Blogs in June 2011.

I thought I should see what others are doing:

Flesh is Grass has an important post on how the EDL managed to march, unescorted, from Redbridge to Dagenham.

Yaacov Lozowick has given up blogging. Pity, I didn’t agree with him, much, but he has a thoughtful way and articulates many intelligent ideas.

Johnny Guitar thinks about the Troubles, the Good Friday Agreement and the need for a South Africa-style truth commission, just not at the moment.

Weggis on the case against biofuels. Completely agree, it seems so questionable to use food stuff or related material as fuel for the internal combustion engine.

Harry Barnes on Sorting Out The Labour Party, which I think is very optimistic. In the short term they could ditch Ed Miliband, try to be a bit radical, really, seriously distance themselves from the skeleton of New Labour. Chance would be a fine thing.

In related news, I am not surprised that Ed Miliband is less popular than Iain Duncan Smith or William Hague, when they were in a similar position. Frankly, Miliband’s inarticulate, has the charisma of a saucer and he’s politically useless.

Jams looks at an evil cat, great photos.

Mark Gardner at the CST has a reflective post on the situation at UCU and its wider implications, From UCU to MEMO and “Israel’s British hirelings”.

Ten minutes hate on the ‘miracle villages’.

Chris Dillow considers Miliband’s power blindness.

Nick Lowles provides a photo and details of the EDL thugs racial attack in Dagenham.

Sorrel Moseley-Williams ponders Journalists’ Day in Argentina.

Not a blog, but worthwhile all the same. Searchlight on the BNP’s use of Facebook and Twitter.

Rosie looks at Fact and Fiction.

James Bloodworth has a couple of cracking posts, Will the Defence Secretary’s links with Sri Lanka compromise British calls for an enquiry? and Isn’t it time for an apology, Mr Chomsky?

Rebecca provides an update on the Gaza flotilla. Personally, I think the Israeli Government should allow them into Gaza with minimum fuss or hassle. I think Gazans should get as much as they can, after all living under Hamas must be terrible.

Jack of Kent looks at the arrest of blogger Jacqui Thompson and the many unanswered questions.

Greens Engage on Cynthia and Jello.

At Greater Surbiton, a guest post by David Pettigrew, Justice in Bosnia after Mladic.

Eric Reeves has a piece in the Washington Post, In Sudan, genocide anew?

Engage has an abundance of posts which should be read, just a small selection: Open antisemitism doesn’t harm your reputation, Sally Hunt pretends not to understand the term “institutional racism” and Richard Kuper on the Working Definition of Anti-Semitism (by Eve Garrard)

Enjoy!

A Changing World Round Up.

What really has been going on in the world? I am not too sure, so am going to inflict on my readers yet another round up.

The Middle East dominates most of the news as far as I can see, but Western compliance, or should that be collusion, with the dictatorship in Bahrain deserves more coverage.

In Yemen, Saleh and his security forces continue to murder left, right and centre.

The Syrian regime follows suit, many murdered for opposing the Assad dictatorship.

Nukes get more subsidies, according to Left Foot Forward.

Thatcher would have dreams of these cuts, again LFF.

The CST, Spectator Alert: Ill-Mannered Jews Spotted in Savoy Grill.

Jon Stewart on Glenn Beck.

The Washington Post on the rise and fall of Egypt’s most despised billionaire, Ahmed Ezz.

Obliged to Offend considers the British Monarchy.

The well known racist, Helen Thomas, was interviewed at Playboy, Yourish has more.

Adam Holland on how some “anti-Zionists” are ‘delighted to announce that Helen Thomas …will be joining us’ at their conference, then thought better of it, fancy that, an old antisemite in the company of “anti-Zionists”!

The PCS think that Royal cleaners should get a living wage, couldn’t agree more.

A lot of real weirdos in the US hold a Adolf Hitler Birthday Party, then a smoke bomb goes off.

Norm on Jewish children and rockets.

EDL thugs in Halifax.

Prominent Israelis back Palestinian statehood drive, good thing too, I hope there is a Palestinian state shortly.

Bahrain’s Crackdown on University staff.

British journalists are not the only dead in Misrata.

The Beeb on Oman and Qatar.

There is another super injunction out, something about who screwed who, etc, Jon Slattery looks into it.

LabourStart’s campaign to help trade unionists in Bahrain.

Paul Rogers at OpenDemocracy, Libya: the view from the bunker.

Got an Ipad or Iphone? Then it is probably tracking your movements. Wow, not even I thought that Apple would commit that type of PR disaster.

A new book by a former Sarah Palin aide is coming out shortly, should be a laugh. At times, Palin make GW Bush seem like an intellectual.

Fancy eating with Nick Clegg? It will cost you £25,000.

Do a lot of flying? Old before their time at the Economist won’t thrill you.

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi still in denial as he talks with the Washington Post.

Even the barefaced lobbyists in DC are sick of supporting Middle Eastern dictators. Bad karma or just bad PR?

Unrest amongst Ahwazi Arabs in Iran goes unreported in the West, but they are subject to discrimination and terrible human rights abuses at the hands of the Ahmadinejad regime.

Tom Gross on Goldstone, cartoons and racism.

Finally, Hezbollah planning to kill Israelis abroad. Not good.

Lazy Round Up.

Whilst I am pondering things and which draft posts I should finish off, it is a good time to take a look at what others are saying.

Owen Jones has a good piece on The left needs to watch its language, and I liked this:

“Drop the jargon. Seriously, you’re trying to convince people, not write a university seminar paper. Skim-read a left-wing paper (I dare you), and all too often it seems that only someone with at least one postgraduate qualification can really understand what’s been talked about. Other socialists seem to be consciously imitating the style of English translations of early-20th Century Russian revolutionaries. That doesn’t mean you have to be patronising: just accessible to people who are outside an educated, left-wing milieu. The golden rule should always be to use the simplest possible word that accurately puts your point across.

In the early 1990s, John Carey wrote a classic book called The Intellectuals and the Masses. Its basic argument was that middle-class intellectuals were threatened by the rise of mass literacy in the 19th century. The fact that everyone could potentially have access to ideas that were the preserve of the elite was, well, threatening. So to ‘keep the masses out’, they started using all sorts of jargon and complicated words. This remains a big cultural problem in academia: but I think parts of the intellectual left have been infected with it, too. “

Over at the Index on Censorship they post on Wikileaks, Belarus And Israel Shamir.

Sadly, the post is extremely opaque and does not make the issue clear, which is that Israel Shamir/Jöran Jermas is a Far Right activist and an active antisemite. Elsewhere they argue that Ben Ali And Mubarak: Brothers In Arms. Too right.

David Allen Green on The bizarre legal world of WikiLeaks, where he makes the point:

“Furthermore, WikiLeaks has not even specified the alleged libels. It has instead made a bare and vague threat, the very sort of corporate attempt to deter public scrutiny which has led many to support the libel reform campaign.

But, as the founder of WikiLeaks himself recently signed the Libel Reform petition, there is the question as to whether there is a lack of consistency with this threat to bring a libel claim against the Guardian.

In any event, the use of a libel threat makes it clear that although WikiLeaks promotes transparency and openness for others, it does not really enjoy being scrutinized itself.

This basic lack of intellectual and legal consistency can be seen elsewhere. For example, it is reported that Assange believes WikiLeaks has some form of legal ownership in the confidential and secret information which it proposes to publish. This is an astonishing and legally incorrect view, especially when a great deal of that information was provided in breach of civil and criminal law. Assange even threatened to sue the Guardian on this remarkable basis. “

Mystical Politics looks at “Religious Leaders for 9/11 Truth” (!)

Your Friend in the North asks a few questions of the Socialist International:

“So, after a disgracefully unacceptable 22 years, the Socialist International has finally taken the decision to expel Hosni Mubarak’s Egyptian NDP. I know the heading to this item states ‘better late than never’ but perhaps ‘too little too late’ would be an equally accurate headline. The letter from the SI’s general secretary Luis Ayala does nothing to improve the situation. “

The obvious, next question is, what other scumbags and dictators are in the Socialist International and shouldn’t they too be thrown out?

Jim on the rebranding of the Labour Party, I won’t comment, lest my blood pressure explodes.

The CST blog on supposed spies, also arguing:

“This ‘Ziocentrism’, which insists on placing Israel at the centre of any Middle Eastern story, also leads people to assume their positions on any given crisis according to how it may affect Israel.”

Terry Glavin says Faisons La Révolution.

The Big Society gets an ear bashing and some questions from Chris Dillow.

Kellie on Endgame in Egypt?

Greater Surbiton on Egypt: The West faces another Bosnia moment and closer to home:

“The Egyptian crisis has already forced us to confront some painful truths. I have long greatly admired Tony Blair, but his praise for Mubarak as ‘immensely courageous and a force for good’ – even if it was in relation to Mubarak’s input into the Israeli-Palestinian peace-process rather than a general description – was simply disgraceful. Reminiscent, in fact, of Blair’s unfinest hour back in 1999, when he endorsed Vladimir Putin’s fledgling tyranny while its murderous assault on Chechnya was at its height. And look what that got us – a vicious autocracy more hostile to the West than any regime in Moscow since the Cold War.”

2011, A Slow Round Up.

I am starting 2011 slowly, and although I have a few partly completed posts hanging around I wanted to see what others were discussing.

Johnny Guitar has a few gems, Free the Saudi Arabia one, very funny and a sad tale, Ireland of the equals.

Weggis expounds Left-Wing Influences Part 1, not that I would say anything sarky about Greens, but he does have a sense of humour, which is often missing from those engaged in activism. I look forward to his critical post on negative Green Influences, I wonder if he could bring himself to write that one?

Harry Barnes is very quiet, I hope he’s well? Last month he argued A Vote Of No Confidence was needed to get the Tories out, which is a bit optimistic given the way they and the Lib-Dems have stitched things up.

Jams is thinking about signing up for the Tories, if you can read the last paragraph without laughing or a smile then I would be very surprised.

Jim has a thoughtful post on Murder in Arizona.

Chris Dillow has a well deserved poke at Jack Straw. He’s considerably more restrained than I would be. Straw was one of Blair’s most loyal servants. Nothing was beneath him and he continued that attitude when he left government. Politicians with Straw’s experience should realise that populism and stereotypes are something to be avoided at all costs. What a loathsome creature he is, making it much easier for the Far Right to put out their nauseating ideas about ethnic minorities.

Stroppy has a marvellous scoop, Gay Scientists Isolate Christian Gene.

Snoopy spots a “Zionist” vulture.

Nick Lowles on EDL gloating backfires and Killers were EDL supporters.

Rosie on books. Which reminds me I might, just might, do a few book reviews this year, wits permitting.

Rebecca asks What is B’Tselem? and comes to a neat conclusion.

Martin shows his inexhaustible sense of humour by including Tony Blair in his top 10 books of 2010. Blair’s self congratulatory piece of twisted PR and self-justification will soon be available in the binends of bookshops across Britain, at a considerably reduced price and is probably only fit for propping up a wonky table!

The Index on Censorship’s Uncut blog, “It’s forbidden to be you sometimes”.

Ten years of the “War on Terror” from Jack, “Anti-terrorism is now an end in itself; a version of Orwell’s boot stamping on a human face forever; the policy of O’Brien seeking power and control simply for its own sake.” He’s right.

Flesh Is Grass on an interesting theme, “Influential left-wing ideas” (or issues, or initiatives).

Peter Ryley has a good list of books too.

Waterloo Sunset doesn’t like Murdoch.

Dave has an uncommonly cold but pertinent post on the killings in Tucson.

I can’t help remembering that the Southern Poverty Law Centre highlighted the issue of the growth of the Extreme Right in Arizona, months back in Meet the ‘Patriots’. The SPLC’s Hate Map lists 16 groupings in Arizona.

Contested Terrain’s 2010: Year In Review. It is always a thoughtful blog, deserving of more attention.

Sarah on Christmas in Sarajevo.

Ophelia Benson says we should Listen to the banned.

Kellie has a lot of good stuff about Frontline Tunisia. I confess I had missed it as an issue, thanks for reminding us.

Adam Holland on guns and the Tea Party, loons.

Finally, Bob’s had a excellent selection of posts recently and discussions have been stimulating, bar one. The question of one state or not comes in for scrutiny. His Books of the Year 2010 is good. Balkan notes is worthy of a peruse.

Not unsurprisingly, I rather like Bob’s “Influential left-wing ideas”. We are still awaiting the “Commenter of the year” award, and no, I won’t break down in tears if I get it, but really others are more deserving (did I say that!).

Will 2011 be a good year for blogging?

What Others Say.

This is definitely not a round up, but some of the things I have read and what others say.

A Very Public Sociologist has a critical guest post from Lawrence Shaw of the NUJ, on Where Now for Trade Union Friends of Israel?

Else where Phil is a solid Labourite and covers the election of Tristram Hunt.

Adam Holland on No accounting for taste: Glenn Greenwald supports conspiracy monger Alan Hart (…or does he? See comments.)

Richard Bartholomew on the English Defence League Rally at Israeli Embassy.

Bob argues for Anti-fascism in a new era.

Café Turco ponders Serbia.

Contested Terrain examines Tea Parties – Racism, Anti-Semitism And The Militia Impulse.

Building bridges between British Jews and Muslims at the CST.

Comrade Osler is a bit pessimistic in Socialism in the sober decade.

Edmund finds Christine O’Donnell somewhat embarrassing.

Engage has a positive potpourri of intelligent and informative posts but here are just two: “As a Jew” logic is not appropriate in public debate – David Hirsh responds to Ran Greenstein and US antizionist academic embraces Holocaust denial.

Eric Reeves has two pieces in Dissent, Darkness Visible: The UN Looks at Darfur but Refuses to See and Arming Khartoum: China’s Complicity in the Darfur Genocide. Here’s an extract:

“Where else do weapons from China and other countries end up? Many of the Janjaweed have been recycled into various paramilitary forces in Darfur, including the Popular Defense Force, the Border Guards, and the Central Police. These are often the vicious enforcers within the camps for displaced persons, and in the urban areas of Darfur—and have recently been implicated in targeted killings of camp leaders. Khartoum makes sure they are never short of weapons or ammunition.

Despite overwhelming evidence, going back five years, China refuses to take responsibility for the conspicuous violations of the Darfur arms embargo, even as Chinese weapons and ammunition—clearly dated after 2005—have continued to flow steadily into the region. This has been established beyond any doubt. Similarly, the UN Security Council and its Darfur Sanctions Committee have done nothing about Khartoum’s five-year violation of the complete ban on offensive military overflights in Darfur. Sensing that UN diplomatic attention—as well as that of the United States, Canada, and the EU—is now focused on the referenda for South Sudan and Abyei, China is brazenly defying multiple UN Security Council resolutions, and doing so by challenging the integrity of an independent UN investigating body—on no factual basis.”

Charlie on SureStart: A Marxist Approach.

Flesh Is Grass has a lovely post, I am not antisemitic because I don’t feel antisemitic and she reminds us of the MacPherson report’s 6.17.

Greens Engage on Gaza’s religious hardliners.

Emily Butselaar at the Index on Censorship considers Wikileaks:

“It’s easy to forget just how many stories WikiLeaks has broken. Its tremendous success has meant the site has often struggled under the volume of users. It has faced down corrupt governments, investment banks and the famously litigious Church of Scientology, made public top-secret internet censorship lists and broken injunctions — as in the case of the press gag granted to UK solicitors Carter Ruck in the interests of their client, Trafigura.”

Judeosphere wonders Does the Internet Undermine Holocaust Denial?

The Guardian has two interesting articles, Secrecy deal with Switzerland could let Britons avoid £40bn in taxes:

“Wealthy Britons could dodge £40bn in tax payments after the UK agreed ahead of negotiations on a tax deal with Switzerland that the country could maintain its traditional banking secrecy.

Thousands of higher rate taxpayers, who pay 50% tax on their income in the UK, will be allowed to keep their secret accounts in Zurich and Geneva and pay a low tax rate after the Treasury failed to secure agreement on sharing bank details.”

And Watchdog to meet Home Office about plans to track email and phone use:

“The information commissioner is to meet the Home Office to clarify his concerns over the potential privacy risks involved in a revived Whitehall project to track the email, internet and mobile phone use of everyone in Britain.
…
Home Office sources say details of the “interception modernisation scheme” are to be published within weeks and will build on Labour’s proposal to require mobile phone and internet service providers to collect and store the “traffic details” of all internet and mobile phone use.

The decision to push ahead with the “Big Brother” surveillance scheme follows pressure from the security services, including MI5 and GCHQ, as well as Scotland Yard, who have argued that it is essential to bring phone-tapping into the internet age.

The Home Office stresses that the scheme would not give the police and security services access to the content of emails or text messages but case-by-case access to the traffic details of who contacted whom at what time and from what location.”

So the current crop of Tories in power are for greater surveillance and letting tax dodgers off with billions.

Hmm, that’s just the start, these lot are seriously trying to out-Tory Maggie Thatcher, not good.

A Few Things.

I meant to cover some items in more detail, but never get around to them and with a host of draft posts I thought I would try remember some things that I saw.

Azarmehr has excellent coverage on Iran, in particular the plight of .

Among the EDL – Leicester 2010

The extraordinary passion of Liu Xiaobo.

Stuck with Outlook? This might be worth a look at.

Israel’s political class and their 10 worse errors.

Ubuntu 10.10 Benchmarks.

Irish Passports, Russia and Israel, my bet is that there won’t be too much fuss in the press and no shouts of indignation in the wider media. I doubt that the West wouldn’t want to upset the Russian elites. Bread, which side is buttered and all that.

The Tea Party and the EDL? Bigots congregating?

The Livingstone Formulation and the issue surrounding it deserves more scrutiny. Here it is as a PDF, Accusations of malicious intent in debates about the Palestine-Israel conflict and about antisemitism.

France and a new 1968?

Rich Iott, Tea Partyer in Ohio has a secret, he likes dressing up as a Nazi. Yes, a real Nazi, a Waffen SS one. The group that he “re-enacts” are the 5th SS Panzer Division Wiking, they committed many war crimes during WW2.

Richard Wilson looked at Migration Watch’s defamation case against Sally Bercow.

The New Statesman blog has more.

Yaacov Lozowick’s review of Shlomo Sand’s The Invention of the Jewish People:

Views from the streets of Leicester.

Worse than hashish? Gazans are fighting back against Hamas by brewing their own wine!

Finally, EDL – Here Come The Hun!

Some Round Up?

Been away for a few days and it is rather hard to catch up with moving events, but here is a bit of a round up as recompense:

Richard Millet has a persuasive post on Those “disloyal Jews” and the racist thinking that under pins it.

CiF Watch covers Hamas Huggers.

Entdinglichung highlights how appallingly Syrian Kurds are treated in Denmark.

Some golden oldies from Engage. I particularly like Dave Rich’s If I say “Zionist” not “Jew” then I can’t be antisemitic, can I?

Contested Terrain has many informative posts, including a pointer to The Myth Of Jewish Communism and AK Press To Fox News’ Glenn Beck: We Have A Lot In Common.

For a background to Glenn Beck’s weird views see Adam Holland’s coverage.

Judeosphere And The Crazy Just Keeps On Coming…

Left Foot Forward on Clegg completes Thatcherite conversion with household debt metaphor.

Dave Osler on Benedict XVI: Antichrist, or just a bit confused?

Your Friend in the North is having none of it, Who do you think you are kidding, Mr Ratzinger?

Weggis on the case of two Greenpeace activists.

Jim on the Swedish elections.

Greens Engage on Passing over antisemitism and EU Commissioner Karel de Gucht.

Eric Reeves and The death of ‘Ahmed’ of Kassab camp.

Finally, a host of political delights at Peter Tatchell’s.

Update 1: I missed this marvellous post from Stroppyblog, More taking pops at the Pope !

Roll Around the Blogs.

I haven’t done a round up of blogs for ages, and been away so I might have missed some out:

Bob on Chomsky and the X Factor, I dare you not to smile.

Phil is becoming a counter Iain Dale, The UK’s 100 Worst Political Blogs. Sadly, I only made number 76, should have been at least 2 or 3.

Two from Stroppyblog, Why the left shouldn’t vote for Diane Abbott and A message to Tube passengers from Tube staff.

The Contentious Centrist’s History Lesson: The Jews of Lebanon.

The CST on Arab European League fined for Holocaust Denial cartoon.

Dave Osler says Welcome back to Britain, Mr Nadir.

Flesh is Grass on Unlucky roads – Roma in Europe.

Greens Engage covering something I missed, Playing politics: summer camps in Gaza.

Jack of Kent tackles a tricky topic: What is liberalism?

More than two delicious posts at Judeosphere, The Unintentional Irony of Chas Freeman and The CIA Paid Me To Write This Blog Post.

Martin’s hackles get raised and understandably so, Greenbelt: from Bible-bashing to Israel-bashing.

A guest post at Seismic Shock makes a similar point, Christian Friends of Israel – and Christian Foes.

The New Centrist is back.

Snoopy’s When the undead meets the village idiot.

The Poor Mouth and Carla Bruni.

The Daily (Maybe) on NHS Direct.

And Weggis’s 10 Things we didn’t know before Tony Blair published his memoirs.

Mystical Politics on rank political cynicism, Are we losing our minds over Cordoba House?

Over at the Z Word blog, Sudan’s Nuclear Ambitions.

Obliged to Offend has an admission, The Burka – Why I changed my mind.

Richard Millet on Gideon Levy packs them in at Amnesty.

Anti-fascist Around Up.

Kirklees Unity has news of BNPers enjoying themselves in the company of German neo-Nazis.

It also asks the question: File on 4 – Is far-right extremism a threat?

Lancaster Unity on Teachers union ‘terrified’ of BNP and BNP teacher’s misconduct hearing postponed.