Harry's Place

Thirty years ago Wednesday– a little more than two months after he proclaimed in his inaugural address that “Government is not a solution to our problem, government is the problem”– President Ronald Reagan was shot and almost killed as he left a hotel in Washington, DC, after addressing a meeting of building trades union leaders. [...]

The Israel of wide gaps between the rich and poor (not just between but also among Jews and Arabs) and of trade unionists (Jews and Arabs) struggling for economic justice.

Note at about 1:40 the striking social workers holding signs in both Hebrew and Arabic.

New York Times:
In post-revolutionary Egypt, where hope and confusion collide in the daily struggle to build a new nation, religion has emerged as a powerful political force, following an uprising that was based on secular ideals. The Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist group once banned by the state, is at the forefront, [...]

BA Cabin Crew have voted for new industrial action. The strike call was supported by 83% of members returning ballot papers (60% of all members).
This call to strike is not about pay. It’s not about conditions, or manpower, or pensions. It is a response to 21st century union-bashing sans pareil and the systematic abuse of [...]

This is a guest post by Andrew Murphy
“Road to hell is paved with good intentions.”
Old saying wrongly attributed to Dr. Samuel Johnson
Make no mistake, this is hardly some craven, “anti-imperialist” tirade that one would find from say, on Richard Seymour’s Lenin’s Tomb. Frankly like most sensible people, I would enjoy seeing Gaddafi out of office or [...]

If anyone failed to spot a clue as brazen as a bloodied brass candlestick that Ed Miliband is an immature politician unsuited to leading a modern, mainstream centrist social democratic party then the results of a new poll commissioned by The Guardian confirm it.
The clue I’m talking about of course is the ridiculous statement by [...]

In what is hardly a reassuring statement amid speculation that North Korea is planning a third nuclear test, the Asia Times reports on statements from this histrionic brat that the West’s demand that Gaddafi dismantle his CBN programme in the first half of the 2000s merely was a preamble to the current military strikes against [...]

A Liberal Democrat councillor has had to apologise to Salma Yaqoob:
A leading Birmingham city councillor has been forced to issue a public apology after accusing another councillor of being a Muslim extremist.
Liberal Democrat Martin Mullaney said he “apologised unreservedly” for stating that Respect councillor Salma Yaqoob supported stoning people to death and wanted to see [...]

…Mehdi Hasan.
It might, in other circumstances, be enough to convince me to start buying the Staggers again, but unfortunately this publication is also home to possibly the worst article written about the same event.
Small quibble: whilst Hasan clearly resents Penny’s labelling of the vast majority of peaceful marchers as “hummus munchers” – a clearer example [...]

There’s an old political tradition of insulting someone by referring disdainfully to the type of food they eat.
An Eighteenth Century Staffordshire man may have kicked the whole thing off by being waspish about the generally poor quality of the Scottish diet of the time. Here’s the ample-girthed Doctor’s definition of oats:
A grain, which in England is [...]