occasionally acerbic, cultural and political comment
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Sphere: Related ContentVideo the Vote is an organisation dedicated to exposing and preventing voter intimidation and misallocation in next week’s midterm elections over in the US.
Readers should be aware of a company called Diebold Inc. which supplies e-voting machines. In 2003, Diebold’s then CEO Walden O’Dell wrote to President Bush:
“I am committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president.”
A couple of years later O’Dell left the company following reports that the company was facing fraud charges of insider trading. Sounds like a diehard Republican to me.
Sphere: Related ContentMaybe next time the speaker demands that they “Lock the Doors,” someone ought to throw away the key. Let the muppets think about what they have just done.
Sphere: Related ContentThe government win by 25 votes.
Well the Lib Dems put Ming into the Top Job because, supposedly, he is a ‘foreign affairs heavyweight’. So? Where was the Mingster tonight at the big Iraq debate?
Charlie Kennedy was rather good though….
Sphere: Related ContentI thought, somewhat foolishly, that this Labour government wouldn’t resort to the sort of nonsense that is peddled in the States. Over there, vice-president Dick Cheney is arguing that the escalating violence in Iraq is designed to tip the balance in favour of the Democrats in next week’s midterm elections. Over here, Margaret Becket is arguing that any parliamentary debate over the build up to the Iraq War would undermine the troops in the field and send the wrong message to our enemies.
Is there anything worse than politicians using the war and pseudo-patriotism for political gain?
Yeah, I know, it’s nothing new…
Sphere: Related Content“Saddam was willing to yield to all American demands, announced and unannounced, to reach peaceful resolution, but the Bush administration, including Elizabeth Cheney, undersecretary of State, David Welch, the U.S. ambassador in Egypt, and Gene Cretz, his political attache, did not respond to his offers.”
Hossam Shaltout, a former US airman, and founder of the peace organization Rights and Freedom International, argues that invading Iraq was unnecessary.
Via: Yahoo
Sphere: Related ContentThe New York Times has an excellent graphic for next weeks midterm elections.
For anyone who thought Labour HQ was losing sway, see how fast the minions are despatched…
“That this House believes that there should be a select committee of seven honourable Members, being members of Her Majesty’s Privy Council, to review the way in which the responsibilities of Government were discharged in relation to Iraq and all matters relevant thereto, in the period leading up to military action in that country in March 2003 and in its aftermath.”
Above is probably the single most important motion of this parliament. Should it succeed, most probably with the support of the Conservatives, Parliament will debate in full, the actions by the government in the build-up to military intervention in the state of Iraq.
The Conservatives are actually demanding a broad investigation, similar to the Franks enquiry, which delved into the actions surrounding the Falklands War. It’s worth mentioning that the Franks enquiry was carried out after the war, however it must also be said that the Falklands conflict lasted little more than 2-months.
It’s no secret that this blog is a Labour leaning blog. I used to be a member of the party, and it was on the issue of Iraq that I wrote to the party to end my membership. No issue is more central to this blog’s existence than Iraq. And so, on the very issue where I broke ranks with the party, I implore those Labour MP’s who share my outrage and shame, that a Labour government would follow the most rightwing American administration in living memory into an unnecessary war, to vote in favour of this motion.
I do not know for sure if parliament was misled. I do not know for sure if the cabinet were spineless in their cross-examining of the evidence. I would however like to know all that is unknown and unclear. Iraq has seriously damaged Labour, and nothing in the past decade has done more to tear at the social fabric of our fragile society.
It is no surprise that the government will echo Republican dog-whistle rhetoric to prevent a defeat. They claim our enemies are looking for a weakness and that an enquiry will undermine our troops. This is nonsense. If our troops are fighting an unjust war, instigated on deceit and lies, then they should know. A quick browse onto the military forums proves they are as outraged as we are. They should know. We should know.
If you voted for the war, not is time to launder your conscience. Do not allow this opportunity to pass. Carpe Diem.
Sphere: Related ContentI’m feeling terrible. Don’t know if it’s the flu or something I ate. I’m giving the blog a wide berth. It may be contagious… 
Garry Younge and photographer Dan Chung are covering the US midterms for The Guardian. They are to produce a serious of films, starting here.
Garry kicks off the coverage with this excellent Op-Ed in today’s paper.
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