June 30, 2004
Phew!
The BBC finds a way to keep the Abu Ghraib story going. Just when it looked like it might actually have to report on other events without mentioning it.
This time it’s an angry letter from Dr Rowan Williams. I think I may have already made clear my opinions on religious figures commenting on politics quite clear - it’s bullshit. I don’t listen to Tony Blair or Silvio Berlusconi on matters of religion so I don’t see why I should be obliged to grant a priest my utmost respect on matters of policy.
The point is that this letter is the biggest joke I’ve seen all week. It would seem Rowan Williams has taken the time out of his busy schedule to tell Tony Blair that abuse of Iraqi detainees was evil. What does he want? A cookie? For pities sake Tony Blair has said time and time again that the abuses were evil. No one’s denying it!
At least on this occasion the letter was not intended for publication - it was obtained by the Times. The fact is that this is total and utter non news. I’m astonished that the Times even bothered to report on it: this just in, sky blue, England bad at cricket and Kim Jong Il “a bit dodgy”.
The BBC seems intent on blowing this one up to front page status.
Later
John
What did I say?
The Irish Trojan is on the same page as I.
Ladies and gentlemen, we’re going to lose. Not because Bush is unbeatable — because we have a crappy candidate who can do no better than tying Bush when he’s at his absolute low-point.
Me on 20/6/04.
Now could someone please bring in a decent democratic candidate rather than this political weathervane? It’s about time someone from the left stood up and said “Dammit we’ve almost given the ticket to a bozo!”
…
Much like the turmeric chicken that I’m currently simmering not 20 feet away from me in the kitchen, we’re cooked this time round.
Good to know that if I’m a total crackpot I at least have good company.
The Beeb's new Manifesto
With the liberation of Iraq and Afghanistan and the end of control of airwaves over the countries the BBC has consolidated it’s influence to become, by far the most listened to and watched broadcasting corporation in the world.
It is key therefore that the BBC sets the absolute gold standard for reporting and journalistic integrity. The advent of 24 Hour news coverage has begotten frantic editorial influence and spin, often to the detriment of the facts presented. The BBC has an important part to play in today’s world but it cannot do so unless it puts an end to the editorial free-for-all and thickly spun analysis. Had I wanted comment on the matters of the day I’d have bought a newspaper.
Had I, just one thing to say to Auntie it would be, “Just the facts, ma’am.”
Later
John
June 29, 2004
i l1k3 cka3!
(1337 translation: I Like Cake)
Yeah I know I link a lot to them but what the heck, Ali threw a tiny party at his Hospital to celebrate the handover in Iraq. The entire gathering were stone silent for Paul Bremer’s last speech, which he ended with a famous Arabic poem, written by a poet leaving Baghdad. Apparently it was very well received.
Another friend approached me. This one was not religious but he was one of the conspiracy theory believers. He put his hands on my shoulders and said smiling, “I must admit that I’m beginning to believe in what you’ve been telling us for months and I’m beginning to have faith in America. I never thought that they will hand us sovereignty in time. These people have shown that they keep their promises.”
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, you can’t read Iraq The Model and not feel that we did the right thing. Liberty is a beautiful thing and to have it expressed so eloquently every day is soul warming.
Later
John
Well... Holy Crap
Apple just demoed Tiger at the WWDC. It looks insanely cool.
OS 10.2 was leagues ahead of XP, 10.3 was even further ahead and to be honest 10.4 builds an insurmountable lead by the looks of things.
Later
John
June 28, 2004
Omar's one happy dude.
Omar of Iraq The Model seems delighted at the handover.
During my ride there was no evidence of any presence for the coalition forces except for some helicopters watching from above.
“What happened was great, and the timing was so right” as described by many Iraqis. It’s a painful strike for terrorism and their allies.
Makes a change from watching helicopters rise from the last civilian buildings in Saigon eh? Niall Ferguson is probably smiling right now - Good to see Pax Americana at work.
The war in Iraq isn’t over yet, but its most decisive battle has been won.
Later
John
Iraq for Iraqis
I have to say I had been thinking that it’d be cool to hoodwink the terrorists and transfer power to the Iraqis early but I never imagined that the Coalition would have the guts to pull it off.
Absolutely quality stuff. Hurrah for the new Iraq! In your face Zarqawi!
Long Live The New Iraq! May she find peace and prosperity.
Later
John
Disarm
The head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog, Mohamed ElBaradei, has called for Israel to start discussions on disarming their suspected nuclear arsenal.
Israel has a policy of “strategic ambiguity” - neither admitting nor denying it has nuclear weapons - but analysts believe it has more than 100 nuclear weapons.
Its Arab neighbours have frequently accused the international community of double standards for requiring them to be free of nuclear weapons while doing little, in their eyes, about Israel.
Yeah see, there’s a reason for this: Isreal’s foreign policy isn’t “Driving your state into the sea”. They’re entirely right to call for peace first.
Later
John
You tell 'em Mr Kurtz
Scott Kurtz is the writer of the classic PvP Online comic strip. His father is a German immigrant, who often chimes in on matters of interest.
Recently Scott Kurtz created a hero called “Flag Waver” in the MMORPG (massively multiplayer online game) City of Heroes - a Superhero Roleplaying Game. The character was based on everyone’s favourite patriot, Captain America.
The response he got from some players were in the following vein:
“Ugh. I hate our country.”
“How can you wave a flag of a country that kills other countries for oil we already have.”
“Bush is an idiot.”
Anyhow, Scot Kurtz’s father has chimed in on the matter. His voice is one of experience and wisdom even though he writes in a down-to-earth, earnest tone. He wrote the following email to Scott on the subject, which he’s posted to his comic site. I’d link properly as I don’t really want to be seen to be plagiarizing but there isn’t a true permalink to the newspost:
That’s why Imigrants have such a diffucult time understanding it all, as of late .
I read the German Paper, the editorial lead-ins in Eisenbahn Journal, etc.. I’m aware of the world around me, BEYOND THESE SHORES! And all I see is the collapse of Socialism throughout Europe, the dismal poverty of communistic nations. And … here we are flitting torward socialism and EXTREME liberalism as though we were dancing through a field of tulips torwards eutopia.
One missstep by our troops gets more headlines than mass genecide Dictators and or murderous be-headers. Thousands upon thousands of Priests [and ministers] from all denominations have dedicated lifetimes to education and billions to fight poverty in the world, successfully I might add, yet a few errant apples in the crate get a full page headline!
Our youth and media have their heads and values not only in the toilet, but in a place too horrible to mention. They have become, lazy couch potatos, that have their cud pre-chewed and spit in their mouth for them. They don’t really understand what George Washington, et al, went through to father this great nation nor how their ancestors fought and died to keep it!
I say “Don’t give them a fish! Don’t even teach them how to fish! Give all these lard asses a swift No. 9 Boot in the ass and make them fish! Maybe then they’ll know what it takes to serve freedom at the dinner table every day of their loudmouth days!
Your Papa, the Imigrant
Who’s sad that you had to hear Americans trash this great Nation!
1957 - 2004, Dear God, I thought we would be on a higher plateau by now!
I have to admire his spirit - there’s a man who knows the price of liberty.
Incidentally PvP online is a great strip. It’s only a shame it’s not to be found on the funnies section of the dailies.
Later
John
June 27, 2004
Idiocy knows no limit
Nine anti-war protesters have ‘seized’ control of an ancient castle and barricaded the gates to protest against the ‘illegal occupation’ of Iraq by Britain and America (ah, the coalition of 2 - you know I’d feel really left out if I were Italy, Australia, Thailand, Japan, Poland etc).
This is idiotic beyond all belief. The police say this is a “peaceful protest” - blocking entrances to a tourist attraction in a desperate bid for media attention is laughable and hardly ‘peaceful’. Peaceful would be getting the hell out of the way of people who maybe might be interested in the castle and not particularly interested in reading xeroxed propaganda, there are plenty of public squares in Wales.
If this were Colchester castle I’d barge through, or assemble a group to take the castle back.
Does this merit front page coverage on the BBC News site? 9 people engaged in pseudo-militaristic occupation of public property so they can blast passers by with their opinions on the middle east? Sounds spurious.
Later
John
Seems a funny time to lose your bottle.
Current polls suggest that for the first time American support for the War in Iraq is actually below opposition. Many will cheer this as some sort of ‘turning the tide’, Vietnam style.
I’ve got to say I’m rather impressed. The media has almost managed to turn the tables on the Iraq war - they’ve had a decent run at it. Shame for them that it’s too late.
“Iraq has always had everything that is needed to build a successful economy,” says Heydar al-Ayyari, an Iraqi politician. “We have water and fertile land. We have oil and a hardworking people. What we lacked was freedom. Now that we have freedom we can surge ahead.”
Handover in 3 Days time. Attacks on Iraqi Police Stations down 50% this month and support amongst Iraqis for the interim government astonishingly high. It’s almost as if the Iraqi people aren’t listening to the crazed murderers spilling innocent blood, purporting to be fighting for them. Shame we in the west are.
People can only call Iraq a ‘failure’ for so long, the blanket of anti-war media coverage that has for so long provided safe haven for such foolishness is on the verge of being tugged off. It’s going to start looking more and more ridiculous as a claim as the months wear on from here.
People are right, the tide is about to turn - but not in the direction the anti-war movement would like.
The lives of 700 Soldiers and 11,000 civilians to oust a tyrant who oppressed, gassed and killed his people at a continuing rate of 36,000 a year for over 30 years, replace it with an enlightened democracy, enrobed in Freedom, Peace and Justice (despite continuous assertions as to the impossibility of such action).
Liberty isn’t free; it is a gift we have received from our grandfathers and great grandfathers, who had to pay for it with their lives and to be honest the price we have had to pay in Iraq in exchange for the liberation of 26 million people seems paltry in comparison to what was paid so many years ago.
The day the people of the west are unwilling to pay for their liberty, or the liberty of their fellow man is the day that western civilization truly falls.
Later
John
June 24, 2004
"He's untouchable"
That’s how one Tory MP describes Blair at the moment. Nick Robinson’s brilliant column from the sidelines at Westminster makes it clear; Blair isn’t going anywhere.
May and June unleashed volley after volley at his premiership, the situation in Iraq, the Constitution, the Elections - one could hardly see Tony Blair for the conflagration of speculation and doubt exploding around him. However now that the smoke has cleared we see, almost disbelievingly that the man is completely unharmed.
Iraq is about to be delivered back into the hands of Iraqis, Blair has just launched a radical reform of Labour’s NHS policy for the next 5 years and we’re looking at a man who retains the rock solid support of his party in the face of weeks of rumors centered on his supposed absence from the Local Elections campaign.
Put simply - is that the best Howard’s got?
I used to think Howard v Blair was a fair fight, that’s patently untrue now.
Later
John
The most shameful display of outright incompetence...
I have ever witnessed from an international level referee.
Euro 2004 has had its legitimacy shaken by one incredibly poor decision to disallow a winning goal.
THIS is why Football needs a 4th Official.
Later
John
June 23, 2004
HP:POA
Well I watched the third Harry Potter film, rather than bore you with some sort of half-assed review (it was brilliant especially the British actor cameos and lots of ‘easter eggs’ for fans of the series) I’d like to draw your attention to something that occurred to me during the showing:
The young actor who plays Seamus Finnigan, Devon Murray looks precisely like the England wonder-boy striker, Wayne Rooney. Don’t believe me? Take a look:
And that photo is only used because I can’t legally use any film footage - the way Murray looks in the film make the two virtually identical to all but the most critical eye.
Later
John
Required Reading:
The new world order, spelled out with eloquence and tact by the Belmont Club.
I’m fortunate to have a left of centre party leader who understands exactly what the world is now. I certainly have less faith in the UN than he demonstrates but at least he’s not willing to be chained to it when something needs to be done.
Does anyone else in British Politics get this? I’m not convinced Michael Howard does and I know for a fact that Charles Kennedy doesn’t (although whether Charles Kennedy gets anything other than “annoying after 10 minutes” is debatable).
The only Conservatives that I knew without a shadow of a doubt, appreciated just how the world had changed were Iain Duncan Smith and Michael Portillo. IDS isn’t the Tory leader and Portillo has declared that he’s calling it quit on politics (astonishing really, given that he had taken the place of Chris “appeasement works” Patten as the only Conservative I could bring myself to vote for). I’m sure there are many in the opposition who grasp the matter, but I’m not that familiar with the Tory front bench.
Britain, as it stands can guarantee affirmative action in taking on the challenges of the new world for at least 5 years - allowing for a labour re-election or a special-relationship friendly Tory party. The US presidential elections will only answer the question, as to whether Britain’s assistance is wanted for the coming 4 years - it will still be clear to many of us that it is needed. The brits are loading up on the landing vessels - will the yanks be sailing with them?
Later
John
June 22, 2004
Porca Miseria!
I hate it when people say you need “nerves of steel” to be an England supporter. Take a look at the past 10 years I’ve put up with as an Italy supporter:
World Cup 1994 - Lost on Penalties in the final.
Euro 1996 - Beaten by a last minute goal at a different game.
World Cup 1998 - Knocked out by a golden goal in extra time.
Euro 2000 - Knocked out by a Golden Goal.
World Cup 2002 - Another one of them Golden Goals in the last minutes of extra time.
Euro 2004 - Knocked out by a last minute goal at a different game.
Gah!!
The only possible good that could come out of this hideous piece of bad luck is that Giovanni Trapattoni will probably no longer be the coach of la squadra. In fact we may even get a coach who doesn’t try to play Seria A football at an international level.
I’m off to go and drown my sorrows in a deep cup of Ozoro - or whatever crap I can find in the kitchen cabinet that approximates its flavour. At least England look to be in with a chance this year.
Guess I’d better take Inno di Mameli off my phone ringtone.
Later
John
June 21, 2004
Ok.. Only one word for this: Assholes
Iran today seized three British military vessels.
The ships seized were going to Iraq’s new Riverine Patrol Service - Iraq hasn’t had a navy since Iran sunk it all during Saddam’s idiotic wars with the country. They had a skeleton crew.
So… What the crap? The mullahs are engaging in piracy now? Could they be fearful that a democratic Iraq might actually get their hands on Non-French munitions of decent quality?
This comes after they started building up forces on the border with Iraq.
If my memory serves me correctly it doesn’t take long for a nearby Royal Navy detachment to reach the Gulf - The HMS Invincible’s Flotilla ought to still be in range.
I’m guessing the prudent government line would be: “Give back the ships and sailors and maybe you won’t be strafed.”
I’m interested to see how this develops.
(Update: Thank frik, No decent boats taken)
Further: The Belmont Club suggests that Blair give the mullahs something of a political ass-handing. I concur.
Later
John
You've no doubt already read this.
But if you haven’t, Tim Gross On the BBC is a brilliant savaging of BBC reporting on the Middle East. Lengthy and detailed.
The last straw for me was when the BBC brought in the ‘Legal representative of the PLO’ to talk about Israeli positions held within the Gaza strip. They let that idiot waffle for 5 minutes non stop about religious persecution and other bullshit without so much as saying a word or asking a question. Any other talking heads consulted? Nope, they just spent my tax money on broadcasting terrorist propaganda from some London mouthpiece in the employ of the PLO.
That’s why I don’t watch the BBC.
Later
John
June 20, 2004
David Aaronovitch is on fire
His latest column concerns the 9/11 commission’s report and it does what only right-wing blogs seem able to do - highlight the insane spin put on the report by certain media outlets hellbent on blaming the Bush administration with inactivity and incompetence before and after the attacks.
On Friday, on a visit to Kazakhstan, Vladimir Putin said something that seemed to me quite remarkable, but (it appears) to no-one else. He told reporters that Russian intelligence had believed that Iraq intended to launch terrorist attacks on the USA. ‘After the events of 11 September 2001,’ said Putin, ‘and before the start of the military operation in Iraq, Russian special services several times received such information and passed it on to their American colleagues.’ Such attacks might happen inside the United States or outside it.
The Times and the Independent didn’t carry the story at all, preferring Big Brother. The BBC bulletins and Channel 4 News limited coverage to 15 second news-reads, suggesting that the story was of little importance. Yet imagine, given the furore over failures leading up to 11 September, how such a combination of possibilities would have looked in 2002: Iraq, WMD, al-Qaeda, the Russian warnings.
Then add to this the illusions being fostered by Jehl and the administration itself, the illusion of certainty and the illusion of omnipotence.
Some people would rather blame the Bush Administration for the 9/11 attacks than Al Qaeda, it’s good to see there are still some left-wing writers with common sense.
David Aaronovitch remains my political soulmate. Thank god for the Guardian Online - I’m not paying for a newspaper with only 2 astute columnists.
Later
John
He's still got it
Clinton, who was interviewed Thursday, said he did not believe that Bush went to war in Iraq over oil or for imperialist reasons but out of a genuine belief that large quantities of weapons of mass destruction remained unaccounted for.
Noting that Bush had to be “reeling” in the wake of the attacks of September 11, 2001, Clinton said Bush’s first priority was to keep al Qaeda and other terrorist networks from obtaining “chemical and biological weapons or small amounts of fissile material.”
“That’s why I supported the Iraq thing. There was a lot of stuff unaccounted for,” Clinton said in reference to Iraq and the fact that U.N. weapons inspectors left the country in 1998.
“So I thought the president had an absolute responsibility to go to the U.N. and say, ‘Look, guys, after 9/11, you have got to demand that Saddam Hussein lets us finish the inspection process.’ You couldn’t responsibly ignore [the possibility that] a tyrant had these stocks,” Clinton said.
This is what I’ve said all along, the intelligent left of centre action was to oust Saddam, the submerged driving force behind protest against the war in Iraq is the fact that George W Bush was the man who proposed it. So, liberals have two choices - either they accept that they’ve totally screwed up on this issue and now have an unelectable candidate or give up on Clinton. No choice there guys - The Man from Hope wins every-time.
Now could someone please bring in a decent democratic candidate rather than this political weathervane? It’s about time someone from the left stood up and said “Dammit we’ve almost given the ticket to a bozo!”
The Democrats seem to have forgotten that after Bush leaves office, Kerry’s going to be the president, for 4 years. 4 years where he can’t make any real headway in domestic policy given Republican Congress and Senate control - Heck even Clinton was throttled. The only area of Kerry’s administration that’ll be evident or truly active as president will be the loftier realms of foreign policy and international relations and it’s in these areas that Kerry is an absolute disaster. Kerry standing up to the UN? Kerry telling Chirac and Schroeder where to stick their anti-American federation? Kerry intervening during an international crisis? I can’t see it, I just can’t.
Blair would cast a massive shadow over him on the international scene. Not once since the fall of the Berlin wall has the international image of a president counted for as much as it does now, during the War on Terror, putting Kerry in that spotlight would be disastrous.
I hate to say it but the Left has already shot itself in the foot with Kerry. Clinton’s not an assassin, he’s just pointing out the bullet hole.
Much like the turmeric chicken that I’m currently simmering not 20 feet away from me in the kitchen, we’re cooked this time round.
Later
John
June 19, 2004
Terminal
Hurrah, here’s a film I’ve been looking forward to!
It stars Tom Hanks and is based on a true story I’d read about once in The Times. Basically an immigrant has been living at Charles De Gaulle Airport in France since 1988, he is stateless and now basically lives his life in Terminal 1 eating free food given to him by the Airport staff who know him as if he’s a colleague.
In the Film, Hanks lands in America and instead finds himself stateless, his home country being dissolved through a bitter war. His character is obliged to live in the airport observing the lives of those around him.
I’ll watch any film if it has Tom Hanks in it. Even if this film claims not to be based on the Iranian immigrant’s story I have to say the film must take some inspiration from it and I’ve been looking forward to its release ever since I read it was going to be made.
Later
John
What the hell?
Ok, so the whole Blogosphere just exploded over Andrew Sullivan’s reputed ditching of George W Bush, Bloggers are taking sides and there’s a comment war being fought. I’m going to weigh in on this because everyone else is doing so and I want to look cool.
Andrew Sullivan posted an email to his letters page about his having given up on Bush ages ago. I remember reading the email that now seems to be the centre of this whole debacle.
I don’t agree with his suggestion that even though the war on terrorism is the most important matter for this generation to be concerned with, somehow Bush’s stance on a constitutional amendment that will never be passed is sufficiently important to justify passing responsibility for said matter to a less competent candidate.
He’s entirely entitled to his opinion even if mine differs from his.
I’d like to have his opinion articulated as clearly for his blog readers as it is for the readers of whatever gay journal he spoke in regarding his repudiation of Bush.
For obvious reasons he considers the Gay Marriage issue a big one, ordinarily I would agree. However you’d have to place the fulcrum miles away to balance it with the War on Terror in my mind, especially when it’s evident that a constitutional amendment is impossible under the current congress.
Given that failure in one of those policies will automatically invalidate the other I can’t for the life of me see how it’s worth trying to balance them. The war on terror is the most fundamentally important challenge to our civilization, Sullivan says so and I’d back the candidate who can prosecute it best. Both candidates are against Gay Marriage, only one would try to pass the amendment and as it’s already clear that the amendment couldn’t pass if it wanted to, there is no practical difference between the two.
Sullivan’s not going to get a candidate who follows his line on Gay Marriage till Schwarzeneggar is on the ticket.
Put simply, for the 2004 US Presidential Election, Gay Marriage is a non-issue. There will be no change on the issue whichever candidate you choose.
When you also consider the gargantuan importance of the war on terrorism, Sullivan’s position, from an emotionless, objective viewpoint is utter bollucks. As much as it hurts me to say that, being pro-gay marriage myself, I can’t see it any other way.
Andrew Sullivan is entirely justified in having his heart entangled with his head on this issue, few of us can even begin to understand what this must be like - to have to accept that the denial of one of your fundamental rights is entirely insignificant in the current political climate. I sincerely doubt he will ever be able to accept it, however unlike many I don’t think that’s a weakness in any way shape or form - he stays on my blogroll and in my bookmarks and in my prayers.
Later
John
June 18, 2004
Another one bites the dust.
RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi security forces killed the kingdom’s top al Qaeda leader Abdulaziz al-Muqrin and two other militants Friday shortly after the group beheaded the U.S. engineer they were holding, a senior security source said.
…
Muqrin claimed responsibility for the beheading of American Paul Johnson and the killing of other Westerners in the kingdom, which has battled Osama bin Laden’s group for over a year.
Shame they were too late. Will this be enough to allay criticisms that the kingdom isn’t doing enough to counteract terrorist operations in its borders? Aside from a few crackpots blaming the US (no kidding, they’ll find an angle in it somewhere) most of the world seems pretty united in seeing the Saudi authorities as weak on terrorism in light of their seeming powerlessness to prevent Paul Johnson’s beheading. For the Saud family, already wrestling with matters of electoral reform at home this is a small break in the clouds that couldn’t have come at a better time.
Later
John
Conrad on the 9/11 Committee:
Jesus H. Christ, I cannot believe I’m paying taxes to fund this crap. No shit the US military was unprepared to shoot down hijacked airliners. When in the forty some odd year history of aircraft hijackings prior to 9/11 was shooting down the planes ever the correct response?
Excellent and well focused ranting, even if that seems oxymoronic.
Is there no end to what the West is willing to blame itself for?
Later
John
Forza Italia!
Gah. At the beginning of the Italy v Sweden match I honestly thought Trapattoni had got it, Totti getting a 3 match ban for spitting at a player was actually a stroke of luck because it freed up a team that was more or less playing around him. With Del Piero playing in a more natural striking role, supporting Vieri and Cassano feeding balls into them Italy looked a far better team on paper. The addition of Gattuso also gave the team a much needed drive.
They played 45 minutes of football like gods. It was the true Italian game and the Swedes looked like bystanders rather than our opponents, with Cassano putting away just one of the many many chances we had.
Anyhow, we led by 1-0 at the half time, it could so easily have been 2-0 or even 3-0. However after only about another 10 minutes of playing this way Trapattoni pulled of Gattuso, Cassano, Del Piero and in their places brought in a load of midfielders. Italy went from playing with an attacking 4-2-1-2 with the midfield really providing excellent delivery to the strikers to a 4-5-1 defensive team. It was precisely what Trapattoni did in the World Cup which caused us to fail, Italy started playing on the defensive and ultimately, we let in a goal. We went from having the most inspiring team in the tournament to playing ‘boringball’ with Vieri hopelessly alone up front. Trapattoni cost us the win we deserved tonight, sure the Swedes stepped up their game in the 2nd half but it was the idiotic ‘sit back and defend’ mentality which pulled us down, just as it had in nearly every single other frikkin’ match Italy have played under Giovanni Trapattoni. Trapattoni did the same thing against South Korea and as soon as I saw Cassano leave the field I knew we were screwed.
I sincerely hope that Trapattoni will have learned something for this, he got a reprieve in the form of referee incompetence when Italy crashed out of the 2002 World Cup but this time there’s nothing to blame other than his own idiotic Seria A style coaching. Italy needs to play like they did in the first half for the entire game, sitting on your arse and defending a one goal lead doesn’t work at an international level anymore; it’s been clearly demonstrated time and time again in the past 10 years.
Better luck next game? No thanks, I’d rather have a better coach.
Later
John
'f00'
Madonna compares George W Bush to Saddam Hussain. Nope I’m not making this up.
Madonna has said US President George Bush and ex-Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein are alike because “they are both behaving in an irresponsible manner.”
Yep, just last year I saw George W being all irresponsible and gassing a whole town of civillians. He’s also apparently a big fan killing 36,000 of his own people each year. Nice one.
Just stick to singing ok Madonna?
Later
John
Owww! My brain!
First of all Vladimir Putin, anti-war president of Russia told Democrats that they had no moral right to criticize the Bush Administration on the war on Iraq as a result of their support for action in Kosovo and now he tells the press that Russia gave the Bush administration intelligence after 9/11, which suggested that Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq was preparing terrorist-style attacks on the United States.
Both are boons for the Bush administration coming from an anti-war ally. I honestly couldn’t make sense of it other than to suggest that Putin was leaning back towards Bush on Iraq. However this doesn’t seem entirely in character, Russia more than anything wants to ensure that its oil trade continues unhindered and supporting the US in Iraq was entirely unconscionable for a country which had so much money tied up in Saddam’s regime.
However Roger L Simon has struck the nail on the head, in my opinion.
So the operative question is why Putin opened his mouth now. The man is not exactly a pop-off (not KGB style). What we could be watching… and here I may be contradicting myself because I dismissed the value of this… [No, don’t do that. You’ll never work in this town again.—ed. I wasn’t anyway.]… is a quiet pay-back for the Administration’s soft-pedaling the Oil-for-Food Scandal and allied double-dealing by the Russians. Watch Putin now saying things… but not too many things, lest it seem obvious… that support the Administration’s position. We shall see..
He then goes on to say:
An irony just occurred to me. If I am correct (yes, big if) and Putin is beginning to reward Bush for his “discretion” regarding Oil-for-Food, etc., the mainstream media, by soft-pedaling the same villainy, have been the administration’s completely inadvertent allies. Oh, how the head spins in the game of realpolitik!
Arrgh! Too much realpolitik! Pull out! Pull out!
What I need now is a nice “Can the Lib Dems actually hear themselves?” story.
Oliver Kamm is quick to deliver, which is a shame because I really wanted that free soda for it being over 5 minutes late.
Later
John
June 16, 2004
Uh Oh..
 |
The American series offered the opportunity for the winning contestant to work for Donald Trump. In the UK series, the contestants will be fighting for the chance to work for Alan Sugar, the businessman behind Amstrad computers and the chairman of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club.
I never saw the US series, but I hope the UK version will prove to be as watchable as its atlantic brother was reputed to be. Lord knows Alan Sugar has a strong enough character to make it interesting.
Reality TV marches on.
Later
John
The boot is on the other foot.
Tony Blair is set to Veto the new EU constitution over the coming weekend if the ‘red lines’ aren’t preserved. Jacques Chirac seems quite unable to grasp the fact that Britain doesn’t want to hand over control of its labour laws to an amalgam of states that includes France. In fact I personally couldn’t think of any nation in the world with worse union laws, even Italy falls short.
The same with taxation, social security and a plethora of other policy matters which only the most insane europhile would hand over to Brussels.
It was only a year ago that France was threatening to veto any resolution on Iraq irrespective of its ambit or nature. Funny how things turn around eh Jacques?
We got our way with Iraq and it looks like we’ll be getting our way again here. It sure sucks to be Dominic De Villepin.
Later
John
Oliver Kamm on fine form.
Oliver Kamm has written a wonderful article on the Lib Dems’ many forecasting failures and foolishness with regards to Iraq. An excerpt:
The Liberal Democrats’ insistence that Tony Blair took us to war on a false prospectus coexists uneasily with their earlier apprehension that Saddam would launch his WMD if attacked. Jenny Tonge, then Lib Dem International Development spokesman, advised: “Saddam Hussein is unlikely to sit in his bunker and recite John Benjamin [sic] — ‘Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough/Baghdad’. If he has the capability, he will attack his neighbours, probably Israel.”
As bad predictions go, this was impressive but pipped by Charles Kennedy’s insistence that: “Any war will cause a refugee crisis of huge proportions.” Any other war, perhaps, but not this one: Iraqi civilians, able to distinguish between a war on Baathist totalitarianism and a war on them, stayed put.
It is both in The Times and on his blog. Excellent reading.
Later
John
June 14, 2004
Sullivan's wrong on this one
I have to take issue with Andrew Sullivan’s post on the UK EU Parliamentary Election results. He’s taken on the issue of Labour’s Public Services record and actually claimed that the country is losing faith in it when the latest polls actually show an increased belief in the government’s ability and notably its achievement in delivery and reform. Here’s my email to him:
Sorry Andrew, but you’re wrong in your EU parliamentary vote analysis.
“But there’s also the beginning of an understanding that Blair’s approach to public services - lots more money, minimal reform - won’t and can’t work.”
This analysis is not borne out by the results of the BBC commissioned ICM poll, in fact the poll contradicts it absolutely. There has been an increase in the country’s belief that Labour has increased public services efficiency and delivery, a matter that has been clung to by Labour front benchers struggling for buoyancy following the tsunami of ‘Super Thursday’ and the election double bill. The fact is that it’s on two fronts, Public Services and the Economy that Labour are really surging ahead of the Tories and Lib Dems. Your analysis is way off but you’re not to be blamed entirely as despite the amount of attention given to it during the BBC’s election coverage, the poll hasn’t really been covered in the mainstream media.
Secondly you claim there has been a lack of reform from Blair to go along with his increased spending. I refute this utterly as the Labour government has been pushing for public service reform with such gusto that it’s been leaving the parliamentary party dragging behind. One only has to look at the Higher Education bill to see, not only that Blair desires and is capable of implementing sweeping, radical reform but also that the Tories are far from a party capable of forming government.
The Conservatives opposed the government’s Higher Education plans in a fit of opportunistic naivety in spite of the reform bill’s strong right wing flavour (for which Michael Howard was strongly rebuked in the right wing press). Howard ventured no alternatives of his own and honestly offered nothing more to the British public than Ya-Boo politics.
Blair has time and time again called for “radical reform” and he has delivered it, in spite of opposition both from within his own party and at times from ill-conceived Tory efforts to rock his premiership at the expense of public sector reform.
I’m sorry Andrew but on this matter you’re dead wrong.
Best Wishes
John Swaine
The Mac.com SMTP server is playing up at the moment so it might not get through to him for a while.
Later
John
June 13, 2004
You'd think I'd be used to it..
You’d think I’d be used to teams I support getting beaten in the last minutes of play (think Italy last World Cup) but it never gets any easier. Steve Gerrard is going to be the Beckham-esque martyr of that last match against France. England led by a single goal for the whole of play, before Zidane put away an amazing free kick to equalize in the first minute of injury time. Then, after the England fans felt dejected and settled for a draw, Steve Gerrard managed to feed Henry a ball that no French player could have matched, right into his own penalty box. The goalkeeper David James tackled Henry, conceded a penalty and Zidane slotted the ball home with tremendous power.
In short we went from 1-0 up to 2-1 down in the space of 2 minutes, 2 minutes of extra time added on at the end of the game no less!
At least Italy plays tomorrow so I’ll have something else to concentrate on.
(Update - I just realized that France did it to my team in the Euro 2002 Finals too! Last minute equalizer and goal against Italy - Gits!)
Later
John
June 12, 2004
Party Political Post
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Following the national trend for Lib Dem councils that were fighting to retain their seats, Kennedy’s Boys in Colchester took a drubbing. Is it just me or is there something to the fact that once a borough goes Lib Dem it more often than not votes the buggers out in the next term? They lost 5 seats to the Tories in Colchester making our council a hung council.
It all seems rather ironic given Conrad’s suggestion that I vote Lib Dem as a tactical measure :) Labour retained their seats, won a new one and successfully prevented both opposition parties from controlling the borough, that’s more than I could have hoped for! From here we can lever a veto on the closure of daycare and elderly care centres and perhaps we can get the frikkin’ garbage collected!
(Update: Another Labour Blogger weighs in with an interpretation of what the hell went on last night).
Later
John
HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA!
Yep, Michael Moore is going to take on Tony Blair in his next film.
MICHAEL MOORE, the American director who made an anti-war film centred on President Bush, has Tony Blair in his sights Mr Moore, whose controversial documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 won the Palme d’Or at Cannes, said yesterday that his next film would take a closer look at Mr Blair’s role in the war in Iraq. “I hold Blair more responsible for this war than I do Bush, and the reason is Blair knows better. Blair is not an idiot. What is he doing hanging around this guy?” Mr Moore said.
What a total and utter tard. Now listen, Bush is an easy target on a lot of issues and for all intents and purposes he doesn’t have a great deal of obvious political acumen but Blair is an entirely different matter and quite frankly Mike, he’s way out of your league.
Mr Moore has never taken on British politics. In his last 2 books, on every occasion when he dipped his toe into the topic he displayed a level of ineptitude and ignorance, which was breathtaking.
He quite simply has no idea what’s going on over here. If he does then he goes out of his way to hide it.
This is a man who, in his book “Stupid White Men” complained that Britain should “write it down!” when it came to our Human Rights Law - any student who had attended his first constitutional law lecture would know how unutterably idiotic that statement is.
I look forward to his pathetic offering, it should if anything, be a clear indication of just how out of his depth he’s prepared to wade.
Later
John
Where now?
I was going to write a post on what comes next for the Labour party, however I then found this article in the edition of The Times that will go to print on Saturday.
It’s an interesting comment concerning the next steps for the Labour party in the wake of Thursday’s election defeat. A sizable excerpt follows:
There will, nonetheless, be a thesis expressed within the Labour Party that runs as follows. If we are not losing many votes to the Conservatives, its advocates will assert, then we must instead have discarded them to parties perceived as standing to the left of Tony Blair. The best and fastest way to reconcile those electors would be to move in their direction. New Labour should thus forget the “new” and concentrate on the “Labour”. In the most extreme version of this blueprint, the Prime Minister himself should be sacrificed as a peace offering (in more than one sense of the term).
This would not merely be an overreaction, it would be madness. To abandon the middle ground in a desperate attempt to appease those who have flirted with the Greens, the hard Left such as George Galloway’s Respect or even the more pacifist parts of the Liberal Democrats would be to court disaster come the general election.
The article really has to be read if you want a sound and intelligent view of Labour’s options. Just as well too as anything I write could easily be dismissed as the desperate flailings of a stricken Blairite.
Put simply, to abandon Blair would be the single most idiotic action the Labour party could take now. We’d court the votes only of the easily distracted anti-war movement at a time when unfolding events appear to be capable of reeling them back in. Abandoning the centre by discarding Blairite New Labour would be disastrous to the one aspect of domestic politics where our lead over other parties is seismic in proportion - our Public Services record, as was demonstrated by the BBC polls on Election Day.
Thankfully the cabinet now is empty of idiots willing to rock the boat with enough force to dislodge our PM; Short and Cook had their chances and failed, although Robin Cook’s action was far less malicious and rather more dignified. Blunkett came out swinging in defence of Tony Blair as did Prescott and John Reid, so it’s not much of a worry at a cabinet level.
However the Labour party still harbours the same elements of back-biting self flagellation that rendered it incapable of mounting a credible opposition, even against Major’s weakest government performances. There are some who would now choose to discard Blair and instead shift to the left to pick up Saddam’s useful idiots and Galloway’s coven. Politically it would be tantamount to lunacy, but that is not beyond the left-most members of the party.
I pray cooler minds prevail.
Later
John
June 11, 2004
Now That's What I Call Desperate 39
Moqtada Al-Sadr’s militia, sensing impending doom in the form of a democratic self-representative Iraq crack and attack an Iraqi police station. No US forces were in the area and none took part in the fighting.
This is an act of pure desperation. Who can blame him? The world community is united in ensuring Iraq’s new government ascends to power and he’s out in the cold.
It’ll be interesting to see how Iraqis react to this. From Iraqi bloggers’ gauge of public sentiment they were already angry with Al-Sadr’s militia when it was fighting the coalition and turning their streets into a battleground, so now that the thugs have turned their weapons on what is an entirely Iraqi outfit I’d suggest they’ll be livid.
If things turn out that way, it would basically spell the end for all insurgency in Iraq. Let’s hope they do.
Later
John
Polling Complete
I’ll get onto the local elections later on tomorrow namely when I actually know what the result is in my ward - the larger Labour defeat is as forecast by No. 10 but I’m not particularly bothered.
However I just thought I’d mention how entertaining it was to watch the election results coming in, with a panel of representatives of the main 3 parties. Particularly I enjoyed the fact that John Reid was the Labour representative for a while - without doubt my favourite minister.
One thing that was particularly good fun was listening to the Lib Dem and Tory representative squabble over how insignificant or significant the Tory gain had been. From an objective perspective the Tories gained well in the council elections, however it’s hardly the foothold that they desired in an attempt to sweep momentum up for their General Election campaign to challenge Labour.
To be honest if the Tories can’t put the boot in when Tony Blair’s in such a weak position (the news of the UN resolution hasn’t really filtered down fully yet), then I have to question whether Michael Howard will be capable of leading them to take on the Labour government in 2005. Iraq is looking to be getting a whole lot better. So good in fact that Simon Jenkins is spinning his little frustrated heart out trying to make a pigs ear out of the UN resolution and handover of sovereignty. Keep digging Simon!
Anytime you suggest that NATO involvement in Iraqi peacekeeping was “wisely vetoed by the French” you’re going to loose a lot of stock amongst the Times readership.
Later
John
Wow
I was quite taken aback by this article at BBC News online about Iraqi Bloggers. It is astonishing that they should have picked up the story at all and the fact that the tone is even and intelligent is quite surprising given the general dislike of the mass media felt by many Iraqi bloggers, particularly Ali, Omar and Mohammed who are interviewed for the article.
Iraq the Model is something that I’ve been enjoying since I was linked to it very soon after its initial creation. Now, thanks to reader donation they have an uninterruptible power supply, home internet access and a computer from which to blog without having to leave the house and walk to an internet café. Funny what you take for granted isn’t it?
Later
John
June 10, 2004
We'll have none of that now!
Euro 2004 inches closer as Trapattoni announces La Squadra’s starting 11 for the match against Denmark. Personally I can’t see much wrong with it apart from the fact that I’d like to see Cassano in the place of Camoranesi.
However in far more important football news, FIFA have ordered Referees to clamp down on important issue like tackles from behind, diving and players who take off their shirts after scoring.
No I’m not kidding. It would seem stripping off your shirt and swinging it round you is prohibited in this tournament. I wonder if just pulling it over your head and running around like a loon is still allowed.
Personally diving really pisses me off so I’m happy to see FIFA taking a hard line on it. I’m also happy that this year there won’t be any substandard asian refs making Division 3 decisions.
All that remains is for me to gather my mates and storm over to the place with the biggest TV to watch the England game. Thankfully Italy and England are in groups which won’t meet till the Semi Finals so I don’t have to subject myself to a torrent of abuse just yet.
Later
John
Interesting stuff
Tech Central Station, has a very interesting article regarding the findings of the group of venerated economists who set out to find out how the richest countries in the world could do the most possible good for the rest of the world.
The results are very interesting and as the writer acknowledges will probably “drive radical environmentalists nuts.”
A very interesting and concise read.
Later
John
Reagan again
It seems that with the new UN resolution, the brighter path ahead for Iraq and the strong US economy, all Nancy Reagan needs to say is “Win one for the Gipper” to provoke an all out route of Kerry in the November elections. It’s a no win battle for liberals - if they poo poo Reagan’s achievements they look like conniving scum and if they lionize him, they just set up the Republican resurgence for a storming onslaught. The November elections are going to be very interesting indeed. It’s a bit early to stick my neck out but I’m going to go ahead and say that if things continue like this, we won’t be seeing a president Kerry.
Reagan’s death has also provoked chattering on the topic of the presidents of the 20th century, Conrad of The Gweilo Diaries has put together his list which seems, in my view prudent. At least it has a top 2 that I can’t disagree with:
Franklin Roosevelt (saved free world)
Ronald Reagan (brought down Soviet Empire, economic revival)
I’d probably put LBJ, Kennedy or Truman in 3rd but he’s plumped for Theodore Roosevelt - I’m not too well versed on the man’s career so I’ll take his word for it.
Poll Day
Well, I’ve cast my votes in the European Parliamentary election and the Borough Council elections. I must admit I’m rather fortunate to be in an area where Labour can and hopefully should win as for the most part Colchester is divided between Tories and Lib Dems. My friend Conrad implored me to tactically vote for the Lib Dems - I would never consider such an action ordinarily, their stance on Iraq makes them completely unelectable for me aside from other matters and given that Labour can win in this ward I get to vote for my party and have it win.
We have a great candidate who’s actually done things other than raise council taxes and fail to organize refuse collection whilst blowing millions of pounds on arts centres, closing daycare and elderly centres ala Lib Dem / Tory led Council.
I also of course voted in the European Parliamentary elections, I’ve made my thoughts on that matter clear :)
Later
John
June 08, 2004
w00t!
This has the following important effect: It prohibits the calls of the slightly more rabid Anti-War left that the occupation was illegal. UN support for Iraq’s new government pulls the rug from under the core of the Anti-War movement who hung on for the security council’s rubber stamp.
Good News Day!
Later
John
Curious
June 10th will mark the European and Local elections in England and the Times has published a poll which shows massive voter dispersal. It’s like Italy for the EU Parliamentary polls with voters moving away from the main parties and instead voting for the likes of the UKIP and the Greens. The overall analysis is that, to put it bluntly - the Tories are gonna get boned.
However the poll also shows something else that’s particularly interesting:
This is not, after all, a general election. Indeed, around 70 per cent of those planning to back one of the smaller parties this week admitted to Populus that their choices now would not be repeated in a Westminster contest. This is the statistic that all in the main parties, and, in particular, the Conservatives, should keep in mind when they react to what is destined to be a wild vote in weird circumstances. If not, there could be unfortunate consequences when the real polling day finally arrives. Taken from this Comment.
So although Labour and the Conservative party will be losing votes in the european election, the same result is apparently incapable of serving as a prediction of a general election outcome. The Times does not go any further into why this might be the case, there are undoubtedly a great many reasons. However I’d like to venture one.
The European Parliamentary Elections are a joke. To be quite honest if I wasn’t using all my votes for Labour I’d question even bothering to vote. The Parliament’s power is supposedly being increased under the draft constitution which still hasn’t been agreed on, and shan’t be so agreed upon until at least November. At the moment if you want something done, you ought to vote for the Commission and the EC Commission is constituted by means of governmental appointment.
In effect I’m only voting because someone else is going to vote - ie: the UKIP voters and the dreaded ‘RESPECT’ (Galloway Undivided). Not because I think I’m going to change anything. Do I really think that even after my Labour vote has been diluted by people voting for domestic fringe parties it’s going to count for anything in this parliament!? It’s a body comprising of similar votes from all around Europe. Hell! My vote is being diluted by the frikkin’ Communist party in Italy, Jacque Chirac’s UMP and all manner of other feeble parties from all the convoluted political systems of the EU member states.
That pain that you get when you realize the Socialist Worker’s Weekly reader in the queue ahead of you is going to cancel out your vote is only multiplied if you’ve seen the sheer idiocy of politics in Italy.
Worse still - because they are ubiquitous by existing in every member state’s political system, the Greens could outnumber most other parties in the parliament if they all just voted as a block. How utterly bizarre is that!? A Green party with legislative power over Conservatives or Labour party members.
I’ll cast my vote anyway on the 10th, but I can’t say I’ll be eagerly staying up to receive the results.
Later
John
June 06, 2004
Now that's scary
I was recently searching for my name idly on google (as you do). To my astonishment I had been knocked off the top search spot - no longer was this site the first search return for “John Swaine”, instead it was some fellow who worked as an investment banker.
Naturally I was somewhat miffed. I’ve always taken a little pride in the fact that I’m normally the biggest web-presence for the name John Swaine, as vain as that might be.
Given that it was some news site I checked it out expecting him to be a financial writer or some such thing. Turns out the true results were