Iran acid blinding sentence postponed

The Iranian authorities have seen sense. They postponed blinding a man with acid following an international outcry over the retributive punishment imposed after he was found guilty of doing the same to a woman who refused to marry him.

In a literal application of the sharia law of an eye for an eye, Majid Movahedi was scheduled to be rendered unconscious in Tehran's judiciary hospital today while his victim, Ameneh Bahrami, dropped acid in both his eyes.

But Iran's semi-official ISNA news agency reported that officials had postponed the sentence on Friday night and not indicated when the punishment might be carried out in future.

Ameneh Bahrami has been severely damaged, physically, mentally and spiritually. She is hellbent on retribution and, from a human perspective, that sense wells up quite effectively. We all get that revenge feeling from time to time. Many are siding with her. But this sharia law goes directly opposite to the Christian Gospel. She will have to reveal her true fellings and reasons for her actions at the "dreadful day of judgement", as the Prayer Book puts it, and what she wants to do will have to be put before the "whole company of heaven".

Much of the world believes in an eye for an eye. Somehow it lets them eat their breakfast more easily after a good nights sleep. George Bush is cock-a-hoop Bin Laden's dead. That's the Bin Laden of Abbottabad fame and not the ones he and his father did or do business with. And George professes the Christian Faith, now in the United Methodist Church, having departed his Episcopalian background. He should know that Christ told us to love our enemies, do good to those who hate us. “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also. And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two. Give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away."

It's not easy being a Christian, but saying you are a Christian and then defying the Gospel repeatedly, then that's something else entirely.

George Bush waterboards his conscience!

British lives were saved by the use of information obtained from terrorist suspects by "waterboarding", according to former US President George W Bush. I heard him on the Today Programme, or rather a tape of his interview on NBC. He sounded his usual self. All nervous and jittery when pushed on the subject. He consulted lawyers and the lawyers said OK! But George has a conscience that's in overdrive when he gets these questions. He has tried to sound all macho and tough. Appeal to the bible belt, the Tea Party toughies, rednecks and bubbas, corporate machismos.

When George married he took up with his wife's nonconformist beliefs. But you can't take the Episcopalian out of the man. Maybe George should attend bible classes. "Now what would Jesus think of waterboarding, George?".

Tough one, that!

Iraqi shoe-tosser to get hero's welcome!

So much for George Bush's abilities in the Middle East as a bringer of peace and democracy. The Iraqi people seem to be far more taken with the political stance taken by Muntazer al-Zaidi, shoe tosser extraordinaire. His day job is being a journalist. He's going to be hailed from Baghdad to the rest of the world. Offerings of a new house, a herd of goats, even a new wife are coming his way.

The Americans still have their work cut out. This episode just about sums up how wrong Bush was and how little he knew about Arabs!

Cheney reckons Bush was an "ordinary politician"!

Dick Cheney should have president with Bush as his supplicant. We'd have had shootouts and shootups all round the world! No cringing lefty would have survived. It would be like the Oil Barons Ball every day.

The Washington Post sees personal trouble ahead between Bush and Cheney. As a taster, last month, an account in Time magazine, based on close access to Bush's personal lawyer and White House counsel, described Cheney's desperate end-of-term efforts to change Bush's mind about a pardon. Cheney, who has spent a professional lifetime ignoring unflattering stories, issued a quietly furious reply. In the most explicit terms, he accused Bush of abandoning "an innocent man" who had served the president with honor and then become the "victim of a severe miscarriage of justice." Cheney now says privately that his memoir, expected to be published in spring 2011, will describe their heated arguments in full.

Cheney's disappointment with the former president surfaced recently in one of the informal conversations he is holding to discuss the book with authors, diplomats, policy experts and past colleagues. By habit, he listens more than he talks, but Cheney broke form when asked about his regrets. "In the second term, he felt Bush was moving away from him," said a participant in the recent gathering, describing Cheney's reply. "He said Bush was shackled by the public reaction and the criticism he took. Bush was more malleable to that. The implication was that Bush had gone soft on him, or rather Bush had hardened against Cheney's advice. He'd showed an independence that Cheney didn't see coming. It was clear that Cheney's doctrine was cast-iron strength at all times -- never apologize, never explain -- and Bush moved toward the conciliatory."

What's that about oil barons?

Which threat is the worst? Al-Qaeda or the Credit Crunchers?

I don't wish to trivialise any threat of terrorism, as this is a barbaric act of indisciminate criminality. However, I do take issue with George Bush when he says, in his folksy advice to Barack Obama, "The most urgent threat he will have to deal with, and other presidents after him have got to deal with, is an attack on our homeland. I wish I could report that is not the case, but there's still an enemy out there that would like to inflict damage on Americans. That will be the major threat."

I beg to differ. It may be a major threat, but it is not THE major threat. The major threat that is on every American's doorstep is the imploding economy. Slowly the authorities are going after the crooks and dodgy dealers, slowly the minds of Congress are attempting to think about the problems, but it still seems a long way off before sanity sinks in. Funny money floats about like confetti, whilst real money goes to pay for unimportant things.

Whilst it is the first duty of any government to safeguard the wellbeing of its citizens, this does not come before checking that another cuckoo is in the nest. There is currently a huge monetary cuckoo in Congress's nest. The bird needs seeing to!

Did Bush cause the financial crisis?

Sub-prime loans. Credit default swaps. Mortgage-backed securities. All dodgy ideas for pumping funny money round the financial system. Did Bush cause the financial crisis? Not on his own, but he knew what was going on. He muttered words about "folks hurting" but blithely carried on. So now we have a trillion dollar debt for Americans to be living with. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says, "Consider the terrible consequences of the 'anything goes' Bush Administration, whose irresponsible non-regulation of financial institutions has led to this crisis." Well yes, but she is just as much to blame. It's no good regulating without seeing what you are regulating. Did she say anything about the loans going to those who didn't have a dime? Did she sound off about the guarantees that were as worthless as lead balloon? I don't think so.

Still money is chasing indebtiness. Only when an honest day's work is paid for in proper money will we begin to see sense. Let's get the lumberjacks out to cut down those money trees that have sprouted out all over the place. We need a new approach right now.

Best of the Bushisms!

There was the Reverend William Spooner - "You have hissed all my mystery lectures, and were caught fighting a liar in the quad. Having tasted two worms, you will leave by the next town drain". Followed by a succession of word muddlers, including Officer Crabtree in 'Allo 'Allo recalling a "nit on the bonk of the Thames" (night on the bank of the Thames) with a female "secret urgent" (secret agent).

George Bush brings it all up to date with his collection of Bushisms. Some silly, some naive, and some plainly rather deceptive. the BBC has a list of some of the best. The one that gets me is "I'll be long gone before some smart person ever figures out what happened inside this Oval Office." Not a mangled malapropism but smething more sinister. Had he got the trillion dollar deficit in mind?

The list is here.

King Canute in Detroit?

King Canute had a way about him. He knew the waves would wash around his temporary beach throne. His courtiers, probably as sycophantic as those today, had tried a publicity stunt. Canute replied, when the waves had done their stuff, "Let all men know how empty and worthless is the power of kings, for there is none worthy of the name, but He whom heaven, earth, and sea obey by eternal laws".

There are empty gestures in Detroit today. The American automotive industry is in crisis. With much posturing over the last few weeks, the US government has succumbed to bailout these lumbering giants. They have until 31st March to get their act together.

The losers here are the American public. They have a semi nationalised car industry on the way, with no sign of giving the buying public what they want. It's not as if cars are not being bought in the US. They are. It's just not as many of the ones Rick Wagoner makes. So the market is skewed to protect jobs. But it is the taxpayer who will end up the poorer, including the General Motors' workers.

In the UK, various retail businesses are doing very well because they are giving the customers what they want. Poundland, Primark and Aldi. Woolworths went to the wall because they didn't do that.

If General Motors goes to the wall, it won't be a catastrophe. Instead of $17 billion going into some analyst's number crunching machine, that money could be better spent assisting those who need to find alternative work. Because there are people out there who can run businesses, can give the public what we want, and do care about the future.

The French have a saying. "If you drain the swamp you don't consult the frogs". George Bush should have stuck to his guns. But he threw them in the swamp a long time ago!

Shoe-shine goes mad in Baghdad!

George Bush got a parting shot in Baghdad. Some reporter thre his shoes at the outgoing president. I have to say he was pretty nifty with the shoulder dodge. "So what if the guy threw a shoe at me?"

However, this democratic expression of free speech (or free shoe throwing) should not be taken as a right to clamp down on people. At most the journalist should get no more than a similar punishment meted out in London or Washington.

Now the Iraqi regime has the prospect of thousands of people out on the streets. Maybe they can swap notes with the Greeks?

9/11 Seven Years On!

Time really does fly. I remember so vividly being glued to the television, watching those pictures of the World Trade Center disaster. It was a grievous attack on innocent people. In the intervening years, I have often thought about that building. Not only had I been it it, having been lucky enough to have been in the restaurant at the top, but I can see an image of it every day. We have an "arty" photo of it at home, taken from below, looking up to the skies above.

Today the commemorations take place. People have remembered. I would like to think we have moved on and all become better people. The "War on Terror" continues and on this day, General Petraeus tells the BBC that recent security gains are "not irreversible" and that the US still faces a "long struggle". Whilst Petraeus should be applauded for his efforts, I still think the Bush administration has been partly to blame for the length of this struggle. If Dubya had bothered to think a bit about how Guantanamo Bay, extraordinary renditions, the use of the secret services against the citizen, and general rabble-rousing rhetoric have had a detrimental effect on the stability of the whole Middle East, he might be leaving office next January with a bit more to his credit.

Those that died in the 9/11 tragedies were the target of hateful men. If such emotions, feelings and sentiments are to be turned around, we need an approach that will engender respect rather than revenge from both sides. It is going to be slow progress, I fear!

Guilt by association - Guantanamo style!

I see that a US military jury at Guantanamo Bay has convicted Osama Bin Laden's former driver of supporting terrorism. Salim Hamdan was found guilty of five of eight charges of supporting terrorism but acquitted him of two separate, more serious, charges of conspiracy. So he just drove Bin Laden around knowing he was an arch-terrorist but did not join in with any conspiratorial talk. It's all a bad joke in this kangaroo court land, isn't it?

Do the prosecuting soldiers in this Cuban camp think that by just driving you support the activities of the driven? In that case, the recently jailed crook Lord Black's chauffeur could be pinned against a wall and accused of fraud. Max Mosley's driver could be said to support kinky sex, and Amy Winehouse's driver may be accused of supporting her various antics.

All chauffeurs and personal drivers better watch out. Uncle Sam may have you if your boss gets into trouble. By the way, is anybody questioning George Bush over his past friendliness with the Bin Laden family? Oil and water don't mix, I know, but what of oil and truthful politics? We're still waiting on that one!

Ron Paul!! You were wronged by the wrong!

I wrote just a couple of posts ago that George Bush got drunk. I'm still figuring out what his intoxication is exactly. As far a counting the pennies he's botched that one up big time. He entered the White House with a budget surplus and is due to pass on to his successor a deficit of $482 billion. Let's round it up to $500 to be on the safe side. This is a staggering amount. It is more than a $1000 for every person that breathes air in the USA! That's the actively employed to the bedridden and the incarcerated. Exclude everyone who isn't working and the message hits home. Every American is working two months out of twelve, not to pay legitimate taxes, but to pay back the spendthrift behaviour of a man who thinks others "got drunk"! Forget the regular taxes, they come on top of this whopping great headache.

If ever this is going to be rectified it will need half the penpushers running government agencies to be put out to grass. In any country it cannot be right for the bulk of the citizenry to be sweating their guts out to pay for the extravagances of politicians who take a cavalier attitude to the problems of government. Ron Paul had a message to cut the stifling bureaucracy that may one day bring the United States to her knees. He was cruelly sidelined by the snout-troughers and brown envelope brigade. Liberty will get down from her plinth and cast them aside I hope. The Ron Paul Revolution is not dead. It is alive and breathing and will grow. Then ordinary people can take back what they thought they were getting in 1776. Representation in order to decide taxation. And it will stop the Founding Fathers spinning in their graves!

George Bush got drunk!

I couldn't believe that George Bush said what he said. Then I thought nearly eight years in the White House hasn't changed him. He's still making schoolboy quips to impress his audience. And his audience in the video that was recorded on a mobile phone seems easily pleased! Disgraceful.

His simplistic answer to the terrible greed that has been inflicted on the US housing market is to say that "Wall Street got drunk". He said, "There's no question about it. Wall Street got drunk. It got drunk and now it's got a hangover. The question is, how long will it sober up and not try to do all these fancy financial instruments?"

Fancy financial instruments? Is that what they are? He appears to think it is nothing to do with him. The drunk is in another room sobering up. According to him there's no cure. Nobody is suggesting a version of Chaser® – Freedom from Hangovers® for these errant financiers, fancy or otherwise. Perhaps they should!

I really feel Bush should take this seriously. Why on earth are these crooks not in jail? Surely it is more than "got drunk" that we are talking about? Selling loans to people who haven't got two dimes to rub together, then parceling these crockpot loans up as top-notch financial packages and selling them on to greedy trough-snouters, is not good and proper financial practice. It is just base greed, George!

He should be making room in the jails by releasing the social misfits and petty miscreants and putting these city slickers behind bars where they belong. That will sober them up big time!

Bush says sorry to Berlusconi

George Bush has had to apologise to the Italian Prime Minister for an "insulting" biography which was included in a press kit distributed to reporters travelling with Mr.Bush to the G8 summit in Tokyo. Bush calls Berlusconi a "good friend". However, I don't doubt that his staff created a reasonably accurate description of the Italian leader.

White House spokesman Tony Fratto issued an apology. "A biography of Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi included in the press package used language that is insulting both to Prime Minister Berlusconi and to the Italian people," he said. Maybe insulting to Berlusconi, but a sizeable portion of the Italian people wouldn't have minded if he had spent time behind bars when he was up on corruption charges.

I'd liken the report to the curate's egg. It was good in parts!

Bush and Putin

George Bush must be a photographer's dream. This is a great picture of Bush on a visit to Putin in Russia. Nobody is saying what was said, but something's set Putin off alright.

Maybe Bush was reminiscing about his narrow win in Florida and Putin's having a laugh, as he wouldn't have let it get so close. Who knows. Whatever else though, Bush does have a way of getting to know these other leaders. Just that his body language has a far better message than that from his mouth!

Brown bushwhacked in Bucharest!

These two look fit for replacement! Bush is obviously pining for Yo Blair! but gets a grumpy guy in return. No doubt about it. They're bored. They're not really listening. Nothing to lighten the tedium of being there. It's all so foreign.

Can they be our leaders? Bush supposedly got NATO allies to agree to endorse a United States missile defense system based in Europe. Maybe this was before they told him they would agree. Whatever, it looks a bit bad that they appear so lost in time and space.

Looks like we do need a new set of leaders. Americans are getting the chance to choose in November. Maybe the British could have the same chance?

No misperceptions! Bush backs Ukraine's Nato bid

President Bush, on a visit to Ukraine (and under the eagle eye of a satellite-hatted Ukrainian soldier!), today declared his unequivocal support for the entry of Ukraine and Georgia into NATO, a position that is almost bound to anger Russia. The President said, “Your nation has made a bold decision, and the United States strongly supports your request,” he told Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko. But both former Soviet states are expected to be blocked by French and German opposition. So stalemate looms.

It's a good thing President Yushchenko is married to an American. She can explain away the Bushisms. G.W. said it was a “misperception” that he might trade his Ukraine support in exchange for Russian acceptance of a missile defense system in Eastern Europe. “There's no tradeoffs (good grammar!). Period,” he said. Russia has been lobbying hard against both states, saying NATO’s expansion into former Soviet territory impinges on Russia’s sphere of influence. However, it's hardly the most important thing for Ukrainians. I'd put getting a good day's pay, decent housing and education higher up the list of priorities. It's a pity, though, that Russia and the USA can't be a bit more friendly. After all, some megamillionare (supposedly Roman Abramovich) is attempting to build a tunnel under the Bering Strait as part of a transport corridor linking Europe and America via Siberia and Alaska. The Russians must be sorry the Tsar sold Alaska to the Americans in the first place!