Comments on: Why Blogging is Important: Comment from a Constituent

By: Robert Morgan

Robert Morgan — Tue, 22 May 2007 21:54:23 +0000

I wish we didn’t have to call it blogging, what an ugly-sounding word that is, who came up with it, an America I bet you, or Cherie Blair. “I’m just sitting down for a blog”. Really, a little more info than I really wanted…

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By: Andrew Milner

Andrew Milner — Fri, 18 May 2007 01:43:13 +0000

2005, even.

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By: Andrew Milner

Andrew Milner — Thu, 17 May 2007 18:23:52 +0000

The MSM and “respectable” journalists have to consider libel implications and D-notices before publishing. Bloggers in UK may be somewhat intimidated by the “Prevention of Terrorism Act” and specifically the justification of terrorism clause. But those beyond UK jurisdiction can blog with rather more impunity from say an Internet café in downtown Vientiane or Ho Chi Minh City (formally Saigon). For the risk averse yet to fly the UK coop, you have to realise that prevention of terrorism is one on the justifications Authority is preparing to control use of the Internet. So if I were to blog that Tony Blair’s immoral foreign policy vis-à-vis Iraq had effectively painted a target on London, this may be construed as justification of terrorism, however accurate.
It’s the alternative media and Internet correspondents that keep alive the issues Authority would prefer were buried and forgotten. Take the London bombings on 7 July 2001: Many aspects of the official version simply do not compute. The supposed suicide bombers simply didn’t fit the profile, the train the police claim they caught from Luton was cancelled that day, the training exercise that precisely paralleled the actual attack; what are the odds, the police diverted the bus from its normal route just the explosion. And what precisely was the explosive used? Many, many anomalies, but Blair still rejects calls for an independent public enquiry; labelling it a “ludicrous diversion”. Can’t imagine why he’s so reluctant, the last so-called independent public enquiry was into the mysterious death of Dr. David Kelly, and that was successfully whitewashed. And now with the “Enquiries Act” which became law in June 2005 (convenient timing, or what?), the executive has the authority to control any enquiry. So it won’t be public and it won’t be independent. That’s right, the government department being investigated has the authority to control the enquiry. Totally Alice in Wonderland.
Of course Internet correspondents are disorganised and uncoordinated; that’s the appeal. But they are also uncontrollable (at present). The truth is out there, and we will expose it even if it brings down the governments of the United States and the United Kingdom. No wonder Authority is running scared, because it’s the one thing they “misunderestimated” when drawing up their cunning plans.

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By: Melissa

Melissa — Thu, 17 May 2007 13:42:58 +0000

StevenL – yes you are right and the debate got very heated: time to look ahead now

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By: raincoaster

raincoaster — Thu, 17 May 2007 13:34:07 +0000

One more thing: given that as 33% of the lefty commenters on this site I refrain (and note that my comrades do as well) from posting blanket insults about the Right, I wonder if the Right could rise to The People’s Glorious Example and refrain from characterizing all Socialists as X, Y, or Z.”

That is not a blanket insult. It is a blanket request for civility. At no point in there did I say that all Right-wing commenters indulged in such activities; I merely requested that in future none of them do so. If you believe that to be insulting, please consult anyone who’s known me for long: when I wish to insult people, there is no ambiguity whatsoever about it.

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By: Steven_L

Steven_L — Thu, 17 May 2007 13:12:55 +0000

There’s two side to the Israel / Palestine story, last time it got debated the thread ran to over 300 comments if my memory serves me correctly. Nothing was solved, it became much a case of ‘Mohammed started it, he slaughter the Jews at Al-Medina’ against ‘they’re living in a terrorist state on Arab land’.

Nothing will ever be solved by debating the history of the problem, the solution surely lies in the future.

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By: Derek Middleton

Derek Middleton — Thu, 17 May 2007 12:52:18 +0000

“Of course it’s ‘strategic’, the strategy was to create a US client state and thus dominate the region” – AP

I would concur. This is, of course, the only possibly justification for the billions the US pumps into Israel every year. Had the US adventures into Iraq and Afghanistan gone better in terms of ‘hearts and minds’ (as opposed to ‘Cut and Run’) I suspect that support for Israel from the US may have dwindled somewhat.

I’m not suggesting that Israel is anything but an honest ally of the, so called, Coalition of the Willing but, whenever international activities go pear shaped in a big way, I’m always a tiny bit suspicious about the influence of vested interests. In my cynical moments, I occasionally wonder if any roadside explosive devices might have ‘Made in Tel-Aviv’ on the box.

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By: Derek Middleton

Derek Middleton — Thu, 17 May 2007 12:37:35 +0000

“Derek , so which precise year would you like the borders of the word[sic] to return to then ? Or is this just to attack Israel?” – newmania

newmania, I don’t think I said anything about borders returning to anywhere; I merely asked you to clarify your position and, in the spirit of fairness, presented my own understanding of the conflict.

“Certainly; because, without the Left, there could be no Right” – DM
.
.
“Nonsense Conservatism has its own sustaining resources and does not required the manifestation of the Left that currently opposes it . It is not much Yin and Yang and Penicillin and Disease” – newmania

Evidently the metaphor has escaped you, ‘Right’ was, I though amusingly, used in the context of ‘correct’ rather than ‘dexter’.

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By: AP

AP — Thu, 17 May 2007 12:29:27 +0000

The Balfour agreement was a very tawdry document that would probably be regarded as illegal today. The UK only gave up the Palestine mandate under US pressure, and against the advice of British military intelligence reports (they predicted a potential blood-bath). The US recognised Israel more quickly than it has ever recognised any other new nation. Of course it’s ‘strategic’, the strategy was to create a US client state and thus dominate the region. Israel is a nation founded on terrorism, that of Ergun and the Stern Gang, they murdered British nurses when they bombed the King David Hotel, and now they are considering putting the grand-daughter of that bomber into political power. They deliberately attacked a UN post in the recent adventure against Hezbollah in south Lebanon, they destroyed ambulances and dropped cluster-bombs on civilian targets, but worse than any of this catalogue of crimes, they lost.

But that’s blogs for you.

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By: Steven_L

Steven_L — Thu, 17 May 2007 12:26:32 +0000

< ‘The Americans did give a lot of support to the IRA … It is rather annoying that now they have been victims of terrorism the whole world is supposed to help them. (k)<

You can still find obscure webpages around if you search hard enough, painting romantic pictures of Irish freedom fighters on horseback fighting against the repressive King of England.

US support for Sinn Fein and associated organisations was reported to fall drantically after Timothy McVey blew apart that office block in Oklahomo. According to come sources this was because many Americans realised what terrorism was, and that it was not as romantic as they thought. Bush has no time whatsoever for the IRA and their cause, after 9/11 their US support has dwindled down yet further.

Cairde Sinn Fein in the USA, Firnds of Sinn Fein Canada and Friends of Sinn Fein Australian haven’t gone away though. The Australian organisation explains on their website:

< ‘Australian Aid for Ireland has been active in politics in Australia for over 15 years with its roots go back to the H Block Committees (Formed to support the 1980 and 1981 Hunger Strikers) and further. It has been active in raising political awareness about the situation in Ireland, and in fundraising for Sinn Féin, political prisoners and their families throughout that time. (http://sinnfein.ie/fosf/australia) <

‘Political prisoners’, i.e. terrorist scum murders!

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