Shared Values 67


Following on from yesterday’s post, here is a tiny everyday example of those shared US/Israeli values Dianne Feinstein was on about.

Courtesy of the Guardian.

Meanwhile another 47 people are killed by a truck bomb in Iraq and over 200 maimed. A slightly larger toll than usual in a single incident so it actually made the media here, but again in Iraq such violent death is an everyday occurrence. That is over ten years of fear, carnage on an unthinkable scale, dire poverty and destruction of basic services. I bet the Iraqis are extremely grateful for the peace and security Blair and Bush brought them.


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67 thoughts on “Shared Values

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  • Ishmael

    The IDF are beasts. Not all, but most. Change the uniforms, language, and geographical area, we could be somewhere else. “Never again”

  • Mary

    Diamond has left. That was a lot of hot air over three hours for nothing. Diamond’s assumed sackcloth and ashes act was almost biblical. As with Leveson witnesses, I knew nothing.

  • Courtenay Barnett

    “Democracy” is such a wonderful concept – but if you don’t like the ones who are most popular with eh people and voted in then support the coup, of course:-
    Haiti – elections – US support for ouster of Aristide
    Honduras – elections – ouster of President Zelaya – US support for coup leader
    Nicaragua – “Democratic Resistance” funded by the CIA
    Venezuela – Chavez briefly ousted and Washington was the first to give full support – only to be opposed by the OAS and all of Latin America
    Paraguary – elections – coup and President Lugo ousted and back to the good old days of Stroessner’s Colorados – supported by the US
    Indonesia – General Suharto fully backed by US
    Saudi Arabia – wonderful regime fully backed by the US
    US Foreign Policy is supposed to have the promotion of democracy in all countries as a cornerstone objective. However, the actual conduct of the US belies this professed objective. Additionally, it is impractical and culturally less than astute to believe that one can simply implant Western style democracy in all the countries of the world. What is closer the truth is that with prosperity and a growing middle class, that class and elements of the intelligentsia tend to look to the West for governance models to introduce into their countries. Having said that, no true nationalist seeking some form of democracy is unaware of the cultural factors which speak to a need for modifications to introduce new models in a viable and effective manner. One can weigh this observation against the objectives of Mohammed Mossadegh in Iran when in the 1950s he embraced Western models – only to be overthrown in 1953 CIA inspired coup.

    All said and done – what we have at present under US leadership is a world built on violence (Afghanistan – Iraq – Libya – Syria – Iran? ….and on, and on and on we go – with “Democraship” (shared values indeed).

  • Mary

    This link in Aangirfan’s post on George Entwistle merits a separate mention. Talk about inner circles.
    .
    The Headhunter is Dom Loehnis, Cameron’s close friend and an Old Etonian and Bullingdon Club member. His firm also got Patten his job as BBC Chairman last year.
    .
    https://sites.google.com/site/bbc2012dgstakes/the-headhunter
    .
    {http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2119977/Lord-Patten-favours-Financial-Times-editor-new-BBC-chief.html#ixzz1q6gmfumC}

  • Rose

    That clip was unbearable to watch and listen to; how can anyone calling themselves human inflict that kind of terror on a child.

    But are “our values” any different? I watched Chris Hedges (courtesy of Media Lens) this morning and was shocked to learn the one in three American children rely on food stamps.

  • Ruth

    Mary,
    Your jumping from topic to topic disrupts my concentration in following the other comments. So far your off topic comments include Entwistle, Eric Sykes, the weather, NHS privatisation, Diamond and Olympic tax avoidance.

  • Fedup

    Rose,
    The hungry in US have started eating rats to survive, and some children there, eat one meal a day if they are lucky. So far as the zionist bastards are concerned these blood thirsty bastards are beneath contempt, calling these animals would only demean animals.
    ,
    BTW if you want to find how fast your internet connection is go this site and find out;
    http://speedtest.net/

  • guano

    Dale Martin
    Saddam Hussain had murdered maybe 20 million of his own citizens.
    He followed the chicken feed laid by the West to use Iraqi oil money for military activity and ended up blaming his own population for his own stupidity.
    .
    Of more concern is that political Islam, which should know better because the Qur’an expressly forbids entering into alliances with the enemies of Islam, has done the same, not just in Afghanistan and the War on Terror, but previously in colluding with the British Empire in destroying the Ottoman Caliphate, and many times before..
    .
    Fed Up wrote:
    Guano

    Ever thought of religion and politics to be one and the same? Both are designed to organise human societies, one seeks to attain it through the higher authority of the unseen the other achieves it through the higher authority of power, that is usually expressed as the “mandate”.
    .
    My answer is 100% yes in the case of political Islam. It is exactly the same as the British Establishment, it uses the slogans, Gordon Brownian core varlues if you like, of religion, while obliterating truth, insight, whistleblowing, justice.
    It collaborates with the Dale Martin’s ruthless dealers in murder for financial gain, because that is it’s own aim.
    .
    BUT, political Islam is not Islam, very far from it.
    The silencing of ordinary Muslims through the centuries has been the result of collusion between political Islam and the enemies of Islam. The War on Terror was merely an extension of the process by which Islam has always been vilified. In Victorian times those who offered resistance to the British were labelled fanatics.
    .
    What has changed in the last decade, is that it hass clear that the silencing and intimidation of the voice of Islam has always been primarily instigated by political Islam cutting deals with colonialism.
    .
    Political Islam has always done the shoe-horning of the penis of colonialism into the property, culture, society and religion of the Muslims. Pimps, gawads, whatever you like to call them.
    They are all the same, posing as scholars and elders, they twist Islam into a mechanism for controlling people, not for its own sake, but because they are paid to do it and given positions of authority in the community by the enemies of Islam..
    .
    That’s why religion and politics look the same to Fed Up.
    I see no difference between the spying, lying, cheating, stealing antics of political Islam and the farting corgis companions of our misguided Queen. So long as the Muslims don’t speak, they can do whatever they like as sub-citizens of UK society. It is political Islam that acts as minders to cut out the tongue of the Muslims so the message of Islam cannot be heard by the English people.

  • oddie

    be very careful what u say in the US of A:

    4 July: Desertpeace: FLORIDA DEMS: ‘FOLLOW THE LINE ON ISRAEL OR GET IN LINE TO COLLECT UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE’
    Evelyn Garcia, a member of the Democratic National Committee from Palm Beach County, resigned the post Monday after emails surfaced in which she sharply criticized Israel’s treatment of Palestinians…
    County Democratic Party Chairman Mark Alan Siegel accepted Garcia’s resignation Monday afternoon. He called the emails “grossly inappropriate.”
    “I was shocked by her choice of words,” Siegel said.
    He said he was surprised because Garcia “had never shown any animus toward Jews she encountered in her work for the party. “This wasn’t the Evelyn we knew,” he said.
    County Commissioner Burt Aaronson was angered by the emails.
    “She can say what she wants but not as an executive of the Democratic Party,” Aaronson said. “The party, locally, statewide and nationally, supports the state of Israel. I am personally offended as a Jew, as a Democrat and as a supporter of the state of Israel. The Democratic Party is better off without her.”…
    http://desertpeace.wordpress.com/2012/07/04/florida-dems-follow-the-line-on-israel-or-get-in-line-to-collect-unemployment-insurance/

  • oddie

    btw welcome back craig.
    don’t sweat the big or small stuff, just stick around, when u r in the mood.

  • doug scorgie

    Mary
    You are (with respect) wrong when you say:
    “A ploy being used by Diamond is to call the committee by their first names. It’s called defusing hostility.”
    He is using first names because he personally knows people on the committee and, by being overly familiar he is warning them not to push him too much or he may spill the beans on the politicians and Whitehall officials that were in the know, or even encouraged the banking scam.

  • EyeCare

    A couple of points about Sadam Hussein:
    (1) What ever else may be saifd about him, he at least refused to sell out his country to a foreign power, unlike Balair and Bush
    (2) We don’t have to speculate on the motives for his removal – the neocons were helpful enough to publish them in advance: The PNAC document “Rebuilding America’s Defenses: Strategies, Forces and Resources for a New Century,from September 2000 says: “The United States has for decades sought to play a more permanent role in Gulf regional security. While the unresolved conflict with Iraq provides the immediate justification, the need for a substantial American force presence in the Gulf transcends the issue of the regime of Saddam Hussein.”

  • Hamish

    I’m counting down to the moment when Blair finally fesses up and states “God told me to do it!!”

  • nuid

    “He is using first names because he personally knows people on the committee and, by being overly familiar he is warning them not to push him too much or he may spill the beans …”
    .
    It felt like he was emphasising his “superiority” and patronising them. But he must know every single one of them personally, since he used first names with the entire group? It got most annoying, and seemed disrespectful, since they were all calling him ‘Mr Diamond’. People got pissed off on Twitter, and someone said that MPs were tweeting from the committee rooms, talking about how rude he was by using their first names. Would he do that at a Congressional committee? Where’s a cream pie when you need one?
    .
    And then there’s his lovely daughter who told George Osborne and Ed Miliband (on Twitter) to ‘go ahead and #HMD’.
    .
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2168290/Bob-Diamonds-daughter-Nell-attacks-George-Osborne-Ed-Miliband-ahead-HMD-tweet.html

  • nuid

    “That clip was unbearable to watch and listen to; how can anyone calling themselves human inflict that kind of terror on a child.”
    .
    Rose, they don’t even see them as children. They call them “future terrorists”. And so do their avid supporters in the USA. Sickening.

  • Mary

    Contrasts.
    .
    http://news.uk.msn.com/poll-reveals-hungry-children-fears-1
    .
    1 million children in the UK are going hungry and may get 11 meals a week if they are lucky instead of 21.
    .
    Mr Sellar’s multi £million Shard is inaugurated today with a laser show. The cost of going to the viewing platform for a family of four is £90.
    .
    Mr Diamond goes off into the sunset with his £millions.

  • Mary

    Terrrrism rears its ugly head just two days before the 7th anniversary of 7/7
    .
    BREAKING NEWS:Six people arrested in London on suspicion of commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism, police say

  • nuid

    Ruth, despite my follow-up remarks about Diamond, I agree with you. It’s one of the reasons I don’t read here as often as I used to.
    .
    And Mary, I’m sure everyone already knows about the “breaking news”. I do think that posting from the “MSM” about headlines of the day could be called “too much information” – if you get my drift.

  • Alexno

    re Guano 12.32

    “Saddam Hussain had murdered maybe 20 million of his own citizens.”

    Rubbish, complete rubbish. 20 million is nearly the whole population of Iraq. Hardly any mass graves have been found, despite intensive efforts during the American occupation.

    The death rate was considerable, but certainly at a lower rate per year than during the occupation, where the US encouraged inter-sectarian killing.

  • John Goss

    Thanks Clark. Yes, Thunderbird did work its way through my emails overnight.

    Sorry about the weather, Craig. Hope it better today.

  • Scouse Billy

    “On February 16, 2012, Lord James of Blackheath made history by being the first public official anywhere in the world to expose the criminal enterprise being run by and through the Federal Reserve. Known as “White Thursday”, four months have passed since this historic event without any apparent effort by highly paid regulators, Agencies or Government officials to rigorously investigate. For the Mother of Parliaments, this is inexcusably lax conduct. Leader of the House, Lord Strathclyde, when will you investigate, as history will show this happened on YOUR watch,”
    .
    http://thewhitehatsreport.com/wordpress/

  • Passerby

    people were dying under Saddam. In fact- not that you should do ever do this, but if you want to add it up- far more’.
    ,
    That shameless liar is talking out o his butt as per his usual fashion. Gaby Rado, killed on his orders, and Terry Lloyd murdered just to keep the numbers of the dead Iraqis out of the headlines.
    ,
    Iraqi army was disbanded for one reason: a disbanded army could never account for its losses, and injured soldiers. The turkey shoot in Sulaymaniyah and Basra were far too ugly for any kind of news headlines. the embeds reporting only what they were allowed to see and after their reports had been cleared by the various intelligence staff involved.

  • mebully?

    Scouse Billy,
    I must say Lord Strathclyde is a good friend of Mr Karimov of Uzbekistan and Karimov’s daughters. Mr Strathclyde made his first visit to Tashkent in 2005, i think, since then he is a good fella there. The English say : tell me who is your friend I will tell you who you are.

  • Mark Golding - Children of Iraq Association

    Five men and a woman have been arrested on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism on the eve of 7/7.
    .
    MI5 conjured up some pre-planned intelligence that was handed to Scotland Yard’s counter terrorism command. The Yard decided to act on the strict understanding that media reporting contained the words, ‘did not indicate that an attack on UK soil was imminent’ later amended to ‘*NOT* linked to the Olympic games’ an essential requirement to negate international concerns for the safety of visiting Olympic athletes. However, confusingly, police have linked this incident to a previous event in which two *Muslim converts* were held on suspicion of plotting an attack on the London Olympic canoeing venue…???
    .
    The six arrests were followed hours later by a tweet on Twitter by the BBC’s Danny Shaw saying that ‘Sources say man seen pouring liquid into bag which was smoking.’ Officers boarded and searched a Megabus on the M6 TOLL between T3 and T4, in both directions causing long delays.
    .
    http://m.dailymail.co.uk/mobile/news/article.html?articleID=2169070

  • Komodo

    On the other hand, Feinstein is aligned more with JStreet, representing moderate US Jews, and in favour of a two-state solution, than with the “Israel right or…if you call it wrong you are an antisemite” AIPAC lobby. Alleging common values between the US and Israel is more or less mandatory in US politics currently, and IMO it is rather counterproductive to single Feinstein out for this.
    .
    http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/31/us/politics/j-street-a-lobbying-group-is-being-heard-as-moderate-voice-on-israel.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

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