Posts by Simon Grigg
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
James,
I guess I'll wait for a more reliable source than the good Old NY Sun and a few unnamed sources. I remember this rag's touting of the WMDs a few years back with unnamed sources and evidence. They were spot on with that, no? The amount of disinformation in play in the American right wing media is incredible and its terrifying how easily its treated as verbatim.The NY Sun is often seen as a voice of Israel in NYC and, maybe its time to start racking up the disinformation if the report in the Timestoday is any indication of where we are headed.
Blaming Iran for the mayhem in Iraq is a total copout. Of course they have a strong voice in Iraq but. they certainly have more right be there, interacting with governments and groups in their region than the USA and I get the feeling, as polling indicates, that most Iraqis would agree with that statement.
As to the root causes of the current bloodshed in the country and the civil war, I would suggest you also look a little closer to home.To date your great decider has been happy to apportion the blame for the blood and mayhem in Iraq on virtually everybody else apart from himself.
So is Iran involved with Al Qaeda now? Is that the new theory, supported by "intelligence" and unnamed sources no doubt....WMDs and Al Qaeda? It sounds familiar. I bet its on Newsmax already, no?
The thing is, you've already cried wolf about all these things and have been found wanting. The lies, fabrications and twisted intelligence, let alone incompetence have, by the best estimates to date, cost the lives of over half a million souls. And now you are trying it again, And it won't work this time, so I guess any strike will need to be pre-emptive when it happens.
And I'm having a few problems dealing with a post that has both "The US mid term elections were a win for Iran and this strategy" and "makes perfect sense" in the same paragraph too.
Thankfully it seems that most Americans don't agree with you...
-
I think I read the Iranian - Sunni insurgent link with reference to the 2 Iranian intelligence guys who were captured in Iraq last week or the week before
I think you'll find these guys were, as it turns out, actually in Iraq at the invitation of the Iraqi govt. They have since been released in something of an embarrassing moment for the US military. Especially after the extravagant claims made by Centcom and Washington
-
James,
i'd be keen to see a link for your contention that the Iranians have links to the Sunni insurgency. It certainly runs counter to anything I've read.And, without going into another long running battle over the figure, your dismissal of the Johns Hopkins research on Iraqi deaths bemuses me....can you you back it with research that counters it. As far as I know the arguments against it don't usually move beyond "it's wrong". There has been no serious attempt to counter it's methology (the "Main Street" bias allegation has been refuted), it was peer reviewed and until we have another survey, it's conclusions must stand as the most reliable available
You also mention a figure of 1m dead under Saddam, excluding the Iraq-Iran War (the launching of which and the continuation of which was heartily encouraged and physically supported by several western nations). My understanding is that both Human Rights Watch and the US Government have both touted the figure of 300,000. Now that's an awful figure but I'm unsure how it was tripled.
-
The main problem with the Saddam.exe thing is not really the emotive stuff at the event but how completely dodgy the trial itself was.
the Human Rights Watch report on trial discrepancies runs to 97 pages, its here and worth a read if you have the time.
How anybody could have the gall to link the crime rates in NOLA with the bloody mayhem in Iraq is (almost) beyond me and quite obscene. Previous right wing disinformation linked it, as someone said with DC's murder rate, and before that, with both Detroit and LA...all utter nonsense of course, but it intrigues me how they can keep spinning like this in the face of such overwhelming and publicly available evidence. Its incredible what a mass of blind stupidity exists across an allegedly educated nation.
Even this late in the game the odious Michelle Malkin is off to Iraq to try and establish the media bias that is a right wing item of faith, and I have no doubt that her predicable report will have a good deal of traction in a nation where she and the likes of the ludicrous Coulter and Limbaugh are actually taken seriously.
Sorry if I'm ranting......
-
But did they get through all two dozen condoms?
My best guess is that they would've handed a few on to Derek B, the support act...he was much more of a lad about town than the brothers McD or Mr Mizell who were more interested in getting back to the (burger) bar than anything else.
And to put a seedy edge on this topic....long forgotten rapper Redhead Kingpin left two used ones in his dressing room at The Box. Which is more than you needed to know, but, hey, its rock'n'roll, no?
-
re: the Run DMC rider...your memory is correct I think Russell. The rider for the 1988 NZ shows was about the same, but with the addition of large amounts of McDonalds too. They were also given vast amounts of Adidas gear by the local distributer (which he was contractually obliged to do) which, if memory serves, they threw into the crowd.
I have memories of Jam Master Jay knelling behind the turntables, consuming a Big Mac and then leaving the half eaten burger on the floor as he left the stage...nice.
I've mentioned it elsewhere, but when we bought Ice T to NZ in 1989 his rider included three bottles per night of Champagne. We dutifully obliged with Moet. On the first night his then wife, the sparingly attired Darlene, walked out and sprayed all three bottles over the 200 or so in The Siren. The next two nights they got chardon.....
-
Michael,
Thank you. I suspect you might think that people like Noam Chomsky and Michael Moore are really smart guys, so to be called an idiot by you is a compliment.
Michael, you are actually doing quite well. When I dared to dissent I was tossed in by James as a fellow traveler with Pol Pot and Mao!
-
Oh no, not the oil nonsense again. The US has been in Iraq for over 3 1/2 years now and how many barrels of oil have they expropriated? That would be none, zip, zero, nada. Iraq's oil is Iraq's oil, to do with as they please, and they are doing just that. The last time I saw some numbers, despite hopeless infrastructure the Iraqi national oil company is back close to or just above the pre 2003 production numbers and planning to greatly expand in the coming years, to sell to whomever they please. Good on them, now Iraqis can benefit from their natural resources.
and moving outside the Republican talking points now....this link offers a more considered view of what is actually happening to the Iraqi oil which is NOT quite as rosy as you've portrayed
-
What tends to get lost in the debate about (organised) religion is that religion does meet some very deep human needs. If God is dead then so are we - we live a short and often brutal life and to top it off it's all for nothing. That's a pretty hard thing to come to terms with and it's little wonder people want something to provide meaning, to deal with death.
to which I would say...so what...the ants I sprayed this morning led a short sharp brutal existence, as did the lamb I had for dinner last night. Any assumption that we are any different. and the arrogance that implies, simply bemuses me.
-
See, thats what happens when The Herald tries to get hip...you can put a fancy new front end on there but underneath its still the Granny we've known for years.