Red blogule to neolibs

(...) A radical counterforce to neocons is gaining momentum across the world, leveraging on Bush's extreme stance and on the popularity of "alternative" themes (no to total deregulation / free market, no to war, no to polluters, no to neocons...) to recruit beyond the traditional extreme left side of the spectrum. Among them, (not always former) Troskyists have a knack for infiltrating the administrations and the youth.
The French press is noticing an infiltration of education by radical "altermondialists" (in today's Le Figaro "Enquête : comment ATTAC infiltre l'école" ). ATTAC are known for supporting the so called "Tobin tax", riots during G8 summits, or the NO vote to the European constitution. There is a fierce debate within the movement : we are acting like a political party, shall we turn into one and nominate a candidate for the 2007 presidential elections ? This could mean the implosion of the socialist party.
An interesting phenomenon is the way these radicals deal with the "weaker" ones, very similar to the high pressure / terror put by hawks on potential doves : if you don't agree with us you are with them, and thus you are a fascist.
What I feared is happening : the extremes feeding each other, the moderates crushed in between, and radicalism getting overall mainstream.
As I see it, Howard Dean seems to extend towards the center right instead of locking the far left (see Newsweek Intl's article on abortion : "A Case of Roh vs. Reality" ). I don't know how long it will take for the two-party system to implode, but it seems to be well protected by the shortness of mandates (4 years).
SM on disinfopedia

Red blogule to Hiroshima-Baghdad parallels

How will the Bush Administration spin on the 60th anniversary of Hiroshima & Nagazaki bombings ? Over 150,000 civilians got killed in Hiroshima within days. "Only" 25,000 died within two years in Iraq, and mostly by the hands of opponents to the US army invasion.
Yet. A sick parallel could be done - the "overall, lives were saved" kind of parallels, the "democracy has a price" kind of parallels.
Just like with Hiroshima, the people of Baghdad well-foundedly feels victimized : the people is paying for the leaders. Unlike the Japanese people, the German people did admit his guilt for the country's extremist past and yet, the people of Dresden feels just the same.
The fact is the bombers never truly said they were sorry. They never asked for forgiveness.
It's high time for the Allies to do it, to admit their share of the crimes committed during WWII.
Should the United States do it for Hiroshima's 60th anniversary, they necessarily would have to do it for their Iraq aggression. Can the Stubborn Again Christian leading this country truly make an act of contrition ? I doubt it.
Too bad : the US proved they could liberate people, but they also proved they didn't care for the long term consequences of the liberation of unhuman forces : dropping atomic bombs on civilians then, gassing fighters with agent orange in the 70s, torturing detainees today.
"What do I do when lightning strikes me ?" Bush answered wrongly. Among other things, he forgot those were the lyrics of a song called "Sorry seems to be the hardest word".

Red blogule to semantic transfusions

A recent recent NYT article quoted by the Center for Media and Democracy explains how "Terror War Gets New Slogan" : "A new emphasis on reminding the public of the broader, long-term threat to the United States may allow the administration to put into broader perspective the daily mayhem in Iraq and the American casualties" as "global struggle against violent extremism" replaces "global war on terror".
Could this also mean the "last throes of neocons against World peace" (did Dick dig that one ?) or an end to the "global destruction of the American ideal by warmonger fanatics" ? No way Jose : they're talking about "violent extremism", which is so much unlike White House extremism. When a "violent extremist" performs torture, he is attacking civilization. When a White House extremist makes torture legal, he is protecting the nation.
It took them four years to realize the solution was "more diplomatic, more economic, more political than it is military" ? It won't take long for the World to remember diplomacy and economy are in the hands of Lobby Dick Cheney while politics remain in the pristine claws of Karl Rove.

Red blogule to Lance Armstrong

"It's up to you guys". I've delivered my stuff (and certainly taken some other) and now I'm done. Even Indurain looks human compared to me. I've turned into a soulless machine to break the record and the next one will have to go even further.
Well Lance, I do respect you for your courage and will, but I don't think you did much for the image of cycling. And I miss Greg LeMond's boyish smile.

Red blogules to hypocrisy - what Bush doctrine ?

North Korea back to the 6 party talks ? Thank the very official US-NK meeting, a total renouncement to the Bush dogma : we don't talk to dictators (er... make that "this kind of dictators").
Iran and Irak restoring diplomatic links ? Thank the US-backed Iraqi government for initiating a meeting the US wouldn't want to be known as the actual initiator.
$500M for Iraq from the World Bank ? Thank the same US-backed Iraqi government for asking a favor which had been denied to the country since 1973. Thank also Paul Wolfowitz for making a priority of what we expected from him (outsourcing the US deficit created by the Iraqi quagmire) instead of what he said he would do (fighting against poverty in Africa).
The World is better when the US don't follow the Bush doctrine.
And the World would definitely be even a better place if the US didn't follow it in the first place.

Red blogule to deniers

Dubya doesn't mind Karl taking a leak.
Tony doesn't see any link whatsoever between Iraq and 7/7.
Ariel doesn't understand how his Gaza trick could terminate the peace process.
The fact is Rove deliberately crossed the line.
The fact is Blair deliberately betrayed his fellow citizens.
The fact is Sharon deliberately sticks to his usual hardline : he turned the Gaza strip into an unmanageable ghetto, getting rid of it will unknot the demographic dilemma for Israeli radicals, and the inevitable failure of "independant Gaza" will end all talks about Cisjordania (not to mention Jerusalem).
The fact is no one can stop them as they keep insulting History.
Shame on terrorists, but furthermore shame on those who were supposed to eradicate terror.

White blogule to Yee-haoo! Mail

This time, Howard Dean's spam got all my attention : "I agree with George Bush" is not precisely the kind of title you would expect from this Democratic National Committee Chairman. The e-mail was worth the click, thanks to this interesting quote : "Even though I'm a tranquil guy now at this stage of my life, I have nothing but contempt and anger for those who betray the trust by exposing the name of our sources. They are, in my view, the most insidious of traitors." (speech given by George W. Bush on April 26, 1999).
I'm not proud of revealing the source of this quote but I love the idea : Karl Rove as the traitor and NYT's Judith Miller as the hero.

Red blogule to dognuments

Let's take a rather conservative figure : only 1% of all Parisian tourists experience the traditional visit of the city's dognuments. Considering the given fact that every bad experience is told to an average 20 people, this means about 10 million foreigners have either slipped on a dog's pooh or heard someone tell them about the ride.
Some say it's a lucky charm - hey, the most famous complaint turned an Italian hit into an Italian hit ("oh sole mio") - but I say we should get rid of them (the dog turds, not the Latin singers). Or at least curb the pace. Dog forbid, that would be a small step for man, but a giant leap for Parisians. Let's do it quick. Please step on it.

Red blogule to Bush's terrorist training camps

Even if, this time again, the bombs didn't strike the US, the landscape looks terrible : propaganda, torture, gulags, illegal abductions on foreign soil and now journalists in prison... George W. Bush's Amerika looks everyday more like Kim Il-Sung's North Korea.
As terror strikes London like Baghdad any given day, as Bosnia / Chechnya veteran fighters start messing with what's left of Afghanistan, one can only imagine how long the World will pay for the US historical suicide in Iraq. Thanks to Uncle Sam, today Iraq is a much easier training camp for foreign terrorists than 1980s Afghanistan, 1990s Bosnia or 2000s Chechnya.
Bush keeps talking about good vs evil and the use of force to retaliate - Blair keeps talking about attacks against civilization... but such speeches are music to the ears of fundamentalists. What these leaders need to protect is not their own "way of life" but the basic rights of moderate majorities under the spell of extremist minorities.
After this awful wake up call in the deadest middle of the G8 meeting, will the World eventually admit how wrong that war was ? Back then, Iraq had nothing to do with terror, and Saddam was more under stronger control than ever (even he wouldn't have performed that much destruction that quickly) - a smarter approach was possible and almost under way. The US is not only wasting people and key ressources in Iraq ; it keeps fueling the extremists with more energy. Off course Iraq shouldn't be abandoned now, but the World would be safer without this unnecessary front.
Removing the Talibans was a true war on terror, but the right way to fight terror was and still remains at its very roots : solving the Palestine issue (following the footprints and roadmaps of moderate 1995 leaders), supporting the moderates versus the fanatics and moreover eradicating the very world poverty G8 members were supposed to meet for...

White blogule to "Paris 2020"

The year of the Trafalgar bicentennial, the year when Saint Tony reached the European throne, the year France said merde to Europe, how could Paris win over London for the 2012 Olympics ?
Paris has to wait at least after New York 2016 : (ex-) Europe can't possibly get two Olympic Games in a row and the Lords of the Rings cannot offer more than three consecutive gifts to non-US televorus popcornicum vulgaris. Dubya's successor is a sure winner in 2009, but he'll also need a second mandate to fully enjoy the show... and if Hillary is not that one, she can always claim part of the success (exhibit A : a token for attending Singapore 2005 board meeting).
If Paris were eventually awarded the 2032 Games, Chirac could be celebrated for the centennial of his birth as a turn of the millenium Coubertin breathing to his last gasp the spirit of Olympism : "the important thing in the Baghdad 2028 Olympic Games is not to win, but to participate", citius, altius, fortius, fabius...