know nothing of what goes on in South America, the Far East, Africa or..or..well you get the idea.

It boils down to the fact I am not the fastest reader in the world and I work about 70 hours a week. I don't mean my lips move when I read, I mean I simply read in such a way that means I don't need to reread it (it all goes in).

I am also so skint that buying a broadsheet paper on a daily basis is impossible and reading that sort of stuff on the internet is much much more time consuming.

So I'm left with simple gut reactions to things. I try to be detached but I largely rest my responses to subjects on the principle I outlined in earlier posts.

What set this little...thing off? I saw an "around the world in 80 seconds" segment on Fox News!! I, in my smug little way, thought typical Fox, devoting 80 pitiful seconds to non-American stories, how ill informed is the American public? But then they reported on protests in South Korea against Japan because there is some longrunning Falklands-style dispute between the two countries over some islands. Didn't know that. I would probably never have known that if I hadn't tuned into Fox News at that time. Scary. This sort of incident is a wakeup call and no mistake. If I need to tune into Fox News to fill in some knowledge blanks I REALLY need to get me some reading done, urgently.

I've also notice my spelling has drifted to the depths of a 10 year old. I don't know why, I just find myself totally unable to spell words I know for a fact I have used before. If it was CJD I would not be surprised. I was something of a cheeseburger addict 10 or 15 yearsago...

So, aside from this lack of varied knowledge, an everdiminishing spelling facility and a lack of creative juices (see, used lack twice in one sentence, similies are too much to generate!) this blog should be crammed to the rafters with insightful, high quality writing. Enjoy!!

Ah..christ.

A battle the Neo-cons lost...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/4354269.stm

This report tells a very important story. Nevermind that Big Oil won out over "mental neo-cons" just look at who the neo-cons are and what they wanted to do. It really is scary.

All Change - stay tuned

Well, I'm finding it increasingly hard to write, especially now that I have become a freelance photographer. So, with that in mind, I doubt I shall add any posts to this blog for around six months. Once I do, I shall reveal who I am and start publicising my work - Pets and kids portraits welcome, sort of thing - and showing my favourite pics on this blog.

Should I ever write anything else - and hopefully, once I'm established, I will - I'll put it up here.

So, to the reader of this blog (I can't believe there's any more) hold tight until I'm settled down.

I may add thoughts on events here, so don't assume this blog will be blank for six months.

A catch up on events

It seems I have to be tanked up on spirits and cola to have any writing impulse these days so, as I am currently half cut on said concoction, here I am.

You can't imagine how creatively constipated I have been. I have been so busy that I have been unable to concentrate on anything long enough to even be passionate enough to comment on huge stories. It also makes me slightly uneasy at the vague potential prospect that I have to be drunk to be creative. I see so many alcoholics and see how tired and wasted they are. I don't want to have to be fucked up to write.That would be more than depressing.

I'll get on to the tsunami in a second. Blunkett's affair really seems minimal now but it has been event I was never particularly animated about even before we lost a further 124,000 poor people in the tsunami. I don't really feel Blunkett had a serious upward route in politics left and he was really nicking ideas from America most of the time in his role. Although, I think the fact that the US hasn't even seen it fit to create an ID card scheme shows how relatively pointless it is. If the US (the bullseye of terrorist targets) hasn't even begun to countenance it that why should we? I don't have a principalled stand against ID cards I just want to have a damn fine argument why they are essential.

OK, I think I can move on to the tsunami. It is a disaster that would not have been as bad had these countries been richer than we allowed them to be. The psychological damage done to individuals must be huge and this is what affects me most. The random and sudden death, largely based on chance and the heart breaking "what if"s that produces (what if I'd held on to her/him, what if I'd not missed the bus etc.) really gets to me.

I hope this historical disaster has a real effect on the soul of the rich world. I hope it (in dreadful ironic pun) causes a seachange in the developed world's thinking of how the world works. I just hope it doesn't smother the larger poverty campaign being co-ordinated this year. I hope those behind it are astute enough to use this disaster as a tool to push this broader agenda. I want to wish them the best of luck.

A interesting thing to do is look at coverage of the disaster on TV and see that all 24 hour news channels have virtually wall to wall coverage except Fox. Surprise surprise, Fox was all about Iraq, Bush and Law and Order. As I type, Fox is adjudicating the biggest News Stories of 2004 as being the election and Iraq above the tsunami. They have said that basically, the tsunami "may" beat the latter two as the biggest story!!! Come On!. This beats 9/11! This should be called the Boxing Day disaster and be referred to it as such like 9/11 is refered to. Then again, the commentator on Fox just said that Reagan was one of the "seminal thinkers of the 20th century". Jesus H Christ. John Kasich on Fox just tried to imply that the Florida hurricanes and the tsunami were possibly hinting at the end times. Jesus H Christ!! It really is staggering such tossers get on to mainstream TV in America. But the fact that CNN, ABC and NBC news are really looking at the Boxing Day Disaster so intensely is heartening.

Happy New Year.

It's a rough time

Busy, tired all the time and unemployed is not what you want in the run up to Christmas. It's also not want you want if you want to write. I currently have difficulty typing accurately due to tiredness and a worryingly unfocussed mind. So this is a brief post. If it was any longer I'd miss typing errors, so knackered am I. :(

Sky+

I'm getting Sky+. Should I be fortunate enough to have snagged any non-British eyes to this rather substandard blog, Sky+ can be explained better than I can by visiting http://www.sky.com

I have been getting more and more bored with TV and being able to choose from more channels and being able to record better is also a boon, together with easy DIY upgrading of the hard drive for a few pounds. So, I'm gonna give it a go. Wish me luck!

Hostettler mounting campaign to change the name of Interstate 69

Hostettler mounting campaign to change the name of Interstate 69 Only in America, dude, seriously.

We're a creature of three levels and they ruin our lives,
What we are, what we show and what we want in our lives,
We want to be seen as calm and true and happy souls,
But we're really insecure and lose sight of our goals

We ignore our selves at the cost of happiness,
The image of it's easier even if you're a mess,
In truth, we hate ev'ryone including ourselves,
But we never admit this, whoever delves

We're our own locusts,
Feasting on our own feast,
Burying our own lusts,
Trapping our own beast

The surface is a sham whoever you may be,
What's the point of "liking" a rich celebrity?,
We're all caked in lies and pretence like stage makeup,
We compress the real selves only crises rake up,

We're our own locusts,
Feasting on our own feast,
Burying our own lusts,
Trapping our own beast

We aim for popularity, success and love,
But then we sacrifice them in life's push and shove,
Preachers and mentors try to give them back to us,
But we all know what they're game is, they're after us

We're our own locusts,
Feasting on our own feast,
Burying our own lusts,
Trapping our own beast.

(c) Schoolboy 2004.

You blew it Kerry - Just as I thought you would.

I had written a piece but then it got deleted before I could publish so this will be a little rehashing of it.

"Kerry was the wrong man. About as charismatic as a rheumatoidal filing clerk."


I never supported Kerry, I just didn't support Bush. Kerry fucked up this election like no one else could. The Democrats fucked it up.

This was always an election for Kerry to lose rather than for Bush to win. Bush has his 48 million Christian evangelical idiots to vote for him but Kerry made so many mistakes it's hard to know where to begin.


"Bush was elected not on issues...Simply on gut fear."


Firstly, Kerry was the wrong man. About as charismatic as a rheumatoidal filing clerk.

Then you have all these targets he barely touched upon: The millions in lost jobs, the millions living on food handouts, the millions without healthcare, the deficit etc. He allowed Bush to hype his "war president" message. He allowed Bush to get away with consistent distortions of pretty much every issue.

"They accepted Bush (as did Kerry) declaring that the "American people know I have a plan" without stating what the damn plan IS."

Bush was elected not on issues, not on whether he's any good or not. Simply on gut fear. Fear of change, fear of terrorism and fear of the unknown. They accepted Bush (as did Kerry) declaring that the "American people know I have a plan" without stating what the damn plan is. Kerry failed to tell the voters who he was. He was insincere (pretending to be pro-gun, for instance) and just not a good match for the electorate.

Bush was perfect at speaking in general, simplistic, convicted terms. It didn't matter if he was right or wrong he knew what he thought. That was basically the only attraction to Americans.

He underused Edwards and they just weren't ruthless enough against the most ruthless election machine in history that Rove has constructed.

"He is free to select Supreme Court judges the average Brit would scarcely believe."

Kerry also massively fucked up in concentrating almost entirely on the swing states and leaving those that subsequently switched from Gore to Bush in this election to themselves. Bush, through his media friends and spinners, has bombarded the entire country with propaganda about terrorism and the like so much so that Kerry strongly underestimated how this had affected people's judgments across even formerly Democrat states. In a country so ignorant that 40% of people still think Iraq was behind 9/11, where virtually no one knows where Iraq is, where over a third of of under 25s think Italy, Japan and Germany were allies in WWII this propaganda sinks a lot deeper than it would in Britain.

Time and again, you speak to an average American and they'll spout the now stock oneliners Bush has dripped into their minds "with us or against us", "war on terror", "we are a beacon of freedom" and other complete myths.

So now Bush is free to run the country into the ground to bed the US into a virtually permanent and pointless state of war. He is free to select Supreme Court judges the average Brit would scarcely believe, and he is free to set up the nation for either a Jeb vs Clinton or Rice vs Clinton 2008 race. Or maybe we'll see some other race. But I see death, destruction, waste and further poverty for millions of Americans and the world.

If Bush is assassinated I wouldn't be surprised. After all, pretty much the only people on earth who do not wish him gone from the Whitehouse are the 60 million Americans who voted for him. Other than them basically the 6bn other people on the planet feel differently. Probably more enemies than any assassinated president ever had. Hope it doesn't happen, but then it's not up to me. I think it would be the worst outcome imaginable but, sadly, a far from impossible one. Given the unprecendented depth of hatred in certain parts of the world.

CBS News | Even Republicans Fear Bush | October 31, 2004�14:23:31

CBS News | Even Republicans Fear Bush | October 31, 2004�14:23:31

Every American should read this article. It may then have an effect on the election in my opinion.

FAIR MEDIA ADVISORY: If Only They Had Invented the Internet

FAIR MEDIA ADVISORY: If Only They Had Invented the Internet

This is the sort of weakness many members of the media on both sides of the Atlantic. Both parties play the game, of course. That is, Kerry and Bush. Now journalists expect to be spinned to but why do they seem so naive as to barely question if they are being outright lied to?

Answers on a postcard please...

What's going on?

I intend to embark on a bit of question asking and look back over recent history to figure out why the hell has world politics (with the notable exception of some European countries) swung so far to the right?

It would be a relatively simple matter to analyse if this was purely a US phenomenon in isolation but this is not the case. If you look at where Eastern Europe is going, where France is leaning and Italy plus Australia, New Zealand, Southern America and, one might even say, China you see a definite patter of right-wing governments claiming and keeping power.

I've got say here and now that I do not consider myself left-wing - as a non-party member of any group and a non-politician I have real problems with labels like this - I certainly can put my hand on my refried heart and say I am not right-wing. To me, the right-wing world view is profoundly illogical. It struggles consistently to balance the mutually exclusive notions of liberty and conformity. They wish for near perfect social conformity but also wish for individual freedom (small government) which is an impossible mix. And those "libertarian" right-wingers have an even more illogical world view which relies largely on some phantom innate trustworthiness on behalf of profit-making companies. The simple fact is that neither of these approaches is workable in the long-term or makes much sense.

I, on the other hand, don't subscribe to a philosophy as such. I merely start from an atheist standing start and work from there. The next step is to say individuals and any institutions should treat others in the same manner they would wish to be treated themselves. Any transgression of this should be disapproved of at best and outright prevented and criminalised at worst. This social framework is what, I believe, government is designed to form and maintain on behalf of the electorate. Is this such an unworkable platform to form a world view? I don't think so.

As government is an instrument of the people's will, this fact will inevitably affect a government's policies but, frankly, I would have thought that if there was a consensus on the above stated purpose of government in society then the policies favoured would only serve to further that aim. Let's apply what I am thinking to specific instances. In terms of sexuality, in my opinion government and everyone else should continue to treat every straight, gay, bi person as they would wish to be treated themselves. Being gay does not forfeit your right to this. So, government's role in this area is to ensure that every citizen respects this right. As transgressions of this right can affect employment and profoundly affect someone's quality of life there must be legislation that ensures that no one will be treated badly simply on the basis of their sexuality. This would be the same for all forms of discrimination on the grounds of an unchosen aspect of an individual's identity.

The right-wing mentality has it that we should dictate as little as possible to companies what they can and can't do yet individuals should be brow-beaten into living a 2.4 children nuclear family lifestyle as closely as possible. Individuals should be prevented from having sex at 16 if they're gay but not if they're straight. Huh? This is not the actions or policy of a government treating people like they would wish to be treated.

So onto this phenomenon which has crept up on us across the world. Now, of course, a large part of the blame has to be laid at the Socialists' doors. They have failed in many countries to run the nation properly. And this fact cannot be ducked. As I am not a socialist I think socialism, too, is lacking in logic in swathes of their thinking. Nationalising everything is not the panacea they claim, for one.

But in large part, the Right has risen of its own accord. It has, almost simultaneously, found a way of shaping the public's minds to their world view by, in many cases, hijacking truth and beating into such a pulp you only see small traces of it beneath the damage inflicted on it by spin and lies. For evidence of this, witness the credit for election wins by right-wing or right-leaning politicians being heaped upon their spin-masters. Karl Rove, Alastair Campbell, Lynton Crosby (Oz prime minister John Howard's Karl Rove) and the like are the real forces behind the rise of the right and the shaping of people's increasing tendency to spray right-wing deodorant over the stench of societies' problems.

As these people, by definition, have tentacles deep within the media machinery they can plant stories, influence vocabulary and the agenda of the press in such a way that the people simply don't realise their opinions are being changed. A fantastic example of this is the staggering number of US citizens (over a third) that still think Saddam Hussein was directly responsible for 9/11. That fact really says it all, as far as I'm concerned.

Another example of this is the increasing use of the phrase "tax relief" - a phrase the right always uses - which even anti-tax cut people find themselves being suckered into using. Now you don't need to tell me that that phrase has very significant connotations. You also have this interesting notion that rights are held to ransom with the prices being "responsibility". This is the phenomenon where politicians say "we aren't going to let you fully realise a basic right until you start taking some responsibility". If it is a right then "taking responsibility" in a related area should not be a pre-requisite for receiving this right. It is a right, not something earned from lawmakers if we're "good" people. What they are referring to is a privilege not a right.

Then again, the whole "war on terror" thing is completely and entirely a concoction of spin. It is an utter fantasy. When they could have approached 9/11 with an air that these are sad and desperate religious fanatics who are not a formal organisation nor a threat that can ever even dint western society, they decided to actually legitimise these idiots by giving them the "war" they so wanted. They are an fully fledged "enemy", rather than simply some nasty mosquitos to be swatted by the twin tools of the FBI and CIA. This is utter madness and far exceeds the real life situation. Thousands of per cent the number of those who have and will die from terrorism this decade die every year from violent crime and drunk driving in America alone. Are tens of billions spent on combating this? No.

And this is why so many people think there has to be another reason for this "war on terror". When you look, you see the neo-cons with their Straussian myth-making history (witness the non-existent threat from the Soviets hyped by them in the 70s to being an "evil empire") and you see the vested interests blanketing the pentagon and White House. Look at Dick Cheney's wife -a board member of Lockheed Martin from 1997 until 2001. Look at George Bush's dad, an employee of the Carlyle Group - a company heavily involved in the arms industry - until only about 6 months ago. This has never happened before, where so many conflicts of interest have been allowed without an outcry and barely any reporting. I haven't even mentioned Cheney's Halliburton connections - Halliburton apparently traded with Iraq during the sanctions period - http://www.truthout.org/docs_01/02.23D.Cheney.Circumvented.htm .

So what's going on? Of course, it's not like these countries have never been right-wing before. They have had conservative/Conservative governments and so on. But these have previously been of a notably different flavour. They have been somewhat less coated in a snooker-ball hard veneer of ideology that countenances no moderation. Even Thatcher had Hesletine, Clarke and Hurd in her cabinet. In Labour in the UK, the noted left-wingers have slowly left of their own accord as the government has gone on. Short, Meacher, Field, Robin Cook all left for numerous reasons. This cabinet is now full of Blairites with a sprinkling of Brownites.

Of course, I'm no expert in world politics but I know when I see a trend. In Italy, you have a very different political system and culture - and, of course, history - which has seen dictatorship and wild swings from virtual communism through to virtual fascism within a few years. Now we have a person who practically owns the nation's media and is the richest Italian in the country now also prime minister of the country. Despite this, due to the old footbrake of proportional representation, he has to share power with a ragbag of right-wing parties, each with some frightening and some moderate views. But Berlusconi's initial offering of a gay-hating, woman suppressing man as EU Justice Commissioner - where he must oversee human rights implementation - kinda shows where he's coming from. Yet he has been the most long-serving premier the country has seen since Mussolini. Italy went through a long neutered period of constantly changing prime ministers and deadlocked government which allowed the Mafia to thrive. Then years of ridding the country of such corruption (at least as far as Italy's concerned, it certainly wouldn't meet British standards of a corruption free system) has finally resulted in relatively stable government, though a far from blistering economy. Still, as the selling of the defence part of an Italian government-owned engineering company to Carlyle shows, there are real ties to the US administration which suggests why Berlusconi went into Iraq with them.

I'm afraid that I can't really go much further than to say that it does appear to be a mixture of interconnected interests, tactics and aims that have brought nations round to a right-wing angle but I must say I have not forgotten that Bush lost the popular vote and that there are still many millions of people in each country who have not been seduced. I can only hope that more people see through the right-wing folly and begin to throw them out. A good place to start, of course, would be Bush.

BBC NEWS | World | South Asia | Afghan vote boycott creates turmoil

BBC NEWS World South Asia Afghan vote boycott creates turmoil

So we see how hard it really is to force democracy on a never democratic country. A democracy invades a tyranny and we get this complete and utter mess. Deaths daily, a country so unstable the unelected president can only venture outside the capital once to campaign and then the election process itself brings about a massive candidate boycott. Let's hear Bush brag about this.

BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | Iraq war illegal, says Annan

BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | Iraq war illegal, says Annan

About bloody time he said this. I think if any does know then he should! I've been saying this since the invasion began.

Things better for me, God knows about the rest.

Well, at last I get broadband and I also get a laptop and digital camera. And a job. And a car. And prospects and I start writing scripts again. It's all going on.

That said. Into the world, which this blog is more about than anything else, and things are getting worse. The media constantly banging on about rapist lottery winners and dodgy vaccinations and the like. Then look at the state of Iraq and Blair suggesting they treat the unelected Prime Minister of Iraq (who was put into power after an illegal invasion) as guest of honour at the Labour party conference!

Utterly astonishing. The good news in the US is that there appears to be a growing groundswell of people trying their damndest to stop Bush getting elected. Michael Moore, of course, pulling out all the stops. Releasing the DVD of Farenheit 9/11 and a book of supportive letters from US servicemen just before the election cannot fail but have an effect. Plus, the other campaign groups involved quite diverse public figures provides some hope.

Make no mistake, this Bush administration (especially a certain Karl Rove ) is a dark and ruthless one. Hence the very suspicious anti-Kerry ads causing Kerry to file a complaint. Problem is, once they're out, they're out.

More consistent enrichment of the oil companies in the $49 barrel. They are making obscene profits on this. The value of which sometimes equates to several countries' entire government budgets.

Here is more dodginess: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6776.htm

Never mind the collosal amounts of book cooking going on in the Pentagon anyway: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2003/05/18/MN251738.DTL

Sheesh.

It's late...Bed for me.