VOTE NO, FOR SARAH: UM, YOU KNOW IT MAKES SENSE!

With friends like her, who needs enemies?

Everyone is entitled to form and articulate an opinion on the future of Scotland from the most elevated and privileged in the world to the most humble.

Obviously there are some voices which carry more weight than others. Those perhaps with great knowledge or understanding of economics, politics or international relations, those with insider knowledge are worth listening to, even if only to see how they form their conclusions, on either side of the argument.

Others, with respect, carry less weight...for example, maybe, those who genuinely worry over the availability of "Eastenders" or "Dr Who" in an independent country; the "fact" that their children, studying at university in England would suddenly become foreigners; those who think the best thing about Scotland is wee dugs and sausage rolls, or who think the measure of being a true Scots is the ability to recite some Burns, just like my Bulgarian friend can. (I wonder if they would consider me to be French, as I can recite some Rimbaud.) 

When these people make their support for a particular side know, they don't exactly add intellectual credence to the argument.

So, as a Yes person, I can say that I am truly delighted to welcome Sarah Palin's contribution to the discussion.

Known universally as one of the great minds of our time, Ms Palin is probably best known for getting things horribly wrong when she was plucked from relative obscurity as state governor of Alaska [a massive state (663,268 sq miles), with a tiny population (732,000) compared with the contiguous USA, and oil...and the beneficiary of an oil fund allowed them from the federal government in Washington DC] to be running mate with John McCain in the 2008 presidential election .

I thought you might enjoy a little video some of her embarrassing moments when running for the vice presidency of the USA.

Of course, given her featherheaded intellectual capacity, I'm not sure that she's doing anything except parroting the right wing Christian fundamentalist view, as is her wont, or if she's actually given some consideration to what might conceivably happen to children in Alaska should Scotland become independent.

I am also given to wonder if Sarah actually knows anything of America's history vis-a-vis their relationship with Britain?

Given the evidence, probably not, I conclude.

RANDOM THOUGHTS FOR FRIDAY NIGHT

A BP guard shot a polar bear in Alaska, in error because he thought he was shooting “beanbags” and did not know he had live bullets in his gun. OK... that is very sloppy; if, as part of your job you are going to fire guns, it’s probably a good idea to know what you are firing. But the thing that makes me utterly sick is that BP staff monitored the bear until she died 11 days later. What kind of sick people does BP employ?

Royal Mail has been cutting costs... And coincidently around 10% of first class (well, what THEY laughingly call first class) mail failed to get to its destination on time. Among other things that were to blame for this was...wait for it ...Iceland and its volcano. Yes, not only did the last prime minister label little Iceland “terrorists”, but it’s now their fault that the Royal Mail doesn’t know its bottom from its armpit. I was told that if I wanted to guarantee a next day delivery of a letter to Glasgow (from Dundee, about 80 miles away), it would cost me £5.50. You get brilliant service if you can afford a first class stamp at that price.

You remember Iris Robinson, wife of Ulster’s first minister, devout fire and brimstone Christian, hater of anything divergent from the word of the good book... oh, and incidentally, the 60 year old granny who was having it off with a 19 year old kid behind her husband’s back? Yes, surely you remember her... No? Well, she was also a local councillor, an MP and an AM... not bad money (especially if you add her husband’s many and various incomes and the fact that they were both a bit heavy handed on the old expenses)... Coming back to you now? She had a nervous breakdown when it turned out that she was a bit of a cradle snatching old woman... A contributory factor to that mental illness might have been that she was accused of using her position in the council to secure her teenage lover boy a catering contract, without disclosing her interest (well she wouldn’t, would she?) and of getting him a big fat loan from another “friend of the family”, of which, I seem to recall, despite her 3 salaries and numerous expenses, she wanted a slice. Is it coming back to you? Yes. That’s it; that’s her. Well, you’d never be guessing (as they say in Ireland) but she’s been completely exonerated. And she’s been cured too. That’s a bit of luck the two coinciding like that. Or maybe it’s because she’s in a close relationship with God or something...who knows? In other news a bloke who stole a t-shirt from the Armani shop in Birmingham during their riots was jailed for 20 months... I say 20 months... Funny old world, ain’t it?

I had to laugh tonight at the BBC news about Al Megrahi. It seems that the Little Blue Man, Nick Clegg, is calling him to be returned to Scotland to jail. Al Megrahi has broken the terms of his licence you see. He has moved house without informing his parole authorities and hasn’t kept in touch by telephone. Hmmm. Now I wonder why that would be. Oh yeah, I’ve heard they are having a spot of local bother... a riot or two, this time supported by Cameron and his puppet. (I wish they’d make their minds up.) Maybe the phones aren’t working too well; maybe his house isn’t secure any more... He was a friend of Gaddafi and as such is likely to be in hiding, but just as likely to be dead by the end of next week, wonder drug or no wonder drug. In the mean time, does anyone know what gets blue paint out of Armani suits?

Good news on the oil front

Only three months after the find of an approximate 300 million barrels of oil in Scottish waters, a further 100 million barrels has been discovered by German firm Wintershall.

At today’s prices the latest find would equate to something in the region of $7billion of a boost to the Scottish economy. Added to the $21 billion in May, that makes a tidy wee sum which could easily be salted away as an oil fund...

Prof. Josef Stiglitz has called for an Oil Fund. The Nobel Prize winner and former Chief Economist of the World Bank, said on BBC Scotland’s Newsnight programme last Tuesday that the UK had “squandered" its oil wealth and that it is now "imperative" an oil fund be established to secure the wealth that remains under the North Sea for future generations.

Fat chance! When oil was first discovered in the North Sea in the late 1970s, the details of how much there was, and how much money was involved were deliberately hidden from the British and especially the Scottish people by the Labour government. It was feared that knowledge of the potential wealth in Scottish waters would encourage the Scots to ditch the union in favour of the life style now enjoyed by Norwegians, a lifestyle which might be described as being from an altogether different planet.

Mrs Thatcher failed to correct Labour’s criminality. Instead of investing in the run down industry that was rife in the north of England and the central belt of Scotland, as for example the Germans have done with their eastern länders (without the benefit of oil), Mrs Thatcher used the oil money to support a vast unemployment programme whilst converting Britain to a service economy which made nothing but money. Insurance and banking, tourism and popular culture. In the mean time vast numbers of people in Scotland were dumped on the dole.

And as the unemployment figures rose, she ordered that people be transferred to the more secretive Sickness and Invalidity Benefits which were supposed to be for people incapable of work (as opposed to those who had become an embarrassment to the government).

Messrs Blair and Brown used the oil money to help fund war wherever they could find it. So the money from our oil wealth was used for anything but making our country comfortable.

I am forever hearing of an oil fund in this or that country. Vast amounts of money put away in the good times to help support the country in the future. It’s happened in Norway where there is over $500 billion of wealth in a country of 4 million people, making them the richest folks in the world at $117,000+ per person in a bank account... and they are only just over the water from us. Amazingly Scotland produces almost the same amount of oil as Norway, and yet not a penny piece has been put into a fund.

Funds exist in feudal states. Sensible and prudent government from the likes of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the Gulf Emirates, countries in which there is little if any democracy. And even when a state is not totally independent, like Alaska and in Canada, the federal government has still seen to it that oil funds are set up for these states.

Scotland must the only country (or if you want it province) which found oil and got poorer.

We really have to insist that with these finds the Scottish government be allowed to set up a fund for the future of the Scottish economy when oil has dried up. To do anything else is criminal lunacy... and we have already had 30 years of that.

SISTER SARAH'S SILLY SPECIFICATIONS SHOW SUPERSTAR STATUS

Until John McCain, for some inexplicable reason, plucked her from the relative obscurity of one of the least known states of America, Sarah Palin hasn’t half got an inflated idea of her own importance and worth.

She was relatively unknown, even in the United States, except by perhaps the 700,000 or so souls that populate Alaska where, as governor she lived on an income of £80,734 a year.

She has, however, very rapidly managed to get herself a set of expensive tastes and acquired some pretty impressive trappings of celebrity and influence.

She now commands fees of up to $100,000 for just one speech, and her engagements are controlled by her minders in minute detail.

Like some sort of superstar she demands all sorts of little, and some larger, comforts to make her trip go smoothly. According to the Guardian this includes that she have two bottles of still water and bendable straws placed near the lectern when she is speaking; that she be flown from her home in Alaska to the event on first-class commercial tickets or in a private jet of at least the size of a Lear 60; and that she be driven from the airport to the venue in professionally licensed SUVs or, failing that, in black town cars.

Her hotel room must be booked under an alias, for security reasons, and must include a one-bedroom suite and two single rooms. There must be a laptop computer and printer fully charged with paper in the room. And the hotel must be rated as deluxe.

So, it’s not only UK politicians that think themselves a bit above the ordinary person. Of course, most of them have actually be elected rather than rejected when they get above themselves to this extent. But details of this lifestyle make it a little clearer why Ms Palin gave up her governorship in mid –term to cash in on what might have been 5 minutes of fame last year and play out her role as comedienne for the tea bag party, and John McCain.

Sure is a long way from Juneau!

Photograph: Sarah Palin; Juneau (population 31,000), capital of Alaska

The START Treaty: An intellectual anaysis by....errr uhh.... Sarah Palin.... Hmmmmmm

Yesterday 'Letter from America' Danny mentioned to me that superstar politician and president in waiting, ex-Governor Sarah Palin had commented on Mr Obama’s landmark signing of a further START treaty with President Medvedev of Russia (you know, the one Sarah can see from her bedroom window if she hangs out far enough and wiggles a bit to the left… or rather she could if she ever spent any time in Alaska now that she gave up being governor mid term, to concentrate of making serious money as a comedy act at tea parties, and other places where loopy people gather…)

Anyway, I’d been thinking of writing something about that, but needless to say I managed to convince Danny that he should do the writing… and he has.

Once again thanks Danny for your insightful comments on American affairs.



Sarah Palin as Nuclear Policy Analyst


Both of our countries are in the throes of an election season. Readers of 'Munguin’s Republic' will remember Sarah Palin, the helicopter moose hunter, Vice Presidential (and Presidential) wannabe, and Fox News contributor.

On Wednesday, she took time off from book signings and after dinner speeches to appear at a political rally for Minnesota Congresswoman… and seriously deranged right wing nut case… Michele Bachmann.

Then Palin and Bachmann appeared on Fox News for a televised interview. It occurred just days after media reports of a new policy of the Obama administration, which would generally not permit the use of nuclear weapons against non-nuclear nations…and as President Obama and Dmitry Medvedev had signed the START treaty in Prague which will cut nuclear weapons stockpiles.

Sarah then gave us her soccer mom analysis of Obama’s nuclear policy, reducing it to something that we ignorant voters can understand.

You see, it’s like kids on a playground who are ready to fight. "It's unbelievable,” she said, “no other administration in America’s history would I think ever have considered such a step. Mr. Obama is like a kid on the playground who says, 'Go ahead, punch me in the face, and I'm not going to retaliate.'"

When asked to comment on Mrs. Palin’s remarks, Mr Obama delivered a delightfully understated smackdown. He said: “I really have no response. Because when last I checked, Sarah Palin's not much of an expert on nuclear issues.”

He went on to say: “If the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff are comfortable with it, I'm probably going to take my advice from them and not from Sarah Palin."

A rather nice “no response” response from the President about Sarah, the soccer mom and part-time nuclear policy analyst.

...............

Danny sent the following Youtube clip, and I'm too dim to upload it, so here's the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCp2e5TLG6Q