Skip to main content

Bush and Kissinger invade Beijing

All that one can say about the following report in The Notion about Bush and Kissinger in Beijing is - yuk and yikes!

Yep, not only is ol' George W strutting around Beijing, but there is the redoubtable Henry K [in some circle regarded as a war criminal] too.

The Notion [published by The Nation] reports:

"Remember Nero fiddling while the world burns? Nero's got nothing on George W Bush. Hell, at least Nero was displaying a demonstrative skill. No, while Russia shells the Georgia capital, while the US is engaged in two military occupations, while unemployment numbers spike at home, Bush has remained in Beijing past the opening ceremonies to flirt with beach volleyball players, stare longingly at US softball star Jennie Finch and give pep talks to the US teams so they "go for the gold". (He was greeted by US athletes with applause described to me as "tepid.")

Bush then delivered a ham handed Sunday sermon where he said, "No state, man, or woman should fear the influence of a loving religion." (Do loving religions call for crusades? Just checking.)

Almost everywhere Bush has gone during the Olympics he's been shadowed by that paragon of love Henry Kissinger. These have been in so many ways, the Kissinger Games--a demonstration of how brutally efficient a market dictatorship can be. It's Pinochet's Chile with red flags and Kissinger has entered his personal paradise. NBC has done all it could to spread this gospel of the Kissinger games. As Ken Silverstein has reported, NBC's China expert, Joshua Cooper-Ramos, heads Kissinger's Beijing office (not that NBC has alerted us to this fact.) But NBC did take the time to pan the cameras to George and Laura when the Iraqi Olympic Team showed up. "You can feel the energy in this stadium, said the banally ubiquitous Matt Lauer. That's journalism for you under market Stalinism. IOC president Jacques Rogge called the Beijing games, "The gateway to the future."Yikes. I could use some of that loving religion right about now. Tomorrow maybe. I'll actually talk about some of the sports!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Robert Fisk's predictions for the Middle East in 2013

There is no gain-saying that Robert Fisk, fiercely independent and feisty to boot, is the veteran journalist and author covering the Middle East. Who doesn't he know or hasn't he met over the years in reporting from Beirut - where he lives?  In his latest op-ed piece for The Independent he lays out his predictions for the Middle East for 2013. Read the piece in full, here - well worthwhile - but an extract... "Never make predictions in the Middle East. My crystal ball broke long ago. But predicting the region has an honourable pedigree. “An Arab movement, newly-risen, is looming in the distance,” a French traveller to the Gulf and Baghdad wrote in 1883, “and a race hitherto downtrodden will presently claim its due place in the destinies of Islam.” A year earlier, a British diplomat in Jeddah confided that “it is within my knowledge... that the idea of freedom does at present agitate some minds even in Mecca...” So let’s say this for 2013: the “Arab Awakening” (the t...

Palestinian children in irons. UK to investigate

Not for the first time does MPS wonder what sort of country it is when Israel so flagrently allows what can only be described as barbaric and inhuman behaviour to be undertaken by, amongst others, its IDF. No one has seemingly challenged Israel's actions. However, perhaps it's gone a bridge too far - as The Independent reports. The Foreign Office revealed last night that it would be challenging the Israelis over their treatment of Palestinian children after a report by a delegation of senior British lawyers revealed unconscionable practices, such as hooding and the use of leg irons. In the first investigation of its kind, a team of nine senior legal figures examined how Palestinians as young as 12 were treated when arrested. Their shocking report Children in Military Custody details claims that youngsters are dragged from their beds in the middle of the night, have their wrists bound behind their backs, and are blindfolded and made to kneel or lie face down in military vehi...

Wow!.....some "visitor" to Ferryland in Newfoundland