STS Bulletin no.28
"Speaking from Turkey today, the 69-year-old said he believed the legal 'environment' was right for him to return."

means

"Oh good, the Conservatives are back in government. Time to collect on the IOUs."

I watched "Ideal" last night - I know; cheesy, full of freaks, but watchable nonetheless. Apparently it's targeted at a 'youth' audience, doomed youth then.
But, my question - what the hell is Janeane Garofalo doing in it? Has she offended the invisible masters of showbiz and been condemned to a season in Purgatory? "Larry Sanders" to "Ideal", Uma Thurman to Johnny Vegas, Hollywood to Salford (or Manchester?). No one deserves to fall so far.
Let us pray that the lady's sentence will soon be served.

From Tony Greenstein's Blog

According to his comment unless I take the story down about the joint demonstration between EDL and the Zionist Federation, of which he is the co-chair, Jonathan Hoffman's lawyers will be talking to me from 8 am on Monday!
Bit early I thought for a chat, but I suspect it isn’t about an invitation to breakfast. It would appear that JH doesn’t like the truth. The photograph clearly shows him and Roberta Moore demonstrating together and no attempt was made by the ZF to dissociate themselves from the EDL.
But what Hoffman is trying to obscure is the fact that the EDL support Zionist counter-demonstrations in support of the murders on the Mavi Marmara and selling stolen goods in Ahava shop? What is this pole of attraction between the BNP, EDL and most of Europe’s far right and Zionism? Could it be joint hatred of Muslims?
Well the fascists are in no doubt about the matter. Only Israel deals with Muslims as they ought to be dealt with, which is why the BNP supported the 2006 attack on Lebanon and the 2008/9 attack on Gaza.
As Lee Barnes, their legal advisor stated on 28th July 2006,

As a Nationalist I can say that I support Israel 100 % in their dispute with Hezbollah. In fact, I hope they wipe Hezbollah off the Lebanese map and bomb them until they leave large greasy craters in the cities where their Islamic extremist cantons of terror once stood. [accessed 20.8.10.]

Even the staid old Jewish Chronicle recently had a post entitled 'BNP praises Israel minister on foreigners' on November 5, 2009 reporting that 'the British National Party has leapt on comments by Israel’s Interior Minister, Eli Yishai, to suggest that the extreme-right party shares a common immigration policy with Israel.'

And what were these comments? According to Israel's 'Justice' Minister, Eli Yishai:

"If hundreds of thousands of migrant workers come here now, they will bring with them a profusion of diseases: hepatitis, measles, tuberculosis, AIDS and drug [addiction]"

Strange that. It was what anti-Semites and of course the Nazis used to say about the Jews. The target has changed but the ideas remain the same and once again the Zionists are happy for them to oblige.
And why shouldn't they love Israel? It was only a couple of weeks ago that Benjamin Netanyahu explained, in response to those poor sentimental souls in Israel who didn't want the children of migrant labourers to be deported, that the decision was

'"influenced by two primary considerations - the humanitarian consideration and the Zionist consideration. We're looking for a way to absorb and adopt to our hearts children who were brought up and raised here as Israelis. On the other hand, we don't want to create an incentive that will lead to hundreds of thousands of illegal migrant workers flooding the country," Ha'aretz 1.8.10.

Translation of this means that the Zionist and the humanitarian considerations were opposed. Zionist considerations mean a Jewish State i.e. as few as possible non-Jewish children and certainly no more. No wonder the BNP just love Zionism and Israel!
As Ruth Smeed for the Board of Deputies of British Jews explained, in the Guardian of 10th April 2009:

"The BNP website is now one of the most Zionist on the web - it goes further than any of the mainstream parties in its support of Israel and at the same time demonises Islam and the Muslim world."

Since I shall not be retracting a word that I wrote I expect m’learned friends to be hauling me off in front of an Old Bailey jury. As I’m not an investment banker/ economist like Jonathan Hoffman, I shall undoubtedly be defending myself when this eventually comes to court.

A lot of World War II anniversaries coming upon us lately - VJ Day, Battle of Britain, et al.
It seems that the capitalist- and state-owned media are bent on reminding us of the necessity of war, of the heroism of the past; that it might somehow help to put a positive spin on current military failures? Or is it that in these times when there's nothing to celebrate, past glories may help to cover the wretchedness of our lot?
Today the actor Robert Hardy was hired to repeat Churchill's Battle of Britain speech, bringing a bit of obligatory showbiz into the celebration. Was Rory Bremner otherwise engaged? Naomi Campbell, post war crimes trial appearance, would have pulled a bigger crowd.
Whenever we are subjected to these Churchill turns, I'm reminded of a lad who did the same for us back in the forties. "Do Churchill", was the request and off he went.
Standing on any nearby spot that raised him above us he would declaim in a ponderous voice "We will fight the them on the beaches, we will fight them ... and the litany of battlegrounds would get longer and more outlandish. I think "... in the shithouses" was a regular feature.
As he rambled on the saliva would roll down his chin and the spittle would fly in authentic Churchillian fashion. More and more as he went on until, I suppose, it got too much, or his saliva glands were exhausted.
How we loved it.
No one would suspect today how much Churchill was hated by the ordinary people of Britain at the time. Whenever his grinning cigar-stuffed face appeared on cinema newsreels a collective booing would break out, with a small coterie of the deferential rising to their feet and applauding. Returning servicemen too gave him a khaki election arse-kicking, which the Tory propagandists couldn't believe. They had made the mistake of misjudging the mood of the people.
Now of course that's all forgotten. Nil de Winston nisi bonum

Second thoughts (21.8.10): Our Churchill street theatre probably dates back to the early fifties, rather than the forties. The Tories were back in power in 1951. An additional feature of our entertainer's shtick was the obligatory victory sign.

I note the passing of the photographer Herman Leonard, creator of one of my favourite photographic images (above). There are many others.

No doubt this will soon be removed by the blog police.

On Blair's alleged £5 million donation to the casualties of his vanity ventures:

Is there no-one in the United Kingdom who can manage to utter the words "What a kind, compassionate, philanthropic gesture"? Apparently not.

"... Blair's humility would be a little easier to swallow if he wasn't also selling a £150, limited-edition version of his book, mocked up to look like the Bible." (Hadley Freeman)

I suspect that in, perhaps five, perhaps a few more years some people will be saying "What happened to the five million? When's it coming?" A spokesperson for the British Legion will be wheeled out to say, "I'm sure that this is an administrative mix-up. With a little time and goodwill it can be sorted out."
Blair will be hard to find, and tight-lipped when cornered. Some money may arrive eventually - but £5 million?

Who can forget the heroic effort of Jeffrey Archer back in 1991 in raising £57 million for the beleaguered Iraqi Kurds (though some cynics claim it was a lot less). One day, I'm sure, the Kurdish people will receive that generous gift.

"I went to a restaurant called A Taste Of The Raj. The waiter beat me with sticks and made me construct a complicated railway system."
Omid Djalili

The former Trotskyist firebrand Alan Milburn appears have arrived at his final destination in his rightward journey, the bosom of the Conservative Party. That's assuming he resists the temptation to join the Neo-Nazis.

When you go home
Tell them of us and say
For your tomorrow
We gave our today.

The 14th Army, "the forgotten army", but some will remember them.

"Internet Killed Israeli PR"
Video by Minor Demographic Threat, anarcho-yiddishists (Hast geheert a za zach?)

"BBC management have taken a lot of stick in recent years, which is unfair. Some should at least be applauded for their unwavering commitment and consistency in taking credit for other people's ideas."
(Phil Jupitus)

"There just isn't any pleasing some people. The trick is to stop trying." (Robert Mitchum)

So Milk Snatcher mark ii has been forced into a rapid volte-face, good exercise for a hubristic reactionary. That was a Thatcherite step too far.
The way things are going with this Fred Karno inspired government a reshuffle cannot be far away. The only problem with that corrective is that the dismissals would have to start at the top. Tweedlecam seems incapable of addressing an audience without making a ricket of breathtaking proportions. His sidekick, Tweedleclegg has informed the world that his colleagues were cheerleaders of an illegal war ('Politician Tells Truth Shock'). That must have given old Hague a jolt as he sat beside the Lib-Dem peacenik. The Gove puppet claims that over a thousand schools are clamouring to become academies post-haste, so rush the legislation through. Then it's "Hang on, slight miscalculation", and it turns out that thirty-six schools have said "Maybe".
Then there was the early bath for somebody whose name I've already forgotten, who was on the fiddle.
It's not going well, is it?

A little snippet I heard on the radio the other day -
51% of the world's scientists are working on military projects. Keeps 'em out of mischief I suppose.

... the victims, according to "Sgt S" who shot six of them, "were without a doubt terrorists". And he produced evidence to back this up, which was: "I could see the murderous rage in their eyes".
This matches the classic definition of a terrorist according to international law, as someone "with murderous rage in their eyes", and shows the key witness in any terrorist trial isn't the forensics expert or explosives analyst but an optician. If they're trained well enough they can shine a light at the iris and tell whether you're short-sighted, long-sighted, Hamas or Basque separatist.

(Mark Steel)

"The thing about the England of recent years is that even when you think you have seen it all, they always find a way of disappointing you further. Only days ago, the sheer scale of the trust-building task was once again underscored by the tale of the gold-plated Frank Lampard iPods. Have you heard this one? Let me summarise: 5,000 gold-plated iPods bearing Frank Lampard's lasered signature are to be melted down after demand for the £599 product failed to materialise in the wake of the World Cup. Do take a moment to digest those details."
...
"If you had to distil the very essence of hubris into a single product, you would surely be left with a gold-plated Frank Lampard iPod. The fact that the brainwave was created in association with a firm backed on Dragon's Den merely crystallises the cloth-brained, soul-sapping nullity of the age in which we are doomed to live."

(Marina Hyde)

I believe you can get a Chelsea shirt emblazoned with Frank's name and the number 8 for about £55.

Women are expected to bear 75% of the burden. The poorest will be hit six times harder than the richest. Internal Treasury documents estimate 1.3 million job losses in public and private sectors.
...
This government of millionaires says "we're all in it together" and "there is no alternative". But, for the wealthy, corporation tax is being cut, the bank levy is a pittance, and top salaries and bonuses have already been restored to pre-crash levels.

(Tony Benn, et al.)

Let's hope that this is not a call to march to the top of the hill then march down again, the preferred option of leftist MPs and union leaders.

"... always willing to carp, never willing to strike." (Jim Callaghan on the Labour Left.)

CAMERON WANTS TO TAKE MY HOME.
Low-life millionaire Tory scum Cameron wants to make me and millions like me homeless. He wants to end our tenancies and make us beg for something worse at a higher price. He wants to empty council houses and sell them for washers to his parasitical property developer cronies.
Let's hope that this will be the point at which the British working class says "No more!" and begins to fight back; to take back the ground we have ceded to the asset strippers, chancers, privateers, and whoremongers who are siphoning off this country's assets. Let's hope we stop waiting for an honest politician to materialise ex machina because it isn't going to happen. Back to DIY politics. Remember the Poll Tax? Everybody hated it except the rich and their mad cow agent in Downing Street. But who got rid of it? The people in the street, not the shiny-arsed whifflers of Westminster.
Let's start watering the grassroots.

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