I know this is
From 23/6:
Ethics quiz to self: is it OK to make light of something as dreadful as rape in the cause of the political derision of a right wing fundy who’d happily see other women turned into little more than 3-holed chattels if it means she can be Vice-President?
Hmmm, let me think. Yes. Definitely. Abso-bloody-lutely with bells on.
That was an easy one.
Next question…how the hell hell did I lose four pairs of glasses all at once?
UPDATE:
Ike is now the size of Texas and headed straight for Galveston. This is not good.
UPDATE II:
This is not just ‘not good’: this is truly awful. “Galveston Sheriff Leaves 1,000 Inmates AND Deputies To Die To Ike” Galveston flood walls are reportedly around 5 metres high, with the storm surge predicted to carry 7 1/2 metre swells. Pity anyone in there.
While the UK and US media are having a happy happy fun time decidering the election and the actual electorate gets more and more irate about it, banana republicanism and all round diplomatic skullduggery goes on as blithely as usual. In this particular instance, Venezuela, it may have electoral implications – but perhaps that’s the plan.
The supposedly lame-duck Bush administration is continuing to destabilise neighbouring countries for fun and profit by fomenting dissent and plotting coups:
President Hugo Chávez last night ordered the US ambassador to leave Venezuela within 72 hours and accused Washington of fomenting a coup attempt against his socialist revolution.
Chávez also ordered Venezuela’s ambassador to Washington to return home and threatened to cut oil supplies, plunging relations between the countries to a new low. “Go to hell a hundred times, fucking Yankees,” he told a televised rally thronged with supporters clad in red.
The move came a day after Venezuela’s ally Bolivia expelled its US ambassador for allegedly backing opposition groups engaged in bloody clashes with police and government supporters; turmoil which claimed eight lives and split the country in two.
[…]
In a day of intrigue and brinkmanship, Chávez announced that Venezuelan military officers had plotted to assassinate him with US complicity. “They’re trying to do here what they were doing in Bolivia. That’s enough shit from you Yankees,” he said.
Ties would be restored when the US had a new government that “respected” Latin America, he added.
Coincidental or not, his accusation fell on the 35th anniversary of the CIA-backed coup which replaced Chile’s leftist president, Salvador Allende, with the dictator Augusto Pinochet.
The American diplomatic and security apparatus has learned precisely nothing from Chile. They think that it’s still the 1970s in South America: the cold war has never ended there for them.
It’s all beginning to look rather Georgian, or even Bay of Pigsian, isn’t it, what with the Russian navy conducting war games off the coast of Venezuela and Russian bombers at South American bases and everyone taking sides:
Russian bombers arrive in Venezuela
Russia has flown two long-range bombers to Venezuela for military exercises, a move likely to cause concern in Washington.
Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president, said on Wednesday that the Tu-160 strategic bombers had arrived to strengthen military ties and to counter US regional influence.
Apart from the larger geopolitical political implications there are domestic US electoral considerations too, in light of the bellicose attitude being expressed shown by McCain/ Palin towards Russia. United against a common enemy and all that…
The Bush administration definitely seems to have a strategy; it’s armageddon or bust. Trouble in South America, the Caucasus, the Gulf, Afghanistan, Pakistan -any one of of those situations could ripen into regional and perhaps global war, given the right sequence of events. Surely one’s got to pay off in time to give the Republicans a pre- election boost.
Is it just me or is there more than a whiff of October Surprise to all this?
Well obviously not, I’m hardly the only person listening to Radio 4 this morning or who watched Governor Palin’s first full-on TV interview last night – but leaving my own solipsism aside and concentrating on hers, one thing she said really jumped out at me from the radio.
It struck Scarecrow of Firedoglake too:
Sarah Palin’s most revealing response to Charles Gibson was her unqualified statement that she never had the slightest doubt about her readiness to be President. The woman doesn’t even know enough to know she doesn’t know enough.
Exactly. If I had to pick one thing I’ve learned about the world as I’ve got older it’s how much there is I don’t know and how much more there always is to know. If I had to pick one thing I’ve learned about myself it’s that real confidence comes when you can admit your limitations.
Palin’s rockribbed, solid, arrogant certainty is deeply scary. Anyone, no matter how wise, intelligent, distinguished or accomplished, no matter how confident of their own abilities, would feel unqualified and quail inwardly when offered one of the world’s highest political positions totally out of the blue. The truly wise wouldn’t be scared to admit it either.
Palin has no earthly conception of the depths of the potential responsibility inherent in the post of VP. Or perhaps she does (though she’s not shown it so far) and is inwardly scared shitless because of her own inadequacy. That may make her feel she has to out-macho the men. I don’t know, I’m not her bloody analyst – but I care because a President Palin could kill us all.
Someone on tv last night (on Mock The Week to be precise, so take it with the seriousness it deserves) pointed out that McCain has, according to actuaries, a one in three chance of dying in office. If he does pop off she could have the big red button and wipe out anyone she liked, whenever she liked – uppity librarians or community organisers, annoying dictators – whole continents even!
Anyone who’s not a complete sociopath would at least think twice. But no, no doubts, none. All that counts is winning. What comes after – feh, what does that matter? She’ll have finally won the biggest beauty pageant of ’em all.
You know you’re not hip any more when…… when boomer media outlets like Slate start using your songtitles as headlines.