the £45 million bonus

So, so wrong.

punkscience goes surfing !

Its forecast to be 5.5ft at Gwithian so there's a real chance that me and my softee might never make it back to the beach. Just a quick warning in case anyone wonders why I've stopped ranting over the next few days. (Gulp!)

I am invincible!!!!!!!!!!!!!

in memory of Benazir Bhutto

Benazir Bhutto has been killed, along with 20 others, in a joint shooting and suicide bombing in Pakistan. This is truly a dark day as Pakistan's only moderate voice and the only woman ever to lead a Muslim Nation is lost to us. The precariously balanced, nuclear state that she leaves behind- still run by the US puppet Musharraf (our "ally" in the war on terror)- has little hope for any progression from the sky-pixie fundamentalists that hold sway in the rural regions of the country and still less from those who pull the strings in Washington and London.

Responsibility for her murder has already been placed at the feet of the sky-pixie's acolytes and Musharraf's government. Personally, I believe it is too early to lay the blame and await more details. Sadly, the identity of the culprits are irrelevant: The damage has been done.


Addition:

Robert Fisk, whose opinions I trust implicitly, has concluded that the culprits were elements in the Pakistani intelligence service.

"sky-pixie told me to kill unveiled women"

Some whackjob in Iran came up with this shit. I know a couple of Iranian women. They think this is complete bollocks. They don't wear veils in this country. The US has a lot to answer for, having engineered the ascension of this theocracy.

Corpofascism

This sounds unpleasantly familiar. The language might be crap and it needs a thorough rewrite but the salient points are there.

Merry Christmas, monkeys!

the fight to preserve our way of life

John Pilger rules. Totally.

"we used to own our slaves, now we just rent them"

This is so appalling and shocking I can't summon the necessary vitriol to do it justice. I will have to come back to this later.

Tony Blair forced Goldsmith to abandon BAE investigation

In a turn of events that is surprising solely for the awesome success achieved by the Campaign Against the Arms Trade and Cornerhouse human rights campaign groups in forcing hugely confidential material to be made public, it was revealed in court today that Tony Blair wrote personal and highly coercive letters to The Chief Cockweasel and High Sanctioner of Genocides, Lord Goldsmith, to persuade him to drop the corruption investigation into BAE's payments to the Saudi government. In a ironic turn of phrase, Blair actually tried to convince Goldsmith that the Saudis "would cut off the flow of intelligence about al-Qaida terrorists" if a prosecution was successful.

That would be the flow of intelligence that lead to the events of 11th September 2001 and 7th July 2005, yes? Both of which were inspired by- or carried out by- Saudi money, Saudi philosophy (Wahhabism, duh!) or Saudi nationals.

I wonder if they (Blair, Goldsmith, et al) can be tried for misgovernment? Or gross incompetence? Or conspiracy to pervert the course of justice? Or fucking anything that might present the victims of the Iraqi genocide and the July 7th attrocities with something that could be considered justice. Conspiracy to cause genocide would be an ending worthy of Walt Disney. With lashings of illegal arms distribution.

Bush's imperial ambitions focus upon Cuba

A Znet article relates how the US is up to its old tricks under a Republican administration of funding "democracy efforts" (i.e. terrorism) in another state.

I recently finished reading an awesome book, called "David and Goliath: Washington's War Against Nicaragua", about the Nicaraguan revolution and counterrevolution, as funded by Reagan. This essentially involved dishing out millions upon millions of dollars in direct aid to the remnants of the ousted Somocista dictatorship as well as putting the considerable resources of the CIA at their behest. The US campaign to topple a democratically elected government (after the free and fair elections of 1984, to which the US- unlike other Western nations- sent no election monitors, but still felt informed enough to damn as grossly unfair) was characterised by appalling war crimes and tactics. Eg.

• The CIA encouraged the Contras to rape women and kill children- "a coordinated policy of the destabilisation program", according to former CIA Agent John Stockwell
• The CIA supplied the Contras with C4 explosive which was to be "packaged" in children's lunchboxes and in flashlights. The bombs were to be exploded in supermarkets, movie theatres and buses on New Year's Eve.
• The US Military conducted direct attacks on Nicaraguan territory- two US T-28 aircraft from a warship off the Nicaraguan Pacific coast attacked the town of Corinto, Nicaragua's principal commercial and petroleum port. Navy SEALS also attacked Corinto in an armoured speedboat, using rockets and machine guns they ignited a 1.6 million gallon diesel storage tank. A Contra counterrevolutionary group claimed responsibility for both attacks.
  
• When a power struggle broke out amongst their Contra vassals, the CIA hired a Libyan professional terrorist to plant a bomb at a press conference gathered at a Contra base in Northern Costa Rica which missed its target but killed eight and wounded another twenty eight.
  
• The CIA prescribed a policy of blackmail to the Contras to coerce peasants into cooperation with the counterrevolution. For example, forcing peasants to kill prisoners to seal their complicity.
• After the Nicaraguan government initiated a military draft the Contras began actively aiding draft dodgers to leave the country. They were then forced to enlist with the Contras instead. Those who refused were tortured and sometimes murdered.
  
• Women and children refugees from the conflict living in camps over the border in Honduras were frequently press-ganged into forced labour crews by the Contras. Men were forced to undergo military training by the CIA and other US agencies and were then made to fight for the Contras.
• The Contras frequently kidnapped entire Nicaraguan villages and marched them across the border to swell their human resources.
• Honduran soldiers dressed as Nicaraguans attacked Honduran border villages in a flagrant attempt to turn the Honduran population against the Sandinistas.
• The CIA frequently fabricated evidence and media stories to try and justify US intervention in the war and generate support for continued funding- so called "black propaganda".
• The US lobbied the Catholic Church to condemn the revolution and to advocate counterrevolution as a religious proscription. The Church was so intimately involved in internal resistance that one of its priests, Amado Pena, was caught on video by Nicaraguan State Security, together with a leading Contra, Pedro Ernesto Sanchez, discussing tactics to foment social disturbances resulting in civilian deaths:
  
• "Go to the market, we will be there. God wants these sons of bitches to stop messing with us. The most important thing is that there are deaths, I don't care how. We need to light the fuse here. After the first few deaths, the horror will begin."

So we see the US version of "democracy" that is being exported across the globe to this day to such places as Afghanistan, Iraq and now- it seems- Cuba.


"Low-intensity conflict is described as a strategy to counter terrorism. However, terrorism and repression are key components in its strategy of warfare against the poor. The United States terrorized civilians as part of its war effort in Vietnam. The methods of spreading terror ranged from indiscriminate bombings to targeted campaigns such as the Phoenix program through which more than 30,000 civilians thought to be sympathetic to the enemy were assassinated.

Low-intensity-conflict planners promote the use of terrorism in defense of perceived U.S. interests."

(From here; yes- I know its from a god-botherer but if you ignore the sky-pixie references the truth remains.)

Sorry, who are the terrorists again?

Bali bullshit

This Znet article details exactly how big a pile of greenwank the Bali summit turned out to be, all thanks to certain developed nations' reticence to act for the benefit of all mankind.

"As far as global climate policy is concerned, the US is clearly a rogue state. But even governments that are not subsidiaries of the oil industry tend to be staffed by people with a vested interest in the economic status quo."


BTW- I'm rather proud of the term "greenwank".

a model example of Greenwash

Anyone who is at all aware of the practicalities of various "green" technologies will find this risible.

Media Lens vs George Monbiot

Although I worship George he is not without his faults, as the Media Lens posse have elucidated.

The Media Lens boys extensively detail sources who have reported that Iraqis are manufacturing their own IED devices, known as Explosively Formed Penetrators, or EFPs. The US claims that these are, in fact, being supplied by the Iranians is cast as the nonsense that it is (they, actually had substantial evidence that the technology was transferred from Hezbollah, NOT Iranian sources). The British Army knows that Shia militias are making their own and other iraqi machine shops have also been doing so for years. George didn't know this, apparently.

The closing paragraphs are particularly powerful:

"And so, while the media continue to capitalise on any excuse to promote a “clash of civilisations” between the West and “militant Islam”, it remains a remarkable fact that the ‘threats’ faced are mostly invented. Much of the actual violence against the West has been, and will continue to be, in retaliation for grave Western crimes in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine and elsewhere consuming literally millions of lives.

The simplest way for the West to bring its “war on terror” to a successful conclusion would be for it to stop waging war and to renounce terrorism."

American Exceptionalism

This was on youtube. Its not a joke, its actually part of this guy's campaign broadcast. Its fucking scary the way he claims America is the greatest nation in history over and over again.





I often wonder how these people justify their belief that they are truly better than you or I mere non-Americans. This really is the most abhorrent form of demagoguery: Appealing to the idiot conviction of a minority of yeehas in the bible belt who are convinced they have been chosen by the spirit of some bloke who died 2000 years to rule the world as they see fit. The worrying thing isn't that this minority exist, its the fact that far more cynical and manipulative characters are prepared to pay lip service to this creed for the simple benefits of the mass support it will garner them at the ballot box from those same rednecks.

tax the products and services of nations refusing to reduce climate emissions

Why should this not be done? I can't think of a reason why those countries which refuse to commit to reduce their carbon emissions shouldn't be effectively taxed on any and all products and services they trade internationally. The revenue would be used to reduce emissions unilaterally by the climate-change-preventing nations. I know there are trade barriers to such things and the WTO will have an apoplectic fit at the prospect but then fuck them.

I thought this was such a great idea that I emailed Caroline Lucas to share it with her. She rules. Literally, she does! She's an MEP!

A Tory government would be worse than hell on earth

Johann has the goods. In agreement with him I would like to observe that the current government are a bunch of mincing cockweasels but the tories, oh god! Thousands of people will die if they are voted in. That is all you have to remember.

US intelligence agencies confess: "Iran is not a nuclear threat"

Its funny, you know, because its the IAEA have been saying this for years but the US refused to acknowledge it and even concocted outright lies (surprise! surprise!) to create antipathy towards Iran. It looks like they've finally run out of ideas for scare stories.

the UK rail service sucks big, floppy donkey dicks

So, I have to catch a train every day to Exeter and back. Its an arse. I hate it. I would move to Exeter for the convenience, let alone for my eco-warrior credentials. However, I have 9 months left of my PhD, my wife and I have a house in Plymouth and there simply isn't any point when there's little or no guarantee I'll have a job there in 9 months time.

So I get the train. Every day. For an hour each way. Plus a 10 minute walk Exeter-side and a at least 15 minutes (more like 45 out of rush hour) on the bus the other- or 15 minutes if my lovely wife comes and gets me.

So, do you get the impression that I hate travelling? Well you're wrong. I fucking LOATHE IT!!!!!

Put it this way, when I was at uni (for ~ 7 years), I never lived more than 7 minutes walk from campus. Several years consecutively I lived less than 60 seconds jog from the concrete of the univeristy campus. I believe in living in the same neighbourhood as your job. I really do!

So. I hate travelling. Which is why, after I ran for the train from Exeter tonight- after checking the departure time via National Rail Enquiries as I normally do and judging that I had a ~90 second window on the 11 minute walk to Exeter St Davids, as I normally do- I was fucking irate to watch the guard blow the 2nd whistle as I tripled-stepped the stairs to the platform. The 1st whistle shuts the doors, the 2nd is the departure signal. What happened? My system has been flawless for the last 2 months, so why did it fail me this evening?

As would be expected from these pages, I was keen to register my displeasure. I ranted at the guard. I even swore in his presence. (He pointed out that he was not happy with people swearing in front of him. I pointed out that I was fine with it). I went to the station manager and asked why the train had left early ( the train departed bang on 18:45- the time that was given on the departure boards and the time that was given on the NRE real time website. He couldn't understand my frustration and tried to argue that the train had left on time so I demanded an address to write to, ignored his protestations and stormed out. I went to the pub and drank beer until the next train arrived 50 minutes later.

My wife observed when she picked a slightly drunk, tired me up from Plymouth train station some time later that the "expected" times that are given on the departure board are the "expected" departure times, just as the "expected" times on the arrivals board are the "expected" arrival times. I thought this was totally whack! Why have two different points of reference? I thought that most people would solely be interested in the arrival times of the trains. Why would you want to know the departure time of the train you're rushing to get when aiming to get there for the arrival time gives you a comfortable 2 minute window? More to the point, why confuse the shit out of poor dumbasses like me by supplying more than one point of reference?!?! AAAAAAAARARARARARARGAGAGRARAHGARHGRHGGHHGGHGHHG!!

I can't believe I have lived my life and rarely, if ever missed a train, without distinguishing between these two. I'm boring you now, I know. (In fact, if you're still reading this- fuck off and do something more productive you fuckwit mincer! There are people starving and dying out there!)

Monbiot: Combatting climate change requires completely decarbonising the economy

George rules.

US plays down Iranian nuclear threat

Could the voices of sanity have prevailed in Washington? Possibly.

I'm not gonna throw my hands in the air and pray to the twin gods of beer and masturbation just yet, though. Remember that Bush and Cheney are in the White House for a while yet.

Fuckers.