Inflation is at 4.4% and rising. For some that figure is meaningless. Those who use up the bulk of their income on the basics; food (prices up 13%+), rent (zoom!), and fuel (whoosh!) are suffering from inflation of a much higher percentage. Most people don't believe government figures on inflation and cost of living anyway.
But help is at hand, Yvette Cooper says that the government is going to rectify things by cutting taxes. The poor are suffering so give the better off a handout. That's New Labour thinking. It's also Conservative thinking though they don't have to justify their discredited policies - tax cuts and more privatisation, same as New Labour - while the press are going for Big Business Brown and his motley milly band of top job jockeys.
Meanwhile the locusts are coming. My missus went shopping at Netto this morning and the place was crawling with middle class intruders snapping up the bargains. So we can expect that bastion of proletarian prudence to fall to the affluent and penny-pinching hordes. Is nowhere safe from these pushy people?

Mention of jockeys brings Alan Johnson PC to mind. He's keeping a very low profile in these days of backstabbing, rumour-mongering and insincere declarations of loyalty. Is he keeping aloof from this distasteful infighting? Or is he just waiting till the other contenders have sickened party members with their posturings and their ill-disguised treachery? Then he can offer his services as leader and claim the crown. My money's still on A.J.

Those Moroccans have been at it again, NOT kidnapping Aryan children. When are they going to live up to the stereotype the British media have created for them?

"We helped to trash Iraq, but we don't like it up us."

"Col. Morris Davis, the former chief prosecutor in Guantánamo, put the trial in a disturbing light. He testified that he was informed by his superiors that only guilty verdicts would be tolerated. He also said that he was told to bring high-profile cases quickly to help Republicans score a pre-election public relations coup."
From the New York Times, via Yasmin and Molly's Blog.

Salim Hamid Hamdan, having been sequestrated at the Guantanamo Gulag for five years, was put on trial and found guilty of being Usama Bin Ladin's driver. He was sentenced to five years and five months imprisonment.
I assumed that this sentence was passed because he was about to be released and might sue for false imprisonment. Having a guilty verdict against him would have forestalled that action.
However it seems I got it wrong. We are now informed that, on serving out his sentence, Hamdan will continue to be held as an enemy combatant. So Col. Davis's election connection seems to be the only reason for this farce.
Only in America - sorry! Only in not-America.

What is this fashion with TV interviewees? After replying to a question they hesitate for a second, then it's "... and yeah!" and off they go again. Or it's the alternative "... but yeah!" and away. Everybody's doing it, almost if it's required of them.
Strange!

"Bush said that the Russian attacks on Georgia marked a 'dangerous escalation' of the crisis and urged Moscow to halt the bombing."

Bush, the man of peace, eh! You have to laugh. But those Russians, couldn't even be bothered to rustle up a dodgy dossier. Call yourself a statesman, Putin?

George Bush kept human rights high on the Olympic agenda today by calling for freedom of expression and religion just hours before he was to attend the opening ceremony.

(From today's 'Guardian')

"The abuse was horrendous, it was physical, as well as psychological. It was torture," Sharp said. "When you're locked up in such a place and treated so horrifically, they don't exactly give you a calendar, but she says it was a very long time, years for sure ... They [her captors] were Americans, there's no doubt about it."
While Sharp declined to give details of the alleged abuse, Siddiqui's sister, Fauzia, told a press conference yesterday in Islamabad that Siddiqui had been "raped repeatedly". Sharp said Siddiqui was not getting proper treatment for a bullet wound, which may have gone septic.

(From today's 'Guardian')

Further thought on the "abducted child" soap opera -
Not long ago she was sighted in Morocco, land of swarthy non-Christian people. Every British racist knows that swarthy people can't keep their hands off fair-skinned women and children, so this was ideal tabloid fodder. Well, now the Belgian paedophiles and the swarthy circus folks (gipsies?) are in the frame, could the Moroccan government do a Robert Murat on behalf of its maligned citizenry, and sue a selection of British newspapers for damages and a grovelling apology?

Concerning the "abducted" child - you know, THE "abducted" child, the only one in the world:
isn't it strange that the abductors allowed their kidnap victim to wander around unguarded telling people she'd been kidnapped and the perpetrators were nearby?
Isn't it strange that the Dutch police didn't follow the sighting up and try to rescue this unfortunate, settling for passing the information on to the Portuguese police?
Doesn't it sound like pure fantasy?
Still it helps to keep the story going and to sell papers. Who, I wonder, shifts more newsprint, the long-dead Princess or the missing bairn?

This evening on Radio 4 will be broadcast a programme I intend to miss. One David Aaronovitch is going to tell us what happened to the generation of '68, "the cream of his generation". Well he was 13 years old at the time and I was 29, so I may not be counted among the cream. According to this expert (translation: "know-all, mamzer") "most have become part of the establishment they rallied against". Most? Of all those tens of thousands? Here's one who became part of New Labour's underclass, and I imagine there are more like me than the sell-outs Aaronovitch "networks" and schmoozes with, and who he thinks are representative of the soixante-huitards.
The left has always been used by the greasy pole climbers, particularly the Labour Party ("left" being used very loosely here). "Shits that passed in the night", to borrow Albert Meltzer's phrase. I think of people like Prescott who posed as militants and waited to be bought off. People like Blair (once of CND) who joined the Labour Party when others were deserting it in droves, knowing how easy it would be to rise to the top and take it over, aided by the middle class Nomenklatura, Mandelson and his Machiavellian kind.
The first time I saw Aaronovitch he was fronting a TV book programme. He impressed me (adversely) by throwing a book he didn't like across the studio. An attention grabbing gimmick and a despicable act. I've loathed the man ever since. He speaks of himself as if he is a socialist, probably meaning that he votes Labour. This, he believes confers some validity on his constant criticism of anyone (so many) to the left of himself. He is a jackal in sheep's clothing, and he'll always find work at the BBC, along with Michael Gove, Bernard Ingham, Anne Leslie and Melanie Phillips.

Not everybody was a fan.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn represented the dubious moral claims of the protagonists during the Cold War, especially the American-led side. There is no doubt that Solzhenitsyn's literary greatness or genius was highly exaggerated, and the Nobel committee's decision is only one proof. This man who was lionized as a symbol of freedom was a fascist, through and through. If American knew more about him and his views they would think twice about honoring his memory. He hated everything about America and Americans, and complained about the music that Americans listened to. He argued that Americans unlike other people would not fight for an ideal. He was truly an obscurantist, anti-Semite, reactionary, traditionalist, misogynist, and a man living in the past--the medieval past. He volunteered in communist organizations early and not so early in his life, and then later would claim that he was a struggler against communist tyranny. In fact, he dreamed of writing a definitive history of the Bolshevik Revolution, before he decided to celebrate the pre-Bolshevik past. He defended the successor organization to the KGB, and would express the most reactionary views against progress and freedom. And the numbers he claimed about the communist past and the number of prisoners were simply invented by him.

"Angry Arab" (As'ad Abu Khalil)

Thatcher WAS a fan, though she couldn't pronounce his name. But then she was also a fan of Pinochet.

New to me: Globo-cop
Yesterday I used Phil Ochs' phrase "Cops of the World" to describe US foreign policy. Today I found a snappier term. Welcome to my vocabulary, "Globo-cop".

'Beyond our shores, America shoulders additional responsibilities on behalf of the world...' [US Defense Secretary, Robert Gates]

'This is truly mind-boggling. "On behalf of the world"??? When, pray, did "the world" ever ask the US to "shoulder" these responsibilities?

'Answer: Never.' [Helen Cobban]

Saudi Arabia has issued a series of postage stamps honouring women. Angry Arab has noted that there is not one depicting a woman being stoned to death, but expects one soon.

Gary McKinnon will be extradited to the USA to be made an example of. The "cops of the world" may be stupid, but God help anyone who mocks them for it. "Your security is really crap"; no surprise there. Their system in toto, social, economic and political is crap, but rather than try to clear up their own mess they prefer to bring the rest of the world down to their level, where greed coupled with stupidity ensures chaos.
"The world's most dangerous hacker", come off it! American hyperbole! The most powerful war-making machine in human history is in danger from a bloke with a computer looking for UFOs. Still, when he's manacled, shackled and hobbled, and surrounded by overweight gunslingers he might begin to look like some mass-murderer. If the TV cameras get it right McKinnon could be America's next bogeyman.
If the British state was not so compromised by its role as junior partner in war crime we might be able to insist that the US improves its human rights record before we hand our citizens over to the US justice system. Unfortunately we have gone too far down the American road act so independently.
"Increasingly, more and more Americans are guarding more and more American prisoners for more and more years, and this amidst the lowest crime rate in decades." (Mumia Abu-Jamal on Death Row, USA). In Britain the government is to build three new prisons to hold ten thousand extra prisoners. These will, no doubt be managed by private security firms, American style. More and more Britons ... (etc.) Yes, locking people up is a flourishing business. Train now to be a screw because the alternative is to be a con.
I'd like to make a little prediction here. David Hanson, the minister currently responsible for building more and more prisons and privatising the service will one day have a well paid post on the board of a security firm that has lucrative contracts in our prison system.

All those photographs of Barry George in the papers; I was racking my brain trying to think who he reminded me of. Then it came to me - Ricky Gervais, but without the flab.

Addendum, August 4th: I saw Barry G. being interviwed on the news yesterday. He's put on a bit of weight, so the flab remark is redundant.

I see the BBC is showing a series about Saddam Hussein, starting this evening.
A drama series about a dead man nobody liked, so no need to stick too closely to the facts.
I imagine that this was made with one eye (maybe both eyes) on the US market, so the facts will have to be massaged to get the approval of those potential buyers who were the biggest cheerleaders for the war party, and enthusiastic transmitters of official lies.
I doubt that we will hear about the CIA's regular reports to Saddam on the whereabouts of his enemies in exile; enemies who subsequently suffered violent deaths. That was at the time that George Bush, Senior, was head of the CIA.
Will we see a re-enactment of the US Ambassador's interview with the Iraqi leader? You know, the one where she gave him the US Government's green light for the invasion of Kuwait.
Will we see western politicians and media blaming the Iranians for the gas attack on Halabja?
Will we see British experts designing and building the bunker Saddam was able to hide in while American and British flyers bombed innocent Baghdadis?
So much to dramatise, so little time.

Ah! The BBC and the charity racket. Nothing ever changes. These people are recidivists, incorrigible, beyond reform.
But who will be punished for these crimes? Why, the long suffering British public, whose licence money will go to pay off the fine. Don't, for Christ's sake, touch the offenders' inflated and unearned salaries!
Still the money goes back into the public purse instead of being wasted on the shite that passes for entertainment.

“I do not like the ads on the shirts of hockey or football players. You’d think Coca-Cola is playing against Pepsi-Cola.” (Vaclav Havel)
I wonder if he ever said anything as critical of money-grubbing, - sorry, liberal capitalism - when he was in power.

"Ahmadinejad said today, "We're not pulling back... not one iota." They are very adamant." (Jerusalem Post, 25th July)
As opposed to being just a teensy bit adamant.

"Sumer is icumen in" quoth the old rhymester.
"School's out for Summer" sang Alice Cooper.

It's the season of the twocker, the rodeo-rider, the firebug and the casual B&E merchant. Now as the weather's warming up we have to keep all doors and windows firmly closed and locked, for school is out and the gurriers are on the loose.
Overhead the police helicopter circles. We pray for rain.

"Peace in the Middle East? Not while there's one Palestinian left alive."
Barack (call me Baruch) Obama
Not verbatim, but that's what it sounded like to me.

Over 14 million people could find themselves in fuel poverty in the near future, if new figures from gas giant Centrica predicting a 70% rise in gas prices prove accurate - nearly a quarter of the population.

Evil old Radovan Karadzic has been captured at last. Hooray, hooray! Now all the kiddies can sleep safely in their beds. On to the next pantomime villain.
Karadzic is accused of being behind the massacre of Bosnians, which was an unforgivable crime against humanity. He is yet to be tried but I'm confident that, if he lives to hear a verdict, that verdict will be "guilty". After all the US wants his head on a plate.
Unforgivable crimes against humanity are in a different league from forgivable crimes against humanity. These last include -
The massacre of over half-a-million Indonesians by Suharto and the Indonesian army.
The massacre at No-Gun-Ri, Korea
The massacre at Deir Yassin
The destruction of Fallujah
The war crimes of the Nobel Laureate, Henry Kissinger

While Bosnians were being massacred by Serbs, Serbs were being massacred by Croats - but who gives a toss about Serbs?

I can't understand why food prices are rising so rapidly in a free market economy with untrammelled competition. Now let me think ...

Agriculture conglomerate Cargill said on Monday that its third-quarter profit rose 86 percent to $1.03 billion on strong growth in its commodity sourcing and finance business. It said the largest profits came from its origination and processing segment, which processes and sells food commodities.

Associated Press, April 14, 2008

Hedges watched how ten- and eleven-year-old Palestinian children were lured to their neighborhood’s perimeter fence by taunts from a loudspeaker on the Israeli side. “Where are all the dogs of Khan Younis? Come! Come!” The Israeli voice barked insults at the boys’ mothers. The boys responded by hurling their rocks at the jeep with the loudspeaker. The Israelis shot at them with M-16s fitted with silencers. Hedges found the victims in the hospital, children with their stomachs ripped out, and with gaping holes in their limbs.

Writing for “Harper’s Magazine” (see The Nation, March 11, 2002), Hedges wrote: “Children have been shot in other conflicts I have covered. Death squads gunned them down in El Salvador and Guatemala, mothers with infants were lined up and massacred in Algeria, and Serb snipers put children in their sights in Sarajevo, but I have never before watched soldiers entice children like mice into a trap and murder them for sport.”

So plans are afoot to give the Queen of the Night a state funeral. Funny thing -
The last person to be so honoured was Winston Churchill. He, let us recall, ordered the military to gun down striking miners at Tonypandy.
Thatcher provoked the miners into industrial action to save their livelihoods, then used the full might of the state to crush their resistance.
From these two facts we can assume that, though the British establishment despises all British workers, the vials of its venom are reserved for the miners.
At the time of Churchill's death a public subscription was set up to commemorate the old alky appropriately. Some newspaper, The Daily Mail or the Daily Express (memory fails) rang the Miners Union office in Tonypandy and asked if they would be making a donation. "No", was the reply. The paper then attacked the miners of Tonypandy for their niggardliness towards the great man (still, better than murdering them I suppose). Such are the people we are supposed to rely on for a balanced account of current events, political, social and industrial.
SCUM!

The American leader, who has been condemned throughout his presidency for failing to tackle climate change, ended a private meeting with the words: "Goodbye from the world's biggest polluter."

He then punched the air while grinning widely, as the rest of those present including Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy looked on in shock.

But didn't have the guts to tell him what a disgusting piece of work he is.
"Before I leave I'll just piss all over you", said he. Well no, he didn't but he might as well have. I imagine if he'd pissed on Gordon Brown that gent would have declared, "Oh, that's lovely and warm Mr. President."

The US Senate has given that nation's secret police a licence to tap the phones of anyone they take a dislike to. Senator Obama was among the toadies who voted for, of course.
Jesse Jackson has been overheard remarking that he'd like to cut off Obama's nuts. Too late, Reverend, someone beat you to it (Murdoch?).

Workers organise globally to fight a multinational exploiter. "It's coming soon for a' that ..." July 5th, protest against *$$ union-busting - on four continents; in 22 or more countries; in towns and cities such as London, Birmingham, Brighton, Paris, Moscow, Melbourne, New York.

Walking round the town this morning I was struck by the growing number of big, big women that are about. Hull could be becoming a chubby-chaser's paradise. I wonder if there's a niche tourist market there that could be exploited.

You may not be interested in private equity…but private equity is very interested in you!

Did you know that in the UK?

- Over 3 million workers or 1 in 5 private sector workers now works for a company that is owned by a private equity fund.

- * Five of the 10 largest private equity-owned companies in the UK effectively paid not a single penny of UK corporation tax in 2005/06. Despite combined sales of more than £12bn and operating profits of more than £400m, in total the 10 companies received a £11m corporation tax credit from the exchequer*

More and more companies around the world, including hundreds here in the UK, are being bought up and sold off by a type of firm that takes pride in their lack of transparency, ability to rack up debt, cut costs and jobs and exploit the tax system so they pay little or no tax. The volume of private equity deals has grown 600% in the last five years. In 2006, private equity firms spent US$725 billion buying out companies. Today, they can potentially mobilise more than US$2 trillion – enough to buy McDonalds 38 times over!

Private equity companies have gained massive influence, power and wealth because they've stayed invisible to public attention and scrutiny. It is time for that to change!

On Thursday 17 July 2008, thousands of trade unions, community organisations, environmentalists, workers and activists will be taking part in a global day of action against KKR - are actions planned in 100 cities in 25 countries. These actions will send a loud and clear message to private equity firms like KKR that we are sick and tired of a few people getting even richer and ruining our lives and the planet in the process.

What we are teaching them is to buy the same trainers and wear the same labels. We're teaching them that they can get the money for a house by going on some reality show.You ask a lot of young people what they want to be when they are older, and their only answer is "famous".

We give media attention to supermodels who take drugs or attack their staff. We give it to pop stars who get off jail more times than is funny, and to singers who are killing themselves before our very eyes. And we give it to the reality-show public who end up "famous" and make their money by either (for men) causing trouble and shagging around or (for women) appearing everywhere in their underwear

(Noel Clarke)

Or as Tony Blair would describe it, "Education, education, education."

I've just found out, I'm not as poor as I thought I was. According to the Rowntree Trust a pensioner couple needs £265.92 to reach the basic standard of living , as follows:

Food and drink £60.65
Clothing and footwear £9.93
Housing costs £103.64
Household goods and services £20.20
Personal goods and services (inc health) £23.65
Transport £4.65
Social and cultural activities £43.21
Total £265.92

I just totted up joint pension (Missus and me), rent rebate, council tax rebate and free prescriptions, and I find I'm just over a fiver to the good. I imagine though with spiralling inflation the Rowntree figure is already in need of an update. Add to that the threat of worse to come, coupled with our income remaining unchanged until next April - now I'm depressed!
I also learned recently that we're not in fuel poverty. That's if you pay out more than ten percent of income on the gas and the lecky. I'm on one of those pensioner schemes, but we still pay just under ten percent (9.8).
That reminds me, I didn't take account of the annual fuel handout for pensioners, I think it goes up to £250 next time, which would mean something close to another fiver a week. Rich beyond the dreams of avarice!
But am I happy with all my wealth? No, I just want more, more, MORE.

Meanwhile the middle class are feeling the pinch according to our reliable [sarcasm] media. They are deserting Waitrose and Marks and Spencer and buying their victuals at downmarket Aldi and Lidl. We've been patronising Aldi for years and we thought it was upmarket. We've noticed that of late Aldi's prices have rising fairly rapidly, and we'll probably have to leave it to the suburban invaders soon. Let's hope they don't take a fancy to Netto, that would probably see us resorting to scavenging from food store skips.

Two sports journalists' clichés that can now be discarded:
"Spain, the serial underachievers" (or underachievers with other qualifying terms)
"Never write off the Germans".
New clichés please!
The only thought that spoiled my pleasure at Spain's defeat of Germany was that the old racist Aragonés is now a hero. The "No to Racism" slogan on display at every game was a pretty meaningless gesture considering most of the participant teams and their supporters.
Now it's forward to the greatest sporting event of the year, starting July 5th.

'Payslips seen by the Guardian show that one man worked a 39-hour week and took home just £8.80 after his entire monthly rent was deducted in one week, in breach of the law. A second worker was paid £79.20 for a 63-hour week and a third worked 70 hours a week for just £66. As they were registered as self-employed they did not receive holiday or sick pay. One man had £228 taken from his pay in one week for tools. The men each had a further £76.80 deducted weekly as their payment to the "construction industry scheme", which technically registers them as self-employed, meaning their employers have no requirement to pay national insurance.'

'A spokesman for the department for business said that the construction industry was covered by the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate. "The reason we have not extended the GLA [Gangmasters Licensing Act] into construction is because there has been no consensus to do so and we have felt there are more effective ways to tackle abuses in the sector."'

Well no, Mr. Spokesman, it seems there aren't. Another worthless voluntary code that's good for a laugh down at the lodge or the golf club. No consensus means "The construction industry bosses wouldn't wear it".

"Israel is a strong and close friend of the United States, and is confronting grave threats from Gaza to Tehran." (Barack Obama)


"I haven't checked lately, but last I heard 14 Israelis have been killed by Gaza rockets since 2000, while according to Betzelem, in 2006 alone, Israeli forces killed 660 Palestinians, most of whom are from Gaza. Israeli forces have slain entire families. Since 2000, almost 4,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces, half of them children, and more than 20,000 wounded. This doesn't count deaths due to lack of proper medical care and medicines since Israel closed Gaza's borders. So if Israel is facing grave threats, then Gaza's threats are apocalyptic, yet they go unmentioned. Meanwhile, Iran has no army, navy or air force while Israel has the 4th most powerful military in the world with over 200 nuclear warheads and is making practice flights to bomb Iran.
This will be another long 4 years ..." (Yasmine, see link)

The rightward march of Senator Obama is turning into a gallop. He has now come out in favour of capital punishment and has become a fan of the gun lobby (well they do give good "donation"). Ralph Nader finds him to be "too white". Too right! I'm expecting a paean of praise to the Ku Klux Klan any day now.

"... Obama told the Tesco boss: "It is in your interest to ensure the communities where you do business, and the leaders of the workers in the industry, are heard and that their concerns are heard and respected."
Admirable sentiments from the candidate for change. It would be nice if he said something similar to two of America's biggest anti-union corporations, Walmart and Starbucks.
But hold! What did he say about Hillary Clinton's relationship with Walmart? He criticised her for sitting on the Walmart board for six or seven years, and added "I would never shop there". Immediately after this bold stance Obama's wife resigned from the board of Walmart's main supplier.
Once Hillary was out of the way, Barack laid his cards on the table. "Look. I am a pro-growth, free-market guy," said he, "I love the market." To prove his bona fides Barack has appointed Jason Furman as an adviser. Here's Jason on Walmart:

"Studies have reached conflicting conclusions about the impact of Wal-Mart on local labor markets, with some finding that it creates more jobs than it displaces and others finding that it reduces jobs and nominal wages ["depends who's paying for the research, Jason" Jemmy H.]. Personally, I don't put a huge amount of stock in any of these findings because I believe that Ben Bernanke and the Federal Reserve decide the total number of jobs nationwide. If anything, the greater competition and productivity growth associated with the growth of Wal-Mart may have played a role in allowing the Federal Reserve to tolerate the high level of job creation in the 1990s.

"But I understand why progressives are so upset about low wages and inadequate benefits. I am also upset by the rise of inequality and the relatively slow economic progress that the bottom 80 percent of Americans have made over the last several decades. I just think Wal-Mart is the wrong place to put the blame or to expect the solution."

I reckon Senator Obama will be singing the praises of Walmart soon.

A week ago a the wife of a terrorist bomber was jailed for 15 years for not disclosing her husband's intent to commit the crime. She denied knowledge but, as she was aware of her husband's extreme views the jury was persuaded of her guilt.

On Friday Michael Ross was found guilty of a racist murder committed 14 years ago. He was a suspect at the time, but his father, a police officer, lied to the investigating officers to clear him of suspicion. A witness who feared to come forward at the time because of the father's police connection, did so at last.

Asked about his father lying to protect his son while a serving officer, Mr Smith said: "It is a decision he has made as a father protecting his son. Given his position as a police officer, that was an extremely frustrating scenario."

Quite so, Mr. Smith, we can't expect a police officer to measure up to the same rigorous standards as a Muslim woman.

How to privatise the education system -
Devise a method of categorising successful schools as failed.
Hand them over to businesses along with large amounts of public funds.
Allow the new schools to issue their own qualifications, in subjects such as burger flipping, shelf stacking, and spying on colleagues.
Recognise these qualifications as equivalent to A-Levels.

Alternatively, just turn the schools into sweat shops, contract them out to the highest bidder (or source of the fattest bribe), and make speeches about lessons learned from the tiger ecomomies of the Far East.

The camera loving charlatan, Raj Persaud, has been exposed as a plagiarist. He claims his dishonesty (or aberration) was a result of pressure induced by taking on too many commissions. Plain English - pressure brought on by greed.
Like so many of these quacks and thimble-riggers Persaud has been promoted by Madeley-Finnegan PLC, motto, "There's one born every minute".

In the latest crackdown on illegal immigrants the immigration services are going to "name and shame" employers of this infinite source of cheap labour. Oh yes! I heard this on the news so I know it's going to happen.

The King of Tangentopoli strikes again. I wonder if this means Tessa Jowell's old man gets away with it.
(via Jailhouselawyer, prisonersvoice.blogspot.com)

Having seen the Alex Cox film "Searchers 2.0" the other night and enjoyed it I thought I'd have a look at Mr. Cox's website to see what he was up to. I was wondering after seeing the film why he didn't do more work in the UK. However his perspective on the USA and its denizens is more interesting than all that Hollywood cobblers, so maybe they need his contribution more than we do.
On the site I came across this observation on the candidates in the presidential election. I thought I'd lift it as it chimes with my own opinion.

Murdoch's declaration of support for Barak Obama is perfectly apt. All three 'candidates' and both 'parties' support the occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq. All three will bomb or invade Iran if pushed to do so. All three will attempt to privatize Social Security. Indeed, I had an interesting conversation with an Obama fund-raiser on the phone. Being a foreigner, I don't contribute to American elections or political parties, but just for the heck of it I told him I wouldn't support Obama unless he promised to shut down the permanent US military bases and pull all US troops out of Iraq. The fund-raiser said Barak couldn't do that; this guy knew all about the fourteen permanent US bases, and he said: "America is a big country. We have serious needs. We're not going to withdraw from the world. Our needs are too great for that."

It appears that Murdoch's Bitch is not going to be serviced by the electorate of Haltemprice and Howden* after all.

* This is Hull with an X for "no publicity". The name "Hull" and the term "middle class" are not supposed to feature in the same sentence, you see. Behold, a broken taboo.

Right - 42 days: I suppose everybody's said their piece and moved on. I just want to say that the Parliamentary Labour Party is nothing but a parcel of whores, and dirt cheap compared to the Democratic (sic) Unionist Party.
I don't know what David Davis is up to but it must be in furtherance of some personal ambition. He resigns his seat and then says he'll stand in the by-election he's brought about - and of course he'll win. Apart from the fact that nobody with a chance of saving their deposit will be standing against him,the truth is the electors of Alan cum B'stardia would vote for the Yorkshire Ripper if he was wearing a blue rosette. Murdoch's attack dog (Murdoch's bitch?) will bring a little colour to the media circus. As I recall "colourful" became the Conservative Party's codeword for racist MPs, after "gay" entered became common currency and it was no longer necessary for the press to refer to closet homosexual public figures as colourful (nudge, nudge).
After the disgraceful result some sufferer from phallocephalia contacted the local BBC radio station with the following suggestion: when the next bomb goes off the station should invite David Davis on to justify his opposition to the 42 day detention. NO DUMBO! If another bomb goes off Davis's stance will be proved the correct one.

Afterthought - phallocephalia, I may have coined a word. I must do a word search to see if it exists already, intellectual property and all that.

Interviewer "How did you feel when you heard that Buckley died this year?"
Vidal "I thought hell is bound to be a livelier place, as he joins forever those whom he served in life, applauding their prejudices and fanning their hatred."

Interviewer "Well, it was a great pleasure talking to you."
Vidal "I doubt that."

Naomi Klein on business-friendly Obama and his would-be puppeteers.

Great news! The Raytheon nine (below, June 3rd) have been acquitted by a jury of their peers.

"The outcome of this case has profound implications.
The jury has accepted that we were reasonable in our belief that: the Israel Defence Forces were guilty of war crimes in Lebanon in the summer of 2006; that the Raytheon company, including its facility in Derry, was aiding and abetting the commission of these crimes ..." (Eamonn McCann)

"Unfortunately for the president, many historians have already reached a conclusion. In an informal survey of scholars this spring, just two out of 109 historians said Bush would be judged a success; a majority deemed him the "worst president ever."

This via "Angry Arab" (www.angryarab.blogspot.com)

A couple of things that caught my ear over the weekend -

"Sitting Bull says history is nothing more than disrespect for the dead."
Buffalo Bill and the Indians (Robert Altman, director)

"Women got my number
But they don't call 'cause they don't care"
Waymore's Blues, Part II (Waylon Jennings)

"And we hold these truths to be self-evident
Number1, George W. Bush is not president
Number 2, America is not a true democracy
Number 3, The media is not fooling me."
Self-evident (Ani DiFranco)

"He was rushed to an NHS hospital in Salisbury," Everett explains, "only to be put in a filthy ward where he had to wait three days for a scan. He was then discharged on the point of death without a diagnosis. We were horrified. They did f--- all."
Rupert Everett on his father's illness. Many of us could tell horror stories like this. I have one I'd love to tell if I could find a way to do so without making big trouble for individuals.
Everett has other targets; the Catholic Church, the military and those who volunteer to serve in it. How much of this is genuine indignation, and how much is a need to épater les bourgeois it's impossible to say. His anger over the treatment of his father must be real. If only we all had access to a safer alternative to the "reconfigured" NHS.
And Sharon Stone is "deranged"; suspicion confirmed.

The Tony Blair Faith Foundation - that should bring in the megabucks and keep the the "straight kinda guy" in the manner to which he's become accustomed as a sponger extraordinaire.
Has anyone in the UK an atom of faith in this dishonest, deceitful, sanctimonious hypocrite?
Still, top marks for brass neck.

Angry Arab writes:

If Obama is elected president, I am sure that he would order the bombing of some Arab or Muslim country in the first year of his presidency to 1) prove that he really is not a Muslim after all; 2) to underline his patriotic and militaristic credential; 3) to prepare for his second term run; 4) and to receive a standing ovation as soon as he enter AIPAC's convention hall.

I agree, but I don't believe Obama will be elected. If he isn't assassinated, and that's a distinct possibility, he will lose to the white man. We are talking about US politics. Obama is a pathetic heap, who has already expressed his approval of - NO! - enthusiasm for, Israeli war crimes. His boast earlier on that he had received millions more in donations than Clinton2, was just a revelation that he is deeper in hock to the ruling elite than she is. That would scupper any attempt at social reform that was ever contemplated (if any ever was). Change OK, change for the better - forget it!

I open the latest copy of the Radio Times and what's the first thing I see - a photograph of the loathsome Cilla ("I love Thatcher") Black. I turn the page quickly and see Terry ("I'm an English knight") Wogan. I move on; Michael ("How's your sex life?") Parkinson. It gets worse; a bloody big picture of the embodiment of evil herself - Thatcher! And to add insult to injury Plastic Features Ronaldo, a spoilt millionaire footballer I loathe even more than Snotnose Terry and "Drug free" Ferdinand. Answer the call of Real Madrid you lens loving poseur!
This edition of the Radio Times was directed at me personally. It could only have been made worse if Brian Ferry and Nobo had been added to the parade of malevolence, bad taste and self-regard.
Recently a correspondent complained in the Letters Page that the magazine had become a Doctor Who fanzine. Come back Doctor, I beg you.

'Asked whether his first romantic encounter was homosexual or heterosexual, Vidal replied that he had been "too polite to ask".'

The old fellow's in good form. Robert Chalmers' interview covers a lot of well trodden ground, but he elicits some remarks worth recording.

Re Utah Phillips; I copy this from the www.mudcat.org message boards where it was posted by "katlaughing". I didn't realise Utah's own songs had been recorded by mainstream artists like Emmy Lou Harris, Waylon Jennings and Tom Waits. Mostly I know his recordings of Wobbly songs and union songs written by other people; and his stories of course. I looked through my stuff last night but none of my records by those artists featured a Utah song. So now it's off to foxytunes.

Here's the official obituary from the family:

The offical Obituary as provided by the family. May 24, 2008

"Folksinger, Storyteller, Railroad Tramp Utah Phillips Dead at 73"
Nevada City, California:

Utah Phillips, a seminal figure in American folk music who performed extensively and tirelessly for audiences on two continents for 38 years, died Friday of congestive heart failure in Nevada City, California a small town in the Sierra Nevada mountains where he lived for the last 21 years with his wife, Joanna Robinson, a freelance editor.

Born Bruce Duncan Phillips on May 15, 1935 in Cleveland, Ohio, he was the son of labor organizers. Whether through this early influence or an early life that was not always tranquil or easy, by his twenties Phillips demonstrated a lifelong concern with the living conditions of working people. He was a proud member of the Industrial Workers of the World, popularly known as "the Wobblies," an organizational artifact of early twentieth-century labor struggles that has seen renewed interest and growth in membership in the last decade, not in small part due to his efforts to popularize it.

Phillips served as an Army private during the Korean War, an experience he would later refer to as the turning point of his life. Deeply affected by the devastation and human misery he had witnessed, upon his return to the United States he began drifting, riding freight trains around the country. His struggle would be familiar today, when the difficulties of returning combat veterans are more widely understood, but in the late fifties Phillips was left to work them out for himself. Destitute and drinking, Phillips got off a freight train in Salt Lake City and wound up at the Joe Hill House, a homeless shelter operated by the anarchist Ammon Hennacy, a member of the Catholic Worker movement and associate of Dorothy Day.

Phillips credited Hennacy and other social reformers he referred to as his "elders" with having provided a philosophical framework around which he later constructed songs and stories he intended as a template his audiences could employ to understand their own political and working lives. They were often hilarious, sometimes sad, but never shallow.

"He made me understand that music must be more than cotton candy for the ears," said John McCutcheon, a nationally-known folksinger and close friend. In the creation of his performing persona and work, Phillips drew from influences as diverse as Borscht Belt comedian Myron Cohen, folksingers Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, and Country stars Hank Williams and T. Texas Tyler.

A stint as an archivist for the State of Utah in the 1960s taught Phillips the discipline of historical research; beneath the simplest and most folksy of his songs was a rigorous attention to detail and a strong and carefully-crafted narrative structure. He was a voracious reader in a surprising variety of fields. Meanwhile, Phillips was working at Hennacy's Joe Hill house. In 1968 he ran for a seat in the U.S. Senate on the Peace and Freedom Party ticket. The race was won by a Republican candidate, and Phillips was seen by some Democrats as having split the vote. He subsequently lost his job with the State of Utah, a process he described as "blacklisting."

Phillips left Utah for Saratoga Springs, New York, where he was welcomed into a lively community of folk performers centered at the Caffé Lena, operated by Lena Spencer. "It was the coffeehouse, the place to perform. Everybody went there. She fed everybody," said John "Che" Greenwood, a fellow performer and friend. Over the span of the nearly four decades that followed, Phillips worked in what he referred to as "the Trade," developing an audience of hundreds of thousands and performing in large and small cities throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe. His performing partners included Rosalie Sorrels, Kate Wolf, John McCutcheon and Ani DiFranco.

"He was like an alchemist," said Sorrels, "He took the stories of working people and railroad bums and he built them into work that was influenced by writers like Thomas Wolfe, but then he gave it back, he put it in language so the people whom the songs and stories were about still had them, still owned them. He didn't believe in stealing culture from the people it was about."

A single from Phillips's first record, "Moose Turd Pie," a rollicking story about working on a railroad track gang, saw extensive airplay in 1973. From then on, Phillips had work on the road. His extensive writing and recording career included two albums with Ani DiFranco which earned a Grammy nomination. Phillips's songs were performed and recorded by Emmylou Harris, Waylon Jennings, Joan Baez, Tom Waits, Joe Ely and others. He was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Folk Alliance in 1997.

Phillips, something of a perfectionist, claimed that he never lost his stage fright before performances. He didn't want to lose it, he said; it kept him improving. Phillips began suffering from the effects of chronic heart disease in 2004, and as his illness kept him off the road at times, he started a nationally syndicated folk-music radio show, "Loafer's Glory," produced at KVMR-FM and started a homeless shelter in his rural home county, where down-on-their-luck men and women were sleeping under the manzanita brush at the edge of town. Hospitality House opened in 2005 and continues to house 25 to 30 guests a night. In this way, Phillips returned to the work of his mentor Hennacy in the last four years of his life.

Phillips died at home, in bed, in his sleep, next to his wife. He is survived by his son Duncan and daughter-in-law Bobette of Salt Lake City, son Brendan of Olympia, Washington; daughter Morrigan Belle of Washington, D.C.; stepson Nicholas Tomb of Monterrey, California; stepson and daughter-in-law Ian Durfee and Mary Creasey of Davis, California; brothers David Phillips of Fairfield, California, Ed Phillips of Cleveland, Ohio and Stuart Cohen of Los Angeles; sister Deborah Cohen of Lisbon, Portugal; and a grandchild, Brendan. He was preceded in death by his father Edwin Phillips and mother Kathleen, and his stepfather, Syd Cohen.

A Hollywood based female best known for flashing her minge on the silver screen has issued a Buddhist fatwa. The deaths of thousands of innocent people, many of them children, is divine revenge for the overthrow of an unelected autocrat and his replacement by an unelected oligarchy. And people believe in this shit.
When the communists moved into Tibet they were welcomed by the peasantry who had suffered centuries of abuse at the hands of the theocracy. The peasantry soon learned that the communists were no better. Now they are resisting the Chinese imperialists and the monks are moving in and preparing to restore the old régime. In the west they talk about freedom and democracy for Tibet, at the same time presenting the Dalai Lama and his saffron garbed bloodsuckers as the only alternative to the Chinese. The Hollywood Buddhist is more honest; she wants to see dead Chinese, and the autocrat back in power. Leave the freedom and democracy moonshine to the Neo-con bombers.

Dewsbury, where they elect neo-nazis to the council, is experiencing racial gang war. Let's hope they are not going to start whining about it, that's what they voted for. When you vote BNP you vote for the whole package, and that includes the "strategy of tension".

Talking of nasty people I read that Fabio "Il Duce" Capello has named John "Snotty" Terry as England captain. So much for a new broom getting rid of the old crap. Altogether now, "Atishoo, atishoo, ALL FALL DOWN!"

I learn that Utah Phillips passed away two days ago aged 73. Singer, songwriter, storyteller, fellow worker of the IWW, a link with the past. He will be missed, but his wit and wisdom remain as his legacy.

Now it can be told - Hull City 1, Bristol City 0. Hull City now join the Premier League. Congratulations and good luck to all.
Pishrogues have prevented me from commenting on City's progress.I feared I might put the mockers on their efforts. It's a strange superstition, I believe it's my only one, but it's one I can't shake off. "Don't speak too soon", was the cry when I was young, and I still live by that rule even though I know it makes no sense.
Noone likes a braggart and we all rejoice when one comes unstuck, which may be what lies behind this taboo; a form of socialisation which, nolens volens, becomes a factor in the individual's thought process.
Anyway the lads have done it. Praise is due to Phil Brown whose behaviour and statements throughout recommend him as a model for all football managers. And a mention in dispatches for Dean Windass who played an important role in this achievement.
Where's that tiger? Soon to be seen at Old Trafford, Anfield, Stanford Bridge, that place I won't mention because it's an advert ...

Correction: Stamford Bridge. What was I thinking?

'... when Raytheon won a contract to develop a new missile system for the Israelis in 2006, a spokesman boasted they would "Provide all-weather hit-to-kill performance at a tactical missile price." Next they might have adverts, that go "Hurry hurry hurry to the Raytheon springtime sale for lasers, tasers and civilian-erasers that will make flesh sizzle through snow, sleet or drizzle WITHOUT making a casualty of your wallet."Despite this, the government in Northern Ireland welcomed the new plant, claiming they'd been assured it wouldn't be making weapons.'

The Mark Steel column the Independent dare not publish is at White Rabbit's blog, here -
http://ohdearohdearishallbelate.blogspot.com/

When is a cult not a cult?
When the thought police tell you it's a church.
Can a scientologist join the Masons?

"Remember the way the TGWU betrayed the Liverpool dockers? I bet you thought no union could ever sink so low again. I did too. We were wrong. The way Unite has treated the Belfast Airport workers is a disgrace. Unite's leaders should hang their heads in shame." (Jimmy McGovern)

Unite hunger striker Gordon McNeill in bad shape.

Gore Vidal on the South Bank Show, Sunday evening; the old fellow's looking very frail, but still managed to entertain with his comments. I can't think what Melvyn Bragg was up to, defending christianity and showing resentment at Vidal's remarks about all the evil christians have perpetrated throughout history.Was he playing devil's advocate or has he found God, the christian version of course?
Something Vidal said surprised me - only three American writers came out in opposition to the Iraq war; Norman Mailer, Kurt Vonnegut and himself, "the three old men". Of the three only Vidal is left standing. What a sorry state of affairs. Has the whole of the USA's community of letters moved to the far right? Or have the neo-cons created such a climate of fear that only those with nothing to lose dare express dissent?

I watched "Fergie and ITV do Hull" last night. That was an hour wasted. One hour (minus ads) of self-promotion trying, and failing, to pass itself off as altruism. "I live to give" says she. Well it's full marks for chutzpah, but fail in every other category.
It seems that local people are already up in arms about this representation of the town and its denizens. I'm all for it if it puts off the chancers, carpet-baggers, developers, and all those looking for a business opportunity.

A quote from "Technology Guardian" of Thusday May 8 (I will catch up), "... a senior policeman said that only 3% of street robberies are solved using CCTV". Still the cops have a nice little earner flogging the footage to the makers of crappy television programmes, so the cameras are here to stay.
Then there are the more sinister purposes, but most people are not too concerned. Today Big Brother is just another piece of piss-poor television which could just as well be entitled "Voyeurism for All". The name no longer connotes the menace of such surveillance methods when they were presented to us as the monopoly of the Soviet "Evil Empire". Strange how totalitarian surveillance became respectable after the Soviet system collapsed. Just as we found we could no longer afford a welfare system as soon as the self-styled "socialist" state disappeared; the same welfare system that began to come into existence following the Russian Revolution with it's Marxist and collectivist rhetoric.
Another quote from the same article (I love this):
"If you keep within the law, and the government keeps within the law, and its employees keep within the law, and the computer holding the database doesn't screw up, and the system is carefully designed according to well-understood software engineering principles and maintained properly, and the government doesn't scrimp on the outlay and all the data are entered carefully and the police are adequately trained to use the system and the system isn't hacked into, and your identity isn't stolen, and the local hardware functions, well, you have nothing to fear."
That's from Nigel Shadbolt, author, with Kieron O'Hara, of "The Spy in the Coffee Machine: the End of Privacy As We Know It".
So bring on the ID cards and the National Database.

"In a certain sense the movement towards globalization where capitalists are trying to leap over nation state barriers, creates a kind of opportunity for movement to ignore national barriers, and to bring people together globally, across national lines in opposition to globalization of capital, to create globalization of people, opposed to traditional notion of globalization. In other words to use globalization – it is nothing wrong with idea of globalization – in a way that bypasses national boundaries and of course that there is not involved corporate control of the economic decisions that are made about people all over the world." (Howard Zinn)


Whenever I start thinking that all Americans are as thick as the cretin they elected president, I have to remind myself that most Americans didn't vote for anybody, that more voted for the other bloke than for the cretin, and that there are people like Professors Zinn and Chomsky in the USA. Unfortunately it's the moral bankrupts and pimps for Wall Street whose voices are heard over the airwaves.
Soldier on, Counterpunch.

DOG BITES MAN, no.12

Literally this time -

prisonlawinsideout: Police dog bites the 'wrong man'#links

Funny thing -
Whenever there's an earthquake anywhere in the world the TV news shows film of food, tents and other essentials being loaded onto aircraft destined for the disaster area. We see trained rescue workers with sniffer dogs and sonar equipment ready to fly out. Later we see these same workers in operation and learn how important their contribution is.
There has been a major earthquake in China. The news is full of it. The reporters are out in force bringing us harrowing stories. Meanwhile at the airports, no story worth covering it seems.

The BBC and the charity racket. Now there's a story I must get round to, but first a little research.

An article in the latest edition of the Radio Times gives us the lowdown on a programme in which the Duchess of York teaches poor people how to live healthily and frugally.
First a quote from Her Grace, "I could live in a council house and below the benefit line, of course."
Next a personal detail from the article; the duchess, while living well above the benefit line (albeit from the public purse), managed to get into debt to the tune of £4million.
How can anyone take this woman seriously?
Two things I want to know -
i) How much the notorious freeloader was paid for this exploitation of the disadvantaged for amusement of the middle class?
ii) The identity of the shit-for-brains hooray henry who spawned this joke in bad taste.

It seems that the programme is an attempt by the duchess to improve her image in Britain as she wants to return from the United States. So the Eurotrash circuit has done with her and the freebies have dried up. Now she's a proud Brit.

It would be hypocritical of me to propose a boycott of the insult when I intend to try and watch it, if only because it is my concitoyens, the people of Hull, who are once more the target southern middle class baiting.

'Obsolete' on the New Labour for Cameron cabal.
http://www.septicisle.info/
Of course Andrew Marr is never able to hide his Tory credentials. He'll be doing his
damndest to widen the divisions.

All these blaireated has-beens queuing up to have a pop at Brown - what's going on? Who is orchestrating the rough music? Cherie (Mouth of de Mersey) Blair, Lord (Mouth of the Humber)Prescott, Lord (Poor Mouth) Levy; all bad-mouthing. But why? The man is committed to continuing the Thatcher-Blair asset strip; he scuttles off to Washington for orders; He's bent on doing away with all our rights and freedoms. So why does Murdoch want him out?
I'm assuming that it's Blair himself who let the dogs out, but Blair was Murdoch's handrag for so long I'm sure he wouldn't do this without the nod from the great man.
Or is it Bush who wants Brown out? Maybe Brown has not yet perfected the arse-kissing skills that came so easily to his predecessor.
As for Frank Field, his mission is to keep the flame of Thatcherism alive. Even Brown is too left wing for the scourge of the "underclass".

Listening to my local radio station this morning I learned that the Yorkshire Water Authority is "investing heavily" in water pumping stations in the Hull area. This is to ensure that future heavy rainfall will not result in flooding of the kind Hull suffered last summer.
I got to wondering how much journalistic research and investigation had revealed this heavy investment. Sceptical me! I concluded that the newsreader was quoting from a Yorkshire Water press release, and the statement need not be taken too seriously.

A few days illness that have done me the world of no good.
Here's a bit of conversation that does little to bolster my faith in the medical profession.
Doctor: "Have you had any operations lately?"
Self: "Well, I had a heart bypass about 18 months ago."
(A little later)
Doctor: "Have you ever had any heart trouble?"
(Later doctor lifts gown, revealing bypass scar)
Doctor: "What's this scar?"

In the course of answering the same questions over from various doctors and nurses I came to the conclusion that there is a "Diagnosis for Dummies" handbook to which they all refer. This contains a series of questions for all occasions which includes "On a scale of one to ten how would you rate your pain?" The honest answer is "I don't know, I can't measure pain" but you have to think of a number and blurt it out.
I'm now approaching the conclusion that the diagnostician looks at the patient, decides what's wrong, then asks the questions that elicit answers that confirm the premature diagnosis. I lost count of the times I was asked about my diarrhoea - is it better? is it worse? At first I answered honestly "Well I don't actually have diarrhoea", but to no avail, the diarrhoea question was repeated until I gave an acceptable answer, "It's much better, no problem". Still I had to revisit that question and assure them of my complete recovery from a condition that I hadn't experienced. I believe they were treating me for dehydration, but I wasn't dehydrated.
Never mind, it did no harm.

O, Labor Day, O, First of May,
Welcomed and honored on land and on sea.
Winter so drear must disappear,
Fair days are coming for you and for me.
We, of the old world, building the New,
Ours is the will and the power to do;
Then let us sing, hail to the Spring–
Hail to the Day we can strike to be free!

Banner so red, high overhead,
Hated and feared by the powers that be!
In every land firmly we stand;
Men of all nations who labor are we.
Under one banner, standing as one,
Claiming the earth and our place in the sun.
Then let us sing, hail to the Spring–
Hail to the Day we can strike to be free!

O, Labor Day, O, First of May,
Warm with the gleam of the bright days to be!
Join in the throng, fearless and strong–
One mighty Union of world industry.
Shoulder to shoulder, each in his place,
Ours is the hope of the whole human race.
Then let us sing, hail to the Spring–
Hail to the Day we can strike to be free!

by Ralph Chaplin, from the Little Red Song Book of the IWW ("The Singing Union")

I see that the Prince of Wales' elder son (the Princeling of Wales?)has spent three hours in Afghanistan at great expense to his granny's long suffering subjects. I bet he gets a medal for that tour of duty on active service. He'll soon have as many decorations as his warrior dad.
Shame on those cynics who claim it is just a PR stunt, and that it's to counter all the bad publicity he earned for "showing his chopper to his girlfriend", as one disrespectful newsreader put it.

STS Bulletin no.11
"Coordination", a euphemism for price-fixing when discussing the supermarketeers' misdemeanours.

(Click on to enlarge)

It took 24 hours to recover the bodies of Shaughan Walsh, 43, Tony Laughton, 38, and Dave Jowett, 44, from beneath tons of rubble in Hull. Shaughan and Laughton had been on their first day of work. Shaughan's brother Kevin Walsh said: 'People call it an incident, or an accident, but it is not like that for me. As long as I live it will be the day somebody murdered my brother, his best mate and another close friend.'

Today is Workers' Memorial Day, when we remember our people killed by callous profiteers.

http://www.hazards.org/wmd/
http://www.corporateaccountability.org
http://www.simonjones.org.uk

Goodbye to Humphrey Lyttleton - musician, author, broadcaster, wit, socialist. Reassuring to learn that he turned down a knighthood.
"Humph's intransigence, his determination to 'play as I please' was admirable; he was, like Ronnie Scott, the perfect ambassador for jazz." (George Melly)
"Bad Penny Blues", his only hit record; we all enjoyed it, Humph didn't.
Adieu Maestro.

prisonlawinsideout: So this is a cushy life#links

The Everthorpe prison staff are complaining about their charges living la dolce vita. They aren't exactly giving it 100% when drug dealers can enter and leave at will a place that they are supposed to be guarding.

The Grangemouth refinery workers are so essential to this nation's wellbeing that their stopping work for two days will bring it to the verge of economic and logistical meltdown. That's the impression I get from reading and viewing our balanced media (Would they lie to me?).
You would think that such key figures in our nation's welfare would be treated with respect by their employers.
One problem, it appears that the workers have a nice little nest egg tucked away in the form of a pension fund, and the bosses want it. Not satisfied with having black-holed* £40million the gaffers want more.
It's time our education system spelt out this lesson for the future battalions of the exploited; capitalism means taking from the poor and redistributing to the rich. LIVE WITH IT!

*Employers never loot their employees' pension funds, according to the media. It just disappears down a "black hole".

Porcupine blog: On Grumpiness In Old Age

The BBC is to broadcast a documentary series called "The Age of Terror", covering 40 years of terrorism. So that could include -
The Dublin bombings, 1974
The car bomb assassination of Orlando Letelier, Washington 1976
The bombing of Cubana Flight 455, 1976
The assassination of General Omar Torrijos of Panama, 1981
The sinking of the Rainbow Warrior, 1985

I'm sure that the bombing of the Moneda Palace, Santiago Chile, and the murder of Chile's elected president won't count as terrorism. The BBC would probably call that "an uncooperative relinquishing of the reins of government".

Memo to Lord Prescott of Corned Beef Island -
Stuffing your guts till you make yourself sick is not the same as Bulimia.

"The world has gone mad today,
And good's bad today,"
And the Conservatives care about low paid workers today,
And the Daily Mail cares about low paid workers today,
En ik ben vandaag een Nederlander.

With apologies to the shade of Cole Porter.

Dog Bites Man 11

EX-POLICE OFFICER SPARED JAIL OVER £13,000 THEFT

The Office of Fair Trading has named 112 construction firms involved in a price-fixing conspiracy. What a surprise! Let's all raise our hands to the heavens and gasp in disbelief. The fraudsters, IF prosecuted, will be fined, or their companies will.
This sort of skullduggery has been going on since time immemorial, and everybody knows it. I remember "Construction News" exposing price-fixing among the big contractors back in the late sixties or early seventies. Nothing was done about it. The problem is that if the authorities started to diligently prosecute every corporate criminal the economy would collapse. Public confidence would be shaken; by which I mean the apathy that is the normal response to such revelations might be replaced by public outrage and a demand for a cleansing of the Augean Stables. Imagine it - all those MPs, councillors and public servants having to hand back all the bribes. Imagine them having to pay for their own holidays, dinners, booze and whores.
Among this band of thieves the name of Balfour Beatty stands out. I wonder, are their executives still fugitives from justice in the United States? I never learned the outcome of that little contretemps.
Being old enough to remember the Ferranti Scandal I'm well versed in the way these difficulties are handled. We'll soon be reading stories in the press about how the DFT has over-reacted, and how much these people have done for the British economy. Don't they deserve a little tolerance? Usually "a few bad apples" are identified and dumped. Should any of the malefactors end up in court doctor's notes will be produced and incurable diseases will strike the defendants down (temporarily).
Later some of these lovable rogues will feature on the various honours lists. The rich and powerful can always find it in their hearts to forgive the rich and powerful.

"Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves, and all the while the grand thieves are running the country." (Howard Zinn). Howard underestimated. The grand thieves are the masters of the universe.

DEMOCRACY ROUND-UP
It's possible that Berlusconi will win the election in Italy. BERLUSCONI! The discredited crook who passed laws ensuring he wouldn't have to answer for his crimes. He whose last government was described as '... a bunch of mafiosi, corporate managers, lawyers of the Mob, racists, neo-fascists, old-time fascists, "post-fascists" and every other brand of right-wingers and nutters.'
Why? The simple answer is that people don't vote to elect a government, they vote against the incumbent government to punish it. They vote out the clique which has broken its electoral promises and vote in a clique which will in turn break ITS electoral promises. That is the full extent of electoral power in a parliamentary democracy under free-wheeling capitalism.

In Zimbabwe, we are told by the British media, Mugabe was defeated but clings on to power. This is a disgrace. The people have spoken, Mugabe must go. In other words the British media want Mugabe to go. Once he's out and Tsvangirai is in, everything will go on as it did under Mugabe, with one small difference. If Tsvangirai wants to line his and his cronies' pockets with western "aid" he'd better stop the seizures of white planters' latifundia. Forget human rights, democracy and the rest, THAT'S where Mugabe and ZANU got it wrong. After all, that was the only difference between Mugabe's régime and that of Arap Moi when he was running the Kenyan economy into the ground and opponents into prison.

The British media are also worked up about Tibet. Now this is a tricky one. The Olympics are a big money-spinner. China is a capitalist's paradise: the workers' have no rights, pollution at levels unacceptable in the west is just fine by China's political bosses. And it's all somebody else's fault. That's communism for you. Aren't you glad you live in a democracy?
So let's not get too worried about China, criticise them all you like, but don't expect anyone with any authority or influence to pressure them to improve workers' wages or conditions.
As for Tibet, we support the pro-democracy movement, which means we support the Dalai Lama. Well you can take democracy too far. He may be an autocrat and the head of a theocratic régime (in waiting), but that can be a good thing. Real elections can produce the wrong results. Think of Hamas in Gaza, Chavez in Venezuela. If the CIA doesn't run things properly anything can happen.

For sale: the video archive Wal-Mart should have erased

The archive also includes footage of Hillary Clinton, who served on Wal-Mart's board from 1986 to 1992, praising the company to the skies – a position she has since sought to mute.
"I'm so proud of this company and everything it represents," Mrs Clinton said at a store opening in Arkansas in 1991. "It makes me feel real good about what we've been able to do."

My decision to include the Hull Green Party in my links list has caused me to suffer a crise de conscience. I have never belonged to a political party and I've never openly supported one. It was not my intention to do so now. I just liked the website and agreed with much that is on there. However, I've decided to remove the link for fear it might be mistaken for an endorsement of the party, or of the pseudo-democracy that people tolerate as the devil they know.

Humberside Fire Authority has postponed its decision on fire station closures for three months. They also criticised the firefighters and their representatives, accusing them scaremongering. My interpretation; they intend to close the stations and sack firefighters but can't say so in this hostile climate. Protests often fizzle out when little is seen to be happening one way or another. Keep delaying the decision till a hard core of opponents remain, then label them as luddites. It often works.

prisonlawinsideout: The McCanns should stop running long enough to answer police questions#links

“what they should be doing is campaigning on the theme of ‘Do not leave your children unattended in unlocked apartments whilst you enjoy alcohol-fuelled dinners at a distance where you cannot observe them, as we did'”.

I've just learned that clicking on the individual entries in my profile takes me to a list of bloggers sharing an individual "favorite". Clicking on each entry in the "favorite books" paragraph I found to my surprise that nobody else has listed any of my choices - not quite true, but more on that later.
On "favorite movies" (i.e., favourite films)I find that I share a predilection for "The Big Lebowski" with 15,299 others, but "I Soliti Ignoti" garners only 179 fellow enthusiasts. Anglophony rules, che peccato!
However looking at the figures for all films I notice that all are in multiples of five, so they may not be precise -
The Big Lebowski 15,300
Seven Samurai 3,900
Sunset Boulevard 1,700
The Battle of Algiers 285
I Soliti Ignoti 180
Out of curiosity I did a quick survey of Solitignotisti, and found that all but 24 were based in Italy. Of the rest most appeared to be Italian. I also noticed that there were only 179 altogether, which suggests that a rounding up may occur.
Interestingly I found that one Soliti fan, UK-based, listed "The Good Soldier Švejk" among his book choices, so I'm not the only blogger to list that book. Perhaps the next acceptable figure after none is five, two doesn't make the cut.
With the music preferences it seems I've set my parameters too narrowly, or been too exclusive in listing. Only Bach and Blues are shared. "Jazz" would bring hundreds, perhaps thousands of fellow fans, but "Jazz 1945 to 1965", or whatever I've put down, brings no fellows.
I now intend to add a couple more choices, perhaps temporarily, to see what results they elicit. On films I'll try to think of a film hardly anyone will have seen.

Addendum: Having added "Los Golfos" to favourite films I find that one other blogger has listed it. So that's one theory shot down in flames.

Addendum 2: I listed "The Killing Floor" among my favourite films. Five other bloggers have that title listed. Looking at their other interests I was puzzled. Something didn't add up. When I did a search for the film I found that there are two films of that name. I have a feeling that only I referred to the earlier one about unions and racism in a Chicago slaughterhouse.

Can you imagine the uproar if this happened in a country that is not an ally of the US? "Egyptian authorities on Sunday arrested 40 people, including politicians and bloggers, for inciting unrest by calling for a nationwide general strike, a security official told AFP. "Forty people have been arrested around the country, including in Cairo and Alexandria, for inciting unrest," the official said, adding that workers had failed to heed the call to strike. Among those detained are opposition leaders including Islamist journalist Mohammed Abdel Qudoos, and Magdi Hussein who heads the Labour party, which has been suspended since 2000 after its mouthpiece published articles critical of the government. Bloggers and members of other opposition parties, including the Nasserist and liberal Ghad parties, as well as from the protest movement Kefaya, have also been detained."

(Angry Arab)

Keep your eyes on Zimbabwe, Defenders of human rights and democracy.

The Orwellian-sounding Violent Radicalisation and Home-Grown Terrorism Prevention Act, passed by an overwhelming 400-6 vote last month, will soon be considered by the Senate. Rather than seeking to criminalise "extremist" acts, it targets beliefs, or what many people are calling "thoughtcrimes".

"It proposes initiatives to intercede before radicalised individuals turn violent. It could herald far more intrusive surveillance techniques, without warrants, and has the potential to criminalise ideas and not actions. It could mean penalties for a stance rather than a criminal act," the American Civil Liberties Union and the Centre for Constitutional Rights have jointly said.

John Vidal (see link)

That is the USA, but are things any better here? Recently a young British woman was put on trial for possession of books our secret police didn't approve of. Fortunately others didn't accept that this was a crime, and she went free. Meanwhile Gordon Brown continues to push for an extension of the time suspects can be held without charge; retains the banning of free assembly within a mile of Westminster Palace; blunders on with the ID card farce.
At the same time Bush, Brown and their cronies get into a lather about human rights abuses in Tibet, China, Zimbabwe.
Pan - kettle - "grimy arse".
As for everyone's concern about democracy and fair elections in Zimbabwe, that's about Zimbabwe, not democracy. Local elections are soon to be held in Egypt, fiefdom of Bush puppet Mubarak. Over 100 opposition candidates have been rounded up and thrown in jail. Who cares? Not those guardians of democracy in the British media.

A portmanteau word I haven't seen before appears in Marina Hyde's "Lost in Showbiz" column (Guardian, G2) today - "celebocracy". What a dreadful thought! Maybe if I read more about these individuals I'd be familiar with the term. I always read Ms. Hyde's column so I am au fait with some of the antics of these creatures, the Misses Hilton, Spears, Lohan ("good Irish name", as my old mother would say). Also it's a rare news programme that doesn't feature one or more of these "world famous nonentities" (Mad Magazine, c. 1960). Today we hear more of the thuggish behaviour of a "supermodel"/novelist-by-proxy.
I remember a coinage of the old reactionary Tom Wolfe, "lumpenbourgeoisie", identifying a different sub-culture, but the term seems appropriate here.

Still with "Lost in Showbiz", a recent description of the ITV1 schedules as resembling "a grotesque Hieronymus Bosch painting" bears repetition.

The killers of Simon Murden used justifiable force when they lawfully killed him, according to a Humberside jury. What this means is that Mr. Murden was killed by the police and all their killings are lawful.
Mr. Murden was sitting on the ground when "at least" six shots were fired into his body. He was sitting on the ground, probably as a result of being hit by baton rounds and probably incapacitated by those rounds. He was nursing three "ornamental swords" (I'm not sure what ornamental means here). The swords were in scabbards and cradled in his arms. According to the cops he was rising to his feet as they approached and lunged at them with a sword. According to all other witnesses he did no such thing.
This is the same force members of which stood around laughing while Christopher Alder was dying at their feet. Be warned! The Humberside Police give no quarter.
One thing I've noticed about killings by the police, the killers are usually promoted within the year. I wonder why.
The killers' lawyer has complained to the press about the inordinately long time it took to bring this case to court. It sounds like the killers are going to claim compensation for the stress they've been under. If they do I predict they'll win that one too.