Insta-hoglets

How does a batch of news briefs sound for the weekend? Good? Well here they are. Just for a change, most have a European flavour, but most also have relevance this side of the pond.

Spain, and the Islamic Commission has issued a fatwa against Osama BinLadin. Backed by the Federation of Islamic religious entities, the Commission also invited Spanish-based imams (clerics) to condemn terrorism at Friday prayers in memory of 191 people who were killed in the Madrid train blasts and the 1900 injured 12 months ago. There are over half a million moslems in Spain and in the main Spain has not had the same "disproportionate" measures against moslems that the US had after 9/11. Sorry, neocons, it looks like "Eurabia" may not happen after all, no matter how much you may wish for it.

Want to see politics through the looking glass? Read this by Max Hastings, publicist for Margaret Thatcher, scion of Rupert Murdoch and British Conservative.

Within five or 10 years, in the wake of further terrorist assaults in the west, new and unpleasant laws will probably have been introduced to Britain. But they should not have come yet, in the face of a threat still unproven, at the behest of a government which has shown itself unfit to exercise discretion wisely. If Tony Blair was capable of such self-analysis, he might blush in shame and humiliation, that to many of us it would have been preferable to risk the malevolence of al-Qaida than to entrust his ministers with further latitude for abuse of our liberties.

Now compare this with the Democrat and Republican positions in the US. Interesting, eh?

The Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena has changed her tune, pretty conclusively. "I never said that they wanted to kill me," she said on a television talk show. I am glad I waited and reserved opinion. To be honest, her talk of "mysterious" knowledge that was worth the US killing her over sounded like self-promoting crap from word one, and since she hasn't said dick that would be so dangerous, I guess it was crap. Sgrena is part of the rump of die-hard far-left European political thought who have as poor a reputation amongst their peers as they ought to, and this kind of delusional nonsense is why.

Sir Bob Geldoff, in a characteristically frank explanation yesterday, "said Tony Blair should tell President George Bush that proposals outlined in the commission's report would cost the United States "fuck all" to free the African continent of the shackles of war, poverty and disease." Blair, sitting next to Saint Bob, agreed:

Because I'm a politician in a suit, I wince at the occasional word but actually what he said is really what I think.

Sometimes Blair still manages to show why he was elected by a landslide in the first place.

Gordon Brown will present his 9th annual budget to the UK on Wednesday with yet more tales of success. His friends believe that the political stars are aligned and that this could be the Budget that finally allows him to elbow Tony Blair aside to become Prime Minister.

How did he achieve the miracle this time around? A clampdown on corporate tax avoidance announced last year. "For instance, merchant bankers have had record bonuses. But this time, the money hasn't all gone offshore." .(Pause while US liberals and libertarians sigh wistfully.) Tax breaks for investors in small companies and a huge surge in public investment have also been carefully timed to boost the economy at about the time of the election.

According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, some of the poorest people have had their incomes boosted by 10 per cent through tax credits and benefits since 1997, whereas the richest have had their incomes reduced by about seven per cent through tax rises.

Robert Peston, The Sunday Telegraph's City editor and author of Brown's Britain said: "Gordon Brown wants to be what he calls a credible socialist. That means retaining the confidence of the City, while doing the traditional things that Labour does - such as redistribute wealth to the poor and spend heavily on health and education.

"As far as he is concerned, that is the whole point."

Nice one, Gordon.

Citizen's Rent blog has a great post on the lack of accountability or responsibility allocated by the Church Report on US abuse of prisoners. Read it, it's worth it. He quotes a key part of the Report where Church lays out the military's line:

"I don't think you can hold anybody accountable for a situation that maybe if you had done something different, maybe something would have occurred differently," he said. "It's a lesson learned that we need to capture and think about for the future."

and responds:

Interesting theory. You can't hold someone accountable just because if they'd done their job then detainees might not have been abused. But isn't that the idea behind criminal charges of negligent homicide or neglecting a child? Is it a defense to say that if you hadn't been negligent the person still might have died? The child still might have gotten hurt? I don't think so. It might mitigate penalties, but it doesn't eliminate your responsibility. Except in Bush's military, apparently. But only for senior level officials.

Good point, Citizen.

Just for reference, and following up to my post the other day about the Pentagon's new minefield system that flies in the face of a treaty the rest of the world thinks is reasonable - here, about halfway down, you will find a list of treaties where the Bush administration has either broken or become one of a handful of governments who have refused to join. For instance "The US has signed but not ratified the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which protects the economic and social rights of children. The only other country not to ratify is Somalia, which has no functioning government."

I guess when you are the Empire, you don need no steenkin treaties.

This one will mean nothing to most Americans, Aussies etc. but I am certain any Brit readers will join me in noting the passing of the Irish comedian, Dave Allen. I say note because Dave Allen always said he wanted inscribed on his gravestone: "Don't mourn for me now; don't mourn for me never - I'm going to do nothing, for ever and ever."

I never read Hunter S. Thomson. I loathed Miller's work which was depressing as hell. Dave Allen made me laugh, gave me an appreciation for religious tolerance at an early age, and always had a turn of words that put old situations in a new, thoughtful, light. Here is one of his best, which could easily be turned to the modern Evangelists of the US.

A man goes to heaven, and St Peter shows him around. They go past one room, and the man asks: "Who are all those people in there?" "They are the Methodists," says St Peter. They pass another room, and the man asks the same question. "They are the Anglicans," says St Peter. As they're approaching the next room, St Peter says: "Take your shoes off and tiptoe by as quietly as you can." "Why, who's in there?" asks the man. "The Catholics," says St Peter, "and they think that they're the only ones up here.

Goodnight, Dave, and may your God go with you.