...on September 1. I was musing about a multimedia thing, and there will be elements of that, now and again, but usually it is going to be the same old rubbish.
See you then.
Friday, August 08, 2008
the beatroot returns...
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34 comments:
Looking forward to it!
As a seasoned hack I feel that, having persuaded you to get blogging again, I should now be campaigning for you not to bother.
Ah the delicious schizophrenia and soullessness of professional journalism.
Anyway, back to the grindstone.
About bloody time! Chop chop!
Ain't nuthing but a multimedia thang BAYBAY. Beatroot style drives you CRAYZAY.
saluti veneziani visit
oh, missed you much
Just wanted to say thank you for inspiring me to start my own blog - I've been lacking in inspiration to actually write, well..anything - and you've given me just that.
Though I must complain at the amount of time that I spent reading your blog this morning!
I am touched, really!
I might be starting up sooner than I thought...what is going on in Georgia is getting my fingers twitching...lots to say about what is a situation where nobody...NOBODY... comes out of this looking good....
See you very soon.
Yes, you read up all you can about it in the papers and and work out what's really happening. Then we'll get up in arms about it and start a campaign. That will teach them.
rock on!
Much better to sit around with one's finger up one's arse. Certainly true when it comes to some people.
anal retentive people, maybe?
Hi I am an occasional visitor to your blog, and wondered whether you would like to create a reciprocal link…I would be happy to link your blog on mine if you let me know that you have linked mine….greetings from Ireland from Gabriel….
http://unrepentantcommunist.blogspot.com/
Gabriel, are you Geoffrey Sachs?
Geoffrey Sachs unreprentant commie? Shury shome mishtake....?
Q: What did the unrepentent communist say to the repentent capitalist?
A: Comrade!
Q: What did the unrepentent capitalist say to the unrepentent communist?
A: Get a life and a real job!
And what happened next? Did they go back to their respective mansions and academic posts to stew in their own smugness perhaps?
Sorry, that was sarcastic. Uncalled for.
Hey how's about this missile shield thing?
missile thing will do nothing, practically, for security in Poland. But that's not really what this is about. This is political...geo-political...at a time when everyone should be calming down we have an international political class which is looking for a mission...oh, dear...
Perhaps we really are entering an era of 'disaster capitalism'.
There certainly are a lot of big contracts in this area and virtually every major US corporation, from Lockheed to Bechtel, is queing up.
Incidentally, I wonder if ANY Poles will get work building any of this missile stuff, or if it will be the usual bloated chain of US subcontractors siphoning taxpayers' money?
Also, has anyone done a $ for $ assessment of the deal? Does Poland have to pay a trillion dollars every time they fire a patriot missile? Who gets to pull the trigger?
Perhaps an analogous situation was that of US nuclear bases in the UK. As soon as people realised their communities were a nuke target they protested and kicked them out. Then the threat recinded, US military budgets fell and the rest of the bases were closed.
Also, I like that Russia threatened to target Poland if the missile shield went up. So they aren't targeting Poland already? Oh really, that would be imprudent. But then Russia always has been militarily happy-go-lucky - like a sort of Eastern European Holland.
Three cheers for Poland's pro-western government for winning this prestigious human shield contract that will bring prosperity, western technology and peace to our region!
Wait, I think I've gone sarcastic.
Indeed. 'Disaster capitalism'? Have you been reading too much No Logos Melenie Klein perhaps?
But what is remarkable is how little we actually know about the detail of the deal. We know about patriots etc...but lots of this is very murky....the most significant thing for me is that an American garrison is going to be in northern Poland. There was talk a couple of years ago of moving US troops stationed in Germany to Poland...so this has been on the cards for a while now. can;t say I am actually very pleased about that.
Are Poles really aware of how accurate Patriot missiles are?
http://www.commondreams.org/news2003/0416-05.htm
the lack of discrimination of patriots is maybe not a technical problem. :-) They are programmed by the US armed forces. The US armed forces has been having trouble discriminating between friend and foe ever since the second world war when British troops were as terrified of overhead Us planes as they were nazi.
Well I just hate to say I told you so, at least there’s no more pretence, our Russian friends look like they were tired of the charade and starting getting down to business…..poor Georgians. Too bad there’s no oil in Georgia otherwise they would merit swift liberation. The Russians will carefully study the western response and that will determine the next move, which is of course is the Ukraine. If the west screws this up it could be a swift and breathtaking return to super power status for the Russians. The western world has only France and Germany to thank for this, the French being a nation of cowards and political whores while our German friends remain a people devoid of any recognizable concept of morality and or honour.
By signing on to the Missile Shield Poland’s political elites publicly pronounced that Nato no longer has credibility and they demand a direct American guarantee for their security.
The Patriot missile system is the most technically advanced system of it’s kind and has been steadily improved since it’s first deployment. The notion that one such battery and 40 million per year to improve Polish defences are going to do anything for Poland is laughable. It would have been just as rational to send the minister of defence to buy a handful of shotgun shells for all the difference it would make.
Too bad there’s no oil in Georgia otherwise they would merit swift liberation.
Jan, firstly, there has been billions of US dollars pumped into Georgia over the years. The US desperately wants more client states in the Caucuses.
Second - though there is no oil in Georgia, there is the huge “Peace pipeline,” carrying rivers of the stuff to Europe, by-passing Russia.
Thirdly, in public, Washington will get behind Tblisi, but in private you can be sure that they are telling them: “don’t fuck with Russia”.
Yup, the BTC pipeline runs through Georgia and pumps around a million barrels a day from subsea deposits in Azerbaijan. Running along it is the SCP gas pipeline. Both projects jointly developed by governments of Turkey, AZ and GE plus Bechtel and BP.
It wouldn't be nice to bomb that while trying to suppress ethinc tensions.
If Uncle Sam “desperately wants more client states” then the US will have to apply itself to rescuing Georgia because they currently have no credibility in the region. In the big picture having friends that can’t protect you is worthless, like a current membership in Nato. I understand in Poland this is worded as “what’s the point of aiding dead people” if I remember Tusk’s comments on Nato. Lets not forget this pipeline is not supplying oil to the US, America’s ambitions in the region are currently on hold.
The Russians played the people in Tblisi like a harp, they knew if the created a series of small incidents that eventually the Georgians would react. They got their reaction, only history can speculate on the strange coincidence of the Russian Army being simultaneously ready for a massive counter attack. It does not require a military genius to draw the conclusion that this was a set up from the very start. Within a few hours of the Georgian attack 100,000 Russian troops with around a thousand tanks, pre-positioned ammunition and fuel depots not to mention maps of Georgian territory handed out to all units were ready to respond complete with a coordinate air and naval response. There are two possibilities here, the greatest achievement in all of military history or a planned and premeditated attack.
"(The Polish government)demands a direct American guarantee for their security."
"(The Americans) currently have no credibility in the region. In the big picture having friends that can’t protect you is worthless."
--> So what good does making a deal for the missile base accomplish? It seems like all it will accomplish is pissing off the Russians. Dumb move.
Poland doesn’t really have any good options, the missile deal actually represents at best a 20% solution. In an ideal world Western Europe (the EU) would have a robust defence and foreign policy, sadly France and Germany aren’t up to the task…just a case of failure to accept responsibility and an unacceptable policy of appeasement to every Russian outrage.
As far as pissing off the Russians goes the missiles are not what the Russians are really pissed off about they know full well the strategic implication to the nuclear balance of power is zero. The Russians have around 4200 missile at best the American system could hit 10 of them if all worked perfectly, so why the fuss that’s 0.002.
This is about the painful and public declaration that the former Soviet/Russian empire is gone for good and former captive nations will not be returning to the fold.
Poland made a decision to resist Nazis Germany, so why do people expect us to roll over for these fuckers in the Kremlin?
So you prefer to roll over and heinie up for the US without any protection? Owie.
Did you know that Ethylene Tetrafluoroethylene is commonly used in the nuclear industry for tie or cable wraps? Time to think “green”.
“So you prefer to roll over and heinie up for the US” yes, what don’t you understand about that? Under the notion that something is better then nothing. So that when the Mongol hordes (raping, looting and murdering Russians) attack us, the Marines will come to the rescue maybe. Condi promised us and even toasted the idea with Georgian wine.
Unlike Hitler Putin uses speechwriters and doesn’t have a flare for dressing up for the occasion but then the difference are only cosmetic. I bet you would like us to warm up to the exterminator of the Chechen nation.
. . . Condi promised us . . .
A bit from Robert Scheer:
"... Randy Scheunemann, who joined the McCain team early this year, according to the New York Times, as a chief foreign policy advisor. At the time he joined the campaign, however, he was also employed as a registered foreign agent (that is, a lobbyist) of the Georgian government. Scheunemann also served double duty as a director of the neoconservative Project for a New American Century and was a vocal cheerleader for the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Investigative reporter Robert Scheer argues that Scheunemann played a similar but more active role in getting the current Russia-Georgia war started. This war officially commenced when Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili ordered his army to invade and seize the disputed and ambiguously aligned former Soviet territory of South Ossetia, where 70 percent of the population holds Russian citizenship.
This invasion, for those familiar with the turf, rekindled memories of the Georgian militia’s March 1991 takeover of sections of South Ossetia. At that time, according to the Washington Post’s Michael Dobbs, who was there, the Georgians ransacked the place, trashing national heritage sights and statues."
Is this the geez of old?
Firstly the Georgians were dumber than a bag of hammers to fall into this trap and the Russians were brilliant in their set-up. How none of the western or Georgian intelligence services saw what was coming is truly a mystery or a testament to incompetence.
The breakaway areas are all within the internationally recognized Georgian borders therefore by international law they have every right to restore constitutional authority of the central government to these areas. Their action as unwise as it was did not give any legal right to Russia for an invasion of Georgia in response, Russia in effect broke the UN charter by it actions.
The rebel areas are the creation of Russia’s security services in order to maintain a state of instability where recently they went on a blitz of handing out Russia passport in order to make the claim at some future date they were coming to the aid of their people. I should mention here that this was being duplicated in the Ukraine recently and the Ukrainians caught them doing it.
The Russians are the aggressors and perpetrators of this crisis.
Missed you too 57.
So now you're gonna start telling dumb Georgian jokes?
The Russians are pricks in this situation. But so are the Georgians. And let's not not forget the most infamous Georgian in history. Maybe they deserve a spate of Georgian jokes.
And as far as I've seen, there's no permanent occupation as in Iraq.
I think most Americans are mighty confused by all this commotion. Then again, it is confusing. I betcha if a poll was taken, a goodly percentage would answer that the Russians attacked one of our southern states.
ge'ez said... “I think most Americans are mighty confused by all this commotion. Then again, it is confusing. I betcha if a poll was taken, a goodly percentage would answer that the Russians attacked one of our southern states.”
Sad but true observation, I never understood why one of the worlds most advance democracies had the problem of a population so ignorant of the outside world, is it the education system?
ge'ez said... “And as far as I've seen, there's no permanent occupation as in Iraq.”
Likely not to be permanent in Iraq unless the Iraqis go along with an American presence in some form. The present situation is unsustainable financially and events are progressing to the point were substantative withdrawal is possible. The overriding question is what forms of government the Iraqis can sustain without massive outside support. No Arab country has every had a functional democracy.
The drama of the Georgian crisis can be put to bed with the Russians keeping their word, they signed a French brokered agreement that states, return to the positions of 6 Aug 08. As of today France and the US say it hasn’t been honoured. This has caused a great deal of instability over a wide region. I think Poland’s signing the missile deal only happened because of this crisis prior to that it looked like less than a 50/50 chance it was going to happen.
The Russians are stumbling over their own cultural backwardness, if they wish to engage with Europe they need to rethink their methods.
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