Saturday, September 13, 2008

RETURN OF THE KING ~ A Pictorial Essay



Denethor, demented Steward of Gondor, has grown too fond 
of the power and wealth entrusted to him.
Alas! The Inflamed Sphincter of Power has poisoned the very soul of Mordoria...
Aragorn returns from the political wilderness 
to reclaim the throne of Gondor...
Meanwhile, Dr Gollumno (a former owner of The Sphincter), 
bides his time to snatch it back, plotting and scheming all the while...
But Dr G is destined to be the one who finally destroys his "Precioussss" 
- The Evil Sphincter of Power!
Aragorn is crowned King
in a moving ceremony.
The White Tree flowers once again in Gondor, 
liberated from the Curse of Dinosauron.
True love blossoms and flourishes at last in Tanah Tujuh.

The Little People
are the heroes of the day, hooray!



People & Power: Malaysia's Internal Security Act

Aljazeera uploaded this video on YouTube on 9 September 2008. Three days later, Malaysian home minister Syed Hamid Albar decided to play the Bad Guy and arrest three innocent citizens under the indefensibly cruel ISA, in what could be the start of another terror campaign against democratic principles and the people's yearning for internal regime change. I viewed this powerful short documentary on Din Merican's blog and immediately decided to spread the message.



FROM ALJAZEERA:

Malaysia's Internal Security Act or ISA has its roots in the 1950s, when the country, then under British colonial rule, was fighting a Communist insurgency.

Almost six decades on and the Communist threat has gone but the law remains.

Opponents say many of the act's original checks and balances have been eroded over the years and the ISA is now being used to stifle political dissent.

But the government says the law is a necessary tool in the pursuit of social stability.

Aloke Devichand reports on those fighting to have the ISA abolished once and for all.

Friday, September 12, 2008

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Excuse me, who's the defence minister and why is he keeping quiet?

From Malaysiakini, 11 Sepember 2008

Something smells rotten here. I think it's stale Umno sandiwara (wag-the-dog spin).

First of all, the only loud noises and general commotion I've been hearing have been from some Umno throwbacks up north who still haven't accepted defeat after GE12 and Permatang Pauh. When Gerakan was in control of Penang under Koh Tsu Koon, these junior warlords were able to feed their greedy retirement plans with land theft and all kinds of financial shenanigans. Tsu Koon was either blissfully unaware - or he didn't want to rock the BN boat.

Now that Pakatan Rakyat has taken over and exposed the shocking extent of corruption and abuse of power under BN misrule, it's like some heavy stone has been upturned, causing a huge flurry of panic and confusion amidst the secret colony of tiny critters that have lived under the protection of that stone for decades.

And so, all their angst and anger is being targeted at their former ally, ex-CM Koh, whom they blame for losing Penang to the enemy. That's all these Umno twits know how to do: lose an election, blame the leader.

Now does that qualify as "a national crisis in ethnic relations?" Not unless you're really desperate for an excuse to declare martial law - because that may be the only way left to cling on to power for just a few more months.

General Abdul Aziz, I suggest you relak, brudder - and don't pretend you're only doing your job. We know you and some of your colleagues in the army have profited from eight years of Najib Razak as defence minister. Of course, you're required to show at least a modicum of loyalty to Umno because the party has served you so well.

However, the ultimate head of the army - the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces - is NOT Najib Razak but the Yang di Pertuan Agong. Please remember that and be mindful that you do not become anybody's puppet.
A KIND COMMENTER ALERTED ME TO THE FACT THAT GENERAL ABDUL AZIZ SPECIFICALLY NAMED UMNO IN HIS PUBLIC STATEMENT. HOWEVER, THE ENGLISH-LANGUAGE MEDIA DISINGENUOUSLY OMITTED THIS IMPORTANT DETAIL (PLEASE READ THE COMMENTS SECTION!) IF THIS IS INDEED THE CASE, I HEREBY TENDER MY HUMBLE APOLOGIES TO THE GOOD GENERAL FOR HAVING SUSPECTED HIM OF BEING A MOUTHPIECE FOR THE DEFENCE MINISTER. I HAD CONSIDERED DELETING THIS POST BECAUSE IT DOES THE GENERAL A GRAVE INJUSTICE AND PUTS HIM IN A NEGATIVE LIGHT. HOWEVER, I'LL LET THE POST STAY WITH THE INCLUSION OF THIS DISCLAIMER.

There is no possibility of May 13 recurring.

Why do I say that? The documentary evidence that has emerged since 1969 clearly reveals that May 13 was also an Umno sandiwara masterminded by a handful of conspirators in a hurry to seize power from Tunku Abdul Rahman. Never mind if their plot required the blood sacrifice of hundreds of innocent lives. Remember, the police field forces contributed by transporting truckloads of Umno berserkers across statelines to create havoc in the urban areas, knowing full well the local Malays wouldn't suddenly turn violent against Chinese and Indian neighbors they had known for generations.

And who was the ringleader of the coup d'etat in May 1969? The father of the current defence minister, no less. Let's not assume the Malaysian people are stupid enough to be fooled twice with the same evil tactic.

Memo from Cairo: 9/11 Rumors That Become Conventional Wisdom

(Photo: Shawn Baldwin for The New York Times, 2007)

The planning and execution of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, are a continuing topic of conversation all over Cairo.

By MICHAEL SLACKMAN
September 8, 2008 | The New York Times

CAIRO — Seven years later, it remains conventional wisdom here that Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda could not have been solely responsible for the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and that the United States and Israel had to have been involved in their planning, if not their execution, too.

Many in Cairo see the attacks as part of an anti-Muslim plot.

This is not the conclusion of a scientific survey, but it is what routinely comes up in conversations around the region — in a shopping mall in Dubai, in a park in Algiers, in a cafe in Riyadh and all over Cairo.

“Look, I don’t believe what your governments and press say. It just can’t be true,” said Ahmed Issab, 26, a Syrian engineer who lives and works in the United Arab Emirates. “Why would they tell the truth? I think the U.S. organized this so that they had an excuse to invade Iraq for the oil.”

It is easy for Americans to dismiss such thinking as bizarre. But that would miss a point that people in this part of the world think Western leaders, especially in Washington, need to understand: That such ideas persist represents the first failure in the fight against terrorism — the inability to convince people here that the United States is, indeed, waging a campaign against terrorism, not a crusade against Muslims.

“The United States should be concerned because in order to tell people that there is a real evil, they too have to believe it in order to help you,” said Mushairy al-Thaidy, a columnist in the Saudi-owned regional newspaper Asharq al Awsat. “Otherwise, it will diminish your ability to fight terrorism. It is not the kind of battle you can fight on your own; it is a collective battle.”

There were many reasons people here said they believed that the attacks of 9/11 were part of a conspiracy against Muslims. Some had nothing to do with Western actions, and some had everything to do with Western policies.

Again and again, people said they simply did not believe that a group of Arabs — like themselves — could possibly have waged such a successful operation against a superpower like the United States. But they also said that Washington’s post-9/11 foreign policy proved that the United States and Israel were behind the attacks, especially with the invasion of Iraq.

“Maybe people who executed the operation were Arabs, but the brains? No way,” said Mohammed Ibrahim, 36, a clothing-store owner in the Bulaq neighborhood of Cairo. “It was organized by other people, the United States or the Israelis.”

The rumors that spread shortly after 9/11 have been passed on so often that people no longer know where or when they first heard them. At this point, they have heard them so often, even on television, that they think they must be true.

First among these is that Jews did not go to work at the World Trade Center on that day. Asked how Jews might have been notified to stay home, or how they kept it a secret from co-workers, people here wave off the questions because they clash with their bedrock conviction that Jews are behind many of their troubles and that Western Jews will go to any length to protect Israel.


“Why is it that on 9/11, the Jews didn’t go to work in the building,” said Ahmed Saied, 25, who works in Cairo as a driver for a lawyer. “Everybody knows this. I saw it on TV, and a lot of people talk about this.”

Zein al-Abdin, 42, an electrician, who was drinking tea and chain-smoking cheap Cleopatra cigarettes in Al Shahat, a cafe in Bulaq, grew more and more animated as he laid out his thinking about what happened on Sept. 11.

“What matters is we think it was an attack against Arabs,” he said of the passenger planes crashing into American targets. “Why is it that they never caught him, bin Laden? How can they not know where he is when they know everything? They don’t catch him because he hasn’t done it. What happened in Iraq confirms that it has nothing to do with bin Laden or Qaeda. They went against Arabs and against Islam to serve Israel, that’s why.”

There is a reason so many people here talk with casual certainty — and no embarrassment — about the United States attacking itself to have a reason to go after Arabs and help Israel. It is a reflection of how they view government leaders, not just in Washington, but here in Egypt and throughout the Middle East. They do not believe them. The state-owned media are also distrusted. Therefore, they think that if the government is insisting that bin Laden was behind it, he must not have been.

“Mubarak says whatever the Americans want him to say, and he’s lying for them, of course,” Mr. Ibrahim said of Hosni Mubarak, Egypt’s president.

Americans might better understand the region, experts here said, if they simply listen to what people are saying — and try to understand why — rather than taking offense. The broad view here is that even before Sept. 11, the United States was not a fair broker in the Arab-Israeli conflict, and that it then capitalized on the attacks to buttress Israel and undermine the Muslim Arab world.

The single greatest proof, in most people’s eyes, was the invasion of Iraq. Trying to convince people here that it was not a quest for oil or a war on Muslims is like convincing many Americans that it was, and that the 9/11 attacks were the first step.

“It is the result of widespread mistrust, and the belief among Arabs and Muslims that the United States has a prejudice against them,” said Wahid Abdel Meguid, deputy director of the government-financed Al Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, the nation’s premier research center. “So they never think the United States is well intentioned, and they always feel that whatever it does has something behind it.”


Hisham Abbas, 22, studies tourism at Cairo University and hopes one day to work with foreigners for a living. But he does not give it a second thought when asked about Sept. 11. He said it made no sense at all that Mr. bin Laden could have carried out such an attack from Afghanistan. And like everyone else interviewed, he saw the events of the last seven years as proof positive that it was all a United States plan to go after Muslims.

“There are Arabs who hate America, a lot of them, but this is too much,” Mr. Abbas said as he fidgeted with his cellphone. “And look at what happened after this — the Americans invaded two Muslim countries. They used 9/11 as an excuse and went to Iraq. They killed Saddam, tortured people. How can you trust them?”

CHECK OUT THIS INCREDIBLE ESSAY BY STEVE BHAERMAN @ SWAMI BEYONDANANDA: Bringing Down the 9/11 House of Lies

ROSIE O'DONNELL & WILLIAM RODRIGUEZ: 9/11 Truth Now

(Posted 13 Sept 2008, The Alex Jones Channel)


AWKWARD QUESTIONS ABOUT 9/11


Wednesday, September 10, 2008

THANKS VERY MUCH, ABDULLAH :-)

I'M NOT REFERRING TO ABDULLAH BADAWI - BUT ABDULLAH JUNID, BLESS HIS SOUL, FOR TAKING THE WORDS RIGHT OUT OF MY DEEP UNCONSCIOUS AND MAKING THEM PUBLIC VIA MALAYSIAKINI!


Skewered view from the top
Abdullah Junid | Sep 10, 08 4:33pm

I refer to the Malaysiakini article Is Anwar the great reformer?.

I have often enjoyed reading Manjit’s writings. Although I don't find his views particularly insightful, often verging on stating the obvious, his use of combative and pungent language makes for a very interesting and entertaining read.

But like some other writers of an academic bent, Manjit is sometimes guilty of falling in love with his own bathwater. In the article referenced by this letter, Manjit is at his sneering, know-all best, lashing out at all and sundry from his no-doubt privileged perch atop some ivory tower.

I really don't see the point he is trying to make, except to cynically mock those who are looking forward to a long-overdue change in Malaysia.

It is a long, rambling article, but the point he seems to be making is that Anwar Ibrahim will probably be another in a long line of would-be reformers who, once they get into power, become part of the same old furniture.

Well, considering that Manjit would not apparently be satisfied with anything short of a political Shangri-la, he will probably be proven correct in his own mind. Unfortunately, Manjit’s views are rooted in the place he sits - the ivory tower. They apparently do not take into account what are called ground realities.

As I stated earlier, it is a long article and my purpose here is not to get into a point-by-point rebuttal or argument with everything he wrote. But I would like to just talk about one particular passage.

He states: "I've been listening to and reading Anwar's speeches. All I have heard and read so far is rhetoric. Nothing more. There's no substance. Not yet. Perhaps the substance will come. It has to come, lest Anwar too becomes just another of those disingenuous Malaysian politicians from all sides who are good only at making a racket. Anwar needs broad-based support. Whilst there is now a people-driven momentum gathering pace, as witnessed in Permatang Pauh, he still needs to bank on political crossovers from the BN coalition parties."

I don't know what "substance" Manjit expects out of a politician who is not yet in power. Anwar has repeatedly outlined his vision of what Malaysia would be at ideological, philosophical and social levels should he come into power.

He has also outlined, to the extent possible, an economic vision. I think Malaysians are quite aware of what Anwar is promising at a practical level. So unless Manjit expects Anwar to publish a book outlining all the technical things he would do at both macro and micro level in all fields of governance, I don't see the justification behind his sweeping and unsubstantiated claim that Anwar is just talk.

As for his claim that "there is now a people-driven momentum gathering pace", my only question to Manjit is: Where were you for the last 10 years? This is not a people-driven momentum "gathering pace" - this is a people-driven momentum that has been well underway for a decade.

That is why Manjit has been able to find a Malaysian forum in the form of Malaysiakini to be able to express his views for the last few years.

Is Anwar the great reformer?
Manjit Bhatia | Sep 9, 08 11:47am

Whoah … the effusive cries amongst some commentators - and bloggers - of a new dawn in the politics of the long Umno-ruled Malaysia following the rise and rise of opposition PKR leader Anwar Ibrahim are too much. Too much.

Some claim the promise of a new democracy is nigh. A new Merdeka, they say, is on the cusp of a new Malaysian history. And all because Anwar won the Permatang Pauh by-election quite convincingly from the much-vaunted Umno candidate (what's his name?). More, Anwar sent Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad's suddenly filthy rich son-in-law, Umno MP and confidante, Khairy Jamaluddin, scampering with his tail between his legs and manure on his face.

Today Malaysians are waiting with almost bated breath for September 16. Apparently, on this day, Anwar, with help from sitting (and non-sitting) politicians in the ruling Barisan Nasional, will topple the regime, headed by the dreadfully useless and pathetic Abdullah and the entirely racist, bungling, corrupt and morally bankrupt Umno.


With that Anwar will usurp national power. He will turn a severely bastardised parliamentary democracy, replete with all manner of laws that approximates it to a Stalinist-like political system since the May 13 1969 race riots, into a flowering, full-blown, truly multi-racial democracy - with Malaysian characteristics of course.

It would not surprise me if some Malaysians, in their manic over-enthusiasm of the prospect of the birth of a politically transformed country, start reciting passages of wild and wooly promises from Francis Fukuyama's early tome 'The End of History and the Last Man' and passages from the perennially heady New York Times' columnist and author Thomas Friedman's 'The Lexus and the Olive Tree' - passages such as this one by Friedman: "America [Malaysia], at its best, is not just a country. It's a spiritual value and role model." Yikes.


Such utterly ridiculous and completely nauseating evangelical sermons, like those one hears in all organized religions, are best reserved for countries such as Zimbabwe, ruled by one of the world's most vile thugs, tyrants, kleptomaniacs, racists and murderers, Robert Mugabe.


[Read the rest of Manjit Bhatia's "KTemockish" essay here.]

P.S. AND THANK YOU, TOO, JUDGE S.M. KOMATHY SUPPIAH, FOR UPHOLDING JUSTICE!

Barisan Backbenchers Club Shaken By Political Earthquake!



A strong earthquake measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale struck Taiwan Tuesday, 9 September, but there were no immediate reports of fatalities or damage.

The quake, which struck at 3:43 pm (0743 GMT), shook high-rise buildings in Taipei, sending jittery residents into the streets.

The quake was centred 86 kilometers east of the north-eastern coastal county of Ilan at a depth of 89 kilometers, said officials with the Central Weather Bureau's earthquake centre.

The officials said the earthquake was felt in most parts of Taiwan.

Police said initial checks showed no casualties or damage.

Earthquakes take place in Taiwan frequently because the island sits on a seismically active stretch of the Pacific basin, but most quakes occur under the sea.


I guess the BN backbenchers arrived just in time to feel the effects of the political earthquake back home rippling out all the way to Taiwan. Perhaps they ought to abandon their attempt to study Taiwanese agricultural methods - and examine their own conscience instead?


Incidentally, these images of destruction are from previous quakes that have hit Taiwan. I just wanted to dramatize the issue a bit.

There's absolutely no doubt about it: Umno/BN is ACCURSED! Whatever they do goes horribly, hilariously WRONG!

They say Altantuya Shaariibuu was descended from Siberian shamans and possessed exceptional witchy powers. Abdul Razak Baginda told his private investigator, Balasubramaniam (the one who later disappeared after withdrawing his sensational statutory declaration) that he didn't dare look the Mongolian beauty in the eye for fear of bewitchment. When a local witch took it upon herself to wreak deadly privatized TV drama-style vengeance, she unwittingly brought upon herself, her pink-lipped husband, and his political party an everlasting curse a hundred times worse than Mahsuri's legendary curse on Langkawi.

Well, BN backbenchers on your compulsory, all-expenses-paid vacation in Taiwan - do you really want to remain embedded in an accursed party? Hee hee hee.

BURY THE NAZI ANAL FRONT!


BURY


THE NAZI


ANAL


FRONT


IN 2008



RECLAIM YOUR POWER...
AND YOUR WEALTH!