Ahmadinejad condemns liberal democracy in letter to Bush

Well I was wrong- it seems the letter that Iranian President "I doubt the Holocaust happened" Ahmadinejad to US President George Bush was not diplomatic, it was the tirade of a madman.

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Letters to improve relations are usually polite and generous, giving hope to the recipient that there is a genuine desire to negotiate about differences and live in harmony. Ahmadinejad has no such intent. According to Associated Press, besides slamming the US invasion of Iraq, he queries about the "truth of 9/11" (remember the hoards of conspiracy theories that claim the Bush Administration orchestrated it or that it was done by Jews to defame Islam) and then repeats his desire for Israel to be wiped out "how can this phenomenon be rationalised or explained?" he said.

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Well, read your history books. It was a promise by the colonial power to the Jews and the United Nations agreed to set it up. Yes it almost certainly was a major mistake, but that is that.

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He dismisses the Iranian nuclear programme as technological and scientific achievement by lumping it with others claiming "Why is it that any technological and scientific achievement reached in the Middle East region is translated into and portrayed as a 'threat to the Zionist [Israel] regime'? Is not scientific R&D [research and development] one of the basic rights of nations?" Yes it is, and you’re developing the means to destroy your near neighbour, because you don't believe it should exist.

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However, the Pièce de résistance is his condemnation of liberalism and western style democracy as they "have not been able to help realize the ideals of humanity,"

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"Today these two concepts have failed. Those with insight can already hear the sounds of the shattering and fall of the ideology and thoughts of the Liberal democratic systems," his letter read.

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How is that any hope for peace? How can he even be close to reflecting reality? Liberal democracy has spread more than any other political system in the last twenty years, with most of eastern Europe, Latin America and increasingly more of Africa adopting it. It's very simple Mr Ahmadinejad, people have the right to choose who governs them - and not a special committee self-selected to weed out candidates that they don't approve of.

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So Iran's peace pipe is to continue to question Israel's existence, refuses to allow inspections of its nuclear facilities to confirm it is not developing nuclear weapons and to hell with liberal democracy, separation of church and state, freedom of speech, freedom of religion.

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Wonderful - so we're back to square one. Continue to make overtures to Iran and threaten sanctions, and be prepared for military action if Iran threatens to attack Israel.

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Interestingly, Arab newspapers have condemned the letter. Saudi newspaper Asharq Alawat said that Iran is seeking to control the region:

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"Tehran has made public its desire to lead. Iran seeks to control the region and the Middle East and become its policeman. This will lead to the breakdown of the peace process and the sabotaging of the Iraqi dream. We will witness a new arms race and will see governments being swallowed by organizations. It is sufficient to see who is standing by Tehran today to know what tomorrow will bring. " and "If Iran succeeds in its nuclear project, this will give the wrong message to other extremists."

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The Arab Times of Kuwait states: "Iran by its outbursts has rubbed salt into this tense atmosphere by embarking on childish adventures and failing to come out of the revolutionary mode fearing it will bring to the surface its deficiencies."

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As I have said before, the path to peace for Iran is simple:

- Open up nuclear facilities for inspection;

- Cease sponsoring terrorism;

- Cease sabre-rattling over Israel.

BBC on Ahmadinejad's letter
CNN on Ahmedinejad's letter
First part of Ahmedinejad's letter on Islamic Republic News Agency site (website claims to carry full text but doesn't)

Young teenage bitches send bus driver to hospital

The NZ Herald reports in the weekend, 15 brats aged 12 to 15 refuse to get off a Christchurch bus and so bash a driver so much he has severe bruising and may have a spinal injury. How fucking evil is that? This is NOT the world of Anthony Burgess’s Clockwork Orange – but what can you do?
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Apparently the brats wouldn’t get off the bus at the end of the route, so he drove to the depot for help in evicting them (remember Christchurch ratepayers, you subsidise the discount fares they pay). The evil pack, led by several young girls (oh those oppressed underage girls) attacked the driver and a second driver who came to his aid – then St Johns Ambulance paramedics WAITED till the evil entities ran off before treating the severely beaten second driver.
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Where are the Police? Why can’t St Johns Ambulance or the bus driver have pepper spray to attack these little scumbags? Yes, I know their parents would press charges and Cindy Kiro would be saying "we don't understand these young adults" blech.
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Most of the article in Stuff goes on about security for the bus driver and the Labour Department is investigating.
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Sorry??? It isn’t the bus company’s fault that some parents are irresponsible and some young people are like crap on someone’s shoe. Fortunately there is a Police investigation, though the Police were clearly not on hand on the night.

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The moral equivalent left would say they are children, victims of circumstances and need help, not punishment. The conservative right would say the little bastards need prison - I say both.

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If they are found, lock them up for a while - make them clean buses, make them earn enough to pay the hospital expenses and compensation for this driver - make them recompense for their despicable behaviour. Then look at their homes, see what trash lets 12 year olds go out till midnight - see what trash doesn't care. See if you can get the brats to show genuine remorse and move on.
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They are fucking evil – at what point do young teenagers think it is ok to bash a man up and send him to hospital for nothing other than doing his job? It makes me so angry that I hope the lot of them cram into a crapped out car and drive off the road somewhere and kill themselves -think how much force these girls must have used to send the man to hospital with possible spinal injuries. Instead, their loving mummies and daddies have them tucked in bed, listening to their ipods and knowing that the loving state thinks they are children - and are protected.
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Why does this happen? Is it parents who think parenting means 12 year olds can go out till midnight on the town or are allowed to play such evil filth as Grand Theft Auto for entertainment?
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Why isn’t this a national scandal? Why should Leopard Coachlines feel it has to consider dropping late night bus services because of this?
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Arm the drivers, one way or another, and install video cameras – and don’t weep when your little Charlene comes home with her little slutty face covered in pepper spray because she attacked a bus driver.

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You probably wont notice anyway since you're either out or in your room out of your mind on P while having an orgy with Wayne and your mate Cherise, since you don't know where you're little bitch daughter is - got the picture why she behaves like that?

Watch out Vodafone you're next...

Following on from unbundling Telecom’s local loop, the NZ Herald reports Helen Clark has announced that the “rules of the game” for mobile telephony have to change. The government has already changed the regulatory environment, purportedly to allow competition, by requiring Telecom and Vodafone to allowing roaming across their networks for customers of any new operator that builds a network with at least 5% coverage of the population.
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It did this after the Telecommunications Bill had been through Select Committee, because its mates who it sold spectrum to at a discount (Maori company, Hautaki Ltd, which got a discount to quieten a ridiculous treaty claim for mobile phone spectrum) partnered up with Econet wireless (a Zimbabwean cellphone company – not affiliated with Mugabe) and argued they couldn’t build a mobile phone network that provided nationwide coverage economically.
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Econet was set to start a pilot cellphone network in April, but nothing has been seen. Every year it promises something soon and doesn’t deliver.
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So you see, the government has already given new mobile entrants access to the encumbent’s networks, but that probably wont be good enough. Clark is concerned that there hasn’t been much resale of the mobile phone networks (although Telstra Clear has a resale deal with Vodafone that matched it selling Vodafone its GSM spectrum), that co-siting of cellphone transmitters has not happened and new entrants are “unable” to use their competitors’ property.
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Funny that, it is called property. When I build something I own it, and I will decide what I do with it.
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So who is this big mean company that Helen is talking about?
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Let me talk about a company that in 1998 bought the mobile phone business of BellSouth New Zealand. BellSouth started by buying the radio spectrum in an open tender for a GSM cellular network in 1990, as did Telstra (which subsequently sold its network to Vodafone). From 1993 till 1998 it built a mobile phone network from scratch, while Telecom had a monopoly on mobile phone services. By 1998, BellSouth had taken about 20% share of that business and had not marketed text messaging. From 1998 Vodafone invested $2 billion in developing its cellular network and roughly doubled the number of cellsites that BellSouth had installed.
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When BellSouth ran the business, it moaned to the Minister regularly, claiming it needed number portability and for interconnection with Telecom to be regulated. Vodafone took a different approach – it built its network so it would be reliable and provide good coverage, it started selling text messaging (Telecom ultimately had to build text messaging into its CDMA network to enable it to compete) and prepay mobile. In other words, it grew the market and didn’t moan about its competitor. As a result, cellphone penetration in New Zealand soared to reach the levels of most other OECD countries.
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As much as the left moans about Telecom’s privatisation seeing its profits go offshore, Vodafone brought capital onshore. $2 billion that the state was never going to put in, and Telecom ultimately had to respond – and reduced its prices, developed a new digital network to phase out its two older networks. Telecom built the first 3G mobile network and Vodafone has followed. There is competition in mobile services.
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So are mobile phone prices in New Zealand more expensive than elsewhere? In some cases, yes they are. Why? Well, for starters there are less customers so less competition, far easier to build six mobile networks in the UK than in NZ. That competitive pressure is unlikely to happen in NZ. Secondly, councils have used the RMA to make it much harder to install new cellsite – although Telecom and Vodafone do continue to expand slowly. Some of this is driven by Green hysteria about the health effects of cellphone towers (which are nonsense – nobody asks for radio station transmitter masts to be pulled down and they have operated for over half a century). Overseas, there has also been an enormous writedown of investments in mobile telephony, as major operators spent a fortune acquiring 3G mobile spectrum from governments. The networks they are left with are priced cheaply to attract customers and because they are now substantially devalued.
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There could be a third mobile network in NZ and I do not mean Econet. Econet should sell up and let someone who wants to invest in a proper network get on with it. TelstraClear could still do it, but it is a moocher if ever there was one. So the arguments about natural monopoly do not exist, there is an ability to enter the market for mobile telephony. The government should stop talking about incentives that stop the construction of a new network.

Grumpy Helen

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Oh for fuck's sake Helen, can't you do better than sound like a grumpy old lady?

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Rodney Hide blogs on Helen Clark's comment to Newstalk ZB about Dancing with the Stars calling her the "Minister of Fun".

She "cannot abide dancing" and hasn't the time to watch Rodney "make a fool of himself on television".

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Goodness me no - can't have a Prime Minister having fun, or being generous enough of spirit to give a fellow MP credit for giving it a go.

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As Hide says:

"The PM should lighten up. Have some fun. She would be the better for it. So too would the country. "

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Things Helen Clark doesn't enjoy:

- Dancing;

- Television (except BBC World);

and ...

New York Times thinks Bolivian nationalisation isn't!

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George Reisman has blogged about the New York Times article by William Power that claims that Bolivia’s nationalisation of the gas industry isn’t really nationalisation at all. “Bolivia is just struggling for a way to make markets work.” says Powers. Nothing like confiscating 51% of a private company to make markets work.
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No doubt Matt Robson, former Progressive MP – who supports Hugo Chavez, another great confiscator and bully, and warmed to Cuba, would agree. How many Green MPs agree?