We have it. It is a good document.

Extracts from the remarks by the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, at the closing press conference of the Durban Review Conference:

... the final outcome document – is in the bag. We have it. It is a good document. It cannot be reopened now. And thereby hangs a tale.

Since day one of my new job as High Commissioner, I was committed to the Durban Review Conference. From September 1 when I took office until today, I simply cannot recall how many meetings, phone calls, discussions I have had with my team and with ministers, ambassadors, NGOs, journalists, to explain why this conference was so important and why it should enjoy participation by all.

It was very difficult. I had to face a widespread, and highly organized campaign of disinformation. Many people, including Ministers with whom I spoke, told me that the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action, which as you know was agreed by 189 states at the original World Conference Against Racism in 2001 was anti-Semitic, and it was clear that either they had not bothered to read what it actually said, or they were putting a cast on it that was, to say the least, decidedly exaggerated.

Many others have labelled the entire Durban process as a “hate fest.” We have had some rough moments in the process, but a “hate fest?” I’m sorry, this is hyperbole. It is a gross exaggeration. But it is everywhere on the Internet. And I’m sorry to say many mainline newspapers who incidentally declined many op-eds that I sent up to them. Because I kept urging States to take part, one of the most vociferous opponents of the conference called me the “dangerous High Commissioner for Human Rights.” So if you see a special look about me, that’s the danger. Another called me the “ludicrous High Commissioner for Human Rights.” That look I have dropped since. I expect these types of personal attacks to continue for the rest of my tenure. But I can live with them because I see this conference as a success and I know that you will judge this process in a valid and fair way.

If people actually read the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action, they would have realized that it includes a paragraph which says that “the Holocaust should never be forgotten”. It includes two paragraphs that denounce “anti-Semitism and Islamophobia”, and one paragraph which mentions the suffering of the Palestinians, their right of self-determination and the security of all States, including Israel, and two paragraphs calling for peace. That’s all there is on the Middle East. And I could not get these corrections published in some important newspapers, particularly in the US, who used the word hate fest without checking these paragraphs.

The final document of this conference – the Conference product, if you like – also says the Holocaust must never be forgotten and deplores anti-Semitism along with Islamophobia and all forms of racism, xenophobia, racial discrimination and related intolerance. But already the propaganda machine is starting to wind up to term this conference a failure, a “hate fest and all the rest of it.” This is extraordinary. Yet no one has really written up the true story of this Conference – a strange rough and tumble affair full of smoke and mirrors, I must admit, yet very definitely a success story, with plenty of good will as well as plenty of bad will of the type I have described just now.

... because of this campaign that was so determined to kill the conference, some countries decided to boycott it, although a few days earlier, they had actually agreed on what is now the final text. I consider this bizarre. You agree the text on Friday evening, and walk out on Sunday. I think, it was unfortunate that a few states disengaged from the process. Although almost all of them had agreed this text, they are not part of the consensus that adopted it. I do hope they will come back into the process now. They can still add their names to the list of 182 states that have adopted the outcome document. And by the way, Iran is part of that consensus. When the final call came, Iran did not oppose the text.

The regional and political groups all made concessions. It’s very important to note that. It was difficult for them. If you take the Arab countries for instance: they accepted that neither Palestine, nor the Middle East is mentioned in the text. Of course they are mentioned in the DDPA and the word “reaffirm” carries those paragraphs into this document, but no specific mention of these paragraphs in this text because of the concessions made by them. That is extremely difficult for them to do politically. The OIC was also very cooperative as we moved towards consensus. The Africans, the Europeans and all the other groups also made concessions to a greater or lesser degree. That’s why we say that no individual state is completely happy with this document but collectively they are all happy with it.

So there we are. That is part of the story of the Durban Review Conference . I’ll leave the rest to you.

And what did the assembled press do with what was left to them?

Judge for yourself.

My judgement is: The press, by and large, didn't do the story justice. Nor, by implication, did they do justice for all the victims of Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance.

more neither Arthur nor Martha ...

  .. some swindles they push ...
 
    .. come back to bite 'em
 
-=*=-
 
Here is an interesting graph:
 

 
I got the graph from Barry Ritholtz here, cited by Mike Whitney here. Ritholtz quotes his source: Ron Griess of The Chart Store.
 
The thing that I find sooo interesting is the point of down-turn; it well pre-dates the identified start of the so-called 'derivatives melt-down:' "the collapse that began in late July 2007 with the emergence of the subprime crisis," atimes/W Joseph Stroupe. Then a Q: If I can see this, why can't others - or if they can/have done, why no, or at least so little, chatter about it? Ritholtz's final comment is "Astonishing ..." and I agree, but for a different reason; apart from the obvious, i.e. the dramatic "over the cliff" decline, but also from the timing of the chart's peak, i.e. the start of the crash (of housing starts, remember.) According to this article in The Economist, US house-prices are "down 30% since their peak in mid-2006." According to the graph, housing starts peaked on or about 1/31/06, i.e. start-'06. As usual, there are lags, so now to my biggest Q (here): What happened, before late July 2007, before mid-'06, before even start-'06 - what triggered it all; the house-price falls, the house-start stalls, then the Wall-St rout?
 
An interesting forensic question; I have addressed it in a slightly different form starting looong ago, seems the 1st mention that I made of the Howard/Costello CGT-halving might have been 030805 (YYMMDD, and then Oh, s**t! - I'm still moaning about it!) Before we leave this, you might ask Q: *Exactly* why is this sooo interesting?" - and the answer is A: Because the 'derivatives mess' is *secondary*, being financial finagling based partly as it is on the (hyper!)inflation of house prices (as good as criminally aided and abetted by Howard/Costello in Aus), which in turn in the US is based on the true, real reason behind all of these problems, namely the (hyper!)irresponsible 'printing' of US$s, and the resulting asset-price bubbles. IF ... THEN; the massive bail-outs, by many estimates now into multi-trio figures are all being directed at a secondary problem, all that dough landing who-knows-where (but we can make a 'good' guess (actually, of course bad one)) - but the 'primary' cause stays largely unacknowledged, let alone treated - much less cured. Q: How incredibly odd is that!!? A: Utterly, (terminally!) gobsmacking!

bloody "venerable" island

Today I started thinking about the bloody big island sitting at the southern tip of India. It's called Sri Lanka now, Ceilão [Ceylon] in years past, Taprobane or Serendib before that, and probably other names as well.

Bloody? Yes, since 1983 there has been on-and-off civil war, an ethnic war, a bloody war. Very bl**dy bloody.

Big? Sure it's not the biggest, but yes ... it is certainly big enough that everyone could live on their little bit of it peacefully if they decided to do so, sipping tea together or something, anything rather than treating each other as a bl**dy enemy and trying to defeat each other.

But the fact is they have been doing that a bloody long time, even before the bloody Black July pogroms of 1983 which are generally seen as the starting point of full-scale bloody armed conflict between Tamil separatists and the Sinhalese-dominated government of Sri Lanka.

Back in that bloody Black July at least 2,500 Tamil people were killed. Tens of thousands of Tamil houses destroyed in riots that followed a deadly bloody ambush by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) killed thirteen Sinhalese Sri Lanka Army soldiers.

Naturally, the LTTE was not just murdering Sinhalese soldiers for sport or some kind of sick entertainment. These militant Tamils, followers of Vēluppillai Pirapākaran, had cast themselves the role of 'freedom-fighters' and they attacked (at first military) targets in an attempt to carve out in the north and east of the island a "Tamil homeland, Tamil nationality and Tamil right to self-determination."

The drive to create what they'd call Tamil Eelam didn't arise when two Tamils sat down to bl**dy tea or some such. It is rooted in the way the (bl**dy) British 'divided to rule' Ceylon. (No)Thanks to the (bl**dy) Brits, there ensued a long running dispute over power sharing between the peoples on this bloody island.

The Tamil minority at first used Ghandi-like satyagraha (non-violent means) to get a fair share of the power in post-colonial Ceylon. Things turned bloody when the Tamil peoples' sit downs in protest to the Sinhala Only Act were broken up by Sinhalese gangs. Then came the bloody pograms of 1958. The (bl**dy) Brits played a key part in that too. The (bl**dy) British navy closed its base in Trincomalee (good), laid off 400 Tamil labourers (not so good) and the government proposed to resettle them in the Polonnaruwa district where the Sinhalese population began forming gangs and threatening vigilante attacks on any Tamil migrants (bad, very bloody bad). As usually happens, violence escalated and the path to bloody civil war was set.

Yet most punters noticing the *news* these days would probably not know this long and bloody path to the current bloody situation. At least since the Black Tigers started strapping bomb belts on and blowing themselves up amongst perceived enemies we've been told, and told, and told again that the Tamils are bloody terrorists.

Recently I've learned from Antony Lowenstein that the government of Sri Lanka and its military, like the government of Israel and its military, is causing massive carnage fighting a WOT, i.e. wiping out a militia formed out of some desperate people who'd turned in frustration to violent means to achieve reasonable (but forever denied to them) ends. Also like (bl**dy) Israel, the (bl**dy) Sri Lankans engage in (heavy) lobbying in an effort to guard their 'venerable' image.

Ant highlights what Ken Silverstein said via Harpers:

Washington lobbyists are making out quite well from the war. In January, the firm of Patton Boggs was retained by the Embassy of Sri Lanka, with “a fixed fee of $35,000 per month, payable quarterly in advance,” according to the contract. Democratic lobbyist Tommy Boggs is helping run the account, which calls on Patton Boggs to “provide guidance and counsel to the Embassy of Sri Lanka regarding its relations with the Executive and Legislative Branches of the U.S. Government.” In other words, to sanitize the government’s conduct of the war and make it look good with the Obama administration.

Ken Silverstein provides a handy link to Bruce Fein's op-ed in the Boston Globe: Genocide in Sri Lanka:

The barrage of media reporting of the grim conflict in Sri Lanka has captured popular imagination, but has overlooked the grisly Sinhalese Buddhist genocide of innocent Hindu or Christian Tamil civilians by a US dual citizen and US green card holder. The two should be investigated and prosecuted in the United States.

Acting on behalf of Tamils Against Genocide, I recently delivered to US Attorney General Eric H. Holder a three-volume, 1,000 page model 12-count genocide indictment against Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Sarath Fonseka charging violations of the Genocide Accountability Act of 2007. Derived from affidavits, court documents, and contemporaneous media reporting, the indictment chronicles a grisly 61-year tale of Sinhalese Buddhists attempting to make Sri Lanka "Tamil free."

Now, as we know, Bruce Fein is a Conservative, who was associate deputy attorney general under the "freedom-fighter" fan President Ronald Reagan, and that makes him suss in my view ... though he was later critical of W Bush ... and called for his and Cheney's impeachment`... and that's somewhat redeeming in my humble opinion ... but anyways, no matter, whatever we think of Bruce Fien, if 'venerable' generals are so much as suspected of engaging in genocide, then investigated and then prosecuted they should be.

Let them face scrutiny and stand accountable for their actions. If guilty, then we've got them, we penalise them, and justice is served. If innocent, then they walk free ... but importantly, we've sent a message to military men worldwide that you'll have to fight bl**dy fair (if you have to bloody fight at all) and be able to prove you've done so at every bloody step (one, two ... left, right, one, two ...). It might just dent their bl**dy enthusiams for bloody solutions to bl**dy problems, such as bl**dy pig-headed ethnic rivalries over an island that's big enough to share.

more NWO ...

  .. the c-word ...

    .. our sorry state

Warning: some say that 'one can find anything on the internet,' which is probably both deeply and mysteriously true. But if so, then anyone finding this comment might be better advised just to leave it where it is ...

[Updated 1 & 2]

-=*=-

G'day orana gelar,

apologies neither sought nor needed, 'NWO' is in any case a 'slippery' name/concept; whether justifiably or not, it hovers on the border of tin-foil hat territory. But it's an advantage of our _libre that we set no strictures (apart from reserving the right to boot inconsequentials and/or lying trolls straight *OUT*!) Also, if you peruse the wiki, you'll see some interesting words, like c-theory and 'cabal.' Add that to your BIS comments; delicious!

I'm supposing your NWO remark could have been inspired by this from Ahmadinejad's site:

  «The Iranian president also called for change in the monetary and financial system of the world.
It was among the grave responsibilities of intellectuals, scientists and officials of the world to play their historical role at this sensitive juncture, he said.» 
[from the official site]

Caveat: I agree with orana gelar's "to be clear," we do not need, nor will we, posit any shadowy, cryptocratic or totalitarian anything; what we can actually see (via the net, forgetting the corrupt and venal MSM for the moment) is perfectly bad enough. In any case, there will always be (failing a shuddering quantum-collapse into a single theory of everything(??!)) - there will always be rival theories, for example perhaps one of the simplest (i.e. KISS): birds-of-a-feather. However, there are some details that we cannot (are not allowed to) see - for obvious (and undemocratic) reasons; some details are discussed 'behind closed doors,' the perfect (actually of course the worst) recent example possibly being the agreement(s) made between B, B & H over Iraq (illegal invasion thereof, morphed into brutal occupation; murder for oil. Recall: 'Pre-deployment.') We know (now!) that, for example, 'the intel was being fixed around the policy.' At this point, one could examine the formal definition of conspiracy[1]. To end this caveat, all that follows might be better prefaced by "with all due respect" and the conditional "IF - THEN ..."

The scene: I posed the (quasi-rhetorical) question, Q: "What's new about this purported/dreaded NWO?" A possible A: "Not much." I usually like to start with what might be the worst war crime (possibly for all time - if we're lucky), and I'm referring to the double-A-bombing of Japan. Contrary to what they assert (say one thing, do another), IF the A-bombing was needed at all THEN it was needed *only* for a) they'd spent the dough and/therefore b) they could, and c) the true *main reason*, they wanted to send the Russkies a signal: "See what we can do - Ooops! Did." 1945+ 100s of 1000s mostly innocent Japs dead. That act set the scene for a lot to follow. A lot more s**tty crimes, that is, recall millions dead in and around 60s-70s Vietnam then refer most recently to 2003+ 100s of 1000s possibly 1.3mio+ mostly innocent Iraqis dead. This time, I'd like start back at WW1.

The plot:

In general, "Truth, justice and the American way."

Back to WW1 - "To make the world safe for democracy."

Skip to GWBush, "They hate us for our freedoms," "We will bring [xxx] to justice."

Comment: All filthy, propagandistic lies. Recall my discussions of Bernays and propaganda; the 'developing' of PR (primarily propaganda merely 're-branded' - then extended), the developments grouped under the rubric of 'manufacture of demand/consent.' Bernays went to France with Wilson; see propagandistic WW1 slogan above. Bernays-type developments have culminated in today's sheople; notionally worshipped as electors (who always get it right!) - but psychologically manipulated into impotence - and then insulted by the perverse almost-no-choice ugly-twin two-(identical!)-party system of (lying!) candidates - who when elected deliberately fail (miserably!) to properly represent. Lot of big trouble there - if the sheople ever wake up.

Next, Ahmadinejad's monetary and financial system musings; what we have is so-called $US-hegemony, critical time-points being Bretton Woods 1944 exchange-rate fixing then Nixon's 71 'default' and subsequent 'de-golding' of the $US with gold being effectively replaced by - ta ra! Oil. The early 70s oil-shocks followed (those miserable oil-producing countries attempting to get a fairer price - as well as sticking it to a few 'deserving' infidels (there is an alternative explanation; looking ... something to do with Kissinger? Rockefeller? [Update 2: Engdahl/The Fake Oil Crisis of 1973])), oil-price rises adding to pretty-well world-wide inflation partly/mainly caused by the US trying to have both guns and butter (by, another ta ra! - printing $s). Naturally enough, Whitlam was (locally) blamed (I'll return to good old Gough in good time). Suffice it to say that no discussion is needed vis-à-vis Whitlam, Hawke/Keating or now Rudd, nor Fraser, Howard & Costello[2]. Stooges all (excepting Gough), Aus is just too small a financial fish and world (US) effects dominate, and politics (after Gough) is a cruel charade. Skipping the various financial imbroglios until 2008, we (world) are now deep in the (mainly US) financial poo; parallels are already being made with 1929 - and it'll probably get (far!) worse. One thing the US is up to once again is - yet another ta ra! - printing $s!!?

A word on banks/banksters; what a wicked racket. All (fiat) money is created - printed(!!?) - but not on 'real' paper; once a 'mere' journal entry, now done electronically - at the stroke of a computer-key. The primary money 'creators' are the so-called 'central' banks(s), here more or less shadowy, some (quasi)independent (as allegedly in Aus) and some outright private (US, misleadingly named 'the Fed'), and one possibly out of all control (BIS.) After the central banks come the 'trading' banks; they 'need' a certain amount of 'own' capital, which they use as 'deposit' to *borrow* (at interest) from the central bank(s) and may then proceed to loan out (again at interest) some factor *more* to the 'outside' world. The factor is the 'fraction' in 'fractional reserve banking,' the name given to the swindle.

To invent an example not too far from reality, let us assign 1/10 = 10% to the fraction and interest rate both, and see what happens: some central bank 'creates' a squillion. The 'trading' banks come along and borrow the squillion, but due to fractional reserve banking, only after they have raised 1/10th of a squillion first as their 'deposit,' usually shareholders' dough. (Which - naturally enough - the shareholders have probably borrowed. Don't be alarmed! Also, one presumes, they are required to post a hefty deposit to hinder the hoi-polloi from getting in on the (wicked) action.) I could have it slightly wrong here; it could be that the trading banks have to raise a whole squillion - as opposed to 1/10th, but it's a (relatively) unimportant detail, as we will now see.

Having borrowed the central bank's squillion (or used their 'deposit' dough to purchase bonds from the central bank - again, detail here is not critically important); then a) the trading banks have to pay the central bank interest, 1/10th = 10% per year. But, and it's a VERY BIG BUT, b) the trading banks may now proceed to loan out 10 * a squillion, themselves also charging 10% interest from the borrowers, i.e. getting a squillion back in interest from the outside world, obviously now indebted by 10 squillion. The trading banks pay 1/10 = 10% on the 'reserve-squillion' to the central bank, so the central bank pockets 1/10th of a squillion (for a single stroke of a computer-key!) - and the trading banks pocket the remaining 9/10ths of a squillion interest raised. By multiplying the primary creators' loans by the reserve fraction, the trading banks are 'secondary' money creators. See what I mean by a wicked racket? (Q: How do I get in? A: Start by raising a squillion...)

The above system, racket though it undoubtedly is, is supposed to be run responsibly, with the accent heavily on *responsibly* (infinite-loop at this point); to avoid, say, printing too much dough - and therefore causing inflation. One might think that it would be a pretty easy task to do this; if nothing else, they work out some function that approximates to steady-state, then they fine-tune it as they go. But nooo, the Aus-RBA, say (notionally 'independent'), sets an 'inflation-target' (a 2-3% band, say), then manipulates the system trying to chase after that target. A BIG Q here: why not target 0%? A: Good Q. If it sounds like they have the cart before the horse, it's probably deliberate. But before we move on from this 'bankster-racket,' an even big - bigger - biggest Q: In the name of justice and equity, this interest being gouged out of the economy by banks, seeing as it is demonstrably *money for nothing* (recall the originating single computer-keystroke), should be pocketed exactly by whom??!

Two things have gone (desperately!) wrong; the first and most obvious, is the (cynical!) deliberate over-printing, by successive US-Fed regimes, to the extent, previously noted, of provoking/supporting asset-price bubbles. Which are now popping, or threatening to pop, but whatever; the system, world-wide, appears to be crashing. As if that wasn't bad enough, the main proposed 'solution' being implemented, 1st by the GWBush regime and now continued by Obama's, is to throw ever more money at the very same people (i.e. the wicked banksters) who created the problem in the 1st place. These (sad) days, they (whoever the hell 'they' are) separate the world into 'real' economy and 'finance;' the actual terminology sending us a v.loud message. Seems to me, that the real economy (making/selling 'stuff') has itself been stuffed - the sheople almost everywhere having had their purchasing power neo-liberalled down to, if not below, unsustainable minimums, whilst at the same time their savings (shares crashing -50%) and housing ('merely' doubled+ (Aus[2]) or crashing (US)) have been turned into desert-dust.

The second thing going (desperately!) wrong, is perhaps (approaching infinitely!) worse. In a word: derivatives, aka financial finagling. One such derivative-type is MBS (mortgage backed securities); housing (plus other) mortgages, 100s or 1000s thrown into one pot then sliced-up & resold at fabulous (promised *potential*) profits (don't ask me "Based on what?" - except possibly to lure the greedy) - but then the underlying house-prices (US) are crashing, turning such derivatives 'toxic.' That's one 'flavour' of derivatives, there are many, going quickly über-complex (hence the expression: "Masters of the (financial) universe(!!?)") Now for some (v.rough) figures, and no sources quoted. From my (dim) recall, the US GDP is about 15Trio (very rounded), and the world's GDP is about 60Trio. The amount of (fiat) money floating around is related to GDP by some factor like 'the velocity of money' (which can be looked up in any case; me not wanting to get too complicated here. Update 1: I've done some checking. US M2 at 2007 was in the region of $US7.5trio; if the world is 3* the US then world M2 could be 30Trio). The total derivatives may be in the region of 600Trio(!!?) - and if so, that's possibly why, if as alleged by the Brown article, the BIS set out to strangle the US and (as 'collateral damage') the world economy; the 'derivatives scam' has acted as a 'tertiary' source of money creation, multiplying the central banks' squillion, already multiplied by the trading banks' 10* factor, then up by another 20* factor(more !!?) - and *all* that (fiat!) money is a) indistinguishable and b) based on a big, fat zero in the first place - that good old original single computer-keystroke.

Or something like that; de-regulation, dismantling the measures set up after the great crash/depression which started in 1929, leading to possibly an even greater crash now. How clever, those de-regulators, and the masters of the financial universe both!

That was all money; before we 'move on' from $s, two other not-so-slight things: the fact that oil is denominated in, bought & sold in $US has enormous significance; and is (sadly!) only one of multiple ways the US gives itself a free lunch. Take Germany, say; it needs oil - just like most non-oil producers. To buy oil, they need $US, and so they make a few Mercedes, say (Porsches too, better but a bit more X-y), and then they flog 'em off to any Yanks not yet owning fat 4WD/SUVs, or in any case not yet owning enough cars (where enough is obviously never enough). But ooops! Make Mercedes; sell. Buy oil; burn. Out of oil; bummer! Loop back to make Mercedes... The other 'nice' trick is US external-deficit spending; exporting countries end up piling up otherwise useless, valueless fiat dollars. All they can really do with them - and this is from real-world observation, remember, is to buy US bonds i.e. actually finance the US external-deficit, or buy US arms, even more useless and wasteful (except for the Zionists, who get given the latest US killing technology - which they then use on mostly totally innocent Palestinians. See Gaza, 2008/9. See Lebanon, 2006. See Palestine slowly being stolen piece by piece, 1948 to present; almost continual mass-murder to enable theft, pillage, looting, plunder and rapine.)

-=*=-

Rackets upon rackets, we could look at resources, but I'm again running out of time and puff. Suffice it to say, that "buy low, sell high" has been taken to the furthest possible extreme, but that's not new. I read the other day that before nationalising its oil, Iraq was getting as little as 5% of the take. No sources, no time. Keyword: resource-rent. Keywords: Kennan, Memo PPS23, "... going to have to deal in straight power concepts..." - another suffice it to say, the US with 5% of world's population, now consuming about 25% of world's resources. Note that the oil-nationalisation by Iraq has now been countered; Iraq's 'patrimony' is now once again fully exposed to US depredation - what a surprise!

Major effect: sovereign resource-owners are being horribly ripped-off.

Some 'proof:' Perkins' "Economic Hit Man." I read a criticism recently; said the latter part of the book was borderline believable. Not pertinent, IMHO. A quote of a quote of a quote:

  «Perkins' summary of how US imperialism escalates its responses is excellent. Starting with the urbane "hitman" – "iron fist in the velvet glove" - followed by the "jackals" who do the murdering and black ops (when persuasion and sweet reason have failed); and the finale (only when the jackals cannot kill their targets etc as with Noreiga in Panama and Saddam in Iraq) – sending in the military to kill and maim everyone in sight.» 
[you can find it if you wish]

Perkins leads straight into / is meshed with the 'Washington consensus,' WB/IMF 'conditionalities' and compliments pug-ugly neo-liberalism, so-called 'free market' everything, privatisations, union-busting, down-sizing, out-sourcing, cutting if not eliminating social services; any/all other components of globalisation that, they promised, would 'lift all boats' (say one thing, do another) - but basically depressed the whole world to benefit of the becoming universally, irresistibly detestable US. (Another phew! How many laps to go? OK; MSM and political/democracy.)

-=*=-

MSM: Yeah yeah; privately-owned have long-since abrogated their 4th Estate responsibilities, corrupt and venal. The publicly-financed broadcasters are supposed to be honest and unbiased and certainly supposed to work for us and not against us; but now the final 'proof,' (as if any more were needed), and better than the implied Perkins' proof because we can see/hear it for ourselves, directly and 1st hand from our radios and TVs: before, during and after Ahmadinejad's speech, those publicly-financed broadcasters that I could witness outright lied. One odd thing - or perhaps not really so odd at all; when someone lies - especially as badly as vis-à-vis Ahmadinejad - then their credibility goes all the way down the tor-let. In the banking collapse, they've been talking about how to regain lost trust. Interesting to see if such is even remotely possible: so let's see you show us how, eh Aunty AusBC?

-=*=-

Politics/democracy: been there, done that; but to loop through some of it briefly, a properly functioning democracy needs at least these three prerequisites; an involved and educated electorate - not a dumbed-down and misled one, a fair and varied choice of honest candidates - not lying sell-outs, full and accurate info-flows, not MSM-lies piled on top of politician-lies. The psychological manipulation of the electorate is especially objectionable, and is one absolute proof that our so-called 'democracies' simply aren't.

-=*=-

Fazit: Almost nothing is as it's supposed to be, or as they assert it is. In the 1st instance, we, the so-called 'democratic' sheople are supposed to be sovereign; we're bloody-well not, not allowed to be. The psychological manipulation means that even if well enough informed, the sheople can't be trusted (by those wicked manipulators) to vote the 'right' way - whatever that may be (see the recent properly free vote in Gaza; obviously voters chose the 'wrong' candidates - going on the external tantrums that ensued.) But the sheople are not fully and honestly informed, to the contrary. The economy is a shambles; 'from each according to ability, to each according to need' has been brutally suppressed, contradicted, abandoned and ruthlessly violated. Add your own negatives. In a nutshell, The Enlightenment may well have not happened. Ahmadinejad gets a lot right, his: «the grave responsibilities of intellectuals, scientists and officials» addresses those who have dropped the ball, have abrogated their responsibilities, abandoned not just morality but even humanity. I posed another question Q: Why? Why do criminals predominate? One suggested A: Plato's Allegory of the Cave didn't help me - sorry, perhaps I'm too tired or too impatient to extract the significance. Then, as to NWO, regardless of new or old, what we see is mostly disorder; although people are organising all over the place - the example of Kennan has been quoted; 'the planners' is a pervasive feature, not of some trumped-up totalitarian distraction, but *primarily* in the US - the Pentagon, RAND, think-tanks of every stripe. But, and it's an AMAZINGLY BIG BUT: they seem only to create more (greedy & selfish!) chaos, rather than any (egalitarian) order. Here's a good place to ask "Why?" - and who, as in how is this value for money?

I end with a final question Q: Where are the responsibles, where are the adults?

-=*end*=-

PS I mentioned I'd return to Gough - but I'm out of time. Nevertheless, it's important. Thesis: that Gough was the (arguable) greatest - and (sadly) the last. IMHO, Gough was a genuine and positive reformer, but was basically crippled by not enough time (how ironic, given "It's time!") And, he ran headlong into the CIA. I don't make this stuff up; decide for yourself, here are some (middling) videos:

Whitlam Dismissal and the CIA.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JQ7-xvgcHA&feature=related

Whitlam Dismissal and the CIA. Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prV-Yae_5_g&feature=related

The conclusion of the person who supplied me with those links is the same as mine i.e. I agree with him; and recall "IF - THEN ..." The democratic outlook for Aus is not just grim but hopeless (failing a revolution). If Gough has any remaining major legacy it'd have to be Medicare (nee the original Medibank); it'd be nice (Oh, fabulous day!) if that were to be fully restored/extended to the original vision, i.e. single (wise!) provider. Always worth a repeat: encourage medicine for profit (neo-liberal style), and you'll get mostly profit - and a lot of poor and v.sad (dead?) patients. About the best one could say is that they can't afford to let too many get too poor (or die, but everyone does that eventually) - but having said that, it is immediately contradicted by the current (financial) crisis; that's *exactly* what they have done, i.e. let too many get too poor - they (the US) actually, consciously drove a great many of their own people into penury. IMHO, they might have done it 'just' to spite Marx - but ended up cutting off their own nose instead.

To reinforce the point (yet another loop): the only way that they can possibly restore the 'real' economy (seems to me), is to restore enough demand = disposable income, to - ta ra! the sheople. But, and it could be an insurmountable but: they can only restore that disposable income by reversing the perhaps 30+ years' concentrated effort that they have applied directly *against* those sheople. That's a so-called 'hard' loop, normally 'impossible' to break; since (in this case) to break out of it, they'd have to *admit* that they got it wrong, at least 30 if not more looong years wrong - like, totally!!?

-=*=-

Epilogue: "User pays," like most if not all of the neo-liberal bulls**t, is for the birds. You can exploit/depress the lower/middle-income bracket only up to a certain point - beyond which there's no more blood or treasure to be squeezed. The neo-liberals have spent 30+ years polishing-up their meanness, whilst every person with any sensitivity has been shrieking exactly that: "MEAN BASTARDS!" - it's just gotta stop. There are a couple of problems. As 'Blind Freddy' can see, the rich getting richer is one thing, and the other in this case is that this automatically makes the poor ever poorer (nothing much new here) - but, until the limiting case is reached, like now, when far too many have been exhausted to the point of not spending. The eventual result of that (crashing demand) - is economic collapse; as we are now seeing (as long foreseen by Marx & others). Just as medicine-for-profit switches the focus from health to profit, encouraging greed leads to ever more greed, with the other side of that being an insensitivity to the normal sheople - not 'dole-bludgers' mind you, merely those without the ghastly killer(greed) modus operandi. 

-=*=-

Ref(s):

[1] conspiracy n. (pl. -ies) 1 secret plan to commit a crime; plot. 2 conspiring. [Latin: related to *conspire] [POD]

conspiracy of silence n. agreement to say nothing. [ibid.]

conspirator n. person who takes part in a conspiracy.  conspiratorial adj. [ibid.]

[2] Costello is what amounts to a cruel joke. Celebrated by the Libs and MSM both as some sort of financial genius, his most noteworthy achievement (not what he said, but what he did), was adding the final functionality (halving the CGT) that enabled Aus house-prices to form a more than double-bubble. Costello still hangs around like a bad smell. The next cruel joke would be to let him back in, to become a candidate for the position of our fearless (clueless, gutless, do-nothing etc.) leader. Arrgh - but essentially impotent anyway - given the current state of the NWdisO.

American Exceptionalism - to the rules.

The Obama Administration has released some Bush Administration torture memos. They are damning. So is justice to be meted out to the perpetrators? Unless sufficient pressure from the public and media (one can always hope) is brought to be bear it is unlikely to be from the US, more likely left to other states such as Spain. There is an empire to protect after all, and if the US is a city on the hill, an example, it is about how to shred the foundations of their system - and get away with it.

Some news and views on various aspects of the matter:

A report which links to the report of the Senate Armed Services Committee on Detainee Treatment.

Pepe Escobar.

It's a script worthy of Freddie Krueger, the fictional character from the A Nightmare on Elm Street films. Nearly five years after the irruption of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal in Iraq, here's another chamber of horrors, another glimpse of how The Dark Side really works.

But the George W Bush torture memos released by the Barack Obama administration last week, written in legalese by Jay Bybee and Stephen Bradbury, are just a preview. Many will relish the newspeak. ("We conclude that - although sleep deprivation and use of the waterboard present more substantial questions in certain aspects under the statute and the use of tile waterboard raises the most substantial issue - none of these specific techniques, considered individually, would violate the prohibition in sections 134:0•2340A.") As for the whole movie - a 21st century remix of a D W Griffith epic - it could be called Death of a Nation.

The US Senate report, also just released, reads like deja vu all over again: the US establishment under Bush was a replay of the Spanish Inquisition. And it all started even before a single "high-profile al-Qaeda detainee" was captured. What Bush, vice president Dick Cheney, defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assorted little inquisitors wanted was above all to prove the non-existent link between Saddam Hussein's Iraq and al-Qaeda, the better to justify a pre-emptive, illegal war planned by the now-defunct Project for the New American Century (PNAC) in the late 1990s. The torture memos were just a cog in the imperial machine.

The New York Times, in a fit of decency, at least has already demanded that Congress impeach the lawyerly Bybee, who got his lifetime seat in a federal appeals court from ... Bush.

Chris Floyd.

Glenn Greenwald on the media handling of the matter. And see other pieces by GG.

Gary Kamiya.

The A-G wants to.

All in the cause (allegedly) of keeping America safe. Really? And the excuse continues to be used . . such as about surging in Afghanistan ... from Tom Engelhardt - "Questions to Ask in the Dead of Night."

Ahmadinejad un-filtered; UN, Geneva, 20Apr'09

[from the official site]
Monday 20 April 2009 - 19:10
President in the int'l Durban Review Conference:
Zionists’ advantage taking of int’l political means should end
 

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday called for fundamental change in the infrastructure of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) and questioned the legitimacy of the right to veto.

President Ahmadinejad made the remarks at the International Durban Review Conference (Durban 2) in Geneva on Monday.

The Iranian president also called for change in the monetary and financial system of the world.

It was among the grave responsibilities of intellectuals, scientists and officials of the world to play their historical role at this sensitive juncture, he said.

Capitalism like Communism had a wrong concept of the world and its development and tries to impose its will on the world people while merely pursuing materialistic goals rather than justice, freedom, brotherhood, affinity and kindness, he said.

All should take proper lessons from such developments and this can be attained through collective contribution of governments and nations round the globe.

Ahmadinejad: UNSC had given Zionists liberty to commit crimes
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told the International Durban Review Conference (Durban II) that United Nations Security Council (UNSC) had in the past 60 years supported the occupier Zionist regime and given it the liberty to commit any crime.

Addressing the participants at the international meeting on racism in Geneva, he questioned the right to veto, wondering which logic underlies such a right. "With which human value does it comply? Is it compatible with justice, equality and human dignity?" he asked.

Referring to the fact that UNSC is the top-most source regarding international peace and security, he questioned that while legal discrimination prevails and laws are based on force rather than justice, how one can expect justice and peace?

He complained that a number of western and European governments consider themselves committed to the genocide racists and support them.

Following World War II, some displaced a nation and moved a number of people from Europe, the US and other countries to their land under the pretext that the Jews were victimized, and established a totally racist regime in the occupied lands, he said.

Ahmadinejad also posed a question on the origins of the recent wars such as US invasion on Iraq and Afghanistan and asked whether the reason was other than the self-conceitedness of the then US administration to expand its domination, destroy a lofty culture, eliminate potential and actual threats to Israel from regional countries and loot the Arab country's energy resources?

Stating that hegemony and self-conceitedness are the root causes of racism, discrimination and tyranny, the president added that today most of the racists pay only lip service in condemning the phenomena.

However, when several powerful countries are allowed to take decisions for other countries based on self interests, they can easily trample on all human values and laws.

Zionists’ advantage taking of int’l political means should end
IRI President said ignorance was not the major problem related to Zionism, arguing, “In campaign against this malignant phenomenon cultural work does not suffice, since there is also need for ending Zionists’ advantage taking of international political means.”

President added in his address, “The demand of the nations should be respected, the strong will of the unified governments for uprooting the openly observed racism should be harmonized, and the brave move towards reforming the international relations and apparatus should begin.”
He reiterated, “Today the human society is faced with a type of racism whose ugly face has became big shame for the global community.”
Ahmadinejad considered Zionism as the full manifestation of racism, adding, “Zionism’s claim of being religiously inclined is a lie resorting to which it has managed to manipulate the feelings of some ignorant people and to hide its real face.”
The Iranian political leader said, “What needs to be put in the focus of attention is the main objectives of certain big powers and those that have vast interests around the globe, taking advantage of their economic and political influence and their broad scale media power in vain, relying on the comprehensive backing of the Zionist regime to decrease the ugliness of its existence.”
The president added, “Beyond doubt all of you have become well aware of the great efforts made by world power centers aimed at deviating the path of this assembly from its real mission’s pathway.”
Ahmadinejad said, “Unfortunately, the literature of supporting the Zionists that is in other words partnership and being accomplices with them in the crimes they commit, is seen clearly and this increases the responsibility of the representatives of nations at the atmosphere of this anti-human trend and appropriate reforms in relations and behaviors.”
Ahmadinejad emphasized, “We should know that keeping a broad global potential, such as the one at this assembly, away from the path of achieving it main objectives is equal to the continuation of one of the ugliest, most evident forms of racism.”
He said that the prerequisite for defending the human rights today was defending the rights of nations to enjoy their free will in major global decision makings free from the influence of certain powers, and in making efforts aimed at reforming the global relations and apparatuses.
The president said, “Therefore, this gathering is the scene of a great test and the public opinion of the world nations, both today and tomorrow, would judge about us.”
Ahmadinejad added, “The general conditions of the world moves towards the emergence of major alterations rapidly. The power relations have become very fragile and the sound of breaking of the columns of the global oppression system is heard.”
Pointing out that the major political and economic structures of the world were on the verge of collapsing, he said, “The political and security crises are deepening and the expanding global economic crisis for which no bright future is predictable reveals the qualitative and quantitative dimensions of the entire developments ahead.”
The Iranian president said, “I have many times stressed the need for returning from the wrong path that the ruling global management system has been paving and warned about the consequences of delaying such a move.”
Ahmadinejad added, “Today, too, at this cherished global gathering, addressing you and the entire managers, thinkers and world nations that are thirsty for peace, freedom, advancement and well being, I say that the unjust ruling system in the world is at the end of its (doomed) path.”
He added, “Reaching the end of this dead-end street was inevitable, because the logic behind this imposed management is oppressive, and because the logic of the collective move of the world is a goal oriented, humane and monotheist move towards perfection; a move that would oppose any move or plan that is not in line with the interests of the nations.”
Ahmadinejad said that the victory of the righteous over falsehood was the bright future of the mankind and the establishment of a just global systemwas the promise of God and the entire prophets and the shared historic hope of the entire societies and generations.
He added, “The coming true of such a future is the obvious fruit of the existence of absolute knowledge behind creation and based on the belief of the entire believers in God and the very valuable stand of the human beings.”
The IRI President reiterated, “The shape taking of the global society, practical possibility of the shape taking of a shared global system and the entry of the thinkers, managers and people of the world for dynamic and fair participation in major, fundamental decision makings is the doomed path of this great move.”
Ahmadinejad said, “Today there are great scientific, technical and information technology potentials that have provided a shared portion for the learning of the global society and an appropriate path for the manifestation of the shared global system.”
BIG POWERS CARE MERELY FOR THEIR OWN WEALTH AND POWER
The IRI President said all that the big world powers care for was their own wealth, their own power and their own nations, while the world nations were worthless in their eyes.
Ahmadinejad added his address at the International Durban Review Conference in Geneva, “Is not the occupation of Afghanistan among the manifestations of selfishness, racism, discrimination and humiliation of nations?”
Referring to the global economic crisis, he said, “Who are the officials in charge of the emergence of the global economic crisis? Where did the crisis originate from? From Africa? From Asia? Or did it initiate in the United States followed by Europe and their allies?”
The president added, “The big powers that have for long periods of time been imposing unjust economic rules and regulations at the global scene have established the economic and monetary system of the world while the others have had no interference, neither in the processes, nor in the policy makings.”
He added, “They do not even permit their own people, or the other nations to supervise, and by abandoning the observation of ethics, have shaped the rules only in favor of the capitalists.”
Ahmadinejad said that the big powers have a special definition for the market that deprives many parties of the chance to compete and they also transfer their own problems onto the others, so that today both the crisis and tens of billion of (dollars of) deficits have returned to themselves.”
Ahmadinejad said, “Today, in order to improve the current situation they have gained no result form injecting hundreds of billion dollars into the companies and the stock exchange markets.”
The president meanwhile said that the major root for racism was not understanding the reality of man as God’s special and elite creature, adding, “Deviation from the right path of life, ignoring the objectives behind God’s creation of man, and thinking about the philosophy of existence have led to shattering the horizons of man’s view and made him act for fleeting interests.”
Ahmadinejad reiterated, “These powers by eliminating the equal opportunities broadened the range of their own development so that they became the promoters of the ugliest shape of racism.”
Our country’s president said, “We need to begin increasing public awareness about the philosophy of mankind’s existence as the means for the campaign against such manifestations, and the prerequisite for that is returning to the observation of the spiritual, and ethical values, and exalted humane merits, which is verily monotheism.”

[Try to read what he actually said - not what any allege he said!]
 

good(??!) old Aunty AusBC

Says it all, really. No *further* proof required, ever:

[applicable snip:]
Controversial UN racism talks open
Posted April 20, 2009 20:48:00
  «Mr Ahmadinejad has repeatedly called the Holocaust a "myth" and for Israel to be "wiped off the map".»
[AusBC/justin]

My comment: He *never* said anything even *remotely* like that. Paraphrasing Ahmadinejad - i.e. not putting stuff into quotes, like the AusBC gave itself licence to do - since what he said in this context was, if my recall is correct, in Farsi - what he said was to question why innocent Palestinians should be so horribly penalised (i.e. driven out from their homeland and/or slaughtered) for the holocaust (penalised possibly incorrect, since the Palestinians were certainly in no way responsible for what happened half a world away from them, perhaps more accurate would be preyed upon); possibly whether the holocaust itself was as is repeatedly, pathetically portrayed by the (self-selecting?) victim-Israelis and then Ahmadinejad went on to quote someone else saying that the Israeli *regime* would/should be 'erased from the pages of history.' Others may supply *exact* details, but as it stands, it seems to me that what the AusBC has relayed, quoting the BBC quoting Ahmadinejad is simply not true (i.e. it's an outright, dirty lie) - and this, from a) our paid public servants, who b) are charged with *critically, correctly* informing us, we the people, and (a v.poor 3rd) are c) supposed 'professionals,' to boot. Boo! Hiss!

Fazit (long story short): I cannot accept, that this 'story' from the AusBC was made either in error or out of (naïve) ignorance. It *must* be a conscious and deliberate attempt at pushing some (ugly!) pro-Zionist propaganda paradigm. As such, the perpetrators belong (looong) behind bars. Contempt. Nothing but utter, deepest contempt.