"All this just for a photograph with the Queen? "

London is getting ready for the arrival of Dubya. In the Telegraph, it is written that the Queen is not amused by the Secret Service's plans for a Buckingham Palace makeover. It seems that: the Queen rejected a request from President George W. Bush's security advisers to bolster Buckingham Palace's structural defences against a terrorist attack during his state visit to Britain this week.

Senior courtiers say that the Queen was not willing to countenance "bomb and airborne assault proofing" that would have involved substantial building work at her London home...

One courtier said: "They [the Americans] wanted blast and bullet-proofed windows and curtains and some strengthening to the walls of the President's suite and other rooms at the Palace where he would be spending time. The President's security men seem obsessed with the idea of an airborne attack on the Palace.


Athough it seemed like a good idea at the time, according to the Telegraph, what ought to have been a celebratory visit to Britain by President Bush has become fraught with tension and paranoia.

Security, however, is the obsession. As the anti-war protesters prepare to fill Trafalgar Square with unflattering images of the "cowboy" President and the Downing Street "poodle", mild panic has set in behind the scenes.

Buckingham Palace security pass-holders are being ordered to go through bomb checks for the first time. Some Palace staff who have had security clearance for 30 years are undergoing positive vetting again.

"The Queen will not have to wear a security badge. I think we know what she looks like," said one Palace official. "But it is getting to that level. It is quite ridiculous."

The deteriorating relationship between the Palace and the President's security men has infuriated the Queen. When it is all over, a mighty row with the Prime Minister is on the cards.

"The Queen is annoyed to be the one having to turn down so many of the White House's requests," said a Buckingham Palace official. "Downing Street's attitude is that this is something that should be resolved between the Palace and the White House. But the fact is that the Queen is being left to negotiate a political minefield pretty much on her own.

"Officially, the invitation was made to the President in her name, but of course ultimately this came from Tony Blair. Now that it is looking as if the visit is not going to be a cakewalk, Blair is, predictably, trying to distance himself from the whole thing," said the official

As far as Dubya goes, he has simply shrugged the whole thing off. If you want to see Bush's reaction to the whole thing, there is an interview on Breakfast with Frost on the BBC.

When asked on the show what message he would give the protestors, the President said;

Freedom is a beautiful thing, I would first say ... aren't you lucky to be in a country that encourages people to speak their mind? And I value going to a country where people are free to say anything they want to say.

However, in response to this, Glenda Jackson MP, who opposed the war, told BBC One's Politics Show the visit was the "Dumb and Dumber show" .

While she said Britain was "America's closest ally for a variety of reasons," she did not agree that the government "should demonstrate that closeness by - as it seems to me - we are at the moment being permanently on our knees."

Long live George Soros!

George Soros has donated $15 million dollars so far to ousting Dubya. In an article in the Guardian, he says it is now his life's work. According to Soros: The Bush administration's "war on terrorism" cannot be won, he argues, but is instead ushering in "a permanent state of war". He uses the emotive terms like "supremacist ideology" deliberately, saying that some of the rhetoric coming from the White House reminds him of his childhood in Nazi-occupied Hungary.

"When I hear Bush say, 'You're either with us or against us,' it reminds me of the Germans," he said in yesterday's interview. "My experiences under Nazi and Soviet rule have sensitised me."

Using the Queen for photo ops!

Apparently this whole State Visit has been orchistrated by Karl Rove for next year's election (note I did not write re-election due to the fact that Bush II was appointed by the Supreme{ly Stupid} Court.)

In an article in the Guardian, Jonathan Freeland writes that: A clue can be found in the text studied more closely than any other by the political operatives in the Bush White House: the campaign to re-elect Ronald Reagan in 1984. That made heavy use of TV footage which cast Reagan as a statesman, at home across the globe. A favourite sequence showed the president and the Queen on horseback in Windsor Great Park during his 1982 visit. The Bush team want some royal shots like that of their own. Apparently they were particularly keen on an open-carriage procession down the Mall, and are said to be disheartened by London's suggestion that that might not be possible due to "security".

One Republican source, close to the White House, has a theory as to why the Queen is such an important catch for the image makers. "Look, Americans don't know shit. They're not going to recognise the prime minister of the Philippines. The only foreign leaders they could pick out are the Queen of England and the Pope - and we've already got those pictures." With the Pontiff in the can, the Queen is the co-star the president needs.

Apparently this Republican source doesn't know shit either because the Philippines has a president not a PM. Whatever!!



Sorry I have not posted in a couple of days. I have recently run out of time but I love the idea behind the website above. If you live in Britain, please do your part during the State Visit!!!


THINGS TO DO FROM 19 - 21 NOVEMBER

80 per cent of Britons like Americans but also have reservations about America as a country.

Britain's complicated relationship with the US will show its true colours with the State visit by Bush as a guest of the Queen on 19 November. In a very interesting article in the Observer, American write Isobela Fonseca has noted a recent rise in anti-Americanism in Britain: 'For a lot of Americans, it is a shock. They don't get it. They are quite innocent and can't credit that people don't like them.'

It is a contradiction that has been noted by Jamie Rubin, a former spokesman for Bill Clinton, who moved to London in 2000. Rubin remembers how struck he was at the huge outpouring of sympathy towards America after 11 September while he was in Britain.

The change that has happened following the war against Iraq, he believes, has not been towards a general hatred of Americans but towards a frustration at a nation that Britons feel closer to than any other.

'I would not have wanted to be in any other city outside of the US when 11 September happened. Because I had been on television a lot, I guess, and people recognised me, they would come up in the street and tell me how sorry they were. British people wanted to show solidarity.

'That has changed. That warmth and trust has been replaced by a feeling that a country they love so much is pursuing policies they do not agree with. It is a frustration.'

London will be brought to a standstill when the visit of George W. Bush takes place under the highest security ever reserved for a foreign head of state.

According to the Guardian, a combination of last-minute road closures and a rally at Trafalgar Square by an estimated 100,000 anti-war protesters will paralyse the capital when Bush arrives on 19 November for a three-day stay in Britain. It will be the first ever state visit by an American President, who will be the guest of the Queen for the duration of his stay.

Whitehall sources have confirmed that the itinerary for the visit has still not been finalised, and officials on both sides of the Atlantic say that a visit which places the American President, Prime Minister Tony Blair and Queen Elizabeth II in the same place calls for an unprecedented level of protection.

And there will be protests. The centrepiece being a huge march on 19 November arranged by the Stop the War Coalition which will go through the capital and end at Trafalgar Square, where a giant statue of George Bush will be pulled down in a parody of the toppling of Saddam Hussein's statue in Baghdad. It will be led by American nationals living in the UK who have gathered under the title Expats Against Bush. They will carry banners reading 'Proud of my nation. Shamed by my President'.

'The very best that George Bush can hope for is to be taken around in a helicopter and kept inside the American Embassy, Whitehall and Buckingham Palace,' said Lindsey German of the Stop the War Coalition. 'There will be no clapping crowds.'

Demonstrators believe that the rumours about their actions have led to a change in President Bush's itinerary and that a planned procession down the Mall has been cancelled because of fear of embarrassment.

Private Jessica says President is misusing her 'heroism'

As usual, the Orwellian White House under Karl Rove, pushed a lie on us through a compliant media. According a report in the Guardian, misgivings characterising Lynch's story are coming to a head: last week she accused the administration of manipulating her story for propaganda, saying she was not a heroine at all; accusations that she'd been raped were disputed by appalled Iraqi doctors who first treated her, and the army was accused of insensitivity and racism for awarding Lynch a full disability pension while others from her ambushed maintenance company, including Shoshana Johnson, the black cook wounded and captured by Iraqis, will receive barely a third of Lynch's discharge package.

Can I honestly write that I am surprised by all this?? Just par for the course...

Don't mention the dead or the draft

Dubya will not visit or acknowledge those he is putting to death. In a report in the Guardian, it examines how the WH will not allow any media coverage of the war dead when they are brought back home. It is interesting to note that the dead and dying are mainly poor whites, blacks and hispanics. In this war, the rich benefit with contracts, the middle-class pay for the war with their taxes (that were not really cut) and the poor give with their lives. I think that is a fair trade off to live in the world's only superpower. Don't you?

However, I think it would only be fair to bring back the draft so all those Halliburton execs sons and daughters and all the children of those who voted for Bush can die for him too. But I don't see it happening anytime soon. However, it might when they realise that they don't have enough soldiers to go around. And it might wake up the youth today to get more involved when they get their draft cards like the youth did in the 60s and 70s during the Vietnam War.

The richest 1% of Americans now own well over 40% of their nation's wealth.

In an EXCELLENT article in the Guardian, Julian Borger, discusses the HUGE inequities present in the US today. There are some great quotes:

Mr Bush has so far raised $83m for his primary campaign, more than all nine Democratic contenders put together, even though he does not have an opponent inside his party.

This financial superiority flows from the simple fact that the president's backers are far wealthier than those of his rivals. More of them give the maximum contribution to a presidential campaign of $2,000, and more of them are chief executives who vie with each other to become honoured Republican "Rangers" or "Pioneers", by putting together $200,000 and $100,000 "bundles" of contributions from their employees and friends.

"You don't raise that kind of money at barbecues and backyard sales. You raise it from big business," said Charles Lewis, who runs the Washington watchdog the Centre for Public Integrity...

The richest 1% of Americans now own well over 40% of their nation's wealth. It is a skewed distribution that sets the US apart from other modern industrialised nations. In Britain, widely viewed in America as the embodiment of social stratification, the richest 1% owns a mere 18% of the wealth...

Nearly half the benefits of Mr Bush's $1.35 trillion tax cut in 2001 went to the richest 1%, while 60% of this year's cuts will go to taxpayers with incomes of more than $100,000...

The Bush cabinet also stands out for its big money background. Every member is a millionaire and, the Centre for Public Integrity says, its total net worth is more than 10 times that of the Clinton cabinet...

For outsiders, the absence of class-based politics is the enduring mystery of American society...

Certainly, most Americans appear to take Mr Bush at face value - as a plainspoken, homespun Texan, rather than the scion of a wealthy East Coast family. It is hard to imagine his real social background passing so unremarked in a British election campaign.

Where calling an ambulance is first step to bankruptcy...


There is a health crisis in the US today but, according to the Guardian, nothing is being done to stop it because: the hospital business and the $400bn insurance industry have too much to lose, as do corporate employers who would be asked to foot much of the bill...In the US today, there are nearly 44 million people in her position - without medical insurance in a country that does not guarantee basic healthcare - and the crisis is deepening. In the three years since George Bush took office, the ranks of the uninsured have risen by 10%, or four million people. The government will pay if you are destitute but not if you earn enough to keep above the poverty line - about $18,000 (£10,600) for a family of four. In theory, employers are supposed to provide health insurance but more opt not to, and buying cover individually is either very expensive or impossible if you have a "pre-existing condition".

Consequently, 15% of the population, most of them the working poor, live in the fear that an accident or sudden illness could plunge them into debt. The uninsured will typically put off going to see a doctor in the hope that their medical problems will pass. They tend to seek treatment only when their condition is critical.

Let's hear it for non-political Heads of State!

Some of you may know of my preference for non-political (elected or non-elected) heads of state. In the case of the US, the head of state is a partisan politician. As a result, there were people after 11 September saying things like, "Well, I don't agree with Bush but he is our president and we must stand behind him as such, etc..." I can inform you dear readers, that there was none of that in the UK before the Iraq War part deux. Blair was slow clapped and ridiculed everywhere in the country because as prime minister, he is nothing but a politician -- not requiring any unthinking deference by the people. This constitutional arrangement whereby the head of state is above party politics, unclouds people's minds and allows them to judge a head of government as a politician and on his or her merits rather than on the office he or she holds. In the Guardian, in writing about the upcoming State visit on 19 November of Bush to the UK as a guest of the Queen, it mentions the concern in this distinction:

Despite Britain's proximity to continental Europe, there can be no argument which country exerts most influence on everyday British life. America's norms and practices are often held up as a model, as in the current fashion for hiring American executives to run British enterprises. As this week's reports by Julian Borger on the less-frequently observed, less attractive aspects of contemporary America show, there is much in US life that is not to be envied or emulated. And indeed, influence runs both ways. As those who have lived there can testify, Americans retain an abiding interest and respect for the British way of doing things.

None of this should be forgotten when George Bush blows into town on November 19 for a three-day state visit. But there is a distinct danger that it might be. In his capacity as head of state and current leader of a great people, the president deserves the glad hand of friendship. But in his other, inescapable capacity as George Bush, the fountainhead of perhaps the most controversial, confrontational and divisive US administration in living memory, one that is widely distrusted and feared abroad and at home, and one whose actions have caused great and painful dissension within our country, Mr Bush is very far from being universally welcome.

Conservatives and Rednecks at it again!

Well, there they go again. The neo-cons and the red staters organised again and got the Reagan mini-series on CBS off the air because it made no mention of the economic "boom" under Reagan. According to the Guardian: The American TV network CBS admitted yesterday it had abandoned plans to broadcast a major two-part film about the life of Ronald Reagan. The move follows protests from conservatives who claimed that the mini-series was biased and dwelled on the former president's gaffes.

Again, you gotta hand it to the conservatives. They know how to get things done.

Yatta!!

Have you seen the video by Happatai called Yatta!? This couldn't be more Japanese.

A whimper or a bang?

I just saw in the Guardian a headline: A whimper or a bang? November 5: how was it for you?

Michael Moore

Michael Moore has got a new book out called Dude, Where's My Country. He did an EXCELLENT interview on Democracy Now! You can watch the whole thing over the internet. Mike really puts it out there and in plain speak about how criminal these Bushies are. Things are getting scarier and scarier in the US. According to Moore: "Since 9/11, the Bush administration has used that tragic event as a justification to rip up our constitution and our civil liberties. And I honestly believe that one or two 9/11s, and martial law will be declared in our country and we're inching towards a police state." Moore has a chapter in his new book titled: "Seven Questions for George of Arabia." Here are the first four:

1. Dear Mr. Bush, is it true that the bin Ladens have had business relations with you and your family off and on for the past 25 years?

2. Dear "Mr. President," what is the "special relationship" between the Bushes and the Saudi royal family?

3. Dear "Mr. President," who attacked the United States on September 11th a guy on dialysis from a cave in Afghanistan, or our friends, the Saudi Arabians?

4. Dear "Mr. President," why did you allow a private Saudi jet to fly around the U.S. in the days after September 11th and pick up members of the bin Laden family and then fly them out of the country without a proper investigation by the FBI?

If you want to know more about Michael Moore, there is a special report section on him at the Guardian.

Oprah for President!

I know this is going to seem crazy for most of you but I want Oprah for President. There is a man in Kansas City, Mo. who is trying to draft Oprah for president by giving away free car washes for anyone who signs his "Draft Oprah" petition. Well, good on him for getting involved. I have to agree with him. Even Michael Moore agrees. He says: Oprah's got good politics, she's got a good heart, and she'll have us all up Jazzercising at six in the morning. This cannot be a bad thing, and reading a book while we're Jazzercising. So America would be better off if Oprah were president. The Run Oprah Run website gives seven reasons why she would be great:

Seven Reasons Why We Should Ask Oprah to Run for President:

1. She's got credibility. She understands every American, from the common black woman up the ladder to Elizabeth Taylor. And everyone can identify with Oprah.

2. She's already rich. Look at Fortune. She made her own money, and she has staying power. She knows how to manage people, with an eye on the bottom line. These are skills we could use in a President.

3. She's already powerful. She's likely the most powerful woman in the country. She won't need to cultivate powerful friends - she's already got them.

4. She knows what we need after all the shows, topics and issues she has explored on her show, she is bound to have a good feeling for the pulse of this country. And Oprah is very, very smart.

5. She can attract smart peopleo to work for her. You think she runs Harpo by herself? She knows how to attract and keep top people. Her managerial and people skills are legendary; she can get the best people in the world to be her Cabinet.

6. She doesn't answer to anyone. She can do anything she wants. She is beloved, rich and famous. She is self-made; she isn't beholden to anyone.

7. She's true to herself. As any Oprah fan knows, she never forgets that she was once a poor 12-year old black girl in the South. She has worked hard and tirelessly and achieved all of her goals. She's the best.

So I say "Oprah! You run, girl!" Sign the petition. I won't give you a free car wash but it may make a difference.

A "dark day for American women": The BBC has reported that Dubya has banned all partial birth abortions. He is simply caving into his "base" and doing their bidding as Ashcroft does everyday and Gov. Bush did in Florida with Terri Schiavo, the woman in the coma for 13 years. These conservative right wingers get what they want because they are organized and vote. Anyone who did not vote in the last election has no right to complain about Bush. Get off your fat arses and let's shake things up. If he "wins" 4 more years, that will be it. The US will be forever taken over by the rednecks. God help us all (and I mean the world!)

You say it's your birthday...

Yeah, it's my birthday today. On this day in 1605 was the Gunpowder Plot. If you don't know about the Gunpowder Plot, read The following is from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

The Gunpowder Plot was a desperate attempt by upper class provincial Catholics to kill King James I of England, his family and most of the Protestant aristocracy in one fell swoop and take power themselves. The event is celebrated on November 5th each year in the UK as Bonfire night (also known as Guy Fawkes night, after the alleged leader of the conspiracy).

I hope you enjoy my new weblog!

Look what those "brilliant" neo-cons are writing about Europeans in the National Review. Where do these people come from??? Have I missed something by being abroad?? I just don't get it.

Reported by Adam Nicolson of the Telegraph on 4.11.2003: the opening salvos in a column published within the past couple of weeks in the American political journal National Review. The author is a freelance journalist, Denis Boyles, and he is discussing the recent history and present condition of Europe: "Let's say you take a chunk of real estate the size of a small continent, devastate it with two of the biggest wars in the history of human conflict, then add a couple of massive genocides, a near-total collapse of most social structures, a megadose of intolerant secularism, a decline in educational standards, a flat-line birthrate and a truly impressive brain drain. Now try to imagine what kind of ideas would survive to emerge from the wreckage. Right. You get nihilism, anti-Semitism, and anti-Americanism, the three knee-jerk, irrational sentiments - they fail to rise to the level of actual `ideas' that inform the modern intellectual life of Europe. In other words, you get cockroaches." That is a degree of loathing and contempt, of wilful misinterpretation of foreigners, which you would normally associate with propaganda about an enemy in wartime. Stupid, uneducated, infertile, morally incompetent, socially dead, more animal than human: Boyles's Europe is a continent of Calibans. At no time since the American War of Independence have Americans, or at least some of them, including the hardline Republican Americans of the sort now in government in Washington, viewed Europe and the Europeans with such visceral hatred.

New Zealand's National Anthems


The New Zealand National Anthem 'God Defend New Zealand' is both in English and Maori. I prefer the Maori. I love the way 'Aotearoa' sounds when sung. The following is from the New Zealand Ministry of Culture and Heritage. I was in New Zealand this September for the first time. And like Australia, I loved it very much.

'National songs, ballads and hymns have a tendency to elevate the character of a people and keep alive the fire of patriotism in their breasts'. The Saturday Advertiser and New Zealand Literary Miscellany, 1 July 1876

New Zealand holds a unique position in the world in that it has two national anthems of equal standing - 'God Defend New Zealand' and 'God Save The Queen'. Both of these anthems have origins which have been inspired by the fire of patriotism yet were written under markedly different situations.

God Defend New Zealand

English
God of Nations at Thy feet
In the bonds of love we meet
Hear our voices we entreat
God defend our free land
Guard Pacific's triple star
From the shafts of strife and war
Make her praises heard afar
God Defend New Zealand

Maori
E Ihowa Atua
O nga iwi matoura
Ata whakarongona
Me aroha noa
Kia hua ko te pai
Kia tau to atawhai
Manaakitia mai
Aotearoa

God Save the Queen
God save our gracious Queen,
Long live our noble Queen,
God save The Queen.
Send her victorious,
Happy and glorious,
Long to reign over us:
God save The Queen.

Thy choicest gifts in store
On her be pleased to pour,
Long may she reign.
May she defend our laws,
And ever give us cause
To sing with heart and voice,
God save The Queen.

I teach 'God Save the Queen' to all of my students. It is the world's oldest national anthem. It has a long and rich history. This is from the British Monarchy Website.

'God Save The King' was a patriotic song first publicly performed in London in 1745, which came to be referred to as the National Anthem from the beginning of the nineteenth century. The words and tune are anonymous, and may date back to the seventeenth century.

In September 1745 the 'Young Pretender' to the British Throne, Prince Charles Edward Stuart, defeated the army of King George II at Prestonpans, near Edinburgh. In a fit of patriotic fervour after news of Prestonpans had reached London, the leader of the band at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, arranged 'God Save The King' for performance after a play. It was a tremendous success and was repeated nightly thereafter. This practice soon spread to other theatres, and the custom of greeting the Monarch with the song as he or she entered a place of public entertainment was thus established.

There is no authorised version of the National Anthem as the words are a matter of tradition. Additional verses have been added down the years, but these are rarely used. The words used are those sung in 1745, substituting 'Queen' for 'King' where appropriate.

The British tune has been used in other countries - as European visitors to Britain in the eighteenth century noticed the advantage of a country possessing such a recognised musical symbol - including Germany, Russia, Switzerland and America (where use of the tune continued after independence). Some 140 composers, including Beethoven, Haydn and Brahms, have used the tune in their compositions.