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Sunday, August 31, 2008

The Most Stupid Campaign Slogan in History


- CHANGE! - CHANGE! - CHANGE! - CHANGE! - CHANGE! -


To what? Change for change's sake? The more things change, the more things stay the same.

Adolf Hitler brought change, so did Napoleon, and Mao, and ....

The vacuous, Postmodernist use of the word C H A N G E is meaningless without any specification, without context.

Perhaps the witchdoctors in Obamaland - if they have the capacity to do it - can elaborate just a little bit further about what sort of change they have in mind, and specifically to what this should lead?

Never mind ... we know ... plus ça change ...

And here another meme is exposed which has been inflicted on the world since the likes of Jean-Jacques Rousseau roamed it: "The Common Man Narrative: Rousseau, Tito, the Obamas", by Mary Grabar. Ann gerbil mixes bourgeois Biden's proletarian credentials in "Hair we can believe in".

Saturday, August 30, 2008

Fake Revelation in a Faux Greco-Roman Setting

Rational people ponder questions on the basis of logic, integrating concepts and facts with existing knowledge. To the person of reason reality exists independently from his mind. They look to the outside world as a source of information. After thorough integration they try to persuade others of their point of view on the basis mature debate and valid argument.

This simple premise does not hold true for those who have rejected reason as their method to knowledge. They rather chose for their input emotion, passion, intuition and various other means of revelation from within the depths of their own persons (why are we surprised we're breeding pocket versions of Narcissus, all vying for the position of Master of the Universe?).

Among the second group of humans we count today's Leftists, small l liberals, Democrats, environmentalists, multiculturalists, gender and identity theorists, Greens, Socialists, Third World liberation theorists, and possibly other Postmodernists (among them a fair amount of less and less closeted Nazi admirers) that have turned against reason, individualism, free market capitalism, science and technology and all the terrible evils of civilization that go with it.

Other than the rationalists, they cannot rely on facts, reason, debate, and arguments to convince us of their point of view: they hold that such objective information simply isn't available to humans. They therefore have two avenues open to them to enforce their neotot standpoint on others. One way would be to forcibly suppress individual free will, making it subservient to the 'common will' of the collective, which was unsuccessfully practiced by a number of regimes, jointly responsible for over 100 million deaths over the course of just one century.

A less crude but trickier way is to try change people's way of looking at the world by adjusting their perception of reality. LSD in the public water supply would be one method. More refined is the application of rhetorical spin, re-framing, the use of certain idiom and redefining definitions of strategically chosen words; mind games, the dissemination of memes that may be triggered by symbolism, catch words or the use of images as set out in an earlier post, "Demagogy, Voodoo and Hypnosis 2.0."

Alternatively they might look at the theatrical and artistic world for inspiration: it has expert experience of smoke and mirrors and knowledge how to harnass style, music, visual and audio effects to induce trance in crowds.

Part III of the series "When Reason Fails: Morbid Obama Intoxication" explained the political and philosophical dimensions. The Blairite and Clintonian eras saw the perfection of the rhetorical and literary discipline, now in the light of today's subliminal manipulation perhaps a bit primitive and naive.

These fake spiritual experiences induced in huge crowds of course convey no factual information at all, but they do reduce the participant to the state of a mindless savage, with the back-door of the subconscious wide open to the reception of perception adjusters. When we hear a speech of Adolf Hitler we hear no words at all, but merely sounds delivered in a certain hypnotizing cadence.

What we saw last week during the DNC in Denver was a carefully orchestrated build up over the course of four days, culminating in a ritual ceremony celebrated by his holiness The Being of Light. Too bad of the faux Greco-Roman game show setting, which was on the whole perhaps - in all its splendorous kitch - a bit of an anti-climax.

The delusion of denial the irrational crowd has been living in over the last eight years finds its continuum into the period of the new presidential campaign; it will probably live on - no matter who will be elected President come the elections in November, until they are ready to accept the realities of the physical world once again. The only remedy is confrontation.

The overtly sexist (and latently racist) Left dismiss and sneer McCain's VP choice, in general being extremely ungracious about it. But in the process they appear to have shot themselves in the foot, enraged as they are that Bush III stole the limelight away from the Obama homily: "More to Sarah Palin Than Meets the Eye" by Rick Moran.

Earlier it seemed the Obama election was slam dunk. Now it appears they are too deluded to even correctly gauge the situation; what's more, they seem oblivious of their own predicament.

- Dialog from Star Trek Next Generation:

Borg Hugh: You probably don't know what it's like to be lost and frightened. You will listen to any voice who promises change.
Commander Riker: Even if that voice insists on controlling you?
Borg Hugh: That's what we wanted. Someone to show us a way out of the confusion. He promised clarity and purpose; he seemed like a savior; promised to make us superior, but he had no idea how to keep his promise. He began to ask for sacrifices for the sake of the greater good ...

- Filed on Articles in "The Pomo White House" -

Friday, August 29, 2008

Birthday Boy picks Tomboy


Presidential candidate John McCain picks Alaska Governor Sarah Palin (born February 11, 1964) as VP.

She is the youngest person to hold this honor as well as the first woman to do so in the state's history.

Sarah's parents arrived in Alaska in 1964 to teach school in Skagway.

She earned her Journalism degree from the University of Idaho and worked in media and the utility industry before beginning her public service 14 years ago. (...) >>> (Conservapedia)

From 1992 to 1996, Ms. Palin served two terms on the Wasilla City Council her native Alaska town. In 1996, She challenged the incumbent mayor, in 1996 criticizing wasteful spending and high taxes. She ran for reelection against the former mayor in 1999, winning by an even larger margin. Palin was also elected president of the Alaska Conference of Mayors. On becoming Mayor she kept her preelection promises by taking a major cut in salary and reducing property taxes by 60%.

Under Governor Murkowski she was appointed Ethics Commissioner of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. She served from 2003 to 2004 until resigning in protest over what she called the “lack of ethics” of fellow Alaskan Republican leaders, who ignored her complaints of legal violations and conflicts of interest. Following her resignation, she went the state Republican party’s chairman, Randy Ruedrich, a fellow Oil & Gas commissioners, accusing him of doing work for the party on public time and supplying a lobbyist with a sensitive e-mail. Tireless in her efforts to root out corruption Palin filed formal complaints against both Ruedrich and former Alaska Attorney General Gregg Renkes. Both resigned as a result of her denunciations.

In spite of a lack of support by the party leadership, in spite of being vastly outspent by her Democrat opponent, she handily won the Governorship in 2006. True to her reputation as a reformer, true to her fighting spirit, she hit the ground running with a successful push for an ethics bill, she also attacked and shelved pork-barrel projects supported by fellow Republicans. In Governor Palin’s words, “Alaska needs to be self-sufficient, she says, instead of relying heavily on ‘federal dollars,’ as the state does today.” And so far she has kept her word, striving to reduce that dependency!

At the very outset of her administration, in efforts to reduce and cancel wasteful spending, Palin followed through on a campaign promise to sell the Westwind II jet purchased (on a state government credit account) by the former governor’s administration. In 2007, the jet was sold for $2.7 million.

She canceled an 11-mile gravel road outside of Juneau to a mine. In June 2007, the new Governor signed into law the largest operating budget in Alaska’s history ($6.6 billion). She used her veto power to make the second-largest cuts of the construction budget in state history and managed to reduce it to nearly $1.6 billion.

SOCIAL STANDS

Abortion - On April 18, 2008, Palin gave birth to her second son - out of 5 children - he was born with Down Syndrome. Palin refused to let the results of prenatal genetic testing change her decision to have the baby. “I’m looking at him right now, and I see perfection,” Palin said. “Yeah, he has an extra chromosome. I keep thinking, in our world, what is normal and what is perfect?” The sancity of life, in her view, far outweighs any considerations of false shame or personal convenience!

Gay Marriage - She opposes same-sex marriage, though she has gay friends and is receptive to gay and lesbian concerns about discrimination. Palin complied with a state Supreme Court order and signed them into law, though the previous administration had refused to do so. Palin’s sensitivity to her constituents was responsible for first veto used to block legislation that would have barred the state from granting benefits to the partners of gay state employees. Her veto granted State of Alaska benefits to same-sex couples. The veto occurred after Palin consulted with Alaska’s attorney general on the constitutionality of the legislation.

In short, while Sarah Palin is a staunch Conservative she has reached out and acted on behalf of groups that are traditionally outside the pale of Conservative politics. She has demonstrated no tolerance for wasteful projects. She fought against and reversed the cronyism inherent in the last administrBlogger: Politeia - Edit Post "Birthday Boy picks Tomboy"ation. Unanimously, she has been hailed as a reformer with unusual ethics in politics. She has indefatigably fought to clean up government and shown she will stand for no nonsense (...) >>> - Hat Tip: Chaim at "Freedom's Cost".

- Caption: Dr Sanity: "(...) "before she was on the national stage" and when no one was watching, Palin actually visited wounded American soldiers in Germany (hat tip: Ace)--something the Obamessiah somehow neglected to do when he was there" -

- PJM: "More to Sarah Palin Than Meets the Eye," by Rick Moran
- PJM: "It's Palin," (blegosphere reactions to the VP pick)
- McCain Campaign site, blog.
- NewsMax: "Palin Speaks to Newsmax About McCain, Abortion, Climate Change"

- Filed on Articles in "McCain-Palin Ticket" -

Save the World: Democrats for McCain (update)

Rumour emanating from Denver, Colorado has it that the Democratic Polit Bureau and their enforcers are upsetting the more democratically inclined Democrats.

Those who do not go home in shame with bruised body parts are uniting behind the Republican candidate, John McCain in the organization Not Ready 08.

It's okay, really ....!



Neo Neocon has an interesting analysis of another, considerable group of dissenters, the PUMAs.

PJ: "Why PUMAs Can’t Just ‘Get Over It"

Why, many ask, can’t the PUMAs get with the program and unite behind Obama? (...) The PUMAs perceive Obama as having played dirty. And not just in a generic way, but by using the twin evils of sexism and racism to his advantage. If these women had previously bought the idea that the Democratic Party is above that sort of thing, they’ve now experienced a profound shock—and that shock is a very a personal one. (...)

Many of these women have supported the struggle against sexism and racism for decades, and believed their party to be champions of both causes, which were seen as linked rather than opposed. And yet they now perceive themselves to be on the receiving end of sexism, while at the same time they stand accused of racism, and merely for preferring another contender over the African-American candidate Obama. The disillusionment they feel is no doubt profound, and it taps into something far more basic than the usual intra-party policy or personality spat.

All the while, much of the MSM and the Democratic Party is demanding that they be the ones to get over it and jump onto Obama’s bandwagon with alacrity. And this despite the fact that his efforts at rapprochement with them have been less than overwhelming. Not only was Hillary not given a courtesy VP vetting (...) it is somewhat puzzling that Obama has failed to take most of the fairly simple and basic steps that would have gone quite a way towards soothing the still-festering wounds (...)

But whatever the reasons that Obama has failed to reach out effectively to the PUMAs, it doesn’t speak well of his ability (correction: his claim) to have a special knack for bringing people together (...) Obama’s attitude towards Hillary supporters is the first real test in this campaign of his actual diplomacy, as opposed to his speeches about it. If so, he gets an F. >>>

- Filed on Articles in "The McCain-Palin Ticket" -

Thursday, August 28, 2008

The Trial of Radovan Karadžić: Hartmann indicted

After we were able to break the news last week that fifteen Dutchbat vets have come forward to testify for the defense, today the ICTY posted a press briefing that an Order in Lieu of an Indictment has been issued against Florence Hartmann on two counts of contempt of the Tribunal. Hartmann was the spokesperson of former ICTY Chief Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte.

The two counts of contempt are for allegedly disclosing protected information about the trial of former Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic. The ICTY alleges that Hartmann knowingly divulged confidential decisions in the Milosevic case.

Hartmann has repeatedly stated that former US President Bill Clinton and French President Jacques Chirac had planned a campaign to capture Karadžić, but later backed down at the urging of the US, Britain, and Germany.

Hartmann has also said that Russia aided in moving Karadžić to safety in Belarus, and alleged that the West helped in order to hide information about the fall of Srebrenica

Last week, Karadžić submitted a document to the ICTY asserting that he had an immunity deal with former US Ambassador to the UN Richard Holbrooke, on the condition of withdrawing from public life. He asked the Tribunal to order the appearance of Holbrooke, as well as former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and two other officials involved in the deal.

Holbrooke and Albright have denied the accusations, but Jurist in an article mentions that Purdue University Professor Charles Ingrao, leader of a research group dealing with issues of the former Yugoslavia, said in an interview that he has independent evidence verifying Karadzic's claims.

More allegations by Hartmann were made in an interview with The European Courier. In the interview Hartmann states that Joschka Fisher, the German minister of Foreign Affairs in the former German Government told Del Ponte that according to German secret services, international High Representative in Bosnia, Paddy Ashdown met with Karadžić at the end of 2003 in Bosnia!

She also recounts in her book that in March 2000, Chief Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte asked Wesley Clark, former NATO Supreme Allied Commander, whether the US had a secret agreement with Karadžić. Clark in turn accused former French President Chirac of having cut a pact with Karadžić and Mladić to win the release of two French pilots held by the Serbs in 1995 (see Bosnia News).

Hartmann is to appear at ICTY on 15th September. Dr Karadzic's next session is due on Friday.

Earlier postings:

- Session of 1st August
- Breaking News: fifteen Dutchbat vets have come forward

- Filed on Articles in "The Proceedings at ICTY" -

On This Day in 1963: Martin Luther's Dream Speech




- Hat Tip: "Atlas Shrugs" -

- Filed on Articles in "Americana" -

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Georgian Crisis: Ten Reasons Why Russia is to Blame

Okay, this is it. Resisting pressure for a recap of the Georgian crisis, this article written by Christopher Westley, an adjunct scholar at the Ludwig von Mises Institute signals that a review is actually long overdue.

Apart from the blatant postmodern moral equivalencing (Russia is the USA; Georgia is Texas; What's next? Bush is Hitler?) that one hardly expects from a self-respecting economic institute as the Von Mises, the time horizon in which these events are supposed to have taken place - as was the case with Kosovo and Bosnia - does not exceed the period when the crisis was shot into the public consciousness by the media. Conflicts have histories and run-ups which usually play out well before the first shot is fired. The relativist brainpower however is strictly limited to the here and now and cannot be bothered with historical perspectives or absolute realities.

Russia (and the anti-militarist Westley) claim Georgia provoked Russia - the self-imposed 'peace enforcer in the conflict - when 'the regime' dastardly attacked the South Ossetian town of Tskinvali with heavy artillery on the opening morning of the Beijing Olympics (08/08/08). In the consciousness of the Westleys this is the arbitrary starting point of the crisis. But military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer, an independent, Moscow-based defense analyst gives another sequence of events in "The Russian-Georgian War was preplanned in Moscow":

"Late in the evening of August 7, a heavy mortar bombardment of Georgian villages near the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali provoked Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili to order a major assault. The night attack by Georgian troops outfitted with Western-made night-vision equipment flushed the Ossetian fighters out and Tskhinvali was overrun in the morning. To stop the Georgian offensive thousands of Russian troops with hundreds of pieces of armor invaded through the Roki tunnel and rushed forward. Russian jets began bombing Georgian military installations and cities (see EDM, August 7)."

The Russian propaganda that Moscow had to take humanitarian action went unquestioned (because this allows an anti-American stance and saves one making a moral choice) and was repeated ad nauseam by the mainstream media (because our pragmatist position is so ethical that it justifies unethical behavior). It is by now just as irrevocably entrenched as 'the illegal Bush war' and the 'occupations'. There simply is no act of treason the deluded will not stoop to, in order to preserve their psycho-pathological projection.

As usual the train of logic to reach such an outcome requires a few maneuvers in irrationality. Who knows what goes on underneath the skull, but it may well be they believe that some KGB remnant in the Kremlin holds the secret to a Cold War period black-op, that enables them to levitate military hardware, as well as large troops contingents into the region practically overnight, by a sheer act of the will (thought creates reality). One just wonders what to make of the rapid deployment of the Black Sea naval task force, and the fact that large contingents of troops were also poured into Abkhazia.

This blog coincidentally stumbled upon a one year old item ("The New Russia: Georgia Alleges Second Attack in Four Months,"containing links to BBC and NYTimes articles) which has long passed out of the public consciousness, from which it transpires that Russia has been hurling missiles into Georgia since August 2007! So much for the hotheaded impulsiveness of the 'client' President Saakashvili (another poodle from the Bu$Hitler kennels)!

Of course this might be dismissed as a perverted form of double bluff, but the event that the US had to airlift some 2,000 Georgian troops from Iraq after the fact, and not before, is a strong indication there was no premeditated intention of poking the bear on the part of the Georgian Government, that was at the time for the most part, enjoying their holidays.

And then, there's the comment by aforementioned independent defense analyst Pavel Felgenhauer. He says the aim, from the start, was to overthrow the Georgian Government and the that trap was laid long ago, actually in April when NATO declined to offer Georgia and Ukraine a Membership Action Plan. Read all of Felgenhauer's "The Russian-Georgian War was preplanned in Moscow."

After the fact you've also got to relativize away the Human Rights Watch report, and before it the cyber-attacks, which turned out to be private initiatives. And intimidating and targeting the press is of course totally off topic. Also the wider economic and geopolitical pointers must be ignored, unless you can build a conspiracy theory which implicates 'the joint American and Israeli 'military industrial complex'; having done all that successfully, the fact that the playbook is the mirror carbon copy of the Kosovo precedent, must also be ducked.

If we turn to Brian Whitmore of Liberty Radio we read: " Less than one month before Russia's armed forces entered Georgia on August 8 and held massive military training exercises in the North Caucasus involving 8,000 servicemen and 700 pieces of military hardware. At center stage in those maneuvers -- which took place in the second half of July, not far from Georgia's border -- was Russia's 58th Army, the very unit that would later play a key role in the incursion. Those exercises were just one link in a chain of incidents suggesting that Russia's military action in Georgia was planned months in advance, awaiting only an appropriate pretext to act."

We've been caught napping and the West "dismissed the Russian warnings and preparations as bluff until it was too late. US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Bryza stated in Tbilisi, "Now we know" the true mission of the Railroad troops in Abkhazia (Interfax, August 11)," writes Felgenhauer.

That's water under the bridge, but we can stop repeating the propaganda canard that the Russians were 'provoked' and that their hand was forced by humanitarian considerations (the alleged genocide: goes to intent - in the light of the above, wish them a good time of it). Were they also provoked or moved by humanitarian sensitivities during the last century, when they forcibly incorporated the 'near abroad' into the USSR and force-fed them on vicious Marxist ideology?

The West made a grave mistake in seeking Kosovo's unilateral proclamation of independence towards a Greater Albania, but two wrongs wouldn't have made a right.

- Drawings by Victor Vashi from the book Red Primer for Children and Diplomats - Hat Tip: The People's Cube -

More on the Georgian Crisis, in chronological order:

- The Heat is on in the Caucasus (update)
- Caught Sleeping in Tbilisi
- Georgia Live Updates
- The Intricacies of Postmodern Diplomacy
- Georgian Crisis: Target the Messenger
- The War on Reality: the Return of the Evil Empire
- Georgian Crisis: since August 2007
- Georgian Crisis: The Islam Connection
- Georgian Crisis: "Russia is Blowing Up Europe"
- The LooneyGlobs and Cold War Ghosts
- Putinism Explained: the Power Tool

Related:

- "Freedom isn't Free"
- "Rumbling Russia"
- "Communist Crimes on Trial"


Update - Michael Totten in Georgia: "The Truth About Russia in Georgia"

- Filed on Articles in "Caucasian Heat" -

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

New Fascism Affirmed

What was already officially confirmed for some time, has now been re-affirmed (as if that was necessary). The Democratic National Party Convention in Denver is the epicenter of a global madhouse that has shed all innocence it might ever have had in denying, excusing, justifying, aiding and abetting evil.

It has now moved beyond the merely irrational and morally depraved. It surpasses even the Postmodern Dialectic explanation and is way beyond an ideological 'accident.'

The word that comes to mind is 'sick' but that doesn't begin to cover it. The explanation of life as a mere absurdity leads to nihilism and beyond that, to anti-ethics.

Here's one for the books ... (and this is just Day 1)

PJs: "Live from DNC: It’s Zombietime! (Day 1)"


CNN: "Chain wrapped around 'old man's body' found in mosque"

"There are the bloodstains on the wall, and here it is dried on the floor," Abu Muhanad said as he walked through a torture chamber in a Baghdad mosque where more than two dozen bodies have been found. (...) The horrific scene at this southwestern Baghdad mosque is what officials say was the work of a Shiite militia known as the Mehdi Army. Residents who live near the mosque say they could hear the victims' screams. (...) >>>

Keep in mind that these are the same kinds of protesters who endlessly whine about Abu Ghraib. If opposing and defeating people like al-Sadr’s torturers counts as “imperialism,” I’ll take imperialism any day. (...) >>>

- Filed on Articles in "The Political Pathology Page" -


You Tube: "DNC Protesters ATTACK Fox reporter in Denver - Obama supporters show the world their insanity!"

Extremist, fringe left-wing militants Recreate '68 utter profanities and assault FOX News team in Denver on the eve of the Democratic National Convention.

The authoritarian left (...) is back with their Stalinist tactics as they look to try to intimidate and overrun any and all 'dissenters,' including network broadcast reporters (....)

The assault of Jenkins and his crew was celebrated on extremist site Daily Kos in a diary that made the RECOMMENDED LIST on the hate site:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/8/...

These unhinged protesters represent the core group of Barack Obama supporters. Like Obama's team of staffers and his ACORN strike teams, the protesters shown here are big on violence and intimidation and very short on free speech or freedom of the press. (...) >>>

For good measure, here's another"

Looking at the Left: "
Michelle Malkin Stalked and Threatened by 9/11 Truther, Mobbed by Media"

The incident is described here in detail.

And another: You Tube: "Clinton Supporter Ejected From DNC Meeting Shows Bruises"

- Filed on Articles in "The Assault of the New Storm Troopers" -

Monday, August 25, 2008

Putinism Explained: the Power Tool

Here follows an eight part CBC Newsworld documentary "The Putin System," which analyzes the life and politics of Russia's, now Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin.

Specifically those still swooning over 'having looked into his soul' romantics, or transnational idealists harboring otherwise dangerously Utopian One World notions, are strongly advised to watch it closely.

The 'managed democracy' of the 'single economic space' of the reconstituted USSR is the nearest we will ever get in real life to the James Bond antagonist in a number of 007 films, SPECTRE (SPecial Executive for Control, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion): total state through a corporation, in this case Gazprom, a gigantic transnational tool for the funneling of public resources to selective private coffers.

As a worthy heir to the manufactured reality that was every day life in the Soviet Union, Putinism proudly includes in its doctrine the contradictions of democracy (or what passes for it) and dictatorship, as well as state and liberalism. The latter is meant strictly nominally, as in "the Democratic Republic of the Congo."

The neotot KGB ship of state is tightly run under the premise that "control is safe, no control is a threat, therefore as many things as possible should be controlled."

The paranoid mass is collectively held together by the Sorelian myths of outside and inside enemies and the lie reaching back to the anti-modernist school of thought, that the individual is insignificant but that the collective is supernaturally powerful. It therefore comes as no surprise that the reversed sequence of events in the Georgian crisis is uncritically lapped up as Smirnoff on the rocks. Some never learn ...

Putinism, as a true total movement, likes 'em young: the Nashi youth organization's growth is prolific!

Whereas the doctrine has dispensed with ideology, it has seamlessly and effortlessly reconstituted all the Soviet trappings. Led by sheer Pragmatism (we unashamedly do whatever is in our interest), what's left is pure, brutal power politics for its own sake.

Those useful idiots in the West who took the communist idealism seriously and who - against all evidence - refused to believe otherwise, could draw some insightful conclusions from this (but they probably won't - as said, some never learn): the essence of the Marxist school of ideology always was a common power-grab and very little else. The core question was, how to get the unwashed to grab power on your behalf?

Putin has come up trumps from his long walk through the nomenklatura. The clever thing is, he's done it almost single-handedly. It is to be hoped that the overplaying of his hand in Georgia will put a number of Western politicians on the highest state of alert.

Now that 'history is back' it may help clear the postmodern, transnational air that can only lead to utter disaster (in fact, the anomaly in international law of Kosovo's unilateral independence has produced the present crisis and can potentially, cause many more besides).

It may well be that the autocrats Russia, China, a number of Muslim countries, and their Third World clients will gang up against the West and Israel. It may also bring about a re-alignment in Euro-American relations and bring them closer together.

If the latter decades of the last century were at times a little boring, developments in the new millennium have already handsomely made up for that. We live in interesting times after all.


get your vodpod

In case of problems the videos can also be accessed from the Vodpod page.

- Filed on Articles in "Rumbling Russia" -

Sunday, August 24, 2008

The Trial of Radovan Karadžić: Breaking News

Articles is breaking news on developments in the defense of Radovan Karadžić at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

The Articles page also contains a digest of the proceedings at ICTY so far, and links to useful sites with more information.

Friday, August 22, 2008

Today's LooneyGlobs: Slow Retreat

Townhall: "Blame Everyone But Russia!" by Victor Davis Hanson

An inventory of Western reactions to the Russian invasion of Georgia ... European public opinion is probably sharply divided between the American Left wing and the liberal mainstream. Hanson's conclusion sounds about right:

"
The more Russia promises to leave Georgia, the more it seems to stay put. One reason may be that Putin keeps counting on us either to be confused, contradictory or angrier at ourselves than at Russia over his latest aggression. And given our inability to speak with one voice, he seems to be absolutely right." >>>

In the meantime at the UN ...

BBC: "UN
split over Georgia resolutions"


The UN Security Council is deadlocked over the situation in Georgia with the US and Russia rejecting rival resolutions on the crisis. Washington says it is prepared to veto a Russian resolution seeking to implement a six-point ceasefire plan. Russia has reiterated its opposition to a rival French text reaffirming Georgia's territorial integrity. Russian says its troops will leave Georgia on Friday but 500 will stay in a "buffer zone" around South Ossetia. Local reports suggest Russian troops are still dug in at positions inside Georgia, but there has been some movement around the town of Gori, which Russia has promised to leave by 1600 GMT (...) >>>

... we've seen this procrastination for over a week now ... 'buffer zones' and self-appointed 'peace-keepers' ... yet something appears to be moving ... Georgian Times: "Troops Quit Administrative Headquarters in Zugdidi", SOS Georgia: "The streets of Gori are already controlled by Georgian Patrol Police"

In all the confusion over Georgia it seemed we've missed a important detail:

Pajamas: "Will NATO Abandon Ukraine Too? - A newly aggressive Russia sure hopes so,"by Kim Zigfeld


(...) NATO (...) must arm Ukraine to the teeth. It must make it such a hard target that the lunatics who “govern” neo-Soviet Russia will not even consider moving against it, as they recently did in Georgia. The reasons are so obvious that they hardly need to be stated. The role played by Russia’s Black Sea Fleet in brutally assaulting Ukraine has not been sufficiently reported (...) Last week, Ukraine demanded that Russia give 72 hours notice before activating war ships at its naval base in Crimea, on Ukrainian territory (similar to the U.S. base in Guantanamo, Cuba). Russia said it would simply ignore the demand.

The Moscow Times reported: “The chief of Ukraine’s General Staff, Serhiy Kirichenko, promised to fulfill Yushchenko’s decree. ‘The president’s decree on the Black Sea Fleet will, of course, be implemented on the territory of Ukraine. The Defense Ministry and the General Staff are among those state bodies responsible for this task.’” As Ukraine stands up for its comrade Georgia (...) Russia uses this as a pretext to ratchet up its confrontation rather than defuse it. It is a clear signal that Russia’s intentions towards Ukraine are at least as malevolent as they are towards Georgia, if not more so (...) >>>

Governments, security services, everyone must have been comatose in the run up to the operation. Blogger Diana Chachua on Peace in Georgia is relaying an article on Radio Liberty that Russia's armed forces entered Georgia on August 8 and held massive military training exercises in the North Caucasus involving 8,000 servicemen and 700 pieces of military hardware. At center stage in those maneuvers -- which took place in the second half of July, not far from Georgia's border -- was Russia's 58th Army, the very unit that would later play a key role in the incursion. Those exercises were just one link in a chain of incidents suggesting that Russia's military action in Georgia was planned months in advance, awaiting only an appropriate pretext to act.

Military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer says the aim, from the start, was to overthrow Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili and his pro-Western government.
"This was prepared long ago (...) April -- the month in which Felgenhauer claims Russia made its decision to invade -- was also the month when the NATO military alliance declined to offer outright a Membership Action Plan (MAP) to Georgia and Ukraine at its annual summit in Bucharest. In an August 14 article published in the "Novaya gazeta" weekly, Felgenhauer, who is credited with maintaining close sources in the Russian military, claims Moscow's plan began taking shape shortly after Georgia and Ukraine were denied a MAP.

(...)
Such interpretations contradict the official narrative of the war promoted relentlessly by the Kremlin in the domestic and international media -- that Russian forces acted only in order to defend Russian citizens and peacekeeping forces in South Ossetia from Georgian soldiers intent on "ethnic cleansing" and "genocide" in the breakaway region. For now, there is no smoking gun to prove Russia methodically plotted its incursion into Georgia (...) >>> read it all

For the romantically inclined, here's fiction meeting reality, a blueprint for an African coup:

The Weekly Standard: "Destination Malabo - A group of mercenaries' failed attempt to take over the worst place on earth," by Mark Hemingway

It was a complicated plan. But the beauty of it was that it allowed for many things to go wrong without compromising the whole. (...) As the full details of the coup continue to emerge, aspiring writers should pay close attention. There are no doubt a few good novels to be wrung out of the ongoing intrigue (...) in the Worst Place on Earth (...) you just can't make this stuff up (...) >>>
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Thursday, August 21, 2008

The LooneyGlobs and Cold War Ghosts

  • Macedonia Online: " Russian Aircraft Carrier heads for Syria"

    The Russian aircraft carrier “Admiral Kuznetsov” is ready to head from Murmansk towards the Mediterranean and the Syrian port of Tartus. The mission comes after Syrian President Bashar Assad said he is open for a Russian base in the area. (...) The mission will also include the missile cruiser “Moskva” and several submarines, Newsru.com reports. President Assad in meetings in Moscow this week expressed support to Russia’s intervention in South Ossetia and Georgia. He also expressed interest in the establishment of Russian missile air defence facilities (...) >>>

  • Jerusalem Post: "Analysis: Assad's shopping list"
  • The Star: "Pressure builds on Russia - Canada to review 'everything' including Arctic ties; NATO suspends council, stops short of sanctions"

    Canada's relations with Russia over disputed Arctic territory could become frostier as NATO members seek to discipline the country for its invasion of Georgia, a top aide to Prime Minister Stephen Harper suggests. The warning comes after a meeting of the military alliance in Brussels where foreign ministers declared that a "business as usual" relationship with Russia cannot continue. Russia continues to occupy parts of neighbouring Georgia and Russian troops yesterday paraded bound and blindfolded Georgian soldiers on armoured vehicles and may have blown up a Georgian warship. (...) >>>
  • BBC - On this day in: "1968: Russia brings winter to 'Prague Spring'"

    Dozens of people have been killed in a massive military clampdown in Czechoslovakia by five Warsaw Pact countries. Several members of the liberal Czechoslovak leadership have been arrested, including Prime Minister Alexander Dubcek. The Soviet news agency, Tass, claims "assistance" was requested by members of the Czechoslovak Government and Communist party leaders to fight "counter-revolutionary forces". But in a secret radio address, Czechoslovak President Ludvik Svoboda condemned the occupation by Warsaw Pact allies as illegal and committed without the government's consent. US President Lyndon Johnson said the invasion was a clear violation of the United Nations Charter (...) >>> watch the deja vue ...
  • Here's another reminder:


Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Georgian Crisis: "Russia is Blowing Up Europe"

With Russia taking up the Soviet habit of invading sovereign nations, and the ineffectual response by the world's international organizations, we have reached a preliminary pit where moral relativism may take us. How much deeper into the mire the debilitating mind-set eventually may lead, becomes clearer by the day.

The situation warrants a serious wake-up call, as the Lithuanian MEP, former President Vytautys Landsbergis has done today.

NATO stands accused of bias by the Russians. NATO, not being a neutral arbiter but a defense organization, is supposed to be biased on the side of the good guys! The bizarre condemnation by Russia is cunningly calculated to appeal to the morally relativized masses in the West.

At the root of the moral paralysis lurks the toxic philosophy of relativism, the notion that there is no objective truth and that therefore any opinion is as good as any other. In this scenario there are no good or bad guys, just narratives in the form of personal perspectives. This pernicious philosophy is imposed on us by our intellectual elites and useless idiots through the pressure of petty political correctness.

Europe has lost sight of the fact that we aren't neutral bystanders, but partisan members of a defense organization. This excerpt from World Politics Review marks the postmodern corruption: "While the United States (...) condemn Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, the Europeans have tried to maintain a delicate balancing act between the two belligerents. The French were even-handed (...)" This is abdicating the moral stance required as a member of NATO.

What's worse, many of Europe's politicians - to the Left as well as to the Right - have now adopted as their default attitude the philosophy of Pragmatism, another off-shoot in the Relativist school of thought. The result is well described in this Times Online article, "Georgia: Europe wins a gold medal for defeatism."

This defeatism is the result of a will, crushed by the conclusion that truth is unattainable: objective realism thus shunned, leads to moral agnosticism. In the absence of truth, it follows there is no right or wrong.

In times of peace and stability we can perhaps afford the luxury of an intelligentsia dabbling in suicidal mind-games, but right now it's becoming apparent that it rots away at our resolve and putrifies survival instincts. Our weekness invites adventurism on the part of the more absolutist. In short, there is a mounting requirement to raise awareness of the problem.

The former President of Lithuania, Vytautys Landsbergis knows the Russian capacity of constructed reality as no other. In 1991 he fought off a bloody attempt by the Soviets to overthrow his Government. He is presently a Member of the European Parliament for the conservative EPP-ED group.

Today he tolled the knell in that hapless institution by handing out a pamphlet in which he outlined his urgent caveats. It can be read on the site of EUX.TV but given its prime importance we reproduce it here below. This article on National Post goes deeper into the division between the old and the new Europe.

A concerted, undivided effort to regain control over reality-based thinking is long, long overdue. Even now - after the assault on Georgia - common denial is setting in. After Islamization failed to alert us to the existential danger of our own making, we now have the benefit of the omens emanating from the reconstituted Evil Empire. We must awake from the relativist stupor! Russia is playing us like a violin, and to all but NATO's Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, it's business as usual.

Here's Vytautys Landsbergis' interview with EUX and the text of his burning missive.



EUX.TV: "Landsbergis: Russia is Blowing Up Europe"

The gloomiest premonitions are short to become true. Europe divided, and unfortunately toadying is at last giving into Russian aggression. This was manifested by EU leaders' inefficiency even to state that a power having crossed the frontiers and raved within a sovereign country's community, nor the immobilized United Nations, dared to demand that invaders' armed forces as well as the supreme commander in chief in the Kremlin responsible for the ongoing violence and plunder get out immediately. Calls to stop crimes bring about nothing, neither does ineffective parlance on Russia's 'inadequate means'.

One seems as if expected to perceive - were the Russian bombers targeting fewer bombs on homes, exploding fewer bridges, had they sunk only two offshore patrol boats, not three, were they to have killed not two pressmen in Gori - only one instead, perhaps, those means would look acceptable.

The German proposals to stabilize the situation under the Russian occupation were just similar. To those unaware about the importance of the wording, Moscow has imposed to continue with the misconcepted usage of 'peace keepers' for invaders and, besides, an empty, time-wasting dissension on the future of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, whilst both Georgia's and Europe's future remain at stake.

The only credibility test for EU and NATO today is to request Russia's armed forces to be withdrawn immediately and unconditionally. Preventing it, Russia simply denounced any full withdrawal. Shut up your mouths, Europeans. Is that language addressed to Mr Sarkozy?

Whoever does not demand unconditional withdrawal, not 'stepping back' - actually justifies the incursion as well as the sea blockade, plundering, rape, total destruction of communications and economy infrastructure, if Georgians are not, at least, pushed to guerilla warfare in their sovereign land. Russia succeeded in 'balkanizing' South Ossetia - village against village, so, the destruction may now go deeper into Georgia. The new Georgian site, the town Akhalgori, is already occupied by 'independent Ossetians.' The mockery goes on.

Appeasing European leaders imperceptibly are becoming accomplices in total wrongdoing.

Russia in its line happily discloses itself as a medieval state-conqueror, to whom do belong all the goods taken from those defeated. "Our trophies." This is a quotation.

We have seen it all in Lithuania - the outright Soviet cynicism, ideological demagoguery, accompanying the violence of the military and chekist atrocities.

They began by accusing Lithuania to be the aggressor in 1940; the occupation was followed by the Red Terror, and they, by the use of specially re-dressed assault troopers, applying total warfare to peasants thrown out of their homes and land, well until the 12 March 1990.

This is being done currently in Georgia, while terrorists brought in from North Caucasus are also allowed to demonstrate how impotent the Tblisi government is, as it has agreed even not to undertake responsibility of protecting its own people. Europe de facto approves of free hands on this 'solution' and the fixed agreement. You don't resist, agreed Mr. Sarkozy. We'll not protect you either, only by statements. Let the Georgians retreat to the places of their dislocation. As to Russia's units' whereabouts or whenever they were to leave, it was left to be guessed. The Kremlin is free to tell lies every day. The Georgians will be requested, the Russians only suggested to. In response, they are already dictating the winners' conditions.

Hypocricy has been admitted: as if the bandits who followed the invaders' forces did not belong to the Russian units. Just so it was to be presented to us in 1991; portraying USSR interior OMON gangs as 'local forces' assigned to protect the local Poles from the Lithuanians. A bit later the whole so-called Baltic regional military structure (Russian, of course) was declared "local public force" which was provided to take part in determining the future "status" of the three Baltic States! President Boris Yeltsin behaved honestly, so the threatening GRU bubbles proved to be empty in the end.

Prior to it, we saw in Lithuania the night of 13 January 1991, which might be descending in Georgia presently. I can well remember the horrible sensation; we were butchered, looted, exposed to anything on their minds while the whole world stayed silent. It was only Boris Yeltsin who responded, as I later found out, by sternly warning Mr Gorbachev. But Gorbachev was by then already hostage of the crime perpetrated with his consent. And as the bloody morning drew closer, the West's protests were already heard.

The Soviet generals, however, were off the edge being prevented from "completing the job". It seems that around Tblisi things are alike. The Russians are mocking President Sarkozy and State Secretary Rice by distancing a little bit when they are in the city, and coming back nearer after the guests leave.

Georgia does not see the dawn, and Europe allows it to be so.

This might suggest the beginning of the pre-planned decline of the European Union and cataclysm of that ancient civilization. Speaking frankly, morally Europe already capitulated way back in Chechnya. Any simplified, primitive and artificial justification for that punishing Chechen genocide, the second after Stalin's one in 1944, was accepted. Now the berries are ripe. >>>

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Today's Collection by the LooneyGlobs: Breaking News

"The program was about the answers, not about the candidates."

"Russia is Saudi Arabia with trees."

- Overheard on CNN

From Russia, With Tough Love - photos and a report from the front on Atlas Shrugs ...

NATO's "no business as usual" was dismissed by Russia as ... bias! Unbelievable ... seldom was a more morally relativized, even-handed message delivered by a NATO official. NATO's musketeer motto is its reason of being. But thanks to the postmodern (Pragmatist) Europeans NATO has now become a conflict mediator, a UN II or an EU II, that's how machismo Russia takes it, at least. For heaven's sake, NATO is supposed to be biased, it is a party, not a mediator. This needs careful watching ... George W. isn't buying.

In the meantime (10:13 CET) at Gori, Georgia ...

... there's blowback in Warsaw - there's no beating the strategy of fake paranoia and willful irrationality (a Soviet era remnant, now a retro communication weapon wielded by Western pomos) ...

And now for the good BREAKING NEWS!

EUX.TV: "Landsbergis: Russia is Blowing Up Europe"

"Vytautys Landsbergis was President of Lithuania in 1991, when he helped fight off a bloody attempt by the Soviet Union's army to overthrow his country's government. He now is a member of the European Parliament for the conservative EPP-ED group."

... much as the EU is a fundamentally undemocratic organization modeled on the Soviet Union, and as as such should be rejected, evidently it's not good news at all. Landsbergis is registering the moral agnosticism prevailing in Europe. Today he's tolling the knell in the European Parliament. He's distributed the following text:

The gloomiest premonitions are short to become true. Europe divided, and unfortunately toadying is at last giving into Russian aggression ... read it all >>> (full post follows shortly) ...

... symbolic is an accident reported by the same EUX.TV: ... ceiling of the parliament collapsed ...

Georgian Crisis: The Islam Connection

Prospect magazine has a must-read article "Caucasian Favours" on the situation in the Caucasus region in general, written by Daniel J Gerstle, a writer and human rights consultant.

Although according to some commentators the post inevitably comes along with a certain amount of bias, the writer's wish to deliver an objective piece of backdrop information was largely successful, specifically where the historical background is concerned:

(...) to understand why Russia’s response to the Georgian attack on South Ossetia was so strong, it helps to understand the role played by Russia’s southern ethnic minorities. Today, Russia's top national security concern is the Islamic radical insurgency ravaging its southern republics. The insurgency and the two Chechen wars which spawned it have killed well over 100,000 Russian citizens. By 2001, Russian federal and Chechen loyalist forces had largely beaten Islamic rebels. But with its attention focused on Chechnya, the Kremlin lost an advantage. Islamic radicals began recruiting disgruntled Muslim fighters all across the southern federal district and the conflict spread to the neighbouring Russian republics of Ingushetia, Dagestan, Kalbardino-Balkaria and Karachai-Cherkessia. The Kremlin has succeeded in securing the loyalties of all of the minority governments across the southern republics, including Chechnya, but the insurgency persists in a series of shootouts and bombings throughout southern Russia. With the insurgency still threatening to undermine regional governments, including that of North Ossetia, Russia desperately needed to find a way to re-consolidate its alliances among southern leaders. Russia’s protection of threatened South Ossetians in Georgia, in co-operation with North Ossetia, has done more to rally Kremlin allies there than any other political event since the terror attack on Beslan, North Ossetia, in 2004. Even Chechen special forces loyal to Moscow, who had taken a break from fighting insurgents at home, were spotted waving to photographers on their ride into battle in Tskhinvali, the devastated capitol of South Ossetia, on the frontline of Russia’s advance. Because of Russia’s action in Georgia, not only did North Ossetians move closer to union with South Ossetia, but southern leaders who represent minorities like the Cherkess, Kabardins, and Adyg, were able to bring their people closer to their ethnic brethren in Abkhazia. Southern leaders without ties to Georgia, like the Chechens and Ingush, joined in this fight to win points from Moscow as well as to repay neighbouring governments for the blood they sacrificed in the ongoing counter-insurgency (...)

The article ignited comments on the associated blog "First Drafts" that in narrative and idiom offer unintended insight how innuendo and false inferences prop up anti American prejudices, notably in reference to that 'American client' Saakashvili (alternatively referred to as hothead, popinjay, or loose canon): like Iraq's Government, he's a priori suspect - no shocking revelations there.

One gullible commentator refers us to a 'plausible' 'key-hole' story on Times Online, written by a committee of four on the basis of unspecified 'sources.' "The new cold war hots up" reads that ...

"(...) the US State Department’s internal timeline of the crisis pinpoints the explosion on August 1 of two roadside bombs, believed to have been planted by South Ossetian separatists sympathetic to Russia, as a decisive moment. Five Georgian policemen were injured, one severely.(...) It now appears that August 1 was a well-prepared “provocation” – one of the Kremlin’s favourit tactics. (...) the Georgian leader last week angrily said he had repeatedly warned Washington and EU countries that the Russians were preparing a military operation against Georgia but that he had been brushed aside. (...)"

That Georgian leader's claim is born out by the one year old article posted here yesterday ... the Russians have been hurling missiles at Georgia since August 2007. That in mind, puts the article's claim of the "US State Department's internal timeline of August 1" in certain light.

Since treason is second nature to the followers of relativist ideologies, it should come as no surprise that their mental radar screen remains virgin to the fact that the hothead merely did his prime duty as a leader, namely defending the people and the territory in his keeping.

Next stop: today's NATO emergency meeting in Brussels.

Here's the PDF to Daniel J Gerstle's entire article on Prospect, "Caucasian Favours."

- Filed on Articles in "Caucasian Heat" -

Monday, August 18, 2008

Georgian Crisis: since August 2007

The following posting on The Standard blog is dating back exactly one year: 15th August 2007.

Little did we know when we published our first post a few days ago on the subject of the rape of Georgia and titled it "Caught Sleeping in Tbilisi," that our misguided politicians and diplomats were actually long-term struck by a malignant form of catatonic coma!

Saakashvili may be a hot-head (the MSM's favorite qualification), but as it turns out, he was right all along!

As the Russians are playing word games over the French cheese ceasefire agreement they never intended to keep, and the relativized MSM are incorrigibly fixated on the Russia-was-provoked myth because that neatly covers their moral agnostics (they have already moved on to the resignation of President Musharraf of Pakistan), 160.000 refugees have descended on the Georgian capital Tbilisi. And now this ... dated 15th August 2007 ... read and weep:

The Standard: "The New Russia: Georgia Alleges Second Attack in Four Months - Missile Lands in Georgian Village"

Georgia has accused Russia of an "undisguised aggression," claiming two Russian Su24 jets entered Georgian airspace on August 7 and fired (or "ditched", according to other reports) a missile that landed near a house in the village of Tsitelubani.

The missile did not explode. (See The New York Times and the BBC for August 7 coverage.)

Georgia has called for an emergency UN meeting. Russia has denied all allegations.

The United States has called the act a "provocation" and the European Union has urged all sides to show restraint.

Meanwhile, the good people at The Economist have put the incident in context.

But there's much more context.

Well... A Second Missile Attack

As The Wall Street Journal notes, this was the second time in four months that Georgia has lodged a complaint with the international community regarding a Russian attack.

On March 11, two helicopters flew over the mountains into Georgia's Kodori Valley and fired a missile into a Georgian government building. This missile, as it happens, exploded.

- Caption: The People's Cube: "Red Primer for Children and Diplomats" - The Soviets' love for their fellow men never recognized borders. The new Ukranian Republic was allowed to join the new Russian Soviet Republics..."voluntarily." The independence of the new Georgian Republic was also granted by the Soviets in 1921. To "guarantee" this "independence," the Soviets incorporated Georgia into the Soviet Union eight months later, after Red Army invasion. -

Again from WSJ: "The sheer sophistication of a helicopter attack in high mountain passes at night would point to Russian authorship. Its military is the only one in the region known to have the equipment and training needed to pull it off."

The Russian government, not so unexpectedly, denied the allegations.

When asked by the UN to provide radar records, the Russian Defense Ministry claimed that the Russian military records "only flights by aviation of the Russian armed forces." As there were no Russian aircraft in the area that evening, the Ministry letter went on to explain, there were no records to provide.

At this point, let's all pause for three seconds and reflect on the purpose and uses of a military radar system.

Good.

It's should be clear now that Russian helicopters entered the airspace of a free, sovereign nation, staged a military attack, and the UN, the United States, and the European Union have offered no measured diplomatic response.

Now as the same free, sovereign nation makes a second accusation, the United States government has managed a whisper, while the European Union has taken upon itself the supreme responsibility of playing the role of kindergarten teacher.

Probably nothing to worry about...

An ultra-nationalist state that has changed its school textbooks to present Great Britain and the United States as its 'totalitarian' adversaries and stated directly that oil and gas supplies ought be used as geopolitical weapons (See previous post).

Cooler heads...

Here's the map of oil and gas pipelines (in French) from Russia to Europe, in case you were wondering...

The last half year has seen the Russian government take aggressive new stances in the international game of power and indoctrinate its new generation with belligerent nationalist ideology that lauds the glories of the Soviet past. It has also seen the Russian military accused of various acts of aggression. This above post is only a part of the whole. >>>

- Filed on Articles in "Caucasian Heat" -

 
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