First Tony Blair is caught off guard in an interview with Fern Britton, admitting that he would have pushed for invasion irrespective of WMD.
Then Silvio Berlusconi is hit in the face with an object of irony, a mini Milanese Cathedral.
Finally, Tzipi Livni cancels her trip to Britain due to a possible arrest warrant over her involvement in most recent assault on Gaza and its civilian population.
This is surely good news. For sure, none of this may come to anything more than inconveniences, but it does leave a glow of vague optimism: There is still some form of accountability.
Donald Rumsfeld no longer leaves the US, as he fears legal actions of the kind Tzipi Livni encountered this week. GW Bush has been reduced to telling jokes on stage in Texas. With some perseverance, Tony Blair, Jack Straw, and the rest will come to feel some form of retribution and accountability for their power-crazes interventions abroad.
Merry Christmas to all of them...
29 comments:
Hi parallax,
Thanks for your comment. I saw your post on Pilger's article, and I agree: It was a great piece. The thing about Pilger is that he does not forget, unlike the hand-wringing liberal communists who forget about violence until there's some kind of immediacy for a statesman or alleged 'philanthropists'.
The important thing is not to forget and be consistent. CiF is of course a joke: Torn between right-wing nutjobs and limp-wristed neoliberals (in every sense).
Which is the favourite online place you are referring to...?
Have a good Christmas break and New Year's...take care,
O.
olching - my post-favourite hangout is on your tag list: http://misharialadwani.wordpress.com/ - there are some fantastic poets there and I consider the blog meister mishari as a great friend ... but maybe as a community they prefer artistic collegiality rather than recognising the odd BNP dickhead in their midst .. who knows? Time to move on I thought: political compass says avoid the occasional creative dipshit - bit of a shame really. So it's not mishari's blog I'm calling out - it's more to do with an individual commentator. Sad, but there you go - fleas and dogs, and besides there are other fires to fight - as you know - time to move on.
Hey, see you before long.
Just popped in to say Merry Christmas Olching.
And Merry Christmas to you also Parallax. I'm going to ration my visits to blogs again - gave up Cif because of a hissy fit but in truth I was bored with my own comments - boring others has a pleasure of its own of course but when you bore yourself, time to go!
Edwin,
Sane voices are always pleasant. Stands to reason that we (well, I) often respond to voices of immoderate decibel rather than your voice of moderation. Thank you for being you Edwin (my OldBagpus) ... and Merry Christmas north of a border from your mate South of the Equator:)
Hi Parallax - that's the other thing about Cif - I enjoyed it when I was there for a gab but then I took myself seriously and became not just immoderate but incoherent - on occasions I would look at a post and think what the hell did I mean by that? I might adopt a new persona and come back as one of the pranksters!
Incidentally do you know the very entertaining Book Ride blog run by Nigel of Any Amount of Books? Have discovered writers there I had never heard of.
Olching while I think Galloway had a brief and savvy reflection on the aftermath of the Springburn by-election
http://blogs.dailyrecord.co.uk/georgegalloway/
I think this is right - the flood or tide or however you want to metaphorize it, has gone out for the left, but floods and tides come back of course.
Galloway looked tired standing beside Sheridan while the latter was being interviewed by Harris on that Guardian clip - and Sheridan's bile rose noticeably at the end. One of the really startling things about Scottish politics is the death of the old broad left - inconceivable only 20 years ago. But the swings will come back!
Hi Olching,
I left a belated reply to you post on the Berlusconi thread, not long before it closed, here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/dec/15/silvio-berlusconi-attack-opponents-italy
so this seemed a good place to repost it.
Hope things are well, and have a good one.
"CiF is of course a joke: Torn between right-wing nutjobs and limp-wristed neoliberals (in every sense)".
With MaM Commenter of the Year.
From now on, I'll just use CiF as a resource for Jonatan Steele, Almond, Laughland and for animus vs Cornell, Tisdall and other who write on E Europe.I have no loyalty to it now.
I's already semi-retired gfrom it like Questionnaire but now its official if such word twisting dolt who tries to get you to react to comments you did't make is somehow elevated to such a status.
Lots more work on my blog, book review, reports on discussions with local art professors etc. The internet has been good but its time to get awat and focus on quality not quanity....
Having said that I wrote about 15 blogs on CiF today anyway. But it is -17 outside in Krakow. Its good to be home ( I'm in reality bassed in Krakow where I have a flat in Bronowice ).
Goodnight
Please ignore the spelling mistakes....I have to turn the heating up !!!
Hi everyone,
Thanks for your comments. Just returned from a very sociable weekend.
Hope all is well with all, will try and respond in turn...v. tired right now.
Edwin,
I understand your sentiment. It is like treading water after a while with CiF and other places, particularly since everyone knows what they are going to say. Thanks for the link, by the way.
I hope (and anticipate) to see you back at some point. Merry Christmas in the meantime, to both you and parallax.
@Pat:
I understand your point, but think you are belabouring it too much. My point wasn't about showing glee that Berlusconi has been smashed in the face (though I admit, I did feel a little glee when seeing the pictures), but it's about the outrage subsequently shown.
I think elevating a minor inconvenience of Berlusconi (let's face it: A horrendous individual in history) over the plight far far worse plights all across the globe (some as a direct result of Berlusconi's decisions and actions) is getting it slightly wrong. Yes, systems are complex (the deferred, systemic violence etc), but in the end I think showing so much disproportionate empathy is a question of morality: It trivialises real violence, and protects criminals.
Have a good Xmas (in case we don't hear from each other beforehand).
@Karl:
I agree with all your points. CiF is a pisstake. I know people can accuse you, me, and others of snobbery, but it is what it is. I'm pleased MaM won, because it encapsulates the not-so-profound stupidity of our society. In much the same way that people admire Cowell for 'making so much money/music', so too have the idiots at CiF expressed admiration of MaM for being 'indefatigable' and 'persistent'.
Olching!Have no fear I will haunt your place here. Just say Merry Christmas/Ellymiranda
Elly, you're more than welcome here. Merry Christmas to you too!
Season's greetings. Just reading the acronym CIF makes me feel a bit woozy. Still, I reckon the old Graun is heading for the scrapheap. As I see it, the media is dominated by a very small group of people and there is a herd mentality that explains the overwhelming homogeneity of it all.
Thanks Gregor, and festive greetings to you to. Who would have thought that three crook politicians could engender such a festive love-in...
Maybe you're right.
But maybe it just human nature that a violent act toward a person who is even only remotely familiar, and an unpleasant one at that, affects people in a way that far greater violence to anonymous strangers does not.
Perhaps it shouldn't be that way, of course...
Also, since reading that "liberal communist" article on the LRB I followed the links to some other Zizek articles. The one about national characteristics and toilet design was a blast!
Just read about your mishap on the Simon Jenkins article. Hope you get better soon! I'm afraid I shall be disregarding his no doubt sound advice as we're flying of to Blighty for this festive season.
All the best
Pat
Pat,
Ah, yes, the toilet design one is a good one.
On the proximity of victim, well I think Berlusconi is as far removed from me as a villager in Kenya (perhaps not in the visual sense due to the media). In any case, isn't that humanity: Being able to empathise rather than merely perceive the immediate?
Thanks for the best wishes. It's pretty annoying and painful, and didn't look particularly gracious!
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all.
I agree about CiF. I don't know exactly why but I haven't been there for months.
"In any case, isn't that humanity: Being able to empathise rather than merely perceive the immediate"
Ideally, perhaps. In reality, perhaps not (which sums up why you're left-wing and why I'm right-wing, I think!).
Oh, and when I first visited Hungary, everyone had "continental shelf" (ie German) lavs. Now, they've all got more UK/US style depth-charge bogs.
I wonder what this says?
Merry Christmas, Czarny...
Pat, perhaps you aer right on the empathy bit, though I think you do yourself a disservice. Though in general, I probably agree. Some on the right elevate rationality over empathy.
Hungarian toilets...perhaps, if we follow this through, they don't want to examine the past in too much detail but immerse themselves in watered down anti-communist shit...(sorry)
By the way, you are right on the CiF...I was being purposely disingenuous with PeterBracken et al, because I cannot stand his know-it-all stance...so it's always good to expose someone's ignorance in public and milk it.
Just to add to your post: I think what people in east-central Europe saw in the West (and 'wanted') was not the turbocapitalism of the last 30 years but the older social democratic model (that's really only what they could know). Worth thinking about anyway.
Good point about social democracy.
And yes, he's a willy-wangler all right!
Good point. As my wife once said: "We wanted Sweden but got South America."
Merry Christmas. The Guardiam moderators have given me the best present-being either pre-moderated or perhaps banned.
The reason seems to have been my comments on Peter Lazanby's Auschwitz thread where I emphasised that the theft was done bt crooks.
In other words, the facts were that it was not part of a Neo-Nazi plot but rather a ghoulish heist for a Nazi memoribilia collector.
I then wrote that though bad, this theft was dawarfed by Saakashvili's total demolition of the Soviet War memorial in Kutaisi.
The result is that I get moderated not once but twice.Since when my comments on anything have failed to appear or been airbrushed.
It is unbelievable that the Guardian, supposedly a liberal newspaper could resort to what is not moderation but censorship.
To moderate is to ensure comments are not merely abusive, hate ridden or liable to put the paper in legal jeopardy.
My language was polite. My tone passionately angry but restrained. This is how debate should be conducted.
My reward is to be airbrushed from a public blog forum where I thought I might be able to discuss these double standards.
Clearly,the moderators have them and I will not apologise. I want them to apologise to ME for this absurd and witless censorship.
Unless you think it would endanger your own status please complain at least once on my behalf about this travesty.
Thanks,
Karl
Ok, they just started putting a couple of posts back on. What on earth they are playing at these mods, I don't know.
My complaint about the Auschwitz thread remains the same. They should not have pulled them. It was spineless.
Don't bother complaining on my bahalf. I'll just change names and you'll still know who I am. I'tell tell you the new name.
Oh, balls, I'm off for a hot wine. It's a nice clear day today.
Yes, it seems confirmed I'm been pre-moderated. It is pathetic and even more pathetic is the fact they probably do not understand how pathetic they are being.
But being not pathetic myself and not thinking that these people have any sense of nuance of intelligence at all in their judgement, I'll just sit it out.
I will not apologise. They can go fuck themselves.
Most likely I'll try the Independent or Telegraph if I have to blog comment.
As well as coming here and to Neil
Clark's blog more.The unPC left as unobsessed as they are with brittle & frigid identity politics is always tolerant
The reason I got pre-modded is they might have thought my comparison of the Auschwitz theft as a relatively minor act compared with the wholsale demolition of a Red Army memorial was "offensive".
They "moderate" not according to principles of free speech where free means not intent on decivilising the discussion, making direct ad hominem attacks or dehumanising people.
My view is that they want to preserve what they perceive is the papers self righteous liberal-left image for commercial reasons, to sell the brand.
The manifestation of stupid right wing bigots therefore does not discredit the paper. As MAMs status proves.What a jolly laaaugh it must be for them.
However what the PC left fulminates against most is a more intelligent conservatism or anti-PC leftism, as corruscating as it can be, that really threatens that control and smug superiority complex.
They do not want their commenters above the line to be humiliated for looking very, very stupid as Lazenby did when hinting at the ideological Neo-Nazi reasons for stealing the Auschwitz sign.
I pointed out it was a bunch of criminals on the make out of selling Nazi memoribilia to some ghoulish collector in Sweden.
I was aware of the discussion as I live here in Poland. I can see it discussed on the news. I new the story before they did.
And since Lazenby 'meant well' and I'm a nasty reactionary who just must have an agenda to challenge that view, based as it was without evidence, I get censored.
Craven, spineless, careeristic grovelling and smug groupthink determine the false sense of values the moderators have-this is what really is meant by "political correctness", an abused term but one fitting here.
On that note I'm off to Podgorze for a psychogeographical 'derive' around the forgotten and shabby parts of Krakow not yet subject to sanitised cosmetic enhancement.
I've had enough of CiF. I'm through with it. Real experience and writing about it it better. I'm getting out of the trap of these trollsters and fuckwit propandist scribes.
Hi Karl,
Sorry for the tardy reply...Christmas obligations and all.
Yes, CiF is vacuous. Hope you do return, at least sporadically. Then again, I keep on telling myself I will simply leave it. It's pointless.
By the way, I think NapoleonKaramazov echoed this as well, I would not have known about the monument but for your post.
Anyway, have to dash...will be in touch.
hi Olching,
It's Yanpol here. Just to wish you a Happy Winterval and a good 2010. It's freezing here in Scotland, but somehow the snow's made Xmas and Hogmanay special. Just wanted to tell you that I voted for you as BTL Cifer of the year. I was sad that you didn't win and that cretin got the chance to litter the place with a bunch of authoritarian right-wing platitudes. See you around on Cif or somewhere in the cyberspace.
Olching: your missing the great beginnings of a spat between me and Edward Lucas over his trip about The New Cold War on my blogsite.
I just want questionnair to stick the boot into this sententious waffling idiot who excuses neo-Nazism in the Baltics but sees, um, Putin as a new Hitler/Stalin combined.
I mean "tripe" not trip, though his comparison of Putin's Russia to Tolkien's Mordor sounds like he's either a complete fool or been illicitly smoking dope in the toolshed
Sorry Karl,
Have been busy...
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