Cloned from Raymond Deane's facebook thingie.

(Carlos Latuff)

http://thinkingoutquiet.wordpress.com

I often try to listen to the 'Today' programme on BBC4. I usually change stations within fifteen minutes, disgusted by the blatant right-wing bias, and presentation of the government line on any topic as the reasonable option.
One of Today's gimmicks is to have the programme produced and presented occasionally by non-journalist guests. This is in line with what Marina Hyde has dubbed 'celebocracy', the line that anything can be improved by the towering presence of someone famous in another field, entertainment being favoured. No doubt the BBC ascertains that the guest producer is "a safe pair of hands", i.e., a right-winger or a political naïf.
However, something went awry earlier this month. The guest was the recording artist P.J.Harvey who introduced taboo subjects and people on the BBC's blacklist. Thus my prediction that John Pilger would never be allowed to broadcast from a BBC studio has had to be discarded
So, Ms. Harvey, your relationship with the BBC is subject to revision. I hope someone keeps a check on how often Ms. Harvey's recordings are aired on the corporation's music programme's following her act of subversion.

Predictably, reactionary voices bewailed afterwards that the BBC had broadcast 'left-wing tosh' and 'liberal drivel'. Nick Robinson, the BBC's 'impartial' political editor, took particular exception to the contribution by John Pilger, while the pro-war Murdoch employee David Aaronovitch, a Times columnist with a penchant for wagging a warning finger at Glenn Greenwald, objected to being 'lectured at in a news programme'

That's Nick Robinson the out and proud Conservative Party member, and Aaronovitch, the self-proclaimed socialist who is well paid for spewing out anti-left propaganda.

'For the 21st-century British Right, though – used to seeing their sense of what is important go largely unchallenged in day-to-day political broadcasting – the programme was an outrage. [...] Since this year's group of guest editors also included such establishment figures as Dame Eliza Manningham Buller, former head of MI5, and Anthony Jenkins, CEO of Barclays Bank, there are clearly no grounds for complaint from the Right about the overall balance of this year's holiday editions.'

(Medialens)

Qibya 1953, Mitla 1956, Sabra , Shatila 1982. What was the secret of your success in the military and in politics, Abu madhabih? Oh yes, your enthusiasm for massacring prisoners of war and innocent civilians. They called you the King of Israel - you must have modelled yourself on King Herod. They called you the Lion of God, a title you shared with Usama bin Ladin.

Not much on the civil war in Libya in the UK media, even though the oil supply has virtually dried up.

BONO EXPOSED AS A COMPLETE FRAUD

Some people take a little longer to catch on. Interesting rogues' gallery though.

"Safe in our hands".

"I'm not going to be scrambling jets to get a 29-year-old hacker." Barack Obama.
Lying bastard. If Edward Snowden takes a flight from Moscow, or wherever he is, US warplanes will be shadowing that flight. They will probably buzz it, and attempt to divert it and force it to land on US territory, or on some US helot state territory (EU, Baltic, etc.).
He was a hacker when he worked for the surveillance state, so some hackers good, some hackers bad. Who decides? Why, Barrack Obama - who else?

(Click on image to enlarge)

Too bad that the minister responsible for ensuring taxes are collected is himself a tax dodger. He is busy equating people on benefits with child-killers.

Re the Libyan "freedom fighters", the phrase "I told you so" must be on many lips. While the reply "We got the oil, who gives a shit?" will be on others.

I watched the BBC2 documentary, "You've Been Trumped", with incredulity last night. It turns out that the American billionaire and epitome of bad taste, Donald Trump, owns Alex Salmond and the Aberdeenshire police force. He has carte blanche from the Scottish government to ride roughshod over the people in the vicinity of his assault on the environment, and to steal their land. The parliamentary representative of Trump's victims is ... Alex Salmond. Altogether now, "O Flower of Scotland ..."

(Artwork by ATOS Miracles)
I learned from this morning's news that these abusers of the weak and vulnerable are sponsors of the Paralympics. Chutzpah to the Nth degree!

TOLERABLE SAVAGERY
Western governments never expressed sympathy for the Syrian people: as victims of the Assad regime and as victims of Israeli occupation and brutality. Yet, Western governments were quick to call for arming the Syrian people only months after the uprising began.
The Palestinians, however, have never been treated with such permissiveness. No matter how much massive violence is inflicted on them, and no matter how many massacres they suffer, Western governments insist that the Palestinian people (and any other people living under Israeli occupation) have no right to resort to arms to liberate their lands and to “protect their civilians.” The last phrase is now the convenient Orwellian expression that allows NATO to bomb civilians in the name of protecting civilians. Protecting civilians is the new UN mandate for a select few (formerly colonialist) countries to rule over and determine the destiny of some countries that are not in the US camp. Saudi, Bahraini, and Jordanian civilians don’t enter into this formula, of course.
(via AACS)

Conservative MP Richard Ottaway said strikes should be banned unless at least 50% of members voted for them. The prime minister replied: "Just one quarter of Unison members voted to strike, just 23% of those balloted at Unite voted in favour."
Unison and Unite only balloted members who belonged to the affected pensions schemes. Unison had a 30% turnout for its members in local government who voted 75% in favour of a strike and a 25% turnout for its NHS workers, 82% of whom backed strikes.
Unite workers voted 75% in favour of strikes - on a turnout of 31%.
Downing Street aides said the prospect of banning strikes which did not get the backing of at least 50% of a union's members was never "off the table" but added: "We are not at that stage."

Let's see now. General election 2010 - turnout, 65%; Conservative share of the vote, 36%: Percentage of electorate voting for Cameron's Conservatives, 12-. Post-Liberal share of the vote, 23%: percentage of electorate voting for Clegg's clique, 8.5-. Combined percentage of electorate electing (though not voting for) the Con-Dem conspiracy, circa 20%.
Not at the 50%+ stage yet.

Porcupine blog: Anders Breivik and the Consequences of Far Right Propaganda