Heard the latter half of the State of the Union address by George Bush. Like our politicians he was shameless and arrogant. No appologies for the damage he has done to the US and the world. Having stolen the first election he started an war in Iraq which was not supported by the UN and is thus illegal. He is a war criminal and guilty of genocide. He has failed in his first objective of getting Bin Laden and both Afghanistan and Pakistan are now as dangerous as they used to be. His Attorney General condoned torture of captives, including water boarding, which gives every lunatic the excuse to torture captured Americans. When a former Ambassador reported that there was no truth in the allegation that Iraq had imported uranium from Nigeria Karl Rove exposed the name of his CIA operative wife and then Dick Cheney did everything to frustrate the resulting investigation. Bush has repeatedly ignored Congressional oversight citing Executive Privilege and used patriotism to bully opponents. The Dixie Chicks were abused and hounded for opposing the war in Iraq. He has allowed tapping of telephones of citizens without any safeguard against misuse and had the effrontery to ask Congress to continue doing it. He took over an economy which was strong and in surplus and squandered money in ill considered tax cuts which has created both fiscal and current account deficits. The dollar has fallen against most currencies and may cease to be the reserve currency of the world. Now he wants to give more tax cuts to ease the sub prime mortgage crisis which was brought about by excessive liquidity and very low interest rates. Well interest rates are falling fast and more tax cuts are offered to increase liquidity once more. No wonder the Democrats sat in stony faced silence as the Republicans gave standing ovations like demented schoolboys. Some legacy to leave behind!

About a month ago, in response to continual indiscriminate firing of Kassam rockets across the border, Israel started to blockade Gaza which is under Hamas control. Supplies of food, fuel and drugs became scarce and sporadic. Journalists on television reported about the suffering of the Palestinian people. With 70% unemployment Gaza residents are dependent on handouts from aid agencies and the blockade only made things worse. Then a few days back Hamas blew up the wall separating Gaza from Egypt and about seven hundred thousand people have crossed into Egypt to buy supplies. Jubilant Palestinians were shown carrying huge bags of grains, crates of soft drinks and large boxes of other supplies. Normally such an act would be construed as an invasion of foreign territory and invited a severe armed response but the Egyptian government is in a bind. It cannot be seen to fire on fellow Arabs who are being blockaded by the hated Zionists but cannot be seen to be a weak state unable to defend its borders. Despite pressure from Israel and the US Egyptian police have given way as the Palestinians have crossed over in their thousands. Today the authorities in Egypt have shut down all shops near the border to discourage the Palestinians from coming over. In all the news reports no one has asked the question as to where the Palestinians, who were supposedly without any money only a week ago, have suddenly procured enough cash to fill horse drawn carts with supplies. Who has given large sums of cash to the Hamas? The second question is who planned this particular exercise? By itself Hamas would not have dared to pull off such a stunt. Do I detect the foul hand of Iran who could have financed the deal and provided the technical guidance. Perhaps the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt helped. The Middle East continues to boil.

So India beat Australia at Perth and stopped them attaining a record seventeenth win. Naturally the players were overjoyed as no one has beaten the Aussies at home for a long time. The commentators were fulsome in their praise and Gavaskar was generous enough to say that this was the best win in forty years thus discounting the victories India achieved when he was playing. This was indeed a great victory after the disastrous Sidney test and the controversy that followed. This win does not end the supremacy of the Australians in cricket and one expects that they will try whatever to win the next one at Adelaide. That the Aussies are a great side is not in doubt. Even after the retirement of great players such as Glen McGrath and Shane Warne they have pulverised all opposition. Unfortunately their way of winning makes everyone feel that they are unworthy winners. Refusing to walk when the umpire has mistakenly given a batsman not out may seem like cheating but the umpire is there to do a job and the it is not the duty of the batsman to correct the umpire. Also the opposite team can adopt the same attitude and in time the mistakes will probably even out. Abusing batsmen to spoil their concentration is pure cheating. It is like tripping a batsman and then running him out. The allegation of racial abuse against Harbhajan was also a tactic to upset the Indian team. How is 'monkey' a racial abuse? It is much better than calling someone a ****ing bastard thus abusing their innocent parents. Just because Symonds says it is racial abuse does not make it so unless Symonds actually thinks he and his people have simian characteristics. Harbhajan says that he actually said 'teri ma ki' which, in fact, is much worse abuse but not to Australians. I suppose being a bastard is alright with them.

Seems that Citibank has suffered over ten billion dollars loss in the last quarter due to the ongoing subprime loan crisis in the US. Several sovereign funds such as Abu Dhabi and Temasek of Singapore have bought up hefty chunks of the company. They have also bought into Merrill Lynch and may buy into several banks and financial institutions in the US. These sovereign funds belong to the respective governments and hence do not disclose their holdings and functions to the public. They are opaque and cannot be investigated. All the fund managers are emphatic that they do not seek positions on the boards of the US entities and will not seek controlling interest. Which begs the question, why put in billions of dollars without seeking any powers to protect your investment. When the Chinese wanted to buy Unocal, an American oil company, there was such a furore about Chinese control of critical assets that they withdrew from the bid. Same was the case when Dubai Ports bought P&O Ferries which controlled ports in the US. By investing in banks and financial institutions, which in turn, can invest in any American industry these sovereign firms are getting in through the back door which is innocent. More interesting for me are investments in defence firms such as Lockheed Martin, Boeing and such like. Will these funds get to have an insider knowledge of what is going on in the US defence industries by having hefty stakes in financial institutions. We will wait for the fall out.

The President of Kenya, whatshisname, has surely stolen the election but the US Ambassador saw nothing wrong in that and gave his support.Shakasvilli of Georgia most likely cheated but European observors saw nothing wrong. The reason why these men have been given support is because they are seen as supporters, or stooges as the opponents would say, of the West. Yet Western leaders are vehement in their abuse of Robert Mugabe because he rigs elections and connot stop criticising the Russians for voting for Putin. It is hard to understand why these idiots do not see that lies and hypocrisy get nowhere and Mugabe is able to survive for so long precisely because he exploits these double standards. Who is Bush to criticise Mugabe, Bashir of Saudan and the fellow in Ethiopia when he stole victory from Al Gore? Palestine is a different matter. The West has cut aid to the Palestinians for having voted for Hamas which is a criminal organisation. Critics say that it is collective punishment of the Palestinians for exercising their democratic right. But surely every right has a duty attached with it. If Italians were to vote in a government run by the Mafia should other governments deal with it? You may love your daughter and pay for her living but if she exercises her right to marry for love by marrying a thug that you dislike surely you have a right to cut off her allowance. She cannot claim to be a victim by saying that her children are going hungry. The Palestinians deliberately chose to vote for Hamas knowing full well that they would be unacceptable to the West as they should be to any civilised person. Now they should accept the consequences. Postscript : as predicted last time the Scotland Yard fellows have concluded that Ms. Bhutto was killed by the Al Qaeda and Mushi is blameless. What fun!

So Musharraf has asked the Scotland Yard to investigate Benazir Bhutto's assassination. He was probably trained at Sandhurst and may have friends in the British establishment. More to the point, he knows that the British are past masters at cover up and do it so efficiently that noone seems to question them. Take Iraq. The Americans have charged and punished soldiers for killing civilians and torture of prisoners. But stupidly they charge a soldier with murder and then allow him to plea bargain to a short sentence making them appear soft on crime and increasing the anger and hatred of their enemies. The British on the other hand do it very differently. First they start a propaganda campaign, faithfully reported by the BBC, that there is no evidence and all photographs are fake. Having destroyed all evidence they hold some farcical court case where they find every accused soldier not guilty. Thus they appear to have gone through the motions and the soldiers are protected for ever by the law of double jeopardy. The massacre of Irish Catholics, known as bloody Sunday, has still not been resolved and the millionth enquiry is in progress. IRA activists were shot in the back in cold in Gibralter and nothing happened. Enquiries into the scientist who committed suicide came to nothing and neither did the enquiry into the claim of Iraq being able to launch IMDs within forty five minutes. Recently Lord Levy was cleared of any wrongdoing in the investigation of Peers for cash. Jeffrey Archer was unlucky. Maybe he did not go to the right school. Musharraf has chosen wisely. Had he asked the FBI to investigate skeletons might have rattled out of the cupboard. With the Scotland Yard he can have a wee dram of Scotch and sleep like the proverbial baby. Cheers.

Tragic as the death of Benazir Bhutto is the aftermath is decidedly weird. In her will she has left the leadership of Pakistan Peoples Party to her nineteen year old son who is still studying at Oxford. This means that should the PPP win the elections in February he could become the Prime Minister of Pakistan. The amazing thing is that no one has found it unaccepatable that the leadership of a political party has been officially passed down from mother to son like some piece of land or a favourite crockery set. No Pakistani journalist or foreign one has said anything about this blatant feudalism which should cause outrage in this day and age. You watch BBC or CNN and every Pakistani from Musharraf to the friendly neighbourhood jehadi blabbers on about democracy and yet not a single person has questioned the automatic adoption of Bilal, or whatever his name is, as leader of PPP. The good thing is that the Pakis are open about their craven chamchagiri whereas in India they lie their heads off. Thus sons, daughters, sons in law, mistresses have all successfully laid claim to leaderships of political parties and occupied posts of Chief or Prime Minister. The Nehru- Gandhi clan still controls the power in Delhi. Mrs. Sonia Gandhi has formed an alliance with the Communists whose record at treachery is well established, installed a do nothing Prime Minister, a lawyer as Finance Minister who thinks it is his mission to go on increasing taxes infinitely to suck the blood out of all Indians and a President against whom there are serious allegations of fraud. Of course for sheer chutzpa no one can beat our Hon. Railway Minister, Mr. Lalu Prasad, who installed his illiterate, unelected wife as Chief Minister of Bihar when he was arrested for corruption. Politicians of other parties do not object because they see the great Indian public as chattels to be passed on as cattle.