The presidential library lends out colouring book

The damage of laughter

If my computer desk stool were not a strait jacket contraption that keeps me from overreacting to things I read in the news, I would have brought myself into greater harm than any triage team would have been able to deal with, all from fits of uncontrollable laughter and involuntary spasms.

George W. Bush is proposing a presidential library at the Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas to be built after his term and many would wonder what it would contain.

Generally, a presidential library would contain the bequest of presidential papers, documents, archives, records and other unclassified information pertaining to a president’s term of office from the time of Herbert Hoover.

Much to read or plenty to colour?

In the case of George W. Bush, being a two-term president along with all the world defining events encapsulated in chapters that would be emblazoned from the twin towers collapsing upon themselves in a hail of dust through the chants of USA, onto the Mission Accomplished “Hot Gun” stunt into Mess-O-Potamia and the kindling of World War III in the Middle East, there must be a lot for any researcher to leaf through long after we have all turned to dust.

Some dons in the university have been raising hackles, they do not want the academic purity of their esteemed institution to be tarnished with such a presidential legacy, and it is unlikely that any other university would be leaping into the fray for consideration.

Wherever that library gets built and stocked, be it in the cowboy corral of the Crawford ranch or some other Wild West memorial where you are welcomed with a Texan twang delivered by a Dubbiyew look-a-like in a 10-Gallon hat, it is unlikely that there would be much to read or research.

Many would leave knowing that all the pages were large blocks of blanking, blacking or blotting out all text that the only thing we would make out would be 2 or 3-letter prepositions or words strung together as “on - by - and - to - who” leaving the every researcher the liberty to fill in the blanks with imagination beyond what this administration has ever dared to think up.

Shush! It is a secret

The reason being, in 2001, the president signed an executive order restricting access to presidential records in library archives, the cult of secrecy that pervades this administration would make a freemasonry look like an open beach on a summer holiday and this ghoulish tendency is expected to live beyond this regime.

The amazing thing about the way humanity and history works is that whatever has been done ever and has been witnessed to by more than one person, even if they are all sworn to secrecy on a blood oath, light eventually gets shone on that pact and through the ingenuity of the seeker of knowledge the truth does get revealed.

History will not be rewritten

Concealing the evidence in those archives with an executive order might keep us from seeing some facts about the workings of the Bush administration, but it would not change the lasting legacy of this regime, neither can it change the course of how history would be written and how this regime would be judged and probably quite harshly eventually.

Knowing that the Bush administration already has form, we can deduce that if a visit to the library does not require taking along your wax crayons rather than notepad, we would know that one of the things this regime did was cart $12 Billion cash weighing 360 tonnes into a war zone – how is that for a trailer introducing the George W. Bush Presidential Library?

References

The trailer

The US sent pallets of cash into Iraq

How dare you ... ?

News

I have once been accused of being a news junkie, wherever that person got the idea from escapes me. However, I must say, I do like to know what is going on, locally and remotely, whether it directly affects me or not.

Something about just being informed is exhilarating and enlightening, especially the kind of information we are getting from the press nowadays.

As long as it is more of reporting than the analysis, psychoanalysis, autopsy and post-mortem, one at least has the opportunity to form one’s opinions without bias.

For me, news is about what happened where and when - how and why, should only be included to provide a balanced background rather than a bias in favour of the commentator’s subjective views. I once dealt with a similar line of thought in News, Opinions and Propaganda.

My hotel TV had only one English-speaking channel, 6 channels pertaining to Tarot card gypsies - at times we should be sorting our lives out than trying the sport of mountaineering in a swimsuit; that is my analogy - a smattering of Spanish game shows and lots of German fare, since this is more a Germanic haven, and Tenerife is the Anglophile haven.

I finally got fed up with listening to CNBC, the language was arcane, jargon, inscrutable and probably too pompous to be of any use to serious long-term investors.

Programs like Closing Bell, Squawk Box & Power Lunch are typical of the pretentious restaurant patrons who pretend to be wine aficionados when they should simply seek the advice of the waiter or sommelier in a more exclusive setting.

If the wine is rotten, you really cannot own up to choosing a bad wine, just as following the advice of the share and market hacks could have brought you more grief than comfort and success.

As they say, "A fool and his money are soon parted" having wisely followed the advice of charlatans. Do not get me wrong, there is some good advice out there, but nothing beats understanding what you are doing through your own research.

Eventually, I fetched the remote control, retuned the TV, no BBC World, but up came CNN, good enough, they seem to have toned down on the propaganda, having had their fingers burnt a few times now with the bungle of America’s sham election of 2000 and the reporting of official policy on Iraq.

Basically, each news agency must go out and do their research, analysis and gathering, then subject all that to scrutiny, balancing the news test with the truth test - maintaining standards of probity is no chicken run.

The dare mentality

There is a growing tendency of the government in America to forget that they are part of an accountable elective democracy - crooked as that might seem - and not a theocracy of biblical omnipotence.

The advent of September 11, 2001 and the terrorist attack on American suddenly made the front pages of every global policy. Even though we all recall terrorism well predates 2001 and it has its causes.

No one becomes a terrorist because it is a career move, it stems from the deprived, dejected, despondent, disillusioned, disappointed, oppressed, abused, outraged, angry and uncompromising - that list is hardly exhaustive, but accounts for the fact that terrorism does not occur in a vacuum.

Much dissent regarding the Patriot Act, the war in Iraq and coalition’s aims and Guantanamo prison camp has been characterised as unpatriotic almost reading as treasonable.

The questions being raised about going to war, the weapons of mass destruction, the neo-conservatives’ vision of a democratic Middle East, the role of Halliburton in the reconstruction process, the issues of stress or torture revealed in Iraq and extrapolated to Guantanamo and the tenuous link between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda are being rebutted fiercely.

Fiercely, in the sense that we are told to shut up, how dare we question.

• the people we put into government no matter how wrong their policies about going to war or sending troops to war against the wishes of the people.
• the fact that no link can be found between Saddam Hussein and September the 11th, and whilst Dick Cheney recently denied he said there is a confirmed link, the wonders of recorded interviews showed that he said so in 2001.
• the values and actions of the soldiers in Abu Ghraib when Saddam Hussein was worse - I suppose this introduces a principle of degrees of moral grounds or steps, rather than a single solid and firm moral ground.
• With respect, if Saddam Hussein’s evil (call that a unit of measurement a Saddevil) equates to 100 Saddevils), then at 99 Saddevils we are still better on the moral scale than Saddam. A warped logic but has been spewed out by a few commentators.
• ask to be privy to documents that are usually kept secret for 30 or more years then are selectively declassified to discredit opponents or affirm what is in fact self-righteous incompetence.

Commands from on high

Amazingly, all the subjects of these news stories are now being buffeted at each stage, even the kudos Dubbiyew might has gotten from the Reagan pomp and pageantry would seemingly ebb away with another smart son of a president - Ron Reagan Jnr clearly articulate, focused and coherent saying the Republican Party is meaner and nastier than when his father was president.

More so, in tribute to his father, he made a statement about his father not wearing his religion on his sleeve like many do nowadays, this was read as a broad swipe at the sitting president. Scary considering Dubbiyew chatted to a higher Father than his father the first president Bush about the war in Iraq.

Well, I have nothing against prayer, but the same principle is chatting to a higher being for direction is what drives Osama bin Laden- the mind boggles.

America is a democracy, not a religious government, the way the religious right has captured the political conscience of the nation to the detriment of liberty and freedom of choice is amazing.

Everything protected by the constitution is undermined by an inordinate desire by the conservatives to crowd the waves, the opinions, the lobbies and the papers whilst arguing that the liberals are having more of a field day.

How is it that marriage has become a constitutional issue rather than a basic fulfilling institution of partnership?

The truth is that a Christian president does not necessarily make a good president; neither does a secular one make for a decent one.

Clinton, who by those standards would be considered immoral and reprobate was intelligent, charismatic and put America in a position of esteem, which has now been squandered by the divisive and unilateral machinations of the sitting president.

Leadership is a matter of principle, courage and determination, your beliefs are supposed to reinforce the qualities of these virtues, the beliefs are not the governing principles in themselves.

On a lighter note

Allesio Vinci said, "Pizza with pineapple, that's a cake ... Pizza with cucumber it's an insult." I agree, how dare they represent those things as pizza? You have been warned.

This Genie ain't gonna be rubbed no more

Rubbing the lamp

When the news broke from the chambers of Judge Hutton that the government had been completely exonerated from the scandal of lying to the public about the 45-minute claim many could be forgiven for thinking that ended the whole issue.

Nay! My friends, Nay! What Tony Blair was cleared of narrowly pertained to the circumstances surrounding the death of Dr David Kelly and nothing about the greater issue of why we went to war.

For one, Mr Blair might as well have been on a treasure hunt two weekends ago and had found the legendary Aladdin's lamp.

The two escapes relating to the tuition fees and Judge Hutton's report were the two stipulated wishes of the genie.

After too many rubs, releases and recaptures, the genie had renegotiated the escape clause of offering just two wishes instead of the usual three.

Methinks the lamp is ready for another rub to produce a lot of smoke but no wish.

Smoking out the facts

Dubbiyew having seen the amazing Houdini of Great Britain rolling lots of BBC heads instead of his and those of his cohorts asked for a rub of the lamp too.

He wants to know the facts about the intelligent or lack of it that was so strenuously argued before congress, before Americans and before the UN in the quest for a coalition of the cajoled who would not be cowed.

Dubbiyew, you cannot handle the truth – one risks quoting Jack Nicholson during a fiery cross-examination by Tom Cruise in A Few Good Men.

If any good men come of out learning the truth from the real facts of why we went to war, they are most probably deserving of a posthumous decoration.

The Awful Truth

The purveyor of a certain programme called The Awful Truth contends that the truth is too awful to contemplate.

The ex-chief of the Iraq Survey Group – David Kay – has unruffled too uncomfortably the feathers of the vested interests that rammed us into the Iraqi quagmire; like quicksand; we are stuck and the more we struggle the more the concrete solidifies well above the torso.

In a last gasp of credulity, symbolising that exclusively close relationship between Great Britain and the United States, Tony Blair and George W. Bush had decided to announce an inquiry into the whole intelligence debacle.

Wishing for a star

Only this time, the wishes have run out; to think they would weather the storm with the same aplomb as the British Houdini came out of last week is as wishful as the caveman who clobbered Beagle 2 as it landed gingerly on Mars. Evidence of life on Mars.

There is no doubt that the intelligence that supported the war persuasion efforts was unreliable, dated, exaggerated and uncorroborated.

Very much, like Andrew Gilligan's claims that lead to the death of Dr Kelly and the Hutton report.

However, if you are not in a position of great authority, you cannot get away with little lies, whilst those in authority can without scruples.

Like the Hutton report, expect surprises but be wary of the accepted truth.

The Dubbiyew Report Card - 2003

The numbers do not add up

The world waited anxiously for the State of the Union address, which was supposed to be the precursor to the Presidential re-election campaign in 2004.

After 56 minutes of one-sided applause that occurred 69 times containing more rhetoric than substance, the Americans were left asking, "What is in this for me?"

The numbers speak for themselves on the front-page spread of the Independent newspaper of the UK – The Real State of the Union.

Take a walk of the right edge

Enforcing the sanctity of marriage, encouraging abstinence, child discipline, faith-based institutions in the fore-front of social security and the renewal of the Patriot Act – this is the March of the Right over the whole of American.

Many of the issues whilst sensible did also expose the divisions of society in American. This leader leads to divide, the privileged from the under-privileged in every strata of society.

A closer scrutiny of all the presumably far-reaching announcements was sops to the privileged few in American.

The savings schemes for health and pensions to help the financial and insurance institutions, the energy issues to aggrandise the oil and energy lobbies, the faith-based institutions firmly placed in the polity to gain from the largesse of waste and tax cuts that benefit the very rich.

Choose your friends vigorously

The highlights of the speech include:

• There are more votes in the Hispanic population than the gays of America
• The war of terror enforces the Big Brother focus of the Patriot Act
• Iraq and the coalition of the cajoled masquerading as global consent - See Blog
• Healthcare issues should raise the stock profiles of the drug companies
• Spare the rod and spoil the child

Finally

Americans and friends,

The lobbyist groups are strong

The special interest groups are emancipating

The crusades are marching on

The union, I cannot fix but give to you but more of the same, division, friction, unilateralism and pandering to the contributors to my campaign funds.

God bless America.

Dubbiyew the Delusionary

Headed for the Cosmos

Who writes those lines?

After the infamous "Axis of evil" words of the President Bush's 2002 State of the Union address, one could be forgiven for expecting those delirious prosaic nauseating conjurers to be dropped off at Mount Rushmore with air rails for support.

Though some have gone off to greener pastures where the wolves are bigger; the decision for KLM to accept the use of air marshals on their American-bound flights could only lead one to speculate that there is a booming trade in the best brand of smoke.

Bush unveils Moon and Mars plans

Bush unveils vision for moon and beyond - Jan. 14, 2004

The speech about bouncing man off the moon unto Mars and the world beyond smacked of pogo-stick astronomy egged on by hopscotch astrology.

The speechwriters were definitely on something rare and undiscovered, because it put Arthur C. Clarke's 2001 – A Space Odyssey in the shade, this diatribe being the sequel – for argument sake, the prologue to George Dubbiyew Bush's 2004 – A Space Fantasy.

Kubrick 2001

2001 A Space Odyssey

The pot of gold at the end of the rainbow

The conspiracy junkies have already begun picking out the fault lines in this uncharted Martian terrain. In an election year, with a haemorrhaging budget deficit, a dollar falling like lightning from the heavens and the Nemesis of Iraqi body bags ever hardening the pliable and docile Soccer Mum, Mars in a different orbit can do no harm.

No view of earth was evident when the Hollywood machinery of American genius kicked in with first a speech from space and then a space for weightless jokes attracting vacuous applause.

By the time the landing craft found a solid platform of quicksand, we had found life in the Andromeda galaxy on Planet Zorg, cosmic radiation and hypoxia in a Space Museum could set the imagination alight.

A new International Space Station; American fulfilling its obligations to its 15 partners for this purpose; a commune on the moon and then a weekend break to Mars travelling on a scooter. Bah!

One remembers lines from the current chart topper in the UK – The dreams in which I'm dying are the best I ever had – it is a mad world no doubt. Gary Jules' cover of a Tears for Fears classic.

No ploy so devious

At the risk of sounding cynical, this is Desperately Seeking Re-election, in a shameful Houston to Apollo X dialogue …

Houston: History calling on sentiment, Rover!

Apollo X: Spirit of emotion seeking credibility, we hear you!

This attracts opprobrium so contemptible; shame is now a glowing compliment.

Whilst it is visionary, the cost is unquantifiable, possibly running into billions, mortgaging future Americans to a craze that has no neither purpose nor aim. Life might as well be on the moon but not in ways, our science can detect the life forms.

A simple lesson in invisibility can be either clothed in black in pitch-black darkness or being accelerated beyond the speed of light. We have the science for the first, but not yet for the second. Much as there can be other life forms and civilisations on this earth that, we have not begun to understand.

There is no cash for this dash,

once Americans note how rash

though this idea is flash

would send Dubbiyew's stash

out of the White House with a crash

A last word from Dubbiyew

"This one small step for re-election politics and a great leap for White House politicians."