The Obama-Karzai tag team has come up with a novel method for “winning” the war in Afghanistan…… wait for it…… Bribery! Well, not that exactly; we’re just offering them jobs!

One begs for clarification. Are the Taliban dangerous terrorists who pose an “existential threat” to the United States and will provide a “safe haven” for Al-Qaeda because they “hate our freedoms”™? Or are they just wayward souls, essentially good but led astray, whose allegiance can be purchased for a few jobs? (I should mention, in passing, that we could use a few jobs in America also.) Maybe its just the last-ditch effort of an exhausted fighting-force to exit their quagmire without completely losing face.

The article details how our Generals have struck deals with various “tribal elders” to persuade their supposed constituents to lay down their arms and respect the Afghan Constitution. The strategy stinks of the so-called “surge” in Iraq during 2006-2007, though the latter might have been better named “surge-and-pay”. Along with a massive influx of new troops, President Bush’s “surge” strategy entailed making huge cash payments to former militants, bribing them, essentially, into going along with the Maliki government.

One problem, though. It didn’t work. In 2009, the year after President Bush declared the surge a “success” and Obama used that line in his campaign, Iraq has seen 76 suicide bombings, including the horrific bombing of their foreign ministry last month, which left upwards of 800 casualties, and in which US-sponsored security forces are alleged to have participated.

So what seems to have happened is that Iraq quieted down just enough for the US to rest assured that its oil deals will be honored (our exit strategy formulated mere months after the first deal was signed). Political reconciliation, an end to suicide attacks, any semblance of peace – the surge brought none of these to Iraq.

Now Obama, who has repeatedly claimed that the Iraq surge “exceeded [his] expectations”, evidently wishes to try for the same success in Afghanistan.

God help them.

Alors qu’ il avait refusé la tête de liste en PACA, Hubert Falco a annoncé mercredi 25 septembre, qu’il serait tête de liste dans le Var.  Pour justifier sa décision, il a expliqué que Nicolas Sarkozy ne lui avait pas laissé le “choix”…

Il est vrai que Hubert Falco a tout à y gagner, il siègera au Conseil régional tout en conservant ses autres mandats, notamment à la Mairie de Toulon.

Décidément l’UMP est prêt à tout pour récupérer la région PACA. La campagne s’annonce houleuse…

Le rap n’est pas qu’une succession de clichés mais peut être aussi le berceau d’une production militante et de qualité, la preuve sur le site BboyKonsian.com (B-Boy : break-dancer en hip-hop et Konsian : pour rap conscient en opposition avec un rap commercial)

On peut y retrouver l’actu du rap et du reggae/dancehall underground, mais aussi des albums en téléchargement gratuit (mis en téléchargement par les groupes et artistes) dans une optique militante, anti-fasciste et révolutionnaire.

On peut y trouver des artistes comme La Rumeur, Sheryo, Casey, la K-Bine mais aussi des artistes moins connu comme HarKore et Hame, Lord Bitum ou Daddy Clean.

BboyKonsian

Aucune surprise dans les personnalités qui devraient conduire les listes dans les 6 départements qui composent la région PACA.

Dans le Vaucluse, Jean-Louis Joseph maire de la Bastidonne avec duo avec Cécile Helle et  Christophe Castaner maire de Forcalquier pour les Alpes-de-Hautes-Provence. Une femme dans le Var Mireille Peirano conseillère régionale et conseillère municipale d’Ollioulles.

Joël Giraud est pressenti pour les Hautes Alpes tandis que Patrick Allemand, lui aussi vice-président sortant, le sera dans les Alpes-Maritimes avec Christine Mirauchaux.

Dans les Bouches-du-Rhône, c’est Michel Vauzelle qui sera tête de liste.

L’UMP a besoin d’encore un peu de temps pour affiner ses listes néanmoins, déjà des certitudes : hier, le député Bernard Deflesselles a été investi tête de liste dans les Bouches-du-Rhône, tout comme l’eurodéputé Gaston Franco dans les Alpes-Maritimes, la conseillère régionale Éliane Bareille dans les Alpes-de-Haute-Provence et la Nouveau Centre Chantal Eyméoud dans les Hautes-Alpes. Thierry Mariani, chef de file régional, conduira la liste départementale dans le Vaucluse.

Dans le Var, la députée Josette Pons pilotera la liste. Nicolas Sarkozy n’aurait pas, une fois de plus, convaincu Hubert Falco de conduire l’UMP dans ce département, ce dernier ayant déjà refusé, en septembre, de porter l’étendard de chef de file régional. Nouvelle colère en perspective ? En Paca, une place pourrait être cédée dans les Alpes-de-Haute-Provence à un “chasseur” du CPNT. Sur le plan national, le Nouveau Centre devrait obtenir une quinzaine de têtes de liste et le MPF, un chef de file en Vendée. Samedi, en convention nationale, l’UMP validera ses “numéros un”, faute de pouvoir ratifier des tandems comme prévu initialement.

GLENN BECK: I got a letter from a woman in Arizona.  She writes an open letter to our nation’s leadership:

“I am a home grown American citizen, 53, registered Democrat all my life. Before the last presidential election I registered as a Republican because I no longer felt the Democratic Party represents my views or works to pursue issues important to me. Now I no longer feel the Republican Party represents my views or works to pursue issues important to me. The fact is I no longer feel any political party or representative in Washington represents my views or works to pursue the issues important to me.   Instead, we are burdened with Congressional Dukes and Duchesses who think they know better than the citizens they are supposed to represent.

There must be someone. Please tell me who you are. Please stand up and tell me that you are there and that you’re willing to fight for our Constitution as it was written. Please stand up now.

You might ask yourself what my views and issues are that I would feel so horribly disenfranchised by both major political parties. What kind of nut-job am I? Well, these briefly are the views and issues for which I seek representation:

One, illegal immigration. I want you to stop coddling illegal immigrants and secure our borders. Close the underground tunnels. Stop the violence and the trafficking in drugs and people. No amnesty, not again. Been there, done that, no resolution. P.S., I’m not a racist. This is not to be confused with legal immigration.

Two, the STIMULUS bill. I want it repealed and I want no further funding supplied to it. We told you No, but you did it anyway. I want the remaining unfunded 95% repealed. Freeze, repeal.

Three, Czars. I want the circumvention of our constitutional checks and balances stopped immediately. Fire the czars. No more czars. Government officials answer to the process, not to the president. Stop trampling on our Constitution, and honor it.

Four, cap and trade. The debate on global warming is not over. There are many conflicting opinions and it is too soon for this radical legislation. Quit throwing our nation into politically-correct quicksand.

Five, universal healthcare. I will not be rushed into another expensive decision that will burden me, my children, and grandchildren. Don’t you dare try to pass this in the middle of the night without even reading it. Slow down!  Fix only what is broken — we have the best health care system in the world — and test any new program in one or two states first.

Six, growing government control. I want states rights and sovereignty fully restored. I want less government in my life, not more. More is not better! Shrink it down. Mind your own business.  You have enough to take care of with your real [Constitutional] obligations. Why don’t you start there.

Seven, ACORN. I do not want ACORN and its affiliates in charge of our 2010 census. I want them investigated. I also do not want mandatory escrow fees contributed to them every time on every real estate deal that closes — how did they pull that one off? Stop the funding to ACORN and its affiliates pending impartial audits and investigations. I do not trust them with taking the census with our taxpayer money. I don’t trust them with any of our taxpayer money. Face up to the allegations against them and get it resolved before taxpayers get any more involved with them. If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, hello! Stop protecting your political buddies. You work for us, the people. Investigate.

Eight, redistribution of wealth. No, no, no. I work for my money. It is mine. I have always worked for people with more money than I have because they gave me jobs — and that is the only redistribution of wealth that I will support. I never got a job from a poor person! Why do you want me to hate my employers? And what do you have against shareholders making a profit?

Nine, charitable contributions. Although I never got a job from a poor person, I have helped many in need. Charity belongs in our local communities, where we know our needs best and can use our local talent and our local resources. Butt out, please. We want to do it ourselves.

Ten, corporate bailouts. Knock it off. Every company must sink or swim like the rest of us. If there are hard times ahead, we’ll be better off just getting into it and letting the strong survive. Quick and painful. (Have you ever ripped off a Band-Aid?) We will pull together. Great things happen in America under great hardship. Give us the chance to innovate. We cannot disappoint you more than you have disappointed us.

Eleven, transparency and accountability. How about it? No, really, how about it? Let’s have it. Let’s say we give the buzzwords a rest and have some straight honest talk. Please stop trying to manipulate and appease me with clever wording. I am not the idiot you obviously take me for. Stop sneaking around and meeting in back rooms making deals with your friends. It will only be a prelude to your criminal investigation. Stop hiding things from me.

Twelve, unprecedented quick spending. Stop it now.
Take a breath. Listen to the people. Slow down and get some input from nonpoliticians and experts on the subject. Stop making everything an emergency. Stop speed-reading our bills into law. I am not an activist. I am not a community organizer. Nor am I a terrorist, a militant or a violent person. I am a parent and a grandparent. I work. I’m busy.  I am busy, and I am tired. I thought we elected competent people to take care of the business of government so that we could work, raise our families, pay our bills, have a little recreation, complain about taxes, endure our hardships, pursue our personal goals, cut our lawn, wash our cars on the weekends and be responsible contributing members of society and teach our children to be the same all while living in the home of the free and land of the brave.

I entrusted you with upholding the Constitution. I believed in the checks and balances to keep from getting far off course. What happened? You are very far off course. Do you really think I find humor in the hiring of a speed reader to unintelligently ramble all through a bill that you signed into law without knowing what it contained? I do not.

It is a mockery of the responsibility I have entrusted to you. It is a slap in the face. I am not laughing at your arrogance. Why is it that I feel as if you would not trust me to make a single decision about my own life and how I would live it but you should expect that I should trust you with the debt that you have laid on all of us and our children. We did not want the TARP bill. We said no. We would repeal it if we could. I am sure that we still cannot. There is needless urgency and recklessness in all of your recent spending of our tax dollars.

From my perspective, it seems that all of you have gone insane. I also know that I am far from alone in these feelings. Do you honestly feel that your current pursuits have merit to patriotic Americans? We want it to stop. We want to put the brakes on everything that is being rushed by us and forced upon us. We want our voice back. You have forced us to put our lives on hold to straighten out the mess that you are making. We will have to give up our vacations, our time spent with our children, any relaxation time we may have had and money we cannot afford to spend on bringing our concerns to Washington. Our president often knows all the right buzzwords like unsustainable. Well, no kidding. How many tens of thousands of dollars did the focus group cost to come up with that word? We don’t want your overpriced words. Stop treating us like we’re morons.

We want all of you to stop focusing on your reelection and do the job we want done, not the job you want done or the job your party wants done. You work for us and at this rate I guarantee you not for long, because we are coming. We will be heard and we will be represented… You think we’re so busy with our lives that we will never come for you? We are the formerly silent majority, all of us who quietly work, pay taxes, obey the law, vote, save money, keep our noses to the grindstone… and we are now looking at you.

You have awakened us, the patriotic freedom spirit so strong and so powerful that it had been sleeping too long. You have pushed us too far. Our numbers are great. They may surprise you. For every one of us who will be there, there will be hundreds more that could not come. Unlike you, we have their trust. We will represent them honestly, rest assured. They will be at the polls on voting day to usher you out of office.

We have cancelled vacations. We will use our last few dollars saved. We will find the representation among us and a grassroots campaign will flourish. We didn’t ask for this fight. But the gloves are coming off. We do not come in violence, but we are angry. You will represent us or you will be replaced with someone who will. There are candidates among us who will rise like a Phoenix from the ashes that you have made of our constitution.

Democrat, Republican, independent, libertarian. Understand this. We don’t care. Political parties are meaningless to us Patriotic Americans are willing to do right by us and our Constitution, and that is all that matters to us now. We are going to fire all of you who abuse power and seek more. It is not your power. It is ours and we want it back. We entrusted you with it and you abused it. You are dishonorable. You are dishonest. As Americans we are ashamed of you. You have brought shame to us. If you are not representing the wants and needs of your constituency loudly and consistently, in spite of the objections of your party, you will be fired. Did you hear? We no longer care about your political parties. You need to be loyal to us, not to them… Because we will get you fired and they will not save you.

If you do or can represent me, my issues, my views, please stand up. Make your identity known. You need to make some noise about it. Speak up. I need to know who you are. If you do not speak up, you will be herded out with the rest of the sheep and we will replace the whole damn congress if need be, one by one. We are coming. Are we coming for you? Who do you represent? What do you represent? Listen. Because we are coming. We the people are coming.”

Langston Hughes

(source)

Militant, by Langston Hughes

Let all who will
Eat quietly the bread of shame.
I cannot,
Without complaining loud and long.
Tasting its bitterness in my throat,
And feeling to my very soul
It’s wrong.
For honest work
You proffer me poor pay,
for honest dreams
Your spit is in my face,
And so my fist is clenched
Today-
To strike your face.

More on revolt. More Langston Hughes.

Le parachutage à Toulon de Razzie Hamadi échoue et Michel Vauzelle s’affiche plus que jamais comme un seigneur qui contrôle son fief. Du coup, ça fait réfléchir aussi les communistes qui trainent des pieds pour appliquer la ligne du Front de gauche.
Les portables s’affolent dans le cabinet de Michel Vauzelle et dans les diverses fédérations du PS de PACA. C’est désormais officiel, l’ancienne icône du MJS national ambitionne un retour aux sources dans le Var. Mais voilà, tout le monde ne l’entend pas comme ça, et sa candidature apparaît rapidement comme un boulet pour Vauzelle et ses camarades. Jeudi soir, l’affaire semble entendue, Razzye Hammadi ne fait plus partie de la liste varoise. Un premier coup de semonce de la part des militants locaux est alors envoyé vers Solferino, le siège du PS. En substance, le message est clair et se résume ainsi : « Nous pouvons garder la région, ne nous plombez pas ! ».
Cliquez ici pour lire la suite de l’article de JC Bouildé / Marianne 23.11.2009

Nalbari|Assam (India)

In a series of two blasts triggered in the Lower Assam town of Nalbari, at around 9.45 am on Sunday, at least 7 people have been killed and more than 50 have been reported injured. Police sources have named the terrorist organization, United Liberation Front of Asom, (ULFA) to be behind the blasts.

The militants used Improvised Explosive Device (IED), which they had strapped to two bicycles parked within 50 meters of the blast sites. The first blast at 9.55 am, was of low intensity and did not cause any casualty. The second blast came nearly 15 minutes later near a police station which led to casualties and injuries.

Police sources said that they had intelligence inputs that the militant organization is likely to carry out violent activities prior to what ULFA calls the Protest Day on November 27. The banned militant organization observes the Protest Day to mark the launch of military operations on it and declaration of ULFA as banned outfit by the Indian government in 1991. ULFA is also looking to avenge the arrest of two of its senior leaders, self-styled foreign secretary Sasha Choudhury and finance secretary Chitrabon Hazarika.

Earlier this week ULFA militants blew up wagons of a tanker train carrying high-speed diesel (HSD) and petrol.

Meanwhile Hira Saraniya, commander of ULFA’s 709 battalion, called up local newspapers and claimed that ULFA has no role in the explosions. He said that some elements are trying to derail the proposed peace talks between government and ULFA.

ULFA’s history of terrorizing the region is not new and spans over two decades. They have claimed responsibility in bombing military as well as civilians locations. They have also been known to attack soft-targets like railway tracks and oil-pipelines which has often left the area economically as well as logistically crippled. Situated in the North-Eastern hilly regions of India, operations against these outlaws and several other such armed outfits has been a challenge for security forces.

Previously, neighboring Bangladesh used to be a safe haven for these armed terrorist groups but with the current Bangladeshi government launching an offensive against them, their desperation has aggravated. The recent capture of the two prominent ULFA leaders was a result of Bangladesh pushing them out of their territory.

NowPublic

En début de semaine, Jocelyn Quivrin est mort, ce qui est pas cool. Déjà parce que malgré sa filmo a moitié merdique (j’ai envie de dire « LOL »), je l’aimais bien. Je sais pas, c’est physique, il a l’air sympa. Puis il était juste awesome dans 99 Francs, l’adaptation du bouquin montée par Jean Kounen en partie sur des fonds privés, puisque les chaînes voulaient pas financer un film anti pub. Logique. Même si taper sur la pub c’est à peu près aussi utile que de tenter d’expliquer à une fan de Twilight qu’elle devrait se flinguer. Tout le monde sait que saymal, mais aucun montage d’enfants mourant de faim et de poussins passés au broyeur ne changera quoi que ce soit. Oui, c’est dans le film, qui comme le bouquin fait l’erreur de croire qu’il est important. Les grandes chaînes ont raté une bonne occase de paraître badass alors qu’elles ne risquaient rien. Mais la paranoïa, dans le com, c’est un mode de vie. Hum, ce serait trop bien qu’un petit jeune écrive un manuscrit là-dessus et tente de le vendre en janvier. Oh, wait…

Sinon l’adaptation suit à peu près à la lettre la trame du bouquin. Octave est concepteur rédacteur à la Rosse & Witchcraft (bonne vanne visuelle, les petits caractères) et bosse sur la campagne pub d’un nouveau yaourt Madonne (bonne vanne visuelle, le logo de la marque). Le directeur de création est un con, le commercial est un con, le client est un gros con. En fait c’est tous des cons, même Octave, qui largue sa meuf trop canon/sympa parce qu’elle est enceinte. Mais c’est pas grave vu qu’elle sert à rien narrativement, juste à envoyer une échographie de temps en temps pour faire hardcore. Quand le script à finit de taper sur la pub, une intrigue se met en route. Après avoir validé la campagne de merde, Octave prend de la drogue et écrase des piétons dans une scène animée sans budget. Puis y’a deux fins alternative, une réaliste un peu chiante et une fun mais complètement bordélique. Le côté positif c’est que c’est mieux que le bouquin, où y’a qu’une seule conclusion, et qu’elle est hyper pourrave.

Okay, jusqu’ici on dirait que je tape pas mal sur 99 Francs. Mais j’y peux rien si en France on ne sait pas structurer un roman et que Beig ne sait pas conclure (private joke). Sauf qu’en fait, le film fourmille de trucs cools, juste, pas dans la trame, ni dans Elisa Tovati et sa bouche chevaline. On trouve des tonnes de bonnes phases, comme la rupture multilingue, la bouse de dernière minute, la réunion client ou les Danois. Jean Dujardin habite Beigbeder et prouve s’il le fallait encore, qu’il a tout d’un grand. Quivrin justement défonce en charlie, directeur artistique déjanté qui boit du Dr Pepper tout le film (ça faisait marrer Kounen d’avoir dans le champ un produit pas vendu en France, bon délire). Le second gros atout de cette adaptation, c’est le réal justement, qui esthétise les textes déjà esthétisés du roman. Des tonnes de plans sublimes, des décors qui fourmillent de petits détails (le hamster hystérique). Le budget ne suit pas toujours, comme dans la séquence animée en carton mais l’inventivité visuelle de Kounen justifie à elle seule le déplacement.

Ridicule et absurde quand il dénonce la pub ou se perd dans les délires cheap/trash de Beigbeder mais truffé de pépites, 99 Francs le film est un cran au dessus du roman malgré la fin irrécupérable, même lourdement réécrite. Petit ovni et morceau de bravoure dans la démarche (aussi hypocrite que soit le système, fallait quand même réussir à le monter, et pour ça, chapeau), 99 Francs mérite un visionnage, pour l’image et les très bons morceaux. Si vous ne le regardez pas pour ça, dites vous qu’au pire y’a Vahina Giocante en sous-vêtements (attention à la cellulite des cuisses sur le Blu-Ray).

Demain, aucune idée, on verra.

TRAILER STAGE !!!

This year marks the 20^th anniversary of the “Montreal Massacre”.  On December 6, 1989 Marc Lépine/Gamil Gharbi embarked on a shooting spree at École Polytechnique in Montreal.  In twenty minutes, he shot 28 people, killing 14, before turning his gun on himself.

Tragedies of this sort are extremely rare in Canada.  Since 1975, when the first recorded shooting took place, there have been only 8 school shootings in this country. The École Polytechnique shooting claimed more lives than all of the other shootings combined.

The real tragedy though, is the way that left-wing fringe groups continue to use the events of that day for their own purposes.  While I don’t agree with them, I can understand why the founders of the Coalition for Gun Control reacted as they did in the immediate aftermath of the shooting – the CGC was co-founded by Wendy Cukier and Heidi Rathjen, who was present at École Polytechnique the day of the shooting. 

What I can’t understand or condone is how they justify their actions now, twenty years after the fact.  Every year, militant feminist groups and gun control advocates brazenly disinter the victims, parading their ghosts before the public in a thinly veiled attempt to manipulate and shame people into supporting their cause.

The shooting at École Polytechnique was unique because the gunman specifically targetted women for the purpose of “fighting feminism”.  Much discussion has taken place over the last two decades as to what motivated Marc Lépine/Gamil Gharbi.  Some point to his upbringing with a mysoginist father, others say he suffered brain damage due to abuse, but the most commonly trumpeted response is that he was representative of wider societal violence against women.

It is this thinking that has led extremist feminist groups to hijack the anniversary of that day to shamelessly use it for their own ends.  Rather than seeking real solutions to violence in our society and the causes of domestic abuse, they instead sully the memory of those who died in order to promote their own brand of misandry.

Approximately 70 women are killed as a result of domestic violence each year. Since 1989, that’s roughly 1400 women who have lost their lives.  If these organizations claiming to be for the advancement of women’s rights were truly interested in preventing violence against women, you’d think they would be focussing on the 1400, rather than the 14.

There’s a very simple reason why these groups focus on the 14 though: it’s easier.  Concentrating on the 1400 would require them to look for real solutions to complicated and deeply rooted problems in our society.  By making a lot of noise and focussing on the gun control legislation that sprang from this tragedy, they can go to bed at night content that they’ve “done something” to prevent violence against women.  It doesn’t matter that it doesn’t work.

This year, when the Gun Control Lobby and the extremist feminist groups dishonour the victims of École Polytechnique, which they’ve already started, take a moment to remember that the women who lost their lives that day were people, not symbols.  See the organizations who debase the memory of these women for what they really are: a group of angry, scared and grieving people who would rather blame men and guns for all of their problems than tackle the real issues.

Rest in Peace

Geneviève Bergeron (born 1968)
Hélène Colgan (born 1966)
Nathalie Croteau (born 1966)
Barbara Daigneault (born 1967)
Anne-Marie Edward (born 1968)
Maud Haviernick (born 1960)
Maryse Laganière (born 1964)
Maryse Leclair (born 1966)
Anne-Marie Lemay (born 1967)
Sonia Pelletier (born 1961)
Michèle Richard (born 1968)
Annie St-Arneault (born 1966)
Annie Turcotte (born 1969)
Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz (born 1958)

The Socialist Party in England and Wales’ Socialism event in London had a session on Stalinism’s collapse. Mark Fischer points out what it represents for Marxists

Socialist Party general secretary Peter Taaffe made a number of rather dubious claims in his competently delivered session entitled ‘Why did Stalinism collapse in the Soviet Union – what have the consequences been?’

Prominent amongst these was the assertion that his was “the only organisation” that recognised that the collapse of the Soviet Union – and in particular, the ignominious manner of its defeat – represented an important “ideological defeat” for the left as a whole that precipitated a rightwing global offensive on working class gains. He used the Labour Party as an especially pertinent example, correctly pinpointing the removal of clause four and growing confidence of the right as a political consequence of the collapse of Stalinism.

He did not even qualify this – manifestly untrue – statement about the ‘unique’ position of his organisation by admitting that the Socialist Party had arrived at it in hindsight. This was, after all, the same Peter Taaffe who told us in 1989 that talk of “capitalist restoration” was a “chimera” (Militant July 21 1989). Indeed, he once thought that “Gorbachev’s coming to power signified the beginning of the political revolution” and would define the coming decade as the “red 90s” (Militant January 19 1990). A tad on the over-optimistic side, I’m sure even comrade Taaffe would now concede.

He was not alone in this confusion, of course. Practically the entire Trotskyist/Trotskyoid left mechanically insisted that there were only two possibilities open to societies such as the USSR. There “will either be totalitarian rule under a one-party state” (i.e. the status quo) “or there will be control of industry and state by the workers” (i.e. a healthy workers’ state – Ted Grant, writing in Militant October 3 1980). Ironically, this was quoted as an example of how “Militant was absolutely correct and born out by events” in the May 1989 introduction to Grant’s selected works, The unbroken thread.

In vivid contrast, our organisation – despite its very different evaluation of the nature of bureaucratic socialism in those days – was able to point to the obvious fact that “in these countries capitalism is being restored with the consent of the broad mass of the population and that for the full-blown reintroduction of capitalism there exists no necessity for violently smashing the existing state” (editorial The Leninist April 1 1990). To halt this process, we called for “a real political revolution” in the USSR, not the counterrevolutionary farce headed by Gorbachev (The Leninist November 21 1987) – a simple fact that belies comrade Taaffe’s assertion in his reply to remarks I made during the discussion that it was our now highly critical attitude to the Stalinist states that was retrospective and that “no wing” of the Communist Party had made these sorts of criticisms at the time.

I decided not to explore these rather involved questions in my five-minute contribution to the discussion. Instead, I took issue with a much more straightforward difference – the notion that collapse of Stalinism equated with the “liquidation of planned economies”, an historical ‘gain’ of the revolution that had been preserved despite the bureaucratic excrescences.

I pointed out that planning for Marxists was not simply target-setting – it must have a genuine social content. Specifically, the democratic formulation of that plan by the direct producers themselves. The farcical nature of bureaucratic ‘planning’ in the USSR was perfectly illustrated in the five-year plans, when Stalin and Molotov arbitrarily leapfrogged one crazily unrealistic set of targets by another, with no concern for equilibrium or balance in the economy, nor indeed for genuine utility of the outputs.

Comrade Taaffe would later reply to discussion and underline that the “vital issues” that were raised as we endeavour to “understand Stalinism” would have a “direct bearing on our coming struggles”. This was not simply relevant to regimes such as Venezuela and its creeping Bonapartist authoritarianism, he suggested, but also because Stalin would be “used as a scarecrow to frighten new generations away from socialism”.

Absolutely. And the fact that SPEW comrades – including Peter Taaffe himself – can still see the unviable monstrosity of the USSR as an “anticipation from an economic point of view” of the society of the future is a pretty frightening prospect in itself. Summing up, the comrade told the meeting that what existed in the Soviet Union and eastern Europe was “planning in a rudimentary form” (although quite why and how it “disintegrated” in the 1980s he did not elaborate) and, even in this primitive form, the mass of simple “empirical evidence” countered my claim about the absence of planning. I actually got quite nostalgic when comrade Taaffe cited achievements such as Sputnik and other SPEWers talked of the rights enjoyed by Soviet citizens to “a home, a job, a decent health service” – it was like being in a CPGB meeting from the mid-70s again.

One comrade put it particularly crudely. After listing all the economic advantages conferred on the population by even bureaucratic ‘planning’, he conceded “the bit that was missing was democracy”.

The notion that democracy is a desirable, but non-essential bolt-on in a workers’ state underlines that SPEW – in common with much of the rest of the left – in practice has a top-down, paternalistic view of socialism. Many of the comrades were reduced to citing the catastrophic collapse in living standards that followed the counterrevolutions as circumstantial evidence of the partially progressive nature of these regimes. Living standards are hardly an irrelevance, but the key when we evaluate such societies should be the levels of proletarian consciousness and organisation, its room for independent initiative and the genuine workers’ control that can be observed. It simply is not Marxism to work backwards from the growth in pig iron production or even – an example closer to home – the number of council houses put up in Liverpool and extrapolate from this dull “empirical evidence” that what we have in front of us is a working class entity in any meaningful sense.

En exposant ces photographies sur les murs des plus grandes villes de façon sauvage, JR s’offre en quelque sorte, la plus grande galerie d’art au monde.

Il milite avec son œuvre pour un monde meilleur, pour la défense des droits de l’homme et des femmes dans les pays occidentaux mais aussi en Afrique, Moyen-Orient ou Amérique Latine.

En exposant dans la rue, JR peut toucher un maximum de gens et peut transmettre son message en offrant aux passants de Paris et Jerusalem, du Cambodge, d’Inde ou du Brésil, une réflexion sur le rôle de la photographie et de la place de l’art dans nos sociétés pour faire avancer des idées de tolérance et de respect de l’humain.

Reportage Face2Face (Metropolis sur Arte, 2007)

JR Photographe

Expo Women Are Heroes

Le mercredi 4 novembre 2009, le Parti Chrétien Démocrate, réuni au restaurant le Concorde, à côté de l’Assemblée Nationale, a fêté son 9000ème adhérent. Ce fut également l’occasion de lancer le nouveau site internet du parti (http://www.partichretiendemocrate.fr/).

La soirée a commencé par le témoignage de trois nouveaux adhérents qui expliquèrent les raisons de leur engagement au PCD. L’un d’eux, militant du Val de Marne, a pu voir son action militante saluée par Christine BOUTIN. Plusieurs adhérents du Val de Marne étaient, par ailleurs, présents à cette soirée.

Le nouveau site web, présenté ensuite, se veut ouvert sur le monde, «participatif», organisé de manière à pouvoir facilement contacter les représentants locaux du PCD (délégués départementaux, élus, etc…).

Pour conclure cette manifestation, Christine BOUTIN, Présidente du Parti Chrétien Démocrate, a insisté sur la nécessité, pour un parti moderne et dynamique, de se doter d’un site web qui facilite l’échange et l’action militante. Ce dynamisme, nous pouvons le constater puisque, depuis juin 2009, 500 nouvelles adhésions sont parvenues au PCD.

Nous vous invitons, maintenant à découvrir le site du PCD.

Bonne visite!

Well, he never actually was in combat – he’s a psychologist!

Check out this post from an American soldier who experienced PTSD himself after having most of his arm blown off by an IED. WARNING! This post contains a lot of profanity as you might expect! (I removed the curse words and substituted by favorite words instead in the excerpt below)

Excerpt:

You want to know what [beasting] PTSD is like? I’ll tell you. You have nightmares that go on for weeks. Mine would always be the same. Wherever the window was in the room in which I was sleeping I would see a bright white flash. I would wake up screaming to my wife “Get up! Get the [ROAR!] up! An IED just went off!” Sometimes I would just wake up screaming in agony as I relived the moment where my right arm was ripped from my body by an Iranian shape charge. (I may not know what childbirth feels like, but I know what it’s like to go an hour with my am ripped off without painkillers (I’m allergic to morphine).) PTSD makes you paranoid as [monstery]. “Why is that person staring at me? Are they a threat? Where is the nearest exit? Why are these people so close to me? Why is no one pulling security? What was that noise? Where is the nearest cover? I need to get out of here.” You lie wide awake in bed at night wondering if it’s safe to go to sleep or if you should get up and start pulling security.

[...]I still get nervous and hold my breath every time I drive by a piece of trash or tire debris on the shoulder or median.  I avoid guardrails and broken down cars on the side of the road.  On a couple different occasions I yelled out “tire!” to warn my wife (who was driving) of a potential IED in the road. There was nothing there (no tire, no nothing).  One late night while driving home completely exhausted on our small two lane country roads at slow speed I locked up all four tires on my car to keep from hitting a cardboard box in the middle of the road.  At that moment I would have bet the contents of my bank account it was an IED.  That’s what [toadying] PTSD is like.  At no point in time have I ever felt the desire or need to grab a weapon and go shoot someone or something up.  At no point in time have I ever grabbed a weapon and broken a law because I felt the need to protect myself.  PTSD urges you mitigate the risk of events that happened in your life.  But if you’ve never had anything traumatic happen in your life, you can’t [snarking] have PTSD.

Why do left-wingers always make excuses for the bad decisions of evil people, then rush in with social programs provided by the good people’s hard-work? What causes them to minimize personal responsibility and moral judgment? Why do they think it is virtuous to ignore and malign the victims of crime, terrorism and taxation?

If you don’t know why, be sure and watch this video with Jewish comedian Evan Sayet, who explains the whole thing. In one sense, this whole health care fiasco is nothing but an attempt by the left to equalize the health care outcomes of those who make prudent decisions with those who do not. I.e. – those who do not use drugs should pay for the drug needles of others, so that both have equal outcomes.

John Lott has a nice round-up of the facts on the Fort Hood incident.

One of the articles he linked to said this:

In the months leading to Thursday’s shooting spree that left 13 people dead and 29 others wounded, Hasan raised eyebrows with comments that the war on terror was “a war on Islam” and wrestled with what to tell fellow Muslim solders who had their doubts about fighting in Islamic countries.

“The system is not doing what it’s supposed to do,” said Dr. Val Finnell, who complained to administrators at a military university about what he considered Hasan’s “anti-American” rants. “He at least should have been confronted about these beliefs, told to cease and desist, and to shape up or ship out.”

Finnell studied with Hasan from 2007-2008 in the master’s program in public health at the military’s Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland, where Hasan persistently complained about perceived anti-Muslim sentiment in the military and injected his politics into courses where they had no place.

“In retrospect, I’m not surprised he did it,” Finnell said of the shootings. “I had real questions about what his priorities were, what his beliefs were.”

[...]Danquah assumed the military’s chain of command knew about Hasan’s doubts, which had been known for more than a year to classmates at the Maryland graduate military medical program. His fellow students complained to the faculty about Hasan’s “anti-American propaganda,” but said a fear of appearing discriminatory against a Muslim student kept officers from filing a formal complaint.

This reminds me of something Dennis Prager always says. He says “those who will be kind to the cruel will be cruel to the kind”. Forcing others not to make bad people feel bad about being bad seems like such a nice idea, until the shooting starts. The fact that people working with him felt that they would be persecuted for calling him out as a dangerous risk tells me that the system is broken.

Muslim | Language: English | Format: PDF | Pages: 97 | Size: 1 MB

This is a compilation of traditions realting to the conduct of war.

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Story from NBC news. (H/T ECM)

The headline is “Obama’s Frightening Insensitivity Following Shooting”.

Excerpt:

After news broke out of the shooting at the Fort Hood Army post in Texas, the nation watched in horror as the toll of dead and injured climbed. The White House was notified immediately and by late afternoon, word went out that the president would speak about the incident prior to a previously scheduled appearance. At about 5 p.m., cable stations went to the president. The situation called for not only his trademark eloquence, but also grace and perspective.

But instead of a somber chief executive offering reassuring words and expressions of sympathy and compassion, viewers saw a wildly disconnected and inappropriately light president making introductory remarks. At the event, a Tribal Nations Conference hosted by the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Indian affairs, the president thanked various staffers and offered a “shout-out” to “Dr. Joe Medicine Crow — that Congressional Medal of Honor winner.”  Three minutes in, the president spoke about the shooting, in measured and appropriate terms. Who is advising him?

Anyone at home aware of the major news story of the previous hours had to have been stunned. An incident like this requires a scrapping of the early light banter. The president should apologize for the tone of his remarks, explain what has happened, express sympathy for those slain and appeal for calm and patience until all the facts are in. That’s the least that should occur.

Compare and contrast that with what Obama did when late-term abortionist George Tiller was murdered.

The leftist media is not reporting this, so I thought I should.

Story from Yahoo.

Excerpt:

Soldiers who witnessed the shooting rampage at Fort Hood that left 13 people dead reported that the gunman shouted “Allahu Akbar!” — an Arabic phrase for “God is great!” — before opening fire, the base commander said Friday.

[...]An imam from a mosque Hasan regularly attended said Hasan, a lifelong Muslim, was a committed soldier, gave no sign of extremist beliefs and regularly wore his uniform at prayers.

The motive for the shooting wasn’t clear, but Hasan was apparently set to deploy soon and had expressed some anger about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Retired Col. Terry Lee, who said he had worked with Hasan, told Fox News said Hasan had hoped President Barack Obama would pull troops out of Afghanistan and Iraq and got into frequent arguments with others in the military who supported the wars.

Braverman said at a news conference early Friday that Hasan was on deployment orders to Afghanistan. A military official later told The Associated Press that Hasan was to be deployed to Iraq. It was not immediately possible to verify the discrepancy.

The left-wing media is not reporting that this guy is a Muslim, or what he said when he began shooting, or that this is an act of terrorism. What is the point of even watching the news? They cannot be objective. They cannot be honest. They just tell you about what they want you to hear.

UPDATE: Dennis Prager agrees with me that this is an act of terror.

UPDATE: Michael Medved agrees with me that this is an act of terror.

My Bad?

OMG, being a Hizbul Mujahideen militant can sometimes be a bitch, especially if you hide in a cave frequented by friggin bears. Hmm, seems two commanders decided to make there hide-out in a cave in Darwal Nar in Pir Panjal. What they didn’t know was it was already being occupied by some very nasty bears who didn’t take too kindly to terrorists. Needless to say the militants were mauled to death before they could so much as mutter WTF!

Psst The real bummer was their bodies were discovered next to two Ak 47 rifles and some ammunition. See, told you it can be a bitch!