Joe Hack

Well at last a British or American politician has been censured over the bloody fiasco of the Iraq war. Wait a minute though. Its George Galloway, the UK Respect party MP who’s been one of the wars greatest critics and a constant thorn in the side of the Blair/Bush adminisrations. Hmmmm. Lets consider this. On the one hand we have Bush and Blair who are jointly responsible for lying to their respective countries, the death of over 600,000 iraqui civilians, turning a further 4.2 million into refugees, de-stabilising the middle east and making the word a far more dangerous place. They have escaped all official censure and in fact Blair has just been rewarded by being given the job of (you have to laugh) peace envoy to the middle east. On the other hand we have George Galloway, the maverick British MP who before the illegal invasion warned very graphically of its likely consequences and since then has led resistance in the UK to Blairs war. How strange. So far Gallloway is the only politician in the UK or the USA to be officially censured for his actions. Not Bush. Not Blair. Not a single one of the craven MPs or congressmen or Senators who looked the other way and supported the lies about WMD . I don’t think many ordinary people in the street are going to understand that. Do you ?

Very briefly indeed, George Galloway was a politician who knew about Iraq and had connections with it. He helped set up the Mariam appeal to help sick Iraqi children and campaigned against the allied sanctions which were killing thousands of them each year. That was essentially humanitarian and would have attracted very little interest had Galloway not committed the unforgivable sin of criticising the Bush/Blair invasion of Iraq and then carried on criticizing the ‘war’, providing a focal point for growing public unrest. Over the years since 2003 his anti-war stance has provoked vicious retaliation from the establishment. He has had to contend with what most people suspect have been dirty tricks run by the spooks (the ‘dodgey’ documents miraculously ‘found’ in Bhagdad), libellous comments from pro-war newsmedia (one of which he famously took to court and forced to apologise) and the notorious occassion when he voluntarily appeared before a US Senate committee chaired by the hapless republican senator Norm Coleman where the same tired slanders were repeated . They were expecting a polite ‘British’ politician who would tamely accept the hatchet job they intended delivering. They got a mean Scottish pit-bull instead. On prime-time TV and in front of millions around the world George absolutely wiped the floor with the shell-shocked Norm and his committee. He told them contemptuously to put up or shut up. They shut up. He was also kicked out of Blairs ‘New Labour’ party and immediately founded his own Respect party and beat the official labour candidate hands-down in an election. How George Galloway has survived the last few years is hard to imagine. Every dirty trick and smear that could have been used against him has been. He must be a very tough and determined man. Others have been killed or driven out of their jobs by the same treatment.

The latest episode in this long-running and shameful saga is that this week the obscure UK House of Commons standards committee has officially censured Galloway. In a voluminous report into his behaviour they have pawed over the same old ground again with as little success. They have been forced to accept that he has never personally profited by one penny from any of his activities in relation to Iraq. Reading between the lines, he has receieved a rap over the knuckles for the rumbustious way he has defended himself and fought back against the dirty tricks and slanders. Essentially the censure seems to rest on a technicality. He was criticised for not personally going into the financial background of every donor to the sick-child charity and the provenance of any donation they wished to make. Clearly that is a standard not required of anyone else in the country associated with a charity and one certainly not operated by the Labour government which is currently embroiled in a scandal over selling political honours for cash. If thats really all the establishment can come up with after all these years of trying, after crawling over every aspect of his life and finances, after trying to make his life a living hell, then its really … well its just pretty sad and pathetic, isn’t it ?

In the press this week you will no doubt read the usual hatchet jobs on George Galloway, the smears and the innuendo that have been part of his life for the last few years. But you need some balance. An opposing view. Surely thats what freedom and democracy is really about. None of us has the gift of total knowledge, but as far as any of us can tell and going purely on the evidence George Galloway is an honest man who has been persecuted for his opposition to the Iraq war. George Galloway has not said anything about the war, or about Bush or Blair, that is untrue as far as I know. Bush and Blair, on the other hand, demonstrably misled their countries with false and manipulated evidence with all of the tragic consequences we have seen. If the public had to believe just one of those three, I’m pretty sure I know which one most people in both the UK and the USA would trust. And the surname wouldn’t begin with a B.

-Tags:Blair Bush congress galloway george galloway Iraq Political Rants respect Uncategorized War war on terrorBlair, Bush, congress, galloway, george galloway, Iraq, Political Rants, respect, Uncategorized, War, war on terror

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I look at the daily newspapers. I look at news online. I look in vain for any evidence that they actually contain anything that even remotely resembles news. In case we forget, there are allied forces of occupation in Iraq, civil war edges ever closer, the body-bag count rises every day. Meanwhile over in Afghanistan events spiral out of control, drug traffic to the west is greater than under the taleban, and no-one has anything that resembles an exit plan. And those are just the messes Bush and Blair caused. War, pestilence and famine on a biblical scale stalk the continent of Africa, corrupt dictatorships are propped up by greedy western governments, the planets melting and crooked politicians smile as they steal your trust. Surely in amongst that lot theres something worth reporting that the news media can get its teeth into ? You’d think ! But all I see is wall-to-wall Paris bloody Hilton.

Hell I’ve got nothing against the girl. She’s probably no worse than any other air-head  with too much money what is this international obsession with ‘celebrity‘ thats  turned the news media into trivial gossip magazines for the mentally challenged ? They say its a reflection of the society we live in. The lonely fragmented lives where we have no real friends or sense of neighborhood or social support networks. No more gossip over the garden fence about local folks. We live in a world where characters in soaps and people famous just for being famous have taken the place of real people as our topics of conversation. The young have no real role-models except the air-head ‘celebs‘ they’re supposed to aspire to be like. Well if thats true its so damn sad. Get a life ! The way politics is these days we desperately need the counter-balance of a principled, brave press to hold the liars and wrong-doers to account on our behalf. Is it happening. Hell no !

Anyway, when you’re in the shit the best thing to do is hold your nose and get the hell out of it as quick as you can,. So no more Paris Hilton, right ? This is not about her. Its about you. Read a book. Take a walk. Give someone a hug. Scratch your ass. Anything.  Just throw the worthless, empty celebrity trash in the waste-basket where it belongs and leave it there. Believe me, there is life after Paris Hilton.Tags:Afghanistan Africa allied forces Blair Bush celebrity celebs dictatorships drug traffic evidence famous gossip Hilton Iraq media mentally challenged money news obsession Paris Paris Hilton politicians politics press Scratch your ass society taleban War who gives a shit anyway Zeitgeist ZooAfghanistan, Africa, allied forces, Blair, Bush, celebrity, celebs, dictatorships, drug traffic, evidence, famous, gossip, Hilton, Iraq, media, mentally challenged, money, news, obsession, Paris, Paris Hilton, politicians, politics, press, Scratch your ass, society, taleban, War, who gives a shit anyway, Zeitgeist Zoo

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After the longest farewell in the history of politics, Tony Blair has finally resigned as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. It was a leaving characterized by the same spin and cheesey schmaltz that has flawed British politics for the last ten years. Instead of diving straight into the trough of the lucrative American lecture circuit though, his Tony’ness is now apparently off to bring peace to the middle east ! Yes, you heard me right !The group of four (America, Russia, the EUU and the UN) charged with promoting a middle east peace settlement have appointed him as their special envoy to do just that. If you didn’t laugh you’d have to cry. It is, of course, purely and simply a Bush appointment.  He’s throwing Tony a bone for his poodle-like subservience over Iraq and at the same time placing a tame mouthpiece in the middle-east to push a pro-US agenda. Yet another cynical move that thinks its pretty clever but is, in fact, dumb as a bucket of spanners.

The Israel/ Palestine conflict is a running sore that infects not just the middle-east but the rest of the world. A just, equitable solution is desperately needed. No-one could argue with that. So what are Blair’s credentials for this utterly crucial job ? Well lets think. Together with Bush he invaded Iraq on the basis of either outright lies or ‘flawed evidence’  (depending on how charitable you wish to be). That catastrophic mistake has led directly to the deaths of an estimated 600,000 people so far and turned a further 4 million into refugees.  The invasion and continuing occupation has de-stabilised the whole region,  pushed Iraq towards civil war, created a new breeding ground for extremist terrorism, and unarguably made the whole world a much more dangerous place.

More recently, when Israeli war-planes and tanks were waging war on Lebanon and the whole world was demanding a ceasefire, Blair joined with Bush and the Israeli PM as the only three world leaders blocking any such move, thereby allowing the unneccessary killing of civilians to continue. Impressive credentials as a supposedly unbiased ‘peace-broker’, eh ? And those are just a few of the highlights of Mr Blairs involvement in the middle east, where he is probably the second most hated western leader (after Mr Bush of course) and is generally regarded as nothing more than a mouthpiece for the USA and Israel. So in what crazy alternate universe was Mr Blair seen as the ideal man to broker a peace deal between Israel and Palestine ? There are any number of distinguished politicians who could have done this vital job and God knows someone certainly needs to do it, and quick.  In reality it would be difficult to find anyone who is a *worse* candidate for the job than Mr Tony Blair. He has no credibility in the middle-east whatsoever and is regarded with deep suspicion. Which kind of makes you question Mr Bushs seriousness about the whole process, or his understanding of the situation, or possibly both. But whats new ?

 Is it just me, or is the world getting crazier by the day ? You really and truly couldn’t make stuff like this up, could you ?

Joe HackTags:agenda American Blair British Bush catastrophic mistake civil war cynical flawed evidence Iraq Israel Israeli Joe Hack killing of civilians Lebanon middle east no credibility Palestine peace Political Rants politics Prime Minister refugees special envoy terrorism Tony Blair United Kingdom USAagenda, American, Blair, British, Bush, catastrophic mistake, civil war, cynical, flawed evidence, Iraq, Israel, Israeli, Joe Hack, killing of civilians, Lebanon, middle east, no credibility, Palestine, peace, Political Rants, politics, Prime Minister, refugees, special envoy, terrorism, Tony Blair, United Kingdom, USA

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