I see that the UK's no. 1 war criminal has taken time off from his world money-hoovering tour to endorse the Labour Party's re-election bid. Asset or liability? My money's on the latter.
Not-quite-New Labour has managed so far to do a Basil Fawlty and not mention the w*r; five pledges like -
We promise to smile more
We promise not to slay the first-born
etc.

So what?

Tone has also taken time from his get rich double quick campaign to have himself painted a rich brown colour. I suppose he gets waived through passport control when visiting the USA, so he's not likely to be subject to special attention at the air terminal.

Just for the record -
1 Jean-Pierre
2 Vincent

This from Angry Arab's blog -

"To Lawyers among my readers
I have received emails from legal minds among my readers. I am told that I have grounds to sue the UK's Home Office for libel and defamation especially that I have received hate mails since the release of the report. If any one would like to take the case, or knows some one who would, please email me to my school email below (down to the left, I think)."

Professor AbuKhalil's 'Angry Arab News Service' was listed by the government's counter-terrorism unit as the third most influential British-based pro-islamic blog. This is the kind of "intelligence" that gave us the the DODGY DOSSIER. The professor is an avowed atheist and leftist who constantly exposes the stupidity of Islamic fundamentalist spokespersons and Iraqi Shi'a cleric-politicians. He is a US-based non-islamist. But he is also a recorder of Israeli war crimes and ethnic cleansing, and of Western collusion in these crimes. He is furthermore a critic of the dictators of the Arab world lauded by the Western propaganda machine and depicted as allies in their war on (some) terror; Mubarak of Egypt, the King of Jordan. He exposes the links between Bin Ladin and the Wahhabis led by their 'Imam', the Sa'udi monarch.
He is, to put it simply, persona non grata to Washington and it's ragbag of allies and clients. He is an Arab who is openly anti-Israel. That'll do for Whitehall and the British secret police. Call him pro-islamic, it doesn't mean much, but it connotes support for terrorism.

(image,Tim Brinton)

"AIPAC doesn't rule America. Nor does AIPAC determine US foreign policy. Capital rules the US, the world, and hence also US policy towards the world, which is all about extraction and domination, and is hostile, not just to the Palestinian people, but to people in general, everywhere and anywhere, but especially if they fail to meet the appropriate standards of docility. Capital hates all people, but it also welcomes people hating each other: it color codes people so that different people can be consumed differently, and some can be the slaves of others."

Gobsmacking revelations - top Labour politicians are crooks! Who would have thought it?

Today a certain Nir Barkat will be in London to address a conference at Chatham House. Perhaps I should say I believe he'll be in London. Visits by Israelis of Barkat's status tend to be cancelled at the last minute. As I can find no mention of this fellow's appearance among us in the press or on the television I can't be sure.
Barkat is the Mayor of Jerusalem, or the non-Arab part of Jerusalem. He thinks that the whole of Jerusalem should be non-Arab and is busy making it so. He is, you see, an ethnic cleanser and a land thief. Perhaps that's why his visit is not being trumpeted abroad; he must skulk in and skulk out with the help of our elected representatives, our secret police and our news reporters. If he manages to do so it will be public relations success for the Apartheid state, and, no doubt for our media, a victory for common sense and moderation.

Lifted from Labour Union Digest -

Come clean Willie - how many more Tory MPs have their snouts in BA’s trough?

Thursday, 18 March 2010 10:47
Unite has demanded that BA comes clean about how many Tory MPs the company has "bought" after it was revealed that the Tory MP who viciously attacked BA cabin crew in the Commons this week may have had up to £15,000 in free flights from the airline in recent years. While cabin crew are fighting to defend their jobs and terms and conditions from BA's slash and burn management techniques, Mark Pritchard, Tory MP for The Wrekin, laid into them on the floor of the House. But, in a clear breach of parliamentary protocol he did not once declare his expensive gifts from BA to the Commons as he spoke.
In recent years Mark Pritchard has regularly enjoyed flight upgrades on his frequent Washington trips, up from economy plus to business class. On one occasion BA's generosity extended to include Mr Pritchard's wife, who was also granted an upgrade to business class. BA business class flights to Washington cost over £2,000 single. Unite estimates then, that in the past few years Mr Pritchard has benefited to the tune of £15,000 in flights - more than a cabin crew member at Gatwick earns in a year.
Tony Woodley, Unite joint general secretary, said: "This is extraordinary hypocrisy from the Tories - their union-baiting charge is being led by someone with his snout
in BA's trough. "This Tory was happy enough to sip champagne in business class and be cared for by the BA cabin crew - but now he launches this disgraceful attack on them today. "Willie Walsh should come clean on how many MPs he's bought - and MPs and the speaker of the House of Commons should demand to know why Mark Pritchard kept his BA kick-backs secret." The full record of Mark Pritchard's BA freebies can be seen at http://www.theyworkforyou.com/regmem/?p=11946

... and no doubt Mr. Walsh would like to see a Conservative government in power, so provoking union action at this time is a good move.
But what do Mandelson and the craven Brown get from this? They pay court to the right wing press and in return get kicked in the teeth - no more than they deserve. I wonder if the careerists who manage UNITE will be asking for their members' 11 million quid back.

"Israel is one of our closest allies, and we and the Israeli people have a special bond that's not going to go away," Obama said in an interview with Fox News.

(Angry Arab's Comments Section)
... and AIPAC is his worst nightmare. Gutless creep!

Meanwhile Vice-President Joe Biden has been sent to sit on the naughty step.

St. Patrick's Day once more. I take the opportunity to air a poem I came across on the web, by William Maginn, whose likeness is to be seen here. Now Doctor Maginn was a gent of a hedonistic bent, what we vulgarians would call a piss-artist, and a frequenter of the stews to boot. He was greatly loved by many and hated by some he'd shredded in his magazine articles, including the fellow who tried to kill him in an duel.
One admirer who wrote a novel based on Maginn and his circle described him thus -
"Theologian, Historian, Poet, Mathematician, Philosopher, Phrenologist, Stenographist, Fencer, Boxer, Orator, Dramatist, Reviewer, Sonnetteer, Joker, Punster, Doctor of Laws, Hoaxer, Political Economist, Newspaper Editor, Wit, Duellist, Pedestrian, Linguist, Arithmetician, Scholar, O'Doherty, Pamphleteer, Translator, Epigrammatist, Antiquarian, Conversationalist, Novelist and true Tory to the backbone." O'Doherty was one of many pseudonyms used by Maginn. Unfortunately he also lent out his noms de plume and even his own name to his journalist and author cronies, which makes identification of all his work difficult.
Other descriptions of our man were less wordy, "Learned and libellous", "The hoary old libeller". Maginn's hair was prematurely grey, but he didn't reach old age. His death at 45 years is usually ascribed to a spell in the debtor's prison which laid him low, but surely his way of life must have contributed.
I regard William Maginn as a kinsman, based on virtually no evidence at all; a surname shared with some of my forebears and nothing more. I count him among my "worthies", people not necessarily admirable or heroic, but noteworthy for the way they spent their days. Most if not all have written something or other that has survived. Their lives and times were interesting if not always commendable.
Now to the poem - or is it doggerel? It can be sung, they say, to the tune of "The Night Before Larry Was Stretched", which has been recorded by the Pogues (I think). The main feature of this version of the saint is his fondness for the bevvy. There is also a reference to the snake legend, which brings to mind Brendan Behan's crack; "St. Patrick drove all the snakes out of Ireland and they swam across to America and became policemen and judges." Brendan Behan, a worthy? Let me think about that.

Patrick's Arrival

You've heard of St. Denis of France.
He never had much for to brag on.
You've heard of St. George and his lance
Who killed d'old heathenish dragon.
The Saints of the Welshmen and Scot
Are a couple of pitiful pipers
And might just as well go to pot
When compared to the patron of vipers:
St. Patrick of Ireland, my dear.

He sailed to the Emerald Isle
On a lump of pavin' stone mounted.
He beat the steamboat by a mile
Which mighty good sailing was counted.
Says he, "The salt water, I think,
Has made me unmerciful thirsty;
So bring me a flagon to drink
To wash down the mullygrups, burst ye,
Of drink that is fit for a Saint."

He preached then with wonderful force
The ignorant natives a teaching,
With wine washed down each discourse,
For, says he, "I detest your dry preaching."
The people in wonderment struck
At a pastor so pious and civil,
Exclaimed, "We're for you, my old buck,
And we'll heave our blind Gods to the divil,
Who dwells in hot water below."

This finished, our worshipful man
Went to visit an elegant fellow
Whose practise each cool afternoon
Was to get most delightful mellow.
That day with a barrel of beer,
He was drinking away with abandon.
Say's Patrick, "It's grand to be here.
I drank nothing to speak of since landing,
So give me a pull from your pot."

He lifted the pewter in sport.
Believe me, I tell you, it's no fable.
A gallon he drank from the quart
And left it back full on the table.
"A miracle!" everyone cried
And all took a pull on the Stingo.
They were mighty good hands at that trade
And they drank 'til they fell yet, by Jingo.
The pot it still frothed o'er the brim.

Next day said the host, "It's a fast,
And I've nothing to eat but cold mutton.
On Fridays who'd make such repast
Except an unmerciful glutton?"
Said Pat, "Stop this nonsense, I beg.
What you tell me is nothing but gammon."
When the host brought down the lamb's leg,
Pat ordered to turn it to salmon,
And the leg most politely complied.

You've heard, I suppose, long ago,
How the snakes, in a manner most antic,
He marched to the county Mayo
And ordered them all into the Atlantic.
Hence never use water to drink
The people of Ireland determine
With mighty good reason, I think,
For Patrick has filled it with vermin,
And snakes and such other things.

He was a fine man as you'd meet
From Fairhead to Kilcrumper,
Though under the sod he is laid,
Let's all drink his health in a bumper.
I wish he was here that my glass
He might by art magic replenish,
But since he is not, why alas!
My old song must come to a finish

Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution.

Just bringing forward some references so that I don't have to trawl back to read fleming's comments.

The whole megilla can be found here.

David Cameron's rightwing 'allies' march in Riga to commemorate the SS

... and Ed Miliband has embraced the BNP. Home to roost.

At last I've managed to drag myself away from LibraryThing and back to these pages. That site is addictive - and informative. I now know that I'm one of 12,616 library users in possession of a copy of Eco's "The Name of the Rose", but I'm on my own in listing Michael E. Ullyatt's "The Fighting O'Kellys".
I've also learned that my booklist (to date) shares 26 works with the late Papa Hemingway, but none with J.F. Kennedy or Tupac Shakur. What did the Stranger say," ... I don’t know about you, but I take comfort in that"?
According to wikipedia there were 650,000 LibraryThing users/members by March 2009 with 37 million books catalogued. All those booklists to compare with, to admire or get snobbish about (it seems that J. K.Rowling is big with a lot of readers).
Before I started this I would have guessed I had about 400 to 450 books - out by a mile. Lots of cataloguing to do, no time to swear at the telly.

Michael Foot has died, and Worzel Gummidge has become "a great parliamentarian" and "a great orator". He was also a pacifist AND a privy councillor, no wonder he always wore the look of someone who didn't know where he was. As a member of the Queen's secret council he had to keep his trap shut while the Falklands adventure ran its course. He who lies down with dogs gets up stinking like a dog.
Still he can't have been all bad; a Murdoch hack on Sky News described his political beliefs as extremism. Maybe Foot thought that Murdoch should have paid taxes while he lived in this country. That would be extreme in the eyes of a Murdoch toady.
He was, they say with relief, the last of Old Labour. We won't see his like again, thank Christ! Now let's get back to turning the country into a midden.

A message from Eric Lee of Labourstart -

McJobs -- we all know what those are.

One online source defines a McJob as "a low-paying, low-prestige job that requires few skills and offers very little chance of intracompany advancement".

McDonald's was never very happy about the use of this term.

In fact, the company bought the domain name "mcjobs.com" just to make sure that no one could use it.

But they forget to acquire "mcjobs.org" -- and the global union federation for food workers, the IUF, together with LabourStart, bought the name and today are pleased to announce the public launch of McJobs.org, the website for McDonald's workers around the world.

If you work in McDonald's, or know anyone who does, or are just curious, please do check it out:

http://www.mcjobs.org

Eric Lee

This is the only photograph I ever took of a Hull building, any building in fact. It was the poster I was interested in, not the steel and glass consumer trap it's hanging from. The colours are of HULL FC, one of the town's rugby league clubs. The slogan was probably the brainchild of some overpaid PR parasite based in London. We thick northerners could never have come up with it [hint of sarcasm]. But it strikes a chord.

It's for TGIA, aka Athéedieumerci.