Muammar Mary Poppins Gaddafi

The Language of a Dictator
The Language of a Dictator
Recently landed from Venezuela? reports of his resignation and flight have been greatly misinterpreted. Yet Gaddafi’s hours remaining in power seem numbered. I predict his destination will be to Zimbabwe, to seek consolation from his good friend and fellow pan-Africanist tyrant Mugabe. In case Mugabe’s regime topples as part of the regional revolution, The Guardian has a few more suggestions for Gaddafi’s retirement.

Perhaps the Leader won’t be utilising his umbrella for an expeditious exit though, for it may be difficult to abandon his precious Libyan Rocket.

Libya Links

Expect a free Libya
The mad dog of the Middle East
UN condemns Israeli demolitions
Pro-Gadhafi forces fight bloody battle as protests sweep Libya
Libya’s falling tyrant
Analysis: Zimbabwe’s Mugabe unlikely to be swept from power
Qadafi remains one of few constants for troubled Libya
When tyrants want tear gas, the UK has always been happy to oblige
Guy Rundle:

‘The Libyan revolution makes it clear that the Iraqi people could have, and almost certainly would have, stood up to Saddam in this current wave of uprisings?—?taking upon themselves the responsibility for their own liberation, and the sacrifice of it.’

@SultanAlQassemi: Al Jazeera: Libya’s resigned ambassador to the Arab League says Chief of the Libyan Army is under house arrest. #Libya #
UPDATE 1-Libyan embassy in Malaysia calls crackdown “barbaric, criminal”
UN Security Council to meet on Libya
Letter from Tripoli: an eyewitness account
Libya violence continues, over 300 dead
#Libya on knife-edge
THE ROLE OF CIVIL SOCIETY IN THE DEMOCRATISATION OF GLOBAL GOVERNANCE INSTITUTIONS: From ‘Soft Power’ to Collective Decision-Making? Saif Al-Islam Alqadhafi

Palestine / Israel Links

Jerusalem panel takes three sensitive construction plans off agenda – no, not as a result of Ian McEwan’s arrogant imperialist acceptance twaddle in Jerusalem, but more likely as part of an underhanded deal with the US in return for its veto of the illegal settlements resolution in the UN.
McEwan accepts award, but still attacks Israeli settlements
Knesset postpones vote over panels of inquiry into leftist NGOs
Nobody Could Have Predicted (Part 8)
Settlers uproot 270 olive trees near Nablus
Witnesses: Israel demolishes tents in West Bank village
Israel isolated and under threat
Poetry of Resistance, recited by Sudhanva Deshpande
Palestinian Gandhi, mark II
American Activist, Aishah Schwartz, “Now is not the time for an International March on Rafah.”
Egypt reopens border for travellers from Gaza Strip

Egypt Links

To Celebrate The #Jan25 Revolution, Egyptian Names His Firstborn “Facebook”
Egyptians Ponder Israel Peace Terms
The upheaval in Egypt: what impact on U.S. imperialism

Other Links

Obama Requests Funding For Venezuelan Opposition in 2012 Budget
The CIA’s Secret War in Iraq – an oldy but a goody
‘We Stand With You as You Stood With Us’: Statement to Workers of Wisconsin by Kamal Abbas of Egypt’s Centre for Trade Unions and Workers Services
Behind TV Analysts, Pentagon’s Hidden Hand
The NYT’s journalistic obedience – Glenn Greenwald

Following the dictates of the U.S. Government for what they can and cannot publish is, of course, anything but new for the New York Times. In his lengthy recent article on WikiLeaks and Julian Assange, NYT Executive Editor Bill Keller tried to show how independent his newspaper is by boasting that they published their story of the Bush NSA program even though he has “vivid memories of sitting in the Oval Office as President George W. Bush tried to persuade [him] and the paper’s publisher to withhold the eavesdropping story”; Keller neglected to mention that the paper learned about the illegal program in mid-2004, but followed Bush’s orders to conceal it from the public for over a year — until after Bush was safely re-elected.

The tail wags the dog – cynical and blissfully accurate analysis of the rotten state of Australian politics, particularly in regard to the Catch the Fire scum.

These groups are organised and able to bring far greater pressure to bear on our politics than their numbers dictate. At the ballot box, they record barely a blip in voting trends one way or another but behind the scenes, be it in byzantine factional struggles conducted over mobile phones or through fervent email campaigns, our politicians invariably sit up and take notice.

It is madness and a perversion of democracy. Real political leadership would dismiss these groups as the nutters, ideologues and meddlers they are.

And therein lies the nub of the matter.

Villawood guards blow whistle on abuses at detention centre