Buying Africa

It's the rubber trade all over again, except this time it's the Russians and Chinese instead of the Belgians and Portuguese.

Gazprom seals $2.5bn Nigeria deal

And yes, the name of the new joint venture is called "Nigaz." I shit you not.

More from Iran

Naturally, I get the lion's share of my news from a soccer message board. I found this post - from an Iranian involved in the protests - particularly compelling:

Things just went from bad to worse. Another miscalculation because he (Khamenei) wants to save face and continues with his illogical support of AN.

He basically warned Mousavi to stop this or we'll make it worse. Veiled threats against Rafsanjani who is now being portrayed as the ring leader of all the troubles in Iran!

It is now 2 opposite poles: Khamenei and his supporters (no longer AN and his supporters!!) who include AN, Basij, and to varying extents Revolutionary Guards. Against everyone else!! I don't think Mousavi will back down; Karrubi certainly won't. In any case, when you have 1-3 million people on the streets of Tehran for you for 5/6 days in a row, not only will you not back off, but if he does, the crowds won't dissipate, they may simply become more violent!

For the first time, Rafsanjani should feel directly threatened. He is man after saving his own neck first and that is why despite rumours for about 3 days that he has gone to Qom to talk with Maraje' and try to hold an emergency session of the Council of Experts, there was still some doubt. For him and everyone else on the "opposition" side now, it should be clear that Khamenei will either have to go or at the very least taught a lesson (the former being more likely)!

Unfortunately, there will be many more deaths now. It is inevitable that the foolhardy and brainwashed will hit with that much more zelousy and the worse they hit and kill, the more people will come out in protest.

May God, Jesus, Buddha, Yauwe, Shiva or whomever else might be up there help. A massacre although still hopefully unlikely, just became one step closer. More deaths, almost inevitable.

More good reading here.

Shoop de woop

The discord in Iran is both scary and encouraging, given it could end with either a semi-legit democracy in an area of the world that could badly use one, or it could end with nuclear annihilation*. It's like trying to turn a double into a triple with less than two outs at this point - a crazy risk that either pays off spectacularly, or (more likely) ends any chance of progress.

Fun part about it is that it puts the amateur Iranian photoshoppers back in the news. Remember this from last June?















It's from last summer, and at a quick glance it looks like four SCUD-type missiles being launched. Hurrah for the mighty power of Iran. Except...













Clearly shooopped. Those of us whiling away our days looking at pictures of kittens online can spot this stuff pretty quickly. And Iran's propaganda machine was, well, ridiculed:













What's that got to do with the current civil unrest after an obviously rigged election? One in which the ostensible victor claims to have had rallies of several million supporters showing their utter devotion? Well... take a look:



















Remember to enjoy your news, kids, but believe none of what you hear and only half of what you see.

*Or it could end somewhere in between. Which is the most likely outcome, but as a blogger I'm duty-bound to present only the most extreme options.

lolNYS

I admit it, I love Gail Collins.

"I am deeply depressed about my state’s Legislature. This is an embarrassing thing to have to admit, since it obviously suggests the lack of a full and meaningful inner life."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/11/opinion/11collins.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

Building a bridge to the 20th century

Courtesy of Mike Vallo:

A mayor who changed his own term limits a coup in the state capital and an unelected governor, what former Soviet Republic do I live in?

That about sums it up.

A bit more information if you can stomach it.

The new Journal

The NY Observer has an in-depth look at the WSJ's move to midtown from their Battery Park offices. No groundbreaking stuff here, more just a collection of holier-than-thou faux libertarians lamenting their horrible fate (hey, it's just what the market dictated! Ergo, it's only right and natural!) and reminiscing about "simpler times and values."

But it's worth a read simply for the description of the NewsCorp cafeteria, and general culture at NewsCorp headquarters (a building the WSJ reporters call "The Death Star." Full points for that - it's good comedy.)

The new real estate space means The Journal will be pushed into the forefront in a whole new way.

In the elevators, in the gym—which Journal reporters can join for $7 per week—they’ll be reminded wherever they turn that they are now aliens living in someone else’s house.

“In the cafeteria, there has been some reaction to the names of the sandwiches!” said an editor. “There is some sort of O’Reilly wrap.”

“When you walk in, you walk by this huge picture of Fox Nation,” said a reporter. “That’s the hardest part for them to handle—that you’re in the same building as Fox News. There’s this sort of visceral feeling that you’re cheek to cheek to the least palatable parts of Murdoch world. He owns The Times of London, The Australian and then you’re there with Fox News.”

And even when you wind up climbing back to your desk, the TVs all have a feed tuned directly into Fox News and the Fox Business Channel. Reporters who are there now said that they can’t change the channel, but a Journal spokesman said, “The TV channels can be changed. Facilities will be coordinating the distribution of the remote controls once the move is complete.”

When do we get to change NewsCorps' name to "The Ministry of Truth?"

See how it spins...

By now you've probably heard about the murder of Dr. George Tiller at his Wichita, Kansas church. Let's look beyond the fact that Tiller performed legal operations that saved the lives of countless mothers, and instead focus on how his murder has transformed the politics of the abortion discussion in the US.

For years one side has been branded "Pro-Choice," those who think that the mother has the right to choose to terminate an unwanted pregnancy. The other side has been branded "Pro-Life," which ostensibly meant that they venerate human life above all else, and since most pregnancies will end up producing a living human being, consider abortion to be murder.

Problem is, the "Pro-Life" movement also tend to be the same people who support war and the death penalty. In liberal circles there have long been jokes about "Pro-Life" folks being upset about a medical procedure to dispose of some cells that couldn't win an arm-wrestling contest with a bit of amneotic fluid, yet venerating and supporting with a passion the act of electrocuting retarded people. So "Pro-Life" didn't seem to be the correct title for this bunch.

Which brings us to this article from our friends at the AP:

Anti-abortion leaders voiced concern Sunday that the Obama administration and other Democrats may try to capitalize on the murder of Dr. George Tiller to defuse the abortion issue in upcoming Supreme Court confirmation hearings.

Many anti-abortion groups condemned the killing of Tiller, a prominent abortion provider who was shot dead at his church in Wichita, Kan. But they expressed concern that abortion-rights activists would use the occasion to brand the entire anti-abortion movement as extremist.

"Anti-abortion." The phrase "Pro-Life" doesn't appear even once in the article, and the AP ain't exactly known for it's left-wing bias.

Honestly you could knock me over with a feather, but it seems like the mainstream media's finally caught on: These people are not pro-life. They're anti-abortion; they couldn't give a shit about living, breathing human beings.

It's nice when the press does its job. Well done, AP.