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Well, we’ve started Iran Lie Watch- perhaps its also time to launch Russia Lie Watch.

Thanks to our regular commenter Jack for flagging up this truly shocking story.

Today's Mail on Sunday reports:

A fake news report claiming that Georgia had been invaded by Russian tanks and its president killed has caused widespread panic in the country.


The mock half-hour report on pro-government television station Imedi TV brought back memories of a 2008 invasion when Russian troops and tanks invaded the former Soviet Republic.


The station introduced the report as an 'imitation of possible events', but the warning was lost on many viewers as mobile phone networks crashed and residents the capital Tbilisi rushed into the streets.

'It was indeed a very unpleasant program, but the most unpleasant thing is that it is extremely close to what can happen and to what Georgia's enemy has conceived,' Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said.

No, Mr Saakaswally- 'the most unpleasant thing’ is you- a fanatical, warmongering, neo-con Russophobe.

Instead of pontificating on 'what can happen', let's focus instead of what did happen in the summer of 2008, when Saakaswally’s Georgian forces launched a brutal war of aggression against pro-Russian separatists in South Ossetia.  Now Saakaswally's supporters at Imedi TV are trying to scare the Georgian people into believing that the Russians might invade. But  the greatest enemy of the Georgian people are not the Russians, but their own President.

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This piece of mine appears in today's First Post.

Neil Clark: Brussels will be glad to see the back of Nigel Farage if he can beat Bercow in the general election

The British have sent many loud-mouthed yobs to Europe over the years - rampaging football hooligans, drunken stag party revellers - but Nigel Farage, leader of the UKIP MEPs, takes the crown after his performance yesterday.

Already known in Brussels for his brash and abrasive style, Farage launched a scathing personal attack on the new President of the EU Council, Herman van Rompuy, in the European Parliament, one which left MEPs reeling in shock at its sheer nastiness.

"Who are you? I'd never heard of you, nobody in Europe had ever heard of you," Farage proclaimed. He said van Rompuy had the "charisma of a damp rag" and compared him to a "low-grade bank clerk". For good measure he also insulted the EU President's homeland, saying Belgium was "pretty much a non-country".

Farage's attack on the modest and mild-mannered van Rompuy and his equally inoffensive country will only confirm what many in Europe think about the British: that we are a country of arrogant, bullying xenophobes.

Farage, a former commodity broker, represents the worst kind of Brit abroad, a blazered, braying, over-confident public schoolboy, convinced of his own - and his country's - superiority over others.

You can read the rest of the article here.

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Or rather Sicko of the Week.

The Guardian reports:

Animal welfare groups voiced outrage today after the restaurant critic AA Gill said he shot a baboon on safari "to get a sense of what it might be like to kill someone".

"I know perfectly well there is absolutely no excuse for this," he wrote. "There is no mitigation. Baboon isn't good to eat, unless you're a leopard. The feeble argument of culling and control is much the same as for foxes: a veil for naughty fun. I wanted to get a sense of what it might be like to kill someone, a stranger. You see it in all those films: guns and bodies, barely a close-up of reflection or doubt. What does it really feel like to shoot someone, or someone's close relative?"


I wonder if Gill is any relation to the equally depraved Teressa Groenwald-Hagerman?

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Boris Johnson is a worried man. He thinks that new planned EU regulations on hedge funds and other vulture capitalists will be a disaster for Britain.

Daniel Hannan, the Tory MEP who went on Fox TV in America to attack the NHS as a sixty year 'mistake', agrees:

The City is staring into the abyss. If the proposed EU directive on hedge funds goes through, London will go the way of Bruges, Venice and Amsterdam: a once dominant financial entrepôt sidelined by more virile cities.

What a load of Castor and Pollux.

Johnson and Hannan and other fanatical neoliberals would like us to believe that without vulture capitalists, London, and indeed the rest of Britain, would hit the buffers.

How is it then that during the period when Britain and Europe experienced their fastest growth in living standards- the thirty years following World War Two- capitalism was strictly regulated and hedge funds and other vulture capitalist vehicles did not exist?

The truth is that we survived perfectly well without hedge funds, 'private equity' companies and venture capitalists in the 50s, 60s, and 70s and we'd survive perfectly well without them again.

For a corrective to the neoliberal nonsense of Johnson and Hannan, there's a great article in today's Observer by Will Hutton on the sort of institutions the Mayor of London should be celebrating- eg The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and the institutions he shouldn't.

I am sick of hedge funds. Sick of their special pleading that they should not suffer the regulation proposed by Brussels and will flee the country, supposedly taking billions in tax revenue with them. Sick of politicians - Johnson on the right and Paul Myners on the left - feeling that they have to speak up for them as an allegedly key part of our financial service industry, so hitting back at the delusions of mainland Europeans that hedge funds represent all that is bad about Anglo-Saxon capitalism.

... hedge funds do represent the unlovely priorities of Anglo-Saxon capitalism. They were an important factor behind today's financial crisis. Brutally, it would matter scarcely a jot if the hedge-fund industry shrank to the size it was a decade ago. It might even promote a less casino-oriented financial system

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This week’s Wally(ess) of the Week is the graceless Serena Williams (pictured above), who marked her success at Wimbledon not by praising opponents, but by big-headedly making fun of the world rankings system which make the Russian Dinara Safina world number one.

What a contrast to the sporting behaviour of another American tennis player- defeated mens’ finalist Andy Roddick.
After playing his heart out in yesterday’s epic four-hour 16 minute mens’ final- Roddick said: “I just want to say congratulations to Roger. He’s a true champion and he deserves everything he gets”.

Roddick didn't complain about the sun in his eyes, poor line calls, or anything else-he simply paid a warm tribute to the tennis legend who had beaten him.

As the Daily Mail reports, Roddick’s pluck and humility won over the Wimbledon crowd.

And although Roddick didn’t win the trophy, I think this gallant performer- and great sportsman- has come out of Wimbledon with much more credit than Serena Williams.

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This week's winner is the "first Cabinet member with the balls to tell Prime Minister Gordon Brown his time is up- though not with the balls to tell him face to face."

But such underhand, cowardly behaviour is typical of the nastiest group of people in British politics- the uber-Blairites. The Brown government has, as Seumas Milne highlights, been inching towards a more progressive agenda in the last few months (45% top rate of tax, slightly softer foreign policy stance), and Labour's uber-Blairites- and their Conservative allies can't stand it.

For them, Purnell, lauded by neo-con Michael 'I love Tony Blair' Gove for being a "strong believer in an interventionist foreign policy", is a hero. Purnell is the man the Conservative Party's uber-Blairites would love to see as Labour leader. He'd press full steam ahead with 'reform' ie privatisation of the public services and welfare state, and get the country involved in more illegal wars as Tony did.

But for the rest of us, Purnell is a backstabbing, cowardly wally.

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What do you call someone who kills an elephant for a bet?

Yeah, you're right,'Wally' is far too mild a term, but until we have a 'Barbaric Bas...d' of the Week award, it will have to do.

The Daily Express and Daily Mail both cover this truly horrific story:

American Teressa Groenewald-Hagerman, 39, was so pleased with becoming the first woman known to have killed an elephant with a bow and arrow that images have been posted on the internet.
She told how after killing the animal at dusk in Africa she left it overnight before returning the next day to check it was dead.
She said she spent eight days on the hunt in Zimbabwe before getting close enough to take a shot.
“It was shot near dark. We went back the next day and found him. I was in the middle of 37 elephants when I took my shot. This was my first bow kill and first woman to take an ele with a bow.”
She added: “It was at 12 yards kneeling.”

Will Travers, of the Born Free Foundation, says it all:

“What kind of person would kill an elephant with a bow to win a bet? She needs therapy. It is sickening but unfortunately there are people who are willing to do this. Elephants live in tight family units and we know through research that they show signs of being able to grieve. There are people who would say that this is not far short of murder".

And I'd be one of them.

Runner-up in this week’s Wally of the Week is the ‘admiring blogger' called BO-N-ARO, who wrote:

“12 yards!!! I bet they had a great blood trail because of the low entry!!
“That has to be one of the best examples of setting a goal and working hard to achieve it!”

Yeh, right.....

One further point:

The Daily Mail records:

Hunting elephants for sport is legal in some parts of Africa and many tour companies allow tourists to visit on organised hunting trips.

What an indictment of so-called ‘socialist’ Zimbabwe that it allows rich Americans to come over and butcher its wildlife.

ps If you've got the stomach for it you can read of Ms Groenewald-Hagerman's exploits and other carnage on the 'Hunts of a Lifetime' website. Can you even begin to understand the mentality of people who think that slaughtering magnificent animals is fun?

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Do you know anyone who earns more than £150,000 a year? No, me neither.

Yet according to Daily Telegraph columnist Simon Heffer such people constitute 'Middle England'.

Heffer claims that

"Labour's policies are shaped increasingly, if not exclusively, by considerations of how it advances the cause of its own people. Those who are not in that category – such as most of you reading this column – get what is coming to them."

Again, I wonder what percentage of Daily Telegraph readers earn over £150K. Very, very few I should imagine.

The best response to this claptrap comes from commenter 'mac', who writes:

This article laid bare the hypocrisy of Tory sympathisers. To say that 150K is representative of "middle England" shows how out of touch they are with the REAL middle Britain who earns far less than 150K. I really hope voters see what danger the Tories would actually pose to the real middle England because they would end up cutting everything for us in favour of the RICH who earn 150K or more.

That's not an argument to vote Labour. But it's certainly a good argument not to vote for the party Mr Heffer supports.

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Didn't think the man who said that it was "important that a horse should be killed most years and a jockey every ten years or so" in the Grand National, could write anything more stupid?

Then think again.

In his column in The Independent, Anderson says of the neocons:

It was natural that they should think in terms of universalising American values. That was not imperialism. It was generosity.

What next from Bruce, I wonder? An article on how Hitler's bombardment of Britain was motivated by a kindly desire for us Brits to enjoy the protection of Nazi smoking bans?

I wouldn't put anything past this complete and utter wally.

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The business secretary (I refuse to call this corrupt, mega-creep 'Lord'), has accused unions who oppose the privatisation of the Royal Mail of fighting an 'ideological battle'.

Not only has Mandy once again shown his all-round wallyness, he's also made a spectacular effort to redefine the word 'chutzpah'.

For the ones fighting an 'ideological battle' on this issue are not the unions but fanatical neoliberals like Mandelson. Privatisation has proved a disaster for the British public and opposing it, far from being an 'ideological' position, is sheer common sense.

In the case of the railways, the British taxpayer pays around four-times more in subsidy to private rail companies that they did to the much-maligned British Rail.

Despite this enormous subsidy we still have by far and away the highest rail fares in Europe.

How can opposing this madness be labelled 'ideological'?

Neo-liberalism is a fundamentally dishonest ideology as its proponents deny that
it is an ideology at all. Instead they want us to believe that privatisation is
the norm and that anyone proposing public ownership is fighting an 'ideological battle'.

But the real ideologues are those, like Mandy, who won't rest until every single publicly owned asset is sold off.

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It is said that patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel. But in 2009, it's making false and unfounded accusations of anti-semitism against those who oppose Israel's brutal invasion of Gaza.

There have been many shocking examples of this phenomenon in the past few days, but the most execrable effort of all was published in today's Guardian.

It is not Israel's action, but the vitriolic reaction to it that has been disproportionate. There's only one explanation: anti-Semitism

says the blurb to Elizabeth Wurtzel's piece.

What utter claptrap.

People oppose Israel's action because it is wrong, not because it is being carried out by Jews. Zionists might find it hard to believe, but the majority of people around the globe do not approve of shelling UN schools, refugee centres and ambulances.

As one of the commenters to Ms Wurtzel's piece writes:

We now have a new definition for anti-semitism - Opposition to the killing of innocent civilians and the shelling of UN buildings. That defines the world as being 99.999999999% anti-semitic.

Despite admitting that she hasn't set foot in Europe since 2002, Wurtzel claims that Europe "has become an unbearable place to be, as the anti-American feelings in light of the Iraq war have mingled with antisemitism to a point where they are indistinguishable, the new phobias of the First World."

Again, what utter claptrap. There is a concerted campaign being waged by apologists for Israel's aggression to maintain that Europe has become an anti-semitic cesspit.

It hasn't. People's anger is rising, but it's anger directed against the state of Israel, not Jews in general.

On the subject of 'phobias', it's worth pointing out that Ms Wurtzel found fame and fortune by writing the book 'Prozac Nation' which talked about her battle with depression.

I think it would be better for all of us if she concentrated on dealing with her own phobias, instead of writing about the imaginary "new phobias" of a continent she clearly knows nothing about.

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Is there anything more nauseating than someone who is immune from the effects of the economic downturn saying how the recession might be good news?

Here's Conservative Health Spokesman Andrew Lansley (pictured above):

"On many counts, recessions can be good for us. People tend to smoke less, drink less alcohol, eat less rich food and spend more time at home with their families."

Don't you just love the 'us'?

As a superannuated member of Britain’s political elite, you can be sure the recession will not be impacting on Mr Lansley.

Meanwhile Richard Kay reports:

David Cameron is set to defy the credit crunch by going to a lavish black-tie party -only weeks after he instructed Tory chiefs not be seen drinking champagne at a reception.
Most of the Conservative high command is likely to be at multi-millionaire hedge fund tycoon Michael Hintze's 55th birthday bash later this week - but they are under orders to keep details secret.
Although his investment fund has had £200 million wiped off its value in recent weeks, Hintze, one of the Tories' most prominent backers, is understood to be determined to push the boat out.

As I've said before many times before, the big divide in Britain today is not between Labour and Conservative, but between the political elite and the rest of us.

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What do you call someone who spends hours and hours maliciously editing the wikipedia page of a journalist he doesn’t like (including at Christmas) and then sends the journalist in question six aggressive, abusive emails in a short period of time on one Saturday afternoon and then twelve the following night?

Well he goes by the moniker of ‘philip cross’ and he doesn’t like me very much at all (although he does seem to like a certain former hedge fund manager called Oliver Kamm very much).

'Philip' is also a very big fan of Henry Jacksonsite MP Denis McShane as you can see from his editing of McShane's wikipedia page. He's even edited the page of McShane's former wife, the late Carol Barnes. In fact so incensed was 'Philip' when I referred to McShane by his original name 'Denis Matyjaszek' that he darted over to my wikipedia page to insert the maiden name of my wife, failing to see the difference between a woman who takes her husband's surname on marriage, with a careerist politician who hypocritically berates the British for not being 'pro-European' enough, while changing his original Polish surname.

You can read some of 'philip cross’ contributions in the comments section of this thread: the idea that neocon columnists might become rarer in newspapers in the year ahead due to readers having had enough of reading their lies, really seemed to inflame him.

'philip cross' didn’t much like being called a ’sad little idiot’ and a ’sad little fxxxxx’ by other commenters so he took out his frustration by returning to my wikipedia page last night to make another edit. (strange how some people get their kicks, isn't it?)

That’s despite having already been warned by a senior wikipedia editor to stay clear of my page.

Actually, 'wally' is far too polite a term for ‘philip cross‘. ‘Pathological obsessive’ is far more accurate. Despite the warnings he's received 'philip' simply can't leave me alone. But as you’ll see from his other edits- this particular pathological obsessive is- however cranky he appears - following a very clear political agenda.

You can read more on philip cross' extraordinary obsessions here and here.

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No, this week's Wally isn't Russell Brand or Jonathan Ross (that would have been far too obvious), but a creature named Seth Freedman (pictured above).

Seth who? I hear you ask. Seth has written a quite hilarious- and at the same time disturbing piece for the Guardian's Comment is Free website in which he berates the British public- and the media - for taking delight in the plight of hedge fund managers who lost billions by short-selling VW shares.

The media have seized with glee upon the plight of hedge fund managers who have lost billions by short-selling VW shares. knowledge and comprehension of the events at hand were sacrificed in favour of uncontrolled delight at the outcomes.
The background to the VW affair is simple enough; what is less easy to comprehend is the kicking the press and public have meted out to the losing traders whilst they were down......
much-maligned minority of hedge fund managers – widely believed to be the root cause of all evil by arch-socialists, archbishops and politicians alike – are treated as social pariahs, mocked and ridiculed at every turn, whether they make or lose money.

Freedman whinges.

Then, in an extraordinary paragraph, he writes:

The public's refusal to acknowledge that traders and fund managers have also suffered during this spell of market turmoil means the market players are unlikely to feel compelled to offer much sympathy to the public's plight in return, sympathy that many commentators are demanding be extended by the City on an almost-daily basis.

So there you have it. Unless the public (that's you and I, dear reader) show more sympathy to the plight of those poor, poor 'market players', they're not going to show much sympathy to us.

Freedman, a former City trader clearly sees it as a battle between the Masters of the Universe-ie 'the market players' and the rest of us. We'd better show them some respect and stop laughing at their misfortune, or else.

I don't think any article I have yet read on the financial crisis demonstrates the extraordinary arrogance of those who 'play the markets' as much as this one.

They really do think they are a breed apart from 'the public' who instead of spending their days 'short-selling' companies actually do things which add to the wealth of the country.

It's good to see Freedman's disgusting article receive a mauling from CIF readers.

But I'm pleased he's written it: as it shows quite clearly the arrogant, elitist mindset of those who have it all their own way, for far too long.

UPDATE: It seems that Seth Freedman is carving out quite a lucrative little career for himself writing about such matters. Readersread.com report:

Viking have signed the former stockbroker turned writer Seth Freedman for "an insider account of greed, corruption and excess in the City", due next April. A mix of memoir, reportage and interviews, Viking hopes it will reveal the extent to which risking millions every day can be addictive, as well as explaining the inner workings of the market from short selling to bonds swaps.

Editorial director Joel Rickett paid what he described as a "healthy five-figure sum" for the book,

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Well, Alex, you've not only blown away the competition for this week's award, you've also made yourself red-hot favourite to win this blog's much-coveted Wally of the Year Award too. Dear reader: take a look at this and ask yourself, has there ever been a more obnoxious- and wallyish- article ever published in a British mainstream newspaper?

UPDATE:
Mr Singleton's website tells us that he apparently was President of something called 'The Globalisation Institute' which favours 'free market solutions' and advocates global water privatisation. It has a wikipedia entry, but it seems, no website. As Windsor Davis would say: 'Oh dear, how sad, never mind'.
Mr Singleton is now something called a 'leader writier' (I wonder what that is?) and he was also (surprise, surprise) a former 'Research Director' of the Adam Smith Institute. Yes, that's right, the 'free market' loons who lobbied (successfully) for railway privatisation and who now think that the problem is that the railways haven't been privatised enough!

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You really couldn’t make it up.

Free market capitalism is more unpopular- and more discredited - than at any time since the 1930s. Even the right-wing neo-conservative adminstration in the US is intervening in the economy and nationalising mortgage providers. Yet it is at this very moment - when the US and British stock markets are in freefall after the collapse of Lehman Bros, the shock sale of Merrill Lynch, and the revelation that the world’s largest insurance company may have to raise $40bn- the Liberal Democrat leader wants his party to ditch social democracy and embrace 'the free market'.

At the last election, the Lib Dems fought on the progressive economic policies of of renationalising the railways and reintroducing a top rate of income tax on high earners. These policies, despite being very popular with the electorate, have now been dropped. Instead, Clegg, the son of a banker and Orange Book-er (memorably- and accurately- labelled ‘Nick Cleggeron’ by Charlie Marks) talks the language of neo-Thatcherism: of the need of the state to 'back off', the necessity of radical public service reforms, of swingeing cuts in public spending and getting government out of peoples lives.

It's not only poor policy- it's also poor politics. The Lib Dems could have reaped the electoral benefit by putting forward pro-mixed economy, social democratic policies-which neither the Labour Party or the Conservatives- both in hock to big business and global capital seem incapable of doing.

There are some good, principled people in the Liberal Democrats. They deserve much better than their current wallyish leader.

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AN UPDATE TO THIS EARLIER POST (BELOW):
Contrary to press reports throughout this afternoon, it appears that Kevin Keegan has not been sacked as Newcastle manager.

A statement from Newcastle released shortly before 7pm included a denial that the board had axed Keegan:

"Newcastle United can confirm that meetings between members of the board and manager Kevin Keegan were held both yesterday and today.
"Kevin has raised a number of issues and those have been discussed with him.
"The club wants to keep progressing with its long-term strategy and would like to stress that Kevin is extremely important, both now and in the future.
"Newcastle United values the effort and commitment shown by Kevin since his return to St James' Park and wants him to continue to play an instrumental role as manager of the club.
"For the avoidance of doubt, the club has not sacked Kevin Keegan as manager."

So, the award of Wally of the Week to Newcastle chairman Mike Ashley is hereby withdrawn! That can only be bad news for David Miliband........

EARLIER POST

Back in January, I wrote in The Guardian:

Sometimes you hear news that makes you want to jump for joy. The release from jail of Nelson Mandela. The news that Tony Blair, after the longest farewell tour since Frank Sinatra, had finally vacated Downing Street. England regaining the Ashes.
Yesterday's announcement that Kevin Keegan was returning to English football to manage Newcastle United was another such occasion.

Today, just eight months on, Kevin Keegan was sacked by Newcastle chairman Mike Ashley (above). Instead of giving Keegan, a man with a proven track record, 100% backing, Ashley undermined him- appointing Dennis Not-So-Wise as Director of Football with responsibility for transfers. Ashley also allowed James Milner to go to Villa, despite Keegan's opposition. Kevin Keegan can leave Newcastle with his head held high, having done the best he possible could in such a short period of time. But one thing is for sure after today's news: the club will never make a challenge for honours so long as they have a wally like Mike Ashley at the helm.

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Well, lots of contenders for this week's award but in the end it goes to the man, who if opinion polls are correct, will be the next British Prime Minister.
Peter Hitchens, writing in the Mail on Sunday, explains why:

I like Georgia. I like Georgians and their superb hospitality. I have several times travelled to that beautiful country. But I wouldn’t lift a finger to save it from the Russians.

What cause would we be serving? Democracy? Ha ha.

This Olympically corrupt statelet is not a law-governed democracy. President Mikheil Saakashvili’s nauseatingly named Rose Revolution was a putsch achieved by an orchestrated mob, followed by an election so shamelessly one-sided that our supposed hero got 96 per cent of the vote. The only excuse for this was that previous elections had been rigged, too, which of course they had……..

Do we really want young men from the Midlands of England and the Lowlands of Scotland fighting and dying for years to come to save this dubious creature from his own unhinged, wilful conflict with the Kremlin?

You might think not, but David Cameron is all for it. In an amazing demonstration of unfitness for office, the Tory leader last week wrote one of the daftest articles I have ever seen.

He wants Georgia to be allowed into Nato, so committing this country to come to Georgia’s defence if it is attacked. He wants to do the same for Ukraine.

Will someone send this man an atlas and a history book? When will our political class stop trying to grow hairs on their teenage chests by starting wars and deploying forces we no longer have?

Why should we get entangled in this? What business is it of ours if Russia wants friends and allies on its borders, rather than a weird Nato alliance, kept on life-support long after it triumphantly achieved its purpose. What is Nato for now? Does anybody know? If they know, will they say?

Britain has no interests in following American adventures in the Caucasus, let alone taking sides over the dangerous future of Ukraine.

You can read what Peter calls "one of the daftest articles I have ever seen", here.

And the excellent blogger Mick Hall writes, a propos of Dave the Bear-Baiter:

"When David Cameron claims Margaret Thatcher is his role model, he is not being entirely truthful, his real hero is Tony Blair. For like his mentor, Cameron could have just as easily joined the LP and vice versa. Neither man has a political conviction beyond gaining power and once it is attained never placing themselves even a millimeter out of step with what they regard as the supreme power on this earth, the President of the USA."

What's clear from this week's events is that Dave, as I pointed out in my Guardian article of October 2005, is in hock to the neocons. The neocons were terrified that Ken Clarke, a man who had scoffed at the WMD 'Iraqi threat' nonsense, would become Tory leader three years ago, so threw their lot in behind the MP for Witney as the ideal 'Stop Clarke' candidate. Prime Minister Dave would be Tony Blair Mark Two, so if you want a real change from Nu Labour (and who doesn't?) don't be fooled that voting Tory will mean a change in Britain's disastrous foreign policy.

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Well, it looked like it would be a competitive race, but by his actions over the past 24 hours the former employee of New York law firm Patterson, Belknap, Webb and Tyler, (who also happens to be the President of Georgia), has won this week's award by a landslide. Saakashvilli- that really should be Saakaswally-(pictured above with his good pal George W. Bush), thought he could use the smokescreen of the opening of the Olympic Games to launch a brutal military assault against the people of the breakaway province of South Ossetia. In a referendum, 99% of South Ossetians said 'nyet' to any association with Georgia, but hey, what does a little thing like democracy matter when you're the neocons' man in the Caucasus.

But Saakaswally's cunning- (and utterly despicable) plan, has spectacularly back-fired. The murder of ten Russian peacekeepers - and the slaughter of hundreds of innocent South Ossetians has led Moscow to send in the tanks. And the planes. And now the hapless Georgian President is appealing for 'help' against Russian 'aggression'(!- yes, please try and keep a straight face) from the EU and the US.

Right on cue, the professional Russophobes are crawling out from beneath their stones, penning their rabidly anti-Moscow propaganda pieces- a mendacious narrative in which the aggressors become the victims of aggression and the victims of aggression the aggressors. But this is one dispute that even the neocons can't spin to their advantage. Saakaswally took an almighty gamble- and lost. No one is going to go to his assistance. The former employee of Patterson, Belkan, Webb and Tyler is going to be taught a lesson he'll never forget.

Never provoke a bear.

UPDATE: Mark Almond has penned a wonderful piece on the background to the South Ossetia conflict in today's Guardian. It's a great riposte to the mendacious neocon claptrap that's currently doing the rounds. The Exile will be blogging on the South Ossetia conflict all weekend and he's got some great posts up already. And you can read Svetlana's thoughts on Georgia's own version of 'Operation Storm', here.

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Well, it looked like it would be a close contest, but in the end Hitch won this week's prize as easily as Padraig Harrington bagged his second British Open yesterday.
In his column for the Gray Lady, Hitch writes:

"If we had left Iraq according to the timetable of the anti-war movement the Iraqi people would now be tyrannised by the gloating sadists of Al Qaeda"

What a thoroughly dishonest piece of writing. There was no Al Qaeda presence in Iraq at all until Hitchens' 'liberators' moved into the country in 2003. Now he and his fellow neocons use the presence of Al Qaeda to justify continued military occupation of the country. It's a bit like me driving a bulldozer into your house and then saying I've got to stay in occupation of it because otherwise gangs of burglars and other ne'er do wells would come in and take over.

But that's not all the hogwash that Hitch is spouting this week. He also writes:

"Most people appear now to believe that it is quite wrong to mention Saddam Hussein even in the same breath as (a)WMD, or (b) state-sponsored terrorism. I happen to disagree".

Well, Hitch old son, the reason most people believe that Saddam should not be mentioned in the same breath as WMD or state-sponsored terrorism is that no evidence was produced to connect him with either.

The great irony is that when it comes to religion, Hitch is scathing about those who believe in things without producing evidence. But it seems that when it comes to neo-connery, the same rules of evidence don't apply.

Hitch is of course, the pin-up boy of trans-atlantic neoconservatism. But next time you read a neocon writer drooling over the great man's utterings and praising his principled and long-standing opposition to Baathist and Islamist tyranny, just remind them of the man who once wrote this:

"The Baghdad regime is the first oil-producing government to opt for 100-per-cent nationalisation, a process completed with the acquisition of foreign assets in Basrah last December. It was the first to call for the use of oil as a political weapon against Israel and her backers. It gives strong economic and political support to the ‘Rejection Front’ Palestinians who oppose Arafat’s conciliation and are currently trying to outface the Syrians in Beirut. And it has a leader — Saddam Hussain — who has sprung from being an underground revolutionary gunman to perhaps the first visionary Arab statesman since Nasser."

Yup, you have it: Christopher Hitchens, founder member of the Saddam Hussein Fan Club.

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