Insta-hoglets

Here's some interesting items from over the weekend.

The NY Times catches up on Bob Geldoff's righteous rant, backed by Tony Blair, last week on African poverty but unlike the British papers forgoes the expletives. Even tailored for more sensitive sensibilities, the NYT editorial concludes that "It's long past time for Mr. Bush to stand shoulder to shoulder with Mr. Blair on Africa, just as Mr. Blair stood with Mr. Bush on Iraq. Bob Geldof's language was over the top, but his point was right."

The implications of Iranian nuclear efforts and indeed of any Israeli or US attack on Iran deepened with the revelation that the Ukraine sold 18 nuclear-capable cruise missiles to Iran and China in 1999-2001. Ukrainian authorities are claiming that there were no indications that any Ukrainian Defence officials were involved in selling the missiles. However Jane's, the bible for military and security matters, reported as long ago as May 2001 that the previous Ukrainian government was making dangerous forays into illegal arms and technology sales to Iran. Let's hope the Orange Revolution has ended this particularly effective method of bolstering Ukraine's foreign currency income.

UK voters have put Chancellor Gordon Brown well ahead of Prime Minister Tony Blair as Labour's main asset weeks before an expected general election, according to an opinion poll for the conservative Daily Telegraph.

The YouGov poll said 63 percent of voters saw Brown as an asset to Labour, compared to 34 percent for Blair.

Asked who was doing a better job, 52 percent said Brown against 17 percent for Blair. Forty eight percent described Blair as a liability to Labour, while 16 percent said Brown was.

The White House has moved to prevent Sinn Fein from fundraising in the United States unless the IRA disbands, but hasn't made it an official policy.

A White House spokesman admitted that an unspoken ban on Sinn Fein fundraising is now in place.

“We haven’t taken a formal decision in government, let alone announced it, but given where we are with that party and the [Irish] peace process, it’s a fair assumption this is what is happening,” he said.

The fundraising ban will hit Sinn Fein hard. Irish Americans pay $10,000 per table for the company of Adams and Martin McGuiness.

Given that Irish terror groups are reportedly getting ready for fresh bombing atrocities in Britain, maybe the weasels of the White House should consider making this a matter of formal policy and law, rather than a "fair ussumption". Wouldn't that show support for an ally in the war on terror?

Mistress Condi is getting all dominatrix on China's ass, telling the Chinese how to run their country and asking for help bringing North Korea into line in the same breath. At the same time she managed a sideswipe at Europe, suggesting that European governments would be acting irresponsibly if they sold sophisticated weaponry to China that might one day be used against U.S. forces in the Pacific.

This from the Secretary of State of the largest arms exporter ever, with an arms budget equal to the whole of the rest of the world combined. I think I will borrow the words of Atrios to smaller bloggers and give them as advice to the current US administration who seem to think acting as if an American Empire were a fait accomplis is OK - "get the fuck over yourselves". Unless you want to base your supremacy in purely military might it isn't true and it's getting less true as time goes by. Time to come back to the real world.

As if to hammer that point home, while at the same time giving ammunition to the europhobes, the right-leaning Daily Telegraph reports on the hordes of European diplomats currently spreading out worldwide.

The EU is launching a fully fledged foreign service, with missions to third countries and the United Nations, Euro-ambassadors, trade attachés, a diplomatic training college, the works. The fact that it is doing so without any legal basis does not seem to bother anyone.

Pragmatism is something Europe does well.

So maybe it's time to look again at the UN as the mainstay of world stability? Certainly the new proposed reforms seem to have widespread support, even in the US, according to the latest BBC poll. Again we see the right's divorce from reality - after so many years and so much emotional, political and monetary investment in the UN, just because they say the UN is evil isn't going to convince the average American that it has to be so or remain so. In that much they are making the same mistake as on Social Security reform. Their "political capital", if by that they meant automatic acceptance of whatever they say, is already spent, and it's time to return to Earth.