Uponnothing.co.uk

General Sir Michael Rose:

…three years ago this country was somehow led by the prime minister into war in Iraq where few, if any, of these requirements were met.Most importantly a clear justification for the war in Iraq was never sufficiently made by Tony Blair - for the intelligence he presented was always embarrassingly patchy and inconsistent.

What is more, his unequivocal statement to the House of Commons that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction that could be used within 45 minutes was made without being properly validated - for it was decided in Washington and London to launch the invasion of Iraq early, on the basis of the flimsy evidence available. This was done without asking the UN weapons inspectors, who were actually on the ground in Iraq, to investigate this allegation. Ultimately, as the inspectors suspected and as we now all know, it turned out that there were no such weapons. Britain had been led into war on false pretences.

It was a war that was to unleash untold suffering on the Iraqi people and cause grave damage to the west’s prospects in the wider war against global terror.

Melanie ‘Hitler in a dress’ Phillips:

Sir Michael’s comments may strike rational folk as idiotic beyond belief; they may marvel that such a senior military type should be mouthing the same poisonous inanities as the far left, which in a time of war might be thought to be distinctly treacherous. The terrible thing is that he is far from alone. A large swathe of the British establishment now think just like this. The scale of such a suspension of rationality, logic and truth throughout the British political, intellectual, religious, military and intelligence world in Britain is simply terrifying at a time of such desperate global peril. They just don’t get it.

Remember people, dissent against the eternal war is idiotic, and anyone who dares to question the magnificent state will be treated as a traitor. Of all the mindless drivel I have ever read Melanie Phillips is in a league of her own. You can imagine the haggard old bag frothing at the mouth as she hammers her ‘war is peace’ and ‘white is black’ articles into her computer - covering the monitor in a rabid foam as she screams about an ‘anti-Jewish conspiracy’.

Please Melanie, at least try to form some convincing arguments once in a while.

At least I am not the only one that hates her.

It’s been a while since I have had enough energy to write anything, and I’m not really going to now, but I will add a few links to the best bloggers around who somehow manage to write consistantly - and brilliantly - about the fetid, rotten, sceptic, world in which we live.

Starting off I am staggered that I missed this until today:

Britain is to become the first country in the world where the movements of all vehicles on the roads are recorded. A new national surveillance system will hold the records for at least two years.

Using a network of cameras that can automatically read every passing number plate, the plan is to build a huge database of vehicle movements so that the police and security services can analyse any journey a driver has made over several years.

If I hear one more person qualify this invasion of privacy with the old ‘you have nothing to fear unless you are doing something wrong’, then I think I’ll beat them to death with a video camera. Still, at least it will reduce the terrorist masses to walking, perhaps they will get tired carrying all those explosives and detonate themselves harmlessly in fields.

Sticking with Allan Scullion, what is the biggest round off drinks you bought in last year? Chances are it won’t be as big as your slice of tax-money that has been consumed by our hard-working politicians:

the Commons recently consumed almost 800 pints of alcoholic drink for every day it sat.

However, this does not effect the average make-up of a politician, they are still largely full of shit.

One last link to the same blog, and a favourite topic for Allan is taxes, or is it just that there are so many taxes he cannot avoid the occasional accidental post on them:

Pocket Money Tax: Youngsters need to be indoctrinated into the tax system at the earliest opportunity to truly understand the value of redistribution. Children aged 5 and above will have to fill out an annual Tax Return form which needs to be certified by an independent accountant (supplied by the child’s parents or guardians.) There will be severe penalties for late returns. Tax rates will be set on a sliding scale determined by the child’s school grades. Money received from persons other than the parent or guardian will be classed as a “benefit in kind”. This should be submitted on a separate form P11D and will be taxed at 80%.

Moving on to a different blogger, and one of my favourite sites - essential daily reading - is Tim Ireland. Everyone should know who he is, and everyone should have already read or watched the below:

97% of Sun readers do not support Blair’s 90-day detention plan:

Let’s start with the numbers they do give…

A whopping 100,000 of you phoned our hotline to DEMAND 90 days’ detention for terror suspects.

Recent figures show the Sun’s circulation at 3,361,396.

(100000/3361396) x 100 = 2.97%

Hm. So we’d best correct that:

Less than 3% of you phoned our hotline to DEMAND 90 days’ detention for terror suspects.

Sergeant Tim Nunn cares about your safety:

BBC - Safety fears at ‘illegal’ protest: A police sergeant feared for his colleagues’ safety at a demonstration over new laws banning protests near Parliament, a court has heard… Mr Nunn told the court Mr Shaer used a loud hailer to call the police fascists and accused them of trying to gag demonstrators..

You’ll pardon me for saying so, but what a load of unmitigated bullshit.

The World according to Leo Blair - you’ll just have to watch this one.

Now just read every post Tim Ireland has ever written, really it is that good.

And finally I just couldn’t stop laughing reading this from Justin Mckeating, and I am glad he has maintained his sanity after looking at the New Labour ‘Respect’ campaign (also a big new topic for Tim Ireland…).

Well this is just a small slice of the stuff I have read recently, and who knows, maybe someday i’ll find the motivation to write something new…

Diplomacy. What does this word actually mean? Is it the process of sorting out national and international problems through rational, peaceful, inclusive, arguments? Or is it the gunboat, or nuclear threat curtailing any arguments against largely Western nuclear hegemony?

Whatever it is in recent times it has been paid largely lip service by Western governments who have already decided on policy, but want to appear that they tried ‘everything they can to avoid using force… blah blah blah’, before sending in the Airforce and destroying yet another Nations sovereignty.

Still, when it comes to ‘other’ nations, i.e. anyone not ‘conducive’ to the continuation of ’stability’ in the Westo-centric vision of American dominance - with the larger EU countries acting as groupies - then they should use diplomcay to resolve all problems, and be grateful if we even give them a chance to talk round a table.

Diplomacy, such as Iran for example, a country that wants nuclear power, something that we will not allow, something about the creation of WMD (this time we are threatening a country when we know they haven’t even made any WMD’s!), yet we don’t really have any evidence of a nuclear missile program. I guess we have to just trust in the governments of the US and UK to provide us with valid, reliable intelligence, surely they wouldn’t lie to us… again… would they?

Well we are about to find out, ‘IAEA Director Mohamed ElBaradei said Iran, which insists its nuclear program is for electricity only, had told his agency it wants to restart centrifuges at Natanz to enrich uranium on a “small scale.”‘ and of course the Western world is up in arms, I mean its not as if we have a nuclear weapons program, or vast stockpiles of them, or that the US is intending to use them (again…) this time in Iran… oh.

The stench of extreme hypocrisy is hard to stomach whenever you read soundbites from the neo-conservative scum that fester in the Whitehouse, and of course this issue is no different:

“They shouldn’t do it because it would really be a sign that they are not prepared to actually make diplomacy work,” Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said last week.

“By cutting the seals, the Iranian leadership shows its disdain for international concern and its rejection of international diplomacy,” Schulte [the US ambassador to the IAEA] said.

Perhaps similiar to the disdain for international concern and diplomacy when you invaded Iraq? Or like the disdain for international concern and diplomacy when you go ahead and nuke Iranian nuclear sites.

Diplomacy. It’s just the stuff that happens whilst you plan the next war.

Tony Blair, complete and utter nonsensical twat (abbreviated to CUNT), continues to push the boundaries of unbelievable hypocrisy, and continues to smugly grin in ignorance. The subject is becoming a favourite for the international messiah: Iran. Blair’s comments basically assert that Iran is responsible for preventing progress in the Middle East because:

the regime is doing things that are completely unacceptable in the international community — like supporting terrorism, like meddling in Iraq, like trying to have a nuclear weapons program…

Sorry? ‘meddling in Iraq’, ’supporting terrorism’, having a ‘nuclear weapons program’? Is it me or is this exactly the same thing that America and Britain are guilty of? What is the difference Tony? Is it that Iran are trying to get nuclear weapons, whilst we are simply in the progress of upgrading them, is it that Iran may be sending small arms into Iraq, whilst we send in the heavy bombers, is it that they support the wrong kind of terrorism?

Surely there must be some kind of distinction between Iran and the UK for you to make that statement. But there is not, you made the statement because you are a joke, you live in a fantasy world, a world that simply does not exist.

That in this world you somehow run a country is an even bigger joke.

Whilst the storm troopers prefer the Sun for it’s brash xenophobia, racism in short easy to understand words - and tits - the higher echelons of the modern National Socialism phenomenon prefer something a little more highbrow; but nonetheless obvious.

The sports section is surely pretty innocuous in any newspaper? Or is it… this little gem courtesy of Football365’s ‘Mediawatch’:

United’s Right-Wing (Get It?)

The various rags perused by Mediawatch this morning offer a variety of reasons for Manchester United’s ongoing crapness, ranging from a lack of confidence/team spirit to the simple observation that a midfield trio of Fletcher, Richardson and Smith is, by definition, utter toss. Only in one place was one man willing to actually confront the problem:

‘No more pussyfooting around. No more Europhile posturing…there is absolutely no evidence that Carlos Queiroz has the slightest idea which ingredients go into a traditionally rip-roaring United team. To hell with the thinking man’s game, and if that means unseating the Continental professor at Old Trafford, then so be it.

‘United have been marching to the beat of a different drummer. The thunder of Ferguson’s sound and fury have given way to the slower, less insistent lilt of his assistant’s native fado. Here is Scottish rage diluted by Portuguese melancholy.

‘Queiroz seems unable to recognise, let alone stimulate, that quintessential way of playing which has been the basis of United’s half century of glory.

‘Not for nothing is Ferguson known as the Godfather of Premiership managers. He had called for a revival of the cavalier spirit. Still the dead hand of Queiroz was on the sterile tactics and tempo.

‘Unless Ferguson takes action without pity, Queiroz will drag him down with him’.

The man? Jeff Powell. The newspaper? The Daily Mail. The problem? The foreigner.

From theIndependent Online:

In a flat West Yorkshire accent, Mohammed Sidique Khan declared: “Our words have no impact upon you, therefore I’m going to talk to you in a language that you understand. Our words are dead until we give them life with our blood.”

In the video, which was broadcast by the Arabic television station al-Jazeera, Khan said: “Your democratically elected governments continuously perpetuate atrocities against my people and your support of them makes you directly responsible, just as I am directly responsible for protecting and avenging my Muslim brothers and sisters.”

Khan, who worked as a learning mentor to children at a primary school in Beeston, Leeds, said: “Until we feel security, you will be our target. Until you stop the bombing, gassing, imprisonment and torture of my people, we will not stop this fight.”

Now, the response as usual is that:

David Davis, the Shadow Home Secretary, condemned the video. He said: “People across Britain will be sickened by this video. Nothing can justify the murder of innocent people”.

David, shut the fuck-up you ignorant fuck, we justified the deaths of the innocent people killed in Iraq without any problems. Look back at British foreign policy over the last 50 years, count the millions of innocent people dead as a result, now we have justified and even glorified this.

So don’t you dare say that terrorism cannot be justified, when Britain as a nation justifies it every single day. It cannot be one rule for ‘them’ and one rule for us, even-up, or shut-up.

Jacques Chirac has called for the:

strengthening of global governance by reforming the UN and providing more support to the developing world. He said his government would introduce an international tax on airline tickets next year to provide permanent funding for the fight against Aids, tuberculosis and malaria. France would hold a ministerial meeting next February to discuss ways of implementing this idea, which has already been backed by Germany, Spain, Brazil, Chile and Algeria.

As usual the idea to help Africa relies on putting the cost of the project at the feet of the taxpayer, a solution that requires no real thought or realistic assessment of how the problems are caused in the first place. For France to be proposing an international tax on airline fees as a workable solution to create more aid for ‘developing’ countries is laughable. Why doesn’t Chirac dip into his own pockets to help increase aid? Or better still, rather than spending billions of Euros a year subsidising French farmers (far more than is spent by France on aid) - effectively killing any chance of developing countries having far trade in relation to foodstuffs - why doesn’t he use this money to develop fair trade?

Because of course, Chirac, and fellow European statesman, are far more interested in pointless grand gestures than actually addressing the real issues and causes of poverty. No doubt the project will eventually be shelved in favour of a series of free concerts, where obscenely rich artists can pretend they give a fuck for an hour - whilst plugging a new album for free - and politicians can pretend that they are in touch with the ‘people’.

Babies Caught Up in ‘No-Fly’ Confusion

Only in America…

Sarah Zapolsky and her husband had a[n]… experience last month while departing from Dulles International Airport outside Washington. An airline ticket agent told them their 11-month-old son was on the government list.

They were able to board their flight after ticket agents took a half-hour to fax her son’s passport and fill out paperwork.

“I understand that security is important,” Zapolsky said. “But if they’re just guessing, and we have to give up our passport to prove that our 11-month-old is not a terrorist, it’s a waste of their time.”

Another demonstration on the stupidity of the ’security’ measures taken in the ‘war on terror’. Obviously the complete abandonment of common sense in recent times dictates that even when they see the suspected terrorist is wearing a nappy, dribbling, and unable to speak (or, to coin a phrase ‘Bush-like’), they still have to go through the paperwork.

Bush seems to have finally realised why so many American troops are dying in Iraq, seems that rather than spreading democracy through peace and love as he thought he was, he had actually gone to war. It has only taken the deaths of another 14 marines killed by a roadside bomb - bringing the total American troop deaths in Iraq to around 1820 - to open his eyes.

However, what Bush of course fails to realise as the only ones who made the ‘mistake’ of thinking that it would not be a war was himself and his collection of bloodthirsty neocons.

Mr Bush I refer you to one of the greatest lovers of war, and greatest war leaders (for all his faults as a politician and human being) Sir Winston Churchill:

Never, never, never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on the strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter. The statesman who yields to war fever must realize that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events.

I think that sums up the war in Iraq perfectly, and most of the other ‘quick’ wars that America have embarked on.

Blair’s Bombs - by John Pilger

I have a great deal of respect for John Pilger, and feel that his words are the perfect cure for the poisenous bile spouted by the likes of Richard ‘half-nazi, half-neo-con, half-wit’ Littlejohn and Melanie ‘paint on a moustache and call me Hitler’ Phillips. Not only that, but he is also a keen admirer of the modern historian Mark Curtis, who also demonstrates through accurate historical research the idiocy of the drivel written by the above scum.

Bloggerheads (UK) - Let me show you the enemy

Richard Littlejohn is quite simply a c***.

The Observer | Politics | Blair: we cannot change course

Tony Blair is still proclaiming that foreign policy has no relation to the London bombings, and is not at all responsible for terrorism in general. The argument that Blair uses is as usual fundementally flawed, but as usual he dresses up his own belief as fact, making vague statements appear uequivocal.

The Prime Minister hit back at suggestions that the London atrocities were linked to injustices in the Middle East, saying it was the ‘almost-devilish logic’ of extremists to play on western guilt.

Their propaganda was clever and sophisticated, he told an audience of Labour party delegates in London: ‘It plays on our tolerance and good nature; it exploits the tendency to guilt of the developed world - as if it is our behaviour that should change, that if we only tried to work out and act on their grievances, we could lift this evil; that if we changed our behaviour, they would change theirs.

‘Their cause is not founded on injustice. It is founded on a belief, one whose fanaticism is such that it can’t be moderated. It can’t be remedied. It has to be stood up to.’

So, it is clever propaganda and tricks from the terrorists that has linked the London bombings to Iraq? Have I missed something perhaps? Have I missed a series of television adverts from the bombers intimating a link between the bombings in London and British foreign policy in the Middle East? I was under the impression that the London bombings - and terrorism in general - were linked to Iraq (and British foreign policy over the last 50 years) by British people with a modicum of intelligence who are prepared to face the reality of why terrorists exist. Perhaps Blair is dismissing anyone making the link between British state terrorism - reffered to in our genteel, developed, civilised nation as ‘foreign policy’ - and terrorism of the Al Qaeda type, as being brainwashed by sympathies for the injustice that such people have collectively suffered.

It is interesting that although he is dismissing the idea that the terrorists were inspired by the oppression of Palestine, it is a kind of admission that their is oppression in Palestine, and British foreign policy is complicit in it. So by denying links, he is effectively pointing out how they could have greviances against British foreign policy - protesting too much as it were.

I wonder how anybody can take what Tony Blair says at face value, for he has become someone so removed from reality that his rantings are nothing more than lies repeated to remove any notion that he is responsible for - or perpetrator of - terrorism. That he cannot change is irresponsible and follows the classical role of a dictator, someone who chooses a path and will not deviate from it whatever the cost simply because they only value their own beliefs and willpower. Blair shows this by dismissing any logical arguments as ridiculous, anything that does not meet his narrow and blinkered view of reality is simply ignored, and his citizens are left to pay the price.

Melanie Phillips’s Articles: This lethal moral madness

I am having trouble finding the words to describe just how much hatred this evil bitch stirs up - not just the hatred of the ignorant Neo-Nazi’s who lap-up this poisonous bile - but also the hatred that I have towards this intellectually bankrupt whore of extremism. For Miss Phillips you are so completely fucking stupid that you argue - without irony - against the extremism of Muslims, from a position of Western extremism; making your condemnations of the nature of extremism laughable. Furthermore this highlights a further evil surrounding the London Bombings, the backlash. Such articles are designed to increase the backlash, to provide further fire for the ever growing ideology of hatred that is preached each day in the mainstream press. This article is an incitement to hatred, it does not raise any valid questions, or making any valid points, it is simply a recruiting pamphlet for the BNP. Phillips surrounds herself with her own extreme views, which she then preaches through her articles, in order that people will follow her ideology. So, please Miss Phillips could you be so good as to explain as to why your position as an extremist preacher differs from the position of a Muslim extremist preacher?

Go on, and don’t just dismiss any views that do not match your own as:

lies emanating from extremists in the Muslim world [that] have been further inflated by support from those in the wider community in Britain — mainly on the left — whose obsessive repetition of such falsehoods and disproportionate attention to the misdeeds of the west while ignoring Muslim atrocities have helped turn grievance into hysteria.

We have already paid a terrible price for multiculturalism and this cancer of moral inversion and irresponsibility.

As that is such bullshit I cannot even be bothered to refute it, all I wish to say is that Hitler must be very proud to still be influencing people today.

hell is other people: Melanie Phillips is a racist scumbag whose words can kill

Well, nothing much more to add really…