The collection of countries, bishoprics, etc. that became Germany did indeed inherit a few of these of these things …. however, it was America that was the main inheritor by a long chalk. Did you think the Pilgrim Fathers were merely a bunch of economic immigrants? Things went downhill from there …..

Anyway, the Loser and his sidekick will fry.

You are talking about a nation of the cultural inheritors of the Crusades, the Reformation, the Puritan hysteria and the Thirty Years War.

Um Graham, that’s Germany, not the US.

Oh no! No acquittal! No, no, sir; never happen, sir!

You are talking about a nation of the cultural inheritors of the Crusades, the Reformation, the Puritan hysteria and the Thirty Years War. They despise losers. They burn - burn, sir - burn witches and the servants of Satan. They won’t burn them on a pile of faggots; they’ll fry them on Ole Sparky. And when they’re done, they’ll fry them again to make sure the G*d* m*f*ers are dead.

My interest - and my right to be there as a citizen of America’s bestest realest nicest ally - is not so much in the trials themselves as in being right at the heart of the action when the biggest street party ever kicks off.

My wife happened to be staying near the court-house when the O J Simpson trial was on; she said the queues [lines] were miles long and there was even a rockband entertaining the waiting crowds.

Now, how do I go about getting reserved seats for the Bush and Cheney trials so I don’t have to stand around for hours [or days] in the hot sun waiting for a slim chance to get in?

All that effort on your part, Graham, just to see an acquittal, as in OJ’s case.

You must have lot of time to waste.

My wife happened to be staying near the court-house when the O J Simpson trial was on; she said the queues [lines] were miles long and there was even a rockband entertaining the waiting crowds.

Now, how do I go about getting reserved seats for the Bush and Cheney trials so I don’t have to stand around for hours [or days] in the hot sun waiting for a slim chance to get in?

KATZ - how about we just recognise people make spelling and grammar errors and get over it hey.

Generally I do. I make more than my share of them myself. And like the kind folk who cope with my errors, I generally try to cope with the errors of others.

However, the following:

betrays the Lefts cartoon view of Bush.

Can be read in at least three contradictory ways:

1. “the Lefts cartoon view” means a single view concocted and agreed upon by all representatives of the Left.

2. “the Left’s cartoon view” means a single view that happens to be the one view shared by all representatives of the Left.

3. “the Lefts’ cartoon view” means that all members of the Left have a cartoon view of Bush, but not necessarily the same cartoon view.

Do you see how you have been less than clear?

(By the way, they are all incorrect, but they are incorrect in quite different ways.)

Look you guys can no doubt point to some examples where more of this type of stuff could be done but if you are to be fair you have to acknowledge what has already been done and that in many cases there will be a trade-off/price to pay.

What concerns me is this point blank refusal to acknowledge any positive moves by the Bush administration. This attempt to brand every aspect of that adminstration in the negative.

At the geo strategic level I think what the US may have to think about is closer cooperation with China and Russia particualrly in relation to Syria and Iran. To my mind there is little point wasting time with the Iranian leadership as it stands, far more productive to speak to their sponsors and protectors. They at least are rational, ruthless also, but at least they can be reasoned with. However that is going to be a trade off. Will it be morally acceptable?

KATZ - how about we just recognise people make spelling and grammar errors and get over it hey.

Whether he believes what he is saying is is an interesting question. He seems too intelligent not to see the ridiculousness of these positions so I have to say this is probably cynical politics. If so he might throw it out the window once elected but I’ll believe that when I see it.

That’s kinda where I am, swio. But there will be a lot of momentum for a change of tack. Fingers crossed.

At this stage, though, a McCain presidency is most likely!

He explained his positions quite clearly here in a chat with a Cleveland Jewish group.

OBAMA: And the answer is no [regarding talking to Hamas although transcript is a little ambiguous]. The answer is no and the distinction would be that Hamas is represented in the Palestinian legislature, or it was before the current rift, but they’re not the head of state. They are not a recognized government. So I think there is a distinction to be drawn there and a legitimate distinction to be drawn. Now again, going back to my experiences in Israel and the discussions I’ve had with security officials there, I think that there are communications between the Israeli government and Hamas that may be two or three degrees removed, but people know what Hamas is thinking and what’s going on and the point is that with respect to Hamas, you can’t have a conversation with somebody who doesn’t think you should be on the other side of the table. At the point where they recognize Israel and its right to exist, at the point where they recognize that they are not going to be able to shove their world view down the throats of others but are going to have to sit down and negotiate without resort to violence, then I think that will be a different circumstance.

Of course that sounds all good and reasonable but anyone familiar with the I/P conflict will recognise the same old caveats and ruses usually included in these types of statements to make them pretty meaningless. A few examples below

“but they’re not the head of state” -
A major reason Hamas is not head of state is because the US and Israel or doing their best to keep their own puppet (Abbas) in that position.
If you’re only going to talk to Islamic movements that control heads of state then there just one you can talk to. Iran. There are no other Islamic movements that control the head of state. By that statement he couldn’t even talk to the Muslim Brothehood in Egypt which is arguably trying very hard to at the moment to avoid resorting to violence and work within the very flawed democratic process there.

“they recognize Israel and its right to exist” - This is a standard line they used over the PLO for ages. Its a bit meaningless because Israel doesn’t officially recognize Palestine’s right to exist.

“negotiate without resort to violence” - Another one way requirement which allows Israel to pull the rug out of negotiations at any point by pointing to violence conducted by any Palestinian group while negotiating with any other group.

Its quite clear that Obama understands the US domestic politics of the Israel/Palestinian conflict. His use of key code phrases to allay the concerns of US Jewish groups is almost as effective as the other presidential candidates although a little bit more nuanced. Whether he believes what he is saying is is an interesting question. He seems too intelligent not to see the ridiculousness of these positions so I have to say this is probably cynical politics. If so he might throw it out the window once elected but I’ll believe that when I see it.

I don’t think billions given directly to oppressive and/or unrepresentative governments that spend that money first on their military and secondly on political patronage networks all with the aim of keeping themselves in power is what most lefties are thinking of when they talk about aid.

It has been doing it for years, maybe not well in some cases but the idea Bush needs to learn the value of this is just silly and justs betrays the Lefts cartoon view of Bush.

The word “Lefts” probably needs an apostrophe somewhere.

I suspect what we are really seeing here is the Left unofficially recognising the COIN success and rather than admit the success trying to now position themselves to “we thought of it first.”

Then Kissinger memoirs gave many details on his contacts with DRV during periods when officially USA and DRV weren’t talking.

Kissinger visited Peking himself, secretly, to line up the POTUS Nixon visit. Back channels must be the very stuff of diplomacy.

I just hope the USA and USSR continue to put a big effort into maintaining the old “hotline” in working order. It’d be simply horrible luck if GWB or Vlad got some call centre gent in Mumbai offering a special 24 month cell phone contract, if they ever had to pick up that phone.

- Just leave that task with us mere mortals, gentlemen!

And just to freak out any passing libertarians - when we do get a global government, it’ll be the Koreans and Sikhs forming the core cadre of a global police force.

But if I was elected POTUS (and I reckon it’s still not too late for a drunken Australian anonymous blogger with a bad attitude and nearly 17 grand in campaign funds to stampede both the Democratic and Republican conventions), my first move would be to hustle India and Brazil in as permanent UN Security Council members and then turn them loose as geopolitical brokers.

“See, it’s not so easy being an major global power after all is it? …umm…wait a minute, you just got China and Taiwan doing a conga line? And Israeli and Palestinian powerbrokers are singing along together in the chorus of the latest Bollywood spectacular? How did that happen?”

The BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) and the E5 (Emerging Five - Turkey, Indonesia, Mexico, South Africa and Venezuela) are really starting to throw their weight about in the globalised 21st century world.

Meanwhile Japan goes its own enigmatic way and the EU, the world’s first post-modern distributed economic and legislative geopolitical entity, is dully but steadily assimulating anything that will add value to its core mission statement - to bourgeoisie the world.

While the US is asking Canada where it left its bifocals, Australia is blearily hungover and New Zealand is dangling off a bungee cord going “whee-hee!”

OK, was having too much fun with the metaphors there. But my overall point is that while the US may be still be the only king sized raptor on the block, it’s now a well linked up neighbourhood and lots of other countries are rapidly evolving well past being large toothy dinosaurs and into cunning agile primates. Or in the EU’s case, into an 800 pound lemur.

So why should the US be still seen as the main geopolitical hotspot broker? Its credibility is shot to shreds, its economy has maxed out the credit cards, its poor bloody gallant military is woefully overextended, its soft power is now basically driven by porn, celebrity culture and unstable computer operating systems and its the only first world country where evolution and fair voting procedures are still highly controversial issues.

Having said all that, I’m still looking forward to having another great time when I visit the US again this October/November. It’s a great party country with fantastic music, some spectacular scenery, great drinking spots and colourful and friendly natives.

But for geopolitical issues? Time to send the Brazilians in I feel.

But