True enough

A picture, as they say is worth a thousand words though, in this case, the words matter as well.

Ugly news from the Land of the Free

What with the White House demanding that people should snitch on those who are spreading "disinformation" about the President's health care insurance reform (perhaps they can call the list of enemies that Rick Moran is writing about the Pavlik Morozov list after the young pioneer who is supposed to have sent his father and uncle to death during collectivization), serious slander about those who oppose those reforms and reports of violent attacks on peaceful protesters by union thugs, hope and change seems to be acquiring a very ugly face.

More here and here.

More on the Fatah conference

The rows are going on as the conference has extended beyond its allotted span. They clearly have not heard of the famous EU habit of "stopping the clock". Much to learn there.

Paul Mirengoff on Powerline has a round-up of news, views and reactions. It is somewhat entertaining that Mahmoud Abbas's definition of the palpable growth in Palestinian respect for law and order is "the widespread use of seat belts by Palestinian drivers".

Other things are less entertaining but useful. It seems that a good many of the Fatah officers and activists are uninterested in any kind of a deal with Israel. They want to wipe it off the map and intend to continue creating martyrs or, in common parlance, send in terrorists to kill anyone they can, unless the Israelis can stop them as they have been doing with some success. I am shocked, I tell you, shocked.

In the meantime, there is only one other group on earth Fatah hates more than the Israelis and that is Hamas, a feeling that is fully reciprocated. All bodes well for President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton creating that two-state three-state solution.

And now for something different

There is a bit of pother going on about free bus passes for pensioners. A report by the Local Government Association has suggested that it should be scrapped as it does not represent value for money. Ministers and council leaders have rejected the suggestion of means testing as they thought that would not represent value for votes.

Harry Phibbs in the Daily Mail suggests a "less demanding and less bureaucratic solution". Keep the free pass for the over-seventies but scrap it for the over-sixties. There is something in that argument.

Generally speaking our attitude, particularly that of unions, politicians and various charities, towards older people is about forty years out of date. Not only people live longer, they are also active longer, both physically and mentally. In a society which is getting older it is preposterous that this should not be acknowledged and people of sixty and over should be treated like old crocks just as they were fifty or sixty years ago.

Help the Aged does many good things and has some excellent charity shops. It also thinks that the aged are all those over fifty. Planet, what?

As it happens I have a better idea for saving money, though this may apply only to London. All children under 10 can travel free on any part of Transport for London, whether they are accompanied or not. All children under 15 can travel free on buses and trams though they need to pay a child's fare on the underground and other trains.

The previous Mayor, Hizonner Ken, used to wax eloquent about the scheme helping Londoners. I fail to see how, as it is extended to all children and Londoners pick up the tab through Greater London tax or ever higher fares.

This is an expensive and unpopular scheme. Those kids are a nuisance. It adds to another of our bogeymen: obesity in children. After all, they do not to walk anywhere, not even one bus stop; just hop and hop off and if the driver does not like that, tough.

Once upon a time there was a scheme whereby children in state schools got a free pass to and from that school if the distance travelled was more than 3 miles. No free passes to go anywhere else or to ride on stop to the shops. Others could travel half fare as long as they were in full time education. A much cheaper and more useful scheme. So, are we going to go back to it?

The Fatah conference achieves nothing

A couple of days ago I read an article in the Jewish World Review about the Fatah Conference that was just starting. It was not particularly optimistic about the organization, which seems to be divided and demoralized, unable to recover from losing Gaza to Hamas in two goes - a somewhat indecisive election result and a far more decisive and bloody coup.

Fatah leaders have been feuding over allegations that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Fatah's Mohammed Dahlan conspired with Israel to kill Arafat — charges the two deny as scurrilous.

Hamas, Fatah's hard-line Islamic rival, which wrested electoral control of the Palestinian Authority in 2006 and then routed Abbas' forces from Gaza in 2007, hasn't allowed anyone living in the isolated Mediterranean strip to attend the conference.

Many Palestinians have lost faith in a political party they consider corrupt, inept and ineffective.

Then again, I thought, the JWR is a good source of information but it is not likely to be supportive of either Fatah or Hamas. (The article is, nevertheless, fair-minded.)

Let us see what Al-Jazeera has to say on the subject. Oooops, not good. Divisions, screaming matches, accusations, counter-accusations and, above all, the absence of 400 Fatah activists from Gaza. (Actually, I am amazed that 400 are still alive and more or less free there.)

The Fatah conference suffered a blow before it began after Hamas, which effectively rules the Gaza Strip, refused to allow 400 Fatah delegates based in Gaza to attend unless Fatah releases hundreds of Hamas activists detained in the West Bank.

The conference has split Fatah delegates from Fatah-controlled West Bank and those from Hamas-run Gaza.The Gaza delegates now demand a quota be set aside for them in Fatah's leadership bodies, and threaten repercussions - presumably a split - if they are turned down.

The West Bankers say the absent Gazans can vote by phone or e-mail and do not need the quotas.

Abbas is to decide on the issue later on Thursday.

That election of the new leadership bodies should produce some interesting results, assuming it ever happens. The BBC gives a summary of Middle Eastern media opinion and calls it upbeat. I wouldn't agree with that. There seems to be a great deal of depression at the Palestinians' inability to agree on anything and Fatah's inability to turn itself into a reasonable political organization, not to mention Hamas's somewhat high-handed behaviour.

Ynet News confirms both the argument about the method of voting and the fact that the conference has been extended.

I wonder if President Obama on his holiday or Secretary of State Clinton on her African trip is watching developments.

Why I have no time for Western feminist organizations

Actually, I do not need to write about that at the moment, though, eventually I shall. Phyllis Chesler has put it much better in the first segment of her latest column. I know people who say things like that. Oh yes, they also tell me about people's "culture" and how one must not interfere with it. Hmmm. I tend to ask why "respecting other people's culture" always seems to result in a bad deal for women.

Really, some people are just so suspicious

Amidst the rejoicing over the two American journalists' return to their home country and the reminder that Madam Secretary of State was involved as well as her husband (while the Obamas were celebrating his birthday with the tackiest cake ever) cautious notes are beginning to sound.

Example one is an article in the Wall Street Journal by Gordon Chang, who has written about North Korea and nuclear power before. Mr Chang reminds us of several things. One is that

Kim Kye Gwan, North Korea’s chief nuclear negotiator, was on hand at the airport in Pyongyang to greet Mr. Clinton as he arrived—a clear sign Pyongyang, at least, is linking the two issues.

This is not necessarily a good thing. As Mr Chang points out, previous errors by presidents (one of them being Clinton) have allowed Kim to strengthen his power even more and develop his nuclear arsenal. Will history repeat itself?

There is something else we must not forget:

And now there may be one more reason for the regime to continue its alarming conduct. If Mr. Clinton is conducting any nuclear discussions he would be rewarding Pyongyang for jailing the two reporters and making them bargaining chips.

This matters because Ms. Ling and Ms. Lee were not Pyongyang’s only hostages. In March, North Korea detained Yu Song-jin, a South Korean manager working in the Kaesong industrial zone, for criticizing Kim’s paradise. Last week, a North Korean patrol boat seized a South Korean fishing vessel that accidentally strayed into the North’s waters, and Pyongyang is now keeping the
four-member crew for no good reason. North Korea may be holding 100 or more Japanese abductees and at least 1,000 South Koreans, some of them prisoners from the Korean War and others kidnapped since then. More broadly, Kim uses all his 23 million people as hostages.

Now two American journalists will come home safely. Good. But let’s hope the U.S. didn’t secure their release at the cost of further negotiations that will only give Kim more time to perfect his nuclear arsenal and develop his ballistic missiles.

Some people are just sourpusses. Why can't they emote like everyone else?

Just to make things worse, the editorial in the WSJ harps on the problems as well, after congratulating President Clinton and the two journalists who had apparently gone in there while working for one of Al Gore's enterprises.

Yet Mr. Clinton’s visit is a message unto itself. It will bolster Kim’s bid to dissolve the six-party negotiations in favor of the direct talks with the U.S. he has long sought. It will also dismay some in South Korea and Japan, which have their own hostages in North Korea and will wonder why Mr. Clinton couldn’t obtain their release as well.

If it turns out that if a new nuclear negotiation really was begun during Mr. Clinton’s visit, it will also send the signal to North Korea that the worse its behavior, the more it stands to gain from the U.S. And it will mean that Kim’s price will be even higher to spring the next American hostages.

Still, if it promotes Madam Secretary of State's career it will all be worthwhile. I trust my readers agree.