Panglossian Notes

The Bush - Blair connection!

So the political corpses of the current Bush and Blair administration and government respectively haven't really become completely stiff as yet but people are starting to pick at the still warm cadavers.

Bush is likely too dozy to know he is dead but for Blair, who must know he is lifeless and now just a sputtering fool, the carving up of his wrecked political carcass by minions must be bitter.

To have "Kendall Myers, a senior State Department analyst, disclose[d] that for all Britain’s attempts to influence US policy in recent years [say] “we typically ignore them and take no notice ..." has to be like Captain Erskine after the battle of Kilcullen. He survived the battle with a broken leg caused by his horse falling on him but an old Irish woman scavenging the battlefield stabbed him to death with a rusty knife. Myers is the Irish woman, Blair the broken leg captain who is about to escape alive when one of those people he may have always disdained sticks it in and its rusty to boot.

I think, I said awhile ago that Blair has squandered his last terms in office and this is a shame. Isn't this what a classic greek tragedy is:

"... person whose downfall is brought about by either a character flaw or a conflict with some higher power such as the law, the gods, fate, or society."

Well I'm not going to shed many tears, Blair can head off to his Murdoch rewards with his dimwitted wife.

Technorati Tags: Politicians

Skiing - World Cup Linked to Global Warming - What's the Problem?

I think we are well on the way towards a new type of world because of our addiction to spewing carbon into the atmosphere so it is interesting to read stories such as the one in this mornings Toronto Star by Randy Starkman.

In a sense they are anecdotal confirmations of the scientific evidence disputed by the "status quo" crowd.

I suspect these type of everyday confirmations will grow over time. A possible downside is that we will become use to them. In effect we may enter a "slow boil phenomenon". This is a situation which mimics the unsuspecting well-known frog that is popped into the room temperature pot of water and gradually heated to 100º celsius.

For the ski buffs there is, of course, already an alternative which will likely improve over time.

Technorati Tags: Canada, Global Warming, Toronto Star

PRODUCT Recall: Yankee-Style Democracy

From the The Wry Side by way of The Australian. It says it all, I think:

The United States of America Incorporated (also trading as Adore Us or Feel Our Wrath Pty Ltd) wishes to inform customers that a quality problem is affecting certain batches of our Yankee-Style democracy product.

This is an isolated issue relevant only to the following brands:
* Yee-Ha Yankee-Style Democracy (issued in Afghanistan from October 2001); and

* Sucked In Saddam Yankee-Style Democracy (issued in Iraq from March 2003).

USA Inc is conducting a voluntary recall of both these products as a safety measure due to the identification of several small problems by our company's quality control team.

continue reading

Technorati Tags: Afganistan, Iraq, Politicians, Politics, Stupidity

Insurance and flood planes - Global Warming

If the ruling by Judge Stanwood R. Duval Jr. of the Federal District Court in New Orleans holds up on appeal, I wouldn't want to be living on a flood plane anywhere.

As reported in the New York Times, Insurance companies have paid out about $41 billion US to date for the wind and rain damage done by Katrina but "[m]uch of the destruction in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in August 2005 was a result of levee failures" - i.e. man-made.

Come to think of it, it doesn't really matter if the New Orleans insurees' prevail in their case against insurance companies or not.

If you are near an ocean, and live on a flood plane, or close to a flood plane, or on land that could be effected by global warming or climate change, good luck in the future either getting insurance coverage or keeping it.

I wonder how our government's will deal with this potential mess? I wonder when, or if, the real estate on or close to flood planes will start to be discounted. I guess when, or if, this starts to register everyone, even if they are a Harper Conservative, will know that its down hill from then on.

Could be fun.

Technorati Tags: Chaos, Global Warming, New York Times

NATO blather including Afghanistan

So this time tomorrow the great NATO meeting should be over and maybe there will be some consistent or coherent information about what this "cold war" anachronism is about. The only real purpose for the organization was defense against the last few decades' "evil ones" the Russians and the Warsaw Block.

Puff that disappeared in 1989 and NATO has been floundering around for what now, approximately 17 years, looking for a purpose which means, of course, looking for a new enemy.

The US thinks they have found the new enemy for the 21st century. It's those terrorist, again. No one has asked whether a conventional military organization/alliance like NATO even if it morphed into a 4th generation military disguise is a particularly sensible structure to deal with terrorism.

In the process of floundering the organization has grown from 14 countries in 1952, when it had a definite purpose, to 26 countries, now that it doesn't, and there is a list of former Soviet block countries gleefully lining up for membership. The organization has out lived its real usefulness for most of the original members, the US excepted, and although it maybe has a purpose for the new members, they seem schizophrenic as to just what that might be: closer ties with their European neighbours or with the US.

One idea that has been thrown around as a possible purpose for NATO is as a tool for forming a "global partnership" with the militaries in other countries outside the organization. But to some this just looks like a: "another name for "coalitions of the willing," in which the United States would pick and choose its allies, whether they are NATO members or not, depending on the mission." In other words NATO becomes nothing more than a mercenary pool for US world fiascos.

The BBC is reporting that "Nato leaders at a summit in Latvia have agreed to relax restrictions on how their troops are used in Afghanistan." But I'm taking that one with a large grain of salt because as reported elsewhere and further on in the BBC story: "France, Germany, Italy and Spain that their troops in Afghanistan could be sent to any part of the country if the circumstances demanded it." Its the last phrase: "if the circumstances demanded it" that is the key to whether anything has actually changed.

Oh well our PM Harper, at least, got to see another part of the world on the taxpayers dime and will likely fly home signally a big success. We'll see. The whole mess in Afghanistan seems more and more disjointed but maybe now NATO has provided some further contingent commitments whomever actually runs things over there will get a plan.

But when you read stuff like this

The United States has persuaded Afghanistan to spray herbicide on poppy fields in an effort to slow the country's opium boom, according to a senior Western diplomat.

A security review will be conducted before the plan goes ahead, the diplomat said. But already rumours of chemical eradication are spreading in southern Afghanistan, where many say it would spark a revolt among farmers and put Canadian soldiers at risk.

Afghanistan has not previously tried chemical spraying, as President Hamid Karzai expressed deep misgivings about the effects of herbicides on villagers and legitimate crops.

But U.S. politicians are now encouraging a more aggressive drug policy in Afghanistan, after estimates show this year's opium crop was 59 per cent bigger than the previous year's harvest.

"The assumption here is that this is being pushed by Congress," the Western diplomat in Kabul said. "I suspect the U.S. embassy here is not that excited. They know the drawbacks to eradication in general and spraying in particular."

you really wonder whether the US just wants to create another Iraq in Afghanistan, or maybe they just can't help it.

Technorati Tags: Afganistan, Globe and Mail, NATO

The Scare America Agency (SAA)

Just when it might have seemed that the nuts were potentially going to have to really justify themselves, hey maybe even have to provide some real proof so that America can collectively relax its rear facing sphincter, they discover more scary stuff to keep them down there puckered.

A senior American intelligence official said Monday that the Iranian-backed group Hezbollah had been training members of the Mahdi Army, the Iraqi Shiite militia led by Moktada al-Sadr.

The official said that 1,000 to 2,000 fighters from the Mahdi Army and other Shiite militias had been trained by Hezbollah in Lebanon. A small number of Hezbollah operatives have also visited Iraq to help with training, the official said.

Iran has facilitated the link between Hezbollah and the Shiite militias in Iraq, the official said. Syrian officials have also cooperated, though there is debate about whether it has the blessing of the senior leaders in Syria.

The intelligence official spoke on condition of anonymity under rules set by his agency, and discussed Iran’s role in response to questions from a reporter.

New York Times
November 27, 2006

The lame-duck incompetent and laughable US administration must be really really desperate to find some way not to talk to Iran or Syria, or anyone else, for that matter, in the ME that really counts. Better to endlessly send befuddled military characters to their wasted deaths for a failed policy, I guess.

The well trained and well heeled sycophant clowns at the CIA and Defense Intelligence Agency are a laugh a minute, so on a grey day it's good to have a bit of mirth.

The theatrical team of Gen. Michael V. Hayden director of the C.I.A., and Gen. Michael D. Maples, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, showed up dressed to the nines and with the appropriate grim faces on for one of their last song and dance performances in front of the still sympathetic US Senate Armed Services Committee yesterday.

The generals sang their most loved rendition of "Badies Are Everywhere" originally composed for that old favourite clown performer Colin Powell.

Badies are everywhere,
they are, they are.
They help each other
they do, they do.
They hate freedom,
we know, we know.
They are evil,
for sure, for sure.
Birdies told us
you know, you know.

(copyright © 2006 Uniforms Make the Man Company Ltd.)

Technorati Tags: Hezballah, Iraq, Military, New York Times, Pinheads, Stupidity

Oh US Thanksgiving - what's to say, eh?

Boy, I know that the US shopping season gets made or broken starting tomorrow - just a small indication of madness. A slightly bigger indication of madness could be Kirk Douglas with a hair net? Gads! I like Kirk. Where the hell is Michael, sunning in Bermuda? Go home and save your Da!

But up here we've had the Calgary boy wonder just back from an embarrassing international trip, now deciding that Quebec is a NATION, must be some votes for the "whose-ass-do I-kiss-next" Calgarian in this statement, eh.

I'm now actively encouraging my children to get out of this stupid country - do your graduate work over there but don't come back here. Of course they pay little attention to me ranting, yet.

I don't like Harper and what he stands for, in fact I despise him. He is the type of weasel that gives politicians a bad name.

Lots of people rightly or wrongly think politicians are bad, confusers, schmucks, etc. etc. etc..

And I'll admit I do get mad at almost everyone of them no matter which side of the House they sit on at times.

But, fundamentally I think, I know what democracy is about beside the modern concept of a vote for all at some age. It's about cooperative decision making which is anathema in a time focused on the individual, I know, but it needs people usually delegated by voters to carry out and they are politicians.

They are people we sent to compromise. This has been a key element in any well functioning past democracy, but these people now are considered sell-outs or worse. Too bad for me, I guess, because that's what I think a functioning democracy is all about - compromising.

But I hate and despise what I think is a Harper type. I now actually think he is dangerous. A potentially sick Canadian megalomaniac. There is no potential for compromise in his character which means to me there is no basic democratic element in him. He is simply interested in power. Power to change my country into some sick crazed place where 80 year old stroke victims put on hair nets and perform as clowns during national feasts.

Technorati Tags: Canada, Politicians

Prime Minister Harper - the Ass going out the door.

Does Harper have a socialization problem?

The Ottawa MSM sees his so-called communications strategy as having an element of intelligence behind it. But maybe everyone has it wrong. Harper demonstrated his "style" if you can call it that during the APEC meeting just concluded.

As Jennifer Ditchburn, of CP, reported from the APEC, conference Harper's communications plan is usually to speak only to Canada's "dogpatch news" media but this poses a problem when he is off chit-chatting with foreigners, in Canada's name. In these situations he hides and has PMO staff send out vague e-mails about what he is or isn't doing, supposedly for us, this time in his "private" chit-chats with Pacific rim leaders. He also seems to completely forget about us and real problems at home while he is dressing up in pretty cassocks (see the lovely picture below):

"Millions in British Columbia were forced to boil their water after storms pounded the province. But Canada’s leader remained silent on the issue until his third day on the ground in Hanoi."

Jennifer Ditchburn
Canadian Press
November 19, 2006

But maybe everyone has it wrong. Maybe there is no strategy. Maybe the PMO police are really and truly care givers.

Could it be that he simply has a problem? Could it be that he hasn't been properly socialized when he was growing up. Could he, more unfortunately, have the controversial personality disorder, avoidance.

If Harper has not been properly socialized than he could be a natural inept. Or, if you prefer another descriptor for his behavior, you can choose from a list of alternative adjectives provided below:

incompetent, unskillful, unskilled, inexpert, amateurish; clumsy, awkward, maladroit, bungling, blundering; unproductive, unsuccessful, ineffectual, not up to scratch; informal ham-handed, ham-fisted, butterfingered, klutzy, all thumbs.

As a natural inept, he would appear clumsy and want to avoid appearing in front of the MSM, where lack of control over reporters would provide a magnified picture of his awkwardness. His maladroit behavior would not do him much good politically, I would think, thus hide and evade would be the way to handle.

If Harper has, on the other hand, patterns of behavior that cause problems with his relationships, i.e. a personality disorder, then you can understand my reference to PMO officials as care givers, if you get my meaning. What do you do with a public figure that shows symptoms of avoiding others if they think they will be rejected? You would hide and evade.

So, the bottom line is that shortly the most recognized part of Harper's anatomy will be his ass, and not his face, as he scurries out a back door to evade any rejection from the MSM because of his klutzy ham-fisted comportment.

And by the looks of the tummy under the pretty cassock, in the picture above, that ass will be full frame.

Technorati Tags: Canada, CP, Foreign Affairs, Politics

Britain, the home country, and Israel certified insane!

In response to articles in the MSM, the UN has met and some delegates say Israel may be certified as an insane country. However, the General Assembly has reiterated that the Israel that was established in 1949 and has struggled against significant and at time sinister forces does have the right to exist as a nation but that it has lapsed into a period of difficulty which can only be described as national insanity. The last time this happened to a country started before the establishment of the UN, in 1933, and led --------- [censored].

Individual General Assembly members laughed when reporters questioned them about Israel indicating it was simply ridiculous to consider a modern multi-culture world without it and that the rhetoric of some individual people in Iran and the official Hamas stance was seen for what it was, in the case of people in Iran simple none sense and in the case of Hamas a strategic and differentiating local political stance.

When pressed members indicated that it was unfortunate that Israel had lost any sense of maturity as a nation and now seemed bent on moral self-destruction. Some members indicated that from their personal points of view Israel had now taken over the position of schmuck nation from the US.

Now back to looking at the world from the perspective of the only sane people in it - political cartoonists. When everything looks really really bad, meaning, for me, that the Harper and his buds in the US, Australia and god forbid the UK look to be taking over rational policy making in the western world I turn to cartoonists and sorry to say not Canadian ones most of whom seem just whipped to me. I go to Mr. Fish (USA) and over to what some of my grandparents called the home country. So here are a few, in case you might have missed them:

Oops the above is a mistake. It's not an official political cartoon. It's the real Steve before the Canadian taxpayer was responsible for hiring official dressers to make him reasonably presentable in public. I apologize to any one eating. Though he is sort of ***** in a Calgary sort of way, do you think. I wished he'd have at least got the hat right, small expectations, eh. Now as the PM he can officially hide from the cameras.

The real cartoons all from The Guardian below

Technorati Tags: Pinheads, Shmucks

Laura Bush and Don Rumfeld by Mr. Fish

Mr. Fish has 2 priceless political cartoons that likely say it all for a late Friday night:

Technorati Tags: Iraq