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Hardcore

The Parliament yesterday started what promises to be the most hardcore session in recent history. The new Family Code legalising same-sex marriages and adoptions, a law on reinstitution of rights to The Erased and – last but certainly not least – start of impeachment proceedings against President Danilo Türk have the potential to develop into a political perfect storm.

How Türk’s impeachment would have looked if Janša had his way (source, edit by pengovsky)

As things stand now the political left is not in the best of shapes. The government of Borut Pahor as a whole is about as popular as a Klingon opera while the opposition is having a field day with individual ministers and/or party leaders. Parliamentary investigation of Gregor Golobič is slowly but surely transforming into a full-blown Spanish Inquisition, where the initial charges were proven wrong, but that doesn’t matter, because he surely is quilty, they just have to find out what of. Or so their reasoning seems to go.

Minister of health Borut Miklavčič is facing calls to resign because he apparently signed a bad contract with GlaxoSmithKline for delivery of swine-flu vaccine. Imagine what would happen if he didn’t sing the contract in the first place. He’d probably be taken off stage legs-first. As things stand that may indeed happen. Days ago Miklavčič was hospitalised for the third time in less than a year. Last summer he suffered a mild stroke and was advised to lighten his workload. Being in a middle of health reform Miklavčič, a known workaholic, agreed to work only twelve hours a day and on Monday the devil came to collect. It may well be that PM Pahor will gave to look for a new health minister toot-suite

Then there are the inevitable interpelations of agriculture minister Milan Pogačnik and interior minister Katarina Kresal, both of which are embroiled in the canine scandal. In all honesty, Kresal is in such deep shit only by virtue of her partner Miro Senica being the attorney to the late Sašo Baričević who is suspected of animal abuse, but there you go. It’s not what you do, it’s who you know.

And as of today it is quite probable that minister of labour, family and social affairs will become the next target. According to “traditionalist” groups the new Family Code will surely bring about the apocalypse as it violates the “natural order” where some people can have a family, whereas others are not allowed to. The debate predictably runs along ideological lines, which pengovsky detailed here some time ago. Even more. If the code is passed, those opposing it will call for a referendum. Which will probably (athough this is not certain) be struck down by the Constitutional Court. Which will probably then lead to calls for constitutional judges to be replaced as well.

The political right goes on to say that ust as same-sex couples should not be granted rights their heterosexual counterparts already have (as this would have lead to the destruction of the nation) so too should the Erased be prevented from reinstitution of their “legal alien” status, backdated to 1992, as this is unpatriotic, costly and will surely lead to the destruction of the nation. Even more, in both cases human rights of these two particular groups of citizens are, well, expendable in the wider interests of the society (“wider”, “interest” and “society” being defined by the political right itself :)).

However.

Those same human rights suddenly become paramount in case of impeachment of President Danilo Türk, who – as readers of this blog know – somewhat foolhardily gave a medal to the last socialist interior secretary Tomaž Ertl. Türk allegedly violated as much as thirty-four articles of the constitution, especially rights of those who were harassed by UDBa. This too is tantamount to high treason and utterly unpatriotic, or so the opposition says. This too, was covered here in detail and pengovsky won’t go into it again. But point is that on one hand human rights are paramount, whereas on the other their continuous violation is only encouraged, but demanded.

Which brings us to the final point of today’s longish post. Human rights, morals, patriotism and even “natural order” are but consumables, poker chips which are thrown on the table when upping the ante, in a game where ever more galactic bets are being made, where the ultimate prize is not money, but political power. To attain it, anything and everything is allowed. Judgements are being passed in advance, regardless of the facts. If the latter don’t fit the theory, so much worse for the facts. And when these judgements will not be upheld by the appropriate institutions, then – it can be expected – calls will be made to replace those institutions as well.

Who Let The Dogs Out

The hunting season is open. Literally. First the three bulmastifs went after their owner and mauled him to death. The investigation as to why and what exactly happened is still under way and (albeit strong) suspicions that the three members of canine persuasion were abused have yet to be confirmed. But that did not stop the media to succumb to the scent of blood and sperm and started beating the drums, turning the general population into a pack of rabid dogs and let them loose to go after whoever they came by.

(source)

Minister for agriculture Milan Pogačnik of Social Democrats was starting to feel the heat almost immediately after the attack. After all the Veterinary Administration which (following a court order) released the dogs into the late Saša Baričevič‘s custody is under his jurisdiction. Allegations of pressure being brought to bear surfaced and the whole thing started to look as if the laws apply differently to the powerful few than to the rest of us. So an interpelation was filed against minister Pogačnik who (you shan’t be surprised) denies any wrongdoing and insists that the law was followed to the letter and that in the end there was a decision of the Administrative Court which the ministry and the Veterinary Administration had to fulfil. The court said that the dogs are to be returned to their owner because the provision of mandatory extermination after an attack came into force after the process had started.

But as this angle was still being explored the “blood and sperm” thing exploded. The fact that Miro Senica, partner (spouse) of minister of interior Katarina Kresal of LDS represented Baričevič in the above case was bad enough (although Kresal was not minister when Senica took the case). But then allegations (completely unfounded, btw) of a media cover-up were circulated by the yellow press and were immediately followed by speculation that either Kresal or Senica (or both) knew about the alleged abuse (note the three-fold conditional). Even more, as days passed (and Kresal remained curiously quiet) speculation mounted that she somehow tried to influence the police or that the cops intentionally dragged their feet investigating. Therefore SDS, SNS and SLS filed for interpelation of minister Katarina Kresal.

So, now we have two ministers being dragged in front of the firing squad, so to speak. In case of Kresal this is the sencond time in less then a year (an interpelation against her was filed by SDS, SNS and SLS 364 days ago). But things do not stop there. As it happens, minister of justice Aleš Zalar is under fire as well, supposedly because his brother was on the judiciary panel of the Administrative Court which – it is now being argued – actually fucked up and interpreted the law wrongly. Things are not helped by the fact that Zalar is embroiled in a bitter dispute with General Prosecutor Barbara Brezigar who is politically closer to the opposition. As of this writing Zalar is neither a subject of an interpelation nor was he called on to resign, but give it a week. So. Minister three under fire.

Not that it stops there. Minister Gregor Golobič of Zares yesterday testified in front of an committee investigating his alleged abuse of power in acquiring an unsecured credit line for Ultra, a company where he holds a 7% stake. Pengovsky covered the Ultra affair at length here and here, so do your homework 🙂 Golobič is in fact the first public official to be under investigation by a parliamentary committee in the history of Slovenia (all others investigative committees only called public officials as witnesses). Minister number four being forced to walk the plank.

To go on. Today, the opposition demanded that minister of health Borut Miklavčič resign because of the deal with GlaxoSmithKline for the swine flu vaccine. It has emerged that Miklavčič could do little but say yes the terms of the deal (most importantly) the price, but he did negotiate slightly better delivery dates and the provision that Slovenia will not pay for surplus vaccine. But the catch is that – according to the contract now made public – the state would have to pay for any and all potential damages awarded had any lawsuits been filed because of complications due to vaccination. The thing is that – according to the minister – the law says otherwise which makes this particular stipulation in the contact null and void. Furthermore Miklavčič says that he did nothing wrong and that had he not agreed to the conditions of GSK and Slovenia did not get the vaccine in time, he would be held responsible when the flu struck.

And, to top it off, last Friday SDS president Janez Janša posted a conspiracy-cum-philosophy text entitled “There is no god. Everything is allowed.” where he outlines what he sees as the fundamental corruption and moral wrong of the political left which – according to Janša – stemming from the criminal roots of communism had flourished until today, perverting justice, bending the rules and – defying all things sound and moral – took every advantage to increase its own wealth and power to the point of being obscene:

As ever more bizarre details of the [canine] garage affair are unveiled, as new information about abusing judicial and administrative procedures is coming out daily, people who ask themselves how all of this is even possible should know this: if murder remained unpunshied, then that went double for theft and abuse of state, people and animals.

Time allowing I’ll translate this text as it will (I suspect) become an oft-quoted piece of Slovene political thought.

So, as you can see, no punches are being pulled. The dogs are out and the hunters are following. They smell blood. Question is, what if it leads them where they don’t want to go?

The Really Important Stuff

The late president Drnovšek (source)

Today marks the second anniversary of death of President Janez Drnovšek. If a year ago pengovsky asked whether we had learned anything from him (and went with “no”), the situation today makes even the question itself sound naive. If last year the political right wing was up in arms over the question of The Erased, this year the topic-du-jour are equal rights for same-sex couples. Actually, strike that. The topic-du-jour were equal rights for same-sex couples. Today, most of the nation is on the prowl against any sort of deviation from “normality”, be this deviation actual or imagined, personal or political.

Two years ago it was considered deviant to support the plight of the Roma population. A year ago it was considered deviant and unpatriotic to support the plight of The Erased. Some months ago it was considered to be deviant, unpatriotic and amoral to support the rights of same-sex couples. Today, it is considered sick and perverted just to be left-wing or to now the “wrong kind of people”. Or both. President Drnovšek rarely passed judgement. Even less so while he was still Prime Minister. But when he spoke, his words had merit. Today, a lot of what is being said is judgemental to start with and is fluff to boot. God’s name is being taken in vain and big words are being used to describe small achievements.

And yet, this is the hand we were dealt. Pengovsky has no idea what President Drnovšek thought would become of Slovenia in 2010. He may have even envisaged the very thing were are going through today. But it doesn’t really matter. The future is what lies ahead and it is in our name that we should be creating it. It would not hurt, however, to look up to the late president for inspiration from time to time. He was dealt quite a rotten hand and still played a brilliant game. But he knew to tell the really important stuff from the whole sort of general mish-mash.

Perseverance

Petra Majdič after winning bronze in Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics (source)

The courage to ignore the obvious wisdom of turning back.

Some ask whether it is worth it? It was for Petra Majdič. Way to go, girl! You just put Chuck Norris to shame!

But there’s a time and place for everything. Now is the time to go home and patch yourself up.

(inspired by despair.com)

Like Rabid Dogs

The Canine Scandal is spiralling out of control and the shitstorm spread from agriculture minister Milan Pogačnik to engulf interior minister Katarina Kresal as well. Specificially, the immediate reason for shit being dumped at doorstep is her partner and one of Slovenia’s stellar lawyers Miro Senica, who, it turns out, represented the late Saša Baričevič, M.D. , who two weeks ago was mauled to death by his own dogs. The thing is that Barivečič’s bull mastifs had a history of violence and were ordered to be put down after a nearly-fatal attack on a bystander way back in 2006. Baričevič, himself apparently a relatively influential individual, disputed the order to have the dogs put down and hired Senica to represent him in front of the Administrative Court. Senica won the case for him and the dogs were returned to Baričevič under certain conditions. To deadly effect, as it turned out. However, the plot thickens.

Several questions, some more relevant than others are overlapping in this case and the noise level is so high that only the loudest and the easiest of answers are being heard. The media are in a frenzy, the nation in a state of mass hysteria, various institutions are playing their own angles each, coalition politicians all but went underground, opposition is beating the drum and the list of people whom the vox populi connects to the scandal is becoming ever longer and more distinguished. It seems like everyone is acting like a pack of rabid dogs.

Regardless of everything, the most important question right now is whether pressure was brought to bear to secure return of the dogs to Baričevič. Did Baričevič, besides hiring Senica employ other, unlawful, methods to achieve the desired result and if so, who was in on it? On the outside and judging from the documents released by the ministry of agriculture things appear to be legal. But since everything went so badly wrong it is only right that this legal path be re-examined. But the legal aspect of the story interconnects with another, altogether more gruesome aspect.

Namely, at the moment authorities strongly suspect that dogs were (sexually) abused, possibly repeatedly so. I put “sexually” in brackets because sexual abuse (sodomy) is only inferred by the type of damage found on which were (finally) put down after the attack. The sexual aspect of the story puts the question of “who was in on it” in an entirely different context. No longer are the media and the public concerned with whether the pressure was brought to bear, but why was it brought to bear. All of a sudden pressure being brought to bear was taken for granted, speculation became fact and it all hell broke loose. Literally.

Initially mainstream media left the more sensationalist aspects of the story to Slovenian version of a particular song by Don Henley and focusing on the role of agriculture minister Pogačnik who apparently employed a PR agency to handle the fall-out but the latter fucked up immediately, giving ample material for media to go after the minister. But the moment the sexual abuse angle was taken, things followed started happening with lightning speed, and the rule of the day was “everything goes”. Unconfirmed reports, rumours, partial investigation results, sources close to the police, all of it “information acquired by [insert media]”, all of it identical, all of it probably from the same source.

It must be said at this point that most of the unofficial and off-the-record information that was circulated in Slovene media has so far been at least partially confirmed. But that don’t make it OK to act like a vampire. People inferred the most impossible things from media reports and media in turn acted upon those comments, fuelling the story even further. Late last week the difference between the media and comments on forums and blogs was gone. Some prime examples were left over at Drugi Dom and had.si, but the real gems were posted at all major news sites, with people re-posting comments from one site to another, claiming censorship and the aforementioned web-tabloid the hero of the day. Why? Because “it had the balls to print what we knew all along”. And it was probably at this point that mainstream media lost compass. Trying desperately not to come across as “in bed with the elite” they started howling with the wolves and joined the hysterical party.

Until then, Slovenian politics as a whole was fascinatingly quiet on the issue. Slovene People’s Party did file an interpelation against minsiter Pogačnik, but that was probably as much a self-defence move as anything else. Agriculture was traditionally SLS’ turf and at the moment it seems that Sonja Bukovec Pogačnik’s second in command (an SLS member) is involved as well. But other than that things were quiet, with most coalition politicians trying to put a daylight between themselves and the whole business. Some naively ran to the rescue, only see shit hit them as well (like Borut Sajovic, an LDS MP), but mostly ministers Pogačnik and Kresal and – by extention – PM Borut Pahor were left hanging dry.

But. When SDS president Janez Janša finally commented on the matter and focused on Miro Senica as “a power centre which controls executive, judicial and legislative branch”, this was interpreted as a green light for an all-out offensive. This has only just begun and yet it is already clear that no punches will be pulled and no holds barred. To illustrate, SDS chief whip Jože Tanko only day later made the connection between the canine scandal and the new Family Code, saying that Katarina Kresal’s LDS aims to radically change the society in order to satisfy wishes of the the elites and introduce unnatural possibilities to certain privileged groups . Or, as one comment somewhere put slightly less bluntly, “now sodomites are trying to tell us what family is“.

The problem this country is faced with right now is three-fold. First, unlike the original pack of bull mastiffs this particular pack of rabid dogs needs to be broken up. Instead the media, the masses and the politicians were tripping over one another in in making ever more juicy and scandalous statements, comparisons and assessments. Opposition is suppose to keep the coalition in check, media are suppose to keep in check both, while the people should at least keep tabs on all of the above. Call it a societal version of checks and balances, something at which all of the above failed miserably.

Lynch Mob

If one took for granted all that is being said and written on the canine subject these days, then half of Slovenia are working for the Veterinary Administration, the other half are members of the Police investigating the scene of the attack, whereas the third half are pals with the first two halves

Off The Record. On The QT. And Very Hush Hush.

If you don’t get the following, don’t bother. It’s not worth your time.

Danny de Vito as Sid Hudgens, master of sin-uendo in L.A. Confidential

Pengovsky was freezing his ass off at the scene of the attack for several hours. At the end did I not only not feel my toes, but was also missing my fingers, nose, ears, lover lip and arse-cheeks. And I was three hours late for the macabre party. Some people were there even longer than me. But the point I’m trying to make that for hours after the attack there was nothing but the eerie feeling of something very bad and intensive happening. The four crews that were there (altogether some seven people, yours truly included) were acting like vultures in a very real sense, as we were hovering at the outskirts of the “do not cross” police tape, waiting for the dead body and carcasses to be transported out. It was us, the vets, cops and people from the morgue. And no one else. Not to sound dramatic, but I imagine that minutes immediately after the apocalypse will feel like that. You know that something bad happened, but you’ve no idea what exactly and just how bad it was.

But if until then passers-by and neighbours were giving the scene a wide berth, they started lurking around late in the evening. Ever threw a ball at a bunch of cats? You know how they instinctively run and hide and come looking what actually happened only after a while? Well, it’s the same with people. After “the coast was clear” so to speak, neighbours started hovering. One of them, a kid, told the TV stations that he filmed the whole attack on the mobile phone and if they’d buy it. No dice. He can share it, but they’re not paying for it. But it’s really awesome. OK, can we have a look at it. Sure, he’ll just go get it. After a while he does appear with a home-made CD, but already he’s saying that the quality is really bad and that he didn’t film the actual attack, but everything after it. OK, so you got the shots, right? Well, no, I only realized something was wrong after shots were fired. Ah. But OK, we’ll take it anyway.

While this was going on another neighbour appeared. No, he will not say anything for the camera. Yes, he knew the deceased. He told him something like this was going to happen. Yes, he’s the one who witnessed the attack four years ago and called the cops. And then another neighbour starts hovering. No, he will not say anything for the camera. Yes, he knew the deceased. He told him something like this was going to happen. Yes, he’s the one who witnessed the attack four years ago and called the cops. And then another neighbour appeared… You can see the pattern, no?

But this was only the tip of the iceberg. The sleazy part of Slovene media (the one which holds The Sun as their role model. You know, we just report what the world really looks like) runs a bomb-shell story about a strap-on, a condom and a pack of abused bull mastiffs which it combined with stories of sex change, political high rollers and perversion (sic!) of justice. Sex, lies, perverts and politicians. It was simply too good not to be true. That “facts” came from “unofficial” sources who spoke on “condition of anonymity” and “off the record”, that certain things were “general knowledge” and that other things were “obvious”, that the truth will “naturally” be suppressed, that pressure is being brought to bear as the story is being written and that your reporter will not be deterred at reporting things that are “hush hush”.

And if the national media first concentrated on the role of politicians (specifically, minister of agriculture), at least one television soon picked up the sleazy n’ sizzlin’ story and – not surprisingly – quoted the same unverifiable sources as the original story. And our sleazy Slovenian on-line version of the Sun takes this as the ultimate recognition, saying that the story was now confirmed by the said television which proves that our fearless rumour-monger-come-reporter was right all along. The circle is complete and unsubstantiated rumours start feeding each other. Forums start filling with hate-speech, links to any version of the story start filling mailboxes, witnesses start appearing, and their testimonies are becoming more and more alike, even further “confirming” the original story from “unofficial sources” and the number of people who know somebody who knew the deceased starts multiplying and suddenly…. Everybody. Just. Knows. Inconsistencies in the story don’t bother anyone.