amr moussa’s loss of memory
Posted: March 20, 2011 Filed under: arabs, noineversaidthat, yesisaidthat Leave a comment »
recently, amr moussa surprised the public in an interview with democracy now in which he openly supported the january 25th revolution and was full of praise for “our youth” who accomplished the unthinkable thing of ending mubaraks decades-long rule. apparently, it had slipped his mind that he himself used to work for that regime as a minister during several years.
but let’s not be too harsh on him; he’s an old man, it’s been a couple years since he served as a minister, and he might have simply forgotten about it. he is over 70 years old, after all, and his long term memory may not be in best condition anymore.
unfortunately, his short term memory doesn’t appear to be much healthier either.
in a stunningly ridiculous move, he managed last week to get the arab league to demand a no fly zone over libya from the UN, and then, when the UN actually passed the resolution and the international community stepped in and started to enforce it, he immediately went over to complaining about it, claiming that excessive military force was used and that a number of civilans were killed – a statement he took directly from libyan state tv, which, as everyone knows, is gaddafi’s propaganda machine.
as it happens, his repeated loss of memory in fact turned out to be beneficial to him. by allowing the UN resolution to pass, he can make sure that the west will get rid of gaddafi (who he of course hates, just like everyone else), without him or any of his buddies having to lift a finger. at the same time, complaining about the intervention just after it started will allow him to capitalize on anti-western and anti-US reflexes in egypt, therefore earning him a few more votes in the upcoming election.
really, who would have thought that memory loss could be that useful?
state department spokesman crowley quits
Posted: March 19, 2011 Filed under: earnest truth, regrettable loss Leave a comment »speaking the truth can be dangerous. especially so, it seems, when you work for the white house and dare to speak the truth about something the pentagon is involved in.
last sunday, the state department’s spokesman pj crowley, one of the few people there who actually made some sense, had to quit his job because he called the ridiculous, counterproductive and stupid treatment of whistleblower-suspect manning “ridiculous, counterproductive and stupid”.
the message? ”detainee abuse is allowed – speaking out against it isn’t”.
accomplishments in nuclear technology
Posted: March 17, 2011 Filed under: according to experts, perfectly safe Leave a comment »william tucker, author of pro-nuclear-power-books, emphasized in an interview yesterday how great it is that the containment structures at fukushima daiichi facility survived one of the largest earthquakes in history, adding that “they can certainly take credit for that” (“they” presumably being the people from the nuclear power industry).
i wonder, did he expect any applause for this accomplishment?
competition in hypocrisy
Posted: March 16, 2011 Filed under: arabs, earnest truth, hillary Leave a comment »in an apparent match to top each other in hypocrisy, hillary clinton and the iranians this week both gave an effort to contradict themselves on the matter of the arab popular uprisings. hillary, while touring egypt and lauding the popular uprising there and shaking hands with people on tahrir square, made it clear that the same kind of protests asking for the same kind of things like democracy, human rights and accountability of their government in bahrain are a totally different thing – because the protestors there are mostly shiia, and that’s the same kind of religion the iranias have, which makes them, you know, bad people. the iranians, on the other hand, are trying to convince everyone that the protests in bahrain are actually a matter of shiia vs. the world, and are therefore a good thing, even though the same kind of protest which took place in their own country was put down with brutal force.
i’d consider it a tie so far. stay tuned, round two is coming up just after the break!
