:: Wog Blog ::

:: WHAT AM I THINKING ABOUT? ::

:: Monday 31 March 2003 ::

Yes. I think so too.

What goes on in the minds of famous folks? Lots of la-la-la la-la-la la-la-la-la-laaaaa.

Appearing on State run Iraqi teevee, Peter Arnett decided to appear on a propaganda tool, not an independent or objective news source - just a vehicle for more lies to be distributed to the population to leave the gobsmackingly ignorant about the world in which they live and increasing contempt in which they are held. (Yes, contempt. It begins. Rise up already or just surrender, you dumb fuckers. You know you cannot win. Sheesh.)

He seems to think Iraqi run teevee no different from a cable channel in the US or the BBC World News. Blah blah, the war is awful and we are losing. Wha'? Sacked. Of course. That is a sackable offence for a journo. We are not dealing with some stupid Kingstonian declaration of the end of the world. We are dealing with a journo who fed, gently and making littloe airplane noises, brutal Ba'ath bastards a good ol' line of US self-loathing in a time of war.

What a jackass.

The MSNBC Pres said:

It's just inappropriate and arguably unpatriotic for an American to be communicating these things to the Iraqi government and the Iraqi people," ...

Asked how much of a priority patriotism should be for an objective journalist, he said, "When you go on state-controlled television after Iraq's vice president promised to send terrorists into your country, I do think some patriotism is appropriate in this instance."

He is right.

And then Rivera - sacked for giving up military positions. Good.

Idiot. Too patriotic, one might say.

I do not know who the stand out journo is for me thus far on the teevee. But I do like Alessio Vinci CNN.

Hmm, wonder why?

:: WB 12:58 pm [link+] ::

Did anyone see that thing on the news tonight about a bunch of weapons found at a school wherever in Iraq?

Storing weapons in a school. Zif Australian forces would even think of doing such a disgraceful thing. Or British or American.

A school, for crying outta loud.

Nice guys that Ba'ath bastards.


:: WB 4:22 am [link+] ::

Awaiting Instructions? What? To blow themselves up? To present bullshit reporting?

What is the Iraqi leadership doing capturing journalists? Instructing journalists? What are they thinking? That this will play well? That folks the world over will look at them and say, "Hey. Those Iraqi leadership guys. They sure are the good guys...."

This stuff actually makes me feel sick. Come on. Let the journos go. Set them free to report. Show you have a shred of decency.

God. What a day. Ramadan comes out and says yes, it is a full on Iraqi military tactic to blow up their own troops on suicide missions. And Tariq Aziz comes out and says that it is not a military tactic at all, but a demonstration of the will of ordinary Iraqi citizens.

I tell you, my friends, if the Iraqi citizenry stoops to Palestinian violent imbecility in high numbers (for sure small numbers will do it - name a nation with not one idiot in it - you cannot) then that is that. Any citizenry that behaves that stupidly, selfishly, violently, foolishly, brutally can Get Far Away.

For Good.

God, what a bunch of horrible news.

Who knew they would stoop so low? And do not start in with the 'It is just like Vietnam' rubbish, okay? The Vietnamese never called for other Asians to blow themselves up over their crisis. That, my friends, is a peculiar Arab concept - one on fire, all on fire - that seems to be the Arab motto.

God help us.

:: WB 4:07 am [link+] ::

Synchronicity

Saw the Sunday show this morning, and read an intersting article in today's newspaper by Oz correspondent un the US Roger Franklin.

Franklin's thesis being that US news networks have been censoring shocking and awful images of the war and even of September 11, in some sort of misguided attempt to shield American viewers from horror and thereby reduce discomfort, when instead they should be showing the stuff so Americans can see the empty eyed fury of those their fighting against and thereby avoid getting bogged down in sympathy for hurt or injured kids - too much.

Interesting point. I am probably of Franklin's view. But whoa, if the networks really showed Al Jazeera all day, can you imagine the reaction Stateside, and even here in Oz, and for God's sake, in the Uk and Scotland?

Freakin' righteous fury. That would be the reaction.

Imagine seeing that gloating Iraqi jackass manhandling corpses, for example? Or yet another demonstration involving the burning of yet another American flag. And the screaming. And the chanting for Saddam. And against Bush.

It should come as no surprise that support for the war is on the rise the world over, (Yes. Nevermind the noisy demos. More people are sitting on their arses than going. Note the use of the term' hundreds' to describe the demo today in Moscow. Moscow. Hundreds. Nuff said.) as the demonstrations against it become tedious exercises in glossing over Saddam and focussing all on military action which does NOT involve the use of suicide bombers at checkpoints and hanging girlies til they die for simply waving at passing coalition troops. (No links. You know this stuff is all over the place.). Demonstrating to 'stop the racist' war and bring the troops home before we freakin' win. Zif. And burning flags, especially here in Oz. Puhlease.

Anyhoo, the Sunday piece about Muslims in Oz, is a minor example to test Franklin's thesis. This is the first in depth show I can recall, even since September 11 2001, which has actually gone out to listen to and have a chitter chat with Muslim leaders and folks and even ASIO in Oz. All about local Muslims and terrorist threats and the war and stuff.

And even the literate and moderate doctor Muslim fellow does not believe Muslims are responsible for September 11.

Wha'? You are a doctor?

See. My point is that you take a real risk showing footage of Muslims to non-Muslim viewers, even the most modest, moderate, erudite, learned Muslims. Cos they always end up saying something stupid about September 11. Always. Every. Single. Time.

And that is just gonna enrage the watchers.

That is it. If the networks screen a bunch of stuff about Iraqi Ba'ath bastards behaving just as disgracefully in war as they do in peace, and the networks screen stuff about how Egyptian demonstrations are getting more and more violent, and they show the Palestinians are squealing about sending suicide bombers to help Saddam, and they show Assad in Syria squealing and the Iranians too, all veiled threats of something, probably more suicide bombing, whatever, well, whatdyareckon's gonna happen?

Mid East Muslim stocks are gonna plummet is what.

And they are already low to bottomed out.

I reckon networks should screen a lot more material about the disgrace of behaviours that go on throughout the Mid East. And at home. But, hoo-eee, the fallout for those folks will be bad bad bad.

:: WB 12:23 am [link+] ::

The British have set fire to gallons and gallons of baby milk.

Utterly magnificent. The Iraqi Information fellow just now live all over the cable teevee.

Fantastic.

And I will wager wholly untrue.

Just like the last war had to have with these guys. (And yes, we have to have this one too, thankyou very much Saddam).

Remember, my friends, the observation set out below. The guys in charge of Iraq lie. All. The. Time. You can count on it.

Now, we all lie. But there is a scale. There is the peculiar Italian lie "Yes, of course your car will be ready on Tuesday, madam", uttered in the full knowledge of its falsity. But when challenged as to his lie, the Italian will delcare "Well, of course I did deceive you, madam - but hey, didn't you feel good when I did that? And haven't you been feeling good, right up til today?"

A lie. No doubt. But also an admission of it. And quite probably an invitation to fool around immediately following it. Hey. It is what we do.

But these Iraqi leadership guys. man. There is no admitting their brutality. None.

It seems to me they do not so much run their country as run it into the ground under the weight of their lies, covering up all their violence and crass stupidity.

Leunig did a stupid cartoon today, all about how Australian should feel ashamed or something. Jackass. How ashamed would you be knowing your leadership lies about baby milk in two wars running? Pretty a lot, I reckon. Yeah.

'Course, I could be wrong.

Oh, the curse of the indecisive Libran.


:: WB 2:48 am [link+] ::

It is covered, already

So many news sources, so much work, not enough time for wine and food and warwatching and talking about it all, and just plain fooling around. Not enough time. And others have it so well covered. But I will add this:

When you are at your darkest point, when your doubts are standing taller than you, when you reckon maybe you are a warmongering shit like all the peacenick jackasses say, relax. Because there has not been a sunrise since the Ba'athists came to power in Iraq when they have not behaved like apes.

You been watchin' those press briefings?

"The winged gulls of wrath will chew the American Zionist hag eyes.... "blah blah blah.

You know, they have written in their constitution about the inherent dignity of themselves.

Get that?

I mean. Wha'? It not for YOU to say that you are dignified, mate. It is for ME to judge.

And I judge you harshly.

Anyhoo, I am up to speed. I know what's going on, as much as anyone can I guess - we are all trawling the same stuff. Been busy is all.

Loved all the emails telling me to get off my greasy ass and get blogging. Will do. Just maybe not right away.

:: WB 2:51 am [link+] ::

Rumsfeld is a clumsy oaf, a jackass and a liability

His careless comments - about which Quiggin has gotten a complete hardon thinking it is the end of everything, or something, who cares - were meant to acknowledge Blair is in trouble on his home turf and, if the US had to, it would go alone into liberating Iraq from Saddam's disgustingness (sorry to remind all you anti-war folks that that is what it is about - Saddam, you daft buggers). Careless. Clumsy oaf. Because the left in the UK is so freakin' mad at the moment it cannot see Saddam as anything other than a martyr. And would rather lose Blair than Saddam. Or so it seems to me. Of course the UK media is muchly going with this - Tony Benn leading the charge on the teevee I just saw.

Tony Benn. Please.

For some perspective see The Sun - running a pic of some royal kissing her jockey lover.

Okay. Now on with the day.

UPDATE: Serbian PM assassinated. Jesus Christ.


:: WB 12:19 pm [link+] ::

Whoa-o. I bin bitch slapped.

By a red.

This is too much. Using my very own patented wog-speak technique, Gummo Trotsky declares that I think I am better than Adams and Dunlop and therefore I am the snob.

...

Yeah. Well, yeah.

Who'd you rather have a beer with?

:: WB 3:02 am [link+] ::

Fair and Balanced. And making it worse.

That is how I see Mr Blix. To many "Could be doing more..." "Is doing something..." "Might be a breach..." "Requires further investigation...".

And my view is shared at The Times.

It is not, needless to say, shared by Robert Fisk.

Make up your own mind. For me, I can imagine the word passing into common parlance:
"Blix" to submit incomplete reports, to fudge or obfuscate, to use unecessarily cautious language when precision is the Key Performance Indicator of your freakin' job, boy. To take the money without taking any of the pain.

I know, I know. It is not an unserious job the man is doing.

But I do believe he is failing to grapple with the central matter he has been vested to resolve - report on Iraq's compliance. Every day that passes is another day of non-compliance.

It has to be said.


:: WB 2:41 am [link+] ::

For the left it is all about tone.

Reading The Guardian again. It is a duty, otherwise I would not get enough variety in my commentariat. But jeez, this about PM Tony Blair?

The damage done to him is serious, and probably irrecoverable. Even if the war goes "well", there will be no forgiving his refusal to listen to his natural friends and allies.

The quote marks around "well'. And what the? Natural friends and allies? As in, lefties but not Italians, Spaniards, Protugeezers, Nederlanders etc etc.

What Polly Toynbee means is this:
Even if the war does liberate Iraq from Saddam's brutal grip, and quickly, and even if civilians die in numbers far lower than die at Saddam's hand in any quarter year currently, and even if Iraqi exiles volunteer to return home to rebuild their newly liberated country etc etc, even then, Tony, I'm sorry, but we cannot never speak to you again. Your tone, you see, Tony, it is just not respectful enough. When we on the left speak we fully expect not just to be heard but heeded. Shame on you Tony, for not heeding us. Shame.

How easy is it to listen to that sort of commentary and just think: This old bird is mental.
.
:: WB 2:28 am [link+] ::

"No War"

Not "No War", dummy.

"No Walnuts".

See. That is a sign I wanna see hanging from the balcony of some super expensive house on my way to work in the morning.

A "No War" sign on an expensive house in Oz is just so self-indulgent and stupid. Like every idiot who marched, "Look at me, Ma. I'm walkin'."

Yeah, yeah. They got a right to march. A right to put signs out.

And I got a right to meet 'em in bars or at work, or to stand under their balconies on the street, and call 'em freakin' idiots.

And other fruitier language, as it comes to mind.

:: WB 2:06 am [link+] ::

Could you be any worse at your job?

See. You gotta read this SMH shite fairly carefully but it is there. Plain as the Roman nose on your face. Read:

"I think it's (vilification) already started, in some ways," he told ABC Radio.

Wha? He did not use the word vilification? Oh right. The ABC must have asked him if he felt he was being vilified.

And the SMH decides that that is good enough to run a freakin' headline that this man has been 'vilified'. They put it in quotes, which is an admission that it is not a story.

Why did they not just write "Some guy does 'something'. Whatever."

That paper is really too awful even to plug the holes in the floor between the gear stick and the sagging bag of cheap leatherette that has come apart from its seams in that crappy heap of liquid-paper white (no, really - it is liquid paper) EH Holden outside my house.

:: WB 1:57 am [link+] ::

Phil Adams revisited

From fabulous Andrew Sullivan, this BBC article and photo caption. Sno. Ber. Eeee.



:: WB 9:15 pm [link+] ::

Ferrari fourth, Trulli fifth. Happy enough with that.

Blair blogged it in real time. Good work.

:: WB 9:05 pm [link+] ::

Oh fer cryin' outta loud, jackass you freakin' ARE Anti-American.

I know Blair and Parker have posted briefly on this but I too have something to note about Phillip Adam's declaration this weekend.

Essentially, Phil's thesis is this: some of my best friends are American. I unrealistically insist America should be perfect and when she isn't well, I hate the imperfection. Oh and by the way, imperfection means anything that does not fit neatly into my snobbery. And some Americans share my view. So I cannot be anti-American.

The man does not get it. Know why? Becuase he misunderstands entirely what anti-American means. Let us get with the definition. It is Anti-Bush's America.

Now that is a charge that is much much more serious than mere Anti-Americanism.

Know why?

Cos mere Anti-Americanism is stupidity on wheels. I mean, you can hate bits of that giant country, but hardly all of it. As Phil rightly notes, fool. He cannot even run a tight argument.

He is all jazz and Steinbeck about the US but certainy not Ford 500 and "This Old House". Know why? Because he is a A-grade snob on wheels is why. He admits it. He hates Dubya. Dubya isn't jazz and Steinbeck and is much more Ford 500 and This Old House. Ergo, Adam's dislikes him intensely.

That is the extent of the thought and philosophy at work. That is it. There is nothing more at work that snobbery.

What a worldview it takes to actually have not the slightest respect for the President, for Rice, for Little Ceasar's Cheeser Cheeser.

But I know Phil just adores Vienna in Spring and Parma ham and museums.

See, the trick is to like Parma ham and all that AND a bit of Nascar racing.

Makes you more interesting and interested in the world if you do not shut out half of it.

UPDATE: My favorite wanker, Tim Dunlop, has a go at Bush's press conference. Utterly fails to grapple with Hussein, of course. Hussein is not important to Tim. The centre of the whole thing is Hussein. Has been forever. But not for Tim. Just like Adams, he is driven more by his visceral snobbery against Bush than by any other sentiment. Have a read. The centre of the whole thing is apparently Bush, who is evil because he is not a great public speaker. I mean, g'uh.

Really. Snobbery is shit. It really is. All superiority, but rarely substantiated. Jazz, Steinbeck. Bore me to tears why don't you. These are all symbols for 'do not speak with me unless you know the code for my exclusive club'.

I sound like a reverse snob, don't I? I hate the stuff the chattering classes like? Wrong. Opera, art, architeture, industrial design, chess, European history, restraurants, horse racing, museums, reading, public radio, ABC - I can handle all of it, cos I like it. But then we add country music, comics, car design, Tony Roma's Deep Fried Mozzarella Sticks, porn, that F1 racing game at the TimeZone etc etc.

Do not get me wrong. I do not mean to say we should all like everything. Please. I am not some hippie idiot. We should discern between that stuff we care for and that we do not. But really, Adams hardly discerns at all. He is older than me, better travelled, met more poeple. But he has a secret code and it is driven by snobbery. That is not discerning.

The title to his piece should have been "Kick me. I am a snob."

:: WB 4:52 pm [link+] ::

Hmmm.Got to watch this.

:: WB 12:07 pm [link+] ::

Oh fer crying outta...

This thing is still making me laugh, care of Prof Bunyip:

My month in Iraq ends on a flight out of this city later tonight. When I get home, my first order of business will be to help energize a massive, preemptive sit-down for peace that is the last hope to prevent a humanitarian disaster here in Iraq. I hope you will join with thousands of us in that effort.

The last hope.

O Jeez...the giggles.


:: WB 12:04 pm [link+] ::

It is true. It is true.

"This is not a normal country," he said. "Tuscany is like a black hole in western democracy - anti-government, anti-globalisation, anti-America, anti-everything."

Heart of Eurocommunism, which is nothing more sophisticated than a bunch of snooty Italians who do not like to work in competitive industries but prefer the role of the State something chronic.

And that, my friends, is why I prefer Umbria, Le Marche, Abruzzo and Emiglia-Romagna, all equally Eurocommunist, but not quite so snotty with it.

Do not misunderstand. Toscana is gorgeous. Really stupendous. I have nothing but the greatest respect greatest respect for folks from there and for everything built there. It is beautiful the food is magnificent, the driving is good and all that and everything. Except it is filled with English idiots wanting to pretend to be Italian for a weekend, getting married, buying villas etc.

Berlusconi was mad to think there would not be a general strike if he even set foot in the zone.

That is how bad they are.

Me, an apartment in Rome will do. Soon, my friends. Soon




:: WB 12:19 pm [link+] ::

Filipinos do not deserve this.

Nobody does.

But how come no-one is claiming responsibility? That is just freaky.

:: WB 12:08 pm [link+] ::

This is why HEROEC, Human Rights lawyers and the UN suck

Because they produce whole screeds all about how awful racial vilification is, and every example they give about racial vilification on-line is from some redneck cracker or Nazi loving whitebread jackass, having a go at asians, arabs, jews etc, folks, but they never ever actually grapple with the hateful stuff some muticultural types get up to, that is more than just name calling or some sick Hitlerite fantasy - it is an actual call to arms to hurt people, oppress them, treat them badly.

I am referring in this instance to Islamic jihadi sites. And apparently the US is targetting them. Good.

I am not about to link to any in Oz. Jeez, who wants to dirty their hard-drive with that stuff.

But I would appreciate HREOC using my tax dollars to do it. In the course of their investigations.

This reminds me of that stupid Racism Conference the UN HR held in Durban - nothing but wall-to-wall Arabs calling for the death of Jews. See, that's your racial vilificaiton right there. In front of you. There. See it? No, not the whitebread skippy, and not the old world Euro born-to-rule jackass. There. The crazy Arab mo fo who cannot finish a sentence without mentioning Palestine or burning an Israeli or US flag.

And do not start with the free speech thing, okay, because I am not interested. There is no right of free speech in Oz. Never has been. Closest is maybe a constitutionally implied right of free speech in a particular political context arising out of our participatory democracy - the voting thing. That is not burning flags. And it is not websites calling folks to jihad, and insisting September 11 was not the work of muslims etc etc you know the drill.

Man. What a wasted opportunity from HREOC. Could have really done something to get folks talking and looking into racial vilification in a big way. Instead same old same old. Fingering the idiots who do not actually call anyone to arms. No jihad for the Coon joke man.

Complaining about idiots who do not call anyone to anything. While ignoring the elephant in the sitting room, or lobster in the bathroom or whatever that skippy saying is.

Urgh.

:: WB 3:29 am [link+] ::

Oh please. Do not lob softballs at Blair

:: WB 3:15 am [link+] ::

Paul McGeogh. Bringing us balance.

And by balance I mean roomspinning imbalance of the severe distress variety.

He has singlehandedly spent his posting to Baghdad, a couple months now I figure, rooting out favourable statements about Saddam, as many as he can get per piece, from willing folks about town. How can any person spend a posting in Iraq at this point in history and not find anyone at all to talk to who takes a line opposite to the SMH's line - that war is naughty?

No person can do this. McGeogh is a robot.

:: WB 3:13 am [link+] ::

Oh man. That is not good news.

No one claiming responsibility just yet. But if it the Moron Islamic Front, well. What can you say? More of the goddam same.

UPDATE: And another bomb at a bus terminal. Poor Philippinos.

:: WB 3:02 am [link+] ::

Hold it Hold it

I thought they said they did not have any nerve gas thingys. Okay, so now they say they do and they can show it, or show where it is buried. Or something.

So where are we at this fine morning (my time)? Saddam has to be dragged kicking and screaming into doing something everyone voted for him to do just a few weeks back and even years back, come to think clearly about it. And he only ever relents at the last second, before some deadline or report or vote or something. Meantime he is moving his troops around and about and constatntly with the whining and the threatening to stop doing the teeny bits he is doing now...urgh.

A good part of me thinks that keeping on keeping on like this is kinda good because with every relenting thing, Saddam is more and more crushed. And eventually he'll relent one time so many that he will be just like a dog. Doglike. Which is some sort of fate worse than death, for a nut like him, all ego and hair-trigger humiliation, and no dignity at all.

But another goodly part of me thinks this is too awful to go on because serously, while Saddam is there, every day, something lousy is happening to someone in that country and that someone probably does not deserve it.

:: WB 12:11 pm [link+] ::

Short sharp and sweet, the Bitchin' Monaro

He makes a good point.

:: WB 12:00 pm [link+] ::

This might be the most tortured crap in OzBlog world.

The trashing of rhetoric by those who profess to defend and guard it indicates just how much conservatism has been colonized by a cynical reason blinded by being on the pleasure machine of violence, death and destruction.

Hmm. Let us see. It is not funny. It has a go, too wordily, at Prof Bunyip. And it features the obligatory snide aside at Tim Blair. This is a half double pike twist with a twist of lemonlips and the jackass has split his head open on the board on the way down.

I believe it has bored me to tears.



:: WB 3:23 am [link+] ::

If I had a copy of this in my hand Friday night....

I would have bunched it up and shoved it real hard into the gaping maw of the imbecile marcher I was fighting with about this goddam war Saddam is putting us all through 'cos he won't freakin' fall on his own sword.

Sound like I am running out of patience, my friends?

Yip.

:: WB 3:08 am [link+] ::

Filthy violent scumbag reds.

This sort of business is not tolerable. On the train 'tween Roma and Firenze. I take that train, dammit.

Jeez.

Filthy cop killing scumbag thugheaded reds.


:: WB 2:54 am [link+] ::

Nuts

Bless.

MORE: Wha?

:: WB 2:48 am [link+] ::

More More More! How do you like it? How do you like it?

Got some disco bug in my brain which is never a good sign. (Do NOT click on the link. It is like some cracked Casio version of what is already a crap tune. Found on a Brasilian website. God Help Me.)

Ahem.

Iraq has done the thing with the destruction of the missiley stuff. Or part there of. 'How do you like it?' And Chirac of all folks, is calling for 'More More More' disarmament. Chirac, of all people.

Chirac.

Quel surpreeez.

:: WB 2:30 am [link+] ::