Category: Rights & Wrongs

Now I’m back in Europe, I’m reminded that American political life looks even weirder at a distance than it does close up. I’m inspired by the gall of the Republican party almost daily, but today has been most impressive.

1) Republicans veto a bill that is an attempt to start cleaning up the mess their economic policies have made.

2) Having scuppered the bill, they then try to lay the blame for the bill’s failure at the feet of a woman who voted for it, claiming that the speech Nancy Pelosi made introducing it turned off certain members of the Republican party.

If the Republicans thought it was important that the bill passed, surely they’d have voted for it en masse? If they didn’t want the bill to pass, and that’s what it looks like from the voting record, then why are they now claiming to be upset that it didn’t? Obviously, it’s because they want to make it look as if the Democrats are at fault for the crisis. But, for Republicans, there is no crisis, because they don’t believe in regulation. But then again, there is a crisis, and they want to make sure someone else gets the blame.

On top of this, a John Boehner, the Republican leader of the House said:

“I do believe we could have got there today, had it not been for this partisan speech that the Speaker gave on the floor of the House,”

What are the partisan pieces of the speech?

…when was the last time someone asked you for $700bn?

It is a number that is staggering, but tells us only the costs of the Bush administration’s failed economic policies: policies built on budgetary recklessness, on an anything-goes mentality, with no regulation, no supervision, and no discipline in the system.

Over the past several days, we have worked with our Republican colleagues to fashion an alternative to the original plan of the Bush administration.

Oh, how upsetting, Pelosi spoke the truth about George Bush, and the Republicans are unhappy. They seem to be conveniently forgetting that George Bush was one of the supporters of the bail-out package. They’ll claim to support him when Pelosi says something harsh about him, but they won’t support him with votes for a bill he supports? Wow, that’s some meaningful support. Oh, the doublethink!

On reflection, it’s no wonder that a group of such conflicted and volatile people should take exception at what, to me, looks like a balanced and well-worded speech.

Transcript of Nancy Pelosi’s speech.
Source: The Guardian.

I really hope the Republicans are humbled at the ballot box in November. The Americans I know and love deserve better.

It looks like M&S is working to reduce its carbon footprint, which is a good thing. However, their marketing surrounding the introduction of sustainable technologies exaggerates the effect it will have.

The chain’s first wind turbine, in Aberdeenshire, will provide renewable energy to the branches, which bosses say will lead to a drop of 55% in their energy use. This, the company says, will also contribute to the shops producing 95% less carbon dioxide.

[source: Guardian Unlimited]
It all depends on how you define a shop I suppose. If, like M&S seem to, you limit your measurements to the building itself, then you will achieve a huge reduction in carbon dioxide emissions. However a shop is not just a building. It needs to be stocked, and M&S’s goods are still made all over the world and travel many thousands of miles before they reach the shops. The food sold in their shops is often highly processed and overly packaged single-serving meals. Surely carbon dioxide generated by the manufacture, packing and shipping of goods needs to be taken into account when calculating a shop’s carbon footprint. Seen in these terms the reduction in carbon footprint is far smaller. Taking a wild guess, I’d imagine it’s closer to ten or twelve percent.

Now they’re starting to address environmental concerns in the part of the business that is most obvious to the customer, will they extend that thinking into the most polluting parts of their business? Does this news herald a deep-rooted change in their business plan or is their environmental commitment just window dressing?

Here’s why my missus ain’t got no stone – check out this De Beers parody.

[…]the US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld accused Iran of dispatching elements of its Revolutionary Guard to stir trouble inside Iraq. Mr Rumsfeld said: “They are currently putting people into Iraq to do things that are harmful to the future of Iraq and we know it. And it is something that they, I think, will look back on as having been an error in judgment.”

Source: the Guardian Unlimited, Wednesday March 8th, 2006.

Flicking through the daily papers in the coffee shop yesterday, I came across what has to be the most tasteless headline I’ve seen in a while. Thankfully it was in the “Datebook” section of the S.F. Chronicle, and not on the front page proper, but even so you have to ask yourself just what kind of numpties work on the paper?

TV’s next great series is set in Iraq. And it’s on FX. Change your regime.

For those who don’t know, FX is normally the place where old sci-fi programmes go to die.

Now we all know TV is important, that’s obvious. Other real-life events are important too – in their way. For example, events like wars in the real world make wonderful metaphors for the release of a new “unpolitical” TV drama. Every time you use the TV remote to change stations doesn’t it feel like you’ve just exercised your democratic rights, only better? Oh yes.

Sadly I’m not particularly surprised by this editorial gaffe. On an average day the San Francisco Chronicle is doltishly split into nine separate little papers.

• News (national and international)
• Sporting Green
• Business
• Bay Area (local news)
• Datebook (events)
• Home& Garden
• Food
• Wine
• Classifieds

Each one is about eight pages long. Why can’t they just have two papers, one for news with international and national news at the front, business and local news in the middle, and sports on the back pages? What’s so wrong with lumping the lifestyle stuff all in together with a different emphasis each day of the week? Is wine really so important that is deserves its own little paper? By the same logic, shouldn’t there be a little “Beer” paper?

I asked a local about this once, and she thought it was a good thing. “It shows you where our priorities lie,” was her proud response. The Chronicle is one of the few things I dislike about San Francisco.

Hands up, who remembers Owen Paul? No, neither do I. But I do remember his 1986 smash hit, My Favourite Waste of Time. Well, the chorus at least. Here’s the BBC flickbook to listen to as you read the conclusion of my green card quest.

On the 30th August 2004 I had my green card interview. It was, in the words of the immigration officer, a slam dunk. The card would be with me in two weeks.

It is now almost ten months later and my green card has not arrived. I have a stamp in my passport which is, in effect, a temporary green card. It expires on August 30th 2005, at which point I will be in England. Without a green card I cannot re-enter the USA, except as a tourist.

We rang the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services disinformation line a few months ago and were advised to delay taking any action to find out where the card was. “Wait and see” was the tone of the advice. With six weeks left before we board a plane for the UK, waiting is no longer a sensible option.

Nagl, a Glasgow-resident sassenach, has posted a collection of three carefully chosen quotes on his blog, Falling Sky. They read rather well together.

According to Bono he was "the best frontman" the catholic church ever had. Yes, really. Everyone remotely famous has been queueing up to pay similarly ridiculous respects since Karol Wojtyla, the artist formerly known as Pope John Paul II, shuffled off his mortal coil, ran down the curtain and joined the choir invisible.

So, if John Paul II is Top of the Popes, what does the rest of the top ten look like?

1. John Paul II (1978 – 2005) – BEST POPE EVER!!!
2. St. Peter (32 – 67) – Seminal. The original founding father. Kudos.
3. Urban III (1185 – 87) – Introduced hip-hop liturgies and masses. “Was intimate” with the archdeacon of Bath. Killed by the Byzantines in a drive-by shooting, fo’shizzle.
4. St. Innocent I (401 – 17) – Honestly didn’t touch the choirboys. Flaunted convention by wearing one glove and "moonwalking" backwards.
5. St. Hilarius (461 – 68) – Always had the most whoopee cushions at seminary school. Founder member of the Bonzo Dog Papal Band.
6. St. Zephyrinus (198 – 217) – Affectionately known to cardinals as “the old windbag,” this Pope is said to be Tom Jones’ early inspiration.
7. St. Simplicius (468 – 83) – A great fan of Kraftwerk. Brought minimalism and moogs to the Vatican. Controversially ousted for delivering the mass in binary.
8. Clement XIV (1769 – 74) – No-one ever accused him of being an original thinker, he was, however, a great linedancer.
9. Paul III (1534 – 49) – May have been painted by Titian, but by dissolving the monasteries, King Henry VIII of England made him look like a wuss. Listened to a lot of emo.
10. Boniface III (607) – Lovely cheekbones, but no stamina. Scored a big hit with his New Romantic version of "Tainted Love."

So there we have it, J-PII comprehensively beats off 2000 years of competition! But was he better than Elvis?

Of course, in the midst of all the fuss and bother about the dead primate, everyone’s forgotten the plight of millions of catholic AIDS sufferers. For the six people who read this site, here’s a quick reminder:

Vatican: condoms don’t stop Aids. The Guardian, 9th Oct 2003.
Vatican in HIV condom row. BBC News, 9th Oct 2003.

And here’s the official Catholic line, in the words of the head of the Pontifical Council for the Family:

All this requires a holistic vision of man and woman, of fidelity in marriage and of sex education, by which the moral aspect of the problem is taken into account. Institutions distributing condoms to children and in public schools are gravely irresponsible. Parents should react, exercising their right to defend their children, so that they are not attacked by this violent type of interference in their world of innocence.

Cardinal Lopez Trujillo on Ineffectiveness of Condoms to Curb AIDS. Catholic Online, 12th Nov 2003.

What are the chances the next doddering septugenarian to wear the funny hat will take a more reality-based approach to the AIDS pandemic?

It’s a good night from me.

And it’s a good night from him.

Goodnight.

Related link: Next in Line. Sunday Herald, 6th Feb 2005.

Or one customer, at least.

A woman bit into a portion of a human finger while eating a bowl of chili at a Wendy’s fast-food restaurant in California, health officials said yesterday.

Officials said the fingertip was about 4cm (1.5in) long and had part of a manicured nail. The woman, who asked not to be identified, was able to spit it out, said Martin Fenstersheib, Santa Clara county’s health officer. "She was a bit grossed out, and vomited a number of times," he said.

Does anyone sense a lawsuit coming on?

Despite the visceral impact of this story, it’s nowhere near as shocking as last year’s case against Cracker Barrel, which was found to give poorer service to black customers eating at its restaurants in seven states. Those states? Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. Yee-hah for the South.

The irony, which may not be apparent to those living outside America, is that "Cracker" is a widespread slang term for poor whites, roughly equivalent to "White Trash" or "Hillbilly." So I suppose it’s not really shocking after all, just sad.

…than curse the darkness.

Peter Benenson, founder of Amnesty International, died on Friday evening.

Rev. Rehash on www.rehashinate.com has a little banner in support of two Iranian bloggers whose government has denied their right to freedom of expression and detained them without trial. Reading the story and doing a little research led me – as these things often do – to investigating the death penalty. Specifically, which countries have abolished the death penalty and when they did it.

The top five makes surprising reading. I never knew that Venezuela and Costa Rica were so progressive.

Forgive me for quoting George Monbiot again, but:

The US government has so far pledged $350m to the victims of the tsunami, and the UK government £50m ($96m). The US has spent $148 billion on the Iraq war (1) and the UK £6bn ($11.5bn).(2) The war has been running for 656 days. This means that the money pledged for the tsunami disaster by the United States is the equivalent of one and a half days’ spending in Iraq. The money the UK has given equates to five and a half days of our involvement in the war.

The rest of his latest article is here. Read it.

This completely boggles my mind. When I moved over to this side of the pond I thought long and hard about what to do with my mobile. It doesn’t work in the US, but it’s still dead handy when I’m back in the UK. Obviously, I don’t want to be paying twenty quid a month for something I’m not going to use for eleven months of the year, so I changed my service plan to one where there’s no line rental and you’re simply billed for the calls you make.

This worked fine, up until last month. Dad told me I had a bill for about three quid. This didn’t make sense. I’ve got the phone and it’s not been connected to the Orange network for a few months. I’m not paying insurance on it. What was this charge?

Orange think it’s in your best interests (and theirs) to pay your monthly bill by direct debit. In fact they’re so keen for you to do this that they charge you three quid a month on top of your bill if you don’t. My monthly bill is £0.00. So, to avoid paying the fee, I now need to ring my UK bank and ask them to set up a direct debit to pay Orange £0.00 per month, which is patently stupid – even more stupid than this, this, and this. Okay, maybe not the last one.

Oh, and who actually eats the back of a chicken? What does it matter if the back gets soggy?

As a direct result of the US election today, the "Bring Liam Home" fund has opened for donations. All monies raised will be spent on a cheap, no-frills, lose-your-luggage, rudely hostessed flight on a crippled US airline back to the UK. If you donate enough maybe I’ll be able to fly Courtney back too. But let’s bring me home before I get drafted.

Of course, once I’m out of the US, I’ll be a victim of its foreign policy again. Excuse me if I don’t blog for a while. I think I’m off to plan a violent revolution. Maybe I should think about using the "Bring Liam Home Fund" to buy explosives from Iraq.

Help.