Amaresh Mishra -a case of intellectual rottenness

(Update - audio of an interview with Amaresh Mishra by ABN.)

Till recently I did not know very much about Amaresh Mishra but that he had written a book that appeared to be of dubious merit and dodgy scholarship. I briefly touched on it in an earlier post- Amaresh Mishra opens my third eye and piques my sixth sense. I have not read the book(or his other books) -only about the book -so I reserved my more substantial judgment on Mr. Mishra's intellectual outpourings.

Now it seems that that dodginess runs deep indeed -deep into the dark recesses of conspiracy theories. He suffers from the same strain of kookiness that Union Minority Affairs Minister A R Antulay does. Here is Mr. Mishra's searchlight of an intellect throwing light on the Mumbai terrorist attacks-

Mumbai is under attack. People and forces who killed Mahatama Gandhi, who demolished the Babari Mosque have triumphed. More than 16 groups of terrorists have taken over Taj, Oberai and several hotels. Hundreds of people are dead. For the first time no one is blaming Muslim organizations. The Mumbai ATS chief Hemant Karkare and other officers of the ATS have been killed. These were the same people who were investigating the Malegaon Blasts - in which Praggya Singh, an army officer and several other noted personalities of the BJP-RSS-Bajrang Dal-VHP were arrested. Karkare was the man to arrest them. Karkare was receiving threats from several quarters. LK Advani, the BJP chief and several other prominent leaders of the so-called Hindu terrorism squad were gunning for his head. And the first casualty in the terrorist attack was Karkare! He is dead - gone - the firing by terrorists began from Nariman House - which is the only building in Mumbai inhabited by Jews. Some Hindu Gujaratis of the Nariman area spoke live on several TV channels - they openly said that the firing by terrorists began from Nariman house. And that for two years suspicious activities were going on in this house. But no one took notice.

Our worst fears have come true. It is clear that Mossad is involved in the whole affair. An entire city has been attacked by Mossad and probably units of mercenaries.
----------------------------------------------
RSS type forces and Israel are all involved in not only destabilizing but finishing India. India should immediately snap all relations with Israel. We owe this much to Karkare and the brave ATS men who had shown the courage to arrest Praggya Singh, Raj Kumar Purohit, the army officer and several others.

-----------------------------------------------

This is a moment of reckoning especially for Hindus of India. The killers of Gandhi have struck again. If we are true Sanatanis and true Hindus and true nationalists and true patriots we have to see this act as a clear attack by anti-national deshdrohi forces. Praggya Singh, Advani and the entire brand is anti-national. They ought to be shot. Any Hindu siding with them is hereafter warned of serious consequences.

This is a question of nationalism. If no one else, the Indian army will not take this lying down. Communal, anti-national forces have attacked the very foundation of the Indian constitution and the nation. We will fight a civil war if need be against the pro-Hindutva, communal forces and their Israeli backers.

He belongs to that overflowing breed of intellectual/media/pundit/academic class that sees Mossad and CIA (or America and Israel) as the fountainhead of most evil in the world.Kookiness is not an aberration in this circle but a feature.This class will loathe Bush for 'torture' and then go smooch a murderous leftist and/or anti-American dictator(Castro, Chavez, Saddam, Ahmedinajad).

It appears that Amaresh Misra is a gentleman too-

The Citizens for Justice and Peace had hosted a meeting at the St. Xaviers College Hall to condemn the horrific terror attacks and to outline an action plan for youth and citizens. All of us were gathered there, scattered in the quadrangle and the hall. Swami Agnivesh and Mufti Fuzail Ul Rahman Hilal Usmani, our special guests, were also present having been escorted by my husband and colleague, Javed Anand. Suddenly Mr Amaresh Mishra arrived on the scene and first started using abusive language against M Rajdeep Sardesai, editor in chief of CNN-IBN at which point his mother Smt Nandini Sardesai also intervened. He then started haranguing Swami Agnivesh our guest, "warning" him on how he should speak related to the recent terror attacks in Mumbai! He soon turned to abusing both Mr Javed Anand and journalist Sajjid Rashid in offensive and unprintable language. In fact our daughter hurried to me at this point thinking that her father, Javed Anand was about to be assaulted. One of the over dozen witnesses, Shahbaz Khan intervened at this point and escorted Mr Amaresh Mishra out of the college.

Sir, there were many witnesses present that day, December 4, 2008 when Mr. Mishra in fact did his best to disrupt our meeting and abuse Mr.Rajdeep Sardesai, Mr. Javed Anand and others. I believe he did this because he is threatened by the scope and reach of our activities and
especially the role of MSD in drawing the Muslim community into Civic, Secular Democratic issues breaking the manipulative stereotypes perpetrated by the Hindu right wing -- the RSS, the Bajrang Dal and the VHP among many other organizations -- against the entire community. Specifically, I believe that Mr Amaresh Mishra was out to discredit the courage and initiative shown by both Mr Javed Anand and myself in suggesting to Indian Muslims all over the country to demonstrate in one voice against the enemies of India and the forces of terror following the recent attacks on Mumbai on November 26, 2008.
---------------------------------

There are more falsehoods, Sir, in Mr Mishra's claims. He mentions three respected members of the Muslim clergy who he says also condemned M Javed Anand for "ostensibly attacking Mr Mishra (sic)". One of the three respected persons Maulana Mustaqeen Azmi specifically spoke to me, categorically refuting Mr Mishra's claim that he had issued any such statement of condemnation. Finally, Mr Mishra ends his diatribe stating that he spoke to some persons that include Mr Javed Akhtar, Ms Shabana Azmi and me, Ms Teesta Setalvad about the incident. This is an absolute lie. He did not speak to either of us and has not for some time.

The above was written by Teesta Setalvad as a response to an article in the Rashtriya Sahara Urdu, Mumbai edition, in which Mr.Mishra's scholarship on the Mumbai attacks scorches the newsprint. In fact Mr. Mishra is on a scorching spree-

A group of Muslim leaders on Wednesday decided to float a political party in Maharashtra, just in time to contest the Lok Sabha and
assembly elections.

Senior cleric Maulana Badruddin Ajmal will lead the front, which will be launched in 40 days. The name proposed for the new party is Maharashtra United Democratic Front.
-----------------------------------------------
The cleric-led front has appointed journalist-historian Amresh Mishra, a known Sangh Parivar-baiter, as its spokesperson. Explaining the reasons why a Muslim-based party was the hour's need, Misra said that the Congress "lost the confidence'' of the community years ago.

Here is Mr. Mishra's new boss fighting for freedom of speech, dissent and freedom-

Maulana Ajmal demands extradition of Taslima Nasrin

President of Assam United Democratic Front, Maulana Badruddin Ajmal demanded extradition of Taslima Nasrin in a letter written to the Prime Minster Mr. Manmohan Singh.

Blaming both left and right wing of Indian political scene of using Nasrin as political gimmick, he requested the prime minster to extradite her from India. ---------------------------------------------------------------
“It will undoubtedly be a wise decision on behalf of seventeen crore Muslims in India,” said Maulana in the letter. He added that “no mainstream Muslim or Muslim organization favours her stay in our country” blaming her for her insults on Prophet of Islam and Islamic doctrines.

(Note -it seems that either the reporter who wrote the above or Maulana Badruddin Ajmal or both are confused about the meaning of 'extradition'. I suppose they mean 'expulsion'.)

But hey who are we plebeians to quibble?
Aren't we told that Amaresh Mishra is a renowned historian? I am glad we were enlightened or we might have come to the conclusion that he is a conspiracy mongering lout.

(emphasis mine)

Professors that hate

The Blogger at the Venerable Beads has an excellent post on the postmodern rot that runs through modern academics.It's well worth reading in whole but this is a gem-

The excesses of postmodern gibberish in academic writing have been well and truly exposed and surely need no further attention, you may say.
To which I would reply: as Zed Books proudly show us, the exposure has certainly not been sufficient to kill the excesses exposed. Those responsible continue to reap the rewards of their squalid assault on reason, in salaries, influence and tenure, and the rest of us continue to reap the harvest of their brainwashing each new generation. Year on year a new crop emerges from the universities, parroting the same jargon and attitudes, untouched by self-awareness, irony or any real sense of just how many people hate them.

As is this-

Take the ICA for instance. That's the Institute of Contemporary Arts, if you're lucky enough not to know, still another of those cultivatedly bland names that seems to promise nothing creepier than a forum for the mindless show-offs of the current art scene to show videos of themselves pissing to easily-impressed trendies so dim that they genuinely couldn't come up with such things themselves

Read the whole thing.

(Via Melanie Phillips)

Climate "Scientists"- The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight

Climate "science" seems to have tipped over into the limbo of postmodern relativism. More the facts defy it's predictions, more hysterically alarming the warnings of coming of doom become. Reminds me of the 70's movie-"The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight"

Now Andrew Bolt has The 10 worst warming predictions.

They include "GIANT HAILSTONES WILL SMASH THROUGH YOUR ROOF ", "ISLANDS WILL DROWN" and "GOODBYE, NORTH POLE".

Bolt's post has such gems as-

(The British Met Office) has so far predicted 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005 and 2007 would be the world’s hottest or second-hottest year on record, but nine of the past 10 years it predicted temperatures too high.
In fact, the Met this month conceded 2008 would be the coldest year this century.

That makes 1998 still the hottest year on record since the Medieval Warm Period some 1000 years ago. Indeed, temperatures have slowly fallen since around 2002.

As Roger Pielke Sr, Professor Emeritus of Colorado State University’s Department of Atmospheric Science, declared this month: “Global warming has stopped for the last few years.”

Lesson: Something is wrong with warming models that predict warming in a cooling world, especially when we’re each year pumping out even more greenhouse gases. Be sceptical.

Read the whole thing.

(emphasis mine)

From the LNC Quote Shop

Climate resistance-

We’ve often wondered what the difference between the Government and the environmental protest movement is. Who are the establishment, and who are the revolutionaries? They often seem to be saying exactly the same thing. Neither can claim that their actions represent the will of the general public – most people still want to fly, use cars, and so on. But both are committed to preventing people from expressing this desire. Both use the prospect of catastrophe to justify their self-importance, even though there is virtually no scientific argument that catastrophe is a possibility.

Ice is melting, the world is ending -and Gore is making a lot of money

Hardly a day goes by when some report or 'expert' or the other doesn't try to scare the wits out of us plebeians.

The Arctic is melting!
The Maldives are sinking!
New York and Bombay will go into sea in a few years(or is it next month?)!

Remember Gore's 20 foot wall of water"inundating the world’s coastal cities in his Oscar-winning film, An Inconvenient Truth?"

Remember the (il)liberal Hollywood doing it's bit on inflicting psychological damage on impressionable youngsters by putting out dumb and "breathtakingly paranoid" films like The day after tomorrow ?



Fortunately the disease of Global warming alarmism has a simple and free antidote -just facts.

Here are some-

Global Sea Ice Trend Since 1979 - surprising

Obviously people cannot make the claim that sea ice is being lost. It isn’t. The data shows that our trend is basically flat during this time of unprecedented temperatures. It’s clear that there has been no significant change in sea ice area.

This is almost enough to make me turn in my Skeptic union card, but increased CO2 warming the earth makes some sense to me, the magnitude is in question. The fact that polar sea ice not melting is not an insignificant point. It is also important to realize that the changes are too small to fit with IPCC statements about the trend. Unlike trees, ice does make a good thermometer. I can’t say this strongly enough— This is a strong indication of substantial errors in the computer models and temperature data which needs to be addressed before we throw what’s left of our global economy to the wind. How would Earth’s total sea ice ignore such substantial warming? It’s a good question which deserves an answer.

More facts now(this time from Learning is Fun school of thought).Tom Moriarty has an "easy quiz"-

Here are five false color images of the sea ice in the arctic. The images represent the ice on five year intervals on July 18th of 1988, 1993, 1998, 2003, and 2008. Your task is to use your knowledge of changing conditions in the Arctic to put them in the proper chronological order.

He also spells out what the hacks running your morning newspaper or TV "news" channels don't-

The sea ice area in the Arctic has been monitored by satellite for almost 30 years, since 1979. The area of the ice rises and falls, as you would expect, as the year cycles through its seasons. It reaches its yearly minimum by late September or early October. On the average, this minimum has been declining for the last 30 years. After October the northern sea ice area increases until it reaches a maximum in late March or early April each year. The yearly cycle is huge. Typically, about 60% of the total sea ice area melts away as is goes from yearly maximum to the yearly minimum.

The 2007 melt season was very severe and the Arctic sea ice area anomaly reached its lowest level since satellite tracking began. But that low level was immediately followed by an unprecedented rise in sea ice area in the Arctic in the months following the 2007 summer melt season. The 2008 melt season was quite severe, but not as severe as the 2007 melt season. In order to go from the minimum ice extent of 2007 to zero ice in 2012, the Arctic sea ice extent minimum needs to drop an average of about 600,000 square kilometers per year. But the Arctic ended up with slightly more ice area (about 100,000 square kilometers more) after the 2008 melt season than after the 2007 melt season.

Don't you get the feeling that we are being had?
An old adage tells us to follow the money. While I don't believe that money is the chief cause of Global warming alarmism (they are philosophical and psychological), lets abide by the adage and see where it leads-

Al Gore's Inconvenient Loot

Former Vice President Al Gore has built a Green money-making machine capable of eventually generating billions of dollars for investors, including himself, but he set it up so that the average Joe can't afford to play on Gore's terms. And the US portion is headed up by a former Gore staffer and fund raiser who previously ran afoul of both the FEC and the DOJ, before Janet Reno jumped in and shut down an investigation during the Clinton years............can an individual who stands to make millions from Global Warming really be trusted as an honest broker on that topic?


The Media Ignore Al Gore's Planned Global Warming Profiteering

How is Gore trying to be a climate change profiteer? Essentially, he wants to make a fortune by creating a new market for a product that he is attempting to create by legislative fiat. If he succeeds and carbon emissions trading comes to the United States, Al Gore will be uniquely positioned to cash in. He's made sure of that.
Gore himself is chairman and founder of a private equity firm called Generation Investment Management (GIM). He says the London-based firm invests money from institutions and wealthy investors in companies that are becoming environmentally-friendly, to use green parlance. GIM appears to have considerable influence over major carbon credit trading firms: the U.S.-based Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) and the U.K.-based Carbon Neutral Company (CNC). CCX appears to be the only firm in the U.S. that claims to trade carbon credits.

As a politician, Gore speaks warmly of transparency. But as GIM chairman, Gore has not been forthcoming. Little is known about his shadowy firm’s finances, where it gets funding and what projects it supports.
As reported in the August 2007 issue of Foundation Watch ("Al Gore’s Carbon Crusade: The Money and Connections Behind It," by Deborah Corey Barnes), with help from friends at Goldman Sachs, including Hank Paulson, the investment bank’s former CEO who is now the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, Gore has created a web of organizations to promote the so-called climate crisis.

Meanwhile, Gore's Alliance for Climate Protection is pushing for tougher environmental regulations on the private sector. It wants “cap-and-trade” legislation enacted so that companies will be forced to lower their greenhouse gas emissions and buy carbon credits. Untold billions of dollars could be generated in a brand new U.S. carbon market.

When Gore's potential for immense profits is factored in, the $300 million outlay for ads (some of which is likely to come from donations to the Alliance's "We Campaign") seems like a drop in the bucket.

If Gore can keep up the pressure for carbon emissions restrictions, he could end up a very wealthy man.

I suspect, in his own way, Pachauri is doing very well off the warming panic too.
(emphasis mine)

Victory in Iraq -Arundhati Roy loses

Freedom wins. Arundhati Roy, you and the medieval horde of Islamofascist terrorists that you have supported have lost.

From the LNC Quote Shop

David Vance-

"social justice" - it's a handy euphemism for taking from the industrious and giving to the spongers

Obama -the first un-American president.

I couldn't have put it better in a hundred years than Dan Riehl does-

First, for the Moonbats who might scream because I believe Barack Obama is "un-American," well, sorry, but he is.

When I use the term, I am referring to people, institutions and politicians who believe in something different from what the Founding Fathers envisioned for this country. And Obama is surely that. I don't care about his "centrist" rhetoric. I imagine he'll try and play nice. But the man is a Leftist and Leftism is un-American by definition. So chew on that.

But he isn't going to try and "move America Left." He and like-minded individuals are going to try and re-define the Center of American politics, thereby making the Left seem more centrist. Watch what he does below the headlines with regulatory agencies and such. That'll be the better clue as to his real agenda.

He's a collectivist through and through. And collectivism and the basic premise of American exceptional-ism are two very different things.

Obama and the Democrats are going to try and use the current financial crisis to re-make this country more in the model of modern Europe than traditional America. And in that they must not be allowed to succeed.

Read the whole thing.

(emphasis mine)

For a really spectacular mess you need government

Russell Roberts-

Seanooski comments:

It's still amazing to me that we just had an election where both candidates promised more intervention in the economy, because the market just wasn't grown up enough to handle being "free". By "free market", they must mean politically driven lending practices, price fixing in labor markets, price supports in agriculture, tarrifs in steel trade, illegals relegated to permanent underclass, artificially low interst rates, government enforced monopolies, and fake money.

This needs to be said over and over again just like we need to remind people that the Great Depression wasn't caused by laissez-faire.

That doesn't mean that free markets are perfect. Or that you can't have bankruptcies or meltdowns or bubbles or busts. But to get a really spectacular meltdown like we're in the middle of now, for that you need government.

There's more.Read the whole thing.

(emphasis mine)

Wake me up when the Maldives really sink- and not before

We have been hearing for quite a number of years now that the Maldives islands are sinking due to rising sea levels caused by the AGW(Anthropogenic Global Warming). In fact it is a wonder that they have not gone into the sea yet- what are they waiting for?

This is a typical piece of reporting on the issue-

With half of its islands eroding at an alarming rate due to rising sea-level caused by global warming, Maldives has sought India's help to save it from being swamped by the ocean.

blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah
blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah

The threat of disappearance looms large over Maldives with the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) projecting sea level to rise between 9 and 88 centimetres (3.5 and 35 inches) by the year 2100.

The IPCC report said if the higher end of that scale is reached, the sea could overflow the heavily populated coastlines of countries like Bangladesh while island state of the Maldives might disappear.

blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah
blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah

On the other hand there is this-

But is the Maldives really about to be flooded because of climate change? Not according to a project conducted by Nils-Axel Morner, former head of the department of paleogeophysics and geodynamics at Stockholm University:

THE Maldives have a unique position in sea-level research. In the past decade they have attracted special attention because, in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change scenario, the Maldives would be condemned to become flooded in the next 50 to 100 years.

Our research data does not lend support to any such flooding scenario, however. On the contrary, we find no signs of any ongoing sea-level rise. Our results comes from visits to numerous islands ... and includes coring, levelling, sampling and carbon dating.

Present sea level was reached about 4500BC. In the past 4000 years, sea level oscillated around the present. In the past decade, there are no signs of any rise in sea level. Hence, we are able to free the islands from the condemnation to become flooded in the 21st century.

So what is going on?

Don't disturb me with another hysterical report about the Maldives sinking.Wake me up only when something actual happens on the ground -or in the sea.

HERE DEAD WE LIE

Something for the Armistice Day-

HERE DEAD WE LIE

Here dead we lie
Because we did not choose
To live and shame the land
From which we sprung.

Life, to be sure,
Is nothing much to lose,
But young men think it is,
And we were young.

A E Housman

From the LNC Quote Shop -Change means change to left

mad housewife-

Is all change good? No. Only good change is good. Change per se is neither good nor bad: but it is essential, and being positive about change is healthier and ultimately less dangerous than trying to prevent it from happening. But I think Obama’s “change” is code for “moving towards the left”, really, which isn’t really new or exciting. Left-ness is not a new or exciting idea. If he comes up with something more impressive than that, it’ll be great, but I haven’t heard mention of it yet. If anyone has any ideas, I’d be glad to hear them.

Also, if Obama is using “change” to mean “go left”, he has fooled a lot of people who thought he had a whole different kind of politics in mind than just left.

(Via Samizdata)

(emphasis mine)

Clone supermutt Barney Bush to take on Obama poodles

Even as the defeated Republicans try to figure out a way to neutralise the democrat smooching liberal attack media, supermutt Barney Bush shows the way out for the Republicans,

Bush's Barney bites a reporter




It looked like President George W Bush's dog Barney was not much in the mood for friendly attention during a recent walk outside the White House.

When reporter Jon Decker reached down to pet the Scottish terrier, the seemingly docile dog snapped at him and bit his right index finger.

Urgent mission for the elephant party -create thousands of clones of Barney and unleash them on the mainstream media. Barney's matchless liberal reporter hunting abilities will ensure that the media is free of the Obama poodles that fill it's ranks by 2012.

Obama victory confirms racism

As the world exults over the election of a black president(I am skeptical of their claimed motives -would the world be as happy if Condoleezza Rice had become the president?), this is precious: an Obama worshiper's children show some fundamental sense and grasp of principles missing from the heads of their parents-

“You’re being racist,” Emilie had said when I made a comment about how particularly earth-moving this election was for black voters. “Why should it matter if people are black or white?”

Answer that, you racist pundits!

Vote for the Palin-Emilie ticket!

Read the whole thing, it's worth it.

Heavy weather-Pachauri and Obama on the same cloud

Be afraid, be very afraid when Rajendra Pachauri and the most powerful man on the planet are on the same wavelength-

Rajendra K. Pachauri, the Indian chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, urged Mr. Obama to demonstrate a change in U.S. energy policy. “The US now has a unique opportunity to assume leadership in meeting the threat of climate change, and it would help greatly if the new President were to announce a coherent and forward looking policy soon after he takes office. There is every reason to believe that President Obama will actually do so. This should please people across the globe, because US leadership is critical for mounting global efforts to meet this threat effectively.”

Enviro-fascists have a mole in the White House -and he's the President!

H alleluia!

Should we treat O-bama as he and his kind have treated Bush?

Now that the elections are over the real fight begins -among the conservatives/libertarians on how to deal with Obama.

With the Right's natural reflexive benevolence-

We have to get past this idea that we have to personally demonize the other guy in order to fight his policies. We’ve said some spirited things about Obama in the heat of battle, and we’ve meant them. But he’s not evil. Let the Democrats be the party who demonizes the other side as evil.

Let us describe Barack Obama as a good but flawed man who is likely to do some very bad things to this country. But let us nevertheless wish him well, if not politically, then at least personally.

or to trash him as mercilessly(and with much more justice) as Bush has been trashed by the Left? -

This “good man” was involved in ACORN blackmail schemes. With an attempt to fraudulently undermine the Second Amendment by gaming court rulings. He got rich off of schemes that led to the mortgage crisis — then stood by and let others fix it in order to keep his hands clean during the final stages of an election. He has thrown in with race hustlers,”reformers” who believe that domestic terrorism was a valid form of expression, odious foreign potentates –

There is nothing at all noble about praising a man and a party who reviles you simply because in doing so you appear noble. Jews have tried that. And it’s often ended with skeletons and ash, or the twisted wreckage of a bus in Tel Aviv.

In this case, it will end with more McCains — and so more Obamas and Reids and Pelosis and Olbermans.

If that’s nobility, I’m not interested. Yes, Obama is my President. But that doesn’t mean I’m forced to forget all he’s done to get there — and all that’s been done on his behalf, either by the savage supporters who went after Joe the Plumber and Sarah Palin, or by the “objective media” that sold its soul for a shot at establishing the government it desired.

A good man?

A good politician, sure. A dedicated husband and father, yes. But a good man?

Hang on, the battle has only just been joined.

My take -Impeach the bastard!

(emphasis mine)

Obama keeps his promise -or not!

Remember all that bloviating by O-bama against lobbyists? Well, the CHANGE is truly under way-

Lobbyists get posts on Team Obama

With the campaign over, lobbyists are out of the dog house and helping with the White House transition team.

President-elect Barack Obama has named 18 people to his team – and half of them are, or once were, registered lobbyists.

------------------------------

Obama's challenge is that many of Washington's experienced Democratic policy hands have made their living, for at least part of the Bush years, in lobbying. But he ran on a message of reform, refusing to take contributions from lobbyists and saying that they wouldn't work in his White House.

Did any one believe him? Of course, his media poodles did.


(emphasis mine)

Messiah to survey his canine collection

O-bama will take a survey of his lapdogs-

Obama to hold first press conference since election

Cartoon by the excellent Michael Ramirez.

Related-

Gateway Pundits laments-

Sarah Palin has no anti-Semitic pastors or friends, no domestic terrorists in her background, no racist preachers screaming G-D America at the pulpit...
But, to the media she represents a "controversial" figure.

In the last 6 years the mainstream media would never dream of giving Far Left radical Barack Obama a headline like the sendoff they just gave America's most popular governor.
Media. Is. Dead.

I would change that last bit a little. The honest Media. Is. Dead.

From the LNC Quotes Corner

Jay Nordlinger-

Reagan spent his entire life standing up to the bully. From boyhood on, he interposed himself between the bully and the innocent. He stood up to the bullies in his schools. He stood up to the Communists in Hollywood, and to the coercive unions. He stood up to the student radicals and their abettors. He stood up to the Soviets.

He simply stood up.

In the world today are a lot of bullies to stand up to: al-Qaeda, the mullahs, the North Koreans, the Chinese Communists, the Castro brothers, Chávez. John McCain will almost certainly do it. Barack Obama will almost certainly not.

That’s one reason — probably the biggest reason — I’m voting for McCain on Tuesday.

(via Powerline)

(emphasis mine)

Is Obama an idiot?

If this has been reported correctly then one is forced to this conclusion: Obama is an idiot-

In a recent interview with Time magazine, Obama cited an article written by Michael Pollan, a professor and longtime critic of U.S. farm policies. As Obama described it, Pollan’s article was about “the fact that our entire agricultural system is built on cheap oil.”

Obama told Time: “As a consequence, our agriculture sector actually is contributing more greenhouse gases than our transportation sector … and are partly responsible for the explosion in our health care costs because they’re contributing to Type 2 diabetes, stroke and heart disease, obesity, all the things that are driving our huge explosion in health care costs.”

In loose moments, Obama’s lack of understanding of and condescension toward rural and small-town America always slips out. And really, is his point that if farmers grew less food, Americans would be thinner? The mind reels.

(emphasis mine)

From the LNC Quotes Corner-the Dirty Harry edition

Dirty Harry-

..the first time I saw CNN’s Campbell Brown I thought she was hot. Then she opened her mouth. Now she creeps me out

The extended quote is-

..the first time I saw CNN’s Campbell Brown I thought she was hot. Then she opened her mouth. Now she creeps me out.

A lot.

Her eyes are black … and dead.

They see everything…

…and want my soul.

In fact, Dirty harry is a supermarket of quotable material-

I’m voting for Obama. Not because I agree with him, but his 30 minute infomercial just gave me diabetes and I’m gonna need the healthcare

and( on Obama's unsavory pals)-

Obama’s not the shark. He’s the sucker fish attached to the shark unconcerned with how ugly and bloody the shark gets as long as it gets him to where he’s going

Check him out.

Ask a stupid question

get an intelligent answer!

Blowhard Jack Cafferty of CNN asks-

President Clinton is campaigning for Barack Obama. Why isn’t President Bush campaigning for John McCain?

Eric Trager answers-

John McCain has been constantly accompanied on the campaign trail by old friends from the Senate, including Joseph Lieberman and Lindsey Graham. Why aren’t Barack Obama’s old friends from Chicago, such as Bill Ayers and Jeremiah Wright, similarly accompanying him?

Obama- not his brother's keeper

Haven't seen the much awaited 30 minute Obama-mercial, don't even know if it was shown on TV in India and have no desire to waste time downloading it from You tube.But while reading about it , this stood out for it's stark irony-

Oh, dear. They just showed the clip of him proclaiming, “I am my brother’s keeper.”

I guess O-bama didn't mean his own brother-

Barack Obama's brother lives on less than $1 a month

US presidential contender Barack Obama's long-lost half-brother says he is ashamed of his family ties because he lives in poverty in a violent African shantytown.

The Italian edition of Vanity Fair says it tracked down George Hussein Onyango Obama living in a rundown shack in Huruma on the outskirts of Kenya's capital, Nairobi.

By contrast, his older half-brother, Senator Obama, lives in a mansion he bought for $1.9 million in Chicago.

George Obama, 26, is the youngest of the presidential candidate's seven half-brothers and half-sisters, and while the other siblings are close, he told the magazine he was embarrassed he lived "on less than a dollar a month", and so never mentioned his famous half-brother.

I guess he didn't even mean his aunt-

Barack Obama's Kenyan aunt has been found living in a rundown public housing estate in Boston, an English newspaper claims.

Zeituni Onyango, the woman affectionately called "Aunt Zeituni" in Senator Obama's memoir Dreams From My Father, lives less than 10 kilometres from where the presidential candidate completed his law degree at Harvard.

London's The Times also reports to have identified Senator Obama's mystery Kenyan uncle, Omar, who went missing after moving to Boston in the 1960s and was bashed by armed robbers in one of his convenience stores in 1994.

Their stories stand in stark contrast to the American Dream-type narrative of Senator Obama's life reproduced in the US media.

Or his uncle-

A second relative believed to be the long-lost “Uncle Omar” described in the book was beaten by armed robbers with a “sawed-off rifle” while working in a corner shop in the Dorchester area of the city. He was later evicted from his one-bedroom flat for failing to pay $2,324.20 (£1,488) arrears, according to the Boston Housing Court.

I guess he is too busy devising ingenious ways to redistribute Joe the Plumber's wealth to redistribute any of his own.

But hey, let's give the guy a break: he did help his cousin-

Barack has stated his support for Luo Opposition Leader in Kenya RaRaila Odinga (who signed a Shariah pact with Muslims and claims to be Obama's cousin).....Barack Obama's cousin Raila Odinga is accused of ethnic cleansing

As A Political Dookie says, "Once again charity does not begin at home for the Obama Christ"

Imagine if this were Sarah Palin's family -we would never hear the end of indignant talking heads excoriating her for her meanness.

Update -
From Instapundit-

Bob Krumm emails: "The most damning part of the Obama aunt story is that once his campaign found her living in squalor they told her to not talk to the press until after the election, but they didn’t try to help her."

UPDATE: Some thoughts from TigerHawk: " I have finally figured out why somebody who has been as successful as Barack Obama believes that the government must help people who cannot or do not help themselves: He simply does not understand that helping the poor, unlucky, or incompetent is first the responsibility of family."

Consequences matter more than intentions

This is so good that I am forced to lift it almost entirely-

Obama And That Road That's Paved With Good Intentions

From Campaign Spot reader Mark:

Yesterday Rush played on his radio show Obama saying, “The government should ensure that every person has a shot at success.”

His philosophy is the very reason we are in the financial crisis. Simply replace the words “…at success” in his statement above with “…at owning a home.”

Presto, the financial crisis due to Obama’s philosophy.

While I don't think it's quite that simple, one of the many frustrations with McCain is the absence of a theme that when it comes to policy-making, good intentions aren't enough. Most social welfare programs were set up with the intent to help the poor, not to foster a state of chronic, multi-generational dependency. Banning DDT was meant to prevent people's exposure to pollutants, not foster a comeback of malaria.
------------------------------
To put it in terms our friends on the left can understand, America invaded Iraq with good intentions.

In the end, consequences matter more than intentions, and the voters ought to have that in mind when they enter the voting booth...

(emphasis mine)

Al Gore -Rajendra Pachauri a ''let's drag our feet'' candidate

This is from 2002-

...ExxonMobil has been allowed to veto the United States government's selection of who will head the prestigious scientific panel that monitors global warming. Dr. Robert Watson, the highly respected leader of the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change, was blackballed in a memo to the White House from the nation's largest oil company. The memo had its effect last Friday, when Dr. Watson lost his bid for re-election after the administration threw its weight behind the ''let's drag our feet'' candidate, Dr. Rajendra Pachauri of New Delhi, who is known for his virulent anti-American statements.

Why is this happening?

Because the largest polluters know their only hope for escaping restrictions lies in promoting confusion about global warming.

Hmmm.....
so Gore thought that Pachauri's election meant a victory for those who were "dragging their feet" on Global Warming, the big-oil types.

Gore has , of course been proven wrong spectacularly. That "who is known for his virulent anti-American statements" should have made it obvious that Pachauri had great potential to be a world class enviro-fascist -like Gore himself.

Can we then trust Gore's judgment on other matters, like, um ,the theory of catastrophic anthropogenic global warming?

Oh by the way, did you see Al Gore's gas guzzling mansion(it only uses energy more than 20 times the national average )-



(via Tom Nelson via Planet Gore)

Good question-why is Al Gore not a vegetarian?

LEWIS E. BOLLARD-

...Mr. Gore’s credibility hangs on embodying his political beliefs in his own lifestyle. Dr Rajendra Pachauri, who as Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Mr. Gore, is a vegetarian. Citing studies showing that producing 2.2 pounds of meat causes the emissions equivalent of 80 pounds of carbon dioxide, Dr Pachauri has publicly stated that the two best things an individual can do to fight global warming are to drive less and adopt a vegetarian diet.

But even if Mr. Gore finds it uniquely hard to go vegetarian, why does it matter? “An Inconvenient Truth” stresses that individuals must make bold changes to combat global warming. And on Wednesday, Mr. Gore spoke movingly of the need to approach the environment with “questions of fact, not questions of power.” Today, the powers of custom and convenience support eating meat. The facts suggest that adopting a vegetarian diet is the single most powerful step an individual can take to combat climate change.

So-

why is Al Gore not a vegetarian?

Read the whole thing.

Secrets in the Obama bush

It is amazing all what the press of the free world will avoid to report to protect and to help elect it's beloved candidate.

The Pravada in Manhattan

A commentator on the incredibly biased coverage of the American elections by the MSM-

Whatever credibility the NYT could claim as a reputable news organization died with this election campaign. While The Gray Lady has never been known for hiding her affections, she had at least kept up appearances. Now, she no longer even bothers to conceal her bias and even the pretense of journalistic integrity has been cast aside. The same holds true for most of the other major news outlets–newspapers and networks that once prided themselves on their role as truth seekers and reporters of fact, protectors of a great public trust. Do they realize the extent of their betrayal–or more importantly, what this compromise of institutional principle will eventually mean? No, not yet. Remember Pravda, the Party news organ of the USSR? Some of those Pravda reporters must have longed for the day when they could actually write the truth, when they would no longer be apparatchiks purveying agitprop but real reporters doing real work, speaking truth to power. I doubt those miserable Soviets could imagine a journalist in a free country giving away such a beautiful responsibility willingly, happily, knowingly. I find it hard to believe, myself, but here it is.

The New York Times has since long become a house organ of the American left(which is as rabid and loony as our own Indian left). It is a worrying thing that many Indian publications(like the Hindustan Times) carry NYT reports as if they were objective, honest reporting. Because of this we Indians are being ill-served by the Indian media as all we get is a slanted version of the facts in foreign news.

But then the Indian MSM is as clueless and one-sided as the western one, as this blog has tried to demonstrate time and again.

Dhimmi BeeBee

BBC is dhimmified, says David Vance. But, hey, we have known that for years.

From the LNC Quote Shop

David Warren-

It’s when you no longer know where your milk comes from, let alone where you got your opinions, that you have become over-urbanized.

The whole article is well worth a read.

(hat tip- Mark Steyn)

Who lost the Global Warming?

Seen on Drudge today-

From the LNC Quote Shop

Greg Gutfeld-

Progressives - hilariously- still promote income redistribution. They see your paycheck as public property. They call this social justice - more code for "you're screwed."

Guru Dutt and Bhagat Singh

The lovely Mrs. LNC noticed this immediately(so much for my roving artist's eye): the similarity in the appearance of Guru Dutt and Bhagat Singh-


I think Guru Dutt would have made a fine Bhagat Singh on film.

Also at the same bookshop-small minds think alike(translation: two totalitarians find the same unimaginative title for their autobiographies)-

"The campuses are.............. now the least free part of our society"

This is interesting and disturbing-

The Coming Obama Thugocracy
Michael Barone

"I need you to go out and talk to your friends and talk to your neighbors," Barack Obama told a crowd in Elko, Nev. "I want you to talk to them whether they are independent or whether they are Republican. I want you to argue with them and get in their face." Actually, Obama supporters are doing a lot more than getting into people's faces. They seem determined to shut people up.

That's what Obama supporters, alerted by campaign emails, did when conservative Stanley Kurtz appeared on Milt Rosenberg's WGN radio program in Chicago. Kurtz had been researching Obama's relationship with unrepentant Weather Underground terrorist William Ayers in Chicago Annenberg Challenge papers in the Richard J. Daley Library in Chicago -- papers that were closed off to him for some days, apparently at the behest of Obama supporters.

Obama fans jammed WGN's phone lines and sent in hundreds of protest emails. The message was clear to anyone who would follow Rosenberg's example. We will make trouble for you if you let anyone make the case against The One.

Other Obama supporters have threatened critics with criminal prosecution. In September, St. Louis County Circuit Attorney Bob McCulloch and St. Louis City Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce warned citizens that they would bring criminal libel prosecutions against anyone who made statements against Obama that were "false." I had been under the impression that the Alien and Sedition Acts had gone out of existence in 1801-02. Not so, apparently, in metropolitan St. Louis. Similarly, the Obama campaign called for a criminal investigation of the American Issues Project when it ran ads highlighting Obama's ties to Ayers.

These attempts to shut down political speech have become routine for liberals. Congressional Democrats sought to reimpose the "fairness doctrine" on broadcasters, which until it was repealed in the 1980s required equal time for different points of view. The motive was plain: to shut down the one conservative-leaning communications medium, talk radio. Liberal talk-show hosts have mostly failed to draw audiences, and many liberals can't abide having citizens hear contrary views.

To their credit, some liberal old-timers -- like House Appropriations Chairman David Obey -- voted against the "fairness doctrine," in line with their longstanding support of free speech. But you can expect the "fairness doctrine" to get another vote if Barack Obama wins and Democrats increase their congressional majorities.

Corporate liberals have done their share in shutting down anti-liberal speech, too. "Saturday Night Live" ran a spoof of the financial crisis that skewered Democrats like House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank and liberal contributors Herbert and Marion Sandler, who sold toxic-waste-filled Golden West to Wachovia Bank for $24 billion. Kind of surprising, but not for long. The tape of the broadcast disappeared from NBC's Website and was replaced with another that omitted the references to Frank and the Sandlers. Evidently NBC and its parent, General Electric, don't want people to hear speech that attacks liberals.

Then there's the Democrats' "card check" legislation, which would abolish secret ballot elections in determining whether employees are represented by unions. The unions' strategy is obvious: Send a few thugs over to employees' homes -- we know where you live -- and get them to sign cards that will trigger a union victory without giving employers a chance to be heard.

----------------------------------
Today's liberals seem to be taking their marching orders from other quarters. Specifically, from the college and university campuses where administrators, armed with speech codes, have for years been disciplining and subjecting to sensitivity training any students who dare to utter thoughts that liberals find offensive. The campuses that used to pride themselves as zones of free expression are now the least free part of our society.

Obama supporters who found the campuses congenial and Obama himself, who has chosen to live all his adult life in university communities, seem to find it entirely natural to suppress speech that they don't like and seem utterly oblivious to claims that this violates the letter and spirit of the First Amendment. In this campaign, we have seen the coming of the Obama thugocracy, suppressing free speech, and we may see its flourishing in the four or eight years ahead.

Read the whole thing.

This bit so important that it cannot be emphasised enough, so I will repeat it -

The campuses that used to pride themselves as zones of free expression are now the least free part of our society.

How true.
(emphasis mine)

The Durga Puja ends finally

The Durga Puja ends finally with thousands gathering at the banks of Yamuna, Delhi to immerse the Durga idols.
More photos here.

Unfortunately not very far from where I was, a tragedy was taking place-

At least nine persons were feared drowned during immersion of a Goddess Durga idol into the Yamuna at Burari here on Thursday

For some reason the religious gatherings in India too often end up in an accident.

Bastards!

The cowards who call themselves Indian Mujahideen go about killing innocents again-

20 killed, 90 injured in 5 blasts across Delhi

source

They targeted one of my favorite spots in Delhi -Connaught Place and especially the Central Park which is a refuge to many a couple in love. I saw one such couple badly injured on TV.

Bastards!

James Hansen supports vandalism

 

Global warming guru defends vandals and eco-terrorists in courtroom. I am not surprised.

More here-

Britain’s astounding retreat from reason is now legitimizing anarchy.

and here-

NASA scientist Hansen is proof that green and intimidation are never far apart.

When film critics attack

So I suppose they do not like to be disturbed at work. They transform themselves into a THWACKER!

Is Obama calling Sarah Palin a pig?

Is Obama calling Sarah Palin a pig? Many people think so, including those at the Obama speech. Some don't. And some think that it is McCain who is being insulted as a pig!

McCain campaign protests.

Here is Dick Cheney with the same quote-

Display of fascism by the Obama team

Peel away the mask of 'concern for the poor' and you find that just about every leftist is at heart a thug.

And Obama is a leftist- ultra-leftist.

Is this display of fascism a preview of what could be in store under the Obama administration?

From the LNC Quote Shop, item no.1

Richard Littlejohn in an excellent article-

The Left seems to be gripped with some kind of political penis envy of America, which can be assuaged only by sucking up to tyrants and dictators.

IPCC gives out gas

How did they get there without emitting greenhouse gases?
"a small part of the delegation from the International
Panel on Climate Change accepting
their award in Oslo for the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize"

They didn't give a fig about the planet.
Or their own doomsday warnings about greenhouse gases.
Or their own chairman's advice(not that he follows his own counsel).
They had to fly, so many of them, all that distance, to receive the Nobel Prize.
How many tons of deadly CO2 went into the atmosphere to satisfy their vanity? Hundreds? Thousands?
But they didn't care.

They had to have their moment of fame even as the planet groaned in agony, wounded to the heart by the treachery of the most loyal.

When the cop betrays his trust to the public and becomes a gangster, he is morally more perverse than other criminals.

Similarly the scientists who have taken upon themselves to save the planet shall be judged more harshly when they transgress this trust.


Sometime in the near future when, as we are told, Bangladesh and Tuvalu are underwater, when Al Gore's 20 foot walls of water are terrorising Shanghai and Calcutta, when enormous hurricanes caring not to observe the laws of physics are shredding LA, when trees have become deranged psychos, and Gaia is standing on her last legs(mmmm, are they long legs?)- then the dying humanity with it's last breath will utter curse and damnation forever upon the souls of these corrupt guardians of the planet who sold out the earth for a few moments of self-glory.

In brief -If I were to summarize the above in one sentence then this would be it-
If the greenhouse gases are such a mortal danger to the planet and mankind, then why are the IPCC members and it's chairman flying around so much?

(image from Margo's Maid via Andrew Bolt)

Pachauri to us commoners-Shut up and starve for the planet while I have my caviar

This is ironical, to say the least-

If the UN has its way, you'll be spending more time in the office and less time on a plane.

At a meeting in the UK this past week, Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, a climate scientist with the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), strongly urged businesses to cut employee travel, and to fill the void with video conferencing.

Of course, Pachauri (Mr.30,000 feet)didn't mean to include himself-

Where I’ve failed is my impact with regard to air travel. I tell people I was born a Hindu who believes in reincarnation. It will take me the next six lives to neutralize my carbon footprint. There’s no way I can do it in one lifetime!

It would be funny but for the fact that he and his merry band of Global Warming Doomsdayers are trying to shut down the very life blood of the modern civilization -affordable, plentiful energy.

No wonder he was the unanimous choice for the 1st LNC Green Hypocrite prize.


Update -

I should have added this gem-

"As for me, I'm going absolutely crazy travelling (laughs). I can only accept 5 to 10 percent of the invitations I receive, but even that is enough to keep me flying continuously. This doesn't make me feel very good but the message has to be spread."(Pachauri in an interview)

I suppose the message cannot be spread by video conferencing he demands of everyone else. At least Gaia should be thankful that he's turning down 90-95% of the invitaions.

Did I mention hypocrite?

(emphasis mine)

Monckton vs. Littlemore Debate audio

The much anticipated radio debate between Christopher Walter(the Third Viscount Monckton of Brenchley), a global warming skeptic and Richard Littlemore, a global warming alarmist took place just a while ago on the Roy Green show on the Corus Network.

Despite the 24X7 saturation coverage of this issue by the media, mostly in scary, apocalyptic terms, there actually has been very little of a face to face debate between those who fervently believe in man-made climate change and those who are skeptical of it in one way or another.
Here is the debate in four parts(note-the fourth part is listener's phone-in's)

If for some reason you are not able to play the audio or any part out of the four then visit the podcast page here(part 1), here(part 2), here(part 3), here(part 4), or here(main podcast page).

An interesting discovery from the debate and the post-debate conversation(in part 4) was that the moderator, Roy Green himself and some of the listeners who phoned in were more open minded about the issue than the highly-paid millionaire hacks of the mainstream media whose job it is to be objective.

Well worth a listen.

Update- The AGW alarmists at the Littlemore's site, desmogblog, are not pleased with his performance and were going into panic during the debate. A sample-

...at the moment it seems Littlemore's being led around by Green and Monckton. Take back control! Take back control!

Score this one for the skeptics-

I'd have to say that Monckton "won" the debate. He came across as more prepared and had answers at his fingertips, whereas Richard appeared to verbally stumble on occasion. I agree completely with the point Richard made that it is difficult to properly discuss the science in such a format. That being said, my take would be that a number of newcomers to the subject would easily be inclined to side with Monckton and Mr. Green because of the eloquence of Monckton (not realizing that you can be eloquent but still wrong).

No wonder the alarmists so often refuse to debate the skeptics. Even the Imperial Lord Master of Global Warming,the Ever Wise Al Goracle, is wary of this pesky band of rebels.


Update 2 - Richard Littlemore admits defeat

Update 3 -The Heartland Institute has the transcript of the debate

Update 4 -UH-OH! This blog has been struck by the great BOLT of lightening!

Update 5 -This is actually an appeal. While several sites have donate buttons, somehow I never got around to it. However you may help this blog (and me!) by purchasing one of my artworks. This will not only help in keeping this blog going (one of the few anti-alarmist sites in this part of the world) but also encourage good art, help me fight the post-modern ugliness that struts itself as 'High Art' and help me chuck my lifetime STAR ASS card.(STAR ASS =STarving ARtists ASSociation). You may get my perspective on art at What the Heck is Art? You may browse my art works here and buy them directly through me or through India Art Collectors. OK, sales pitch over.

In India politicians commit murder in all but name

This is as good as murder-

Ambala : The nationwide protests by the VHP over the Amarnath land row have claimed the lives of innocent civilians who were denied crucial medical aid due to the disruption of normal life by the protestors. Shocking apathy displayed by VHP Protestors in cities like Ambala and Kanpur claimed the life of more than one.

A 60 year old heart patient in Ambala suffered a massive attack early this morning - but as his son's efforts to take him to a hospital were in vain- crucial time lost as he couldn't get his father urgent medical help due to the protests. Similar is the case in Kanpur- where a 22 year old boy who got accidentally electrocuted died after his family could not rush him to a hospital. Protestors refused to allow the family to pass the blockade- resulting in the death of the youth.

At around 9:00 am 60 year old Gaindaram complained of chest pain. Immediately, his son rushed him out of the house- hoping to get him to a hospital. However, it was not to be. At about 10 km from Ambala, on the Mullana-Ambala road the vehicle in which they were travelling was stopped by protestors. The heart patient’s son pleaded with the VHP protestors to let their auto go but his pleadings went unheard. Gaindaram's condition worsens, but the protestors refuse to let son cross the blockade. Finally, Gaindaram dies in his son's arm and he was declared dead upon arrival at Saket hospital in Ambala.

---------------------------------------------

The protestors of various organizations, including VHP and BJP, did not allow the ambulance to move ahead despite requests from those accompanying the victim in the vehicle; the sources said adding that lack of timely medical aid resulted in the old man's death.

---------------------------------------------

This of course not the first time politics over a crisis has claimed innocent lives. In August last year (2007) - a traffic jam stood between a 4 yr old boy Rahul and life saving medical treatment. It was two political parties Congress and the BJP in Shimla blocked roads in a spat of their own. The child's mother made desperate pleas to let her son’s ambulance pass. But they fell on deaf ears. She lost her son to political posturing.

Read the whole thing.

A question -what is the state going to do about it
answer -nothing
Another question -will anybody be arrested and punished?
answer -don't be stupid

The same venal set of people who care not a fig about the life of innocents run the Indian state also. A change of government in India simply means one gang of goons in place of another.

Here political fortunes are made on the blood of the common people. Remember this when the ugly mug of some political hack or minister appears on TV preening about his/her concern for the common man.

Turkish journalists attacked in Georgia

Turkish journalists getting shot at in Georgia, apparently by the Russians-





Update- more journalists hit in this invasion of Georgia-

Dutch television journalist was killed Russian warplanes bombed the central Georgian city of Gori

A Georgian television reporter named Tamara Urushadze. She was reporting from Gori when she was shot, apparently by a sniper

A reporter for Israel's Yedioth Ahronot newspaper, Zadok Yehezkeli was apparently hit by Russian army fire while covering humanitarian aid efforts.Video here.

Winston Featherly-Bean, an Alaskan serving as editor of a small English-language newspaper in war-torn Georgia, was among four journalists shot by combatants in a northern province on Friday.........two of the journalists were killed, the reports say.


A GEORGIAN journalist covering his country's conflict with Russia has been killed when a shell hit his car in Gori, an Agence France-Press photographer at the scene said

Are we allowed to laugh at Gandhi?

This Mahatma Gandhi joke seems to be at several sites but I have only just recently come across it.It is indeed funny in an intelligent way.

More similar jokes(some of them quite good) here.

What Indians need to hear about Russia

What Indians need to hear about Russia but won't-

EU foreign ministers meeting in emergency session today to discuss the situation in Georgia should begin by asking why it took the outbreak of war to focus their attention. They had no cause to be surprised. The warning signs had been apparent for at least a year, and the Georgian government had made strenuous efforts to raise the alarm. This time last summer a Russian jet violated Georgian airspace and dropped a missile north of Tbilisi in what appeared to be a botched attack on a Georgian radar installation. Russia denied involvement, but two separate independent investigations found otherwise. Despite this, Georgia's plea for diplomatic support fell almost entirely on deaf ears.

Whether or not the incident was planned in order to test international reactions to an escalation of Russian military action in Georgia, Moscow clearly took encouragement from the absence of a response. With western governments preoccupied elsewhere - not least with Iran, where they need Russian support for a negotiated solution on the nuclear issue - Russian strategists evidently concluded that they enjoyed a free hand in their "near abroad". In April, Vladimir Putin announced that Russia would be strengthening official links with Georgia's two breakaway regions, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, including opening formal relations with their political bodies and strengthening trade ties.

This only confirmed what had been apparent for several years - that Russia is actively supporting secessionist forces instead of respecting its mandate and behaving as an honest broker. But it ripped away the final pretence that its role in Georgia is one of peacekeeping. Other steps of escalation quickly followed. Russia moved 400 troops into Abkhazia under the pretext of working on a railway project. Russian planes started shooting down Georgian aerial drones. There was an increase in armed attacks by Russian-backed forces in South Ossetia, including a roadside bomb that injured six Georgian policemen and an attempt to assassinate the head of the pro-Tbilisi provisional administration of South Ossetia.

None of these incidents received much coverage outside the region, so the impression has been created that Georgia initiated the current fighting with an unprovoked assault on South Ossetia. This is quite false. It has surely been a big misjudgment on Georgia's part, but resort to offensive operations came at the end of a long period of rising tension in which Russia had done everything it could to stir up trouble and provoke a reaction.

--------------------------------------

But complexity is no excuse for abdicating moral judgment in situations of this importance. If responsibility for the conflict is not a black and white matter, the picture is not uniformly grey either. By any reasonable measure, the impact of Russian policy has been uniquely destructive in generating instability and political division in the Caucasus. The events of the early 1990s notwithstanding, Georgia's treatment of minorities that have remained under its rule has been generally good. Whatever his faults, Saakashvili is no Milosevic - and wild Russian allegations of genocide have no independent support. Under appropriate international supervision, it would be perfectly possible to turn his offer of autonomy for Abkhazia and South Ossetia into a workable constitutional settlement that guaranteed the security and fundamental rights of people living those territories.

The problem is that considerations of this nature form no part of Russia's vision for the region. It talks about defending the people of South Ossetia, but the Kremlin's aims are geopolitical rather than humanitarian. It seeks to restore the sphere of influence it regards as Russia's birthright, which it lost with the collapse of the Soviet Union (a "major geopolitical disaster", according to Putin). There is no place for an independent Georgia (or Ukraine or Moldova) in this mental picture. When Russian leaders talk about the benefits of "sovereign democracy", they are talking exclusively about their own sovereignty and not at all about democracy. The countries on their borders have no right to foreign policies of their own if they conflict with Russia's. This is especially true of energy supplies, where Georgia's role in maintaining the only east-west pipeline route free of Russia's monopolistic grip causes double offence. This is about the Kremlin's attitude to us, too.

----------------------------------------

There are troubling signs in some of the victory statements coming out of Moscow yesterday that Russia may feel emboldened to impose a punitive settlement, perhaps by annexing territory. This is not something that the EU and its allies should be prepared to tolerate. As so often with bullies, the Russian government's behaviour disguises deep insecurity and a craving for respect. This makes it more susceptible to our opinions than we often think. Further aggressive steps against Georgia would certainly be a reason to reconsider whether Russia should continue to enjoy the prestige that comes with membership of the G8.

From an excellent article by David Clark in the Guardian.Read the whole thing.


Now this is something you won't hear, see or read in the India media unless by some fluke. Ask yourself why some opinions(or rather some kinds of opinion) are shut out from the Indian press.


(emphasis mine)