Schadenfruede alert

Things really are going poorly for the Decider(TM) and his minions these days aren't they? I have the greatest sympathy for the family and friends of Pat Tillman as well as for Jessica Lynch and her family nonetheless I am allowed to take just a soupçon of enjoyment out of the difficulties being caused to Bush&Co by their failures to spin the tragic events surrounding these two brave individuals into good political news. Come on, I am, aren't I?

"We're number two - we're number two!"

It would appear that US Vice President "I'm a Big" Dick Cheney is falling down on the job in his role as America's Greenhouse Gas Emissions Czar (GGEC). Word reaches us that China is now expected to surpass the US, on a total but certainly not per capita basis, as the world's leading CO2 emitter far earlier than expected and perhaps as early as the end of this summer.

Americans, will you take this lying down or will you fill yourself with a good old American can-do attitude (and the Hummer with petrol) and get out there and start emitting like mad before it's too late?

We must have forgot to declare victory!

According to sources at the ever venerable Scotland Yard al-Qaida is doing just fine despite the global "War on Terra" (which we don't mention anymore). How could that be? Everyone else keeps telling us how rosy things are.

"We didn't actually say $50 billion did we? Oh dear!"

It seems that, as usual, the spin was better than the reality as regards the promises of the G8 nations to contribute 50 billion USD to help "make poverty history" two years ago. It seems that most folks forgot to write the cheques.

As long as they got re-elected they probably don't care either. I mean who will remember?

Gone-zo watch (day 37)

The attitude of US Attorney General and Bush succubus Antonio "Gone-zo" Gonzales to the chorus of "get out now mate" from Republicans and Democrats alike reminds me of the old Millwall FC chat - "Nobody likes us - we don't care". As long as the Decider(TM) has decided to decide to continue to think that Gone-zo is alright nothing else seems to matter.

No news on the Steve "I've never really coached a winning team and it doesn't look like I'm going to start now" McClaren front.

(To be continued...)

The Decider(TM) gets his facts wrong (again)!

He says that Americans didn't "vote for failure". Well enough of them, even if not a majority of them, voted for him didn't they?

Link between abortion and breast cancer refuted

A report in the upcoming issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine tells us that there appears to be no link between either abortion or miscarriage and breast cancer risk. Of course there are those who, without bothering with the science, tell us that those Harvard folks are just plain wrong.

SNL and Gone-zo

And I didn't even know Saturday Night Live was still on. Is it even remotely funny anymore?

Oops

Even by Israeli standards (they obviously have never placed a high priority on public relations) shooting a Nobel Peace Prize winner has to be considered a faux pas. Mairead Corrigan was shot with a plastic bullet and tear gassed at a demonstration against the wall that the Israelis are building to imprison the Palestinians.

I'd stick to the computer games

Taiwan has run a computer simulation that says it would win a war with China. If I were them I would stick to the Play Station and leave real war to the big boys.

I'm not this optimistic

Former President of the Irish Republic and head of human rights for the United Nations Mary Robinson is hopeful that the recent tragedy at Virginia Tech will spur the US to support a treaty to limit the world wide trade in small arms. I don't think she should hold her breath.

It is good to know I'm right!

Less than an hour ago I wrote a post that asked the question "Don't they know gun control kills people".

Now I my prescience has been confirmed by no less a luminary than a son (not the gay one I think) of Ronald Reagan who tells us in unequivocal terms that "Gun laws kill". So there!

I guess they wouldn't let Aldous Huxley into the States anymore either

Andrew Feldmar is a Vancouver psychologist. Recently he was headed down to Seattle to visit a friend. He was randomly pulled out of a queue at the US border and when he said he was a psychologist the border guards Googled his work. He had once written an article on the therapeutic potential of LSD which suggested that he had used the drug himself. When the agents found this article they barred him from entry for narcotics use and finger printed him for the FBI. They then ushered him back to his car, made sure he did a U-turn and sent him on his way home.

Some country, eh? It makes my heart swell with pride it does.

Don't they know gun control kills people?

Those left winger Communist anti-American thugs over at the Washington Post are proving their disloyalty to God's blessed land, the United State, by running an article today entitled "Britain's Gun Laws Seen as Curbing Attacks" as if the guns were responsible as opposed to the victims!

They'll be pitching for warm beer, cricket and driving on the left anytime now I reckon.

I can't hear you!

I hope that all of those on the right who made fun of British Cabinet member Hillary Benn when he said that the UK government has stopped using the phrase "War on Terra" as it was unhelpful will also take time out of their otherwise busy schedules to take the piss out of the Pentagon now that they have stopped referring to the "War on Terra" as a long war. According to Lt. Col. Matthew McLaughlin, a spokesman for Central Command, the change "is a product of our ongoing effort to use language that describes the conflict for our Western audience while understanding the cultural implications of how that language is construed in the Middle East...The idea that we are going to be involved in a 'Long War', at the current level of operations, is not likely and unhelpful" (emphasis mine).

I wait with bated breath.

Addendum: Also are these generals, by saying the "War on Terra" is not going to be a long war in fact telling the terrorist, evil-doers and Islamofascists that it will in fact be a short one and ergo all they have to do is wait? That strikes me as "aiding and abetting".

Love the corrupter - hate the corruption

Now that he is knee deep in shit World Bank President and neo-con emeritus Paul Wolfowitz has promised his board that he can change and change he will, damnit, but he won't resign. That and he's keeping Checkers as well!

New name for Gone-zo

The Chicago Tribune has come up with a new name for US Attorney General Alberto "Gone-zo" Gonzales: The Man Who Wasn't There. I'm sure that he will wear his new moniker with considerable pride.

Alien sues US under US Alien Tort Act

Those freedom haters at the American Civil Liberties Union have filed a suit against the CIA on behalf of Khaled El-Masri, a German national, who was "extraordinarily rendered" to Afghanistan where he contends he was tortured and mistreated. El-Masri has never been charged with a crime and was released by the Americans after five months. He was scheduled to attend yesterday's news conference announcing the legal action but the US authorities denied him entry to the country when he landed at Atlanta. Foreigners have the right to pursue redress for human rights violations in American courts under the Alien Tort Act although I do not expect the drafters of the legislation ever envisioned this result.

Anyone want to bet that the government cries "national security, national security" to stop the case getting to court and gets away with it?

Soros-o-phobia

Bill O'Reilly has a caught an extreme case. Watch it.

Note his fair and balanced discussion group that consists of Bill (right wing nut case), an author (and right wing nut case) and "commentator" (and right wing nut case). When he was a kid he must at the playground he must have put everybody on one end of his teeter-totter and then couldn't figure out why it never got off the ground!

A monumental idiocy

In a tribute to the George W. Bush Memorial Freedom Wall in Baghdad I give you Jefferson Airplane and "We Can Be Together". (As it is a 70s telly clip the lyrics have been amended slightly.) Don't you just love the psychedelic effects!

Yogi's voice

Salon (yeah - I know you've gotta watch the ad to read it!) shows us the philosopher who is really behind the Bush administration. Yogi Berra.

Frankly - I think that's too flattering to them.

Is surging anything like spiralling?

Yesterday was the deadliest day for American forces in Iraq for over a year and taking April fatalities to the highest level since December last.

Why is Canada more free than America?

At least in Canada there is open debate over the treatment of "detainees" and arguments put forward that the country must halt turning over prisoners to the Afghan authorities where they are abused and tortured. I reckon they won't want to turn them over the Yanks either.

Superman rendered harmless in Serbia!

No I'm not kidding. They've found Kryptonite there. In a mine. Seriously.

Army approves of paganism....

....some bigoted Christians undoubtedly furious!

Meet the new boss...

...same as the old boss, more or less.

David Halberstam - RIP

Journalist and write David Halberstam has killed in a car crash at the age of 73. By some bizarre coincidence at the weekend I picked up a copy of his book The Children at the library but haven't actually opened it yet.

Still some freedom left

A Municipal Judge in Philadelphia has found that fourteen activists who were arrested at the Philadelphia office of ex-Senator (hooray!) Rick Santorum in order to present Pennsylvania's then junior Senator with a petition opposing the illegal Iraq invasion did not commit trespass. The men and women had been arrested before even entering Santorum's office with four of them being trapped in the lift after security guards turned off the power.

For those who thought that bring these charges was a good idea I would like to remind the of the First Amendment to the US Constitution

Amendment I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Does Bush look good in brown?

In today's Guardian Naomi Klein maps out the Decider's ten easy steps to Fascism. They are:

1. Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy √
2. Create a gulag √
3. Develop a thug caste
4. Set up an internal surveillance system √
5. Harass citizens' groups √
6. Engage in arbitrary detention and release √
7. Target key individuals √
8. Control the press
9. Dissent equals treason √
10. Suspend the rule of law

Despite Ms. Klein’s arguments to the contrary I am not convinced that he and his minions have, as yet, managed items 3, 8 or 10 although there clearly have been material steps taken that push us in that direction.

So I can only give Bush&Co an impressive but not yet top flight 7 out of 10 on the Klein-o-matic Fascism scale.

Like the mad leading the unstable

The fearless Dave Gaubatz who was so instrumental in helping the Daily Mail's nearly sane Melanie Phillips find Saddam's ever so elusive WMDs, in a non-finding sort of way of course, has moved on to bigger and better things. He has now embarked on a project, reported breathlessly by the Jawa Report, to the pernicious and pervasive influence of Sharia law in America. You can go to his informative website, Mappingsharia.us to find out how you can help in this courageous and necessary endeavour.

I have a hint for Mr. Gaubatz. If you are looking for evidence of the application of American law in a way that fits Qu'ranic principles, especially as regards executions, you probably ought to start in Texas.