Things Should've Got A Lot Better?

Election day is upon us, so it only seems right to have a quick retrospective look at New Labour before the face of British politics is changed forever...again.

Like anyone with a heart, who was not a Thatcherite idiot-savant that is, the morning of 2nd May 1997 was a very good day. On the 1st May I had cast my vote for Vernon Coaker and for the first time since 1983 we had a Labour MP in an area with a long history of voting Tory. 

And what exactly have New Labour achieved in their long residency at Number 10?

Their numerous accomplishments remain, for me, dwarfed by the cruel debacle of the illegal war in Iraq and the humiliating period of 2001-07, where Tony Blair acted as some kind of toothy lap dog to the retarded, Ivy League, monkey king pretender to the world's most powerful country. Iraq looms large, mainly for the huge loss of civilian life, never mind the raft of US and UK military causalities and for what exactly? Talk of war crimes and illegality has faded it seems but in my mind it remains incredibly strong.

Iraq is the distorting lens that leaves much of what the Labour party has achieved looking asinine and pyrrhic but there is much there to celebrate. The social-morality landscape of Britain has changed a great deal, some of this may merely be down to humanity's progress but Labour enacted much legislation to enable positive social reforms for women, ethnic minorities and the gay community; civil partnerships were a thing of dreams for many but now are a crucial reality and a stepping stone to the end of discrimination as we know it. Labour must be thanked for such steps.

Of course, New Labour's vision for electoral reform has not gone as far as I would've hoped but they moved in the right direction, with the House of Lords in better shape and reform ready, the FOI act passed and devolutionary powers to Wales and Scotland. Northern Ireland and the current peace are also one of Labour's huge successes, although I do acknowledge it took numerous other parties, agencies and individuals to work together to achieve the situation we have now and although by no means perfect, I am old enough to remember the IRA as a very real threat on the UK mainland and acts of violence and terror a depressing and seemingly regular occurrence.

I am unashamed to say that, although I will not be voting for him, I believe Gordon Brown to be one of our finest chancellors and his stewardship of the UK economy and the measures he took created a far more equal society (the minimum wage being one of New Labour's finest achievements, along with the creation of an independent Bank of England), with a genuine effort to reduce poverty, consistently low unemployment and enabling a move away from crash and burn economics; rather spoilt admittedly by the global financial crisis.

The endless money pit that is our public services have also been transformed and heavily (perhaps too heavily) invested in, so that we are blessed with new schools, hospitals and facilities for social governance, such as Job Centres, Health Centres and Connexions Centres for young people. NHS waiting times have plummeted from 21 weeks under the Tories in 1997 to around 6 weeks as of now and previous lows at around 4 weeks in 2007.

As someone who used to work with young mothers, the impact of Sure Start cannot be underestimated, and neither should improvements to YOT teams and YIP projects and the transformation of the cranky and dusty old Careers Service into the young person friendly and focused Connexions.

And with regards to the industry I work in, let us not forget that the arts, dying under Thatcher and Major, has been rejuvenated, albeit with a clever and helpful dose of gambling money, which has marginally silenced the right-wing hectoring of what tax payers money is being spent on but rather, quite bizarrely, what gambler's money is being spent on...

In the minus column, aside from the crippling blow of Iraq, is the fact that when New Labour came to power in 1997 some 5 million 'working adults' were subsidised by the state and this figure remains unmoved today and for all the racist arguments of 'immigrants stealing our jobs', they have in reality filled a gap which UK citizens were unwilling to fill. The re-jigging of the benefits system has failed cut down on elements of institutionalised family state subsidy, whilst managing to demonise other claimants. A lose-lose.

A huge negative about Labour was their endless infringements upon human rights and civil liberties, under the overarching catch-all theme of the War on Terror (Copyright. Trademark. All Rights Reserved), which enabled them to pass some awful legislation that is only softened, in my mind, by the fact that Tories would've been far, far worse.

Another downside for me has been the explosion, under Labour, of bureaucratic middle-men agencies, the worst of which are the Regional Development Agencies, monoliths that entrap large swathes of government funding and then deal it out, whilst themselves costing a bloody fortune.

Finally and whilst speaking of bureaucracy, education is another sector I've worked in and has suffered terribly under New Labour. Whether it be the vulgar league table (a blight on many of our public services and a device that only ever leads to fixing the figures), SATS, paperwork of teachers and the ever increasing obsession with the GCSE as a measuring device for our children, whilst harder to measure subjects are sacrificed at the alter of 5 A-C's.

And the perverse, schizoid drive by Labour to increase participation in higher education by opening up glorified sixth form colleges as universities offering God awful subjects, whilst simultaneously bringing in tuition fees, swinging cuts to the grants systems and saddling graduates with huge student loan debts; is one of the biggest errors of its tenureship.

So yes, things should've have got a lot better under New Labour but let us not forget that they did achieve a great deal and more importantly, that the Conservatives would've been so very much worse...

HAPPY VOTING!

Top 25 Censored Stories for 2010

Always a depressing read when it comes out but a necessary evil, is Project Censored's top news stories that...well, didn't really make the news.

I'll let you read them for yourself but highlights include how US schools are more racially segregated now then in the 1950s; that Somali piracy is not just about money but the illegal fishing in its waters and the dumping of toxic waste; North Carolina is the home to a nuclear waste pool and the guy that was behind the US Presidential election fraud in 2004, a certain Mr. Mike Connell, died in a mysterious place crash as he was about to be subpoenaed and possibly take down uber-shit, Karl Rove.

Good luck sifting through that lot, I'm off for a lay down...

"People Are Jumping Out The Windows...They're Jumping Out The Windows, I Guess Because, They're Trying to Save Themselves...I Don't Know"

It was eight years ago today...

For some reason this anniversary of the terrible 9/11 attacks is playing a lot on my mind. Last year I was immersed in the world of Zero, a play no doubt inspired by the acts of torture triggered by 9/11, the year before that I was consumed by the archaic process of trying to purchase a home, while in 2006 I was more concerned about Iraq which has besmirched the idea of 9/11 and demeaned it to a mere precursor of war and excessive loss of human life. 2005, I didn't even mention it all, so preoccupied was I with yet another house move and the impending tour of Bouncers.

Before that, I'm ashamed to say, I had always been rather glib about 9/11, even pedantically referring to it as 11/9 and making noises about correct formatting of the date, like a monstrous tit. The reason, as I have inferred above, is that we were not allowed to hold onto 9/11 as a terrible crime against the United States and a device by which we all pulled together as humans against acts of cruel terror.

Because just as the dust was settling, it was a seemingly perfect excuse for Bush and his cohorts to unleash a period of eight hellish years, that have included human rights infringements, the awful mire that is the war in Iraq and the endless process of bringing peace and stability (and of course an acceptable regime to the West) in Afghanistan; at massive loss of civilian and military life...never mind the terrorist attacks around the world inspired by America's approach to the problem.

And now I come to think about it, the number of odious off-shoots is endless: we have the increase in fundamental and violent Islam activists, which in turn has led to a polarisation of the world's religions and the bracketing of Islam as evil, which further exacerbates it's militarisation and has become something of a culture war.

This polarisation has leaked into our politics with retarded 'with us or against us' thinking; black and white solutions to grey problems and a lack of a middle ground where most solutions are offered. All this adds up to a tarnishing of 9/11 as the instigator of this God awful mess, when in reality it is the Bush regime's response to 9/11 that has changed our world for the worse; ably supported of course by a whole raft of idiots on both sides.

I stumbled upon the famous video today of Bush at the Emma E. Booker Elementary School, the moment when he is told: "A second plane has hit the tower, America is under attack" is at one minute in...



I suppose my feelings of sadness at this anniversary have partly been due to a maturing in my attitudes to the events of that day and the volume of powerful 9/11 documentaries that have featured on British television in the last week or so, including the excellent '102 Minutes That Changed America' and '9/11: The Falling Man'...

This post's title is a direct quote of an eyewitness, whose testimony I saw live on television and was so moved by it, I hunted down the audio file as a reminder of the terror and horror of that awful day.

In honour and loving memory of those that lost their lives on that fateful day.

Ted Kennedy 1932-2009

“It's better to send in the Peace Corps than the Marine Corps.”

“150,000 American troops are bogged down in a quagmire in Iraq because the Bush administration misrepresented and distorted the intelligence to justify a war that America never should have fought.”

"Frankly, I don't mind not being President. I just mind that someone else is."

"Integrity is the lifeblood of democracy. Deceit is a poison in its veins."

"The work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives and the dreams shall never die."

OMG! The White House is Gay!

I understand that the previous eight years of Bush set the bar for even a slightly left-of-centre White House very, very low indeed.

Basically the bar is flat on the ground, perhaps even slightly submerged in the soil...it's a gimmie.

In my links you'll see the official White House blog, I visit every day and check in on what the Obama administration is up to, reading policy and watching videos.

The brief time that Obama has been in charge has already shown sweeping changes, this is a very different administration to the last one but I think that the sheer weight of change is being underestimated. Three things have happened of late that have rejuvenated and re-reminded me of what a changed White House this is; with attitudes that have the power to pervade deep into American society; perhaps even repairing the damage of the last eight years.

27th June: Obama and his wife had an AIDS test in order to encourage all to do so, bearing in mind that one in five Americans with AIDS don't know they have it and to see their leader doing so (not for the first time, he did something similar in 2006 in Kenya) may help to remove some of the stigma and sends a global message. Can you see any previous President doing this?

29th June: the anniversary of Stonewall is celebrated on the White House website, what sea change is this? From an administration that was openly hostile towards the LGBT community to one that marks the anniversary of a seminal event in their civil rights movement.

30th June: President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama host the White House's first LGBT event, with remarks that acknowledge how far America has come but outlines the vast array of work that still needs to be done. Clearly under Obama's watch, Lesbian, Gay, Bi-Sexual and Transgender people will not be burning in hell...

What a welcome change this is to the hate and horror of Bush.

Then, this morning, my very good friend Wendy turned me on to this great piece of journalism by Johann Hari.

Johann Hari provides context to Stonewall, and how it stands as a pivotal moment in the LGBT movement. He also reminds us that homosexuality is a naturally occurring phenomenon and part of the great tapestry of nature:

...about 2 to 5 per cent of human beings prefer to have sex with their own gender. It occurs at the heart of nature: only last week, Professors Nathan Bailey and Marlene Zuk, of the University of California, concluded in a study: "The variety and ubiquity of same-sex sexual behaviour in animals is impressive – many thousands of instances of same-sex courtship, pair bonding and copulation have been observed in a wide range of species, including mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, insects, molluscs and nematodes."

His piece reminds us of how far we have come in the West, although acknowledges that gay teenagers are still six times more likely to commit suicide than their straight counterparts. In other parts of the world he flags that India are on the brink of de-criminalising homosexuality and that China had it's first Gay Pride march.

Johann Hari then outs those parts of the globe that are still in the dark ages when it comes to the human rights of LGBT people: the Muslim world and the Caribbean.

The fact that the Muslim world is a bastion of vile homophobia is of little surprise, the book that guides that faith is twisted and turned (sometimes with plenty of assistance from the book itself) so that homosexuality is punished by jailing, torture and death sentences. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad even denies there are any gay people in Iran, but is happy to have them executed in public squares when some crop up.

The fact that the Caribbean is also a hunting ground for LGBT slaughter is perhaps not so surprising, it is a culture infested with the macho and phallocentric and thus is actually quite flimsy and weak, paper thin ideas of strength and masculinity that run rampant in many parts of Africa also (see my piece here on the raping and killing of lesbians in South Africa); so that 'men' (and I use the word very loosely) feel threatened and challenged by lesbians who are not enthralled by the penis and by gay men who are equated as women and thus lesser than man.

Irony is perhaps not the best word for the sexual violence that these gay men have to endure at the hands of the 'straight' men. Is is clear that these 'straight' men, emasculated and impotent due to unemployment, life style choices and a lack of purpose; can only confirm their own stupid existence through sexual terrorism.

It is clear, as Johann Hari points out, that these communities need our support in defining their human rights as LGBT people; just show me where to sign to beat back these vulgar bigots...

Jesse "The Governing Body" Ventura Kicks Dick Cheney's Ass

Ex-pro wrestler, Navy SEAL and one time Governor of Minnesota Jesse Ventura may seem an unlikely source for withering insight and powerful political commentary...but he is.

Watch below as he wrecks havoc on the terribly flawed Cheney logic on torture and gets the Bush administration in a headlock for good measure.

Finishing move? I'm thinking Jesse gives Dick Cheney the old overhead gutwrench backbreaker rack.

You dig?

Obama Does Stand-Up

Not only it seems can Obama right the 8 years of wrong caused by the Bush debacle in around 100 days but he's also one of the funniest men on the planet.

Below is Obama's routine at the White House correspondents' dinner, where quite frankly, he smacked it by making jokes about 9/11, race and Bush. After Obama's 8 years in charge, I see a long career making people laugh around the world and not in the way his predecessor did...

Sarah Palin is GOP Front-Runner for 2012, I Can't Decide Whether That's a Good or a Bad Thing

I lied, it's most definitely a bad thing.

CNN reports that Palin is the current 2012 favourite for the Rethugs, Mike Huckabee is close by in second, Mitt Romney third, with Bobby Jindal a long way back in fourth. 10% of those polled have no bloody idea who to pick. Which is fair enough as, thankfully, the right is lacking quality politicians and characters of note.

But how anyone can seriously back someone as empty, thick and myopic as Sarah Palin confounds me and my expectations and beliefs about American people. Yes, I know, these are the same people who propelled Bush Jr. to eight years of power that very nearly destroyed America financially and spiritually but surely they are human and can see the damage he caused?

Why would you back a contender who is a carbon-copy of the idiot-savant we've just got rid of that crippled a great nation? Seriously, I struggle to pin a redeemable feature on Sarah Palin.

What is left when you've stripped away the belief in creationism, far-right Christianity, hatred of gun control, anti-abortion in all cases, thinks stem cell research is against God, anti-sex education, naive bordering on ignorant on foreign policy, no interest in global warming or the extinction of animals, backs drilling in Alaska, cuts taxes as deficits hit the roof, free-market health care (HA HA HA!), pro-death penalty, criminalising all drug use and a loather of rights for immigrants and economic migrants?

On one hand, surely she is so incompetent and extreme that she has no chance of power after four years of Obama but my faith in American's ability to separate the wheat from the chaff is constantly tested.

Here's hoping...

Last Post About Bush I Swear (Unless He Dies)

Here is Bush in some of those gosh darnit number-type things and all those folks...

Number of news stories from 1998 to Election Day 2000 containing “George W. Bush” and “aura of inevitability”: 206

Amount for which Bush successfully sued Enterprise Rent-A-Car in 1999: $2,500

Year in which a political candidate first sued Palm Beach County over problems with hanging chads: 1984

Total amount the Bush campaign paid Enron and Halliburton for use of corporate jets during the 2000 recount: $15,400

Percentage of Bush’s first 189 appointees who also served in his father’s administration: 42

Minimum number of Bush appointees who have regulated industries they used to represent as lobbyists: 98

Years before becoming energy secretary that Spencer Abraham cosponsored a bill to abolish the Department of Energy: 2

Number of Chevron oil tankers named after Condoleezza Rice, at the time she became foreign policy adviser: 1

Date on which the GAO sued Dick Cheney to force the release of documents related to current U.S. energy policy: 2/22/02

Number of other officials the GAO has sued over access to federal records: 0

Months before September 11, 2001, that Cheney’s Energy Task Force investigated Iraq’s oil resources: 6

Hours after the 9/11 attacks that an Alaska congressman speculated they may have been committed by “eco-terrorists”: 9

Date on which the first contract for a book about September 11 was signed: 9/13/01

Number of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and North African men detained in the U.S. in the eight weeks after 9/11: 1,182

Number of them ever charged with a terrorism-related crime: 0

Number charged with an immigration violation: 762

Days since the federal government first placed the nation under an “elevated terror alert” that the level has been relaxed: 0

Minimum number of calls the FBI received in fall 2001 from Utah residents claiming to have seen Osama bin Laden: 20

Number of box cutters taken from U.S. airline passengers since January 2002: 105,075

Percentage of Americans in 2006 who believed that U.S. Muslims should have to carry special I.D.: 39

Chances an American in 2002 believed the government should regulate comedy routines that make light of terrorism: 2 in 5

Rank of Mom, Dad, and Rudolph Giuliani among those whom 2002 college graduates said they most wished to emulate: 1, 2, 3

Number of members of the rock band Anthrax who said they hoarded Cipro so as to avoid an “ironic death”: 1

Estimated total calories members of Congress burned giving Bush’s 2002 State of the Union standing ovations: 22,000

Percentage of the amendments in the Bill of Rights that are violated by the USA PATRIOT Act, according to the ACLU: 50

Minimum number of laws that Bush signing statements have exempted his administration from following: 1,069

Estimated number of U.S. intelligence reports on Iraq that were based on information from a single defector: 100

Number of times the defector had ever been interviewed by U.S. intelligence agents: 0

Date on which Bush said of Osama bin Laden, “I truly am not that concerned about him”: 3/13/02

Days after the U.S. invaded Iraq that Sony trademarked “Shock & Awe” for video games: 1

Days later that the company gave up the trademark, citing “regrettable bad judgment”: 25

Number of books by Henry Kissinger found in Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz’s mansion: 2

Number by then–New York Times reporter Judith Miller: 1

Factor by which an Iraqi in 2006 was more likely to die than in the last year of the Saddam regime: 3.6

Factor by which the cause of death was more likely to be violence: 120

Chance that an Iraqi has fled his or her home since the beginning of the war: 1 in 6

Portion of Baghdad residents in 2007 who had a family member or friend wounded or killed since 2003: 3/4

Percentage of U.S. veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan who have filed for disability with the VA: 35

Chance that an Iraq war veteran who has served two or more tours now has post-traumatic stress disorder: 1 in 4

Number of all U.S. war veterans who have been denied Veterans Administration health care since 2003: 452,677

Number of eligibility restrictions for admission into the Army that have been loosened since 2003: 9

Percentage change from 2004 to 2007 in the number of Army recruits admitted despite having been charged with a felony: +295

Date on which the White House announced it had stopped looking for WMDs in Iraq: 1/12/05

Years since his acquittal that O. J. Simpson has said he is still looking for his wife’s “real killers”: 13

Minimum number of close-up photographs of Bush’s hands owned by his current chief of staff, Josh Bolten: 4

Number of vehicles in the motorcade that transports Bush to his regular bike ride in Maryland: 6

Estimated total miles he has ridden his bike as president: 5,400

Portion of his presidency he has spent at or en route to vacation spots: 1/3

Minimum number of times that Frederick Douglass was beaten in what is now Donald Rumsfeld’s vacation home: 25

Estimated number of juveniles whom the United States has detained as enemy combatants since 2002: 2,500

Minimum number of detainees who were tortured to death in U.S. custody: 8

Minimum number of extraordinary renditions that the United States has made since 2006: 200

Date on which USA Today added Guantánamo to its weather map: 1/3/05

Number of incidents of torture on prime-time network TV shows from 2002 to 2007: 897

Number on shows during the previous seven years: 110

Percentage change since 2000 in U.S. emigration to Canada: +79

Number of the thirty-eight Iraq war veterans who have run for Congress who were Democrats: 21

Percentage of Republicans in 2005 who said they would vote for Bush over George Washington: 62

Seconds it took a Maryland consultant in 2004 to pick a Diebold voting machine’s lock and remove its memory card: 10

Number of states John Kerry would have won in 2004 if votes by poor Americans were the only ones counted: 40

Number if votes by rich Americans were the only ones counted: 4

Portion of all U.S. income gains during the Bush Administration that have gone to the top 1 percent of earners: 3/4

Increase since 2000 in the number of Americans living at less than half the federal poverty level: 3,500,000

Percentage change since 2001 in the average amount U.S. workers spend on out-of-pocket medical expenses: +172

Estimated percentage by which Social Security benefits would have declined if Bush’s privatization plan had passed: –15

Percentage change since 2002 in the number of U.S. teens using illegal drugs: –9

Percentage change in the number of adults in their fifties doing so: +121

Number of times FDA officials met with consumer and patient groups as they revised drug-review policy in 2006: 5

Number of times they met with industry representatives: 113

Amount the Justice Department spent in 2001 installing curtains to cover two seminude statues of Justice: $8,650

Number of Republican officials who have been investigated by the Justice Department since 2001: 196

Number of Democratic officials who have been: 890

Number of White House officials in 2006 and 2007 authorized to discuss pending criminal cases with the DOJ: 711

Number of Clinton officials ever authorized to do so: 4

Years since a White House official as senior as I. Lewis Libby had been indicted while in office: 130

Number of U.S. cities and towns that have passed resolutions calling for the impeachment of President Bush: 92

Percentage change since 2001 in U.S. government spending on paper shredding: +466

Percentage of EPA scientists who say they have experienced political interference with their work since 2002: 60

Change since 2001 in the percentage of Americans who believe humans are causing climate change: –4

Number of total additions made to the U.S. endangered-species list under Bush: 61

Average number made yearly under Clinton: 65

Minimum number of pheasant hunts Dick Cheney has gone on since he shot a hunting companion in 2006: 5

Days after Hurricane Katrina hit that Cheney’s office ordered an electric company to restore power to two oil pipelines: 1

Days after the hurricane that the White House authorized sending federal troops into New Orleans: 4

Portion of the $3.3 billion in federal Hurricane Katrina relief spent by Mississippi that has benefited poor residents: 1/4

Percentage change in the number of Louisiana and Mississippi newborns named Katrina in the year after the storm: +153

Rank of Nevaeh, “heaven” spelled backward, among the fastest growing names given to American newborns since 2000: 1

Months, beginning in 2001, that the federal government’s online condom fact sheet disappeared from its website : 17

Minimum amount that religious groups received in congressional earmarks from 2003 to 2006: $209,000,000

Amount such groups received during the previous fourteen years: $107,000,000

Percentage change from 2003 to 2007 in the amount of money invested in U.S. faith-based mutual funds: +88

Average annualized percentage return during that time in the Christian and Muslim funds, respectively: +11, +15

Number of feet the Ground Zero pit has been built up since the site was fully cleared in 2002: 30

Number of 980-foot-plus “Super Tall” towers built in the Arab world in the seven years since 9/11: 4

Year by which the third and final phase of the 2003 “road map” to a Palestinian state was to have been reached: 2005

Estimated number of the twenty-five provisions of the first phase that have yet to be completed: 12

Number of times in 2007 that U.S. media called General David Petraeus “King David”: 14

Percentage change during the first ten months of the Iraq war “surge” in the number of Iraqis detained in U.S.-run prisons: +63

Percentage change in the number of Iraqis aged nine to seventeen detained: +285

Ratio of the entire U.S. federal budget in 1957, adjusted for inflation, to the amount spent so far on the Iraq war: 1:1

Estimated amount Bush-era policies will cost the U.S. in new debt and accrued obligations: $10,350,000,000,000 (see page 31)

Percentage change in U.S. discretionary spending during Bush’s presidency: +31

Percentage change during Reagan’s and Clinton’s, respectively: +16, +0.3

Ratio in 1999 of the number of U.S. federal employees to the number of private employees on government contracts: 15:6

Ratio in 2006: 14:15

Total value of U.S. government contracts in 2000 that were awarded without competitive bidding: $73,000,000,000

Total in 2007: $146,000,000,000

Number of the five directors of the No Child Left Behind reading program with financial ties to a curriculum they developed: 4

Amount by which the federal government has underfunded its estimated cost to implement NCLB: $71,000,000,000

Minimum number of copies sold, since it was released in 2006, of Flipping Houses for Dummies: 45,000

Chance that the buyer of a U.S. home in 2006 now has “negative equity,” i.e., the debt on the home exceeds its value: 1 in 5

Estimated value of Henry Paulson’s Goldman Sachs stock when he became Treasury Secretary and sold it: $575,000,000

Estimated value of that stock today: $238,000,000

Salary in 2006 of the White House’s newly created Director for Lessons Learned: $106,641

Minimum number of Bush-related books published since 2001: 606

Number of words in the first sentence of Bill Clinton’s memoir and in that of George W. Bush’s, respectively: 49, 5

Minimum number of nicknames Bush has given to associates during his presidency: 75

Number of associates with the last name Jackson he has dubbed “Action Jackson”: 2

Number of press conferences at which Bush has referred to a question as a “trick”: 14

Number of times he has declared an event or outcome not to be “acceptable”: 149

Rank of Bush among U.S. presidents with the highest disapproval rating: 1

Average percentage of Americans who approved of the job Bush was doing during his second term: 37

Percentage of Russians today who approve of the direction their country took under Stalin: 37

As a big fan of Keith Olbermann, I was glad when Hack alerted me to this wonderful piece by him that is an at times overwhelming wall of upsetting information regarding, quite possibly, the worst President of all time (you heard that right Warren G. Harding). We are within touching distance of Bush's passing but this is a timely reminder of the sheer weight of damage he subjected America and the world to.



And as the Gaza conflict grinds down into a no doubt brief faux-ceasefire, a wonderful piece by Jewish-British comedian Paul Kaye is most definitely worth your reading time; as he talks about the shame he feels at Operation Cast Lead, the urge to fight against revenge instincts when his wife's' mother was killed by a bomb and where he makes a very good case for a solution to the problem I share: an end to settlements and a return to the 1967 borders.

A dark fog has enveloped us indeed...

America's UN Resolution Abstention

Israeli PM Ehud Olmert getting Bush in a headlock to make sure the US abstains from the UN Resolution on a ceasefire in Gaza

Bush needed no convincing after Olmert shows him pictures of dead Arab children

Bush then looms behind Condoleezza Rice in order to humiliate her into abstaining from something she was going to support

The world demands it's free motherfucking cupcake!

I've done my level best to not blog on the current conflict in Gaza, mainly because I don't feel I can bring much to the debate in a blog format, when the issue at hand is so immensely complex and one false move can have you labelled an anti-Semite/Zionist.

And posting pictures of dead Arab children is exploitative and crass.

Having said that, my feelings on the issue can be best summed up by the fact that both Israel and the people of Gaza elected really awful people to represent them and they are reaping the dividends of those choices, as the two elements duke it out and the civilians get caught horribly in the middle.

My solution: Israel goes back to the Internationally approved 1967 borders, stops making illegal settlements and takes down the bizarre wall; then (the hardest bit) it has to bite it's tongue as Hamas (or whatever idiotic 'wipe Israel off the face of the map' political party is in charge) tries to provoke them into lowest common denominator battle. If Israel took the moral high ground and did all the things asked of it by the world, Hamas would still attack but then Israel would have the backing of the globe in its destruction. It's a win-win for them but all it takes is a long view and restraint, something Israel has lacked since its inception.

I'm more interested in the weight of power that Israel and Olmert seems to be able to exercise over Bush and his pals.

Rice it seems was all willing to vote for the ceasefire UN resolution, which would've made it a clean sweep of all 15 votes and total condemnation of Israel's activities from even it's closest allies. And on that note, I'll hand over to Olmert:

"When we saw that the Secretary of State, for reasons we did not really understand, wanted to vote in favour of the UN resolution...I looked for President Bush and they told me he was in Philadelphia making a speech. I said, 'I don't care. I have to talk to him now'.

They got him off the podium, brought him to another room and I spoke to him. I told him, 'You can't vote in favour of this resolution.' He said, 'Listen, I don't know about it, I didn't see it, I'm not familiar with the phrasing.' He gave an order to the Secretary of State and she did not vote in favour of it, a resolution she cooked up, phrased, organised and manoeuvred for. She was left pretty shamed and abstained on a resolution she arranged."

And lo, it came to pass that the US abstained on the UN security resolution with the White House overruling the State Department (yet again), fighting to the very last day of their miserable existence, to perpetuate their unconditional backing for Israel.

The official line from the White House is: "We've seen these press reports and they are inaccurate." So either Olmert is lying and posturing like the corrupt old toad he is, or the White House is lying...again...and again...and again.

A Dull Roar

Bush's last press conference (aside from some final address type shit, no doubt from his bunker...) made me wonder.

It made me wonder if the US troops look up from their food, to their TV screens in the mess hall and realise they were sent to Iraq by a sissy rich kid who doesn't know what he's talking about? I wonder if they know they were sold out by an underachiever frat boy who never had to put himself on the line for anything? I wonder what they think when they see fat fucks in America at a hog dog eating contest stuffing their faces? I wonder what they think as they get wheeled into the hospital top find out if the doctors are going to be able to save that leg while Paris Hilton could sell her piss for a thousand dollars a teaspoon?

It also got me wondering, via reading the Constitution, about the ooze of Christianity into the American political spectrum, brought on by Bush and his cohorts and the subsequent retardation of America via the sheer anti-human nature of evangelical Christianity. These petty mini-tyrants, amateurs and cowards that make up the Christian Right should get out of America (there work is done...) and try to set up a church in Iraq and convert Shia and Sunni Muslims to Christianity.

But that would mean actually putting their life at risk for their faith, just as the Christians in Iraq do.

I think America missed a trick with the Intelligent Design debate, they should offer it in all schools and see natural selection at work right there. All the stupid kids will choose ID and all the ones with brains will go for Darwin. This will leave the stupid children to fill all those jobs vacated by illegal immigrants after some terrible Brownshirt legislation has been passed, they'll eat shitty fast food, smoke and drink. They'll be too illiterate and ignorant to make good choices and will destroy themselves. God will not save them.

Or, we could let all the red states offspring only have a diet of ID, Irreducible Complexity, School Prayer and Abstinence-only sex education. This would generate a gene pool so fucked-up we'd have enough cannon-fodder to fight a thousand war on terrors.

No need to thank me...

The Deletion of my MySpace: "This is For Eva-Jane"

Yesterday I got rid of my MySpace, I was tired of the spam, didn't use it and I wanted to streamline my online presence (and no, I'm not getting a fucking Facebook).

But it was weird, because I felt a wee pang of sadness when I did so, because of what it symbolised.

You see, I only got a MySpaz because of Eva-Jane, it was a device to help with our courting, a tool to bring us closer together, a way of communicating when communicating was hard; it existed purely and honestly just for her, my love.

So much so that the tag line always remained the same: "This is for Eva-Jane". And the meaning of that changed as our relationship changed, until, we didn't need MySpace anymore because we have each other: heart, mind, body and soul.

On another positive note, the good news is that British troops will be withdrawn from Iraq by July 2009, which is a wonderful step, not only for Iraq but for our soldiers, who have given so much in the establishment of a stable Iraq; let's just hope it can stay that way...

18th December 2008 must be good news day, because a UN Tribunal has jailed the Rwanda genocide mastermind for life, the fuck goes by the name of Theoneste Bagosora and it may have taken a while to get him but at last, it is done.

On a less positive note, it seems that the shoe throwing nonsense has paralysed the Iraqi Parliament nearly as much as its paralysed the web; which bodes well for when they have to deal with proper issues and actual political matters.

I'll sign off with Barney the dog's final Christmas video from the White House, watching it is like having your shame gland stabbed and seeing the shame leak from you but Bush gives a supreme performance, which bodes well for his next career as an after-dinner speaker at GOP fundraisers.

Twat Fatigue

One thing I didn't miss when I stopped blogging was having to deal with twats, that and having pointless arguments that have no chance of changing anyone's mind and just take up space and leave you with a feeling that life is too short and there are more important things going on.

Currently, I'm dealing with one twat in a debate which has descended into me linking to silly pictures because quite frankly, that has equal value to two people bellowing at each other in a small room. The 'debate' has plumbed new depths of human depravity including using the Holocaust as a bargaining chip, wild generalisations about Europeans being to blame for everything (that and leftist polices) and me saying that the twat rapes ovens and sticks his pudgy cock into Pop Tarts.

I've tried pointing out that the thread is about the atrocity in Mumbai that claimed some 173 lives and left 308 injured and perhaps we should show some dignity and respect but alas, that was not to be, so instead we piss on our own trousers.

Then there is this racist twat, who is just running his mouth off like an attention grabbing special needs kid, because his dad never told him he loved him and maybe his mum fingered him or something like that. Either way, the person in question is a subhuman sack of ballbags.

And to top it off, everywhere I go in the blogosphere and even proper websites (check out this twat's list of ways to insult Bush around the world), I find much glee and support for the shoe throwing twat, as if that whatever Bush has done means that it's okay for someone, anyone, to assault him.

Where does the line get drawn? What if the shoe had been a brick? What if the brick was perhaps a bottle or a knife, what if the guy had a gun and got a shot off? Is that too much? When did it become too much, what would deserve being shot or bottled?

The point is, the act was wrong, best to draw the line there, rather than excusing fucking daft behaviour from adults who should know better.

I swear, some of ya'll need my foot in your ass to wake you up from your bullshit.

Peace.

Bush Nearly Hit By Shoes, Big Fucking Deal

Yesterday, President George Bush was nearly hit by two shoes and the second it happened, I thought, that's going to be all over the interwebs.

Here I am, blogging about the damn thing but you know what, I think it stinks. First off, what if they'd hit, that would've hurt and that is no way to behave around a President or any world leader, no matter what they've done; you can't go around fucking assaulting them with shoes or Pop Tarts or whatever weaponry you have to hand.

I watch the footage of the event and I actually feel sorry for Bush and then I get impressed by the sheer speed of his reactions but it's weird, he dodges the first one like a pro: swift, fluid and focused on the object right up until the last minute...kinda reminds me of a batsman in cricket ducking out of the way of a bit of 'chin music' but then the second shoe, he kinda deflects it with the support of Nouri Maliki who shows good wingman skills.

The shoe throwing dick-wad wanted his moment of fame, his moment of name calling and violence and that seems kind of appropriate, as he represents a country that is full of name calling and violence; as murderous squabbles between Shite and Sunni leads to dead civilians and dead troops and makes Iraqi people and Iraqi society frankly look like they haven't a shitting idea what they're going to do with their own country.

Meeting Up With Mohamed

Last night I had one of the best times I've had in a long time, a meeting of minds, a meeting of kindred spirits; it was if, separated by different cultures, continents and languages, we still managed to share pretty much the same, universal, human experience.

I met up with Mohamed, a fellow blogger, we've been fans and readers of each other's work for years, indeed, Mohamed pointed out that it is one of his longest 'Internet relationships' so to speak and I am always grateful for his passionate, intelligent and insightful commentary. Also, often, he acts as a much needed voice to counterbalance my fervent anti-religious tone, or as Mohamed put it last night: "my fundamental atheism".

The night started well when I texted Mohamed about how I would know it was him when we met at the station, he replied: "I'll be the Islamist in a turban."

We shared a few pints of ale, eat average English pub grub and aside from putting the world to rights, we felt compelled to share our personal histories and stories, much of which overlapped and we marvelled at our shared experiences, mine in Nottingham and his in Cairo.

The world felt truly small, the lines we divide ourselves with utterly ridiculous and I gained an insight into the idea of a humanity without boundaries.

So thank you Mohamed, an honour and a privilege to meet with you (and I swear that the man who came up to me to tell me how good I was in Zero was not a plant), I hope we get to do so again and perhaps one day, you can show me around Cairo. And for you my comrade, a video of George Bush being humiliated; as none of the soldiers want to stand next to him...

The Horror of Sarah Palin Plowing Through a Door is Keeping me Awake at Night

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Zero in London Town

Been so busy taking the piss out of Austria and W, I've not blogged on Zero being in London town.

Someone who has blogged on it and loved it, was Clarissa over at I Love The Smoke, so grateful for her support and kind words, go read them if you've time, she's certainly bought into the spirit of the play.

Someone who didn't buy into it, was a certain Mr. Dominic Martin. He reviewed the show on behalf The Stage, the review is okay and Damian gets a lovely mention which is well deserved for a grand performance but anyone who uses "sheer intensity" as a pejorative and thinks that the first scene of our play is used to establish character and plot when it's intention is the opposite, is clearly drunk. Or mad. Or both.

The Times however, has at least understood the play in their review here, which is a fair summation I think, if not a bit stingy with the stars and includes the great phrase (with regards to my character Tom): "ten times bereaved by the terrorist attacks" and it also mentions my good performance.

YAY!

More reviews should be out next week and as much as I hate giving one person's opinion too much weight, they can really make life easier in London town when you're trying to sell tickets.

We're also receiving support and audience members from various agencies and charities that work with the victims of torture, Redress is just one of those agencies and it certainly helps but average reviews into perspective.

On a lighter note, Tim turned me on to the lovely video below, which I'll leave you with...

Farewell Bush! Goodbye to the Uber-Asshat (a Photo Montage)

Bush dancing with an African, who says honky ain't got rhythm?

Bush doing a shit on a stage in front of the military to show how much he cares about all the dead soldiers

Small human feels the touch of evil and weeps at the idea that this man could ever be a two-term President

Bush with a tin of beans named after him because it shared his foreign policy skills and ability to lead the world's most powerful nation

After shitting on the stage, Bush rubs his man-boobs against a soldier's man-boobs in order to show maximum respect to all the dead and injured. Rumours Bush had been back on the sauce strongly denied

Bush and a drill which he later used on one of those darn terrorists that want to kill freedom, so Bush killed him before he could take out freedom

Bush once again showing how down he is with the kids by fist-bumping a child, when told this gesture was one used by terrorists the President had the boy in the photo tortured and shot for giving him 'terrorist AIDS'

Bush looking suspiciously at a creature he believes to be a terrorist, the furry bastard was later tortured and killed for giving Little League Baseball 'terrorist AIDS'

Bush being sucked-off by a turkey which was with him and not against him

Bush, always one for the ladies, oils up one of the Gitmo interrogators before she sexual humiliates a Muslim

High on beers and cough medicine, Bush hits on the Queen of the 51st state of America, all he got was a feel of her tit but he said it "felt like the tit of Jesus Christ"

Rollins Still "Keeping it Real"

Tuesday's spoken word gig by Henry Rollins at the IndigO2 was the third time in twelve months Eva-Jane and I had shared an evening with the legend that is Rollins and once again, we were not disappointed.

Over three hours Henry took us on yet another epic adventure, which included repeated and brutal assaults on Bush, wonderful story telling on Burma, South Africa, Vietnam, Northern Ireland, Laos, the killing fields of Cambodia and plenty of background on the current conflict in Georgia (such as Stalin was born in Georgia, Gori in fact, which the Russian's have bombed to bits) thrown in for good measure. All delivered in his trade mark style that mixes moments of high comedy, self-effacing humour and heart on sleeve, passionate delivery that urges you to do something about it.

In fact, soon as we got home, we donated some money to the United Nations World Food Programme and I urge you guys to do the same. That's the joy of Mr. Rollins, it's not a whinge-fest but an uplifting call to arms, to get up off your fat ass and change things for the better. I must say one of the most distressing parts of the show was near the end, when he talked about New Orleans as it stands now and the terrible stories that still haunt the city as it tries to rebuild.

I know that after he's done in Europe he's back over in the US so I urge all of my readers to check out the tour dates here and if you've a few spare bucks, to go see him in action and have an invigorating night of spoken word. I'll leave you with some words from the great man...

“If I lose the light of the sun, I will write by candlelight, moonlight, no light. If I lose paper and ink, I will write in blood on forgotten walls. I will write always. I will capture nights all over the world and bring them to you.”

"Don't do anything by half. If you love someone, love them with all your soul. When you go to work, work your ass off. When you hate someone, hate them until it hurts.”