Sunday September 19th: Amidst the meltdown of a bank and the uproar over Tetleygate, Gordon has taken a leaf out of Diet Blair's book today and turned his focus away from home. He is all over the news, demanding the deployment of a task force, made up of African and UN troops to bring peace to Darfur. I'll wager Sudan wasn't on his mind when he was munching Digestives with She-Who's-Name-Shall-Not-Be-Mentioned. When the going gets tough, the tough go to Africa. By this thinking, if Gordon ever got caught having an affair, poverty and disease on the continent would probably be wiped out within days.
So, we edge ever nearer to Party Conference season. Each leader is setting their stall out ahead of time, so the relevant people know when to applaud/cheer/laugh. Gordon, in light of managing to return some semblance of dignity to the office of Prime Minister, will be running on the Scarface ticket this year (Who put this thing together? ME - That's who!). Short of bringing out Thatcher and getting her to body-pop, is there anything Dave can do to divert attention back to the Conservatives? I'm not sure. They might well end up sitting in the conference hall in total silence, with only the occasional embarassed cough to break the tension. As for the Liberal Democrats, Sir Menzies has also made a statement, prior to the seaside trip, saying that he intends to remain Party Leader. Reports that he said this in a huff after finding aides checking his pulse while he had an afternoon nap are totally scurrilous and completely unfounded.
Bar the Youtube story, Prince is out of the news for the moment. I'm sure this will change in the next five days, as reporters and photographers across London realise that they haven't managed to get a really juicy story out of one of pop music's last great enigmas in the past month, and begin stalking him around the clock.
Don't think I'd forgotten...The Jena 6.
The whole debacle began at a High School in Louisiana on September 6th 2006, as an argument over black students being able to sit under a tree which was 'reserved' for white students. When the principal said that any student was free to sit under the tree, it was less than 24 hours before 3 nooses appeared in its branches. When the school's principal recommended the culprits for expulsion, he was overruled by the board of education who said that the punishment should be reduced to three days in-school suspension and the incident was dismissed as an "adolescent prank". Even the District Attorney, one Reed Walters got in on the foolishness, declaring to an assemble of Jena High School students that he could end their life with a stroke of his pen (reports state that the claim was made to black students in particular).
Leading up to the 'Jena Six assault', a catalogue of violent events involving students, should have hinted that something was going to happen. It all came to a head, when a white student threatened a group of black students with a shotgun and had it taken from him. While white students who had been found guilty of violent acts were charged with simple battery. The black students who wrested control of the shotgun from a would-be aggresor, found themselves being charged with theft of a firearm, second-degree robbery and disturbing the peace. The white student who owned the shotgun was released. Had the charges been allowed to stick some of the students would have found themselves imprisoned until they were about 50 years old. At one point in proceedings it was made clear to the jury that in order for the charges to stick, they would have to classify tennis shoes as a deadly weapon. Hmmmmm.
By the time Mychal Bell's felony conviction was thrown out yesterday, America had ended up dredging up some of the uglier legacies that America's citizens inherited from their forefathers. There is still a march planned in the style of Dr. King's civil rights protests scheduled for September 20th. If the American justice system wasn't already ashamed of it's treatment of ethnic minorities, than the fact that there needs to be such action in the 21st Century should do the trick.
Why did this happen now, though? Is it the zeitgeist of the screwed up times we're living in? Could this be a reflection of George's good old Southern roots? Could the fact that the convictions were thrown out mean the end is nigh for all for the international robber baron and his ilk? Well, George's term is up next year - and common sense would dictate that almost a decade spent wandering in the wilderness would be more than enough for America. But we all said that after four years....
Perhaps they're ready for a whole new outlook. Is there more to this superpower than 'the buy low, sell high' mantra and releasing the hounds on anyone who doesn't agree with them? If the Democrats are returned to the White House next year, one thing will be for sure; Gangstas just don't get it as good as they used to. After last week, 50 Cent will tell you that....
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