Being in Africa appears to make me more whimsical that when I am in my book-lined study at home. One of the joys of having small children is that you can get to do childish things, with an excuse. I took Cameron to the Hornby model centre in Broadstairs a few weeks ago. I never tire of watching Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. And recently I re-watched Mary Poppins. I never much liked this, and still am not a great fan, but I had never before realised that the entire thing is an attack on materialism and the banks, particularly the City of London.
There is a moment when Banks finally rebels and turns on the big banker and says: “It turns out, with due respect, when all is said and done, that there’s no such thing as you!” The world of bankers has become even more of a fantasy since, of meaningless “wealth” unrelated to production, and casino speculation.
But the phrase sent my mind flitting to Newt Gingrich. The Palestinians are very real indeed – I used to have a Palestinian girlfriend, and she definitely existed. Palestine is mentioned in Herodotus, and if the bible bashing Gingrich can’t see that “Palestine” and “Philistine” are the same word, he is a greater fool than I supposed. Or does he believe in etymological creationism, that all words were formed by God on the same day in precisely their current form?
The misery of the Palestinian people, squeezed into ever shrinking bantustans, is very very real. What Gingrich is doing is indicating his acquiescence in the genocidal policy of Israel towards the Palestinians. Given what is already happening, it is not a great leap from declaring someone does not exist, to seeking to make that a reality.
Gingrich appears an evil, corrupt, debased manifestation of the real agenda of the United States. He is the picture in America’s attic, with all its evil shown up-front. The man is a walking caricature of seething hatreds. Surely it is Newt Gingrich who does not really exist?
I won’t sing it.
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THE WHITE HOUSE
(Country and Western Ballad on the Retirement of President Reagan)
In the land where the free bald-eagle flew
they built the biggest, stinking loo
the empires of the world had seen,
a perpendicular latrine,
the White House.
With a constipated grunt and groan
an actor-bum came to the throne,
hellbent on this, his greatest role,
to fill the presidential bowl,
the White House.
Now the bowl gets filled with his daily voids,
he holds a donor card for haemorrhoids,
assured if he forgets his words,
he can fall back on this bowl of turds,
the White House.
Its sewerage system spans the earth,
distributing crud for all it’s worth,
one vast fertilisation plan
to shit on every living man,
(and woman too, Mary Lou),
the White House.
It has a privy chamber with gates galore,
a closed Watergate and a welded door,
Irangate, that’s a sluice-gate, sure,
backing up in the open sewer,
the White House.
With a big, big bundle of stars and stripes
Uncle Sam gets up and calmly wipes
his gerontocratic arsehole clean,
then pulls the chain in the earth’s latrine,
the White House.
Newt’s argument is not unique to him – it’s common among people who are blindly pro-Israel.
It’s based on false claims made by American historian Joan Peter in her book ‘From Time Immemorial’ about how Palestinians were all supposedly Arab immigrants to the British Mandate of Palestine after zionist settlers there ‘made the desert bloom’.
Norman Finkelstein went through all the sources she cited in her book in his own book ‘Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine conflict’ and found that not one of her sources said what she claimed it did. In fact Arabs had lived in Palestine for centuries and there was no basis to their claims.
The argument that Palestinians are ‘really just Arabs’ and should go to Arab countries is like arguing that the French have no right to France as they are just Europeans and should go and live in Belgium; or that Americans are really just North Americans like Canadians, so should get out of America and go to Canada to make way for others.
The argument that Israel’s existence in 1020 BC is attested by the Bible is an argument based on either religious fundamentalism or right by conquest (As the Israelites killed and drove out Canaanites and others or forced them into slavery to form the ‘kingdom of Israel’ ; and so no different from the Islamic fundamentalist argument that the whole of Israel and Palestine is defined as ‘Muslim lands’ as they were conquered by the Prophet Mohammed and his followers in the 7th century.
The only legitimate basis for the modern state of Israel is the UN resolution which established a Jewish and an Arab state alongside one another in what was the British Mandate of Palestine – and that resolution did not entitle them to most of the West Bank (which Israeli governments of all parties refer to by it’s biblical name of ‘Judaea and Samaria’)
If Newt Gingrich didn’t exist, Jews would’ve had to invent him. Oh, wait. The poster who cites the ‘Palestine never existed’ meme as nothing new is right, and it can be found repeatedly being referenced in extreme right-wing US Protestant circles, masquerading as holy writ.
Some meaningless drivel from the BBC on Werrity in The Spectator. Cannot find any link to the origin. Weird?
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-16171068
@ Craig,
” What Gingrich is doing is indicating his acquiescence in the genocidal policy of Israel towards the Palestinians.”
And which frontrunner US politician aspiring to be President does anything but acquiese…Obama…so, who then?
TOTALLY OFF TOPIC:-
WHEN I SAW THIS – I THOUGHT – SO IRONIC – WHEN THE FORMER VICTIMS VICTIMISE…
http://electronicintifada.net/blog/ali-abunimah/israeli-jewish-hate-rally-against-africans-tel-aviv-caught-video-haaretz-deletes
Newt Gingrich is synonymic to Mr X Factor Culture man; stabbing the poor, needy and sick in the back and putting electronic health records virtually in the public domain.
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Gingrich – SEPTEMBER 11, 2006: “What is still neither understood nor accepted is that Iraq is only one campaign in an emerging Third World War.”
KingFelix wrote:”If Newt Gingrich didn’t exist, Jews would’ve had to invent him.”
Denigrating Jews, Muslims, Blacks, Gays, Christians etc.. i know, is NOT ON here. No fascism please.
Mary i scanned the BBC article a few times wondering how to sum it up, but ‘meaningless drivel’ is hard to improve upon. Its got a photo of the cads all dressed up, a few statements of reminiscing from the too friendly chum Werrity himself, perfectly composed almost soothing. A passing mention of some dim business. Thanx again BBC.
Newt Gingrich is disgusting. He’s a people denier. That’s as bad as being a Holocaust denier.
He should realise that under his logic that Israelis and Americans are also invented people.
It’s worth googling Gingrich’s warmongering grovelling to his paymasters at the AIPAC conference. Actually save you the other … here’s the link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtqrpAkmP6Y&feature=player_embedded
Ingo said above “Newt is making sure that he has the jewish votes, not Obama and what better than to paraphrase Golda meir and her racialist attitudes. To choose Bolton as his running mate will be fun, gaffs galore.”
Newt isn’t chasing the Jewish vote. The Jewish population of the USA is around 1.7% and is relatively insignificant. He is sucking up to his Zionist donors. No one gets to President of the USA without appeasing the Zionists. Anyone in politics knows this, but many are scared to admit it
You can google Obama’s nice little brown nose to them at the AIPAC conferences too.
Donny Darko: I like one of Shlomo Sand’s hypotheses, that is, the palestinians were the Jews that stayed behind and were converted to Islam as the religion swept across the Middle East. This in turn means that the Israeli’s are defacto committing fratricide.Tragic but possible.
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Yes, that sounds interesting. What was the name of the book in which I can read more about this?
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Donny Darko: The land was definitely inhabited before 1947, because my Aunt and Uncle were with the British Army there
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I have no idea who has been making the claim that it was uninhabited before 1947.
Donny Darko
Was that before of after Sand’s reverse-conversion?
It seems to me there’s an undercurrent there – implanting suggestions that “the Jews never left”
Strangely, the biggest victims of zionism are the Israelis themselves. For the moment, they think they are free to ignore decency. But when Big Zio finds a more profitable location for drugs, pornography, weapons, organ trafficking, sex slavery, money-laundering etc, the colonists will be left to their fate.
The US Sixth Fleet already has plans for Der Tag, to evacuate foreign embassy staff and Israeli government bigwigs from the seafront at Tel Aviv, while the rest are left to the mercies of their erstwhile victims.
Territory was never an issue. It was all about hiding global crime activities behind national sovereignty, and at the same time cementing zionist power in Europe and North America. By ensuring perpetual war with the Palestinians, the Jews imagine they can permanently exploit the guilt loop of ‘never again’.
However, as the world gets bored with Israelis and their ‘holocaust’, even the Americans will lose interest.
BTW Prof Shlomo Sand’s book is an invaluable read.
OT –
The Werritty item on R4 2200 News cited a Spectator interview: presumably not yet published. The spectator is where all stories about neocons go to die, and I am sure the interview was as gentle as would be needed , considering Werritty’s delicate and suddenly self-effacing nature.
I note that Werritty considers the imputations against him “short on detail”. Well, yes. That is something of a problem. Perhaps he could remedy the shortness of detail available on his activities?
Also, he protests that he has never represented himself as having any expertise in defence matters. So, WTF was he doing on his frequent visits to the MoD?
Hague is putting our money behind his sabre rattling, massive air activities over Norfolk. Tornadoes are performing highlevel as well as attack loops, others are flying low level sorties, one hell iof a racket. They are turning right over my head.
Since Lybia’s attack has cost 150.000 their lives, there was a low in flying , since last week the activities have gone up dramatically. Whatever is coming is near.
off the subject :
today BBC website : Students turn to prostitution to fund studies… Shame on Clegg, Shame on Cameron. Apparently the percntage of students in the sex industry has gone up drastically in the last 10 years.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-16157522
Hague is putting our money behind his sabre rattling, massive air activities over Norfolk. Tornadoes are performing highlevel as well as attack loops, others are flying low level sorties, one hell iof a racket. They are turning right over my head.
Since Lybia’s attack has cost 150.000 their lives, there was a low in flying , since last week the activities have gone up dramatically. Whatever is coming is near. (Ingo)
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Check. Also look out for F-15’s from Lakenheath. This has been going on for days….day and night.
Courtenay I put up that Haaretz piece on Israeli racism being deleted plus some info on changes in the ownership of the paper.
{http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2011/12/home-thoughts/#comments}
13 Dec, 2011 – 7:20 am
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This details the American lobby’s activities in stifling criticism.
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Tuesday, December 13 2011
Joseph Dana
Coordinated American-Israeli effort working to smear critical voices
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Last Friday evening, B’Tselem employees were busy sending out press releases and compiling media kits detailing the use of tear gas by the Israeli military in the West Bank. For the past ten years, B’Tselem has been one of the only Israeli organizations documenting routine violations of military and civilian law by Israeli soldiers. On Friday, an unidentified Israeli soldier shot and killed an unarmed Palestinian protester, with an American-made tear gas canister, who was throwing stones at armoured military jeeps in the village of Nabi Saleh. The military claims this was an ‘exceptional’ incident but the facts show that it is not.
/…
http://972mag.com/coordinated-u-s-israeli-effort-working-to-smear-critical-voices/29690/
Indeed Komodo, seen the F 15 as well. Lakenheath, perpetual US territory asigned to them on a beermat after the second great unpleasantness, is not very far as the crow flies. It is also the most concentrated nuclear weapons pile in Europe, by my estimations, as every transit plane to the US lands there first or takes off from Lakenheath or Mildenhall.
On a totally different tack, i.e. survival in the US south, this article makes it clear that some of the US cities will run out of water very soon, everybody is hoping for lots of snow in the Rockies. Aquifers and the Colorado river, supplying unsustainable Cities such as Vegas, will soon have to be rationed in some way. http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2011/12/2011127125429770306.html
$30,000 per hour…nice work etc etc…and for such a responsible company too…
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/newt-gingrich-commits-a-capital-crime/2011/12/13/gIQAjvVhsO_story.html?tid=pm_pop
Newt the Revisionist…
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/newt-gingrichs-revisionist-history/2011/12/13/gIQAKFShsO_story.html?hpid=z2
Ratcheting up The Fear…
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http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/dec/13/us-probing-alleged-cyberattack-plot-iran-venezuela/
O/T We know that this is not even the true number. The poor souls. What prospects for them in the New Year?
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BBC BREAKING NEWS:UK unemployment rose by 128,000 between August and October to
2.64 million
Ingo, Komodo, whatever is coming is near. It’s worrying that while Cameron was courting the Australians, William Hague (Tin Man ‘I haven’t got a heart’) was in the good old US of A chatting up Hilary Clinton (The Wicked Witch of the West) and they were not talking about the merry land of Oz! Last night on Channel 3 News a reporter was bigging up the need for rebel support or it might not be possible to ovrethrow the Assad regime.
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On another note yesterday I attended a small vigil in support of Bradley Manning outside the US Embassy. There is to be a bigger demonstration on Saturday (17 Dec, which I unfortunately cannot make) but hope others can.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=payxIRjhifY
Seymour Hersh cuts through the jingo-prop…
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http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2011/11/iran-and-the-iaea.html
Shlomo Sands, ‘The Invention of the Jewish People’. Fantastic book. He gives an example of a German (I think)Christian priest, convert from Judaism, applied to live in Israel and was refused on the grounds he wasn’t ‘Jewish’. Converts to Judaism are allowed entry so who are the Jewish people? Race or religion – Israeli Government don’t seem to know.
In Newt Gingrich’s case, such politically-motivated ignorance pays. Some relevant background on the GOP presidential candidate from a 1995 Washington Report piece:
‘Marianne Gingrich, wife of House Speaker Newt Gingrich, has been hired by the Israel Export Development Co., Ltd (IEDC) as its vice president for business development. Mrs. Gingrich’s interest in Israel’s proposed free-trade zone, designed to attract foreign investment to Israel, was said to have begun during an eight-day trip to Israel she and her husband made in August 1994 at the expense of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, Israel’s Washington, DC lobby. “If I were going to get a political payoff, it would not be for the amount of money I am making,” said Mrs. Gingrich, who has no experience in the field. Her salary, which she has drawn since August, is $2,500 per month, “plus commissions.” Neither she nor her employers would disclose the size of the commissions. Speaker Gingrich told the Baltimore Sun, which broke the story in February, that his wife previously had her “own business.” IEDC President Larry Silverstein told The Wall Street Journal that Gingrich was one of a number of congressmembers who were lobbied to support his company’s proposal.’
Mrs. Gingrich’s generous employer, Larry Silverstein, later went on to become the owner of the WTC Twin Towers just 6 weeks before 9/11. On the morning of September 11, he cancelled a scheduled breakfast meeting in the Windows on the World restaurant on the 107th floor of the North Tower due to his wife’s insistence that he couldn’t miss an appointment with his dermatologist (see the interview he gave to Bloomberg’s Greg Miles). Shortly afterwards, Mr. Silverstein received phone calls from not one but three Israeli prime ministers — Ariel Sharon, Ehud Barak and Benjamin Netanyahu — asking how their lucky friend was (Sara Leibovich-Dar, “Up in smoke,” Haaretz, Sept 9, 2002, article no longer available on the Haaretz website).
Ingo – I don’t think your ‘tangent’ is irrelevant to this at all.
The article you linked was originally on Alternet on 4 December. This was my comment on the thread:
‘It isn’t just the US who should be worried by this. The Middle East is an area which is recognisably at flash-point level, and the supply of water is probably the one thing about which no politician is willing to talk, but which every politician knows could be the spark that ignites the tinder. It’s not just the Jordan either. The Tigris and Euphrates are being dammed in their headwater areas in Turkey, and there is concern that the water on which Iraq depends will be diminished considerably. In the Nile valley the treaties under which Egypt receives a set percentage of the river water are being questioned especially by Ethiopia (source of the Blue Nile and Atbara tributaries), but also by Sudan and Uganda, and now by Southern Sudan.
Access to water supplies may be the trigger for wars in other parts of the world, especially in Central Asia and in Russia.
It is a world-wide problem.’
And of course, Syria has a legitimate claim to the Golan Heights: one of the main sources of the Jordan.
No, supremely relevant, I would say.
This is fun:
“Cyber war on US drones? Another spy craft crash, now in Seychelles”
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With America still scrambling to explain why and how they lost a drone aircraft over Iran last week, the Pentagon is trying to make sense of how another high-tech unmanned spy craft crashed Tuesday morning in the Seychelles …
http://rt.com/usa/news/seychelles-drone-us-iran-711/
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The MQ-9 Reaper has the capability of launching laser-guided bombs and air-to-ground missiles, although the DoD says the craft in question was not armed and no injuries resulted in the crash.
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The Reaper, what a bloody name
“Shlomo Sands, ‘The Invention of the Jewish People’. Fantastic book.”
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I attended a lecture he gave on the topic of his book. His thesis is fascinating.