READY TO KILL
(Carl Sandburg)

Ten minutes now I have been looking at this.
I have gone by here before and wondered about it.
This is a bronze memorial of a famous general
Riding horseback with a flag and a sword and a revolver
on him.
I want to smash the whole thing into a pile of junk to be
hauled away to the scrap yard.
I put it straight to you,
After the farmer, the miner, the shop man, the factory
hand, the fireman and the teamster,
Have all been remembered with bronze memorials,
Shaping them on the job of getting all of us
Something to eat and something to wear,
When they stack a few silhouettes
Against the sky
Here in the park,
And show the real huskies that are doing the work of
the world, and feeding people instead of butchering them,
Then maybe I will stand here
And look easy at this general of the army holding a flag
in the air,
And riding like hell on horseback
Ready to kill anybody that gets in his way,
Ready to run the red blood and slush the bowels of men
all over the sweet new grass of the prairie.

I was going to make that the last poem in my current season, but I've found another poem about John MacLean, a great source of bardic inspiration, it seems - Matt McGinn, Sorley MacLean, now Derick Thomson.

WARRIOR
(Derick Thomson)

In another age
you might have been "a warrior of Mull,"
John MacLean;
the history of your people flung you
into a new battle:
the Gael's exultant cry
coming from the chest of the Lowlands;
if only the flame lasted
it would write "Freedom" on Scotland's sky yet.

ARMANN
(Ruaridh MacThòmais)

Fear de dh'àrmainn Mhuile is dòcha
ann a linn eile,
Iain Mac'illEathain;
ach thilg eachdraidh do dhaoine
a chath ás ùr thu;
iolach a'Ghaidheil
a'tighinn á cliabh na Galldachd;
nam biodh seasmhachd ás a laisir
sgrìobhte "Saorsa" air nèamh Alba fhathast.

AN ACT OF VICTIMISATION
(From the London Regional Secretary, Industrial Workers of the World)

The Industrial Workers of the World Cleaners and Allied Grades Branch
Secretary Alberto Durango was today sacked from his job at the Heron Tower
by the contractor Incentive FM Group Ltd. It is an act of victimisation
of a leading union activist well known for campaigning to defend and
improve the conditions of workers in the cleaning industry.

In August 2011 IWW secured a significant success on the London Living Wage
for cleaners at Heron Tower and in defence of victimised staff. Since
then there have been those seeking revenge against Alberto and the IWW.
In November 2011, Alberto was suspended for using a service lift used
daily by other staff. The same month IWW negotiated an agreement with
the cleaning contractor LCC that there would be no compulsory redundancies
and any staff reductions would be by transfers to alternative posts. A
new contractor has taken over at Heron Tower who have not recognised this
agreement which continues under TUPE, Incentive have singled out Alberto
for redundancy without any objective justification.

The company Cushman & Wakefield who manage Heron Tower also manage
Exchange Tower where IWW has a campaign for the London Living Wage. This
company had taken an excessively aggressive stance against IWW and our
members, preventing leaflets being distributed and threatening IWW members
with investigations.

The Industrial Workers of the World is based on the principle that an
injury to one is an injury to all. We call on all workers to show their
solidarity with the Cleaners Branch Secretary and demand the immediate
reinstatement Of Alberto Durango and no compulsory redundancies.

This morning I switched on BBC Radio 4's 'Today', and heard the name of Mustafa Barghouthi. Dr. Barghouthi was about to be heard on BBC radio. He spoke, about the Qatar (Doha?) skyline. He remembered when there were only two high-rise buildings in Qatar.
And that was it.
The report was was about the growing importance of Qatar in Middle East politics and business. I'm guessing the Dr. Barghouthi was corralled by the programme makers on the pretext of his being questioned about matters Palestinian, and Qatar's possible role as a mediator. Then the superfluous stuff about Israel/Palestine was binned.

I wonder what safe pair of hands will replace the arch-zionist Mark Thompson as Director-General of the BBC.

"Obviously someone close to Thompson believes that the best way to rebut his Zionist and pro-Israel allegiances is by erasing from Wikipedia any reference to them which – like his meeting with Ariel Sharon – lay bare his political bias. Lest anyone is still in doubt, analyse the BBC’s coverage of this latest Israeli atrocity. No amount of whitewash on Wikipedia can hide the facts."

(Yvonne Ridley)

"With all of its defects, the global market makes war less likely, even between the USA and China." Umberto Eco
You see now there are no wars, no civilian casualties. Pouf! Eco has abolished them. Evviva il mercato globale! Now, on to the next award ceremony.
Eco, the man who finds he's too busy to protest at Israel's ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people.
The man's a fraud, though we will probably wait for his passing to learn how much of a fraud.

Via IWW Sheffield, whose website I visited in pursuit of news on the pizza front, I encountered an alien life form called conservapedia. There I was able to view my union through extra-terrestrial eyes (on stalks?) -

'In contrary to traditional American values, IWWs are known for their open support of radical extremists such as Earth First, Mumia Abu Jamal, homosexuals, lesbians, and transvestites, convicted criminals, Black Panthers, Mexican re-conquistas, Leonard Peltier, Judi Bari, Palestinian extremists, radical Jewish Communists, and atheists of all stripes. Current IWW poster children include members such as anarchist "professor" Noam Chomsky, UFC "Fighter" Jeff Monson, and left wing rock "musician" Tom Morello.'

On Planet Conversapedia Professor (emeritus) Avram Noam Chomsky is no professor; Jeff Monson is no fighter;
Tom Morello is no musician.

Stripped of their titles by reason of membership of the One Big Union. Planet Conversapedia is union-free, and talent-free.
And short on facts, if this article is typical.

NHS 'culture' trip to Florida included sunset cruise on luxury yacht
(Hull Daily Mail)
Safe in their hands.

Welcome to the home page of Sheffield Pizza Hut Workers Union – 460. Sheffield is the birth place of our union, which started up the hill in Crookes. Get Organised Get Involved – email us at pizzahutIU640@IWW.org.uk
http://iwwgmbsheffield.wordpress.com/pizza-hut-workers-union/
The Pizza Hut Workers Union is currently fighting on three key issues -

1.Drivers Conditions

2.Pay

3.Union Recognition

In drivers conditions we are demanding regular updates of all moped drivers safety gear. We are also demanding an increase to deliver drivers per-delivery commission, which now stands at 60p, which clearly does not cover costs.
Over pay we are demanding pay increases in line with inflation, as currently our pay is seeing regular decreases. We also that we deserve time and a half for working Bank and National Holiday days. This is industry standard, we are not demanding the earth!
Lastly on the subject of Union Recognition, we believe it is only right as the workers that make the Pizza Hut company what it is we deserve to be talked to on an equal footing to management and have the right for our union to be recognised, giving us all stronger voice

Brendan Gleeson secures funds for Flann O'Brien film (BBC News)
I just read this on Ian Duhig's facebook.
I posted before (23rd October 2010) about this project. I honestly don't know whether to hail the news as good or bad. Strange things happen to books once film people get hold of them, and, as this is a strange yarn to start with, it can only become less so as the adaptors work on it.

The swans were rustled from the blog of the Rev. Patrick Comerford.

Man in coma loses benefits as he's classified "fit for work"

(Via Viola Wilkins' post on Unionbook)

Last July, American historian William Blum published his "updated summary of the record of US foreign policy". Since the Second World War, the US has:
- Attempted to overthrow more than 50 governments, most of them democratically-elected.
- Attempted to suppress a populist or national movement in 20 countries.
- Grossly interfered in democratic elections in at least 30 countries.
- Dropped bombs on the people of more than 30 countries.
- Attempted to assassinate more than 50 foreign leaders.
In total, the United States has carried out one or more of these actions in 69 countries. In almost all cases, Britain has been a collaborator. The "enemy" changes in name - from communism to Islamism -- but mostly it is the rise of democracy independent of western power or a society occupying strategically useful territory, deemed expendable, like the Chagos Islands.
The sheer scale of suffering, let alone criminality, is little known in the west, despite the presence of the world's most advanced communications, nominally freest journalism and most admired academy. That the most numerous victims of terrorism - western terrorism - are Muslims is unsayable, if it is known. That half a million Iraqi infants died in the 1990s as a result of the embargo imposed by Britain and America is of no interest. That extreme jihadism, which led to 9/11, was nurtured as a weapon of western policy ("Operation Cyclone") is known to specialists but otherwise suppressed.
While popular culture in Britain and America immerses the Second World War in an ethical bath for the victors, the holocausts arising from Anglo-American dominance of resource-rich regions are consigned to oblivion. Under the Indonesian tyrant Suharto, anointed "our man" by Thatcher, more than a million people were slaughtered. Described by the CIA as "the worst mass murder of the second half of the 20th century", the estimate does not include a third of the population of East Timor who were starved or murdered with western connivance, British fighter-bombers and machine guns.

The full article here. It's by John Pilger, so can be dismissed by some as the work of the Devil.

SUBSTANDARD and PISS-POOR
Who are these people? Why does anyone take any notice of them when they have been so disastrously wrong - or criminally misinformative - in the past? More and more observers are recognising these people as key conspirators in a gigantic con-game. And yet the media continue to disseminate their thimble-rigger's patter, as if it had some basis in reality.
As we used to say, what a load of old MOODY.

AT LAST
(Attila József)

I have scrubbed boilers, I have cut seedlings,
On rotting straw mattresses I've found sleep;
Judges have sentenced me, fools have mocked me,
My glitter poured forth from cellars deep.
I've kissed a girl who sang even as
she was baking someone else's bread,
I was given clothes and I gave books
to peasants and to workers instead.
I was in love with a well-to-do girl
but her own class wrested her from me;
I ate but once every other day
and I got an ulcer finally.
I've felt that the world, too, was a turning
inflamed stomach and that slimy thing,
our dyspeptic love was our mind, while war
was nothing but bloody vomiting.
Since sourish silence has filled our mouth,
I kicked my heart that it might shout with rage.
How could my active mind content itself
with lulling songs composed for a wage.
They offered money for my great vengeance;
Priests have said: trust in the Lord, my son.
And I knew, he who returned empty-handed,
with axes and hoes and stones would come.
I have flashing eyes and the will to win,
and I must have the willingness, the means
to do justice and so to take sides
with these severest of memories.
But what concern are memories to me?
Rather, I lay my worthless pencil down
and start grinding the scythe's edge instead,
for time is ripening in our land
with a silent, threatening sound.

(English version by John Székely)

VÉGÜL

Kazánt súroltam; vágtam sarjat;
elnyúltam rothadt szalmazsákon;
bíró elítélt; hülye csúfolt;
pincéből tódult ragyogásom.
Csókoltam lányt, aki dalolva
ropogós cipót sütött másnak.
Ruhát kaptam és könyvet adtam
a parasztnak és a munkásnak.
Egy jómódú lányt szerettem,
osztálya elragadta tőlem.
Két naponként csak egyszer ettem
és gyomorbajos lett belőlem.
Éreztem, forgó, gyulladásos
gyomor a világ is és nyálkás,
gyomorbeteg szerelmünk, elménk
s a háború csak véres hányás.
S mert savanykás csönd tölti szánkat,
szívembe rúgtam, ordítson már!
Hogyan is hagyna dolgos elmém
feldtető, de bérdaloknál.
Kínáltak pénzt nagy sok bosszúmért,
pap mondta: Fiam, szállj az úrhoz!
S tudtam, ki üres kézzel tér meg,
baltát, kapát meg köveket hoz.
Villogó szívû, győzni bíró
vagyok, kinek kell legyen kedve
igazat tenni, pártot állni,
ím, e szigorú emlékekre.
De emlékhez mi közöm nékem?
Rongy ceruzámat inkább leteszem
s köszörülöm a kasza élit,
mert földünkön az idő érik,
zajtalanul és félelmesen.

"The government is investigating 82-year-old Agnes Heller, Hungary's most famous philosopher, a former dissident, Marxist and student of the Marxist philosopher Georg Lukács. The government, with massive support from the right-wing press, claims that she squandered European Union grant money.
"A monument to the poet Attila József on a square in front of the parliament building is expected to be taken down soon. József, whose works are classics of proletarian poetry, was a humanist with a Marxist worldview. He threw himself in front of a freight train in 1937. The new government does not believe that a monument to this sort of a person ought to be standing in front of the parliament. It's as if the Germans were to remove a statue of Friedrich Schiller because the poet had long hair."

(Philipp Oehmke, in Der Spiegel)

Somebody tell them that Lajos Kossuth, father of the nation, was a Slovak; and Sándor Petöfi, national poet, was a Serb. I'm not crazy about József's poetry, but I think I'll post something to revive my flagging poetry season.
I wonder if these are allies of Cameron-Clegg in the European Parliament, along with the Polish fascists.

I first read of this on Ian Duhig's facebook pages, which I now read daily.

QUADROFENIANS - amusing hybridisation. Well, I laughed when I heard it.
My son just told me about them and I had to seek them out, if only for the name. It's anybody's guess what the music's like.

Happy 70th birthday, Muhammad.

An hour after Ali refused induction into the armed forces the New York State Athletic Commission suspended his boxing licence. Every other state athletic commission did likewise and Ali was stripped of his title.
It was a period in history in which he stood alone against a tide of militarism and reaction in a society that has since embraced him. He faced prison and financial ruin, and his passport was confiscated to ensure that he wouldn't be able to make a living outside the country.
Yet for the three years of exile from the ring that he endured he grew in stature and with it strength. Speaking at colleges throughout the country, he resonated with young people of every race and background as a man of deep conviction. His defiance in the face of such massive odds inspired more and more to follow his example.
When he returned to the ring in 1970 it was as a hero. He had defied the mightiest government in the world and emerged as a symbol of justice and hope for millions of poor people in the US and beyond.
He truly was the lion that roared.

(John Wight)

Date: Sun, 15 Jan 2012 18:04:45
Appeal to Trade Unionists, Trade Union Branches, Trades Councils, Political Organisations, and Supporters

From: siteworkers@virginmedia.com

Dear Comrades,
Our dispute has reached a critical stage, the BESNA 7* have upped
the ante by threatening to sack workers in the coming weeks if they do not sign
these new contracts.Wages will be cut by 35%. They intend to introduce a new
grade, an installer , who will do 75% of the work normally done by skilled
electricians, completely destroying our trade and exploiting workers. Most of us will end up out of work or forced to work for less money, doing the work we have
always done on £6 an hour less. Apprenticeships will be non existent.
These firms have been bullying workers to sign these inferior contracts since before Xmas, holding a gun to workers' heads with the carrot being dangled (Well if you don't sign you are throwing away 5 years work or more). The Crossrail Project is the
perfect example; NG Bailey has this contract. They are one of the rogue 7. Balfour
Beatty also have stacks of work all over the country.Unite the union are re
balloting BB, result should be known 2nd February. We are confident of a massive
yes vote bigger than the last vote. In the meantime the rank and file are
continuing with their weekly protests. We have a number of meetings planned and
if all goes to plan we will need transport to get around and picket all BB
sites.
Please pass this email on.

Donations to Unite rank and file construction workers fighting fund
cheques payable to joint sites committee
70 Darnay Rise
Chelmsford
Essex
CM1 4XA

Many thanks
In solidarity, Alan Keays

*Building Engineering Services National Agreement
The seven are -
Balfour Beatty Engineering Services Limited
N G Bailey Building Services
Crown House Technologies
Gratte Brothers
Spie Matthew Hall
Shepherd Engineering Services (SES)
T.Clarke Plc

... and the new look Titi Henry reminds me of someone.

Bashshar al-Asad - I knew I'd seen him somewhere before.

Before I read this poem I'd never heard of Manuel Palafox, but he was a real person. Did he write letters, Herzog-style, to famous people? Was he a cross-dresser? We should be told.
For me Ian Duhig is one of the top poets around today; erudite, witty, his work full of references you (well, I) have to go in search of. Before reading Duhig I'd never heard of Fauvel, or Palafox, or Poggio Bracciolini. Also he mentions exotic locales such as Hull and Beverley; yea, even the Fishermen's Bethel on Hessle Road where my missus was inducted into the Church Militant.
Here's an interview with the poet, with some quotable observations.
Where's my notebook?

NINETEEN HUNDRED AND NINETEEN
(Ian Duhig)

Dismissed from Tlaltizapa for changing sex
Manuel Palafox sulked in Arenista. At markets
he bought chimoyas, limes and ink from Oaxtepec.
Some days he wore his twenty-ounce sombrero,
Deerskin pants and "charro" boots. On others
Gold-embroidered blouses and red kerseymere skirts.

He wrote to Magonistas; "Zapata is finished.
He takes orders from Obregon. Rally the Peones!
Death to Carranza! Tierra y Libertad!"
He wrote to Lenin; "Trotsky is finished.
Seek concord with the Ukraine Makhnovshchina.
Brest-Litovsk's a cock-up. Regards to the Missus."

He wrote to Freud; "Were you coked when you dreamt up this?
No Mexican has even heard of the sexual revolution.
All Eros last year now it's Thanatos, bloody Thanatos.
Jung was right- grow a beard, you think you're Moses.
I hope your jaw drops off. Regards to the Missus."
At last he wrote to Yeats: "Dear Willie, how's The Vision?

Mine's double, ha-ha. Shit. Willie, I'm finished
In Mexico - it's full of bigots. Ireland can't be worse.
I'll work. Your brother paints - I'll hold his ladders.
You can have my poems. The one about this year -
Change it round- it'll do for Ireland. What happened
To my lift with Casement? Willie, GET ME OUT OF HERE!"

Shopping in Cashel for pulque, Michael Robartes-
"Research Assistant to a popular writer"-
Itched in his Connemara Cloth. Himself well-known
For a Special Devotion to the Virgin of Guadalupe,
He frowned on local talk of a drunken madwoman
In red skirts, publicly disputing with the bishop.

Ian Duhig also has a facebook page. I'm sure it's genuine and not a case of identity theft.

(... but who was Michael Robartes?)

The Irish for jellyfish translates literally as 'seal snot'.

We learn something new every day, so they say, and the things that stay with me are such useless pieces of information.
Unfortunately I've already forgotten where I read that snippet, so can't give the exact Irish. I think it's either smug róin or smugairle róin.

The Angry Arab News Service/وكالة أنباء العربي الغاضب: Hacking of Israelis: Saudi hacking of Israelis received more coverage in the Western press than Israeli killing of Palestinians.

VEOLIA WATCH

One of the largest actors on these markets is Veolia Environment, an international giant in the fields of water supply, waste disposal (where it was formerly known as Onyx), energy supply (Dalkia) and public transport (formerly Connex). The company is the largest private employer in France, and has specialized in taking over public services in all the areas mentioned and in all parts of the world. It has more than 320,000 employees in more than 70 countries, and a worldwide turnover of €45 billion (2007).
Along with another French company, Suez (formerly Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux), Veolia controls no less than 70 per cent of all the privatized water supply in the world (Hall, 2002, p. 6)! Both belong to a small cluster of multinational companies that seek to take over public companies over a broad spectrum. There is, however, not always the cut-throat competition between these two competing giants that one might expect. They cooperate on tenders within a number of areas by establishing joint ventures. How they cooperate on the same board in one town, yet keep tenders a secret from each other when competitors in the next town, is a problem we are not going to investigate further here.
In waste disposal, the world market is dominated by only four companies – including subsidiaries of the two French companies mentioned. A few years ago, the figure was eight, but the four others have been taken over by the remaining giants. In both energy supply and public transport, the same concentration is taking place. From scarcely owning a single bus outside France in the early 1990s, Veolia Transport has advanced to being the world’s largest private company in the public transport sector (Hall 2002, p. 7).
Just recently (in March 2011), Veolia Transport merged with another French-based major international actor in the field of public transport, Transdev. After the merger, this transport company has become a real giant, with 124,000 employees in about 30 countries and an annual turnover of just over €8 billion. The markets are systematically monopolized, something that naturally helps to weaken the competition the neoliberals are so eager to emphasize. The result is of course increased market control by these companies. Despite all rhetoric in the opposite direction, maximum competition is not precisely what the companies are yearning for. They want maximum profits – and monopoly profit does not differ from any other profit except that it is often larger.

Asbjørn Wahl, "The Rise and Fall of the Welfare State" (Pluto Press)

This is the company that pollutes Palestinian land and its meagre water supply on behalf of ethnic cleansers.

HEALTH AND SAFETY CULTURE? I WISH ...

Fellow Worker Arthur J. Miller on political prisoner Leonard Peltier, "North America's Nelson Mandela".

INTERNATIONAL DAY IN SOLIDARITY WITH LEONARD PELTIER
CLEMENCY FOR LEONARD PELTIER MARCHES AND RALLIES
FEBRUARY 4, 2012, WORLD WIDE

The Leonard Peltier Defense Offense Committee calls on supporters worldwide to protest against the injustice suffered by Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier. Gather on February 4, 2012, at every federal court house and U.S. embassy or consulate worldwide to demand the freedom of a man wrongfully convicted and illegal imprisoned for 36 years!
If you can organize, or help organize and event in your area, please contact LPDOC. Please if you can make a donation to help with the costs of the LPDOC. Scheduled events will be announced and details provided at www.whoisleonardpeltier.info. Leonard Peltier Defense Offense Committee
PO Box 7488, Fargo, ND 58106 Phone: 701/235-2206 E-mail: contact@whoisleonardpeltier.info
INTERNATIONAL DAY IN SOLIDARITY WITH LEONARD PELTIER FACEBOOK EVENTS PAGE. PLEASE SHARE AND INVITE YOUR FRIENDS:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=hp#!/events/173509072747628/

From: Tacoma Chapter, LPDOC

As individual fingers we can easily be broken, but all together we make a mighty fist.
-- Sitting Bull

STATEMENT

"I have no doubt whatsoever that the real motivation behind both Wounded Knee II and the Oglala firefight, and much of the turmoil throughout Indian Country since the early 1970s, was - and is - the mining companies' desire to muffle AIM and all traditional Indian people, who sought - and still seek - to protect the land, water, and air from their thefts and depredations. In this sad and tragic age we live in, to come to the defense of Mother Earth is to be branded a criminal." (Leonard Peltier, Prison Writings)

Leonard Peltier (of the Anishinabe, Dakota, and Lakota Nations), long time Native Activist and member of the American Indian Movement. Leonard Peltier, an innocent man who was convicted for the 1975 shooting deaths of two agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. U.S. prosecutors have repeatedly admit ted that they did not and cannot prove Peltier's guilt, and the appellate courts have cited numerous instances of investigative and prosecutorial misconduct in this case. As late as November 2003, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals acknowledged that "Much of the government's behavior at the Pine Ridge Reservation and its prosecution of Mr. Peltier is to be condemned. The government withheld evidence. It intimidated witnesses. These facts are not disputed." The trial of the first two AIM members in this case were found not guilty for reason of self-defense.
Behind the case of Leonard Peltier and the events that took place on the Pine Ridge Oglala Lakota Reservation is the continuing theft of Native land for energy corporations. High grade Uranium was found in the northwest corner of Pine Ridge. It was well known that the Lakota people would be unwilling to sell their land because they refused payment for the Black Hills. So a plan was carried out to suppress the traditional Oglala Lakota people and their supporters from the America Indian Movement. This lead to the Wounded Knee II Occupation, over 500 AIM members being indited on charges, a two and a half year reign of terror against the Oglala Lakota people, and the firefight near Oglala, that Leonard was charged with, that took place at the same time that a corrupt tribal Chairman was illegally signing away the part of Pine Ridge with the Uranium. The firefight took place as a means to divert attention and to suppress AIM.
Leonard has been in prison for over 35 years for a crime he did not commit and a crime that forces of greed were responsibly for. They have withheld medical care for Leonard and recently Leonard was placed in solitary confinement for 72 days and then sent to a high security prison in Florida, as far away from his lawyers and family as they could send him. Leonard is in bad health and they want Leonard to die in prison, alone and forgotten. We will not let that happen.
We are now organizing a new clemency for Leonard Peltier campaign and the regional marches on Feb, 4, 2012 are a very important part of that. Please help us raise money for it and get the word out everywhere. Please. let us come together in the spirit of unity for Leonard and for the kind of justice and peace we want for our world. Thank you.

Miles Copeland, one of the CIA agents who organised the earlier coups in Syria, later regretted his actions. After the publication of his book, the Game of Nations, in 1969, he told Keith Kyle of the BBC: "My feeling is that on balance this is a bad thing to do, and it's better to let a country stew in its own juices. If it has a corrupt leader, let them have it. It's their tough luck. If the people in the country don't have what it takes to get rid of a corrupt leader, to hell with them. Let them keep him."

A little Syrian background from Charles Glass.

STS Bulletin no.42

Big Talk From Egypt -
"We will not recognize Israel under any circumstances; we are talking about an occupation entity and a criminal enemy," said Dr. Rashad Bayoumi, the deputy head of the [Muslim] Brotherhood."

means

"Washington we want more money, from you or from your Sa'udi fixers."

Being fond of poetry featuring imaginative insults I thought to make a copy of of a poem know as "The Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedy" to spice up my poetry season. Then I found that the version in the Penguin Scottish Verse gives only William Dunbar's side of the slanging match. Also I realised it's not an easy read on account of the antiquated and very Scottish vocabulary. Furthermore it's a little too long for this blog.
It can be found on the internet if anyone's enthusiastic enough. And someone has englished up part of it here.
Rather than act as ringmaster for the the big guns of verbal duelling, I've settled for a more manageable, one-sided example.
I'm also partial to alliteration, so double points to this gent.

SATYR UPON SIR NIEL LAING
(Sir Thomas Maitland)

Canker'd, cursed creature, crabbed corbit kittle,
Buntin-ars'd, beugle back'd, bodied like a beetle;
Sarie shitten, shell-padock, illshapen shit,
Kid-bearded gennet, all alike great;
Fiddle-douped, flindrikin, fart of a man,
Wa worth the, wanshapen wran.

Sir Niel Laing was a Catholic priest, a "Pope's Knight". So the title doesn't indicate knighthood but, I believe, an uneducated cleric. An educated priest would be styled "Master".
Sir Thomas was a genuine knight, and a religious reformer. Intriguingly he died(1572) en route to Rome in the company of a Jesuit priest. Second thoughts?
I think the same gent was responsible for two other poems which I like, but am unable to locate at the moment; approximate titles "The Pleasures of the Football", and "Anent the Thieves of Liddesdaill".

Glossary-
buntin-ars'd, fat-arsed
beugle-back'd, bent-backed
flindrikin, contemptible person
shell-paddock, tortoise
sarie-shitten, constipated?
Wa worth the(e), loosely, "you're not up to much.

Addendum, 3rd January: of the other poems I mentioned the correct title of the second is "Aganis the Thievis of Liddisdale", and was the work of Sir Richard Maitland of Lethington, father of Sir Thomas. I suspect that Sir Richard was also the author of the football poem, but am still in pursuit.