In the epapers today

What better way to send a big "fuck you" to the Palestinians than to appoint a war criminal, partly responsible for the destruction of a Muslim nation as a helper in building their state?

Meanwhile, Chavez knows that the Yanks still have a hardon for his oil. It's a delicate balancing act for Chavez. His antiAmericanism makes him very popular both in Venezuela and in the wider Latin American world, but he has to take care not to do anything that really upsets the Americans. Yes, he upsets the rightards, but the people who pull the strings are not really swayed by the blatherings of the Town Hallites and other empty vessels. They only care about dollars, and Chavez has to take care not to upset money any more if he wants to avoid a war that, for all his posturing, will be his and his nation's ruin.

Hillary Clinton is repulsive. The big worry is that the desire to win will impel Democrats to select her as presidential candidate. She would be a disaster for America. Okay, whoever is elected is not likely to bring about any revolutions, but there are better and worse. And is Clinton even electable? I have grave doubts. The reason is that she aims for a mythical centre. The Repugs worked out years ago that there is no centre. There are people who hate people and people who like people, and what counts is how many repulsive turds you can get out to vote. And guys, if you think you can be voting for shitheads like George Bush or Rudy Giuliani and not be a repulsive turd, you need a long look in the mirror. The Repugs don't bother with the "centre". They push a message that will strongly appeal to the halfwitted degenerates who would vote for Satan if he promised to ban abortions and do bad things to foreigners. The Dems should do the same: push a progressive message, fuck the right wing and get the vote out. And this time, challenge the Repugs when they try to disenfranchise blacks and others who might vote against them.

Actually, best of all would be a vote for none of the above. Remove these bastards' sense of entitlement by refusing them a mandate.

Africans have a ton of problems. They've decided that they don't need another. The connection between America's wanting a base in Africa and China's drilling up half the continent for oil is easy to draw. And of course it's quite understandable that Muslim nations should be reluctant to house American troops, given that there are a bunch of screaming nutters running around who consider that an incitement to start bombing.

Not that America won't be continuing to fuck Africa hard. The appointment of Zoellick as chairman of the World Bank will ensure that.

International development agencies called on Mr Zoellick to concentrate the bank's energies on tackling poverty and address the effects of climate change on the world's poor.

Zoellick is reported to have laughed heartily at that joke.

I generally don't bother with articles about bickering over Europe, but I skimmed this one on Blair's laughing down calls for a referendum on the new European treaty, which of course he doesn't want because he knows all too well he would fail to get a mandate for it. But at least he was in good humour.

He drew laughter when he described Tory opposition to an EU external action service (a Brussels equivalent of the Foreign Office or Quai d'Orsay) as absurd, since it merely brought together in one location the de facto staff of the commission and the EU council. "We are going to have a referendum on an open plan office?"

Cameron, a buffoon of the first degree, blustered that it was an outrageous transfer of power. These people have no shame. Cameron doesn't care a less about where the European Union puts its staff, or anything else about Europe. But he knows that the people do. Blair doesn't want to consult the people because he, correctly, reckons them to be idiots, led by the nose by a media that for its own reasons wants Europe's power to be restricted. I note that Menzies Campbell, an astute man mostly wasted in politics and entirely wasted in the Lib Dems, correctly analyses Blair as edging into euroscepticism. He's been pushed there by Brown, who I think simply hates Europe and always has. Not the notion of a European Union, as such, but the way it is now, throwing money into the wrong pockets.

posted by Dr Zen @ 10:41 am