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The new South African Health Minister is Ms Barbara Hogan who spoke out against the AIDS denialism of the Mbeki Government as
did the new Deputy Health Minister. TAC (the Treatment Action Committee) has just put out a statement welcoming this ..........

Some obvious questions. The $700bn rescue package is plan A. If implemented and it doesn’t have the desired effect is there a plan B?

$700bn, that’s a massive amount for the US treasury to stump up; what impact will this have on future US Govt. spending and are there any contingency funds left?

- the White House have said that failure to get the deal signed off by Congress could result in a "financial calamity" -

PROPAGANDA?

1) How much of the bad-debt was attibutable to irresponsible sales in the sub-prime mortgage market, and how much of it was incurred elsewhere with the sub-prime mortgage market being used politically to hide what was really going on via corrupt AAA ratings and ultimately to secure taxpayer bail-out?

2) Condoleezza Rice's remarks tonight made little sense. There are and the ratio of males:females goes exponential above that. This is just an innate feature of sexual-dimorphism (like height). Clearly the sexes can't therefore be 'equally' represented as a consequence (especially not in high power jobs requiring high logical/spatial cognitive ability). Asserting that one thinks or would wish otherwise, or that one does not see why it should be so, is . Is it really any wonder the USA is going down the pan so fast?

3) That Condoleezza Rice can not think of a system which works as well as democratic capitalism (under the circumstances) when Stalinist holds so much of the USA's debt, again, with all due respect, is clearly just factual nonsense. One of the main reasons the USSR collapsed was because they were (in the PRC's view) 'revisionist' (they nearly went to war over this) and because they let Friedmanite economists like Jeffrey Sachs sell off their publicly owned industries to the oligarchs.

Outstanding interview by Jeremy with Condi Rice tonight. Excellent to see Mark's report from Iraq as it starts to return to normal :-)

Thank you to ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Newsnight for the rare Condi interview for British TV. Well done.

I am a Scot, a Briton and as the Americans say a "Brit" and I run an internet group "Rice for President Yahoo Group" and unlike Condoleezza Rice I am ALWAYS available for TV interview. (Hint, hint)

"Condoleezza Rice for President in 2012. Join this group of supporters from everywhere on the world wide web."

Statement issued by Peter Dow, Owner, Rice for President Yahoo Group in response to the news that John McCain is suspending his campaign for President.



My fellow Condistas,

Rice for President Yahoo Group has been nothing if not consistent these past 4 years.

This group has argued fiercely and with an undying love that the best person to be President of the United States of America is Condoleezza Rice.

When Condi refused to run, despite prompting from many Americans, we never ceased in our campaign, not for one day, not for one minute, never while breath remains in our body and while Condi's health remains excellent as we expect, never will we suspend our campaign.

Therefore we will NOT in any way suspend our campaign for Condoleezza Rice for President just because John McCain decides to suspend his. No way.

If Wall Street wants a way out of its crisis then step one is to rename itself as "Condoleezza Rice Street".

There is no crisis of confidence on any street that calls itself "Condoleezza Rice Street". There is only supreme confidence in our leader Condoleezza Rice.

So, John McCain, you suspend your campaign if you want to. Rice for President Yahoo Group is not suspending ours.

My only hope is that if John McCain does not show up to the first presidential debate that someone who supports Condoleezza Rice for President will offer to step in to debate with Senator Obama on behalf of those who wish to Draft Condoleezza Rice to run for President in 2008 if possible now, in 2012 if not.

- Peter Dow,
Owner, Rice for President Yahoo Group

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BURNING FOR BUSH (#3)

Re Ms Rice. She dotes on Bush, and once, in a Freudian slip, referred to him as her husband. Yet again I suggest we ignore such indicators at our peril when installing, and maintaining individuals in high places.

In passing, Duncan Bannatyne was on 'This Week'. He said he supported Maggie, Blair and now supports Gordon. He is rich, and his choice of leaders pretty rich too!

I thought Mark Urbans piece was very good but I should say (and maybe I was not paying attention) there were a few issues.

Was this just a few isolated areas?

The report seemed strikingly at odds (not saying its not true just that it seeme din strak contrast) to the embedded report from I think the 101st Airborne the other week.

We did see the Greenbacks in the report. Was the peace bought? I seem to recall the British going through a similar process in Basra and then not finding things so easy not so long later.

On balance though I am glad for Iraq if things are getting better.

Would Salam Pax be well placed to comment, if it's safe to do so?

Mark Urban's film -

I am so glad to see the normal Iraqi citizen (Baghdadians) life getting back to some normality , they really have been to hell and back , specially in the last 5 years.
I hope our Government is helping as much as they can to try and build upon the recent improvements.

I would be interested to see other reports from different areas of Iraq(Basra ?).

How about commissioning some Iraqis to make a film of their towns ?

Thanks for this Iraq update, we see very little on whats happening over there these days.

they are squabbling on the hill as to who is to blame? How about most of them? The spine of the republican party are saying why should we bale you guys out when you are the one's that started it or at least covered it up. When Enron went the whole sorry mess unfolded and we still haven't reached bottom, have you thought the nightmare scenario? That this is the tip of a large iceberg, and we thought the Titanic unsinkable. We are in uncharted waters and most of us don't have a paddle and the guys that do will be rewarded, t'was ever thus and that is why the republicans are kicking...there needs to be more accountability.

I found Mark Urban's report heartening, and very unusual given the anti-Iraq war stance of many at the Beeb.

This attitude was exemplified by Paxman's dismissal of Ms Rice throughout his interview.

Then, in his introduction to Urban's piece, it raised its bias again. His comments about the "non-existent" WMDs and the "ridiculous, (if I recall his words correctly) 'mission accomplished'" statement after the invasion was complete prefaced Urban's report in a way which showed Paxman's eyes, ears and brain firmly closed on this.

Those words were uttered about a month after the Iraq invasion, since when we have been in there under UN mandate. It SHOULD have been "mission accomplished" and WOULD have been if it were not for those elements in and around Iraq willing to kill their own or their neighbours, in order to get the Lefties like Paxman up in arms.

The intelligentsia Left in the west have been used and abused by murderous fundamentalists and little groupies, and they have yet to understand this.

He needs to talk to Urban about the Iraqi people's approach to the coalition before he pompously implies, as though it is fact, that the naysayers were right all along.

They were WRONG all along, as time will show.

In the meantime we have to put up with the omniscience of the ignorant.

And I hear Paxo is very pleasant on a one-to-one basis!

IMMIGRATION, DEMOGRAPHIC CHANGE, AND JUDAIC/CHRISTIAN VALUES

Before 1979 we lived in a culture which still essentially proscribed usury. That's what's changed. All the anarchistic deregulation may have fuelled 'the economy' but it did so by making usury and debt acceptable after years of proscription. It was proscribed, and legislated against becaus of known historical consequences.

In Judaic law, it's proscribed WITHIN the group, but not in transactions with those outside the group. It is also proscribed by Islam (hence, in my view, the vilification of Islam as fascist an efforts to secularise Muslim immigrants).

What we've seen over recent decades is falls to below replacement level fertility in the indigenous populations of the Liberal-Democracies and an influx of immigrants from other, non-Christian, cultures. At the same time, unsurprisngly, we've witnessed banking de-regulation and at the same time, people have been misled to believe they're 'free', when in fact this has just encouraged them to let their brakes off and irresponsibly sink into debt (mortages, credit cards, bank loans you name it, we've all been deluged with these too good to be true 'offers'). Such sub-prime loans attract higher than usual interest rates, often delayed so as to tease impulsive people into taking out the loans. Atthe same time, all the work on IQ and individual/group differences has been egregiously censured by political correcteness. Ask youself why.

This is at work, and whilst the traditional opponent of this was the Christian church, today it's more likely to be Islam. Both of these systems of values have been under systematic attack over recent decades (note the 'alternative' commedians), and both London and NYC have become more and more 'multicultural' to the exclsuion of the original populations. One needs to bear in mind the group mean IQ differences here (although this will be hard for many as it is deemed politically incorrect, for quite egregious, prdatory, financial reasons I suggest) as this is what makes people easy prey to .

Once again, the Muslims are politically incorrect (), in that there is also an and hence ability to delay gratification difference (the female distribution has a shorter range hence the frequency difference at the tails) between the sexes in how easily they can be parted with their money (- 80% of purchases are by females in Liberal-Democracies), which probably explains the modern emphasis on sex-equality (as it does race 'equality') far more than any lofty humanitarian ideals.

Bail out predators and this will probably just reinforce their behaviour. They can't help themselves in my vie, any more than narcissistic adolescents/toddlers can help throwing temper tantrums when they don't get their own way. Other people exist FOR them.

Narcissistic Personality Disorder (Axis II, Cluster B, DSM-IV), shares half its factor construct with Anti-Social Personality Disorder (which includes psychopathy). Robert Hare once said that if he didn't look in prisons for subjects, he'd look in the stock exchange.

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"CLASSIC PREDATORY USURY" (#12) BRAVO

There you go again JJ, touching bottom and losing all sense of Newsnight immediacy!
Would you have them investigate the place of money in a sustainable culture? Would you wish to ask if improper manipulation is better restrained by morality and altruism than 'dodgy checks and loaded balances'?
Why can't you just argue about monetary theory and regulatory bodies like proper folk do? I must have a word with NewFazer about you.

PS 'Usury' - there's a word you don't hear every decade . . .