Unfunny Joke



Nowhere to run

After embarking on what has been described as the most foolish war in over 2,000 years, Brian Whitaker asks if there is any way out of Iraq for President Bush

Al Jazeera bombing memo

Al-Jazeera consults lawyers over Bush memo

Bush has told a very unfunny joke about wanting to bomb Al Jazeera, now I know the Bush Junta are having difficulties in Iraq but lashing out at a news channel won't help them.

the Neocons drone on about free speech yet they want to bomb Al Jazeera just because they don't dance to the Bush Junta's tune.

In this ammoral illegal war dissent is a crime, raising an objection makes you 'pro terrorist' or 'un-patriotic', the Neocons yet again betry their Trotskyite past with their stifling of different opinions, those who stand in the way of their 'world revolution' are theatened and attacked. They cling onto their ideology and live in a fantasy world all the while denying reality that Iraq is a mess and a vortex of instability.

Be sure to check out Don't Bomb Us - A blog by Al Jazeera Staffers

"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act." - George Orwell

Morning News Round up

Two Britons reported killed in Iraq

· Gun attack on Shia pilgrims
· British peace campaigner kidnapped

Azerbaijan condemned for crackdown

· Protesters baton-charged by riot police in Baku
· Use of force 'unjust and unprovoked', says US

68 dead, 79 trapped in China coal mine blast: state press

Sense of failure: the scale of teenage self-harm

· Study shows one in five girls has wounded herself
· 'Must-have' culture brings feelings of inadequacy

14-year-olds selling drugs, report claims

Activists sabotage Gaza vote

Call to scrap 'retire at 60' deal

Marines under fire for ritual beatings film

Friday George and Heidi Blogging

Book Review - Isabella: The She-wolf of France, Queen of England by Alison Weir



This is an extremly well written and interesting book about one of the most misunderstood Queens of England, Isabella of France daughter of King Philip IV of France and wife of King Edward II of England.

It shows how a marriage can break down and its consquences.

King Edward II proved a weak ruler, not interested in governing and content to spend his time diggin ditches or watching plays. He ignored his wife and spent an unhealthy amount of time with his favouries, first Piers Gaveston and later on Hugh the younger Despenser who treated Isabella with direspect and undermined her position at court.

This proved too much for Isabella so she fled to France and became a focus point for nobles who had been treated badly by Edward II and his grasping vicious favourite Hugh the younger Despenser. It was at a funeral that Isabella met the love of her life Roger de Mortimer a powerful Marcher lord. When she had worn the good will in France out she moved to the lands of William III, Count of Hainaut where she and Robert planned their invasion and liberation of England from a weak tyranical regime.

To cut a long story short Edward II was deposed, presumed murdered and his son was made King instead. Isabella and Robert acted as unoffical regents, their popularity evapourated overnight after a peace treaty with Scotland and King Edward III tired of his mothers tutelage , so he had her retired and Robert Mortimer executed for treason.

The book successfully argues that Isabella has had her character assasinated because she was a woman who stood up to the social norms of the time and her adulterous relationship with Robert Mortimer has meant she has suffered negative press.

She was a liberator and stood up for herself, escaped from a broken marriage, was skilled in statecraft, these qualities really shine in Alison Weir's book.

If you want to read a different perspective on Isabella then I recommend this biography.

Saturday Seity Blogging

Friday Heidi and George Blogging

International outcry greets allegations of police abuse

· Ministers launch inquiry after detainees found
· Shia paramilitaries now control force, say Sunnis

Iraq minister rejects torture claims

I thought Iraq was a democracy now?

I sometimes wonder if the Neocons realise what they have created.

All these torture stories seem to blend into one.

Its like every week a new atrocity erupts.

I remain disgusted with the Americans using white phosphorous in Fallujha.

Makes me sad that Britain got invovled in this ammoral illegal war.

Friday Heidi and George Blogging

Relief

Blair defeated on 90 days

· 291 vote for 90-day amendment; 322 against
· 49 Labour MPs rebel
· Commons backs 28-day detention by 323-290
· Blair: I won't resign

I for one am breathing a sigh of relief that common sense has prevailed.

Stop the Creation of a Police State

Point-by-point: Terror debate

PM urges 'responsibility' on terror bill

Its cruel locking someone up for 90 days without telling them what they are charged with who knows what holding an innocent person for 90 days will do to that person's mental well being, it smacks of internment and will only cause a backlash. It will also damage relations with the Muslim community in Britain.

I think these people who support his rotten bill do not know what the word suspect means.

suspect
v [sə spékt] (3rd person present singular suspects, present participle suspecting, past suspected, past participle suspected)
1. vt believe somebody is guilty: to believe that somebody may have committed a crime or wrongdoing without having any proof
2. vt doubt something: to doubt the truth or validity of something
3. vt believe something to be so: to think that something is probable or likely
4. vti have suspicions: to be suspicious about something

[14th century. From Latin suspect- , the past participle stem of suspicere , literally ‘to look up at’, from specere (see spectacle).]

Innocent until proven guilty means nothing to Blair and Nu Lab.

Enough I say, stop the continual chipping away of our human rights and liberty!

Police State

Met chief urges MPs to back terror bill

I am appalled with the recent anti terror legislation.

Locking up a person for 90 days without telling them what they are charged with is barbaric.

I'd rather live in a state with a little danger and freedom rather than some safe opressive big brother state.

The Government already has enough laws to deal with the current terror crisis, why do we need new laws? it goes against common sense and is open to abuse.

Its not suprising considering Tony Blair and Nu Lab is made up of ex-Trots, ex-stalinists and hard-left leninist types who dislike libery and wish to overt control over our lives.

Falluja Massacre

A documentary you should check out about Fallujah

via Lenin's Tomb

US 'used' chemical weapon in Falluja

US denies using white phosphorus on Iraqi civilians

It was horrific what happened in Fallujah, the fact the US used white phosphorous on beside insurgents, women and children, whose skin is burned away, it is disgusting and wrong.

The Bush Junta has proven criminal and repungenet.

I remain amazed that people still justify this war!

Tony Blair should be ashamed he supports a sociopath like Bush in this rotten adventure.

French Riots

State of emergency declared in France

French Fatwa Prohibits Rioting, Urges Calm

'We hate France and France hates us'

· Rioters vent anger at government and police
· Curfews imposed under law used in Algerian war

The fact the traditional muslim leadership can play little role in holding back the rioters prove it has nothing to do with religion and everything to do with the rage of young working-class members of minority communities.

good analysis on the riots in France

France's Autumn of Discontent.

'L'Intifada Française' - Between Ramallah '00 and Paris '68

Intifada

Bush Unwelcome Wherever He Goes

The day George Bush came face to face with Latin America's revolt

Thanks to a powerful indigenous movement from Colombia to Bolivia, US free-trade policies are in tatters

by Naomi Klein

Latin America is telling Bush to Go Home.

Even in America he grows more unpopular by the day

He must be one of the most loathed Presidents ever abroad, the Bush Junta squandered all the good will they enjoyed after the tragedy of 9/11.

Latin America I suspect is tired of the evangelicals of the Neoliberalism movement teling them how to run their country, the preachers of the Neoliberal credos are so blinded by their own arrogance they cannot even consider alternatives.

Friday Heidi and George Blogging

Democrats Force Senate Into Iraq Meeting

Well its about time!

The republicans have been caught off guard, they dislike unpredictabiliy and sponteaous actions.

Enough is enough, time to get to the bottom of the Neocons lies which led us into the ill fated misadventure in Iraq.

Republicans can dish it out but they can't take it themseleves.

It has been a very bad week for the Bush Junta. The indictments of White House aid Lewis "Scooter" Libby and the Conservative right infighting over whether Harriet Miers was right wing enough for their support.

The edifice of the grand neoconservative experiment is crumbling.