Palestinian Poetry Blogging

I Talk Too Much

I talk too much about the slightest nuances between women and trees
about the earth's enchantment, about a country with no passport stamp
I ask: Is it true good ladies and gentlemen, that the earth of Man is for all human beings
as you say? In that case, where is my little cottage, and where am I?
The conference audiences applaud me for three minutes
three minutes of freedom and recognition
The conference approves our right of return
like all chickens and horses, to a dream made of stone.
I shake hands with them, one by one. I bow to them. Then I contiue my journey to another country and talk about the differences between a mirage and the rain
I ask: Is it true good ladies and gentlemen, that the earth of Man is for all human beings?

from Fewer Roses (1986) by Mahamoud Darwish

Translated by Munir Akash and Carolyn Forché

Immigration

EU approves Bulgaria and Romania

The European Commission has announced that Romania and Bulgaria will be admitted to the EU in January 2007, but under strict conditions.

Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said both countries had made enough progress to join the union.

But they will be checked for progress in curbing organised crime and corruption, and ensuring food safety and the proper use of EU funds.

It always amazes me that British people bitch about 'immigrants are taking our jobs' and 'there is a lack of jobs for Brits', yet they fail to realise that there are plent of jobs out there which Brits don't want to do, like picking vegetables, cleaning hotels, barwork and so on, if they are so concerned about this, then perhaps the should go take up take these jobs instead of bitching and moaning about it.

What must be even rmore frustrating for immigrant bashers like the Daily Express and the Daily Mail is that the Romanians and Bulgarians are fair skinned and so cannot be singled out like those with brown skin.

Friday Cat Blogging On A Tuesday

I go back to Swansea tomorrow and won't have internet access for at least a couple of days so I thought I would do my usual Friday Cat Blogging today.

so enjoy


Heidi and George snuggling up

Tuesday Music Video Blogging

Kasabian - Empire

Brown, Blair, Labour Conference, Anti-war protests

Union banners on the march (Pic: Guy Smallman)

Cherie Blair denies calling Brown a liar, but damage is done

The fragile truce between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown was shattered when Cherie Blair appeared to brand the Chancellor a liar.

A carefully crafted speech by Mr Brown to the Labour conference, designed to draw a line under recent tensions between him and the Prime Minister, was overshadowed by Mrs Blair's attack as she watched the speech on a television monitor just outside the main hall.

Carolin Lotter, a TV producer with the American news agency Bloomberg, said she heard the Prime Minister's wife say "Well, that's a lie" after Mr Brown told delegates: "It has been a privilege for me to work with and for the most successful ever Labour leader and Prime Minister."

Downing Street dismissed the story as "totally untrue" while Mrs Blair told reporters: "Honestly, guys, I hate to spoil your story, but I didn't say it and I don't believe it either."

Blair and Brown seem to think the British public is stupid and can be fooled that they are 'best friends', everyone else knows they dislike each other yet they seem to be doing their very best to cover it up.

While NuLab patted each other on the back, outside protests were going on:

Mancs Against Tanks: 50,000 march against New Labour.

Manchester 'Time to Go' Demo - Reports and Photos *UPDATED*

More than 50,000 protesters tell Blair it's Time to Go.

Trade Unions Oppose Blair's Wars - Time to Go speeches

Reports and video of Manchester Time to Go demonstration, 23 September 2006

Mishka - My grandparent's elderly cat

Mishka - My grandparent's elderly cat
Originally uploaded by moonbootica.

Saturday Video Cat Blogging


Heidi and George on drugs

Arse Saving

Musharraf tight-lipped over US threat claims

Pakistan's president today said a book deal prevented him from commenting on claims he made that the United States government threatened to bomb his country "back to the stone age" unless it joined the fight against Al-Qaida.

General Pervez Musharraf had told CBS television that Richard Armitage, assistant secretary of state, made the threat, "Be prepared to be bombed. Be prepared to go back to the stone age", in conversations with Pakistan's intelligence director after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

But at a joint press conference with the US President, George Bush, at the White House today, the Pakistani leader ignored the issue - to the laughter of the press corps - by saying a book deal prevented him from speaking on certain matters.

"I am launching my book on the 25th and I am honour bound to Simon and Schuster not to comment on the book before that date", he said.

Its pretty ironic that the Bush Junta reguards Pakistan as an 'ally' on the 'war on terror' when the country is run by a military dictator and is seriously unstable in the border regions with Afghanistant, yet at the same time the Bush Junta talks about 'spreading and supporting democracy'. Pakistan is probaly also one of the main source of support for the Taliban and Al Qaeada. By playing the 'loyal ally', Musharraf is covering his arse, because otherwise his country would be invaded by the USA.

The So Called 'War on Terror'

Three years on, Guantánamo detainee, 78, goes home

Hero's welcome for ex-Mujahideen commander with failing eyesight and a walking frame

It's hard to picture Haji Nasrat Khan as an international terrorist. For a start, the grey-bearded Afghan can barely walk, shuffling along on a three-wheeled walking frame. His sight is terrible - he squints through milky eyes that sometimes roll towards the heavens - while his helpers have to shout to make themselves heard. And as for his age - nobody knows for sure, not even Nasrat himself. "I think I am 78, or maybe 79," he ventures uncertainly, pausing over a cup of green tea.

Yet for three and a half years the US government deemed this elderly, infirm man an "enemy combatant", so dangerous to America's security that he was imprisoned at Guantánamo Bay.

Arrested in early 2003, Nasrat - or "detainee 1009" as he was officially known - always insisted he was innocent. But recently his hopes started to slide and he feared dying far from his home in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan.

Perhaps the 'War on Terror' should be renamed 'The War on the Elderly', this just makes me so angry and shows how stupid the Bush Junta are when it comes to dealing with terrorism and the perversion that is Guantanamo Bay and the fact they are using torture and ignoring every intertional law there is.

Friday Lebanese Belly Dancing - Alisar

Captalist Wars



RAF utterly useless, major claims

Emails written by a British Army major serving in Afghanistan condemn the RAF as "utterly, utterly useless".

They also indicate that more helicopters and manpower are "desperately" needed for the operation to be successful.

The three emails, obtained by Sky News, were penned by an unnamed officer based with 3 Para in the troubled southern province of Helmand.

The major refers to the death of his colleague Corporal Bryan Budd in the Sangin area last month, and describes the soldiers' efforts to save him during an intense fire-fight. They also outline concerns for two junior colleagues who "look very frightened and slow to react".

"There is a fine line between giving them time to accept what has happened and adjust, and gripping them hard and forcing them to focus," the officer adds.

Just as Iraq has become a major focus political issue in America, Afghanistan has become ours.

Captalist wars are keeping us divided from each other and in constant servitude. While the current status quo remains in power nothing will improve or change.

Friday Cat Blogging


Heidi in a baby pose


George in his favourite place

Bush and his ugly baby

Heidi and George TV





Heidi and George be ships cats arrgh me hearties!

Happy Talk Like A Pirate Day!!!!!

My pirate name is:

Bloody Bess Flint

Every pirate lives for something different. For some, it's the open sea. For others (the masochists), it's the food. For you, it's definitely the fighting. Like the rock flint, you're hard and sharp. But, also like flint, you're easily chipped, and sparky. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from piratequiz.com.
part of the fidius.org network

Palestinian Poetry Blogging



We Went To Aden

We went to Aden ahead of our dreams. The moon was shining
on the wings of a crow. We gazed at the sea.
For whom does the sea toll these bells? To let us hear our own rhythms?

We went to Aden in advance of our history. The Yemen was mourning
Imru'al-Qays, erasing images and chewing the qat leaves.
Didn't you realize, friend, that we were following the Caesar of our time?

We went to the poverty-stricken paradise of the fakirs so as to open windows
in the rocks.
We are besieged by tribes, friend, stricken by misfortunes.
Yet we didn't trade the bread of the trees for the enemy's loaf.

Aren't we still entitled to believe in our dreams and to doubt this homeland?

from Fewer Roses (1986) by Mahamoud Darwish

Translated by Munir Akash and Carolyn Forché

Sunday Opera

Renée Fleming - Song to the Moon from Antonín Dvořák's Rusalka

Iraq

Many dead in northern Iraq blasts

At least 23 people have been killed and 65 injured in a series of bombings in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk.

In the deadliest attack, a suicide bomber blew up a truck killing 18 people close to offices of Kurdish political parties and a police station.

Hours later, a joint US-Iraqi security patrol was targeted in an attack which left three civilians dead.

Two further roadside bomb attacks were reported, as well as a suicide car bomb attack at an Iraqi army checkpoint.

At least one person was killed in another blast that targeted the house of a local tribal leader.

In Baghdad, officials said 24 bodies were found. Most of the victims had been shot dead in apparent sectarian attacks.

Several of the corpses showed signs of torture, officials said. About 180 bodies have been found in the city in the last five days.

So which corner have we turned now? Iraq is not getting any better, in fact its getting even worse and civil war is already taking place.

The Bush Junta and their lackey Blair just cannot admit that anything is wrong and prefer to live in a delusional bubble that Iraq is some sort of 'democracy'.

Meanwhile the Pope puts his foot in his mouth and dregs up a 14th century Byzantine emperor (Manuel II Palaiologos) to make a inflamatory remark, which is only going to cause offence in these sensative times, I leave it to the ever brilliant Billmon to spell it out:

I hope the pope has learned at least a small lesson from this debacle, which is that he simply doesn't have the intellect, the stature or -- most important -- the moral authority of his precedessor to pontificate on such matters. If I were Benedict, I'd concentrate on doing what he clearly is equipped to do best, which is keeping the chair warm for his hopefully more able and less reactionary successor.

More Views

If a Pope shits in the woods, and there's no one around to hear it...

A Very Large and Very Dark Pot Calls The Kettle Black

The RNC Branch Office on the Tigris

The American Military's Cult of Cruelty by Robert Fisk

Friday Belly Dancing Blogging

Friday Cat Blogging


Heidi resting on my bed


George in his favourite place

Extra Ballet Blogging


This is one of my favourite versions of Giselle, by the Mariinsky Ballet (formerly Kirov).

With Galina Mezentseva as Giselle and Konstantin Zaklinsky as Albrecht.

Pope Ratzi

Pope criticised over Islam remarks

Muslim scholars and religious leaders in Kuwait, Turkey and Pakistan have criticised Pope Benedict XVI for his remarks critical of Islam and urged him to play a positive role in bringing Islam and Christianity closer.

Ali Bardakoglu, head of the state-run religious affairs directorate in Turkey, said on Thursday that Pope Benedict XVI as "full of enmity and grudge" against Islam. He opposed the pontiff's planned visit to Turkey in November.

Bardakoglu also demanded that the pope immediately retract and issue an apology for his remarks about Islam and his criticism of the concept of Holy War.

The pontiff's remarks "reflect the hatred in his heart. It is a statement full of enmity and grudge", Bardakoglu told the NTV news channel on Thursday.

Someone should tell Ratzi the Nazi the Crusades ended long ago, that he is not Pope Urban II and that Christendom did not come out of it very well.

Opera Blogging

Thomas Allen and Andrea Rost perform the steamy 'La ci darem la mano' from Act I of Mozart's Don Giovanni.



Don Giovanni is one of my favourite operas.

Palestinian Poetry Blogging


We Have the Right to Love Autumn

And we too, have the right to love the last days of Autumn and ask:
Is there room in the field for a new autumn, so we may lie down like coals?
An autumn that blights its leaves with gold.
If only there were leaves on a fig tree, or even neglected meadow plants
that we may observe the season change!
If only we never said goodbye to the fundamentals
and questioned our fathers when they fled at knife point. May poetry and
God's name have mercy on us!
We have the right to the warm nights of beautiful women, and talk about what might shorten the nights of two strangers waiting for the North to reach the compass.
It's autumn, we have the right to smell autumn's fragrances and ask the night for a dream.
Does the dream, like dreamers themselves, sicken? Autumn. Autumn.
Can people be born on a guillotine?
We have the right to die any way we wish
May the earth hide itself away in a ear of wheat!

from Fewer Roses (1986) by Mahamoud Darwish

Translated by Munir Akash and Carolyn Forché

Drugs

Street prices plummet as use reaches epidemic levels

The cost of drugs in many parts of Britain has plummeted in the past year, an authoritative study on the country's booming industry in illegal substances has revealed.

Specialists also disclosed that the potentially lethal practice known as " speedballing", in which users inject themselves with a mixture of heroin and cocaine, is reaching epidemic levels.

The low prices of many drugs suggests that they are readily available throughout the country and that police and customs are losing the war on drugs.

A new survey of 20 cities and towns in the UK provides an insight into emerging trends, offering a level of local detail rarely seen before. The report by the charity DrugScope found that dealers have been increasingly offering cut-price drugs, with heroin costing £5 a bag in Middlesbrough, and ecstasy as little as 75p a tablet in Cardiff.

I imagine this is the result of Afghanistan becomming the number one opium poppy producing nation.

The Poodle


Protestors carry posters with slogans against British Prime Minister Tony Blair and a picture of Hizbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah during a demonstration organised by Hizbollah in Beirut September 11, 2006. Hundreds of Lebanese protested against Blair's visit to Beirut on Monday, accusing him of backing Israel's 34-day war with Hizbollah guerrillas. (LEBANON)

11 Sep 2006 REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir

Blair's visit to Beirut sparks backlash

A young woman protester managed to disrupt a press conference by Tony Blair at the end of a Lebanon trip which was boycotted by political leaders of the powerful Shia community.

Mr Blair's arrival in Beirut provoked a huge demonstration. His motorcade swept past hundreds of heavily armed police a nd troops, who were out in the streets to keep the protesters under control. A large part of central Beirut was sealed off with barbed wire and cement barriers.

Slipping through the security net to interrupt his joint press conference with the Lebanese Prime Minister, Fouad Siniora, an Irish peace activist, Caoimhe Butterly, unfurled a banner attacking Israel and declared: "This is an insult to the thousands of Lebanese who have died as a result of Blair's policies."

Tony Blair, next to Bush, must be one of the most depised men in the Middle East.

Even the Israelis acknowlege that their military tactics in southern Lebanon proved useless yet Blair can't also admit that the Israeli's did not really achieve anything in southern Lebanona and instead gave plenty of free publicity for Hezbollah and increased their stock amongst ordinary Middle East citizens.


Protestors carry posters against British Prime Minister Tony Blair's visit to Lebanon and wave Lebanese flags during a demonstration organized by Hizbollah in Beirut September 11, 2006. (LEBANON)

11 Sep 2006 REUTERS/Reinhard Krause

More Views

Another warm reception for Blair

Pariah.

Tuesday Ballet Blogging

Le Corsaire

9/11 - 5 Years On

The bitter legacy of 9/11

2,973 Total number of people killed (excluding the 19 hijackers) in the September 11, 2001 attacks

72,000 Estimated number of civilians killed worldwide since September 11, 2001 as a result of the war on terror

2 Number of years since US intelligence had any credible lead to Osama bin Laden's whereabouts

2,932 Total number of US servicemen and women killed in Afghanistan and Iraq since September 2001

1,248 Number of published books relating to the September 11 attacks

$119m Ticket sales for anti-Bush documentary Fahrenheit 9/11

$40bn Airline industry losses since September 2001

2009 Date when the official memorial will open at the World Trade Centre site

0 Hours of intelligence training provided to new FBI agents before 9/11. Now they get 24.

91 per cent Terror cases from FBI and others that US Justice Dept declined to prosecute in first eight months of 2006

11 Weeks the 9/11 commission's final report was top of New York Times' non-fiction best-seller list

117 Number of UK service personnel killed in Iraq since invasion

40 Number of UK personnel killed in Afghanistan since invasion

7 per cent People in UK who think US-led war on terror is being won, according to YouGov

1 Those charged in US with a crime in connection with 9/11

455 Number of detainees at Guantanamo Bay

77 per cent Percentage of people in the UK who believe Tony Blair's Middle East policy has made Britain a terrorist target (YouGov)

4,000 Number of UK troops left in Iraq after British-controlled provinceshanded back to Baghdad

18 The number of times that undercover investigators with fake IDs have breezed through US border checkpoints in a test by the Government Accountability Office

$8bn The amount the US will spend this year on hunting Bin Laden and other terrorists

What else needs to be said?

The Bush Junta did not press home the advantage in Afghanistan, they let Bin Laden slip through their fingers and instead chose to dally in Iraq who had nothing to do with 9/11, wasting all the goodwill with the perversion that is Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib

Across the Middle East, in the Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan the civilians there have been suffering their own ground zeroes but I see no fancy services for them.

More Views

Global terrorist organisation commemorates terrorist atrocity.

5 years

62,006 - 180,000, The number killed in the 'war on terror'

Is it really five years since September 11th?

Lying Liars

'Of Course I Believe Him'

Tony Blair says he has accepted assurances from Chancellor Gordon Brown that he was not involved in the plot by rebel Labour MPs to force him from Downing Street.

Mr Brown has vehemently denied he was to blame for last week's turmoil in the Labour Party.

The in-fighting saw the resignation of eight junior Government members and culminated in Mr Blair promising to stand down within 12 months.

Asked about the plot during a visit to the Middle East the Prime Minister said: "Of course, I accept the assurances that have been given."

Mr Brown has dismissed suggestions that he was behind a confidential letter from Labour MPs calling on Mr Blair to quit.

Of course its just a coincidence that Tom Watson flew up to Scotland a day before he resigned.

It really irritates me the way Blair, Brown and their ilk are lying even more than usual, they think we're stupid or something, that we don't realise what is going on.

What The Fuck?

Saudi to ban sale of cats and dogs

Municipal authorities in the Saudi Arabian cities of Mecca and Jeddah have banned the sale of cats and dogs as un-Islamic.

Saudi's religious police, the Muttawa, have been instructed to prevent the sale of cats and dogs in order to prevent the spread of Western ideas into the highly Islamic country, Saudi media reported on Friday.

"Some youths have been buying them and parading them in public," said a memo sent from the Municipal Affairs Ministry to Jeddah's city government to explain the ban.

The Muttawa are normally tasked with forcing women to cover themselves, ensuring that men attend mosque prayers and enforcing other Islamic obligations.

Banning the sale of dogs may surprise few in the desert kingdom, since conservative Muslims despise dogs as ritually unclean.

But the cat ban has baffled many. Islamic traditions say that Muhammad, Islam's founder, loved cats - even in one instance letting a cat drink from his ablutions water before he washed himself for prayers.

The Muttawa are bonkers, truly, I've never heard of such a silly ban.

This is one of the USA's key allies in the war on terror (not to mention the close relations between the Bush family and the House of Saud).

Then again this is not the only crazy shit the Saudi's have done.

Special Friday Frog Blogging




Our resident frog

Friday Cat Blogging


Queen Heidi


George sunning himself in his favourite spot


Close up shot of George


Heidi being cute

Unloved Tony Blair

Blair jeered by college students

Tony Blair was booed and faced chants of "out, out, out" by pupils at the school at which he made a statement about his future.

The prime minister spoke at Quintin Kynaston specialist technology college in Marlborough Hill, north-west London.

But students at the college used their afternoon off lessons to join anti-war demonstrators at the school gates.
(snip)
One 13-year-old girl said: "They [the protesters] are not exploiting us.

"We understand some stupid people in politics are trying to kill the Lebanese and Iraqis and everybody else."

And another pupil from the school, added: "We are against that and Tony Blair should go."

Sarah Sachs-Eldridge, who was leading the chants, said many young people were outraged by Mr Blair's decision to invade Iraq as well as some of his domestic policies.

Poor old Tony Blair, he is being rejected everywhere he goes, he is - not even welcome in Palestine .

More Views

Blair Protest: report.

Blair's Schoolyard Statement

George Bush

CIA Prisoners to be covered by Geneva Convention

Bush 'to transfer terror figures'

US President Bush is to announce that 14 foreign terrorism suspects are to be transferred from CIA custody to the department of defence, reports say.

A senior government official said they would be transferred to the jail in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, ahead of planned future trials.

Mr Bush is to make a speech soon from the White House on the detainees.

I bet the 'renditions' will still go on, only they will go even more underground. Though they have to realise what a faliure it is, how torturing is not going to win the 'war on terra'.

Can the Bush Junta honestly say what benefits they have got from breaking the Geneva Conventions? They can't, they are unable to accept that they are wrong.

The solution is very simple, either charge and prosecute the detainees at Guantanamo Bay or let them go, holding them in limbo makes no sense and its unethical.

Bad News Burial Time

With the infighting over Blair taking up much of the media's time, this is probaly the day to bury bad news like this - Further British casualties in Afghanistan and this - Britain forced to send more troops to Iraq .

The Labour politicans are hoping he goes so they will get a nice shiny promotion with a new leader, they just love intrigue, the press too.

Tony Blair Is Toast

Steve Bell


Cameron: government in meltdown

Seven quit government in Blair protest

Seven members of Tony Blair's government resigned today as formerly loyal MPs demanded that the prime minister publicly names a date for his departure.

One junior minister, Tom Watson, resigned along with six parliamentary private secretaries.

The departures followed 48 hours of leaks and rampant speculation about an exit timetable for the prime minister. Today's open rebellion came after Downing Street described reports of Mr Blair quitting in May as "speculation", but did not deny them.

The Conservative leader, David Cameron, speaking during a tour of India, said the government was "divided and in meltdown".

All seven government members to resign were MPs who yesterday signed a round robin letter calling for Mr Blair to publicly confirm the date of his departure.

The PM hit back at Mr Watson, calling him "disloyal, discourteous and wrong" for having signed the letter.

The six PPSs who have quit are Khalid Mahmood, Wayne David, Ian Lucas, Mark Tami, David Wright and Chris Mole.

More rats leave the sinking ship and what makes this even more interesting is the fact that they are loyal Blarites, Tony Blair is toast, I don't see how he can last much longer.

This is British politics at its most nastiest, shortist and brutish.

More views

Resignation's What You Need

Interesting times...

Tom Watson is welcome for a drink at mine any time he likes

Fossils


Britain's 700,000 years of immigrants

· Pioneer man recorded as first human inhabitant
· Ice ages defeated seven attempts at colonisation

Humans have tried to colonise Britain on at least eight separate occasions in the past 700,000 years, palaeontologists said yesterday. On each occasion but the last populations were wiped out when an ice age arrived.

"British people today are new arrivals, we're products of only the last 12,000 years," said Chris Stringer, head of human origins at the Natural History Museum. The findings, which mean that modern native Britons are descended from a continuous line younger than their counterparts in the Americas and Australia, are part of the five-year Ancient Human Occupation of Britain (Ahob) project, which concluded this month.
(snip)
A recent fossil discovery in Pakefield, Suffolk, was identified as a species called homo antecessor, nicknamed pioneer man, and was dated at 700,000 years old. It pushed back the first evidence of humans by some 200,000 years. Pioneer man was known to have lived in southern Europe 800,000 years ago and probably made the journey to Britain via a connecting land bridge.

Back then there were no Daily Mail or Daily Express screetching about how these 'immigrants' were going to take 'our jobs' and 'spread disease'.

Random Wednesday Photo Blogging


The River Nile, Egypt

Palestinian Poetry Blogging


Another Damascus in Damascus

Another Damascus in Damascus, an eternal one.
I was unfair to you, friend, when you criticized my migration to a heartbeat
Now its my right, now after my return, to ask you in friendship:
Why did you lean on a dagger to look at me?
Why did you raise up my slopes even higher
so that my horse may fall on me?
I hope to carry you to the gushing spring
of the ode, to the ends of earth. What a beauty you are!
What beauty is Damascus if it were not for my wounds.
So let one half of your friend, join one half of mine.
Let us create a strong and farseeing heart for her, for me, for you.
For another Damascus to mirror my soul in Damascus.

from Fewer Roses (1986) by Mahamoud Darwish

Translated by Munir Akash and Carolyn Forché

The End Of Blair?



Blair under pressure to name day

MPs tell Blair to come clean on date of departure

Minister resigns and urges Blair to go

One of Tony Blair's ministers resigned from his post today and called on the prime minister to do the same.

News of Tom Watson's departure came as Downing Street described reports that Mr Blair would step down next May as "speculation".

Mr Watson, a junior defence minister, was thought to have signed but then removed his name from yesterday's letter calling for the prime minister to name a departure date.

As he quite front bench politics today, he said it was "not in the interest of either the party or the country" for Mr Blair to remain in office.
(snip)
Today's Sun - often a source of well-informed leaks from No 10 - claimed Mr Blair would resign as Labour leader on May 31, triggering an eight-week leadership contest that would mean him departing as prime minister at the end of July.

Well thats just typical of Tony Blair to leak to The Sun, consdering he is in the thrall of the Dirty Digger (Rupert Murdoch)!

The storm clouds are gathering over Blair, should make for an interesting autumn Labour party conference at Manchester.

More Views

Blair in Crisis: hit hard now to finish him.

Classy Blair Leaks To Rupert

Tom resigns!

Ten ways in which Blair could go before May 31, 2007

George Bush - Moron

Bush compares Bin Laden to Hitler

President George W Bush has compared Osama Bin Laden to Lenin and Hitler in a speech to US military officers.

"Underestimating the words of evil and ambitious men is a terrible mistake," he said as he quoted extensively from Bin Laden and other al-Qaeda figures.

He said the world had ignored the writings of Lenin and Hitler "and paid a terrible price" - adding the world must not to do the same with al-Qaeda.

Mr Bush has been defending his security strategy as mid-term elections loom.

His speech on Tuesday - the day following the US Labor Day holiday - coincided with the country's traditional start date for election campaigning.

Doesn't Bush realise how silly his comparing of Bin Laden with Lenin and Hitler is? Wait that question answers itself, of course he doesn't realise it but thats because Bush and his Junta have no respect for history and prefer to cherrypick it to suit their own warped agenda.

I mean who did people compare before Hitler? Napolean? Tamerlane? It seems a lazy comparasion to me, devoid of original thought.

Where as past US Presidents quoted from Jefferson, Madison, Franklin, and Lincoln, Bush chooses to lace his rubbish speeches with quotes from Bin Laden, you would think he was a fan or something.

Unbelievable


One In Six Avoid Muslims

One in six Londoners admits moving seats on the bus or Tube to avoid a passenger they believe may be Muslim.

According to an Evening Standard/YouGov poll more than a third (35%) of those questioned admitted they had felt uncomfortable while travelling near a person of Asian or north African appearance.

Of those, 47% said they had moved seats or deliberately sat away from them.

The poll also revealed that Londoners support tough measures to catch terrorists following the 7/7 attacks and last month's alleged airline bomb plot.

Sixty two percent endorse police demands for powers to detain suspected terrorists for up to 90 days without charge.

This makes me a sad and more than a little angry, that people can be so irrational, that they make a snap judgement based on a person's skin colour.

That somehow being a different colour means your a 'dangerous terrorist'. I thought we had moved past this prejudice but clearly we haven't.

This is even more sickening via Opinionated Voice

White extremists’ terror videos threaten Muslims

Far-right extremists are posting videos on the internet in which they threaten to kill British Muslims, The Sunday Times reported.

In the videos, posted in August on YouTube, an American-based open-access website, three men, wearing a black terrorist-style mask and carrying guns, knives and clubs, call on all Muslims to leave Britain or be killed.

Tony Blair

Blair urged to go by Labour MPs

Council 'wipe-out' fear puts pressure on Blair

Advisers spell out plans for Blair's 'last encore'

An exit strategy for Tony Blair's departure from government has been spelled out down to the last detail in a leaked memo compiled by some of his closest aides, it was reported today.

The five-page document details plans for Mr Blair to leave No 10 in a whirlwind of television and radio appearances and a nationwide tour, according to the Daily Mirror.

The document, written in the spring of this year when the government was facing a series of crises - including the handling of revelations about an affair between John Prescott, the deputy prime minister, and his diary secretary and the release of foreign prisoners who should have been considered for deportation - warns: "Time is not an unlimited commodity".

All the signs of pointing to a Blair exit, but is Mr. Blair ready to give up power? It was quite amusing than despite him going on holiday he did all he could to make sure you didn't forget him, that he was really still running the country.

Blair's government has become corrupt, lazy, incomptent and authoritarian, it is time for Blair and his whole sorry NuLabour project to go.

Perhaps Tony and Cherie Blair should go retire to Iraq, because its such a 'haven of democracy' or maybe Afghanistan.

More views

Your Chance To Plan Tony's Departure - *Updated Schedule*

Departure: the debate is already skewed in Blair's favour

Tennis

Murray inspired by Agassi emotion

Britain's Andy Murray says he drew on Andre Agassi's emotional exit from the US Open to beat Fernando Gonzalez.

Murray had to dig deep to see off the Chilean 10th seed and said: "Before I went on I saw Agassi play his last match, and it inspired me.

"I didn't realise how much he meant to tennis and to me growing up until I saw him play his last point."

The 19-year-old Scot, who faces seventh seed Nikolay Davydenko on Tuesday, said: "It will be a pretty tough task."

Murray is doing rather well at the moment.

I was wathcing the match yesterday and his Chilean opponent got so frustated that he committed racket abuse, start hitting the ball out of the court and argued with the judge.

Murray is a different class of player to Henman thats for sure.

Monday Cool

I totally love this music video for Here We Go by Ok Go, really clever and funny at the same time

Sunday Fun

You scored as Soviet Union. You should have fought in the army of the Soviet Union. You believe that the enemy will be conquered by a combination of manpower, political coordination and relentless spirit of resistance.

In which World War 2 army you should have fought?
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Afghanistan - The Forgotten War

The war the world forgot

Yesterday's air crash in Afghanistan brought the death toll to 23 in a month. The Taliban is fighting more fiercely than ever. But frontline troops feel under-equipped, battle weary and ignored. By Cole Moreton in London and Tom Coghlan in Helmand province

14 British troops die in Afghan air crash

· Worst military disaster in war on terror
· MoD says tragedy was an accident

The British forces suffered their most deadly day since the war on terror began when a Nimrod surveillance aircraft from RAF Kinloss in Scotland crashed yesterday while supporting Nato ground operations in Afghanistan, killing all 14 servicemen on board.

Twelve RAF personnel, a Royal Marine and a soldier were among those who died when the aircraft came down in Kandahar province during an operation against Taliban insurgents.

The aircraft, which was due for replacement, was flying out of Oman, and is one of 12 Nimrods in service. It is equipped with some of the RAF's most secret and sophisticated communications, surveillance and communications equipment.

The British army is currently overstretched and underfunded.

The British government wants it both ways - cutting the military budget while insisting the British army takes on more and more responsibilities, especially in Afghanistan.

I would not be suprised if the senior military personnel start resigning en masse, nor if the British army actually revolted and refused to carry out orders.

Thought Police

Terror police swoop on restaurant

Armed police have arrested 14 men following anti-terror raids in London, including 12 arrests at a restaurant in the Borough area.

Two people were held elsewhere in the city in what police said was an intelligence-led operation.

Police said the arrests were not connected to the alleged transatlantic jet bomb plot or the 7 July attacks.

An Islamic school near Tunbridge Wells has also been searched as part of the same operation.

The Jameah Islameah property, on Catt's Hill near Crowborough, East Sussex, is an Islamic teaching facility for boys aged between 11 and 16.

Looks like its another case of arresting lots of people for talking, clearly as the London Terra flap fades away the government needs to keep the fear of 'Islamo-fascists' fresh, so British citizens will be even more willing to give up their freedoms.

Friday Opera

Edita Gruberova sings the Mad Scene from Lucia di Lammermoor by Donizetti from a 1982 production at the Vienna Staatsoper.

Part 1


Part 2

The Poodle

Blair To Labour - You can't survive without me!

Blair under fire over exit plans

Blair risks party's wrath by refusing to reveal his exit strategy

Blair: I want another 12 months

PM will quit by summer next year but rules out announcement at conference

Tony Blair said yesterday he would not give a timetable for his departure before or during the Labour party conference this month, although friends indicated that he will stand down next year.

His refusal to clarify his intentions in public angered leftwing Labour MPs, who said the confusion could not go on. However, one source said: "He is trying not to convey the impression that he is in a mood of defiance."

The prime minister's current thinking is that he will stand down next summer. An announcement is most likely to come before the May elections for the Welsh assembly and Scottish parliament, which are expected to see heavy Labour losses. Mr Blair is in a quandary, believing that he would lose his remaining authority if he were to set an explicit date now.

Yesterday he tried to ride out the demands for an early timetable, saying: "If people want stable and orderly change, they should not keep obsessing about it in the meantime, but instead get on with the business of government."

Tony Blair left reality behind a long time ago. His fatal error was to annouce he was going to leave office and then not actually acting on it, because all his political support melted away at that point.

He is a lame duck Prime Minister, utterly lacking in support or respect. His submissive behaviour towards George Bush has been disgraceful along with his involvement of Britain in the illegal invasion of Iraq.

Friday Cat Blogging


Lady Heidi


Gorgeous George