General Debate 02 October 2010

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Yvette

First –
As an extension of the three strikes law, have a strike first law – that anyone fleeing police be given a mandatory three year sentence to start with.
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October 2, 2010 8:01am
Rodders

In case you missed it, on TV3′s 7 Days last night, they said that Andrew Williams was to have appeared in the ‘Yes Minister’ segment but that he had thrown a hissy fit at the last minute, accusing TV3 of running a smear campaign against him. (To see the segment, it is about half way through the programme.)

http://ondemand.tv3.co.nz/Season-2-Ep-17/tabid/59/articleID/1229/MCat/52/Default.aspx

Perhaps Andrew Williams was worried that if he appeared, he might be made to look a fool….oops, he already has.
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October 2, 2010 8:02am
Inventory2

John Armstrong damns Phil Goff with faint praise then sticks the knife in this morning:

http://keepingstock.blogspot.com/2010/10/armstrong-fisks-goff.html
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October 2, 2010 8:25am
MyNameIsJack

Day one of new GST rate is over

Petrol extra $3.15
Newspaper $0.10
Drinks at Club $2.00
Lunch $0.40

Total Increase Day 1 $5.65

Total tax cut $0.00

Well done Shonkey.
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October 2, 2010 8:35am
Pete George

Douglas’ time seems truly over

True Rogernomics believers scent another opportunity. But the world has moved on, most markedly as a result of the global financial crisis. In messy times, it’s best our politicians don’t limit their policy options.

The other Marx, the one with the cigar and wriggly eyebrows, knew all about the value of flexibility.

“Those are my principles,” he said once, “and if you don’t like them … well, I have others.”

A funny quote from Marx – but politicians have to allow themselves (and we have to allow them) to move with the times and adjust their sights, and policies, when necessary. Ideological purity is a straight-jacket for the insane.
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October 2, 2010 8:35am
Yvette

What does it say about processes of law when the first reaction to a mention of the coronial inquest into the Kahui twins deaths is to think “Bloody hell – when did that happen? Mon Dieu, how far back was that?”
June 18, 2006, for those still wondering, as I was.
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October 2, 2010 8:47am
Adolf Fiinkensein

MNIJ. At last we’ve caught up with you. You clearly are a tax bludger and now you’re squealing because you are being made to pay your whack.

In case you hadn’t noticed, that was exactly the intention of the increase in GST. To force pricks like you who have evaded their income tax responsibility to pay their share by way of unavoidable GST.

By the way, you seem to be a pisshead as well if your daily drinks cost an EXTRA $2.00 because of GST. Are you drinking triple whiskeys? By my calculations you spent $92 on booze last night.
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October 2, 2010 8:54am
Sonny Blount

Economics wasn’t your best subject at school was it MNIJ?
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October 2, 2010 8:55am
MyNameIsJack

Adolf Fiinkensein (1,727) Says:

October 2nd, 2010 at 8:54 am
MNIJ. At last we’ve caught up with you. You clearly are a tax bludger and now you’re squealing because you are being made to pay your whack.

And your evidence for this is …?

In case you hadn’t noticed, that was exactly the intention of the increase in GST. To force pricks like you who have evaded their income tax responsibility to pay their share by way of unavoidable GST.

Ah, personal abuse. Yes, that counts for evidence, doesn’t it?

By my calculations you spent $92 on booze last night.

Then your calculations were wrong, as was everything else in your post.

I actually spent $84.00, not hard to do when one likes the better things in life…
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October 2, 2010 9:07am
MyNameIsJack

Comment editor fucked again —just to finish above

Adolf, why so jealous? You know, you could work harder, as I do, and you too could enjoy a better lifestyle. Guess what they say about you is right – Adolf’s a nice enough chap, but wouldn’t work in an iron lung.
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October 2, 2010 9:09am
MyNameIsJack

Sonny Blount (947) Says:

October 2nd, 2010 at 8:55 am
Economics wasn’t your best subject at school was it MNIJ?

Looks like comprehension isn’tyour strong suit. What’s economics got to do with simple arithmetic?
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October 2, 2010 9:11am
bhudson

MayNameisJack,

If you are able to afford the finer things in life, as you yourself note above, then your income would have to be such that you will receive decent tax cut $.

If you choose to go out and indulge in such reckless and profligate spending before the first pay packet with reduced tax then that is your lookout. Or we might call it stupidity.

(And, of course, if your income is from your own business then you should know better re:cashflow management)
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October 2, 2010 9:16am
Rodders

Reading about MNIJ’s night out reminds one of WC Fields talking to the bartender

WC: “Was I in here last night and did I spend a 20-dollar bill?”
Bartender: “Yeah.”
WC: “Oh boy, what a load that is off my mind. I thought I’d lost it. “
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October 2, 2010 9:17am
Gwilly

Five new polcies for ACT to consider to reinvigorate their supporter base:

1. Immigration rules apply to ALL nationalities;
2. Visitors to NZ are granted a one month visit visa, which can be extended to 3 months, after which they must leave the country unless they have paid employment;
3. No immigrants are permitted to go onto welfare until after 5 years residency;
4. Raise superannuation age to 67 by 2015 and to 70 by 2020;
5. Introduce compulsory saving scheme – 15% contribution by employer & 15% by employee (similiar to Singapore);
6. Flat income, company, and GST rate of 15%.

And let’s follow the Dutch & French and ban the burka!
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October 2, 2010 9:51am
Pete George

How many fingers on your hand Gwilly?

I can’t see any way Act could get traction with those policies. Compulsory saving? Apart from the compulsion bit, what employer or employees could afford the percentages? And don’t say the tax cuts would cover it, most earners don’t pay more than about 19% tax now, so dropping to 15% leaves a huge gap.

I presume these aren’t official Act ideas?
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October 2, 2010 10:02am
Gwilly

Not official ACT ideas at all, just some food for thought to generate some discussion. There are many more ideas that ould be added to this list covering other areas, but these were just a few I thought of whilst waiting for my bacon and eggs.

The compulsory savings scheme (CPF)and low tax rates has been one of the key successes of Singapore. In fact one-third of people don’t pay any income tax and around half 5%. So you may be correct, for this to work, income tax would need to be lower.
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October 2, 2010 10:28am
joana

Gwilly ,
Some good points..not sure about the five years but didn’t asusie make it two yrs before NZers could get benefits after they got totally sick of the kiwi Bondi loungers. This at least should be reciprocal. No Aussies on benefits before two years.
I am all for reciprosity..Asians and others come here and go straight to the Winz office,..if we go to Asia we don’t get so much as a free roll of toilet paper..Instead we have to pay everywhere..renewable visas..proof of marriage fees , high school fees for our kids , sometimes double the local rate…we are always paying ”foreigner price.” No foreigner price in this silly little country.
The Singapore saving scheme has been in place for a long time.
Superannuation is the tricky one..as an issue it has a bigger effect in this country than just about everywherelse…Tinkering with Super cost the Nats three terms in office..if the raise the age again , they will be out ..Experts have studied this..It is a much more crucial issue in NZ then just about anywhere else…Maybe it is because older NZers are organized and politically active and there are lots of them.
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October 2, 2010 10:31am
Pauleastbay

MNIJ

The petrol wasn’t all GST either you fraud. Or you put well over a $100 worth of fuel in your motor after you spent $84 on grog.

If you can afford all that good on you just stop whinging you Christchurch wanker.

A question:

Why are the biggest whingers on here all from Christchurch?
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October 2, 2010 10:59am
Falafulu Fisi

The following is a good read (especially those economics illiterate lefties who are bombarding this blog on a continual basis with their child-play-type & nonsense arguments about economics). These are the leftist policies that got the world into economic troubles in recent years. (The article was linked to from Not PC blog).

Deep Economic and Debt Frictions Triggering Competing Currency Wars

C’mon lefties, go on and read the article above, since it is not hard to read at all, because you won’t find a single differential equation in there, just the everyday English.

Luc Hansen quoted on the other thread saying: Personally, I would applaud a Palin presidency. It would hasten the end of the American Empire . If Luc, has a brain in his head, he would definitely see that the destruction of the American Empire is accelerated under socialist POTUS Obama.

This destruction is currently under the watch of a president who knows all the capitals in the world, and there is no doubt he knows that Tonga’s capital is Nuku’alofa , no kidding here since small contingent of Tongan marines have been deployed to Iraq at various times since 2004 to help out with security work at army camps in Baghdad, therefore Obama is well-briefed on who’s in Iraq and who isn’t (even unimportant small islands like Tonga).

Palin’s (political) philosophy is to restore freedom to the people, wind back the size of the government and let free enterprise roll on its own without interference from the govt and all this has got nothing to do with knowing if Africa is a continent or a country. If someone is daft enough to think that knowledge of world’s capitals is vital to stop quantitative easing (which is destructive), then that person needs some serious education. That’s what made America an empire in the first place. Free enterprise and it’s people’s entrepreneurships.
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October 2, 2010 11:04am
jaba

Day one of new GST rate is over
Petrol extra $0 .. filled up at Pak & Save Thurs with $0.20 per ltr discount
Newspaper extra $0 .. we get one a work
Lunch extra $0 .. made from food purchased on Thurs
Drinks extra $0 .. purchased wine Thurs
Dinner extra $0.10c .. fish and chips
Tax cut $0
The bloody Nats have cost me 0.10 cents already .. bstds
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October 2, 2010 11:24am
dime

Day one of new GST rate is over

Petrol – company car so $0.00
Liquor – my bar is stocked with duty free. $0.00
Hooker – prices havent changed $0.00
Lunch – this didnt change either $0.00
Mixers & chewing gum – local shop isnt changing prices. $0.00

Total Increase Day 1 $0.00
Total tax cut – havent checked but its many thousands a year.

Well done Mr Key. You are a fucking champion!
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October 2, 2010 12:29pm
MikeNZ

Thank you Fala
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October 2, 2010 12:49pm
MikeNZ

gwilly
when we came here we had to sign with internal affairs not to claim dbp for 2yrs but then we’re white and older so I guess we needed to be kept under control.
I like your idea of 5 yrs no dpb. NZ citizenship should count for something, same for national voting only NZ citizens and positions in state sector over a certain rank.

As for super I favour a 30 yrs easing in with % take down of amount. so anyone starting work (18yrs), (those at 25 only get 5/30th and those at 30 get 10/30th etc etc) knows they won’t get super.
I hadn’t thought 15%/15% we may have to ramp that up from 5%/5% over 10yrs but a good idea.
Whatever we do we have to make sure that pollies like Goff and Key can’t interfere with it in any way and we mustn’t be able to fart around with it either so it is there for retirement.

as for the Burka, you are too lenient.
Ban any laws that do not comply with our human rights act (except deportation) so that does away with any Sharia, finance, family, investment whatever. (ie no foot in the door or creeping Sharia/Dhimmitude.
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October 2, 2010 12:58pm
MikeNZ

Yvette
First –
As an extension of the three strikes law, have a strike first law – that anyone fleeing police be given a mandatory three year sentence to start with.

3yr is too hard unless death eventuates, but I would support 6 months or a year (depending on previous form), but must be part of ALL the driving tests.
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October 2, 2010 1:00pm
MikeNZ

Norway
the bastion of Islamist support, but wait there’s a blip on the horien…….

1. http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3962404,00.html
Reports said the decision stems from the Israeli navy’s role in enforcing the blockade of Gaza.

2. http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100917/REVIEW/100919850
they know all about this and what they are supporting against the ordinary families in Gaza (they read what we do).
At this point he pulled a packet of antibiotics from his pocket; it is stamped: “A gift of the people of Norway. Not for resale.”

“I just bought this from a Hamas-run pharmacy here in Rafah for my son,” he said. “I had to go to a Hamas pharmacy to make sure the pills weren’t fake or made from poor materials in Egypt. If you want real medicine, you have to buy the aid Europe sends us.”

Then they go an do this?
3. http://www.unwatch.org/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=bdKKISNqEmG&b=1316871&ct=8716335

Thank you, Mr. President.

Today and this week, this council is saturating the media with a plethora of reports on alleged Israeli sins. We are given the flotilla report, the Goldstone follow-up, and more. Lost in this blitz, however, are basic facts:

1. The flotilla probe was created in a June 2nd resolution sponsored by the council’s Islamic and Arab states. The outcome was predetermined. Israel was condemned “in the strongest terms,” as guilty of committing an “outrageous attack.” No mention was made of the flotilla organizers’ Jihadist intentions and actions.

2. Supporter of the one-sided mandate included countries like Sudan, China, Pakistan, Cuba, Saudi Arabia and Russia.

3. The greatest supporter of the inquiry was the terrorist group Hamas. As this council convened, Hamas politburo chief Khaled Mashaal issued his request: “We need a new Goldstone report, which will condemn Israel.” Now that the report is out, Hamas has been among the first to praise it.

4. The Palestinian Authority itself opposed the probe. According to a news article on the Electronic Intifada website, dated June 22nd, the PA actively sought to frustrate creation of the inquiry, understanding it would only strengthen the Hamas terrorists.

5. Likewise, the Goldstone follow-up committee was created on March 25th by a one-sided resolution that attacked Israel but said nothing on Hamas terrorism. It was sponsored by the Arab and Islamic states. Seventeen refused to support the resolution, including countries like the United States, Britain, France, Belgium Italy and the Netherlands

6. Since the council was created in 2006, out of 40 resolutions criticizing countries, 33 were against Israel—and seven for the rest of the world combined.

7. Out of 10 emergency debates that criticized countries, seven were against Israel.

8. Today’s meeting takes place under an agenda item that permanently singles out Israel for discriminatory treatment. Even UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, on 20 June 2007, criticized the item’s bias.

9. In May 2009, after Sri Lanka killed some 20,000 civilians, this council praised it for the “promotion and protection” of human rights.
10. In this session there is not a single resolution on any of the world’s worst violators of human rights. Iran, Saudi Arabia, North Korea, Zimbabwe—all enjoy impunity.

Mr. President, we challenge any of the distinguished delegates to dispute these basic facts.

Thank you, Mr. President.

Meeting Chair (Norwegian Ambassador Bente Angell-Hansen):

Maybe he is a rogue and will get demoted when he gets home?
Who knows
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October 2, 2010 1:12pm
MikeNZ

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10674407
Steve Crow
When are they going to put this dipshit away, he’s a bigger polluter than the dairy industry, though in a different way.

On April 16, after the collapse of four of his companies, Crow was banned from managing any business for four years. He was forced to resign his directorships and brought in brother David to run the companies. Crow continued to work in the office as a “consultant”.

Now, the Herald on Sunday has learned the Ministry of Economic Development is looking into whether he has breached the management ban.

Anyone convicted for such a breach can face up to five years in jail and fines of up to $200,000.

and he has the gall to try and wash Dan carter with shit too.
“I honestly believe if I wasn’t Steve Crow, if I wasn’t in the adult industry, I wouldn’t be banned,” he says.

“Daniel Carter has just had a company going under owing a $1 million to creditors – do you think they’ll ban him?”

Hope it wasn’t the undie company…
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October 2, 2010 1:23pm
Luc Hansen

1. The flotilla probe was created in a June 2nd resolution sponsored by the council’s Islamic and Arab states. The outcome was predetermined. Israel was condemned “in the strongest terms,” as guilty of committing an “outrageous attack.” No mention was made of the flotilla organizers’ Jihadist intentions and actions.

Although it is true the original resolution referred only to Israel, the reason for this was that Israel was the only UN member involved. It was Goldstone “ardent Zionist” himself who insisted on the unusual step of including a non-state actor in his enquiry. And that this sequence of events lead somehow to bias in the report is comprehensively rebutted by Goldstone in a letter to congress posted here.

And the flotilla organisers are not Jihadists in either intentions or actions. IHH is a reputable humanitarian organisation now subject to relentless hasbara lies by Israel, as is all and sundry who raise even mild objections to Israel's outlaw actions.

The remainder of the post can be summed up as : "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone."

The world doesn't work that way.

The HRC, for all the faults of its members, set up a credible inquiry, which was devastatingly accurate in it assessment of the situation and has defied any reasoned rebuttal.
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October 2, 2010 2:02pm
MikeNZ

http://www.hudson-ny.org/1573/sweden-political-landscape

Shame, But this is creeping Sharia in action and a head in the sand mentality towards it (albeit for years) in Swedens case.

For the moment, however, the Sweden Democrats, which drew votes from across the political spectrum, are being stigmatized by Sweden’s politically correct political and media establishment, who accuse the party of being “racist” and “xenophobic.” During the election campaign, for instance, the Sweden Democrats were not allowed to participate in the televised party debates, and their election advertisement was banned by TV4. One day after the election, left-wing Swedes poured into the streets in what organizers called a “sorrow” march to protest the entry of the Sweden Democrats into parliament for the first time.

The mainstream parties are now trying to reduce the number of lawmakers in parliamentary committees in an effort to deprive the Sweden Democrats of voting rights. But changing parliamentary rules in such a barefaced attempt to circumvent the democratic process may backfire and motivate even more people to vote for the Sweden Democrats. Nearly 60% of Swedes believe the Sweden Democrats should be treated just like the other parties in parliament, according to a September 20 poll by the Stockholm-based Skop.

Ironically, the refusal of Sweden’s mainstream parties to face up to the problem of mass immigration, especially from Muslim countries, is directly responsible for rise of the Sweden Democrats. Most of those voting for the Sweden Democrats are ordinary Swedes — not far right radicals — who are protesting the government’s negligence in the area of immigration policy, which has turned entire neighborhoods into no-go zones for native Swedes.

During the last several decades, massive immigration-flows to Sweden have transformed the country to the point where immigrants, many of whom refuse to learn Swedish and integrate into Swedish society, now make up almost 20% of the country’s total population.

Of the 9.4 million Swedes, roughly 1.5 million are foreign-born. In addition, there are an estimated 1 million children of immigrants, 100,000 illegal immigrants, and 50,000 more asylum-seekers awaiting clearance. Further, about 100,000 additional immigrants enter the country each year.

In Malmö, Sweden’s third-largest city, almost 40% of the population is foreign; and some immigrant neighborhoods in the city have unemployment rates exceeding 60%. In Malmö’s mostly Muslim Rosengard neighborhood, fire and emergency workers refuse to enter without police protection. An immigrant-fuelled crime wave affects one of every three Malmö families each year, while the number of rapes has tripled in 20 years.

Highlighting the increasing assertiveness of Sweden’s Muslim community, the Muslim Council of Sweden recently dispatched letters to each of the major political parties in Sweden demanding special legislation for Muslims in Sweden. The demands included: the right to specific Islamic holidays; special public financing for the building of mosques; a demand that all divorces between Muslim couples be approved by an Imam; and that Imams should be allowed to teach Islam to Muslim children in public schools.
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October 2, 2010 2:08pm
dime

“Tehran is bent on military action to settle scores with Israel and the United States whom it suspects of planting the malignant Stuxnet cyber worm in the computer systems of its nuclear, military and strategic infrastructure”

LMAO good luck
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October 2, 2010 4:35pm
MikeNZ

Yeah Dime
if this guy is to be believed maybe they will go out with a bang?

http://www.worldthreats.com/?p=3876

Sept. 28, 2010. In solidarity with gold sellers in other Iranian cities, Qazvin gold sellers went on strike in protest to raised taxes. They marched in protest to the Tax Affairs Organization in the province of Qazvin.

Sept. 28, 2010. According to reports from Tehran, a number of pro-regime thugs and Bassij and plainclothes agents entered the gold merchants Bazaar in Tehran to counter the striking merchants. These thugs attacked the closed shutters of a number of shops with metal bars chanting ‘death to the hypocrites’. (The term hypocrite, monafeq in Farsi, is used by the Iranian regime to refer to the PMOI). This attack was met with the reaction of a number of the merchants which led to clashes between the merchants and thugs. According to reports, this clash occurred at 2 pm when a Bassiji who attacked the closed shutters of shop was beaten up by merchants and was then taken to the hospital. This report also says that the fabric merchants’ bazaar was also half closed and it was announced that other merchants intend to join the strike.

original source
http://www.debka.com/article/9058/
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October 2, 2010 5:15pm
MikeNZ

Meanwhile in another far flung corner of the Islamic culture
http://www.worldthreats.com/?p=3863

As reported here, Pakistan is home to 150 terrorist camps. You read that right: 150. If anyone knows how many camps were in Afghanistan in 2001, I’d really like to know. It is possible that the terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan right now is bigger than it was in Afghanistan then. And we all know what damage that smaller infrastructure was able to cause.

According to Bob Woordward’s book, President Obama has a contingency plan to bomb all of these camps if the U.S. is attacked again. It’s unclear how strong of an attack is required for such a reprisal, but I think that misses the point: We are willing to suffer another attack before taking out known terrorist targets. And we’re willing to fight a war in Afghanistan, sending our soldiers into harm’s way, without taking on the infrastructure that sustains the enemy. Our soldiers deserve better. The country deserves better

source
http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/WoodwardPakistanterroristcamps/2010/09/29/id/372021
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October 2, 2010 5:17pm
reid

That’s right Mike. Pakistan is A-one biggest actual real threat right now. They’ve got real serious issues that seem intractable. The Pashtun region has the potential to be a powder-keg for decades to come.

I was pleased to see the reports of the assistance offered by the US marines during the floods, as I know Al-Qaida was doing the same things and that was another threat.

I hope that those US actions were perceived widely and positively on the ground, anyone read anything about that?

How the hell the world is going to deal properly quickly and effectively with this threat I have no idea. I do know not think but know, one thing however. And that is, while the west is perceived by the average Pakistani in the street to have done what they did in Iraq deliberately, for manufactured reasons, it’s fucking difficult to do anything at all about it apart from simply watch it deteriorate.

Whether or not anyone thinks this is a just view of the US or not, is not the point. The point is, the average Pakistani does, in fact, think that, and the question therefore is, what are we going to do about it.

Lest anyone misunderstand, the question is NOT whether the average Pakistani is justified in taking that view.
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October 2, 2010 5:25pm
OctagonGrappler

One only has to look at British born pakis to see what we are faced with. I think what western governments have done with the experiment of super diversity need to be tried for treason. Why was it not ever put to the people of these nations.

Last year we took in 87,000 Immigrants mainly from south east asia. Why do western governments think its ok to just ethnically and socially engineer society.
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October 2, 2010 5:44pm
Lucia Maria

What fantastic weather! I don’t know about everyone else, but here on the Kapiti Coast the sun was out, there was no wind, it was warm… I spent the day gardening. Now all my doors and windows are still open and it’s not cold or rainy! Thankyou, God!
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October 2, 2010 5:52pm
reid

What’s that got to do with the Pakistani situation in Pakistan, OG?

And yes it was Lucia, a great break from a long cold one. Speaking of which…
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October 2, 2010 6:03pm
Viking2

Actually Lucia its was all in the planning done by Rua. He is our sun God.
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October 2, 2010 6:12pm
Lucia Maria

Viking, did you know there are kids that believe that? There is a whole new generation being raised to believe in the Maori gods. My youngest boy’s friend thinks it’s more likely that the Maori gods exist than God does.

Reid, hope you got that cold one
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October 2, 2010 6:23pm
DJP6-25

[Gwilly 9.51] That works for me.

cheers

David Prosser
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October 2, 2010 6:27pm
reid

A couple of issues worth following.

Looking at it another way, the growing strategic partnership with China enhances Russia’s capacity to withstand Western pressures. China, for its part, feels the compulsion to keep Russia on its side at a juncture when stresses have appeared in its relations with the US. To be sure, Beijing regards Moscow’s support for what China calls its “core interests” (in the Asia-Pacific region in particular) as invaluable. Beijing can be expected to go the extra league to cement the strategic understanding with Russia, especially in coordinating their stances on international and regional issues. Medvedev’s visit to China provided ample theater for some of these trends to manifest. Energy cooperation was the leitmotif of the Russian president’s journey east. China has opened its highly lucrative retail market to Russian companies. This has been a longstanding Russian demand in European markets, too. When China obliges Russia, can Europe fall far behind?

http://atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/LJ02Ag01.html

Iran is increasingly under siege. From cyber-attacks on its nuclear infrastructure to biting economic and financial sanctions, to overt support for (armed) opposition groups, to a military build-up of neighbors, it appears that outside powers are making a concerted effort at regime change in the Islamic Republic. Ahmadinejad’s controversial speech at the United Nations last week eliciting harsh Western responses, the prospects for dialogue appear to have diminished, replaced by a new, and ominous, qualitative turn for the worse in the tumultuous US-Iran relations.

Simultaneously, neither the US nor its Western allies involved in nuclear negotiation with Iran have displayed any genuine interest in moving forward with a new round of negotiation, despite the conciliatory gestures of Ahmadinejad during his New York visit. There, he repeatedly expressed optimism on new dialogue and even went as far as declaring Tehran’s readiness to halt the 20% uranium enrichment (for the Tehran reactor) if a proposed nuclear swap deal was accepted by the Vienna Group, consisting of US, Russia, France and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

None of those conciliatory gestures seems to matter the least nowadays to Washington, still angry at Ahmadinejad’s audacity in raising the touchy issue of 9/11. Ironically, compared to the light reactions in the US media to Chavez’s allegations, Ahmadinejad has been the recipient of the harshest responses, with a Fox news reporter interviewing him asking him how dare he makes such “stupid and nutty claims?”

One of his key advisers, who spoke with the author on the condition of anonymity, maintains that Ahmadinejad’s “communicative rationality” is his ace, which disarms his US media critics who “actually expose their own biases by their rude behavior”.

In light of the concerted US-led campaign of destabilization of Iran, the stage is now set for more ominous developments on the US-Iran front

http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/LJ02Ak01.html
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October 2, 2010 6:32pm
jaba

jabba says:
Your comment is awaiting moderation.

October 2, 2010 at 7:19 pm
I believe the murder rate is related to long hot summer days (the sun) .. or so we were told about 3 years ago

I wonder if Trev will let my 1st proper comment on Redablurt for about 10 months through
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October 2, 2010 8:31pm
OctagonGrappler

Luc

Do you wanna go on a road trip to palmy tommorow. I know its short notice but I know this guy who makes kebabs out of his caravan and I thought we could check it out.

Octagon Grappler.
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October 2, 2010 9:04pm
Luc Hansen

Octagon, sure, but your point?

Reid

I hope that those US actions were perceived widely and positively on the ground, anyone read anything about that?

Well, yes: http://www.democracynow.org/2010/9/13/this_is_the_worst_catastrophe_to

A quote from the transcript:

…the River Indus, which is one of the largest rivers in the world, carrying now a volume of water which has not been known in contemporary history, was breached on the left bank deliberately in order to protect the base, which is on the right bank. And the breaching caused, consequentially, the inundation of an entire district, which resulted in the displacement of millions, not thousands, but millions, because we have 170 million people in the country, and this particular district is one of the most densely populated. So, yes, there is a connect between, you know, what is considered to be a natural disaster, but then the management of that disaster is not natural at all.

AMY GOODMAN: And this is a base that is used, run by US military, to run its drone attacks?

FERYAL ALI GAUHAR: Oh, absolutely. In fact, it is a base where non-US military personnel are not allowed.

And I don’t think your average Pakistani was enthused to hear of the US offering to spend 150 million for flood relief when they spend that in one day killing Muslims all over the world.

Solution No 1 to your question “…what can we do about it?” (assuming “it” is hostility to the West) is quite simple: stop the killing, pull our troops out, stop stealing or misappropriating their natural resources – as we should be purely on the grounds of the survival of civilisation, anyway) and do them the honour of trusting them to sort out their own problems.
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October 2, 2010 9:33pm
Hurf Durf

I gotta admit, this computer virus idea of Israel’s is pure genius. Not even I saw it coming, and I’m a pretty smart guy if I do say so myself.

10:10’s attempts to scrape the internet clean of No Pressure failed spectacularly. LOLOL. Keep at it, ecofascists, soon you’ll be as discredited in the political conversation as the Truthers and the central planners.
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October 2, 2010 9:55pm
reid

“I’m a pretty smart guy if I do say so myself.”

No we all say that about you Hurf. We talk about how brainy you are, all the time.
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October 2, 2010 9:58pm
Hurf Durf

😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀

More port!
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October 2, 2010 10:03pm
reid

“Solution No 1 to your question “…what can we do about it?” (assuming “it” is hostility to the West) is quite simple: stop the killing, pull our troops out, stop stealing or misappropriating their natural resources – as we should be purely on the grounds of the survival of civilisation, anyway) and do them the honour of trusting them to sort out their own problems.”

Yes but Luc, how the hell do we get to there from here?

Hardly anyone in the west recognises anything other than we’ve responded to an unjustifiable threat.

Hardly anyone in the west also recognises that the Muslims see things in exactly the same way.
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October 2, 2010 10:26pm
Pete George

While worse was done by other countries this is shows that the shining beacon also went to some dark places.

U.S. Government Apologizes for 1940s STD Testing on Guatemalans

The U.S. government apologized Friday for a secret program conducted more than 40 years ago in which prisoners and mental hospital patients in Guatemala were intentionally infected with gonorrhea, syphilis and other sexually transmitted diseases.
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October 2, 2010 10:31pm
Luc Hansen

reid

What unjustifiable threat are your referring to? You need to pay some heed to chronology and causation, here.

I suggest you start with the Sykes-Picot agreement. In that, the western powers paid absolutely no heed to any rights of the indigenous Middle Easterners, including the right of self-determination we hold so precious to ourselves and the Middle East remains dysfunctional as a result.

We are the ones with troops in the region. I don’t see Iraqi, Afghan, Yemeni, Pakistani or Iranian troops in any nation other than their own.

So pull ours out.

By all means remain vigilant, but I guarantee we are not under threat from any state actors and the threat of terrorism is not one to get over-excited about. In the US, for example, 30,000 lives each year are terminated by US citizens with guns. So why don’t they deploy their drones in “the homeland”?
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October 2, 2010 10:49pm
reid

What unjustifiable threat are your referring to?

Er.

The one we’ve faced since 911.

Er.

???

I guarantee we are not under threat from any state actors and the threat of terrorism is not one to get over-excited about…

I quite agree Luc.

Er.

???

So why don’t they deploy their drones in “the homeland”?

Because they’d rather blow up other people, Luc.
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October 2, 2010 11:11pm
reid

Seriously where’s the road out of where we are?

Where’s the path that reconciles and brings peace?

It’s not there, in my reading.

This to me, is a worry.
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October 2, 2010 11:17pm
reid

One thing really effective we could do, right now, I think, is throw the entire West’s resources behind a major Iraqi venture simply to benefit the Iraqis.

Something on the scale of completely developing a major oilfield with all costs absorbed and all proceeds going to the Iraqis.

That won’t happen, but something like that would go a long way toward starting the process that has to happen, unless we want war.
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October 2, 2010 11:30pm
Luc Hansen

The one we’ve faced since 911

I think you will find even the US generals acknowledge that that ones been pretty well sorted after Tora Bora.

Where’s the path that reconciles and brings peace?

ummm…oh, I know! Let’s stop killing Muslims just for defending their lands against western imperialism. We can start by pulling our troops out of…Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, all the other stans, and Israel (OK not our troops, but our proxies).

unless we want war.

Jackpot.
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October 2, 2010 11:43pm
MikeNZ

It’s too late Reid.
They already have a plan and the will and now the motivation.
Time is all that’s needed and the materials which the Chinese, North Koreans, Pakistanis and Russians are giving to them.

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewarticle.cfm/the-other-existential-threat-15530

My son and his cohort, then and now, could stop the Soviet fighter aircraft the Egyptians used in 1967 and the Soviet tanks the Syrians used in 1973; they could act against those who fire Qassam rockets from Gaza at Sderot and (with increasing accuracy) neighborhoods in Ashkelon, and they could move into West Bank towns and build the fence that would bring an end to the Palestinian suicide bombers. But there is nothing these soldiers could do to stop an Iranian nuke on its way to Israel. There would be no time to stop it. Instead, Israel’s military deterrent against the greatest threat to its existence and the continued existence of the Jewish people would be intellectual, theoretical, a matter of international nerve and round-robin negotiations, the proffering of carrots, the hoped-for intervention of the “international community” to keep Iran sane. Israel’s safety and future would no longer rest in the hands of its people, its soldiers, its reservists, its young and its old. It would no longer be my son defending the homeland but something else—a “second-strike capability.” A worldwide attitude. An American threat that might well be hollow would be all we could rely on

http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/thinking-the-unthinkable-the-islamists%E2%80%99-manhattan-project/?singlepage=true
What would this day of days look like? Jerome Corsi once wrote a second-by-second synopsis of a nuclear attack in midtown Manhattan. The improvised nuclear device (IND) is in the back of a truck, driven by the terror cell’s leader. The operatives know they are going to die. “Assume the IND is detonated outside the Empire State Building at 11:45 a.m. Assume that the weapon is a 150-kiloton HEU gun-type bomb,” Corsi states.

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.printable&pageId=29862
10 seconds after detonation

The shock wave expands to a radius of 2.5 miles, but it still carries an impact with an overpressure of 2 psi at the periphery, enough to cause varying amounts of damage to steel-reinforced buildings. An estimated 235,000 additional people die instantly as this ring expands, with an additional 500,000 casualties as the casualty ratio begins to exceed the kill ratio. Those wearing darker clothes are more severely burned from the thermal pulse. Combustible materials instantly burst into flame. Within 24 hours all buildings that remain standing in this radius will begin to burn out of control as all water service has ceased to function

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.printable&pageId=29860
Every year, nearly 300,000 immigrants are admitted from Canada, a country that typically does not detain those claiming refuge status. Every year some 10,000 immigrants with questionable backgrounds disappear into Canada’s ethnic communities. Government authorities estimate that there are somewhere between 9 million and 12 million illegal aliens living today in the continental United States. In reality, there is no way of knowing the precise number. Most illegal immigrants live quiet lives in ethnic communities where no one knows exactly how they got into the country.

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.printable&pageId=29861
There is “substantial and credible evidence that both terrorist groups and hostile states are actively seeking to acquire stolen fissile material for nuclear weapons.” The U.S. military has uncovered in post-Taliban Afghanistan a significant quantity of al-Qaida writings and drawings illustrating how to construct crude nuclear devices. U.S. analysts believe that al-Qaida’s alleged WMD commander, Abu Khabbab, was focused on efforts to obtain nuclear weapons capability. On Sept. 11, 2002, the first anniversary of 9-11, ABC News smuggled a 15-pound (6.8-kilogram) cylinder of depleted uranium, on loan from the National Resources Defense Council, into the United States and televised the story. On Sept. 11, 2003, ABC News successfully repeated the experiment to smuggle the same cylinder of depleted uranium into the United States; again, the test was nationally televised. ABC News came to a frightening conclusion: “Security procedures at U.S. borders cannot detect highly enriched uranium.

These boys believe with all their hearts in the Mahdi and the Caliphate. That is not going to change unless they get dealt too.

The UN going to do it with the OIC and Russia and China as interference.
OB1, He’s going to do it? he’s talking about absorbing a hit!
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October 3, 2010 12:12am
reid

“even the US generals acknowledge that that ones been pretty well sorted after Tora Bora”

Crikey. News to me. Wish those damned terrorist reports would go away then, since we’ve already won and all. What’s the matter? Don’t these damned savages understand English? Damn it to hell man.
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October 3, 2010 12:57am
reid

Mike I can’t work out what terrorists would have to gain from using a nuclear device against a Western target.

I simply can’t. I mean, where’s the upside, for them?

Killing millions?

These are criminals Mike, but they’re not psychopaths. Mistake them for such and you make a grave error.

I’m not saying a nuclear device won’t be used against a Western target. Simply that if it ever is, G-d forbid, that it doesn’t necessarily mean that the first people named in the MSM were responsible for it.
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October 3, 2010 1:05am
Luc Hansen

Wish those damned terrorist reports would go away then

Don’t wish. Make it happen. Disengage.

Otherwise, it’s just a self fulfilling prophecy.

Of course, if you are into that…
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October 3, 2010 1:28am
MikeNZ

Reid
in all things a ceiling happens and people operate within it. 911 upped or removed that particular ceiling.
I do not know why the US has got away without a dirty bomb as Hizbullah and Hamas have moved people into and out of the US through north and south borders from what I have read so they have got assets in place.
the material has been available for a dirty bomb.

I suspect that the Int services and SF around the world have been offing people on the QT to cauterise operations as they find them, that is of course what the drone campaign is about.

The point is they will not give up as we have been weak in that we seem unable to be clear in our pursuit of Islamic terrorism/fascism.
All they do aids Dawa anyway as Political/social Islam is just another realm in Dawa.
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October 3, 2010 2:39pm

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