Naomi Klein Crosses Picket Line
Naomi Klein is now arguing for a vote for Kerry in the presidential elections. Her arguments appeared in the Guardian in the UK.
The question is at what point do we stop voting for the "lesser evil." The answer of the union leaders and the "Demogreens" in America would seem to be "never." It is never a good time to break away from the two party system. In reality, as Naomi Klein acknowledges, it is a "one party system"...one party for the rich and powerful.

The Republicans will always field some unconscionable travesty and therefore the Democrats will expect to profit from this....so the "other team" batting for capitalism will be elected.

Nader/Comajo are anti-war and anti-corporation. Kerry is not. A movement against the parties of the corporations can be built around the Nader/Comajo campaign. Naomi's only argument for voting for Kerry is to expose him: it is not good enough. This is not a fight for the soul of the Democratic Party. Big business has bought and paid for the soul of the Democratic Party.

Nader detailed some of the dirty tricks which the Democrats have used against him in an interview with Amy Goodman
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/07/07/1354230

No saviours from on high are going to deliver us and Nader does not believe that any more than I do. People who vote for Nader/Comajo are rejecting the doctrine of the lesser evil for good and all. People in this country ought to understand this - is Blair less evil than Howard? It is a time for "difficult decisions" ....In this country the time is ripe to oppose both parties of war, both parties of the corporations - and the same is true of America.

Knave or fool?
"I did not have sex with that woman, Miss Lewinsky."

Politicians (ahem) fail to tell the truth all the time. The issue with Blair is the enormity of the consequences of his utterances over Iraq.

I once had to apologise to an OFSTED inspector who had made a blatantly untrue statement because I could not prove that he knew any better. I had to concede that he might not be lying, he might be unbelievably ignorant.

Likewise we cannot prove that Blair didn't actually believe that Iraq had Weapons of Mass destruction which posed an immediate threat. Perhaps he thought that they had these weapons which they would use as a last resort if invaded so the best thing to do was to invade them.

So either a liar or criminally insane

How political correctness is used
Godfrey Bloom was given a seat on the European Parliament's women's rights committee on Tuesday.

But he told the media: "No self-respecting small businessman with a brain in the right place would ever employ a lady of child-bearing age." He then smiled at the camera and said "That's not politically correct is it."
Media stories - often invented or exaggerated - pretend that there is a "climate of political correctness" or that "it has gone too far." And this is the consequence. The most disgusting opinions are OK so long as you can smile and say, "That's not politically correct is it."
I wonder how many women will vote UKIP next time around :)

A senior moment
Mood:  accident prone
Now Playing: Madonna
"You know you're just like your sister."
"But Sir I don't have a sister!"
"Yes but if you had a sister you'd be just like her."
(The older girl's surname was Pigg, the younger girl's surname was Hogg)

Fahrenheit 9/11
Now Playing: Aimee Mann
The White House has taken Osama Bin Laden off the "Ten Most Wanted" list.
They have put on Michael Moore instead.

Moore's film which smashed its way through a cordon of corporate censorship is an astonishing work of film journalism. The job which a good journalist or an honest politician (hah!) ought to be doing is being done by a TV comic and done brilliantly.

Understandably the establishment has pulled out all the stops to rubbish Michael Moore but the facts in the film speak for themselves and the Republicans have failed to address a single one of those facts.

The links between Bush and the Saudi Royal Family - undisputed.
The assistance given to the Bin Laden family to flee America - undisputed.
The pressure on the intelligence services to "prove" Iraq the villain of the piece and exonerate Saudi Arabia - undisputed.

There are two points in the film where anyone not made out of stone (or New Labour!) would be moved to tears. They both show mothers crying out in anguish against the war...one Iraqi and the other a patriotic right-wing democrat from Moore's home town of Flint.

Another memorable figure is the army corporal who said "he would not go back to Iraq to kill other poor people" on behalf of the corporations who are then shown gloating about the wealth which they can reap from Iraq.

In a priceless sequence Moore approaches US politicians to see how many of them will sign up their sons to go and fight in Iraq......guess how many takers he gets.....

Moore is not a socialist but he is an excellent film-maker and the hatred of the Bush camp against him exceeds any feelings they may have for the lacklustre Democratic candidates

Go and see the film. Take the family.

Songs about OFSTED
Mood:  chatty
Now Playing: Mariah Carey - I can't live without you
Nothing is good enough
(The chorus says it all)

Once upon a time is how it always goes
but I'll make it brief
what was started out with such excitement
now I'd gladly end end with relief
in what now has become a familiar motif:


That nothing is good enough
for people like you
who have to have someone take the fall
and something to sabotage--
determined to lose it all


Critics at their worst could never criticize
the way that you do
no, there's no one else, I find,
to undermine or dash a hope
quite like you
and you do it so casually, too


Cause nothing is good enough
for people like you
who have to have someone take the fall

and something to sabotage--
determined to lose it all


Ladies and gentlemen--
here's exhibit A
didn't I try again?
And did the effort pay?
Wouldn't a smarter man
simply walk away?


It doesn't really help that you can never say
what you're looking for
but you'll know it when you hear it,
know it when you see it walk through the door
So you say--
so you've said many times before


But nothing is good enough
for people like you
who have to have someone take the fall
and something to sabotage--
determined to lose it all

Hilarious consequences
Yesterday was, let me think, fun is not the word which springs to mind.
I have been having a lot of angina lately,
I chatted with my GP,
The GP ref'd me to cardiologist
The cardiologist ref'd me to casualty,
I spent the day in casualty with ppl coming in and out of the cubicle asking
me the same question and getting my name wrong; putting an oxygen mask on
me; taking my ECG under the impression I was Mr Benson.......Then they lost
my blood test results (labelled McMillan or possibly MacMillan) with
hilarious consequences.
It was a whole comedy of errors. I spent my time reading Arabian Nights so it was not so bad.
And in the end....well they suggested I keep taking the tablets!
Laugh!

(and at this point I will say that Crawley Hospital have been very good to me over the years and they saved my life 5 years ago when I had a heart attack. This is just a funny story.)

Politest anarchists
In East Grinstead we seem to have the politest anarchists in the world.

Their slogan is not "kill the police" or "strangle the last capitalist with the guts of the last priest"....it is "question authority."

Now I am (rather obviously) not an anarchist but I will go along with that one. Any authority worth its salt can stand questioning. And that is why the concept of role models is wrong. They do as much harm to the "messiah" as they do to the "disciples" (metaphor!)

Role model for our charges?
Now Playing: Aimee Mann: driving sideways
In school today we received the most pompous announcement I have ever seen. "Staff should maintain a reasonable standard of dress. Remember that we are role models for our young charges."

Some confusion between "role model" and "fashion plate" here I think. I imagine my pupils turning up with clothing like mine. I shudder.

This evening I received an email from a member at the other end of the county who has received the same pompous message so perhaps this originates with West Sussex or the government :)

This is absurd. In the first place no teacher in the school dresses in a remotely outrageous way (T shirts with unedited comments about colleagues for example!)

More importantly if my pupils learn nothing else from me they learn "no role models." There are several reasons for this but the main one is that they ought to be thinking for themselves.

Another reason is exemplified by one of my sons. He admired the unlikely triumvirate of Che Guevara, Bob Marley and American comedian Bill Hicks. These were all dead and could therefore not betray. Any living role model can betray. Don't have any. Think for yourself

To quote The Life of Brian
Brian: "You are all different."
Chorus: "Yes master we're all different"
lone voice: "I'm not!"

Open Letter to Soames
My MP is Nicholas Soames. I thought it appropriate to write to him because he was severely critical of the Daily Mirror for its alleged torture photos...when there are clearly larger issues involved.....

Dear Mr Soames

It has been reported in the New York Times that prisoners have been tortured by the United States authorities and the report has been repeated by the world's media.

This is not a case of a dubious photograph in a newspaper; nor is it a case of the work of a few "rogue elements." The report makes it clear that this is the specific torture of terrorist suspects authorised at the highest level by the Justice Department and the CIA. The complaints have not come from left-wing extremists or Guardian readers but from the FBI.

Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, thought to have helped plan 9/11 terror attacks, was strapped down, forcibly pushed under water and made to believe he might drown; that and other techniques were authorized by set of secret rules for interrogation of high-level Qaeda prisoners that were endorsed by Justice Dept and CIA; rules first adopted by Bush administration after 9/11 for handling detainees and may have helped establish new understanding throughout government that officials would have greater freedom to deal harshly with detainees; methods used by CIA are so severe that senior officials of Federal Bureau of Investigation directed its agents to stay out of interviews for fear of being compromised in future criminal cases. (New York Times summary)

I have three questions for you.

1) Are you proud to be associated with this use of torture, a torture method copied directly from the Gestapo?

2) Do you consider that a confession extracted by these methods should be used to condemn a suspect?

3) If you do not support these methods, do you intend to speak out against them.

(I have also circulated this letter to the grinsteadstopwar group set up by my sons.