PANIC STATIONS!
Nick Clegg has promised that the National Health Service will not be privatised.
Goodbye NHS.

"Reforming the NHS is like turning around an oil tanker, but turning around an oil tanker is even harder if you are taking it apart at the same time."
(John Pugh, Post-Liberal MP)

A letter from political prisoner Salah Hammouri.

My posting of the call to make Dudeism a recognised religion via this year's census doesn't mean I'm going to label myself a member of the Church of the Latter Day Dude. If I complete the form I'll declare myself some kind of heathen, or perhaps a Spinozist.
In fact I'm torn between boycotting the process and collaborating to avoid a £1,000 fine. The fact that the 2011 census is to be conducted by the armsmongers Lockheed Martin is a cause for concern. This from the Guardian -

Lockheed Martin – which does 80% of its work for the US defence department – assists more than two dozen American government agencies and is involved in surveillance and data processing for the CIA and FBI. It has controversially provided private contract interrogators to the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and Guantánamo Bay in Cuba. All US-based companies are subject to the Patriot Act, which allows the US government to have access to any data in the company's possession. Campaigners have warned this could give the US government access to detailed and personal data on the UK's entire population.

The principled stand is non-cooperation, but can I afford to be principled?
"Erst kommt das Fressen
Dann kommt die moral."
(Bertholt Brecht)

"How can a poor man stand such times and live?"
(Alfred Reed, via Ry Cooder)

"There are all manner of new religions being put on the UK census. On the 2001 Census we had 'Jedi' become a recognised religion. There is a group to have 'Heavy Metal' formerly recognised as a religion.
"Our aim should be to get 'Dudeism' formally recognised on our Census. An ancient philosophy that preaches non-preachiness, practices as little as possible, and above all, uh…lost my train of thought there. Anyway, if you’d like to find peace on earth and goodwill, man, we’ll help you get started. Right after a little nap."

International solidarity - "think globally, act locally".

New to me (no.12)

Edgelands

The bad old days will end: The Edgelands.: "There is nothing us psychogeographers like more than a nice bit of marginal land. Of course, when we are out and about with our lovers and m..."

Why did those SAS (or SBS?) "diplomats" sneak into Libya by the back door? Because the Libyans know that the West's interest in their country doesn't go beyond the production and export of its oil. They didn't want to speak to any freedom fighters, I reckon that they wanted to go straight to the top, to Abd-al-Jalil. I've already suggested that they are looking for a murdering gangster they can do business with. Abd-al-Jalil was one of Gadhafi's inner circle, so no doubt Western intelligence gatherers have a nice thick file on his misdeeds that they can use to bring him onside.

Why is Cameron leading the charge on Libya, followed by no one as it happens?
I was thinking, as their domestic policies make them as hated as Thatcher was during the early eighties, the Cameronians will be looking for a Falklands war of their own to get us all to rally round the flag that the right-wing media will wave enthusiastically.
A little Cameronian war doesn't seem likely, but a bit of sabre-rattling doesn't go amiss. "We were up for it, but the Yanks and the Europeans chickened out."
At this point it's worth mentioning a reader's letter in yesterday's Guardian. The writer pointed out the the 'Falklands effect' was a fallacy. The pro-Thatcher vote fell after the Falklands adventure, but her pachydermatous skin was saved by 'Doctor Death' Owen and his misleadingly named 'Social Democrats', who split the anti-Thatcher vote.

Barnsley Central Byelection

As the revising officer for the above constituency I declare that the seat was taken by the "None of the Above Party", which was backed by almost two-thirds of the electorate (63.5%).
The British Nazi Party's share of the vote fell to less than half of its General Election result, but rose as a percentage of votes cast, owing to the establishment's refusal to recognise None of the Above Party (to its peril).
The pro-BNP votes tell us that there are 1,463 electors in Barnsley Central who don't object to the killing off of the disabled and the chronically ill.
As for the Post-Liberal Party, well it's members (such as remain) can go back to their constituencies and prepare for annihilation.

"Rupert Murdoch's controversial bid to take full control of BSkyB was boosted today when the Government backed proposals to spin off Sky News as part of any deal.
"The Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt said he was minded to wave through the takeover by News Corporation after the media giant offered to make the channel into a separate independent company and subsidise it for a decade."

That's Jeremy Hunt of rhyming slang fame.

Onward and upward, Mr. Murdoch, the BBC will soon be in your grasp.

A petition -

"We believe that the hugely unpopular Health and Social Care BIll may do lasting damage to the NHS, leading to inequality between areas, reduced public accountability, poorer levels of patient care and less value for money. The changes are also likely to strain the NHS budget, at a time when cuts are already being made.

"We urge you to listen to your constituents and the increasing number of healthcare professionals and charities. Please vote against the Bill at its third reading in the House of Commons."

Sarkozy: I propose a no fly zone over Libya, and economic sanctions.
Cameron: Ridiculous idea; overreaction.
Obama: I propose a no fly zone over Libya, and economic sanctions.
Cameron: Cracking idea, let's do it!

From Larry Gambone's blog -

I have long thought that much of the trolling that goes on in progressive blogs was part of an organized campaign. For the simple reason, it would be easy enough to do. Just hire a bunch of people to write disruptive comments in blog comment sections. It seems there is even a term to describe it “internet astroturfing” See George Monbiot's article on this:

Gotcha, fleming.

From the Angry Arab -

"What are the origins of the name of Qadhdhafi or Qadhdhaf Ad-Dam (his special envoy, Ahmad Qadhdhaf Ad-Dam who resigned from his post two days ago and defected). Apparently, the legend of the family is that they were pious Sufis who kept invoking God and qur'anic citations until blood came out of their mouths, hence the name: Qadhdhafi (spitter or emitter) or Qadhdhaf Ad-Dam (spitter of blood)."

So the legend goes. Gadhafi's tribe, the Qadhadhfa, claim descent from a marabout (missionary) named Sidi Musa Qadhaf-ad-dam (fl. early 17th century). However the name is said to be Berber in origin, Kathathfa*. The explanation of the arabised name is probably folk etymology.
The number of Muslim kindreds/population groups claiming descent from the Prophet (ashraf, saadat), or from Sufi mystics, awliya (saints) and Hijazi missionaries is legion.

*Earlier misspelling corrected.

"Want to see a general with more brains and less gold braid and medals?"

Funny thing; the supreme commander of the victorious allied forces in Europe in World War II has so few medals compared to a press liaison officer.
Just imagine, if that joker went on parade wearing the actual medals instead of just the ribbons he'd be bent double.

"They keep showing that picture of Tony Blair shaking hands with Gadhafi. Gadhafi's never going to live that down."
Sandi Toksvig on "The News Quiz", BBC4.

Well if we didn't do it somebody else would, as they used to say at the Auschwitz staff meetings -
It turns out that, in 2009, we British sold 25.5 million euros' worth of military equipment to Gadhafi's Libya. Or at least we applied for the licences to export it.
This gear included 210,795 euros' worth of "chemical, biological weapons, tear gas, radioactive materials".

But that was in the bad old days of Labour government. Our current Prime Minister wants nothing to do with dictators. Unless, that is, they bear the additional title 'king', as in Sa'udi Arabia and Jordan. Emir is OK too, because Dave thinks it's Arabic for 'democrat'.

(via Angry Arab)

How to woo and win back your disaffected people - promise to turn their homeland into "a burning hell". Let's see if it works for Colonel President Gadhafi.

Obsolete: David Cameron thinks you're a cretin.

We know that none of the “real money” hoarded by organized wealth will trickle down to us. That’s not the point. By taking away our rights to bargain, to negotiate, to discuss our working conditions, to fight for our jobs, to retain our dignity and to bestow hope on our children, organized wealth has left the post-union working class without pride or aspirations. We envy, revere, ogle and parrot the rich but harbor no illusions of ever becoming rich ourselves. We have become — as we were three centuries ago — peasants, beholden totally to the commands and caprices of “lords” who have no concept of how we live, who often wonder why we even bother to live.
...
We want you to give up. We know your defeat will not better our hopeless lives. We know that whatever shreds of wealth accrue to your destruction will go straight up the pipe to the lobbyists of K Street and the deposit boxes of Zurich. We know that you will get less, and we will get nothing. We know that, after promises by organized wealth that your sacrifices will save your jobs, you’ll lose your jobs — just as we before you were promised security and screwed the next morning… before breakfast.

From "An Open Letter to Public Employees and Their Unions, From Formerly Unionized Private-Sector Workers" by David Benjamin

From the Angry Arab -

Arming the Libyan Tyrant
"It is time when Western media cover Qadhdhafi's butchery that they produce a list of the last Western governments that signed arms deals with Qadhdhafi. These countries also have blood on their hand."

Amen.

The revolving door again -
Lord "Poll Tax" Patten, former minister in the extremist Thatcher government, former chairman of the Conservative Party, is to become chairman of the BBC Trust.

Soon, Mr. Murdoch, soon.

Mu'ammar Gadhafi (Qadhdhafi, Gadafi, Ghadhafi, etc.) has decided that civil war is an option preferable to resignation.
Meanwhile, reading between the lines, it seems that the western establishments are hoping for a palace revolution, i.e., a murdering gangster they can do business with. British Intelligence people have in the past cultivated members of Mad Gad's inner circle, but such 'assets' are not likely to have a long shelf life.
The Libyan people may get rid of Gadhafi, but all that lovely oil will ensure that they are never rid of the influence of the advocates of 'stability'.

David (call me Da'ud) Cameron has flown out to Egypt carrying orders from the White House (one assumes). Or maybe he has heard about the Egyptian version of the 'Big Society', and he's going to learn.
First lesson, kick out the crooks who are running the country.
Second lesson, show how to get things done without the crooks.
Will Dave take the hint and resign, or do we need a beige revolution?

Update: since posting the above I've learned that the original purpose of Dave's Middle East trip was to lead a trade delegation of British arms mongers. What an opportunity! All those nervous dictators chewing their nails in their well guarded palaces.
Then Dave spotted another opportunity, a photo-op. Off to Cairo (not on the itinerary) and Tahrir Square where he was filmed shaking hands and producing soundbites involving the words freedom and democracy. Or was it progress towards democracy? Better not upset the army, potential customers.
Let's hope that Tantawi, who Dave was filmed cosying up to, doesn't order a massacre in the near future, but does order some of that tear-gas that Bahrain is not getting.

He should have stuck to singing.
♫ Breaking up (organised labour) is so very hard to do ♫

I don't know - will it ever replace "E pluribus unum"?

Trying to sort out the Bahraini royal family and its rival factions. It seems that most of the government ministers belong to the Al Khalifa ('al-Khalifa', which I'm tempted to write is incorrect, it seems). This from an insider corresponding with As'ad, the Angry Arab -

"There is a split within the royal family. Khalid bin Ahmed and Khalifa bin Ahmed are on one side and the King and Shaikh Salman on the other. The extreme violence are Khalid Bin Ahmed (head of the royal court - sectarian and racist responsible for political naturalization scheme) and Khalifa Bin Ahmed (minister of defense). Sources are saying that the King no longer has full control. There are outside forces (I'm guessing Saudi Arabia) pushing for these two to take over and for Nasir Bin Hamed (one of kings sons) to take over position of crown prince."

So the king, Hamad bin Isa, and the Crown Prince, Salman bin Hamad, lead one faction, but "no longer have full control". However, since these details were aired the Crown Prince has ordered the army off the street and called for a day of mourning for its victims. Perhaps a sign of a shift in control of the situation. Perhaps the hawks have gone too far and been called to heel by Washington.
The "political naturalization scheme" is a policy of large-scale naturalisation of foreigners who are Sunnis in order to alter the ratio of Shia Bahrainis (70%) to Sunnis. By some accounts these foreigners are disproportionally represented in the rampaging army.
So the Sa'udis are grooming a younger son, by Hamad's second wife, to succeed Hamad and blow out Prince Salman. But as the House of Sa'ud is equally riven by factionalism it may be the Prince has allies there who make friends of their enemy's enemy.
One commentator has pointed out that this is not so much a revolt of oppressed Shia, as a revolt of the oppressed poor, who are overwhelmingly Shia. But the enemies of freedom will no doubt insist on depicting Bahrain's Shias as Iran's fifth column.

Afterthought (20th February): " ... hawks ... called to heel" - mixed metaphor there. How are hawks recalled? There's sure to be a term in falconry. Calling attack dogs to heel might be better in this instance. Who knows?

What he said -
"Global food prices are rising to dangerous levels and threaten tens of millions of poor people around the world."
(Robert Zoellick, President of the World Bank)

What he didn't say -
"... though personally I couldn't give a toss."

Or perhaps I malign the fellow. He is on record as saying that rising food prices are "a threat to growth and stability". Now stability is paramount to bureaucrats and their paymasters. "Every stable government in history has depended on the resignation of the poor to being poor" (Félicité Robert de Lamennais). Growth, of course, is always good, promising prosperity for all - promising but never delivering. "Jam tomorrow" or maybe the day after. The oft repeated saying of the navvies in Patrick McGill's 'Moleskin Joe', "There's a better world a-coming, but we won't live to see it."

"Equally science-fictional is the belief that capitalism will finally get round to feeding the world. If the political left had promulgated such a transparent absurdity for as long as its opponents have peddled this lie, it would have been howled down without mercy."
(Terry Eagleton, 'The Gatekeeper')

Growth that seems to produce no benefits for the majority; stability that condemns that majority to economic insecurity. These are the priorities of Herr Kommandeur Zoellick and his World Bank.

Battle for Britain: Resisting the Privatization of the NHS and the Loss of 100,000 Jobs.

NEW TO ME (no.11)
Corporatocracy, used by one Barry Ritholtz on The Keiser Report (Russia Today) to describe the way in which the United States of America is (are?) governed. I've never heard it before, but the word has a wikipedia entry.
I don't favour Latin-Greek hybrids, but is there an all-Greek alternative? Syssomatomenocracy? Hardly rolls off the tongue, and probably doesn't have the same meaning anyway.
Bueaucracy, OK; corporatocracy too, I suppose.

The Center for Trade Unions and Workers Services (CTUWS)- Honored the French Republic’s Human Rights Prize- is an Egyptian non-governmental organization established in March 1990 by some labor leaders and activists guided by their experience in the Egyptian labor movement. They vowed to meet the urgent need to form an independent organization that advances and supports the needs of workers in a democratic manner, provide direct support and services to the workers and fill the void created by the “official” trade union organization which failed to achieve its fundamental obligations.

"The Higher Military Council will also ban meetings by labor unions or professional syndicates effectively forbidding strikes, and tell all Egyptians to get back to work after the unrest that toppled Hosni Mubarak."

By their dealings with the organised working class shall you know them. Start where Hitler started, Global Capital will approve. The "liberal democracies" and their media mouthpieces will not demur.

Peace (sic) envoy and all-round huckster Tony Blair appeared on BBC 24 Hour News this morning to declare smugly that the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel is safe. Apparently he and some unnamed Egyptians have settled this. Three cheers for democracy.

Is Omar the Butcher really out of the picture? As'ad the Angry Arab thinks so -

Reflections on the (Possible) Revolution in Egypt
This is big: very big. I was talking to a friend earlier: this is possibly the biggest strategic shift in the Middle East since the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982. The beauty of it for dreamers (and its alarm for enemies like Israel) is that it is unpredictable. The biggest victory is that `Umar Sulaman is out of the picture now. Israel/US/Saudi Arabia were hoping that he would be the extension of Mubarak until some other clone of Mubarak is found. That was not meant to be. Don't get me wrong: US and Saudi Arabia will now rush with bags of gold and cash to influence all members of the military command council. The beauty of that is that there is no one person: it is a collective leadership (even if this rules for a transitional period) and the momentum of the Egyptian people will restrict their powers, notwithstanding wishes to the contrary by US/Israel/Saudi Arabia. One person in the council will emerge; we don't know who: and there will be leaks and back stabbing and plots and conspiracies. There will be chaos in Egypt: which is good. People will come from nowhere: don't memorize the news names of this developing news story: you will hear of new names soon. This is a big strategic development: if Tunisia affected Egypt: Egypt is destined to affect the entire region (unless you believe that the announcement of cash bonuses from the Bahraini King this morning was a pure act of charity. Israel is in deep trouble, as is the US; Egypt was an intelligence and sabotage center. The entire country and its dyamics are now unleashed on the word. There will be new ideas and new current and trends. Certainly, the freer the Arabs are, the more trouble for the US/Israel/Saudi Arabia. Read the statement of the Saudi foreign minister: he just yesterday remembered the justice of the Palestinian cause. There is panic in Arab ruling circles. I spoke to a dear Jordanian friend this morning: he was calling to congratulate me. I told him: I now think that I will finally see your farm in Jordan. Those who stood by the Egyptian uprising (the Arab people and Hizbullah--Hamas was too afraid to speak a word--and Aljazeera and Arab nationalists everywhere) will be in the good grace of the Egyptian uprising. And those who were opposed: the Wahhabi Arab liberals, Israel, House of Saud and its propaganda outlets will be in trouble. Let me put it this way: Saudi princes will not feel comfortable in returning to the brothels of Cairo anytime soon. The shock for Israel and US is double: not only is Mubarak gone, but so is Sulayman. The ouster of Sulayman ran against their scheme. I believe that Mubarak arranged for that (although the people insisted on it) to get back at the US. Leaving them to scramble. The good thing is that Minister of Defense Tantawi has the leadership skills of Joe (six pack) Biden. Stay tuned.

"Out in the Middle East
You can have a lot of fun"
(George Formby)

"Walk like an Egyptian"
(Liam Sternberg)

"The Kaiser goes, the generals remain"
(Theodor Plivier)

Now and again when online I take a look at the calendar at Daily Bleed. I should do it every day for my education and edification, and learn who was born, who died, who published, who rebelled, on this day; a sometimes useful, always entertaining source.
Today, I learn, Bertholt Brecht was born (1898), as was Alex Comfort (1920). This day in 1837 the immortal Alexander Pushkin proved that he was mortal by dying of his wounds - defending his wife's honour, explain's the Bleed. Too late, Sashenka, too late. And in 1354 the good citizens of Oxford made plain their opinion of students by killing some.
There's a bit of poetry too, Langston Hughes, Comfort.

I think I'll take a sneak preview of tomorrow's anniversaries.

Phil Ochs: There but for Fortune
I'm looking forward to seeing this film. I've been a fan for many years. I first heard the music of Phil Ochs 40-some years ago in a sly grog shop where the ale flowed freely, and the occasional drop of poitín was sampled. The taste for Phil's music outlasted the hangovers, and continues to this day.
Although he's best known for his anti-war and anti-racism songs my personal favourite from his work is "Changes".

I read that some Tahrir Square protesters who have returned to their homes have since disappeared.

Figures I heard over the weekend; the US Superbowl on TV comprises 60 minutes of 'football' and 47 minutes of advertising. I was thinking, what a relief that the Yanks have never taken to real football, the world game. But reading here, I learn that our game's unsuitability to commercial break overkill is the main reason vested interests have shut it out.
I remember hearing that, when football (non-American) was first broadcast on US TV (early seventies?), the players were under orders to kick the ball into touch every five minutes or so, so the station could slip in a quick commercial. That must have been compulsive viewing.

The revolution in Egypt erupted like all revolutions do, from the bottom up. It was unemployment and high food prices that propelled working and poor people into action. Now, the media reports that the "opposition" in Egypt is a group of well-to-do folks who have very little in common with the poor of Egypt.
This top down takeover of the revolution is being engineered with the support of the U.S. and European nations, the same "allies" of the dictatorship that lasted three decades. If this elite group of Egyptians manages to gain power, they'll soon find themselves confronted with the real opposition of Egypt, the overwhelming majority of working and poor people.
...
The only opposition group that is expressing the economic demands of the people seems to be the newly-formed Egyptian Federation for Independent Unions, which broke away from the government dominated unions to demand that a "... a minimum wage no less than 1200 LE, with a yearly raise proportionate to inflation; guarantee workers rights to bonuses and benefits according to work value, especially work compensation for those facing work hazards."
and:
The right for all Egyptian citizens to fair social security including the right to health care, housing, education 'ensuring free education and syllabus development to cope with science and technology evolution,’ the right for all retired to decent pensions and benefits.

An American official here said the hope was that Mr. Mubarak’s ultimate replacement would be someone who maintains the same historical appreciation for peace and relations with Washington. In other words, Mubarak’s successor must be, like him, an American stooge.
A Suleiman government would have an out-and-out criminal at its head. The Egyptian vice president—appointed to that post only last week by Mubarak—is better known as the chief of Egypt’s notoriously brutal security apparatus. He is directly responsible for the torture of thousands of political prisoners, a role for which he was especially prized by the CIA, which regularly shipped prisoners to Egypt for treatment that could not be administered in Guantanamo Bay or the agency’s own network of secret prisons.
...
If Mubarak is replaced by a caretaker regime based on the military, both the Obama administration and the American media will swing behind the new rulers, vilifying all popular opposition as "terrorism" and endorsing the bloodiest measures of state repression.
Far from representing a concession to the democratic demands of the masses, such a regime would represent a carefully constructed roadblock. It would cement the role of the Egyptian government as a servant of US imperialism, collaborator with Israel, and enemy of the Palestinian people and the oppressed masses of Egypt itself.

"Multiculturism has failed, so I'm backing the English Defence League. These Muslims, or terrorists as I prefer to call them, must learn our British ways; binge-drinking, bad manners, snobbery. A real touch of class involves trashing restaurants, but that level of Britishness may take time.
"Well that's my take on multiculturalism, now for culture proper. When I hear the c-word I reach for my Purdy. So I'm going to close all libraries, places in which oiks get ideas above their station. I'm going to dispense with universal education, which is no longer needed. We can leave the narcotising and indoctrination of the masses to Simon Cowell and Rupert Murdoch, whom God preserve."

Not quite what David "no longer Dave" Cameron said, but he's a politician and his speeches have to be decoded.

Craig Oliver, Cameron's new bullshit disseminator, replacing the fugitive from "justice", Andy Coulson.
So the revolving door connecting the BBC and the Conservative Party is still revolving.

It looks like Globocop has has settled for Omar "the Torturer" Suleiman as the next brutaliser of the Egyptian people, sidelining Mohammed "Who?" el Baradi'i. This brings them in line with the Israelis and Mubarak himself. So all that is needed for completion of the "orderly transition" is a stick of dynamite under Mubarak's tochus (literally or metaphorically), and a restoration of order, i.e., a small scale bloodbath and a round-up and disappearance of the more vocal dissidents.
Then Washington will be happy, Tel Aviv will be happy, and the Egyptian people will fall silent. Their silence will be interpreted as contentment.

A fellow worker has just drawn attention to an article by Professor Keith Ewing which had escaped my notice -

Last week Vince Cable, the secretary of state for business, innovation and skills, produced a disgraceful document entitled "The employer's charter", proudly published on his departmental website.
In the same week that the governor of the Bank of England told us inflation-adjusted wages were falling in a manner unseen since the 1920s, Vince Cable is inciting bosses to take advantage of workers' vulnerability, by telling them in his charter that they have the right to ask their workers to take a pay cut, and to contact women on maternity leave about when they are planning to return.
Apart from the unnecessary nastiness of this initiative, it does provoke thought about what a corresponding workers' charter would look like, in a country where employers are constantly moaning about the great regulatory burden they face.

Vince Cable, what a piece of work! I think 'work' was the word I was looking for.

The Employer's Charter
(AKA Vince's Vindictive Vomitus) -

As an employer - as long as you act fairly and reasonably - you are entitled to:

ask an employee to take their annual leave at a time that suits your business

contact a woman on maternity leave and ask when she plans to return

make an employee redundant if your business takes a downward turn

ask an employee to take a pay cut

withhold pay from an employee when they are on strike

ask an employee whether they would be willing to opt-out from the 48 hour limit in the Working Time Regulations

reject an employee’s request to work flexibly if you have a legitimate business reason

talk to your employees about their performance and how they can improve

dismiss an employee for poor performance

stop providing work to an agency worker (as long as they are not employed by you)

ask an employee about their future career plans, including retirement

Of course this is just a bit of self-promotion by the Vile Vince. There can't be many employers in the UK who don't know all this already, who don't put all the above into practice. Why, many employers in this country wipe their arses on employment law on a regular basis, knowing that they won't be prosecuted.
All Vince is doing here is saying, "Just because I'm called a Liberal-Democrat don't think that I have a conscience. I despise the working class as much as any power-mad manager or gaffer."

A brief explanation from the Angry Arab.

Baltaji: etymology of a Mubarak goon
The standards word used by Egyptian (and Arab) media for the armed goons of Mubarak is the word "baltaji" (بلطجي)
The word is one of those structured during Ottoman times where an Arabic word is mixed with a Turkish form: as in Qahwaji (for coffee person) or `Arbaji (a cart operator or sais--the latter is from the Arabic sa'is, probably borrowed from Crusades' times), etc. Balta is a small ax, so a baltaji (or baltachi in the Turkish pronunciation) is somebody who wields a small ax.

My dictionaries tell me that fas (or fa's?) is the Arabic for axe, that balta is the Turkish. So the word baltaji looks like pure Turkish (spelt 'baltaci' in Turkish). That -ci (or -ji) suffix is very handy - demir, 'iron', demirci, 'blacksmith'; ekmek, 'bread', ekmekçi, 'baker'.

Addendum, 4th Feb:
It appears from this posting on TGIA's blog that the plural of baltaji is baltajiyyah, Arab style, though the Egyptians do their J to G pronunciation. I believe that the Turkish plural would be baltacilar.

So now we know the gameplan. Obama calls on Mubarak to organise an "orderly transition" (no hurry, Hoss). Mubarak recognises the hint to cling on to power, and declares his intention to do so.
Then he sends in the heavy mob. Welcome back, runaway cops - civilian dress, a nice touch. The army turns its back on the people who put their trust in it. Now only the strong man Mubarak can restore order. Order sí, transition NO.

From As'ad AbuKhalil -
"As soon as I saw the defiant tone and substance of Mubarak's speech, I realized that he is not speaking for himself but for the US/Israeli sponsors. . . . I just read the speech by Obama: it confirmed my suspicion, that basically Mubarak was permitted by the US to do with the Egyptian people as he would like. Every drop of blood that is spilled in Egypt from this day onwards should be blamed on Obama because he has embraced this new strategy of letting Mubarak defy the popular will of the Egyptian people. I don't trust the Egyptian army: the top brass is handpicked by the US/Israel and can be easily bought off by a combination of bribes, gadgets, and perks. . . . The speech by Obama was a not-so-coded language that let Mubarak do what he wish: the talk about transition means that he was basically told to stay in power, because Israel really freaked out at the prospect of Egypt without Mubarak. . . . Make no mistake about it: this could be like the 1953 Operation Ajax in Iran. The US is now arranging for a coup against the will of the Egyptian people."

Egypt's new vice-president -

Habib was interrogated by the country’s Intelligence Director, General Omar Suleiman.... Suleiman took a personal interest in anyone suspected of links with Al Qaeda. As Habib had visited Afghanistan shortly before 9/11, he was under suspicion. Habib was repeatedly zapped with high-voltage electricity, immersed in water up to his nostrils, beaten, his fingers were broken and he was hung from metal hooks.
That treatment wasn't enough for Suleiman, so:
To loosen Habib’s tongue, Suleiman ordered a guard to murder a gruesomely shackled Turkistan prisoner in front of Habib – and he did, with a vicious karate kick.
After Suleiman's men extracted Habib's confession, he was transferred back to US custody, where he eventually was imprisoned at Guantanamo. His "confession" was then used as evidence in his Guantanamo trial.

General Suleiman may not get the top job. The Israelis, his closest collaborators, want him; and one assumes that Mubarak thinks he's the man to mind the shop. But the Yanks will stick out for their preferred puppet, el Baradi'i.

"Meet the new boss
Same as the old boss."
(P.Townshend)
Or as Obama, Clinton, and the Little Sir Echoes of the UK government would put it, "orderly transition".

Press Release

Date: Sunday, 30 January 2011

Today, representatives of the of the Egyptian labor movement, made up of the independent Egyptian trade unions of workers in real estate tax collection, the retirees, the technical health professionals and representatives of the important industrial areas in Egypt: Helwan, Mahalla al-Kubra, the tenth of Ramadan city, Sadat City and workers from the various industrial and economic sectors such as: garment & textiles, metals industry, pharmaceuticals, chemical industry, government employees, iron and steel, automotive, etc… And they agreed to hold a press conference at 3:30pm this afternoon in Tahrir Square next to Omar Effendi Company store in downtown Cairo to announce the organization of the new Federation of Egyptian Trade Unions and to announce the formation of committees in all factories and enterprises to protect, defend them and to set a date for a general strike. And to emphasize that the labor movement is in the heart and soul of the Egyptian Peoples’ revolution and its emphasis on the support for the six requirements as demanded by the Egyptian People's Revolution. To emphasize the economic and democratic demands voiced by the independent labor movement through thousands of strikes, sit-ins and protests by Egyptian workers in the past years."

It's reported on the BBC news that the Mubarak régime has closed down the alJazeera bureau in Cairo. But the BBC continues to operate unhindered. I wonder why ...
Oh, I see.

The Egyptian people called for the resignation of Mubarak, so he sacked every one of his cabinet and stayed on. If the people continue to call for his resignation he intends to sack the people and import some replacements.
(With a nod to the shade of Bertholt Brecht)

When, on Monday, it emerged that James Murdoch, who is not a constituent of Cameron's, was also at the dinner, again there was no official confirmation. But now the words carefully chosen by sources did not imply a denial. The prime minister did not believe it was necessary to comment on private social engagements during a holiday period.
A spokesman said: "Clearly the prime minister does meet with people from the media from time to time. That is not at all unusual for prime ministers."
The burning question was would such a meeting lead to the prime minister speaking to Murdoch senior, and could any table talk affect the BSkyB takeover. "It would have no bearing on that decision, which is a decision taken by Jeremy Hunt and Jeremy Hunt alone,".

(Caroline Davies, Guardian)

"Rather than worry about Rupert Murdoch owning another TV channel, what we should recognise is that he has probably done more to create variety and choice in British TV than any other single person because of his huge investment in setting up Sky TV, which, at one point, was losing several million pounds a day.
We would be the poorer and wouldn't be saying that British TV is the envy of the world if it hadn't been for him being prepared to take that commercial risk. We need to encourage that kind of investment."

(Jeremy Hunt, of rhyming slang fame)

STS Bulletin no.33

"... leave no stone unturned"

means

"What do we do next, Mr. Murdoch?"

Egyptian Activists' Action Plan

Read and digest. Tiocfaidh ár lá.


(From posting by 'vza' on Very Angry Arab)

"There are some dark forces at work here." (Richard Keys)
Yes, Mr. Keys, and they were at work all the time you were on Murdoch's payroll.
I feel no sympathy for Keys or Gray, or Sheridan. But now all Murdoch minions now know; the film is there, the tapes are there. Go up against the Murdoch clan, upset their plans, and they will be released.

Listening to the radio this morning - Woman's Hour in fact - I heard an interview with Scotland's newly appointed Makar, Ms. Liz Lochead. The interviewer, Jenni Murray, pronounced the title 'maakar', but I've always thought that it was pronounced 'maker'. Looking in dictionaries, standard and dialect, I find that I've been wrong all these years. Unless (clutching at straws) my longstanding pronunciation can be found in some version of the Scots tongue.
One of the great Scottish poems is William Dunbar's "Lament for the Makaris" with its repeated doom-laden line, "Timor mortis conturbat me". It seems to hark back to Villon's Ballades " ... du temps jadis".
I think I recall reading a poem by Seán O'Brien modelled on Dunbar's Lament, though I can't remember who or what he was bemoaning.
Anyway, congratulations to Ms. Lochead, I was sort of hoping she might get the job - her or Tom Leonard.

"Foreign Secretary William Hague welcomed Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman at the start of his three-day visit to the UK." (via Antony Loewenstein)

They certainly kept that quiet. Avigdor "the Cossack" Lieberman, the ersatz-Jewish Judeo-Fascist and advocate of ethnic cleansing. I wonder if our war criminal hunters are on the case.

Talk is easy when you have no intention of following it up with action. Mr Burt is not about to transform himself into a man of action for peace. Why not? Because he's an Israel lobby stooge. He used to be (and maybe still is, for all I know) an officer of that infamous bunch of Israel-firsters, the Conservative Friends of Israel.
The Foreign Office is stuffed with them, all appointed by our new prime minister, David "I’m-a-Zionist" Cameron. This misguided individual is famously quoted on the Friends of Israel website as saying: "The friendship ... will deepen, because the ties between this party and Israel are unbreakable. And in me, you have a prime minister whose belief in Israel is indestructible."

Mr. Burt is Alistair, minister at the Foreign Office. He is also, according to the article, one those snake-juggling, glossolalic 'Christians' who pray for a big bust-up in the Middle East to fulfil the prophecy of some nutter (or dope-fiend?) of the First Century CE. Then old Jerusalem Slim will gather up his chosen ones, including Alistair and Pastor Terry Jones, and swag them off to Paradise.
Just the kind of person we need to get involved in Middle East affairs.

The former British ambassador to Iran, Sir Richard Dalton, told the inquiry in little noticed but fascinating testimony that Blair's claims were all "very much exaggerated". He warned that Blair was seeking "to cast a retrospectively benign light on a series of very bad decisions" and, by justifying what was done in Iraq in the past, to open the door to an attack on Iran in future.
Worth watching in Blair’s continues to be his tirades against Iran, misrepresenting the country and its leaders as an imminent threat in much the same way as he spoke of Iraq in the lead-up to the invasion. Sir Richard told the inquiry that he felt that "a military adventure against Iran" would be as illegal and unjustified as the one launched against Iraq.

(Patrick Cockburn)

What a farce. Another platform for Blair to spout his neo-con certainties of hate and bang the drum for war on Iran. In the first 90 seconds Blair had conflated Saddam Hussein and 9/11 and called for action - plainly meaning military action - against Iran. Meanwhile the establishment patsies look concerned and dance around small points, to give an air of spurious credibility to their pre-determined exoneration.

(Craig Murray)

The "straight kinda guy" - as the saying goes, if he swallowed a nail he'd shit a corkscrew. Still, he has now decided that he's deeply sorry for the million plus dead of his illegal war. Well it was the right thing to say at the time, whether he meant it or not.

http://www.uruknet.info/

Finally got it.

Andy Coulson has resigned because he couldn't give the job 110 percent. Well, he was never going to hit that target.

Michèle Alliot-Marie, the French Foreign Minister, has demanded the release of the Israeli soldier and prisoner of war, Gilad Shalit, who was captured on Palestinian territory during an incursion by Israeli forces. Shalit, who Alliot-Marie describes as a French citizen, has been held a prisoner since 2006.
Alliot-Marie has not yet mentioned the French citizen, non-combatant, and hostage of the Israelis, Salah Hamouri. Salah has been held by the Israelis since 2005.
Let us hope that Alliot-Marie is not guilty of double standards. She needs some good publicity after being caught offering the Tunisian dictator, Ben Ali, French troops to put down popular protests.

An interview with my son (private joke).

Will the traditional political parties, be they the PPP or the Moslem League (PML-N) of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, the principal opposition group, know how to take their turn in attacking fundamentalism, and to set themselves up as a viable alternative to the extremists? The Pakistan press asked itself this yesterday, as the coalition government of Yousuf Raza Gilani broke up into pieces, smitten by the demands of the IMF. Exploiting the humanitarian disaster caused by the terrible floods this summer, the IMF refused to transfer to Pakistan the funds promised in 2008 in the form of a loan, as long as Islamabad has not applied the financial restrictions imposed by the IMF, which would even further reduce the earnings of the poorest people. In the meanwhile, even before the storms, one in four Pakistani, or about 45 million people, suffered from malnutrition.
...
The beginning of last summer, Islamabad was supposed to receive 1.3 billion dollars, part of a total loan of 11.3 billion. The IMF delayed the date of transfer, letting topple the Pakistan economy already heavily affected, notably by the cost of food, and of cotton, vital for the textile industry, an important source of export revenue.

(Trapped Between US Drones and the Dictates of the IMF)

"The new global order has condemned people to death. They don't care if people live or die."
(Joseph Stiglitz, former Chief Economist to the World Bank)

NEW YORK, NY –On this the 25th anniversary of Dr. King’s holiday, baristas at the Astor Place Starbucks in Manhattan declared their membership in the 105 year old union the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a staunch and outspoken defender of workers’ rights including the right to a living wage and the right to join a labor union.
The baristas represent the latest group of workers at the coffee giant to join the ongoing struggle for a living wage, more consistent scheduling, more affordable health insurance, and to be treated with basic respect and dignity by management. “I am proud to join the growing ranks of retail workers organizing together in the largest and least organized sector of our economy and at a company that has created thousands of low-wage jobs,” expressed Astor Place barista Zelig Stern. In the last year, baristas in Omaha, Nebraska and Ft. Worth, Texas have also joined the IWW Starbucks Workers Union (SWU), showing that workers’ concerns with the company are far-reaching.
“We would just like to be treated like human beings and not machines,” said union barista and Astor Place employee Cason Bolton, Jr. in reference to Starbucks’ latest initiative toward mimicking the factory assembly-line, the “Beverage Repeatable Routine.”
Today the workers delivered a collectively written demand letter to the management of the Astor Place Starbucks. Their demands included a one dollar per an hour raise across the board for all store employees. While the company’s total net revenue for FY 2010 increased by 9.5% to $10.7 billion, according to the company’s Financial Report for Nov. 4, 2010, many of the retail location employees aren’t able to make ends meet with their low Starbucks wages and are forced to live below the poverty line, many requiring public assistance.

Monday was Martin Luther King Day. This year, for the first time, the pedlar of inferior coffee paid its 'baristas' at overtime rate for working on the public holiday. This long delayed concession was forced out of the anti-union monster by the Starbucks Union, IWW. No doubt the backlash is coming, and some of these Astor Place workers will be getting the boot, ostensibly for reasons other than union membership. Later they will be reinstated and compensation paid. This game has been going on for some years now. Presumably the compensation payouts amount to less than payment of fair wages an organised workforce would obtain.

The state of play
Andy Coulson knew nothing about phone tapping by News of the World journalists.
Lance Armstrong never took performance enhancing drugs.

In Coulson's case it turns out that he, the editor, was the only person in the building who didn't know what was going on. Incompetent or what?
Now the police are going to have to find another excuse for not investigating the Murdoch Mafia.

"Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, today pledged to make public the confidential tax details of 2,000 wealthy and prominent individuals, after being passed the data by a Swiss banker who claims the information potentially reveals instances of money-laundering and large-scale illegal tax evasion."

Now he really is in danger of assassination.

One thing I don't understand about the Assange case; the UK has agreed to hand over to the Yanks anyone they want, no questions asked. It's supposed to be about extraditing terrorists, but the Blair and Brown governments couldn't wait to turn any poor sod over; fraudsters, hackers, dognappers. So why is it going to be easier for the Yanks to swag Assange off from Sweden?
Another question; is it legal to extradite someone to a country in which he/she might suffer the death penalty for their alleged offense. I wouldn't have thought that an EU member nation could do that.

Fifty years ago today US President Eisenhower warned his people of the burgeoning power of the "military industrial complex".
A famous speech, a timely warning - but did it do any good? Did it balls! Actions speak louder than words, but money speaks loudest of all.

"Meanwhile, a congressional watchdog group found in 2008, over 150 Members of Congress had $196 million collectively invested in defense contractors."

... not to mention Secretary of State Clinton, Senators John Kerry and Joe Lieberman.

While trying to access www.uruknet.info (can't be done) I came across this logo which took my fancy. The source was http://desertpeace.wordpress.com/

Make your own book bloc shield.

A gap in the market; I bet some firm is already planning to make superior versions of the shields, featuring the works of Milton Friedmann, Clive James, and the best-selling author Katie Price.

FBI figures show between 2002 and 2005 there were 24 acts of terrorism recorded in the US; 23 of those incidents were carried out by non-Muslim,"domestic terrorists".
The picture is not dissimilar on this side of the Atlantic. The EU's little-noticed Terrorism Situation and Trend Report revealed that in 2009 there were "294 failed, foiled, or successfully executed attacks" in six European countries. The vast majority of these attacks – 237 – were carried out by separatist groups, such as the Basque Eta.
A further 40 terrorist incidents were by leftwing and anarchist groups, while rightwing terrorists were held responsible for four of the attacks. How many attacks were classed as having been committed by Islamists? Just one. That is the same number of attacks as committed by the CAV (Comité d'action viticole), a French group that campaigns against the import of foreign wine. In 2008, again according to EU figures, there were no attacks by Islamists at all. In 2007, there were four Islamist attacks out of 583.

Mehdi Hasan asks why Jared Loughner is a 'loner' and not a terrorist.
Jared is an all-American boy, if he doesn't like something he shoots it. That's why some Americans are calling him a hero.

David Chaytor has been weighed off and is probably doing his time in that prison for posh people in the Home Counties. Eric Illsley has plead (pleaded?) guilty and will be joining him.
What puzzles me; how is it decided which of the fraudsters will be tried? Surely the majority of MPs in the last parliament had their hands in our collective pocket. Is the Met. going to charge them all, one or two at a time? Or are they cutting cards, low card gets charged? I don't see a pattern yet, apart from there being a dearth of Conservative fraudsters in the frame.
If I remember correctly (not guaranteed) Mr. Cameron got an early warning from the Torygraph, and was able to pay back his dodgy expenses before they let the dogs out.
Anyway, if we add up all the monies involved in current cases they look pathetic when compared to the £1.5 million that 'Smirks' Osborne has has managed to place beyond the reach of the taxman.

(Image lifted from the 38 degrees website [link below]. Remiss of me not to acknowledge.)

A US military historian (and ex-air force officer) writes -

Let’s start with the fighting part of the equation. Are we truly the world’s greatest fighting force, not only at this moment, but as measured against all militaries across history? If so, on what basis is this claim made? And what does such triumphalist rhetoric suggest not just about our national narcissism, but Washington’s priorities? Consider that no leading U.S. politician thinks to boast that we have the finest educational system or health-care system or environmental policies “that the world has ever known.”

But this claim seems to be universal. How often do we hear mealy-mouthed British politicians claims that WE have the best fighting forces in the world? How do they know? How do they measure? They don't. They just open their mouths and flannel. I'm betting that the Turks give out with the same polish; and the mad dog Israelis (in spite of Hizbullah). Maybe every country with a standing army puffs up its soldiery with such hyperbole. Or maybe its just the nations addicted to invading other sovereign territories.

"We are all in this together" (David 'Dave'Cameron, PC.)

"In a cartoon, at a time when some government or other was pleading with us to tighten our belts or go to war, or both, an overseer stood over a shipful of galley-slaves with a whip in his hand urging them on with 'We're all in the same boat'."
(Michael Rosen, 2007)

I read that the fiction called Shameless is to return to our television screens for another series. It seems that the middle classes can't get enough of this distorted representation of the post-Thatcher proletariat. All prejudices confirmed by the jumped-up council estate escapee, Abbot (I forget his first name). If you want to join the middle class you must be prepared to denigrate your own people, your own background; ask Tony Parsons.
You know, we council estate dwellers, 'chavs' to the home-owning, expense account ratpack, cannot string a sentence together without throwing in a couple of "fucks". Plenty of strong language, some violence, and lots of petty crime, and there's your authentic working class, served up for the titillation of the petty (oh so petty!) bourgeoisie.

A propos Shameless, I note that Milord Prescott is pimping for some insurance company. He will no doubt be well recompensed for exposing himself to further ridicule and to accusations of unbridled greed.
A neighbour informs me that, during last month's bad weather, when some estates were left without public transport, and all of us were without waste disposal services, Lord Prescott had his bins emptied regularly, and had council employees on standby to clear snow from his driveway. Can it be true? Would our Conservative, sorry Lib-Dem, council pander to the overfed boor? Who can say?

Despite the Guardian’s international reputation as the Western newspaper most savagely critical of Israel’s actions, I quickly realised that there were, in fact, very clear, and highly unusual, limitations on what could be written about Israel.
Consider the following examples. One is an account I submitted based on my investigations of an apparent shoot-to-kill policy by the Israeli police against its own Palestinian citizens at the start of the second intifada. The article was sat on for months by the paper. Finally, after I made repeated queries, I was informed by the features editor that the article could not be used because it was no longer “fresh”.
...
I believe that the popular mood in Britain has turned rapidly against Israel over the past decade. Israel appears to have been initially fearful that the BBC might reflect such sentiments. But after considerable secretive pressure from the Israeli foreign ministry and its lobbyists, the BBC has moved in precisely the opposite direction.
...
Philo related a discussion he had with senior producers on television news, including the BBC, one of whom said to him candidly:
"We wait in fear for the telephone call from the Israelis.”

(Journalist Jonathan Cook, at Medialens)

"I should know better but I can't say no"
'Night Owl' is my favourite Gerry Rafferty song; while from the Stealer's Wheel songbook it's 'Star'.

In my younger, nomadic days it seemed that every big English town had its quota of young fellows down from Glasgow and environs; chancers, neds, wee bauchles, tough nuts and hard tickets. On the lookout for the main chance, for a 'brek', 'screwin' the heid'. Some were on the fiddle, some on the rob, and some on the beg. You'd meet them around the social security where you could read their slogans on the walls, "Tongs ya bass', 'Drummy'. Or outside the bookies waiting for a fellow-Jock to have a big winner and take them for a bevvy.
Whatever their chosen field of endeavour they were mostly broke and of no fixed abode. 'Doing a skipper', 'dossing in derries', the chosen way of life must have taken its toll. Life expectancy in Glasgow is pretty low, but for those exiles it must have been short and not at all sweet, unless they lucked into an entry into the settled community, or gave up the struggle and returned home.
Maybe some sociologist made a study of this particular sub-culture and a version of their story lies in some university library. If not it's probably too late now.
The reason for this peek into the past is that every time I hear Gerry R's 'Baker Street' the 'Glesca Boys' come to mind.

Light in your head and dead on your feet
...
This city desert makes you feel so cold
It's got so many people but it's got no soul
And it's taken you so long to find out you were wrong
When you thought it had everything
...
You used to think that it was so easy
But you're tryin', you're tryin' now
...
But you know he'll always keep movin'
You know he's never gonna stop movin'
'Cause he's rollin', he's a rollin' stone
...
The sun is shining, it's a new morning,
You're going, you're going home.

Gerry R. was a busker in London at one time, no doubt he knew whereof he wrote and sang. Perhaps this anthem is the only memorial of those Glaswegian émigrés.

Now Gerry Rafferty is gone. Requiescat in pace, as we 'wine-grapes' used to say.

The fifteen films thing of last week was good for me. I'm always trying to make lists but never manage to finish one. Naming fifteen films in fifteen minutes was good discipline; no pressure to produce a perfect list, just a list of films that came to mind. As I expected I missed out one film that would be compulsory on my list of personal favourites - The Seven Samurai. Only one, not bad for me.
Anyway it got me to review a list of favourites I've been trying to put together for months, almost a year. I thought up a few more, making fifty, if I've counted correctly. I suppose it's unfinished and is open to amendment, but I feel I've achieved something getting it this far. There are a few odds and sods tacked on, documentaries, etc.
Umberto Eco wrote an article entitled, "We make lists because we don't want to die". Maybe so - I like reading lists, God knows why. Here's one from a Paul Mann (Paragraph 1).

Now, my films; the first six are the cream of the crop, the rest come in no particular order -

The Battle of Algiers (Gillo Pontecorvo)
Sunset Boulevard (Billy Wilder)
Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa)
I Soliti Ignoti (Mario Monicelli)
The 400 Blows (François Truffaut)
Matewan (John Sayles)
Shadows of Our Forgotten Ancestors (Sergei Paradjanov)
Battleship Potemkin (Sergei Eisenstein)
Raging Bull (Martin Scorsese)
The Sweet Smell of Success (Alexander Mackendrick)
The Leopard (Luchino Visconti)
Citizen Kane (Orson Welles)
Confidential Report (Orson Welles
Deuxième Souffle (Jean-Pierre Melville)
Los Olvidados (Luís Buñuel)
Hue and Cry (Charles Crichton)
The Third Man (Carol Reed)
The Organiser (I Compagni) (Mario Monicelli)
Breathless (À Bout de Souffle) Jean-Luc Godard)
Kagemusha (Akira Kurosawa)
Paths of Glory (Stanley Kubrick)
The Godfather, Part II (Francis Ford Coppola)
Dr. Strangelove (Stanley Kubrick)
The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (Werner Herzog)
Barry Lyndon (Stanley Kubrick)
The Big Lebowski (Joel Coen)
His Kind of Woman (John Farrow (and ?)
Pulp (Mike Hodges)
Night on Earth (Jim Jarmusch)
Badlands (Terence Mallick)
Pickpocket (Robert Bresson)
M. Hulot's Holiday (Jacques Tati)
Medium Cool (Haskell Wexler)
Zéro de Conduite (Jean Vigo)
Morgan, a Suitable Case for Treatment (Tony Richardson)
War and Peace (Sergei Bondarchuk)
Mystery Train (Jim Jarmusch)
Beat the Devil (John Huston)
The Dead (John Huston)
Nazarín (Luís Buñuel)
Bande à part (Jean-Luc Godard)
Salvatore Giuliano (Francesco Rosi)
Waterloo (Sergei Bondarchuk)
The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola)
Danton (Andrzej Wajda)
Buffalo Bill and the Indians (Robert Altman)
The Wedding Party (Robert Altman)
Judex (Georges Franju)
Distant Voices, Still Lives (Terence Davies)
The Cradle Will Rock (Tim Robbins)

Plus some that I find interesting, but have doubts about -
Sait-on Jamais? (Roger Vadim)
(A portent of the Nouvelle Vague?)
La Notte Brava Mauro Bolognani)
(The leading characters resembled people I knew at the time)
Shoot the Pianist (François Truffaut)
(Interesting? Yes - worthy? Not sure.)

Some Documentaries -
The Man of Aran (Robert Flaherty)
(Real people in their real environment, but OK, some phoney stuff.)
On the Bowery
(What an eye-opener.)
Le Mystère Picasso (Georges Clouzot)
Jazz on a Summer Day (Bert Stern)
(Beautiful film)
A Great Day in Harlem (Jean Bach)

Films I haven't seen but need to see -
The Saragossa Manuscript (Wojciech Has)
Queimada (Gillo Pontecorvo)
La Tête Contre les Murs (Georges Franju)

Another of the many reasons to bring this monster down -

Yara explained that the chairman of Starbucks, Howard Shultz, is an active Zionist. She added that Shultz made a provocative speech blaming the Palestinians of "terrorism" and suggesting the Intifada as a manifestation of anti-Semitism.
She said: "I still can't understand how the Arabs can buy from a Murderer". Yara noted that Shultz announced after the recent "Israeli" attack on Lebanon, that Starbucks will increase the percentage of money donated to "Israel" by 12% to reach ... 1.5$ Billion annually.

We have lost Pete Postlethwaite, an actor with a great heart; also Pete Postlethwaite the activist -
"In 2003 he marched against the war in Iraq and was a vocal supporter of the Make Poverty History campaign." (from today's Guardian).

My old lady would have called him "one of ours"; Northern, Working Class, Catholic, a bit of a rebel.

Goodbye, Mr. Kobayashi.

"Earlier this year British Telecom (BT) welcomed Bezeq International, the main provider of telecommunication services to the illegal Israeli settlements, into its Global Alliance.
"BT claims to conduct its business according to high ethical standards and corporate social responsibility."
...
"BT will profit from the occupation.
"A company used by so many of us has no business entering into a partnership with a company like Bezeq that has no regard for the rights of Palestinian people."

(Hugh Lanning, Morning Star, 30.12.10)

Others able to live with the occasional massacre -

Gogol Bordello, apt name for a parcel of whores

Johnny Depp, apt name for a politically thick twat (do I mean naïf?).

Tonight I drink to "honest men and sonsie lassies", and reflect on my patrilineage.
Here are some verdicts on the Scottish character which I've picked up over the years -

Scotus est, piper in naso.
(He is a Scot, pepper in the nose). A medieval warning from continental Europe, where the Scots had a reputation for violent reaction to a word out of turn. In the Middle Ages the term 'Scot' might have identified an Irish person too, but would those continentals have recognised a difference? The Irish didn't appear to: "The Kings of Scotia Minor all trace their blood to our Scotia Major and retain to some degree our language and customs." Thus the Irish king Domhnall Ó Néill to Pope John XXII.
My Old Lady firmly believed that the Scots were really Irish who took a wrong turn at the Reformation.

Fier comme un Ecossais.
(Proud as a Scot) a French simile. I don't know what the Scots had done to the French. Did those Gardes écossais pull rank on their hosts? Was it know-alls like the 'Admirable Crichton' and Thomas Dempster getting up their noses?

... qu'on n'irritast les Ecossois, sachant bien que les Ecossois estaient pauvres mais gens vaillants.
(Loose translation, "Don't upset the Jocks, they're hard as well as hard-up"). A warning from the German Emperor Charles V (1500-58).

Les Ecossais sont bons philosophes.
Joseph Scaliger (1540-1609). Scaliger was a French Protestant, so he may have regarded Scottish thinkers as allies against popery.

Every Scottishman has a pedigree. It is a national prerogative as unalienable as his pride and his poverty.
Sir Walter Scott, a minor novelist.

It is never difficult to tell the difference between a Scotsman with a grievance and a ray of sunshine.
Stereotyping courtesy of P.G.Wodehouse, "English Literature's performing flea".

Sandy is our national figure - a shy, subtle, disgruntled idiosyncratic individual - very different from John Bull.
Stereotyping courtesy of Hugh MacDiarmid, a disgruntled, idiosyncratic individual.

The Scots, like the Spaniards and the Rajputs, are a race of noblemen.
Sir Thomas Innes of Learney, who held the office of Lord Lyon King of Arms from 1945 to 1969. He was an old reactionary, but he wouldn't let the English heralds ignore Scotland's sovereignty, or her ancient customs.
The basis of his claim (I think) is that all Scottish chiefs and heidsmen are noble, in the continental sense; and all clansmen, being cadets therefore of noble houses, can lay claim to familial noblesse. A bit of a stretch, but a nose-thumbing at the English fiction that there is no possibility of a shared ancestry between the gentry and the commonalty.

Wha's like us, eh?
Rab C. Nesbitt, trying to explain away some drunken escapade as Scottish eccentricity.

For those of us who divide up our existence by means of the Gregorian Calendar a new year approaches. So I wish any Gregorian passing this way a good and happy New Year.
I speculated last New Year's Day on the likelihood of surviving to the end of the year. I need to hang on for another 27 hours and some minutes to succeed. I grit my teeth.

An explanation of the following list can be found at Lansbury's Lido.

The Battle of Algiers
The Big Lebowski
The Four Hundred Blows
His Kind of Woman
Raging Bull
Hue and Cry
I Soliti Ignoti*
Dr. Strangelove
Confidential Report
Paths of Glory
Mystery Train
Night on Earth
Sunset Boulevard
Godfather 2
M.Hulot's Holiday

I could go on but I've reached the limit.

*Various daft English titles, e.g., "Big Deal on Madonna Street". Hollywood has twice attemted to remake this capolavoro. The Louis Malle version (LOUIS MALLE!) was dire; name of "Crackers", to be avoided at all costs. The second attempt, "Welcome to Collingwood" was better, but the devotees gave it the thumbs-down.

It is now clear that David Cameron systematically lied to the electorate. He said it was "sick" and "frankly disgusting" to say he would end the NHS guarantee for cancer patients to be seen within two weeks – and then scrapped NHS guarantees, so that the number of patients waiting months before their cancer is detected has doubled. He said hospitals were "my No 1 priority" to be "totally protected" – and then slashed 20 per cent from the budget of specialist hospitals across the country. He said he would "protect the poor" from cuts – and then slashed the income of each poor family by £1,000 and began forcing hundreds of thousands from their homes.

(Johann Hari, The Independent, 24.12.10)
Or we could have had a Labour Government, and be listing their betrayals. Whoever you vote for you get the Global Capitalism Party. Time we weened ourselves off our masochistic addiction to pseudo-democracy.

A pretty depressing holiday so far, but this made me laugh -
O Fortuna as Oh Four Tuna

The original lyrics (more in accord with my present mood) are here.

This photograph was sent to me by my friend Katriina Etholén of Porvoo, Finland. I think it adds a seasonal touch to these doom-laden pages.
I also share Katriina's Christmas and New Year greeting -
"Hyvää Joulua ja Onnellista Uutta Vuotta"

Mr. Julian Assange is the French daily Le Monde's Man of the Year, but not Time Magazine's Person of the Year.

Newsreaders and commentators always pronounce the name Assange as if it is French, but I can find no evidence of it as a French surname. I wonder what is its origin.

What Ed Davey said: "Their housing benefit cuts are going to mean in my view, if they go through, that some people who are on the breadline will be put below the breadline. And that's just deeply unacceptable."

What he didn't say: "I'm not resigning though. The money's good, and people without principles can't resign on a principle."

"And I don't know if you have been following what has been happening with the Murdoch press, where I have declared war on Mr Murdoch and I think we are going to win."

(Vince Feeble)

Well, you can tell outrageous lies like the above if you are talking to genuine constituents. It makes you look big, and you can always say later that the thick ballot fodder got your words wrong. But when you are talking to journalists who are recording your words then you're in the midden.
No British government will take on the Master of the Universe. When he set out to take over Sky everybody was watching to see what the Tory-Tory coalition would do. Vince and crew could not be seen to nod it through, though the outcome was inevitable. It seems that merely pretending to oppose Murdoch's fiendish plans is anathema. The responsibility for handing Sky to the Dirty Digger has been passed to one Jeremy Hunt, whose name recently entered the rhyming slang dictionary.
Having offended His Satanic Majesty, Vince is on borrowed time. He should last out till after the Christmas recess, but Murdoch will have his head on a plate, and another post-liberal sellout will take his place.
Entrapment? Certainly, but no sympathy for the turncoat who raised tuition fees; who masterminded the overthrow of Charles Kennedy and cleared the way for Clegg.

" ... it's nice not to be cut off in an interview. The way I was going to expand on that point is quite simply to say, as with the Palestinian conflict, the BBC tried to portray the apartheid state of Israel, who are the oppressor and the perpetrator of violence, as the victim of violence, and the Palestinians, who are the oppressed people, in this conflict, as the perpetrator of violence. This is what they are now trying to do with the student demonstrators, to such an extent that they are prepared for eight minutes live on national television to try and suggest that a person with cerebral palsy in a wheelchair brought on himself assault from a member of the Metropolitan Police. They have this time gone so far down the road of insanity that I don't think they have a shred of credibility left as a news broadcaster. But I think the point that I'm also trying to make is that this should not be a surprise to us. That interviewer's line of questioning I don't think should be a shock to anyone, that is standard BBC tactics. They are the state media in this country. Why are we so easy to condemn state media in other countries but somehow expect to describe our own state media as impartial. It's so hypocritical that it makes me feel sick.

(Jody McIntyre)

Ben Brown, your OBE is in the post; some consolation for demonstrating to the world that you are a prick.

I never wound up my recent poetry season, mainly by reason of being increasingly forgetful.
Today I went to pay my respects to a recently deceased friend, comrade in struggle, and drinking crony. His political inclinations were mainly to the achievement of a thirty-two county Workers' Republic of Ireland, by peaceful means of course.
He was steeped in Irish culture, and not averse to a poem or two, though words set to music took precedent. In his memory I post a poem by John Philpot Curran (1750-1815) entitled

THE DESERTER'S MEDITATION

If sadly thinking, with spirits sinking,
Could more than drinking my cares compose,
A cure for sorrow from sighs I'd borrow
And hope tomorrow would end my woes.
But as in wailing there's nought availing
And Death unfailing will strike the blow
Then for that reason, and for a season,
Let us be merry before we go.

To joy a stranger, a way-worn ranger,
In every danger my course I've run;
Now hope all ending, and death befriending,
His last aid lending, my cares are done.
No more a rover, or hapless lover,
My griefs are over - my glass runs low;
Then for that reason, and for a season,
Let us be merry before we go.

Tony Blair's company 'to make £27m advising Kuwait on how to govern itself'
(Headline in the 'Daily Hate Mail')

Tone's rule no.1 "Lie, lie, lie."
Tone's rule no.2 "Prepare to eat copious amounts of American faeces."

"Julian Assange is not a criminal under the laws of the United States. I was the first one prosecuted for the charges that would be brought against him. I was the first person ever prosecuted for a leak in this country—although there had been a lot of leaks before me. That’s because the First Amendment kept us from having an Official Secrets Act. . . . The founding of this country was based on the principle that the government should not have a say as to what we hear, what we think, and what we read."
. . .
"If Bradley Manning did what he’s accused of, then he’s a hero if mine and I think he did a great service to this country. We’re not in the mess we’re in, in the world, because of too many leaks. . . . I say there should be some secrets. But I also say we invaded Iraq illegally because of a lack of a Bradley Manning at that time."
(Daniel Ellsberg, of the Pentagon Papers)

Well, well!
I have complained a couple of times about some of our citizens' obsession with the poet and misanthrope, Philip Larkin. This has gone to the absurd length of erecting a statue of this son of Coventry in the centre of town.
Now, it seems, a local lass named Ruth Halkon has been perusing a sheaf of letters from Larkin to one of his doxies. In this collection he describes us inhabitants of Hull as "filthy low class swine" who live in the "gaunt streets" of a town that "smells of fish" and is a "dreary dump/East Riding's dirty rump".
Now why wouldn't we erect a statue to this admirer of ours?
Ms. Halkon suggests that the old fascist's problem was not Hull, "but his own shameless indulgence in self-pity."

Richard Holbrooke, diplomat, arms dealer, and friend of Afghan drug lords.

Captain Ska, 'Liar, Liar'

Will it be the Christmas no.1 single? It must be better than anything the 'Karaoke Sauron' (© Marina Hyde) is peddling.

From the current issue of 'Private Eye' -

THOSE WHOSE LIVES WIKILEAKS HAVE PUT AT RISK

Julian Assange

Er...

That's it.

Phone hacking: Andy Coulson will not be charged says DPP
(Guardian headline)

Kettle them
Baton them
Dragoon them
RADICALISE THEM.

The self-styled 'children of Thatcher' have wasted no time in bringing Thatcher-style confrontation back to the streets. They must have been longing for the good old days of cracked skulls and bloodied heads. Wrestling kids to the ground and kneeling on them, softer targets than miners.
Soon 'Broken Britain' will be fragmented Britain and we'll be forced to listen to endless tirades about 'thuggery'. The BBC will keep its cameras on the fallen coppers, and the evidence of police thuggery will filter out via the internet.
Yesterday the police acted with "commendable restraint", according to the police.

I was consoling myself with the thought that twenty percent of the ruling class's barmy army will find themselves on the dole soon. But obviously they will be recruited into private militias hired to do the same job of making our streets unsafe for kids and the elderly. Still they'll be doing the same dirty work for shit wages, lousy conditions and no job security.

"Off with their heads!" How quaint.