[clearstream] a pandora's box for the ump

It's flowing strongly, the Clearstream biz, churning up mud along the way:

Les avocats de Dominique de Villepin ont jugé mercredi soir «scandaleux» les propos du président de la République au sujet des prévenus du procès Clearstream, propos qui selon eux violent les règles relatives à la présomption d'innocence.

To put the issue in perspective, the Grauniard called it:

A case of paranoia, slander and vengeance involving:

a) Dominique de Villepin, an ex-prime minister who dazzled the world on 14 February 2003 with a historic speech at the UN against the war in Iraq, a Gaullist with a taste for history and poetry and a penchant for Bonaparte;

b) Nicolas Sarkozy, former Chirac minister, today president of France, whose permanent agitation has transfixed his compatriots, and amused, irritated and awed the world in equal measure since his election on 5 May 2007;

c) the French intelligence services.

Naturally, the socialists are lapping it up, hardly abel to believe their good fortune, after their own infighting:

Le Monde concludes: “The involvement of the head of state unmistakably emerges from the testimony. Contrary to official statements it is very probable that Jacques Chirac issued ‘instructions’ in this affair... Irrespective of what the prime minister has said so far, the almost obsessive search for elements which could compromise the UMP president is unmistakably clear.”

The French love a good scandal but not of this sort, at this time and indications are that most French, for either reasons of boredom or reasons of fear for what it might do to UMP, vis-a-vis the next election, ushering in the truly loopy and perpetually infighting French Left, do not think it should have gone this far.

If UMP have plans to remain in power, they'd best get Sarkozy to close this thing off out of court. But that's not in the nature of Them, is it?

Let me wax religious for one moment. What the Clearstream affair revolves around is someone's knowledge that something was false and his willingness [however true or not is it of Villepin in this case] to remain silent on it and to allow things to come out which would damage the other.

That is no different to the exhortation, in Christianity that "blasphemy against the spirit can't be forgiven". Translated into Secular, it means exactly as stated - knowing something to be based on a false premise, namely the way the Pharisees and Saducees were going about things, they chose instead to bring down the accuser and rival with false testimony.

[thoughtful thursday] sign of the times

Those made up signs are not so funny but this seems genuine. The huts in the background seem Russian to me but the vehicles and language sure ain't.

[airbus] here we go again

There are references to Airbus problems:

Here

Here

Here

Here

Here

Here

Here

... and now here:

The EASA airworthiness directive concerns carriers that fly Airbus A330/A340 jetliners equipped with Goodrich pitot probes stamped with the part number 0851HL.

"Several reports have recently been received of loose pneumatic quick-disconnect unions" on the probes in question, the agency said, adding that the problem might lie at the "equipment manufacturing level."

The fault could result in an air leak that could in turn provide false airspeed indications, the statement said.

Ah yes - good luck with your Airbus flight if you have once scheduled.

[war games] meanwhile the empty rhetoric continues

Hezbollah

The parallels with Kennedy are eyebrow raising:

US President Barack Obama has said the world must tackle stark challenges, and the US cannot face them alone. In his first speech to the UN General Assembly, he said global problems included nuclear proliferation, war, climate change and economic crisis.

There's something of the murky way to power [JFK's daddy bought him Illinois, according to some, Obama concealed his Kenyan birth], something of the rhetoric which is based on nothing but catch phrases used by politicians since the Year Dot and now the critical question - is he starting to believe in the rhetoric the national "Tammany" Machine has written for him?

If he does see himself as the messiah, as Kennedy began to, doing this Great Work of Ages which was starting to be something quite different to that envisaged by the Machine, is he heading for a fall? He's playing with an impacable set of forces in the Washington lobby, in Israel and in the pathetic excuse for political life which Hamas and Saudi et al are pursuing with such quiet vigour.

Depends how aggressively he pursues the policy. Asia Times observes:

When President Barack Obama spiked plans for a missile shield in Europe, the international community was taken aback. Yet, Washington is leaving nothing to chance. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently spoke of a "defense umbrella" in the Persian Gulf if Iran refuses to agree to nuclear inspections. Most likely, this "umbrella" will be a quick-striking military force overseen from US bases in Afghanistan.

Contrast that with his speech to the UN:

All nations bore responsibility for addressing these problems, he said. Mr Obama said "no world order which elevates one nation above others" could succeed in tackling the world's problems. "Those who used to chastise America for acting alone in the world cannot now stand by and wait for America to solve the world's problems alone," he said.

Really pushing this one, isn't he? And that talk of world order. Fashionable to seize on any talk of new world order as OTT and yet they keep mouthing about it, all globalists like Obama. And the Washington Club with members like Maurice Strong and Gore keep mouthing about shamballa and climate change as a religious phenomenon.

If you still feel that Obama supports the U.S.A. as a separate entity, then, with respect, you haven't been reading the material brought to this site by various students of the international situation or anywhere else on the web where think-tanks like American Thinker write:

Meanwhile our own president is proclaiming the end of Pax Americana, the most successful peace-keeping policy in human history. He publicly denies the plain and obvious lessons of history. The fascist regime in Tehran would not even exist were it not for the abject failures of another president in exactly the same mold, the blighted Jimmy Carter.

Carter had this "let's all love each other and just peanut farm" mindset, he had the leftist notion that if we all pull together [no comments], we can achieve miracles, which is true but not if we all pull together in the direction they mean. Brown mouthed this off in his own U.S. speech. It takes no account of realities - bloodythirsty guttersnipes, Churchill called them.

The left then says well that's the type of confontationalist rhetoric which got us into the mess.

No it isn't - what got us into the mess is:

1. the Machine which has determined American foreign policy for the past century, with its stranglehold on the three arms of government in the U.S. and international in complexion and the ripple effect on British polic;

2. using the natural patriotism of the American people, distorted and fuelled by the bought media, to support something quite un-American in nature but masquerading under the American flag, to the point that anyone who questions it, as many of the General Staff in the U.S. and in the UK have, is a dirty traitor and not supporting "our boys" over there and for tacitly supporting terrorism.

Look, the bottom line is that these globalists, by the very definition of their stance [how many quotes do you need from your hmble correspondent], are playing the same game, only with a newer generation which can't remember the last time on account of not having been born.

The end result is war.

Where does the natural need, which many heartily agree with, to defend the cause of freedom and free enterprise in the world, cross over into furthering the agenda of the globalists? Look at the pic of Hezbollah above and see if we're not playing the same crazed militarization of the peoples of the world, organized into rank and final and directed to destroying one another.

If this post seems to give out mixed messages - first defend the nation, then don't go to war, that's because the truth is in the middle. Yes we need to be strong but no we don't need to march off on a global financiers' war game which will make a killing of us and a killing for them.

[ladies and gentlemen] adjust your urls 2

Remember that the new url is:

http://nourishingobscurity.com

... and the date it goes active is September 29th. If you change your link to this site [that's if you ever did link and plan to continue, I mean], then the new link will also bring you here until the changeover date and then will automatically switch to the new site.

For those interested, I'm on Wordpress.org and am [almost] self-hosting. The themes have been the main problem - I must have been through about 1500 of them and the two left at the end [which I can't decide between] are:

1. a three column not unlike this site's [but I've made the sidebar's much wider so that the whole is now a three column magazine, featuring certain posts];

2. a true magazine/news layout which has layout problems with the blockquotes and images, the latter having been solved.

Both are quite configurable [a major factor for me] and now it's down to the cosmetics and widgets. I'll get both themes ready and decide which one later. I've even been thinking of running one of them for two days and then the other and seeing what you think of each.

[thought for the day] wednesday evening

First, a journo:

The body managing the government's stakes in bailed-out banks has fired headhunters charged with finding its new boss after they recruited a disgraced top banker from RBS.

Eh? Anyone care to explain that one to me? How does it rate against a politician getting down to specifics?

But sometimes the reality is that defining moments of history come suddenly and without warning. And the task of leadership then is to define them, shape them and move forward into the new world they demand.

Or political foot shooting?

“I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny, and I say segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.”

Any idea who wrote or said these?

[wordless wednesday] life

[politicians] the unpopularity quiz

I'm sure you can name all of them but who are the most unpopular, 1 for most unpopular of the four and 4 the least unpopular?

[late evening listening] dearieme presents the two seasons

Entirely out of season, of course - echoes of spring:



and just for good measure, summertime:



Is Dearieme trying to tell us something?

[this saturday] three hours of ritual masochism

This is not really the post to return with but there are a number of things weighing on my mind. Some might think it is getting hassled by phone [I don't answer it] or the Blogger thing or the way someone close backstabbed me recently - nope, it's none of those. Nor is it the economic situation or the way my particular situation could go pearshaped pretty soon.

No, it's mainly someone I realize I still haven't got over, getting married and while officially I'm happy, inside it seems that part of my life is now over and that's not a pleasant thing. That's the main downer but there is one other too and that's nervousness.

Whoever said football's just a game obviously never supported Geelong Football Club, the team of whom it was said:

Some people are destined never to find happiness in life. For such people, G-d provided the Geelong Football Club.

If ever there was a bunch of frustrating, impossible yet brilliant players who, on their day, can't be beaten, then this is them.

It's a mark of the Australian football scene that the grand final rated the greatest was that of Collingwood in 1937, not to mention Richmond in 1967 and Hawthorn in 1989. All of these involved Geelong as the other team - they seem to have a way of lifting a game into a spectacle, even if they don't win.

Last year they were odds on favourite ... and lost.

Now they're back again this coming Saturday and this time their opponents are the perennial whipping boys, St Kilda, only this season they've taken all before them, including Geelong. So, not only is this a lip-licking festa of two very attacking teams with great defences, the two who have dominated all season but there are no losers.

If St Kilda win [and almost the whole football world will be behind them], then it will be like the England World Cup victory. Hell, I don't even mind if they win. Well, actually I do. If Geelong win, having thrown it away last year, then a few of us will be very happy. This Saturday though, for three frustrating hours, the heart-attacking playing style of my team will be trying to keep out the current champs.

Why do I have to support teams like this or Wimbledon in England? Masochism?

Go, Pussies!