Hoon fesses up

The man who was the British Secretary of State for Defence from 1999 through 2005, Geoff Hoon, has admitted that fatal errors were made in the run up to the illegal invasion of Iraq and the early days of the occupation. He says that Britain disagreed with the US in many areas but failed to obtain any leverage in Washington. He puts much of the blame on the failure of the Blair government to recognise the incredible influence that US Vice President "I'm a Big" Dick Cheney. In Mr. Hoon's words:

"Sometimes ... Tony had made his point with the president, and I'd made my point with Don [Rumsfeld] and Jack [Straw] had made his point with Colin [Powell] and the decision actually came out of a completely different place. And you think: what did we miss? I think we missed Cheney."

He admits that the plans were too optimistic about the reaction of the Iraqi populace to the invasion; he admits that dismantling Iraqi ministries and stripping the ministries of all members of the Ba'ath Party were mistakes.

Gone-zo watch (day 44)

Despite the fact that he is incompetent, that he has excessively politicised the US Justice Department and that he is vaguely annoying US Attorney General and Bush succubus Antonio "Gone-zo" Gonzales remains employed this morning against all odds. He spent yesterday in the wilds of Indiana where he attempted to ignore the disaster swirling all around him. It can't be easy for a normal person but for someone with his sieve-like memory he probably doesn't even understand what all the fuss is about.

There was little new news yesterday and that by itself is news I reckon. The squeaky little weasel just might tough it out. Which leaves England football manager Steve "I've never really coached a winning team and it doesn't look like I'm going to start now" McClaren in a position to snatch second place in the who-will-get-sacked first competition. His odds are falling.

(To be continued...)

Because it's May Day

Billy Bragg and The Internationale

I have a theory!

According to an article just published in Sleep - the Journal "sleep deprivation can threaten competent decision-making".

Maybe, just maybe, not a single member of the Bush administration has managed a single minute of sleep since 2001! Well it would explain a lot wouldn't it?

So why did she do it?

OK. Bear with me. I am trying to understand this. The current Miss America, Lauren Nelson of Oklahoma, agreed for some reason to pose as a teenage girl on the internet in order to entice men to meet her at a home where the police were waiting.

So we can assume that she did this for some altruistic purpose that goes unstated and not for self publicity. Fair enough.

Except now she is refusing to testify and thereby jeopardising the cases against eleven men. WTF?

The other problem I see with this plan is that men caught in teenage chat rooms will use the excuse that they were trying to find Miss America.

This all stinks to high heaven as far as I am concerned.

Why I like Malaysian doctors

Because occasionally they give out advice I can follow!

The company one keeps

According to Amnesty International's recent release on use of the death penalty across the world in 2006 only six countries accounted for 90% of the planets executions: Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Pakistan, China and, I almost forgot, that haven of liberty and freedom the United States of Amerika.

What does that say, eh?

More of the same from White House Incorporated

Finding a new case where the Bush administration favoured industry over the interests of the people they are supposed to represent is sort of like looking for mushrooms in the forest after a spring rain; there are examples everywhere. The latest? The Decider(TM) and his minions brushed aside warnings about the student loan industry (why is there a student loan industry anyway?) and proposals for more effective regulation way back in 2001. The result? The industry is plagued with questionable business practices and possible ethics violations.

More bad American health coverage news

According to a Guttmacher Institute reportin the years between 2000 and 2005 the percentage of American women of reproductive age covered by Medicaid increased from 9% to 12% but the uninsured part of the same population increased from 18% to 21% meaning that somewhere around 15 million women in that group had no coverage whatsoever.

Well done George. I'm willing to bet that your daughters don't fall into either category now do they?

BP chief executive lied to court over gay lover

Yes the headline above is lurid but it is true; unlike Lord Brown's testimony.

UPDATE: He has just resigned with immediate effect!

Too dangerous to kill

A straight A student who has been charged with disorderly conduct over a violent essay he wrote for school after the Virginia Tech tragedy has been told by the US Marines that they will no longer take him. He is apparently viewed as too violent and unstable to go to foreign places and kill the residents.

Does anyone else here remember the Group W bench?

The best defence IS a good offence

As proved here by beleaguered World Bank President Paul "Old Socks" Wolfowitz. He charges that sacking him for hypocrisy and ethics violations would be "unjustly and frankly hypocritical" suggests that he might resign if the charges are dropped; and he gets his bonus.

Blindly following the Prime Directive - part the second

I am certain that none of these Duke University graduate business students will involve the Sherry Williams mantra, cited below, of "we have followed U.S. law...we will continue to follow U.S. law". I am certain that this is just an innocent example of attempting to "maximise shareholder value"; that and freeing up valuable weekend time for drink, drugs and casual sex.

A tale of two worlds

In the Decider's world we have this news release from the US Department of State which tells us that "Ministerial Meetings in Egypt Seek Greater Iraqi Integration".

Elsewhere in the "reality based" world we have this story from the ultra-hard-left New York Times which tells us that the "Sunni Bloc Threatens to Pull Ministers From Cabinet".

I wonder what they smoke in the White House. They must have got their hands on some Dutch hydroponically grown Super Skunk!

Blindly following the Prime Directive

No - not the one from Star Trek - that one that drives the corporate world; and in the corporate world the Prime Directive is "maximise shareholder value". For an example one need go no further than Sherry Williams's testimony before a Senate hearing. Ms. Williams is a Vice President and Company Secretary of Halliburton. She was questioned as to the company's business deals with Iran despite laws preventing US companies from just such dealings. Ms. Williams mantra was "we have followed U.S. law...We will continue to follow U.S. law."

Ethical considerations? "We have followed U.S. law."

Aiding and abetting terrorists? "We have followed U.S. law."

Patriotism? "We have followed U.S. law."

Why, as US law gives corporations the status of persons, should Halliburton not be prosecuted, as a person, under anti-terror legislation of assisting terrorists. If that fails the company could simply be "extraordinarily rendered" to parts unknown where it could be "aggressively interrogated". Or does the recognition of corporations as persons under American (and British) law extend only as far as rights and not as far as responsibilities?

Perhaps it is time that I reread this.

Because they can

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez announced today that the South American democracy is pulling out of the IMF and the World Bank having repaid its loans to the institutions ahead of schedule.

President Chavez refused to cite World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz's troubles for the withdrawal.

R.I.P.

Habeas corpus is dead as the Supremes refuse to hear case questioning the Military Commissions Act.

It doesn't feel warm to us

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is meeting in Bangkok and the representatives of two governments are working hard to water down the recommendations. Would anyone be surprised if I told you the two countries in question were the US and China. Unfortunately no pact that hasn't got them on board is going to have any lasting effect.

Quote of the day

"Sometimes I thought about my liver but my liver never spoke up, it never said, 'Stop it, you're killing me and I'm going to kill you!' If we had talking livers we wouldn't need A.A." - Charles Bukowski on an area in which evolution has fallen short of the mark.

Four died in O-hi-o

Alan Canfora was shot and wounded by Ohio National Guardsmen at Kent State University in 1970. Today he is due to release a recording on which he claims the order to fire can be heard. He wants the government to reopen an investigation into the killings. He recently got the tape from an archive at Yale University where the government's copy was stored.

I can clearly remember the shock and horror the incident produced. After all these weren't black kids in a ghetto but middle class white kids. It seemed to make all the difference in those days. It probably still does.

Halloween will never be the same again

Bobby "Boris" Pickett of Monster Mash fame has passed away at 69. In his own words: "I haven't made millions, but I have been paying the rent for 36 years with just one song".

Enjoy.

25 minutes from a safer world

The US Department of State released their report on world terrorism yesterday, surprising me as I reckoned that they would slip it out on Friday afternoon, and it shows just exactly how safe the world has become since the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq. Last year there were 20,498 deaths attributed to acts of terror, the plurality of these in Iraq. That comes to one every 25 minutes.

Feeling safer? I'm not!

US to violate good terrorist's free speech

The prosecution in the trial of terrorist, freedom fighter and ex-CIA operative Luis Posada Carriles on US immigration charges is hoping to convince the trial judge to prohibit Sr. Posada from speaking of his work for the CIA during his defence. The prosecution is claiming that such testimony would not be relevant and would certainly be embarrassing as hell.

Sixth graders - one: Jerry Falwell - nil

Three hopefull sixth graders write a letter to that great American evangelist Jerry Falwell.

It doesn't exactly roll off the tongue (unless you're a Scottish speaking Scot)

The Highland Council has taken the decision to stop referring to the Isle of Skye as the Isle of Skye and hereafter will refer to it by its Gaelic names, Eilean a'Cheo, Misty Isle in English.

A quick Google scan returns only 733 hits for "Eilean a'Cheo" v. 1.3 million for "Isle of Skye" so the change may be a bit slow sinking into the global consciousness.

Up against the Wal-Mart

Human rights NGO Human Rights Watch chooses today, May Day, to release a scathing condemnation of the labour practices of American mega-retailer Wal-Mart. The report cites, amongst other things, Wal-Mart's strident and aggressive anti-union activities as violations of the basic human rights of its employees. The company is aided in its campaign but weak or non-existent labour rights laws which, where they exist at all are either not enforced or the penalties for violation are so insignificant that they are violated with impunity.

The full report, Discounting Rights: Wal-Mart's Violation of US Workers’ Right to Freedom of Association, is to be found here.

A new Berlin wall for Bush, Merkel and Putin

The leaders of the free world (plus Russia and the United States), known collectively as the G8, are set to meet in Germany next month will be carefully and sceurely protected from their citizens by a 7.5 mile long, 8 foot high wall that will cost €12 million to build. I guess we can think of everything outside the fence as a gigantic free speech zone.

I love freedom. Don't you?

The bomb that dare not speak its name

Israeli hero Mordechai Vanunu faces a new spell in prison following his conviction on the charge of speaking to journalists in a Jerusalem court yesterday. Vanunu spent 18 years in a prison, much of the time in solitary confinement, for leaking details of Israel's nuclear weapons programme which the government continues to refuse to confirm. Following his "release" in 2004 he was placed under severe restrictions, including prohibiting his speaking to any foreigner and also preventing his leaving Israel. The specious reasons for these restrictions were that Mr. Vanunu, over 20 years after the fact, still had in his head Israeli "state secrets" that could not be revealed.

Despite all of the West's condemnation of Iraq's nuclear programme, way back when it had one, and Iran's current programme which is claimed to be for peaceful purposed only, Israel remains the only member of the nuclear "Club of Mass Destruction" (COMAD) in the Middle East.

It is good thing that nothing like this could ever happen in America, right? Right? Right?

Straight missles only prosze

Poland is said to be seeking "specific assurances" from the United States in order to allow the placement of components of the US's son-of-the-son-of-the-son-of-Star-Wars missile shield on it's territory. Most of the requests are related to the capabilities of the system but it is rumoured that the US must assure the Polish government that all of the missiles are to certified manly heterosexual missiles. It is believed that any attempt in implant homosexual missiles in Polish soil, or its citizens for that matter, under the Defense Departments "don't ask-don't tell" policy would lead to the cancellation of any agreement and probably some picketing by the Westboro Baptist Church.

Gone-zo watch (day 43)

US Attorney General and Bush succubus Antonio "Gone-zo" Gonzales remains employed this morning against all odds. There was little new news yesterday and that by itself is news I reckon. The squeaky little weasel just might tough it out. Which leaves England football manager Steve "I've never really coached a winning team and it doesn't look like I'm going to start now" McClaren in a position to snatch second place in the who-will-get-sacked first competition. His odds are falling.

(To be continued...)