My Two Cents

Haiti: Do Your Bit

2010-01-17T14:09:00.003Z

Click on above image or visit

The Grass Isn't Greener

2009-11-09T20:02:00.002Z

The Berlin wall fell twenty years ago. Many East Germans must have dreamt of that for so long, imagining the manna on the other side of the wall. But all too soon it became evident that the grass wasn't greener on the other side.

Many East Germans were plunged into poverty by the capitalist economy. Social inequality has grown. The communal spirit of East Germany was replaced by the selfish individuality of capitalism. Crime and other social problems are rife. It's no wonder that so many east Germans have turned to neo-Nazi parties.

Even twenty years later many parts of east Germany remain socially deprived. The people of east Germany may now enjoy freedom and rights they didn't have before but these won't put food on the table or a roof over your head.

Stupid Cow

2009-11-09T19:48:00.002Z

Jacqui Janes' son's dead and instead of attacking the British government's policy on Afghanistan she attacks the Prime Minister's handwriting. Instead of asking why her son was killed and why he was in Afghanistan she goes running to the Sun about the handwriting of partially sighted man.

Maybe she was aiming for the average Sun reader's IQ. They can't understand the international geo-politics that are in play in Afghanistan. They can understand bad writing.

Now because of this dappy cow's outburst in the Sun the relatives of British soldiers killed in Afghanistan will in future receive a standard printed letter probably with a facsimile of Gordon Brown's signature.

Soft Justice

2009-09-04T21:53:00.005Z

Imagine if a group foreigners had come to the USA, gang-raped a 14-year old American girl and murdered her, her mother, her father and her sister. You'd expect the culprits to face American justice, in America.

This is what Sergeant Paul E. Cortez, Specialist James P. Barker, Private First Class Jesse V. Spielman, Private First Class Brian L. Howard, Private First Class Steven Dale Green and Sergeant Anthony W. Yribe. Only, they were Americans, the victims were Iraqis and the crimes were committed in Iraq.

Did these scum face Iraqi justice? No, instead they were handed over to the American justice system thanks to a special American law (Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act) which was enacted solely for the purpose of protecting American criminals.

Even in America they could have faced the death penalty. But a jury in red-neck Kentucky decided to not to give them the death penalty. Why would they send Americans to the gallows for killing Muslims. Muslims attacked America.

Instead they were given prison sentences ranging from 27 months to life:

Barker: 20 years
Cortez: 10 years
Green: Life
Howard: 27 months
Spielman: 10 years
Yribe: Charges dropped

It seems that in Iraq no one is above the law, except Americans.

70-40

2009-09-01T21:04:00.003Z

Today is the anniversary of two events that show that the "international community's" attitude to tyranny hasn't changed over the last seventy years.

70 years ago Germany attacked Poland triggering a world war that would take the lives of 50 million people and change the cause of world history. The legacy of this war (end of empire, cold war) is still around. The war only came about as a result of the "international community's" appeasement of Fascist tyranny. They allowed the Fascists to do as they please (Rhineland, Austria, Czechoslovakia) as long as they didn't affect their "interests". Only when the Fascists threatened their interests did they react but by then the only way stop them was war. Never forget that the Allies didn't go to war to rescue the Poles, nor the Jews. They only went to war because the Fascists' imperial ambitions threatened the Allies' empires.

40 years ago Mad Dog Gaddafi staged a coup in Libya, heralding decades of tyranny for the Libyan people. For many years Libya was a pariah state, accused of supporting international terrorism. After 9/11, realising the winds of change, Gadaffi renounced terrorism. He immediately became the darling of the "international community". World leaders, with multinationals in tow, soon descended on Libya, eager to exploit Libya's natural wealth. Hundreds of billions have been invested in Libya. Gaddafi, his family and acolytes have amassed unimaginable wealth. But ordinary Libyans live in poverty. And Libya remains a murderous police state. Any opposition to Gadaffi is brutally repressed. Torture and murder are a way of life for Gaddafi's secret police. But the "international community" doesn't care about that, as long as it can get at Libya's oil and gas.

Transparency

2009-06-18T18:53:00.029Z

Elephants in the Room

2009-06-04T22:06:00.004Z

Barack Obama's speech in Cairo may be viewed as pushing all the buttons of the Arab/Muslim world but it failed to mention the biggest gripe ordinary Arabs/Muslims have about the USA: it's support for the dictators that rule the Arab/Muslim world.

Every Arab country is ruled by a murderous tyrant. All but two (Syria and Sudan) have been put in place and proped up by the USA. The USA will never be able to reach out to ordinary Arabs/Muslims as long as it ignores the big fat elephants in the room: Dictator Al-Saud , Dictator Mubarak, Dictator Bouteflika, Dictator Gaddafi, Dictator Mohammed, Dictator Abdullah II, Dictaor Al-Sabah, Dictator Al Khalifah, Dictator Al Said, Dictator Al Thani, etc.

The Failed Chinese Revolution

2009-06-04T22:05:00.001Z

End of a War. End of a Dream. End of a Race.

2009-05-18T20:12:00.003Z

End of a War
The Sri Lankan civil war is over. But it wasn't just the Tamil Tigers who were defeated. The whole Tamil population has been defeated.

End of a Dream
The Tamils' dream of an independent Tamil Eelam has ended in a horrific nightmare.

Independence was always going to be an uphill task. There are only three ways a people can achieve their independence: peaceful political actions, armed insurrection or international intervention.

The Tamils tried to achieve self-determination through peaceful actions but were only met with violence and laws that further undermined and marginalised them.

The Tamils tried to achieve independence through armed insurrection but were opposed not only by the Sri Lankan military but also the military and intelligence agencies of the regional powers (China, India and Pakistan).

Many Tamils had hopes of Indian intervention (in their favour) at the beginning of the conflict. Their hopes were dashed firstly by the assassination of Indira Gandhi and then by the failure of the Indian Peace Keeping Force.

The "international community'' has stated that there can no be no meaningful solution to the country's ethnic problems without addressing the Tamils' grievances. The Sri Lankan government has said it will do so but only fool would believe them. They are masters at lies, deceit and propaganda. And don't expect the "international community" to backup its sentiments with any actions. If they couldn't prevent the bloodbath in the so-called Safe Zone what hope is there of them enforcing a political solution?

End of a Race
Over the coming years those Tamils who can afford it to will leave Sri Lanka, as 1/2 million (one third of the population) have already done so. The ones who have to remain will, by hook or crook, "disappear" or be forced to assimilate. Their culture, language, traditions, whole way of life will disappear. The Sri Lankan Tamil race will be extinct in 100 years. The Sinhalese will have achieved what they've always wanted: the racial purity of the island of Sri Lanka.

Non Sequitur

2009-04-27T22:14:00.002Z

The Sri Lankan military has said today that it has stopped using aircraft / heavy weapons against the "Safe Zone". One naturally infers from this statement that they had been using aircraft / heavy weapons against the "Safe Zone", something that they have been denying doing so for the last two weeks. Everything the Tamils have been claiming is turning out to be true.

The contempt and arrogance shown by the Sri Lankan government / military shows the impotence of the "International Community". But in the past few days there have been signs that the "International Community" is waking up to the duplicity of the Sri Lankans. But it will come too late for the 50,000 civilians trapped in the "Safe Zone". The bloodbath that so many had predicted is now just a matter of when rather than if.

Much Ado About Nothing

2009-04-22T22:26:00.003Z

On 8th April 12 men were arrested over a suspected bomb plot.

We were told that there had been a serious threat life. The arrests were hailed as triumph by politicians. The police were commended for their work.

Two weeks later all 12 men have been released without any charge. This would be shocking had it never happened before. But unfortunately it had, many times.

Every so often the police carry out these dramatic arrests, in full public view, in order to strike fear into the population and to to justify the draconian powers they have been given. After a while all those arrested are released quietly.

By the way, was it a coincidence that the men were released on the day that every one's eyes were on the Budget?

Out of the Frying Pan

2009-04-20T22:41:00.004Z

As the 25 year-old Sri Lankan civil ware enters its death throws the Western media have finally started reporting the plight of the Tamil civilians.

Today's exodus from the so called 'Safe Zone" is just the latest ordeal faced by these wretched people.

Before that they were trapped in the the "Safe Zone'", a tiny strip of land between between the sea and the Sri Lankan Army (SLA) controlled area, as the SLA unleashed a continuous barrage of shells on them. The civilians were literally trapped between the devil and the deep blue sea. Thousands died as result.

Before that they has been forced to flee from their makeshift homes in the Vanni to the east coast as the SLA attacked and captured the areas controlled by the Tamil Tigers.

And before that, back in 1995, they were forced to flee from their homes in the Jaffna peninsula to the Vanni as the SLA attacked and captured Jaffna.

No one can even begin to imagine the horrors they have been through. Being continuously forced to flee, leaving their homes, possessions, and often, their families behind. The physical scars may heal but the psychological scars will stay with them forever.

What now awaits those who have fled the "Safe Zone"? Will they be allowed to return to their homes and families? No. They will be herded into large concentration camps in the Vanni from which they can't leave and which outside agencies/media can't visit. A case of "out of the frying pan and into the fire". Over the coming months these people somehow "disappear" from the face of the earth.

The "international community" has urged restraint from the Sri Lankans but has not enforced this. The Sri Lankans have successfully defied the "international community''. This is a telling sign for all other peoples trying to achieve freedom. If the "international community'' cannot control a small developing country like Sri Lanka, what hope do the Palestinians, Tibetans etc have?

At the beginning of the 21st century, human civilisation has produced numerous treaties, conventions, declarations etc which lay down on paper the rights and freedoms of every human being. But when it comes to actions (not words) needed to protect oppressed people, such as the Tamils, humanity is at best indifferent, at worst culpable.

The power of the Jews

2009-04-20T22:20:00.002Z

Here's an example of the power wielded by the Jews.

Who else can make the ambassadors of at least 30 countries walk out on cue?

Thank Heavens for Small Mercies

2009-04-20T22:13:00.002Z

According to the Association of Chief Police Officers we should all be grateful for the way the police handled the G20 protests in London. In any other country the police would have used rubber bullets and water canons.

We should be grateful that one person was murdered by the police. We should be grateful that dozens were assaulted by the police. And we should be grateful that thousands were illegally detained in massive open air police cells.

Police State

2009-04-15T18:28:00.004Z

On 1st April the Met Police murder Ian Tomlinson.

On 2nd April a Met Police thug assaults a woman at a memorial for Ian Tomlinson. The thug had clearly planned do some hippy bashing that day - he had covered the identification numbers on his shoulders.

These are just two of the acts of police brutality meted out to the G20 protesters in London. They were fortunately caught on camera. Now just imagine how many weren't. The pathetic reaction of the "Independent" Police Complaints Commission to the Met's actions shows how incompetent they are.

Don't expect anything to come from the IPCC's investigations. Don't expect the review by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Police to achieve anything - Denis O'Connor, Her Majesty's Inspector of Police, is a former Assistant Commissioner of the Met Police! (You couldn't make it up). And don't expect any of the police officers responsible for the brutality to be punished. They never are.

This kind of police heavy handedness isn't restricted to the Met.

On 13th April Nottinghamshire Police arrested 114 people on suspicion that may commit a crime by disrupting an E.on power station. All 114 people were released without any charge.
Last August Kent Police employed every underhand tactic possible to disrupt the protests at another E.on power station. Why are the British police so keen to protect foreign owned energy companies from British protesters?
Hundreds of thousands have been stopped and questioned using anti-terrorism laws. Only a handful of these have led to terrorist convictions.

The police being above the law isn't a recent phenomena. Today is the 20th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster when 96 football fans were killed due to the actions of South Yorkshire Police. Twenty years on, not one police officer has been brought to justice.

It is now clear that the police see ALL protest as a nuisance. A nuisance that must be eradicated using every legal and illegal means possible. Britain is a police state. But don't blame the police for that. Blame the elected politicians who give the police draconian powers. And blame the "system" that is supposed to defend our rights and police the police.

April Fools

2009-04-01T20:56:00.001Z

What a bunch of fools we have as our leaders. Their corruption and incompetence have resulted in the worst recession for 80 years. But their solution to the problems is to help the people who caused the problems.

They have spent hundreds of billions of dollars in helping the financial institutions whose recklessness with other people's money caused the problems in the first place. Yet, at the same time they refuse to help the retailers and manufacturers who trade in the real world and are having difficulties because the banks don't trust each other anymore.

They have reduced interest rates, helping individuals who been borrowing well beyond their means. But this has decimated the income of individuals who were sensible and saved some of their income during the good times.

Our leaders' promises that there will be no more booms and bust were just a big fat lie. The actions taken by governments will produce a boom which will inevitably lead to a bust.

We are doomed to make the mistakes over and over again unless we have wholesale rethink about our economic values.

There has been a lot a talk recently about getting rid of hedge funds and other "imaginary" financial instruments. But what about reducing our dependence on the false prophets of the stock market and property market?

The stock market has been the heart of capitalism for the last 200 years but what do share prices really mean? A single rogue trader can decimate a company's share prices irrespective of the financial position of the company. Our pensions and investments are tied up in these houses of cards.

In recent years the property market has become a crucial part of the economy, particularly in the Anglo-Saxon world. People are using their homes to increase their wealth rather than working to increase their wealth. They are moving homes not because they need to move home but because they want to "cash in" the increase in price of their homes. They fail to realise that if they sell their highly priced current home, the home they move into will also be highly priced and so they aren't any better off.

Finally we have to realise that the idea wealth can be created is just a myth. The conservation of energy law states that energy can't be created or destroyed, it can only be changed from one form to another. Similarly, wealth, and money for that matter, can't be created (or destroyed). It can only change hands. So if someone has become wealthier it is at someone else's expense. People don't become wealthy by "working hard". They become wealthy by overcharging their customers, underpaying their employees and arm-twisting their suppliers.

Gaza: Do Your Bit

2009-01-26T19:14:00.003Z

Do you have more backbone than the BBC? Defy the Jewish lobby, do your bit.

Click on above image or visit

www.dec.org.uk

Thank you

A Change for the Better

2009-01-20T19:40:00.003Z

The Past

If ever there was one person wholly unqualified to become the most powerful person in the world surely it was George Bush Junior.

Had he not been his father's son he would be working in a McDonalds or dead now: killed in Vietnam, killed drink driving, died of a cocaine overdose, stabbed to death in prison whilst serving a sentence for insider dealing.

But that didn't happen. Because he was his father's son. Instead he was elected to the most powerful office in the world. Elected is perhaps the wrong word, stole would be more accurate. Most Americans who voted didn't vote for him, even after he got his brother to fix the results in Florida.

It is hard to be happy now that he has gone. He has done his damage: the graveyards of Iraq and Afghanistan are filled with hundreds of thousands of souls who would not be there had he not been his father's son.

The Future

Obama has won the hearts of so many around the world with his hopes and dreams. He has already made history by defying the bigots to become the first African American president. Can he make history again by guiding America, and the world, through the challenging times we face?

No Surprises

2009-01-18T14:20:00.003Z

The Jews have finally called a halt tho their latest rape of Palestine. I have been uncharacteristically silent because nothing the Jews have done over the last 22 days has surprised me.

I wasn't surprised that the Jews murdered 1,200 Palestinians as revenge for rocket strikes that hadn't killed a single Jew. I wasn't surprised that 410 Palestinian children have been murdered. I wasn't surprised that 85 Palestinian women have been murdered.

I wasn't surprised that the Jews bombed civilian infrastructure, including houses, mosques and schools.

I wasn't surprised that the Jews targeted anyone who worked for the democratically elected Hamas government, even if they weren't engaged in hostilities such as policemen.

I wasn't surprised that the Jews called a "humanitarian truce" only to fire upon UN aid convoy, killing two aid workers and forcing the UN to abandon it's aid work.

I wasn't surprised that the Jews attacked the UN al-Fakhura school which contained hundreds of Palestinians, murdering 40 civilians. I wasn't surprised that initially the Jews claimed that Hamas fighters were in the school compound. I wasn't surprised that when their lies were challenged, the Jews changed their story to that the Hamas fighters were in the "vicinity" of the school. I wasn't surprised that the Jews changed their story again, this time claiming that the school had been hit by a "stray" missile.

I wasn't surprised that the Jews attacked another UN school, in Beit Lahiya, where hundreds of Palestinians had taken shelter, killing two children.

I wasn't surprised that Jews wouldn't allow the international media into Gaza to report their crimes.

I wasn't surprised that Jews' propagandists, led by the smarmy Mark Regev, went on the world news channels trying to justify their crimes, as if the Jews were the victims.

And I wasn't surprised that the "international community" huffed and puffed but didn't stop the Jews.

The Jews are a special people. They are immune from international law. They exempt from the norms of decent civilised human behaviour. They can commit genocide, ethnic cleansing, torture and apartheid as they please. It is their God given right.

Happy Hanukkah

2008-12-28T22:28:00.004Z

The Jews murder hundreds of Palestinians as retaliation for rocket strikes which didn't kill a single Jew.

Who'd have thought it.

The "international community" cries foul but doesn't do anything.

How very uncharacteristic.

The US vetoes a UN resolution calling on the Jews to stop there barbaric aggression.

They've never done that before.

A Happy Hanukkah to the Palestinians from the Jews.

Sole Survivor

2008-12-15T21:09:00.003Z

It all makes sense now.

The intelligent designer, clearly distracted by the invention of the bikini, gave Dubya an extra helping of the reflex genes instead of the intelligence gene.

Open Verdict

2008-12-13T15:28:00.005Z

The coroner may have prevented the Jean Charles de Menezes inquest jury from delivering the true verdict. But the answers provided by the jury to the following twelve specific questions tells us what verdict they really wanted to deliver:

1. "Did firearms officer C12 shout armed police?"
ANSWER: NO

2. "Did Mr de Menezes stand up from his seat before he was grabbed in a bear hug by officer Ivor?"
ANSWER: YES

3. "Did Mr de Menezes move towards C12 before he was grabbed in a bear hug by Ivor?"
ANSWER: NO

Contributing Factors

4. "The pressure on police after the suicide attacks in July 2005."
ANSWER: CANNOT DECIDE

5. "A failure to obtain and provide better photographic images of failed bomber Hussain Osman to surveillance officers."
ANSWER: YES

6. The general difficulty in providing identification of the man under surveillance in the time available."
ANSWER: NO

7. "The fact that the views of the surveillance officers regarding identification were not accurately communicated to the command team and firearms officers.
ANSWER: YES

8. "A failure by police to ensure that Mr de Menezes was stopped before he reached public transport."
ANSWER: YES

9. "The innocent behaviour of Mr de Menezes increasing suspicion."
ANSWER: NO

10. "The fact that the position of the cars containing the firearms officers was not accurately known by the command team as firearms teams were approaching Stockwell Tube."
ANSWER: YES

11. "Shortcomings in the communications system between various police teams on the ground."
ANSWER: YES

12. "Failure to conclude at the time that surveillance officers could have been used to carry out the stop on Mr de Menezes at Stockwell."
ANSWER: YES

The death of Jean Charles was not a lawful killing. The actions of the police after the killing is proof.

The police destroyed CCTV footage.
The police leaked reports to the media about Jean Charles' behaviour on that fateful day, such as that he was wearing unusually baggy clothing, that he failed to respond to police challenge before entering Stockwell station and that he jumped over the ticket barrier. All of these reports were proved to be lies.
The Police officers involved were allowed collude in giving their (false) statements.
The police started a smear campaign about Jean Charles, such as that he raped a woman. Again, all of these smears were also proved to be lies.

The death of Jean Charles was unlawful killing. Jean Charles was murdered by the Metropolitan Police.

The apologists for Jean Charles' murder argue that since the police believed that they were confronting a man bent of mass murder they acted correctly. Indeed, if a similar situation were to rise again the police should do the same. I for one cannot accept that.

Has human civilisation reached so far that a person cannot leave their home knowing that they won't be pinned to ground by three burly policemen and shot eight times a point blank range using hollow point bullets? If this is the case then the terrorists have won.

It's The Sun What Done It!

2008-12-01T23:26:00.004Z

What forced heads to finally roll at Haringey Council over the Baby P scandal?

Was it guilt?

Was is government pressure?

Was it the damning inspector's report?

Was it public outrage?

No. It was an even more powerful force: The Sun.

DR Congo: Do Your Bit

2008-11-20T19:33:00.003Z

Over the last decade 6 million people have been killed in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the deadliest conflict since World War 2. And the world didn't bat an eye.

The Second Congo War was greatly exacerbated by most of Congo's neighbours (Rwanda, Uganda, Angola, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Chad, Burundi, Libya, Sudan) invading Congo in order to plunder its vast natural resources.

Now the Rwandans are back. They are murdering, raping, looting, destroying and generally behaving as if they are immune from international law, which they are. This has caused yet another humanitarian catastrophe. You can help.

Click on above image or visit

www.dec.org.uk

Thank you

BNP Membership List

2008-11-19T19:33:00.003Z

A list of 12,000 BNP members was recently published on the internet and this was republished on numerous websites. But threats of legal action by the fascists have forced most websites to remove the lists.

How ironic that the human rights, civil liberties and other laws and regulations aimed at protecting the civilised should now be used to protect these fascist scum. You can be sure that if, God forbid, the fascists ever gained real power the first thing to go won't be the immigrants. The first thing to go would be these same rights and liberties.

Why is it that the public are allowed to know the identity of paedophiles and other sex offenders but we are not allowed to know the identity of fascists? The fascists, in their positions as police officers, teachers, doctors, nurses, prison officers, journalists etc, are able to do as much damage, if not more, as the criminals that the laws allow to be publicly identified.

I have the list. But I will not be posting it on this blog, nor will I post links to websites that still have the list. Blogger have not only removed the lists but they have deleted entire blogs that post the list. Such is the terror caused by the fascists' threats of legal action.

If you want to see the list just search the internet, it's not that difficult. There are still some courageous website hosts out there who are prepared to defy the fascists' threats.

Lest We Forget

2008-11-11T22:27:00.002Z

It is now 90 years since the guns fell silent on the Western Front and World War 1 came to an end.

The are now only a handful of WW1 veterans. Soon they will all be gone and WW1 will just be another chapter in the sordid history of mankind.

We must never forget the sacrifices of a whole generation of people, nor the mistakes that led to the death of nearly 19 million people.

We must also never forget the mistakes that followed the end of the war, the mistakes that would eventually lead to World War 2 and most of the wars that have followed: the peace treaties.

Redemption

2008-11-05T21:25:00.005Z

"A new dawn has broken, hasn't it?", to borrow a phrase from a liar.

Historic is an overused word but surely the 4th November 2008 will go down in history.

America has not only redeemed itself for the last eight years but it has finally ended the schizophrenia that has haunted it since independence: calling itself the land of liberty and yet enslaving / discriminating against one section of its population simply because of the colour of their skin.

The world's reaction to Obama's success shows just how much respect America lost in the past eight years.

This is not the end. That hard work is just beginning: recession, two wars and climate change. Obama will make mistakes. And he won't achieve all that he promised. No politician does. But he can't be worse than his predecessor.

Judgement Day

2008-11-04T00:00:00.003Z

Today has finally arrived. After what seems like years of campaigning judgement will be passed.

Nearly 150 million Americans will pass judgement on the two candidates. But perhaps more importantly, the World will pass judgement on America.

Has America learnt from the last eight years?
Has it learnt from its mistakes in 2000 and 2004?
Does it truly want change?
Or, in the privacy of the voting booth, will it revert to it's prejudiced, ignorant, paranoid form?

Nothing is certain until the Republican Supreme Court has passed its judgement.

Aunty Bashing

2008-10-30T22:12:00.007Z

The saga over the Russell Brand-Jonathan Ross prank callgate is another example of Aunty bashing by the reactionary press.

The show was broadcast on 18 October. Between then and 26 October, when the Mail on Sunday published its rant, there were just two complaints. Now there have been 30,000 complaints.

The Mail, and most of its readers, have a pathological hatred of the BBC. They are just using this as an excuse to give the BBC a good kicking.

The show was childish and not funny. Brand and Ross should have been sacked. As should all the editorial staff who listened to this recorded show and thought it was appropriate to broadcast. That should have been the end of it.

But the press have whipped this story into a storm, forcing senior people in the BBC to resign unnecessarily. The story has been all over the papers for days. It is the top item on the news. It has been greater prominence than the recession or the humanitarian disaster in DR Congo.

This has all the hallmarks of the Hutton Report after which Greg Dyke, the then director general of the BBC, was forced to resign even though it was the Bliar government that had fabricated a pack of lies to excuse the invasion of Iraq, not the BBC.

Schadenfreude

2008-10-29T20:02:00.002Z

Here's something that will give you a warm glow inside.

Hedgefunds that had bet on Volkswagen shares falling lost $30 billion when the shares actually rose by 350% in two days.

It's wrong to take pleasure from the misfortunes of others. But, then again, isn't that what hedgefunds do?

Post Turtle

2008-10-20T21:59:00.003Z

I love those turtles. You know, they say the difference between a turtle and Sarah Palin: the turtle doesn't think it's qualified to have it's finger on the nuclear button just because it's been governor of a state that's 4,000 miles from Moscow.

A country doctor struck up a conversation with a 75-year-old Texas rancher. Eventually the conversation turned to the US election, and Sarah Palin’s vice-presidential candidacy, and the old rancher observed:

“Well, ya know, Palin is a post-turtle.”

The bemused doctor asked what a post-turtle was, and the old man replied:

“When you’re driving down a country road and you come across a fence post with a turtle balanced on top, that’s a post-turtle.”

The rancher continued:

“You know she didn’t get up there by herself, she doesn’t belong up there, she doesn’t know what to do while she is up there, and you just wonder what kind of dumb ass put her up there to begin with.”

No Average Joe

2008-10-18T18:44:00.011Z

The McCain campaign must have thought all their dreams had come true.

But this thread was just asking to be pulled.

1. "Joe" isn't his name. Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher just doesn't have the same ring.

2. "Joe" isn't a plumber. He doesn't have a Ohio state plumbers licence. In Toledo, his hometown, plumbers need a licence, even if they work for a company and only do residential work.

3. "Joe" owes the state of Ohio nearly $1,200 in unpaid income tax. The Ohio Department of Taxation has filed a claim on his property until he pays his debt.

4. "Joe's" current earnings don't even come close $250,000. He would actually benefit from Obama's tax plans. What kind of a plumber earns $250,000?!

5. And..."Joe's" a registered Republican.

Perhaps John McCain should dismiss all his advisers, rather than joke about it.

Demutalisation: The Final Chapter

2008-09-29T19:24:00.003Z

The demise of Bradford & Bingley is the final nail in the coffin of demutalisation.

Abbey National Building Society
Jul 1989 - Demutalised
Dec 2004 - Taken over by Santander

Alliance & Leicester Building Society
Apr 1997 - Demutalised
Sep 2008 - Shareholders agree to be taken over by Santander

Birmingham Midshires Building Society
Apr 1999 - Demtualised and taken over by Halifax, now part of Lloyds TSB.

Bradford & Bingley Building Society
Dec 2000 - Demutalised
Sep 2008 - Part taken over by Santander, the rest nationalised

Bristol & West Building Society
Jul 1997 - Taken over by Bank of Ireland

Cheltenham & Gloucester Building Society
Aug 1995 - Demtualised and taken over by Lloyds, now part of Lloyds TSB.

Halifax Building Society
Jun 1997 - Demtualised
Sep 2008 - Taken over by Lloyds TSB

National & Provinicial Building Society
Aug 1996 - Demtualised and taken over by Abbey National, now part of Santander.

Northern Rock Building Society
Oct 1997 - Demutalised
Deb 2008 - Nationalised

Woolwich Building Society
Jul 1997 - Demutalised
Oct 2000 - Taken over by Barclays

The British retail banking sector is now firmly in the hands of the High Street Cartel: Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds TSB, RBS and Santander.

Fake's Sake

2008-09-27T20:45:00.004Z

From the people who brought you the fireworks that weren't
The singing girl who wasn't
and
The 16 year old gymnast who wasn't
Comes the fakest space walk, ever

On the 25th September the Xinhua agency, official mouth piece of the Communist Party of China, published a despatch from the "astronauts" describing their first night in space. The article described the Shenzhou VII space craft orbiting the Earth and outlined a conversation between the "astronauts". The article later described the reaction to a successful outcome of the mission. Only one problem though. Shenzhou VII hadn't left Earth yet!

How gullible can you be? Wake up and smell the poisoned baby milk people.

Identity Crisis

2008-09-25T22:24:00.004Z

First they came for the foreigners,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a foreigner.

Then they came for the airport workers,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't an airport worker.

Then they came for the students,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a student.

Then they came for me,
and there was no one left to speak up for me.

Win, Win

2008-09-22T21:56:00.002Z

O to be a banker.

You make the right decisions and you are rewarded with billions in bonuses.

You make the wrong decisions and you are handed $1 trillion in taxpayers money.

Nice work, if you can get it!

Independence, Russian-Style

2008-08-26T19:11:00.002Z

Russia's recognition of the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia is surely biggest joke in recent times.

These two states are as independent as "President" Medvedev. This is annexation by another name. The leaders of Abkhazia and South Ossetia are merely puppets, their strings being pulled by the same hands pulling Medvedev's strings.

If Russia genuinely cares for the welfare of the Abkhaz and South Ossetians, will it recognise the independence of another Muslim Caucasian people trying to free themselves from oppression: the Chechens?

Beijing 2008: The Unreal Games

2008-08-24T21:59:00.001Z

Old Soldiers Never Die

2008-08-18T18:41:00.003Z

Pakistan is now a democracy.

Dictator Musharraf has finally gone, nine years after he stole power by staging a coup against the democratically elected government. But we mustn't become complacent. After all, old soldiers never die, they just quietly plot their next coup.

Pakistani democracy will never be safe as long as Dictator Musharraf is around. There is only option: hang him!

Hyperbole

2008-08-17T22:13:00.003Z

Michael Phelps. Jeez.

It helps that he's chosen a sport that offers endless opportunities to win a medal (50m, 51m, 51.2m, 57.6m, 60.5m, 72.8m, 85.2m, 90.4m...each in four different strokes, and don't forget the relays). If he'd chosen football or tennis he'd only have a chance of winning one medal. And if he'd chosen cricket he wouldn't have any chance (the IOC doesn't consider cricket to be sport, whereas synchronised swimming is a sport).

Take him out of the hi-tech swimming pool, remove his space-age swimsuit, put him in a snug budgie smuggler and drop him in a 1970s municipal pool and you will see his true colours. Michael Phelps is not the greatest Olympian. He is merely the beneficiary of the greatest hype in recent years.

Time Warp to the 1930s

2008-08-13T14:15:00.005Z

Some things never change.

Czechoslovakia 1938
1. France and the Soviet Union sign separate treaties with Czechoslovakia agreeing to provide military and political assistance.
2. Authoritarian Germany stirs up a political crisis on the pretext of protecting Germans living in Czechoslovakia, the sole democracy in the region.
3. The "international community" cries foul but fails to do anything.
4. Leaders from the free world fly into the region and hail a great solution to the crisis.
5. Humiliating terms are forced upon Czechoslovakia.
6. Germany annexes the Sudetanland.
7. Over the next six months Germany and her allies quietly dismember Czechoslovakia as the "international community" turns a blind eye.

Georgia 2008
1. The USA guarantees Georgia's territorial integrity.
2. Authoritarian Russia stirs up a political crisis on the pretext of protecting Russian citizens living in Georgia, the sole democracy in the region.
3. The "international community" cries foul but fails to do anything.
4. Leaders from the free world fly into the region and hail a great solution to the crisis.
5. Humiliating terms are forced upon Georgia.
6. Russia annexes South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
7. ?

One World, One Dream, One Billion Hypocrites

2008-08-08T21:39:00.003Z

Or should that be four billion hypocrites. This is the number of people that will allegedly put aside their principles and tune into watch the Olympics.

These people call themselves democrats and hide behind the myth that the Olympics aren't about politics. All Olympic Games are about politics. And Beijing 2008 is the most political Olympic Games ever. It is about China showing the world that it is now a superpower. It is about China intimidating its opponents, both internal and external. But above all it is about showing the power of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and its firm grip on power.

When Beijing bid for the Olympics it promised to:

"... give the media complete freedom to report when they come to China... We are confident that the Games coming to China not only promote our economy but also enhances all social conditions, including education, health and human rights."

All of these promises have been broken. If anything human rights have actually got worse in the run up to the games as the CPC tries to put on a flawless show.

The corrupt, self-serving members of the International Olympic Committee, led by the oily Jacques Rogge, may heap praise on the organisers for their preparation but this has been achieved at a great cost to many ordinary Chinese people. Millions have been forcibly evicted to make way for the Olympic venues. Luxuries such as planning law and planning appeals are unheard of in Communist China. Most have received no compensation for their loss. Meanwhile, developers and corrupt CPC officials have made a killing from the land and property they have stolen.

Hundreds of thousands have worked in slave like conditions in order to build the perfect venues. Many thousands have died. Luxuries such as health and safety are unheard of in Communist China. Meanwhile, developers and corrupt CPC officials have made a killing from the construction boom.

Many of the foreign apologists for the Games have been seduced by developments in Beijing. However, what they fail to realise is that most ordinary Chinese will not benefit from the developments nor the Games. It is the tiny elite that will benefit from the Games. They have already made a fortune from the construction of the venues. And it is they who will be spectators at the Games. Ordinary Chinese could never afford to buy tickets to any of the events.

The CPC has used the Games as pretext to crackdown on internal opposition, particularly from ethnic minorities. Uncorroborated allegations of terrorist threats and even unverified terrorist attacks have been used as an excuse to place many ethnic areas under de facto martial law. Tens of thousands have been detained without charge and foreigners have been barred from visiting these areas.

And it's not just ethnic minorities who been a victim of this crackdown. Anyone who could potentially threaten the image of the Games has been detained or removed from the area.

It is China's broken promises about the free media that have achieved most coverage internationally. Although it has lifted the ban on websites such as Amnesty International and the BBC after much international criticism, many other sites remain blocked. And the IOC is perfectly happy about this. Even the sites that been unblocked are only accessible by foreign journalists - the Chinese public are still prevented from visiting these sites.

Although the foreign media have ostensibly been given complete freedom to travel they are still banned from sensitive sites such as Tiananmen Square and are followed by the secret police wherever they go. Electronic surveillance of foreigners is the norm. But the greatest restrictions have been placed upon the Chinese media. They of course are banned from reporting about any protests or any bad news for that matter. Every day they are e-mailed by the CPC telling them what they should report.

The CPC's micro management of the Games has included some ridiculous edicts about mundane issues. The Chinese have been told how to behave in front of foreigners (don't ask them how much they earn), they have been told what not to wear (white socks and black shoes), they have even been told what they shouldn't carry on the subway (TVs and fridges)!

As the Games progress more of China's promises will unravel and blemishes will begin to appear in the flawless Games. But the hypocrites will still continue to delude themselves that the Olympics aren't about politics.

This is not the End, but It is Perhaps the Begining of the End

2008-07-22T19:14:00.002Z

Today is a red letter day.

The arrest of Radovan Karadzic is a big step in bringing to justice all those responsible for the Bosnian genocide. But we mustn't get carried away. Karadzic is still a long way from being convicted. He may yet evade justice, as Milosevic did. And let us not forget that the third member of the unholy Trinity who masterminded the genocide, Ratko Mladic, is still at large, probably being sheltered by the Serbian secret police. Only a handful of the many thousands of Serbs who took part in the Bosnian genocide have been brought to justice.

Even if Karadzic is convicted it will not undo what happened. It won't bring back the thousands murdered. It won't erase the terror inflicted on millions, nor the years of grief. It won't remove the scars, both physical and psychological. The actions of Karadzic will haunt the Bosnian people for generations. It will cast a shadow over the Serbian people for even longer. Nothing will change that.

The Bosnian genocide was a shame on all humanity, not just the Serbs. That the world stood by and watched as Karadzic and his henchmen carried out these crimes is an indictment on all of us. With Karadzic's arrest we have begun the process to redress that unforgivable act.

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

2x=5y+199z

2008-07-16T21:03:00.002Z

If two dead Jews are worth five alive and 199 dead Arabs, how many alive Arabs is one alive Jew worth?

Leading by Example

2008-07-07T18:09:00.003Z

Hundreds of millions face starvation. Food and energy prices have gone through the roof. Worldwide recession is on it's way (if it isn't already here). So what do our beloved leaders do?

They waste $1 billion on a three/five day shindig and gorge themselves with a six-course lunch and eight-course dinner.

What Price Liberty?

2008-06-11T19:45:00.002Z

Apparently it's £1 billion.

This is the amount extracted from the British government by the Irish Protestants for their nine votes in the Parliamentary vote to extend the maximum time police can detain suspects from 28 days to 42 days. As it happened the government won the vote by 315 to 306, a majority of nine.

It took centuries of struggle and the deaths of countless people to achieve the civil liberties that Britain had until 11 September 2001. Some of these civil liberties have been sacrificed today so that the Northern Irish can have cheap drinking water.

New Republic

2008-05-28T22:16:00.002Z

A warm welcome to world's newest republic: Nepal.

Let this be a lesson to all the remaining monarchs in the world - one day your time will come too. You can either go like King Gyanendra or like Tsar Nicholas II. It's your choice.

Champione Champione

2008-05-21T22:19:00.001Z

Congratulations to Man United on their double: champions of England and champions of Europe.

Technically it may not be great as the treble of 1999 but there is something very satisfying about beating Chelski at the final hurdle, twice. Perhaps Abramovich will now realise that you can't buy everything, leave Britain and go back to where he and his cronies belong - the Siberian wastelands.

All That is Necessary for the Triumph of Evil...

2008-05-20T18:18:00.002Z

...is that good men do nothing.

Boy are there many good men doing nothing!

It is now over two weeks since Cyclone Nargis made landfall in Burma. Since then the death toll has increased exponentially. The day after the cyclone the death toll was only 350. If only. The latest official death toll is about 80,000. The real death toll may exceed one million. We will probably never know the exact figure.

The military junta that has ruled Burma for the last for last 46 years has done everything possible to prevent international aid from reaching the beleaguered victims. The world has been shocked by the Generals' callous reaction. Why? This is one of the most brutal, authoritarian regimes in the world. Indeed the regime has probably killed more people during its long reign of terror than Cyclone Nargis has. Why is the world surprised when bad people do bad things?

The "international community's" reaction has been even worse. It pledges aid, convenes meetings/summits and condemns the military junta's reaction but it fails to actually do anything. Only a fraction of the aid needed has reached the victims. What the Burmese people need is action, not words.

It is the Burmese people's double misfortune that another natural disaster should happen within a few days of Cyclone Nargis: the Sichuan earthquake. The aftermath of the two natural disasters could not be different. Whilst the Burmese military junta's aid effort has been sporadic and poorly organised, the Chinese have mobilised hundreds of thousands of well trained, well equipped soldiers. The Sichuan death toll (currently 40,000) may be high but there is no doubt it would have been much higher had the Chinese not reacted so magnificently.

The world's media has descended on Sichuan, relaying personal tragedies to every corner of the globe. All the latest forms of communications have been utilised: the internet is full of the personal stories from Sichuan. Meanwhile Cyclone Nargis is merely a ten second afterthought on the TV news.

Not only has the Sichuan earthquake stolen the media limelight from Cyclone Nargis, it has probably had a negative impact on the private donations given to the aid effort. In the UK DEC raised nearly £400 million from private donations after the Asian Tsunami. So far it has only raised £8 million for the Cyclone Nargis relief effort.

And the elephant in the room is the fact that the Burmese military junta only survives as a result of the patronage of China.

God alone knows how many people have died unnecessarily as the "international community" procrastinates. God alone knows the unnecessary pain, suffering, anguish and hardship that over two million Burmese have had to endure.

How high the death toll has reach before the "international community" intervenes?

Burma Cyclone: Do Your Bit

2008-05-07T19:50:00.004Z

Click on above image or visit

www.dec.org.uk

Thank you

Warning: Gross Obscenity

2008-04-19T17:14:00.002Z

The obscene greed of the Indian Premier League is unparalleled.

Driven by their lust for the $1 billion TV rights money, people who have never held a cricket bat in their hands have paid in excess of $100 million for teams.

Players will earn as much as $1.5 million for 6 weeks work. How can anyone justify this in a country where 300 million people live on less than $0.40 a day?

The BCCI may fool themselves and others that the IPL is good for cricket. But in reality the IPL will have the same impact on cricket as the English Premier League had on football.

The national team's fortunes will decline because the players and the people who own the teams are only interested in lining their pockets, not cricket. In the short term IPL games will clash with international matches and players will not be available for training. In the long term, as all the money goes into the IPL grass root cricket will suffer. Many clubs will close and the number of people who play cricket (as opposed to watch cricket) will actually fall.

Cricket is the sport of the masses but the IPL will be hijacked by the well-off middle class. Most Indians will not be able to afford the tickets to the games. And they will not be able to watch it on TV as 80% of the country does not have access to the subscription TV that will broadcast the IPL games.

Common Sense Prevails

2008-04-19T17:00:00.003Z

The Chinese have no scruples about selling arms to Mugabe. South African politicians wash their hands of the problem.

Thank heavens for the South African workers and judges. They at least see sense - these weapons are destined to be used against Zimbabwean civilians.

Well Done Paris!

2008-04-07T19:00:00.003Z

The Parisians have raised the bar when it comes to exposing the self-serving hypocrites who appease the murderous tyranny in communist China.

San Francisco - can you do better?

Eighty Hypocrites

2008-04-06T20:19:00.024Z

They may say that the Olympics has nothing to do with politics but they are more than happy to use POLITICIANS in order to win the right to host the Olympic Games and they are willing to force Londoners pay billions in taxes to pay for the Olympics.

They sympathise with Tibet and but they are more than happy to smooch with the people responsible for Tibet's repression.

They say the protests are a democratic example to China but what sort of a democracy allows its police officers and Chinese thugs to treat protesters with such brutality? Besides, the Chinese public won't see any of the protests. All they'll see are the hypocrites shaking the hands of the Chinese Politburo and the flag waving sons and daughters of the Chinese elite bussed in by the Communist Party of China.

Nothing will wipe the Tibetan blood from the hands of these hypocrites.

From His Cold Dead Hands?

2008-04-06T14:20:00.002Z

Well, that shouldn't be too difficult now. It's just a pity he died of natural causes - it would have been poetic justice if his brains had been shot out using a Brooks flintlock rifle.

Flames of Injustice

2008-03-25T21:39:00.003Z

The Olympic Flame must be hounded every step from Olympia to Beijing. The "international community's" hypocrisy must be exposed. The hypocrisy of the IOC must be exposed. The IOC, especially it's president Jacques Rogge, shed crocodile tears for Tibet but are happy to take the millions in bribes the Chinese have given them.

Mr Rogge may state that the IOC is "a sporting, not a political, association" but the IOC is more than happy to practice censorship in order to protect the sensitivities of their Chinese patrons.

Iraq Five Years On: The Bare Facts

2008-03-19T23:12:00.005Z

Iraqis killed since the invasion: 150,000 - 1.2 million
Invaders killed: 5,000
Iraqis wounded since the invasion: 500,000 - 3 million

Externally displaced refugees: 2 million
Internally displaced refugees: 2.2 million
% Iraqi professionals that have left the country since the invasion: 40%

Iraqis detailed by the invaders and the quisling government in Nov 2007: 60,000
% of detainees held by the invaders that are Sunnis: 80%
Death sentences in 2007: 200

% of Iraqis who cannot buy enough to eat: 15% (or 4 million Iraqis)
% of Iraqis dependent on food rations: 30% (or 8 million Iraqis)
% of Iraqis who live on less than $1 a day (absolute poverty): 43% (or 12 million Iraqis)
% of working age Iraqis unemployed: 50%

% of Iraqis with NO access to safe drinking water: 70% (or 19 million Iraqis)
% of Iraqis with ineffective sanitation: 80% (or 22 million Iraqis)
Hours of electricity supply per day: 2

% of Iraqi children suffering psychological problems: 70%
% of Iraqi children suffering learning difficulties: 92%
% of Iraqi children who are orphans: 35% (or 5 million children)
Iraqi children out of school: 800,000

Malnutrition rates pre-invasion: 19%
Malnutrition rates in 2007: 28%

% of Iraqi women who had experienced physical violence: 21%
Iraqi women and girl refugees forced into prostitution: 50,000

Iraq's position on the Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index in 2006: 160th
Money from oil and international aid that the quisling government FAILED to spend in 2006: $26 billion

Cost to USA to end of 2007: $0.5 trillion

Carnage and Despair in Iraq
Rising to the Humanitarian Challenge in Iraq

A Deafening Silence

2008-03-16T22:18:00.004Z

Dozens have been murdered. Tibet is under martial law. Chinese paramilitary thugs roam the streets, murdering and terrorising. The Dalai Lama has called this a "rule of terror" and "cultural genocide". Foreign media have been banned from entering Tibet.

Yet despite all of this the "international community" is unwilling to utter any meaningful criticism of the Chinese.

All of this is also happening barely a month after the much heralded independence of Kosovo. In relative terms the Serb rule over Kosovo has been enlightened when compared to the Chinese rule over Tibet.

What are the chances of American F15 jets bombing Beijing in order to free Tibet?

A Holocaust by Another Name

2008-03-01T22:34:00.003Z

You don't need Cyclon B to commit shoah.

Just pack 1.5 million people into 140 square miles. Blockade from land, sea and air. Cut off the electricity and water supply. Cut off all humanitarian aid. Cut off all financial support. Prevent any food and medicine from getting there. Then just sit back and watch the shoah.

The Jewish Deputy Defence Minister Matan Vilnai may, or may not, have meant holocaust when he said "The more Qassam [rocket] fire intensifies and the rockets reach a longer range, they will bring upon themselves a bigger shoah because we will use all our might to defend ourselves" but the Palestinian holocaust is already happening. It has been happening for the last 60 years.

Triumph of Democracy over Cynicism?

2008-02-19T23:12:00.003Z

This old cynic thought that the Pakistani elections wouldn't be fair. I thought Dictator Musharraf would rig the elections but it seems that I was wrong. It can happen.

The opposition parties seem to have won the majority of seats and there is even talk of impeaching Dictator Musharraf. But before the neo-cons wet themselves and heap praise on Dictator Musharaff for this (relatively) orderly transition to democracy let us see how the Pakistani army/secret police react to the results. How will they react to the prospect of their true commander in chief being impeached?

Pakistan isn't a democracy yet. That will only happen when Dictator Musharaff is rotting in prison.

Adios El Presidente

2008-02-19T22:57:00.002Z

For 50 years Fidel Castro and Cuba have resisted American imperialism. For 50 years Fidel Castro and Cuba have stood alone against American hegemony in Latin America.

Castro's rule wasn't perfect but that was mainly due to actions taken by America. Like so often before (Iran, Guatemala etc) and so often after (Congo, Chile etc), America used force to try to thwart the Cuban revolution and restore their cronies. This in turn drove Cuba into the Soviet Union's arms. One can only imagine what sort of a (democratic) state Cuba would have become had America not intervened.

What lies on store for Cuba now that Castro is going? Will it become truly democratic state or will it revert to what it was before Castro: an American vassal?

Happy Birthday Kosovo

2008-02-17T14:55:00.004Z

As you celebrate joining the club of free nations one cannot help but think about all other people around the world trying to achieve their independence.

The "international community" was prepared to use military force and set aside niceties such as national (Serbian) sovereignty, UN resolutions and international law in order to grant you independence. But when it comes to independence for others (Palestinians, Kashmiris, Chechens, Kurds, Tamils, Sahrawis, West Papuans, Achenese, Karen etc) the "international community" is at best ambivalent and at worst downright hostile.

What makes you different? What makes you so special? What gives you the right to self determination, something denied to so many others around the world?

Don't allow your infatuation with the US blindly lead you wherever it goes and whatever it does. So many other New Europeans, blinded by their infatuation with the US, have aided and abetted the US in its brutal destruction of Iraqi independence.

But that's for tomorrow. Today celebrate the birth of your new nation. It won't be long before it dawns upon you that you are living in one of of the poorest, corrupt, organised crime ridden nations in Europe.

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

2008-01-28T20:05:00.002Z

When is a dictator not a dictator? When he's a "key ally in combating terrorism and extremism".

Let the World Rejoice Again: SUHARTO IS DEAD!

2008-01-27T22:19:00.000Z

Another one bites the dust.

During his 30 year reign of terror Suharto murdered over 1 million of his fellow Indonesians and over 250,000 East Tomorese, Papuans and Acehnese.

Suharto and his family plundered the country's assets, amassing a fortune of nearly $75billion, much of which has been deposited in their personal bank accounts in Europe. They own hundreds of companies and have shares in thousands more all across the world. They own vast amounts of land and prime real estate in Indonesia and abroad.

Despite all of this he received unwavering support from the USA. They didn't mind what he did as long as he suppressed the Communists.

Even when Suharto was deposed he managed to avoid justice by playing the ill-health card, a favourite amongst former dictators.

The Unspoken Truth

2007-12-27T23:36:00.000Z

There has been widespread condemnation of Benazir Bhutto's assassination. But there has also been widespread denial of who was responsible for this brazen act.

So often nowadays whenever something bad happens it is blamed on "terrorists". So it is in this case. The unpalatable truth for the "international community" is that Benazir was murdered by the Pakistani armed force/secret police on the orders of Dictator Musharraf.

This is not just another conspiracy theory. This is based on facts.

The Pakistani armed forces have form when it comes to the Bhutto family. They murdered Benazir's father and two brothers.

The motives for Benazir's murder are clear. With her dead and Nawaz Shariff banned, the path is clear for Dictator Musharaff's cronies to "win" the upcoming election. Or even better, the anarchy caused by the assassination is the perfect excuse to cancel the election.

There armed forces/secret police of course have all the means to carry out the assassination. They are the world's experts when it comes to political murders.

And the armed forces/secret police certainly had the opportunity to carry out the assassination. Not only was the assassination carried in Rawalpindi, the home of the Pakistan Army, the secret police were "protecting" Benazir and therefore had knowledge of her movements. And needless to say the assassin would have been able to get near Benazir easily without any of her "protectors" stopping him.

Benazir herself has stated many time that elements in the armed forces were conspiring to murder her.

Despite all of this evidence that Dictator Musharaff was responsible for Benazir's murder the world turns a blind eye and lauds him as "the key ally in the war on terror".

The biggest complaint Muslims have with the "international community" is not Palestine or Kashmir. It is the fact that they aid and abet murderous tyrants across the Islamic world. Murderous tyrants like Dictator Musharaff. Then they wonder why frustrated Muslims commit mass murder in New York, Bali, Madrid, London, Istanbul etc.

Good on Ya, Cobber

2007-11-24T23:30:00.001Z

The Aussies, at least 53% of them, have finally seen sense and kicked John Howard out. It's about time.

Hypocrisy Overdose

2007-11-04T14:28:00.000Z

The week started with the dictator of Saudi Arabia paying a state visit to Britain.

Here was a man who runs one of the most authoritarian, oppressive countries in the world. A country where there isn't an ounce of democracy - all power is held by the Al Sauds. A country where public executions, amputations, flogging and torture are routine. A country where women are treated worse than animals. A country where there is no free media. A country that gave the world Al Qaeda - fifteen of the nineteen 9/11 hijackers were Saudi, Bin Laden is Saudi, most of the foreign Al Qaeda operatives in Iraq are Saudi.

Yet despite all this, the red carpet was rolled out and Prince Philip von Oldenburg wheeled out to greet dictator Abdullah Al Saud. All Britain's principles and beliefs were brushed under that carpet just because they buy arms from us and supply us with oil.

The week ended with the dictator of Pakistan staging yet another coup to hold onto power. The "international community's" reaction has been as ambivalent as it was when he staged his first coup all the way back in September 1999.

Condoleeza Rice has stated that "the US has made clear that it does not support extra-constitutional measures because those measures would take Pakistan away from the path of democracy and civilian rule". This hasn't stopped the US from propping up dictator Musharraf for the past eight years.

This week has indeed seen an overdose of hypocrisy by the "international community". They are quick to condemn dictatorships in Burma, Zimbabwe, Iran, Syria and pre-invasion Iraq but at they same time they either prop up or turn a blind eye to dictatorships in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, China, Egypt, Algeria, Libya and numerous others.

Guilty Free

2007-11-01T23:17:00.001Z

The Met Police may have been found guilty of endangering the public but not one single person will be punished for the murder the Jean Charles de Menezes.

All those responsible for the murder, from the Commissioner to the two thugs who pinned Jean Charles to the seat and shot him seven times at point blank range, have got away with their crimes and are walking free.

It is the taxpayers of London who will end up paying the £560,000 fine and legal costs. The same taxpayers for whom it is now clear that there is no protection from the wreckless actions of the police.

Liars, Damned Liars and the Met Police

2007-10-16T22:16:00.000Z

Of what relevance is it that Jean Charles de Menzes had cocaine traces in his urine? None. This just another attempt by the Met Police to smear de Menzes.

Right from the moment they shot de Menezes dead, the Met have been concocting lies aimed at smearing him.

Lies such as that de Menezes was wearing a large bulky jacket.

Lies such as that de Menezes ignored Police orders to stop outside the tube station.

Lies such as that de Menezes vaulted over the barriers.

Lies fabricated to smear him . Lies aimed at diverting attention away from the fact that de Menezes was murdered by the Metropolitan Police Service.

x

2007-10-11T21:30:00.000Z

A Matter of Regret

2007-10-11T21:29:00.002Z

If 15 Americans, or God forbid 15 Jews, had been killed it would have been the end of the world as we know it.

15 Iraqis, six women and nine children, are murdered by the US Air Force and it is "a matter of regret".

The Shit Hits the Fan

2007-10-11T21:29:00.001Z

Patients being asked to soil themselves in bed. Excrement all over the floor, bathroom and beds. It was like something from a Romanian orphanage circa 1990. Alas it was worse. Much worse.

This was the British NHS in the 21st century. Even worse than that, if that's possible, was that this was my local hospital. A hospital that I had visited far too often, though thankfully never as a patient. A hospital which three members of my family have worked in or are working in. A hospital that I lived a stone's throw from for six years.

And now here it was, all over the news, the shame of the whole country. The local hospital has a special place in the hearts of the British people. To see it being torn to shreds in the world media is an unusual feeling.

Why did this happen? There has been too much political interference in the NHS.

It is being reformed simply because of political ideology. The NHS was workig perfectly well before the Tories started reforming it in the 1980s. If we are unfortunate enough to fall ill we don't want to choose between a handful of mediocre hospitals. We want to receive immediate first class treatment at our local hospital.

It is continually being restructured, often unnecessarily. Do you know the name of the trusts which run your hospital or provide your GP service?

Too much of the support services, including cleaning, have been privatised through the back door. These private companies charge the NHS billions for their service but then cut corners in the provision of the service, such as providing unskilled untrained staff to carry out very important work.

How did this happen? The NHS is run by unaccountable quangos. They spend over £100 billion of taxpayers money and make decision that affect every single person in this country and yet most people haven't got a clue as to who they are. Can you name a single one of the thousands of NHS trustees?

The solution? Abolish the NHS and replace it with local health services run by democratically accountable councils.

Resistance is Futile

2007-09-27T21:40:00.000Z

By the world's reaction to the protests in Burma you wouldn't think that a military junta had been in power there for 45 years. During their long reign of terror the military junta has murdered tens of thousands ethnic minorities and political opponents. Burma's vast natural resources have been plundered by corrupt generals and foreign companies. Why all of a sudden is the Burmese military junta public enemy number one, at least in western eyes?

There are echoes of Iraq with what is happening in Burma now. Saddam Hussein was in power for 30 years but suddenly in 2001 he became the biggest threat to world security. Will history repeat itself? No, there will be no international military intervention in Burma. Instead the world has called for "restraint". The west has applied targeted sanctions but this is a futile gesture as only a tiny fraction of Burma's trade is with the west.

Only Burma's neighbours can make a difference but they have been deafening in their silence. The streets of Burma are flowing with blood as Burma's neighbours protect their economic interests. As long as Burma's neighbours, particularly China, act selfishly and do nothing the Burmese military junta will stay in power and continue to do whatever it likes.

So many of the world's tyrannies survive only thanks to the patronage of powerful neighbours: South Africa in Zimbabwe, China in North Korea and Burma. These tyrannies can only be ended if the world takes a firm stance against their protectors. Will the world stand-up to China? Will the world boycott next year's Olympics if China doesn't stop protecting the Burmese military junta? Will these protests achieve anything? Will there ever be democracy in Burma?

No. Viva the mighty dollar.

9 out of 10 Celebrities Prefer Tesco

2007-09-01T19:40:00.000Z

Question: What organisation can buy all these famous people: Cilla Black, Emma Bunton, Naomi Campbell, Ronnie Corbett, Paul Daniels, Barry Davies, Frankie Dettori, David Dickinson, Noel Edmonds, Bruce Forsythe, Jane Horrocks, Bob Hoskins, Martine McCutcheon, John McEnroe, Jimmy Nail, James Nesbitt, Graham Norton, Prunella Scales, Timothy Spall, Alan Titchmarsh, Tommy Walsh, Julie Walters, Barbara Windsor, Kevin Whately, Alan Whicker, Richard Wilson and Terry Wogan?

Answer: Tesco.

All of the above have appeared in or done voice overs for Tesco's TV adverts in the UK. But they aren't the only ones. The world wide web isn't big enough to name all the celebrities who have sold out to Tesco. The latest to to fall prey is Bjorn Borg. Is there no stopping this monster?

Where Were You When JFK Was Shot?

2007-08-31T22:03:00.000Z

This seminal moment for a whole generation came before I was born. So did the landing on the Moon.

My generation's moment came on 31st August 1997, the death of Diana, the Real Princess of Wales. For me it was just a normal Sunday, like a hundred Sundays before and a hundred Sundays since. And yet I remember it like it was yesterday.

It's funny how ordinary events, that would normally be washed away by time, attach themselves to extraordinary events so as to stay in our memories for eternity.

Cause and Effect

2007-08-15T21:45:00.001Z

60 years ago India achieved independence from the British after a long struggle.

India was the jewel in the crown of the British Empire. It's independence would signal the beginning of the end of the largest empire the World has known. It was a huge blow for Britain. But the British thought they could have the final laugh.

Aided by the self-serving paranoids of the Muslim League, the British would partition India on their leaving and create the wholly artificial state of Pakistan. This partition would not only result in a million deaths and the largest human movement in history (15 million people). It would cast a shadow over the sub-continent that lasts to this day. A shadow that now includes the possibility of nuclear holocaust.

Pakistan is a failed state. It's a failed state because it is an artificial state. It's people have nothing in common other than their religion.

Nothing good has come from Pakistan since it was created. For more than half it's life, including now, it has been ruled by the military, a stark contrast to India which has been a model of liberal democracy since independence. It was the Pakistani secret police which created the Islamic extremists, including the Taleban, to fight the Soviet army in Afghanistan. These extremists have now turned on the rest of the world. They are blowing themselves up and murdering others all over the world, including London. Three of the four 7/7 bombers were of Pakistani origin. Who's laughing now?

Part-Time Democrats

2007-08-14T18:04:00.000Z

It is outrageous that so called democratic political parties should oppose a referendum on Scottish independence simply because they do not agree with the potential outcome.

If all political parties opposed referenda that might produce an outcome that they do not agree with, then there would be no referenda, ever!

Referenda are far more democratic than a cabal of 129 people who are only accountable to the 5,200,000 people they are representing once every four years.

The latest opinion polls suggest that only a minority of Scots favour independence. Surely it would be better if there was a referendum now on independence. This would be defeated and the issue could then be put aside for a generation. Scottish politics could then deal with other issues, such as health, education, crime, instead of the issue of independence always dominating the political debate.

Missing You Already Tony

2007-06-27T19:19:00.000Z

There’s huge void in my chest. I feel nauseous. My legs are like jelly. Tony, please don’t go.

Like all messiahs you’ve been misunderstood and persecuted for your beliefs. But we now realise that it was all a terrible mistake. We were all wrong about you.

Please come back Tony. You know you want to...

Divide and Rule

2007-06-18T20:43:00.000Z

It’s an age old tactic used by imperialists all over the world. And now it is being used by the Jews/Americans against the Palestinians.

A year ago the Palestinian people exercised their democratic will and elected a Hamas government. But this government had no chance to govern. The Jews/Americans and the gutless EU immediately condemned the new government. The message to the Palestinians, and to the wider Arab/Islamic world, was clear: you can choose any government you want, as long as we approve. The Jews/Americans then imposed economic sanctions and froze the Palestinian government’s funds. Then the Jews/Americans started supplying arms and money to the Fatah, the side that LOST the elections. Fatah were prepared to get into bed with the people responsible for oppressing the Palestinians for 60 years just to further their own ambitions.

Hamas cannot evade their own responsibility for the current catastrophe to befall the Palestinians. By staging the coup in Gaza they played straight into the hands of the Jews/Americans.

The prospect for an independent Palestine was always slim. The debacle in Gaza means that there will now never be an independent Palestine. The Jews/Americans may contrive to establish a Palestinian state led by Fatah but it will merely be a puppet state like Iraq and Afghanistan. Fatah have lost all credibility with the Palestinian people by collaborating with Jews/Americans.

The Palestinian people have been let down throughout history. First of all they were let down by other Arab countries who started wars on their behalf, capitulated quickly and signed peace treaties with the Jews which ignored the Palestinians. Then they were let down by the “international community” which has repeatedly failed to uphold international law. And now they have been let down by their own leaders who have walked straight into the trap laid by the Jews/Americans. The Palestinian people are doomed to spend eternity as slaves of the Jews

40 Years of Hurt

2007-06-05T19:33:00.001Z

The Worst of Both Worlds

2007-06-04T19:48:00.000Z

End of an Era

2007-05-20T15:19:00.001Z

Bliar resigning? No, something far more important. BBC has lost the rights to broadcast Neighbours. Fair dinkum. After 22 years on the Beeb the Australian soap will move to Five in 2008.

I been watching Neighbours, on and off, since I was knee-high to a grasshopper. Of course, in the early days I could only watch it during the school holidays. Thankfully they brought in the evening installment in 1988.

A lot has happened in Ramsay Street since them - some good, some bad. But I have stuck with Neighbours, as have some five million others who regularly watch the show.

Sure, the BBC may have treated Neighbours fans badly. They would never publicise the show. It would be the first programme they remove from the schedule every time there were showing a sporting event. They would not show it on bank holidays using the excuse that if they didn't do that they would overtake Australia. This was a laughable excuse as Neighbours is shown for all but three weeks a year in Australia. Two weeks off for Wimbledon, at least one week off over Christmas, another five bank holidays, football world cup, European championships, Olympics and the odd horse racing meant there was never any chance of the UK catching up with Australia. However, at least the Beeb stuck with Neighbours despite audience figures falling from 18 million to 5 million.

Will Five stick with Neighbours if audience figures fall? Probably not. And if Five drops Neighbours it will surely mean the end of Neighbours. So much rests on the all-singing all-dancing Neighbours that Five's money will pay for.

5.35pm will never be the same again. What will the BBC schedule in Neighbours place? How about bringing back what they used to show at 5.35pm: the Flintstones...

Thank Heaven for All Little Girls

2007-05-20T14:50:00.000Z

You cannot have missed the news of the missing four year-old Madeleine McCann. It's been all over the papers. It's been the leading item on the news, ahead of the daily carnage in Iraq and the civil war in Gaza.

You cannot fault the McCann family for doing all they can to publicise the abduction. Of course it helps that they have a large, well organised extended family and wealthy friends. If only everyone was so fortunate.

What about thousands of Iraqi girls who have been murdered by the illegal American invasion and occupation? What about the millions of girls who die each year through famine and poverty? Even if you're a Sun reader and therefore don't give a damn about foreigners, what about all the other British girls who have disappeared? Nearly one thousand other British children have gone missing since Madeleine was abducted. Can you name a single one of them? The money raised by the Madeleine appeal is greater the annual budget for the National Missing Persons Bureau.

The most distasteful thing about this case is all the "Great and Good" of the land who have jumped aboard this particular band wagon: businessmen, footballers, musicians, actors, cricketers and politicians. Why?

What makes this one single girl so special?

Thirteen Years Too Late

2007-05-10T19:49:00.000Z

On the night of 11th May 1994 I saw John Smith, the then leader of the Labour Party, on the news. He was stopped by a reporter in the street and asked a question about something. As John replied he got all "worked up". I thought to myself that he shouldn't be getting angry - I knew he had had a heart attack before. The following morning John Smith died of heart attack. He was aged 55.

Why is it that only the good die young? Why is the world robbed of honest decent people like John Smith and Robin Cook and yet self-serving liars such as Bliar, Mandelson and John Reid seem to go on forever?

One can only imagine what kind of a different (and better) world we would all be living in if John Smith hadn't died so young. But it wasn't meant to be. Instead, we got thirteen years of Tony Bliar.

Many people have prospered under Bliar's regime. But many, many more have suffered. And now Bliar has announced he will step down as leader of the Labour Party on 27th June. It's thirteen years too late. The damage has been done.

Bliar's final words of his resignation speech was to wish the British people good luck. Millions of British people were thinking good riddance.

Things Could Have Only Got Better

2007-05-02T22:08:00.000Z

Friday 2nd May 1997. It only seems like yesterday. The hopes of millions of Britons rested with the new Labour government. After eighteen years of Tory rule Britain was ready for a change.

Ten years on, here is the clinical, rambling analysis of what the Labour government has achieved.

Under this Labour government there is now a minimum wage and everyone has the right to join a trade union but it was perfectly legal for an American to sack 670 Gate Gourmet employees via megaphone and for Mark Langford to sack 2,500 Accident Group employees via SMS text.

The gap between the rich and poor is wider now than it was ten years ago. The government may trumpet the fact that several hundred thousand children have been taken out of poverty but this, like so much of New Labour’s spin, is a subversion of the facts. In absolute terms poverty has fallen. But in relative terms, where people’s income is compared to average income, poverty has actually risen over the past ten years. One of the reasons for this is that it is the middles classes who have benefited the most from the much heralded tax credits. You can be earning as much as £60k and still claim tax credits if you have a child. But if you don't have a child, you could be earning as little as £10k and you wouldn't entitled to a penny in benefits/tax credits.

Hundreds of billions of pounds have been poured into the public sector without any discernible improvement in public services. Where has all this money gone? They have gone into the pockets of the directors of private companies involved in PPP/PFI schemes. They have gone into the pockets of GP's and consultants, most of whom now earn in excess of £100k despite working only part time in the NHS (the rest of their time is spent working in private hospitals or on the golf course). This is happening at the same time as hundreds of thousands of other NHS staff are working on the minimum wage. The government has pampered doctors and nurses but would the NHS function without the services of cleaners, porters, catering and clerical staff?

Hundreds of billions of pounds have been wasted on IT and construction contracts that have cost much more than their budget. Why is every contract between the public sector and private sector written in a so one-sided way that it is the public sector which ends up footing the bill if the project overruns or turns out to be more complex than originally thought? Would this happen in contract between two private companies? When the construction for the new Wembley stadium overran, who ended up paying for this? Certainly not the FA, the client. It was Multiplex, the contractor, who paid for the overrun. Why doesn't this happen in the public sector? Because our politicians and officials are being bribed by the contractors to sign such one-sided contracts.

And who has paid for all this? Certainly not the rich. Tax laws in Britain are now so lax that Britain is now a tax haven. Gone are the days when greedy businessmen and celebrities would hide their fortunes in an obscure Caribbean island. Now they just bring it to Britain. Seven of the top ten in the latest Sunday Times Rich List were born outside the UK.

Tax laws in Britain have also allowed it to become the home of venture capitalists. These scum buy successful companies by taking out vast loans. Tax laws allow these loans to be shown as liabilities of the companies being bought, rather than the venture capitalists. Not only does this remove all the risk associated with the loan from the venture capitalists, the huge interest to be paid on the loan is tax deductible! They then asset strip the companies and sack thousands of employees. Once they've done this they just walk away from the business, having pocketed hundreds of millions. They have raped hundreds of UK companies, including household names such as Rover and the AA. Their eyes are now set on Boots and Sainsbury's.

It is the poorest in society who have ended up paying for this governments waste and corruption. Indirect taxes have been gone up steadily over the past ten years and, by virtue of these taxes being regressive, it is the poor whose tax burden has risen the most.

Education, education, education. That was Bliar’s mantra. Yes, there are many shiny new schools where every pupil has a laptop but, again, what has this achieved? Every August government ministers pat themselves on the back after record passes at GCSEs and A Levels. But this is only achievable by fixing the grades after all the exam papers have been marked. You couldn't make it up. Even under this dodgy way of grading of exams there is growing gap in the qualifications achieved by school leavers. At the same time as record numbers are achieving the top grades, record numbers are leaving school without any qualifications. The savvy middle class are using the property market to corner places in the best schools for their children. If you can’t play this game you’re doomed to send your children to bog standard schools. The government can throw as much money as it can at these schools to improve standards but nothing will change as long as there are ghettos in our education system.

Record number of school leavers may be going to universities but what are they studying? Media studies and sociology. In the country that gave the world the industrial revolution, the number of maths, science and engineering graduates are at record low. In the market orientated world universities operate in now many are simply dropping courses in these subjects. They simply cost to much to run. At the same time China and India are churning out millions of science and engineering graduates every year. One of the few comforts of all our manufacturing jobs going abroad was that at least the designing stage was still being done in Britain. But if these jobs too are exported because a lack of appropriate graduates, what on earth are future British generations going to do for a living? Are they all going to end up working in Tesco, stacking its shelves with goods designed and manufactured abroad?

Another one of New Labour’s buzzwords was ethical foreign policy. It got off to a good start with Kosovo and Sierra Leone but it’s been downhill ever since. Ethics have been abandoned in favour of economics and national interest: China, Palestine, Libya, Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Iran etc.

Of all the things done by New Labour in the past ten years, surely giving unconditional support to America in it’s “war on terror” was the most wreckless. Have any “terrorists” been defeated by using military force? The Boers tried to defeat the ANC, whom they and Margaret Thatcher described as terrorists, by using military force but in the end they had to admit defeat and abandon Apartheid. The Jews haven’t been able to defeat the PLO using force. Even the British had to negotiate with IRA/Sinn Fein. You don’t hijack a plane and kill thousands, including yourself, unless it’s the last resort .

Things Can Only Get Better was the anthem of the New Labour victory in 1997. How wrong it was.

T'is the Season of Anniversaries

2007-05-01T22:39:00.000Z

1st May 2003

What went wrong George?

Let the Turks Vote for Christmas

2007-04-30T21:07:00.000Z

Would the armed forces of any EU country threaten their democratically elected politicians? This is what has happened in Turkey, a would be EU member. The Turkish armed forces have threatened to take action if the democratically elected Grand National Assembly chose an Islamist as President.

It is their business if the democratically elected representatives of the Turkish people choose an Islamist as their President. It is not for the Turkish armed forces to interfere with democracy, even if the constitution, written under the military dictatorship rule in 1982, allows them to do so.

It is some one thousand years since the Turks left their homeland in Central Asia and marauded their way through north west Asia and eastern Europe. They massacred millions and destroyed numerous civilisations. It seems that the Turks have not changed a great deal in the past thousand years.

They show complete contempt for non-Turks. They continue to deny their genocide of the Armenians and Kurds. They continue to suppress the cultures of all non-Turks living in Turkey. They refuse to give the Kurds self determination. Their politicians are subservient to their military.

Turkey must not be allowed to become a member of the EU until the Turks discard their fascist tendencies and become civilised.

Darfur: The Forgotten Genocide

2007-04-29T22:49:00.000Z

Over 1/4 million murdered. More than 2 million made refugees. Millions of girls and women raped. Thousands of villages burnt to the ground. It is now four years since the genocide in Darfur began.

It is ironic that the genocide in Darfur started at the same time as the attack on Iraq. After it was exposed that Iraq contained no WMD's and didn't pose a threat to any other countries, the apologists for the attack on Iraq excused it by saying that it was helping the people of Iraq. What about the people of Darfur? Why has the "international community" turned a blind eye to the genocide in Darfur?

The first reason was of course that the attack on Iraq wasn't done to help the people of Iraq. The second reason is oil. Many countries, especially China and Russia, import a great deal of oil from Sudan. They don't want to risk this by helping the people of Darfur.

And what of the organisation which is meant to prevent such genocide? During the last four years the UN has passed 16 resolutions on Darfur but it hasn't enforced a single one of them. Why? What makes Darfur so different from Kuwait, Congo, Lebanon, Kashmir, East Timor, Bosnia, Cyprus, Kosovo, Liberia, Ivory Coast etc? It is this kind of picking and choosing which has discredited the UN in the eyes of so many people in the world.

The UN may be the sum of it's members and it is true that it cannot do anything without the full support of the five permanent members. But when members, such as China and Russia, prevent it from doing its job merely out of self interest, why do other members and the Secretary General keep quiet? Why don't they expose the outrageous hypocrisy and double standards?

Instead of intervening themselves to protect the people of Darfur, the "international community" and the UN expect the African Union to do it. This would be the same corrupt, impotent African Union who's members include Mugabe's Zimbabwe and, er, Sudan.

Boris Yeltsin: The Tsar of Opportunists

2007-04-23T21:06:00.000Z

What a blinkered view of history some people have. Boris Yeltsin was no hero. He was an opportunist.

He was a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union for nearly 30 years. It was by virtue of being a member of the CPSU that he was able to climb the political ladder to become president of communist Russia. But, like so many communists in Eastern Europe, when he saw that communism's days were numbered, he suddenly switched sides and became a "democrat". When hard line communists staged a coup in 1991 Yeltsin, being at the right place at the right time, was able label himself a "democrat" and seize power for himself. But Yeltsin was no "democrat".

In 1993 the democratically elected Russian parliament refused to give Yeltsin dictatorial powers. Yeltsin replied by using tanks to shell the parliament. What a "democrat"! This wasn't the end of Yeltsin's brutality.

In 1994 Yeltsin ordered the military invasion of Chechnya. The Russian army laid waste to Chechnya, especially its capital Grozny. Over one hundred thousand civilians were murdered by the Russian army, millions were made refugees. This barbarism by the Russian army against the Muslim Chechnyans was to leave a long lasting legacy that is still being felt by the world.

Some of the most devastating crimes committed by Yeltsin were economic. He handed over Russia's nationalised industrial assets and vast natural wealth to a handful of people at a knockdown price. These handful of people became multi-billionaires overnight. But millions of ordinary Russians were plunged into economic misery. Millions lost their jobs as factories were closed. The country was hit by hyperinflation. The brave Russian people, whose stoic resistance had saved the world from Nazi rule, were forced to beg in the streets and rummage through bins for scraps of food. Many tried to drown their misery at the bottom of a bottle of vodka.

Under Yeltsin's rule the Russian mafia grew to eclipse the Italian mafia. The Russian mafia is now responsible for organised crime in every corner of the world. Most of the drug trafficking, prostitution, human trafficking and internet fraud committed in the world is being organised by the Russian mafia. The Russian mafia is so big now that it controls thousands of "legitimate" companies across the world, ranging from energy companies to football clubs (Chelski FC).

The Russia Yeltsin built was a shadow of the country that defeated Hitler. The gap between the rich and poor is worse than under the rule of the Tsars. Before Yeltsin took power the Russian health service was one of the best and most advanced in the world. Today most Russians don't have access to health care. Millions of Russians are addicted to vodka. Life expectancy is actually falling. This, coupled with the low birth rate, means that Russia's population is expected fall significantly over the coming decades.

But perhaps Yeltsin's worst crime, a crime that history will never forgive him for, is that he gave the world Vladimir Putin!

Lies, Hypocrisy and Double Standards: The Rape of Iraq

2007-03-19T23:10:00.004Z

It’s hard to believe it’s been four years. Four years since the biggest conspiracy of lies in our time was put into effect and the rape of Iraq started.

The lie conjured up by the neo-cons to excuse this illegal invasion of Iraq was that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction and posed a grave threat to international security. History would prove that was a complete work of fiction. Iraq didn’t possess any WMDs and its armed forces were in a such a dire strait that they didn’t pose a threat to anyone.

The most astonishing thing about this lie was the hypocrisy of the United States. The USA possesses enough nuclear weapons to destroy the world several times over and it is the only country to have ever used nuclear weapons in aggression. It possesses more chemical and biological weapons than the rest of the world combined and it has routinely used these against civilians in conflicts from Vietnam to Iraq. It consistently refuses to sign international treaties that would limit the use of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. As well as using WMDs itself the USA is quite happy to sell them to murderous dictators around the world. The chemical weapons used by Saddam Hussein against Iranian and Kurdish civilians were sold to him by the USA.

Rumsfeld sells some WMDs to Iraq

When the lies about WMDs were exposed the neo-cons came up with even more lies: they were there to help the people of Iraq and bring democracy. History has once again shown the ridiculousness of these lies.

An American soldier betrays America's real intentions in Iraq

Right from the beginning the redneck American soldiers have shown themselves to be evil sadistic bastards. They have murdered at least one hundred thousand Iraqis and tortured, maimed and raped millions. The outrages of Abu Ghraib were just the tip of the iceberg. They have stolen billions of dollars from Iraq’s oil and looted its antiquities. They have made Iraq such a hell that most Iraqis long for the security under Saddam’s rule.

The neo-cons may say that Iraq is now a democracy but, like all of the US-sponsored regimes in the middle east, it's only a democracy in name. The Iraqis may have voted in number on “free” elections in the last four years but a choice between one hundred self-serving collaborators is no choice. The quisling government, hiding in the Green Zone, have siphoned off billions of dollars of Iraq’s oil revenue into their personal Swiss bank accounts. They fly around the world in private jets calling themselves minister for this and ambassador for that. They have bought themselves mansions in Manhattan and London and holiday homes in the Caribbean. They send their children the best private schools and universities in the West. They do all this as ordinary Iraqis live in misery.

Each time an Iraqi leaves their home they don’t know if they are going to be murdered, raped, or kidnapped by the Americans or Iraqi collaborators. If they are lucky they will only be arrested, tortured and imprisoned indefinitely without trial. Even when they are at home they don’t know if the Americans will come knocking at the door, rape their wives and daughters, place a hood over their heads and take them away to an unknown fate.

Iraq has the second largest reserve of oil yet most Iraqis don’t have electricity and have to queue for days for petrol. Most Iraqi’s don’t have running water or sewerage. Before the American invasion Iraq was one the most developed countries in the middle east. Now it is akin to a sub-Saharan African country.

Even when it became clear that Iraq wasn’t a better place after the American invasion the neo-cons came up with more excuses.

They said life would be better when Saddam was caught. This didn’t happen.

They said life would be better after elections for an interim government. This didn’t happen.

They said life would be better after a new constitution was drawn up. This didn’t happen.

They said life would be better when the provisional government was replaced by a permanent government. This didn’t happen.

They said life would be better when Saddam was executed. This didn’t happen.

And now they say life will get better after they send in more troops. Let history record if this happens.

The reason for the attack on Iraq was not WMD, international security or Iraqi democracy. It wasn’t even oil. The reason for the attack on Iraq was bloody vengeance. The fate of Iraq was sealed on a sunny Tuesday in September 2001. Three thousand Americans had been killed therefore three million foreigners, preferably Muslims and Arabs, will have to be murdered as revenge. First on the target list was Afghanistan and this went well with the Taleban falling quickly. Next was Iraq. Although Saddam Hussein’s regime fell quickly the Americans underestimated the how much resistance there would be from the Iraqi people. Had this not happened America would surely have attacked the other countries in the middle east that weren’t subservient to it: Iran, Syria, Sudan and Somalia. And then they would have had control over every Muslim country in the world, from Morocco to Malaysia.

What has happened to the criminals responsible for the rape of Iraq? Despite their lies and motives being exposed Bush, Bliar and Howard are still in power. They, nor anybody else, will ever be brought to justice for the war crimes committed in Iraq in the last four years.

And what of Iraq? The recent “surge” by America will push Iraq further into the abyss. The USA cannot win in Iraq because it has no support amongst the Iraqi people. Sometime in the future, possibly after Bush has gone, America will realise this and make a tactical withdrawal as it did in Vietnam. Iraq will descent into full scale civil war (if it hasn’t already) in which its neighbours, including Turkey and Saudi Arabia, will be heavily involved. After a period of conflict Iraq will come under the rule of a pro-American dictator. And Iraq’s oil and other assets will be owned by American companies. But, wait a minute...isn’t this what America wants? A weak, brutalised, subservient Iraq which is no threat to the Jews and whose oil is under American control.

Perhaps this is what the neo-cons had planned all along. Is America really “winning” in Iraq without anyone knowing it?

How to Commit Murder and Get Away With It...

2007-03-13T22:56:00.000Z

...Join the British Army.

This is what Colonel Jorge Mendonca, Major Michael Peebles, Warrant Officer Mark Davies, Lance Corporal Wayne Crowcroft, Sergeant Kelvin Stacey and Private Darren Fallon did.

They, Lieutenant Craig Rogers (who was never tried) and numerous other British soldiers whose identity is being kept secret by the British Army, systematically abused and tortured several innocent Iraqi civilians as vengeance after a British Army officer was killed. Unfortunately for the soldiers one of their victims, Baha Mousa, had the discourtesy to die as a result of their brutality.

They weren't the first of the foreign occupiers to commit war crimes in Iraq. But they were one of the few whose crimes have been discovered by the outside world. And what happened next?

Were they tried by the Iraqi courts because the crimes were committed in Iraq against Iraqis? No.

Were they tried by the International Courts of Justice in Hague because these were war crimes? No.

They were tried in Britain by a British court consisting of officers from the British Army. And surprise, surprise they were all acquitted.

The only British soldier who will face any punishment for these heinous war crimes is Corporal Donald Payne. But even he is only facing punishment for "inhumanely treating Iraqi civilians".

No British soldier will be brought to justice for the murder and torture that was committed by the British Army in Basra in September 2003.

One wonders if the roles had been reversed, and that it was British civilians who had been tortured and murdered by Iraqi soldiers, whether British authorities would be happy if the only outcome was that one single individual was punished for "inhumanely treating British civilians"?

A Matter of Priorities

2007-02-21T19:19:00.000Z

God have mercy on anyone coming between an Englishman and his Mondeo.

The British Prime Minister invents a pack of lies to excuse the invasion of a country which results in the murder of over one hundred thousand people and nothing happens.

The NHS and schools are being privatised through the back door and nothing happens.

The country’s future is being mortgaged with corporate loan sharks through PFI /PPP deals and nothing happens.

Greedy developers have been allowed to hijack the property market to such a great extent that millions of people cannot get on the property ladder without handouts from their family, friends or the government and nothing happens.

Yet, when the government proposes introducing road charges over 1.7 million people sign a petition against it. The British certainly know what is important in life.

Road charging is wrong. It is not wrong because “I’ve paid my taxes through fuel duty so I should be able to whatever I want with my car”. It is wrong because it is yet another regressive tax that have become very popular with governments in recent years.

It may seem fair that people pay based on usage but any system which ignores the ability of the user to pay is inherently unfair. The poll tax did this - everyone paid the same amount irrespective of whether they were a fat cat director of a FTSE company or a pensioner living on a miserly state pension. This was the fatal flaw which eventually led to the demise of the poll tax.

The congestion charge in central London has clearly shown the regressive nature of a road charging system which ignores the varied personal financial circumstances of drivers. The number of vehicles in central London has reduced by 30% and yet paradoxically congestion has actually increased. Why?

The 30% of cars that have been driven out of central London belong the poorest in society who cannot afford to pay £8 a day for the privilege of driving to work in order to make a living for themselves and their families. This, initially, resulted in a reduction in congestion. This in turn caused the rich, who can easily afford the congestion charge, to increase the use of their vehicles in central London. Previously they would have left their Mercs, BMWs and Jaguars at home and used the public transport to get to work. But now with all the riffraff off the streets they could get to work in the comfort of their Chelsea tractors. Hence the increase in congestion.

Cars aren’t a luxury - they are a necessity. Especially so since public transport, controlled as it is by the profiteering cartel of Arriva, First, National Express and Stage Coach, is abysmal. Road congestion is a real problem but the solution isn’t to price the poorest in society off the streets. The solution is to provide a convenient, comfortable, reliable and affordable alternative. This means bringing public transport back into public ownership. And it also means investing more money in public transport. Money raised by increase direct, income based taxes.

Another Day, Another Inquiry

2007-01-22T23:35:00.000Z

In the UK, whenever something goes wrong or crimes are committed, we do not hold those responsible accountable or bring them to justice. Instead we hold inquiries, produce reports and come up with fancy phrases such as “institutional racism” or “fit for purpose”.

This is what happened in the Stephen Lawrence case and this is what has happened n one particular case where the RUC aided and abetted in murders committed by Protestant terrorists.

RUC officers not only gave protection to the murderers but also gave them thousands of pounds of taxpayers money. All of this happened with the knowledge of senior officers including the chief constable. Most of the senior officers involved refused to co-operate with the inquiry.

Will the RUC officers responsible be brought to justice? No. Will the then chief constable lose his current government job or his knighthood? No. Instead they will all grow old on a fat pension.

The RUC may now have a different name, different symbol and different governing/regulatory bodies. It may even have a few more Catholic officers. It will however always be Protestant paramilitary organisation. The only just way forward is to disband it and start from scratch. If it’s good enough for the Iraqis it’s good enough for ALL the people of Northern Ireland.

Death of a Tyrant

2006-12-31T18:27:00.001Z

No one should be surprised by Saddam's execution. His fate was sealed on 11 September 2001. His so called "trial" was just for show.

From the moment Saddam was caught the Americans the quisling Iraqi government had been saying that he would be tried by the Iraqis for the crimes he committed against Iraqis. But everyone else knew that this was merely a show trial with the Americans orchestrating the whole thing.

The Americans chose which crimes he would be tried for. Saddam was responsible for the murder of hundreds of thousands of Iranians, Arabs, Kurds, Sunni and Shias. Yet he was only tried for the murder of 148 Shia in Dujail. Why? Because this was the only crime in which he wasn't aided and abetted by the Americans. Had he been tried for ALL his crimes then the whole world would have realised that it was American weapons and American intelligence that helped Saddam commit those crimes against humanity.

The Americans chose the judges and the lawyers (both prosecution and defence).

During the trial Saddam was detained by the Americans not the Iraqis. This ensured that they could control contact he had and more importantly they could learn what evidence he might use during the "trial"

The CIA controlled the TV pictures of the "trial" so that the nothing that would damage the Americans would get out.

And finally it was the Americans who chose which day he would be executed. No self respecting Muslim would sanction the execution to take place on the holiest day in Islam.

No one should doubt that Saddam was a psychopath who murdered hundreds of thousands and terrorised millions. But he should have faced proper justice for ALL his crimes. His show trial and now his premature execution have ensured that this will now never happen.

The neo-cons may hope that his execution will end the insurgency in Iraq. It will do no such thing. All it has done is denied justice to all but 148 of his victims and put one more nail in the coffin of the notion that the quisling Iraqi government is sovereign and independent of the occupying Americans

Let the World Rejoice: PINOCHET IS DEAD!

2006-12-11T23:18:00.001Z

Pinochet, the former murderous dictator of Chile, is dead.

In 1973 Pinochet, with the assistance of the CIA, staged a coup and overthrew the democratically elected government and murdered President Allende.

In the following fifteen years anyone who opposed him was dealt with brutally. Thousands were murdered. Tens of thousands were tortured. Hundreds of thousands were imprisoned for years without trial or simply “disappeared”. All of this happened with the explicit support of the “democratic world”.

Pinochet’s apologists argue that he saved Chile from going the way of Cuba and that he brought economic stability. If the people of Chile wanted to go the way of Cuba, let them. It was their right. It was not for Pinochet or the Chilean army’s to deny them their democratic will.

It was only the middle class who benefited from the “economic liberalisation” initiated by Pinochet. Most Chileans lived in abject poverty. Millions lost their jobs.

His apologists also argue that, by South American standards, Dictator Pinochet was a pussy cat. He only murdered three thousand people. Dare I say that this death toll is more than the death toll from the worst catastrophe in history, ever: 9/11.

As well as terrorising the Chilean people, Pinochet plundered the country’s wealth. The income from Chile’s vast mineral resources went into private Swiss bank accounts belonging to Pinochet, his family and his cronies. And there they still are.

There have been a number of attempts to bring Pinochet to justice since he gave up power in 1988 but he has evaded each of them. On a number of occasions he used his cronies, at home and abroad, to pull strings to get him off the hook. Sometimes he used the veil threat of another army coup to keep justice at bay. But most of the times he would just pretend to be ill and yet somehow when he was back home in Chile surrounded by his apologists he would make a miraculous recovery. And now by dying he has evaded justice one final time.

Fifty Years of Defiance

2006-12-02T22:46:00.000Z

Fifty years ago today began the liberation of Cuba from the vile, corrupt, murderous US sponsored dictatorship of Batista. It would be another two years before Batista was finally overthrown and his cronies, who had profiteered under his regime, would flee to Miami to form one of the biggest and most ruthless organised crime syndicates in the world.

Ever since then Cuba, often alone, has stood steadfast against American tyranny in Latin America. And ever since then the Miami Cuban mafia, aided and abetted by the CIA, have been trying everything possible to regain their stranglehold on Cuba.

First of all came the failed invasion at the Bay of Pigs. When President Kennedy refused to offer further help to the Miami Cuban mafia they murdered him. The Miami Cuban mafia have tried countless times to Castro but each time they were foiled.

Castro will not be around forever but a free Cuba will. And may those who oppose a free Cuba rot in the swamps of Florida.

Stop the Dirty Digger

2006-11-21T23:28:00.000Z

Rupert's played a blinder.

All the morons in the papers and TV are getting their knickers in a twist because Murdoch has bought a minority share in ITV. They think this is a prelude to him taking over ITV. What they fail to realise is that even the lax British media ownership laws prevent Murdoch from owning ITV outright.

This brilliant move is not about Murdoch taking over ITV. This simple, but masterful, move is merely about preventing any his rivals from taking over ITV and challenging his dominance of the British media. As a minority shareholder Murdoch will be able to veto anyone buying ITV outright.

Murdoch has not become by one of the world's leading, if not the leading, media moguls by providing superior products or services. He has done this by eliminating any competition, by fair or foul means.

In 1990 he forced British Satellite Broadcasting to "merge" with his Sky TV creating what we now know as BSkyB. This gave him a monopoly on satellite TV and a virtual monopoly on pay TV in Britain.

In 2002 he forced ITV Digital into bankruptcy using both legal and illegal methods. He prevented the ITV Sports channel, on whose success the future of ITV Digital rested, from broadcasting on his Sky Digital platform. This denied ITV Sports the millions of subscribers it needed in order to pay for the Football League TV rights. He also used his contacts in the criminal world to crack ITV Digital's encryption technology. By eliminating ITV Digital Murdoch had rid himself of a serious competitor in the pay TV market.

Then, by conspiring with the BBC to create Freeview, the successor to ITV Digital, he ensured that there would never again be any serious pay TV on terrestrial TV.

And now, by buying this minority stake in ITV, he has ensured that NTL-Telewest-Virgin-ITV isn't a threat to BSkyB.

Richard Branson has rightly complained to Ofcom but don't expect those gutless wonders to do anything. They will probably pass the buck to the government. It's time to call in the favours Rupert...

The Revolution That Wasn't

2006-11-08T22:53:00.000Z

There have been many colourful words used to describe what has happened across the big pond: seismic, extraordinary, political coup. But all of this is giving the American electorate too much credit.

They didn't vote for the Democrats because the neo-cons used a pack of lies to justify the illegal invasion of Iraq. They didn't vote for the Democrats because over one hundred thousand Iraqis have been killed. They didn't vote for the Democrats because over one million Iraqis have been maimed, raped and tortured by the American occupiers and their puppets. They didn't vote for the Democrats because the lives of all Iraqis, except those of the collaborators hiding in the Green Zone, have got worse since Saddam was toppled. They didn't vote for the Democrats because billions of dollars of Iraqi oil money / international aid / American tax payers money have been stolen by the quisling Iraqi government and the various American contractors.

They voted for the Democrats because a few thousand American soldiers have died.

It is also giving the Democratic politicians too much credit. Virtually every Democrat voted for the invasion of Iraq. Most of the new Democrats elected on Tuesday are conservatives who simply don't like seeing American boys coming home in coffins. The Democrats are just Republicans with a different coat on.

Rumsfeld has quit / been sacked. Hooray? No. It's six years too late. He has done his damage. His departure won't bring back the thousands who have died as a result of his lies. It won't heal the scars of American terror that he unleashed on the innocent people of Iraq.

Irrespective of who runs Congress it is Bush who still holds most of the powers in Washington, including foreign policy. This was not a revolution. Expect more of the same.

Truth, Justice - the American Way

2006-11-06T23:29:00.000Z

Saddam has been found guilty of killing 148 Shia in Dujail. No surprise.

He has been sentenced to death. No surprise.

The verdict came two days before a crucial mid-term election in the USA. No surprise.

The neo-cons and their puppet Iraqi government may hail this verdict as huge blow for the new Iraq but everyone else knows that this was a sham trial which, like the whole Iraq adventure, ended in a farce.

Saddam was responsible for murdering over one million Iranians, Kurds and Shia. So why was he tried just for the 148 killings in Dujail? If Saddam had been tried for all his crimes against humanity the truth about who armed him would have been revealed. In the 1980's the Americans supplied Saddam with most of the weapons which he carried out these crimes because back then he was waging a brutal war against another one their enemies: Iran. Many senior figures in the current neo-con regime are equally culpable for the crimes committed by Saddam. If there was real justice for Saddam's many victims the likes of Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney and George Bush Sr would all be swinging from the gallows alongside Saddam.

Previous war crimes/crimes against humanity trials have been held before a special international court. The Nazis were tried by an international court at Nuremburg and the Serb/Croat war criminals are being tried at the Hague. So why wasn't Saddam tried before an international court? An international court would have revealed America's culpability. And it would not have been able the pass the death penalty. By having the trial in Iraq the neo-cons could control the outcome. The various judges, prosecution and defence lawyers were all appointed by the quisling Iraqi government whose strings are pulled from Washington. If any of the judges tried to hold a fair trial they could be removed. If the defence lawyers showed any independence they could be murdered by the collaborators in the new Iraq army. The CIA could control the television coverage of the trial so that the world, and more importantly the Iraqis, only saw and heard what the neo-cons wanted them to.

The neo-cons are dancing in the streets of Washington now that Saddam has been sentenced to death. The EU has called for the execution to be not carried out but Tony Bliar, who apparently is against capital punishment, can't bring himself to say that Saddam shouldn't be executed.

The neo-cons may think that they can wash away their sins with Saddam's blood but the only thing the execution will bring is more bloodshed and heartache for the long suffering people of Iraq. The neo-cons won't be satisfied until the Euphrates and Tigris are running red with the blood of Iraqis.

Saddam Hussein is a genocidal psychopath who destroyed the lives the millions. He should be bought to justice for all his crimes. This sham trial has deprived most of his victims that justice. And the justice for his Dujail victims has been tainted by the political interfering and the farcical way the trial was held. Saddam's execution will mean that he will never be bought to justice.

Killer Strikes Again

2006-11-05T00:45:00.000Z

One of Jean Charles de Menezes' murderers has struck again - he shot dead a man in Kent on Tuesday.

This police officer is a dangerous killer but the public are unaware of his identity. The British media/government/legal system has afforded this murderer (and the others responsible for de Menezes' murder) anonymity.

He could be anywhere (the Met Police officer managed to commit this murder on a sleepy town on the south Kent coast). If you see him do not approach him and do not dial 999.

Will he get away with this murder? Will he be allowed to commit more murders? Is Glen Smythe a freemason?