Wait a minute. While in a computer store looking over a Mac, I logged onto Yahoo and saw a story about UK prime minister Gordon Brown saying that the UK will recognize Hezbollah and a Lebanese Shi’ite movement, both of which were regarded by Britain as ‘terrorist’ organizations. This was a ‘Whoa’ moment for me because this would be big.
But on reaching home I couldn’t find the story anywhere, not on NY Times, Al Jazeerha, BBC or CNN, and I couldn’t find any reference to it on Yahoo, or Google. Now, its things like these that makes me question my sanity (I can hear some friends of mine cheering. They have been questioning my sanity for years).
Now, I’m not the sanest person in the world, but I’m not freaking crazy… yet. But it is challenging when it appears that I’m hallucinating about world events. I googled some more using different references and with each failure, I was closer to booking a date with a nutcracker.
Then bingo! There it was… Reuters, March 4, 2009, 9:02:pm. But not exactly. This was a watered down version of what I had seen, speaking only of holding talks with Hezbollah’s political wing.
The story I saw was far more comprehensive. So what happened to it? Was it some form of conspiracy? Was something released prematurely, retracted and then all trace of it wiped away? I have no idea, but lets explore my hallucination for a moment.
The story added that Gordon Brown wouldn’t recognize Hamas but was willing to speak to them through intermediaries. A move such as the story I’m sure I saw, meant that apparently, Brown had seen the futility of the western position as it relates to the mideast. It’s commonsense that the west will eventually have to come to the table. They were forced to do so in Vietnam… and well, the writing is on the wall. The legitimising of organisations once deemed terrorists would have far-reaching consequences for long-standing US foreign policy philosophies.
It would even have consequences for Israel which for years have western nations fronting for them. And it would greatly diminish America’s ongoing propaganda war against Iran.
Hmmm. Was I off my meds? Hmmm. Or did I get a quick peek into a crystal ball. Hmmm.
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And speaking of Obama and Iran. The acrimony is getting thicker as a more aggressive tone has been adopted by both the US and Iran, with shouting matches between Obama and Clinton on this side, and Ahmadinejad and ayotallah Khamenei on the other. The US is trying to play up to Russia, willing to shift their position on NATO missiles in Poland, if the Russians will gang up with them against Iran.
Russia so far, is buying none of it, mainly because it is Russia that is helping with Iran’s nuclear programme, but also Russia recognises that because Iran is years away from a nuclear bomb and the means to launch one against Europe, the American-led missile shield can only be a threat to Russia.
With the world trying to get itself under a massive economic crisis created by and in America, we now have an added fear hanging over our heads. The hardening of the rhetoric doesn’t bode well for Obama’s believability anywhere else in the world. Obama promised a new foreign policy but so far, it’s more of George Bush.
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By now, all cricket followers must have heard that cricket’s new wonderboy, American Robert Stanford, is wanted by the federal government for a $8b billion dollar fraud through another Ponzi scheme. Stanford, for those not up to speed, has been pumping lots of money into cricket, particularly popularising the 20/20 format.
The West Indies has been a major beneficiary of his largesse, particularly Antigua. But now many of the Caribbean’s politicians and cricket leaders are distancing themselves.
Stanford is the typical ‘Ugly American’, throwing his weight around, bullying if things didn’t go his way, and from many reports, treating many of the West Indians like dirt.
Many who said little during his reign, are more vocal now as the news of Stanford’s fall from grace.
He proved to be the ‘tale of two cities’… enriching a few, but ending up bankrupting thousands around the world.
There are several morals to the Stanford story. One is that ‘all that glitters is not necessarily gold’. One now gets the feeling that anyone who makes billions off any form of the financial market has done so via a pyramid scheme.
Another moral, Americans don’t know how to use wealth and power tastefully and discretely.
And thirdly, when a bully falls, there are always too many willing to deliver another swift kick to the testicles… even if they had supped well at his previously bountiful table. Such is life.
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And while on the subject of thievery, $50 billion thief (can you call a man a thief when the amount is so staggering) Bernie Madoff wants to keep his $7m penthouse in Manhattan and $62m in assets, claiming that they are unrelated to his fraud. Who says crime doesn’t pay.
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A few weeks ago, I declared that the election of African-American Michael Steele to the leadership of the Republican National Committee was essentially a farce, a badly played face-card…. that he would be in no position to accomplish anything.
Well, Steele has been so brutally bitch-slapped by republican propagandist Rush Limbaugh, he will be on painkillers for the entire tenure of his so-called leadership. Steele’s blunder was to claim publicly that he is in fact the de facto leader of the party, at the same time dissing Limabaugh.
Limbaugh who was once arrested for drug abuse, quickly reminded Steele that he was just a token black guy. Embarrassingly to all black people, Steele with his tail between his legs, scampered to apologize to Limbaugh, even more publicly. It was utterly shameful.
Here is the thing. Limbaugh ‘represents’ the conservative republican, the gun-toting, beer swilling, inbred, racist, homophobic republicans. The ‘Joe the plumber’, the Danny 6-pack, the morons attracted to the Sarah Palin candidacy. No way that type would take leadership from a ‘nigger’. Where do you think this is? America?
Anyone who thought that the KKK could ever be an inclusive party should be borrowing Michael Phelp’s bong. The moderate republicans thought that after the crunching loss to Obama and the democrats, they could retake their party from those who had lowered it below the lowest denominator. They are wrong. The base of the party actually despises these moderates as too liberal, but more stingingly, too intellectual. They can only relate to someone as dumb as their pigs… in other words, themselves.
Steele reacted as any slave would do when the owner is vexed with him. Apologise and bend over.
But more was to come. The republicans Conservative Political Action Conference a major conference for all the movers and shakers of the party was just held. And John McCain, losing republican candidate, wasn’t even invited. His name, like George Bush’s, ‘is not welcomed aroun’ yaar’. And the conference’s keynote speaker was drug abuser, Rush Limbaugh.
The republicans, even by their very distancing themselves from the American people and the economic needs of the majority of this country, have drawn their line in the sand. “Backward ever, forward never”. Aren’t we having fun yet?
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Gleaned from the news.
As an Arkansas state panel kills an attempted legislation that would allow concealed weapons in churches, the republican sponsor (who else) of the bill, says it’s a question of religion freedom, and a pastor says that churches should have the right to make the decisions, “It’s not the role of the state to preserve the sanctity of the church, and it’s not the role of the state to impose religious judgment calls on churches”. I withhold their names because stupid people should get no publicity, good or bad.
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Wesley Snipes must be wondering why he didn’t choose politics instead of acting. Four of Obama nominees have had tax evasion issues, discovered and rectified only after their nominations. They have been allowed to ‘pay and play’. Snipes on the other hand found no such mercy and was sentenced to the maximum 3 years for tax evasion.
Snipes prosecutors argued that he should be sent to prison to set an example: “This case cries out for the statutory maximum term of imprisonment, as well as a substantial fine, because of the seriousness of defendant crimes and because of the singular opportunity this case presents to deter tax crimes nationwide,” they wrote.
Certainly didn’t deter those politicians.
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