Round Up

Morning.

So Bush made another speech on Tuesday. It was supposed to be about Iraq; the mess he's got himself (and the rest of us) into and many hoped he would outline an exit strategy. Oddest thing happened though. He mentioned 9/11 five times. Surely there are as yet undiscovered tribes of people living in the Amazon rain forest who know that Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with 9/11. That's right isn't it? But Bush trotted out the old lie. Astonishing arrogance. And it no doubt went down a storm with the mouth breathing Republicans. Luckily, there seems to be much more of a backlash elsewhere.

The Guardian report that leading Democrats yesterday reacted angrily to President George Bush's address to the nation, accusing him of "exploiting the sacred ground" of September 11 by attempting to link the Iraq war with the terrorist attacks.

On CNN, their anchor Carol Costello challenged Republican Robin Hayes when he repeated the same tired lie.

Carol Costello: President Bush said in his speech, "We're there to fight terrorists." But he failed to explain how a war to remove a dictator bent on using nuclear weapons has turned into a fight against Muslim militants. Doesn't he owe us an explanation?

Rep. Robin Hayes: He gave us a very good explanation of what the war's about. It's winning the war against terror and people who would kill us, innocent woman and children. This is about a military action against ruthless, brutal killers who have no conscience whatsoever about destroying us.

Costello: We understand that, but that's not what it started out [as], when the United States invaded Iraq. It's changed, hasn't it?

Hayes: I don't think it's changed at all. It's very clear that terrorists are connected to what Saddam Hussein was all about. That again faces us as the most severe threat going forward.

Costello: But there is no evidence that Saddam Hussein was connected, in any way, to al Qaeda.

Hayes: Ma'am, I'm sorry but you're mistaken. There is evidence everywhere. We get access to it. Unfortunately, others don't. But the evidence is very clear.

Costello: What evidence is there?

Hayes: The connection between individuals who are connected to Saddam Hussein, folks who worked for him. We've seen it time and time again. But the issue is, where are we now? Nobody disputes 9/11. They would do that again, if not prevented. Preventing 9/11 wherever it might happen in America, winning the war overseas, not bringing it here to our shores is the issue in that regard.

Costello: Are you saying that Saddam Hussein had something to do with 9/11?

Hayes: I'm saying that Saddam Hussein -- and I think you're losing track of what we are talking about here -- Saddam Hussein and people like him were very much involved in 9/11. Did he make a phone call [trail off] ...

Costello: There's no evidence of that.

Hayes: I'm sorry you haven't looked in the right places.

Costello: I must not have. Because I know of no evidence connecting Saddam Hussein to Osama bin Laden or al Qaeda ...

It's a shame Fox News don't exercise the same standards as this transcript shows. Charles Rangel is 'debating' Iraq with Sean Hannity.

RANGEL: He already intended to knock off Saddam Hussein before 9/11, all of the people that worked in the cabinet....

HANNITY: Is that what you believe? Wait do you believe that?

RANGEL: Do you know about the Project Of A New American Century?

HANNITY: Do you believe that?

RANGEL: There's no question.

HANNITY: Wow....wow....wow. That's a conspiracy theory.

HANNITY: Hey Congressman Rangel, we'd like to thank you for the conspiracy theory portion of the show.

RANGEL: Conspiracy is what you said, I'm saying the president wanted to knock off Saddam Hussein before 9/11.

HANNITY: Alright we appreciate it, next time we'll get some evidence.

Note the fair and balanced ending there. Rangel makes a hugely valid and proven point about the invasion being planned prior to 9/11 and is then cut off to prevent any off message content polluting the Fox airwaves.

Finally, French Blogger Pascal Riché has condensed Mr Bush's speech to reveal the key points.

“Global war on terror, September the 11th, 2001, terrorists, terrorists , totalitarian ideology , freedom, tyranny, oppression, terror, kill, terrorists, September the 11th, freedom, enemy , war, terrorists, kill, murderous ideology , terrorism, terrorists, free nation, war on terror, freedom, violence and instability, dangerous, violence, bloodshed, violence, sacrifice , war on terror, violence, killers, freedom, criminal elements, hateful ideology, freedom, liberty, democracy, terrorists, war on terror, terrorists, Osama Bin Laden, murder and destruction, enemy, terrorists, car bombs, enemy, terrorists, suicide bomber, enemy, terrorists, violence, terrorists, terrorists, terrorists , freedom, enemies, September the 11th, Bin Laden, enemy , free, tyranny, terrorists, anti-terrorist, free, al Qaeda, free nation, terrorists, terrorists, enemy security terrorists, anti-terrorist terrorists, terror, enemy, tyranny , enemies, freedom, freedom, ideologies of murder, atrocity, September the 11th 2001, car bombers and assassins, freedom, freedom, flying the flag, freedom, freedom, September the 11th 2001, enemies”

Hope that's made it clear.

The ID card legislation returned to the House fo Commons on Tuesday and the government's majority was cut from 67 to 31. It was expected that the rebellion would grow, but The Guardian reports this morning that the left wing Campaign group of MPs is offering a compromise to Bliar. What a bunch of spineless toads. The article quotes one ex minister as saying

Most critics are merely dubious about the cost (up to £19bn on some estimates), the technical feasibility and security, and the scope of the proposed database

What a load of crap. He appears to be saying that people are only worried about if they will work, how they will work, and what the cost might be. Is there much else to worry about?

Finally, recent Olsen hunters have come from

Network Of City Council Essen Germany
Banque Nationale de Paris
Community Hospitals, Indianapolis
Grace Maternity Hospital, Halifax, Canada x2
University Of South Carolina
Art Institute Of Chicago
Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands
Austrian School Network, Salzburg

Bushisms

Some pearls of wisdom from the leader of the free world.

25. "I know what I believe. I will continue to articulate what I believe and what I believe — I believe what I believe is right."
Rome, Italy, July 22, 2001

24. "We need to counter the shockwave of the evildoer by having individual rate cuts accelerated and by thinking about tax rebates."
Washington, D.C. Oct. 4, 2001

23. "People say, how can I help on this war against terror? How can I fight evil? You can do so by mentoring a child; by going into a shut-in's house and say I love you." Washington, D.C., Sept. 19, 2002

22. "I wish you'd have given me this written question ahead of time so I could plan for it…I'm sure something will pop into my head here in the midst of this press conference, with all the pressure of trying to come up with answer, but it hadn't yet….I don't want to sound like I have made no mistakes. I'm confident I have. I just
haven't — you just put me under the spot here, and maybe I'm not as quick on my feet as I should be in coming up with one."
after being asked to name the biggest mistake he had made, Washington, D.C., April 3, 2004

21. "The really rich people figure out how to dodge taxes anyway."
explaining why high taxes on the rich are a failed strategy, Annandale, Va., Aug. 9, 2004

20. "My plan reduces the national debt, and fast. So fast, in fact, that economists worry that we're going to run out of debt to retire."
radio address, Feb. 24, 2001

19. "You know, when I was one time campaigning in Chicago, a reporter said, 'Would you ever have a deficit?' I said, 'I can't imagine it, but there would be one if we had a war, or a national emergency, or a recession.' Never did I dream we'd get the trifecta."
Houston, Texas, June 14, 2002 (There is no evidence Bush ever made any such statement, despite recounting the trifecta line repeatedly in 2002. A search by the Washington Post revealed that the three caveats were brought up before the 2000 campaign — by Al Gore.)

18. "See, free nations are peaceful nations. Free nations don't attack each other. Free nations don't develop weapons of mass destruction."
Milwaukee, Wis., Oct. 3, 2003

17. "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."
State of the Union Address, Jan. 28, 2003, making a claim that administration officials knew at the time to be false

16. "In Iraq, no doubt about it, it's tough. It's hard work. It's incredibly hard."
repeating the phrases "hard work," "working hard," "hard choices," and other "hard"-based verbiage 22 times in his first debate with Sen. John Kerry

15. "The most important thing is for us to find Osama bin Laden. It is our number one priority and we will not rest until we find him."
Washington D.C., Sept. 13, 2001

14. "I don't know where bin Laden is. I have no idea and really don't care. It's not that important. It's not our priority."
Washington D.C., March 13, 2002

13. "But all in all, it's been a fabulous year for Laura and me."
summing up his first year in office, three months after the 9/11 attacks, Washington D.C., Dec. 20, 2001

12. "I try to go for longer runs, but it's tough around here at the White House on the outdoor track. It's sad that I can't run longer. It's one of the saddest things about the presidency."
interview with "Runners World," Aug. 2002

11. "Can we win? I don't think you can win it."
after being asked whether the war on terror was winnable, "Today" show interview, Aug. 30, 2004

10. "I just want you to know that, when we talk about war, we're really talking about peace."
Washington D.C. June 18, 2002

9. "I trust God speaks through me. Without that, I couldn't do my job."
to a group of Amish he met with privately, July 9, 2004

8. "Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed."
—speaking underneath a "Mission Accomplished" banner aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, May 1, 2003

7. "We found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological laboratories … And we'll find more weapons as time goes on. But for those who say we haven't found the banned manufacturing devices or banned weapons, they're wrong, we found them." —Washington D.C., May 30, 2003

6. "Those weapons of mass destruction have got to be somewhere!"
President George W. Bush, joking about his administration's failure to find WMDs in Iraq as he narrated a comic slideshow during the Radio & TV Correspondents' Association dinner, Washington D.C., March 24, 2004

5. "If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator."
Washington D.C., Dec. 19, 2000

4. "There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again."
Nashville, Tenn., Sept. 17, 2002

3. "Too many good docs are getting out of the business. Too many OB-GYNs aren't able to practice their love with women all across this country."
Poplar Bluff, Mo., Sept. 6, 2004

2. "Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."
Washington D.C., Aug. 5, 2004

1. "My answer is bring them on."
on Iraqi insurgents attacking U.S. forces, Washington, D.C., July 3, 2003

Start the week..

with a moan. Sorry.

Over the weekend the European Commission head Jose Manuel Barroso has been in South Africa making friends. He spoke out against the Robert Mugabe's urban clearance and criticised the African Union for not getting involved in a policy which is helping to bring Zimbabwe to its knees. He should also have criticised Tony Blair and George Bush. Once the WMD claims were proved to be lies, Bliar told us that Saddam had removed 200,000 marsh Arabs from their homes and that we needed to remove him on human rights grounds. Well, it is estimated by the UN that 275,000 people have been displaced by Mugabe and thousands have been beaten, imprisoned, starved or simply murdered. And the west has done nothing.

In fact Blair's government is about to return 100 Zimbabweans insisting that the country is safe. I don't think there are words to describe my contempt for the Home Office and the rest of the shower of hypocrites for taking the decision to condemn some of the disadvantaged people on the planet to a future of starvation and brutality. I hope they sleep at night.

ID update

Remember last year when Tony and David B started to tout the idea of ID cards? We were assured that the database would be 100% secure and secret. Well, guess what - he was lying. Our personal will be up for sale to the highest bidder and negotiations have already begun.

Ministers plan to sell your ID card details to raise cash

Personal details of all 44 million adults living in Britain could be sold to private companies as part of government attempts to arrest spiralling costs for the new national identity card scheme, set to get the go-ahead this week. The Independent on Sunday can today reveal that ministers have opened talks with private firms to pass on personal details of UK citizens for an initial cost of £750 each.

That's the price of your personal details and Blair's integrity. £750. Isn't he a hateful little man?

No fun here

UK government. Kill-joy bastards. Note there is no clear reason for the banning of 'shrooms, no evidence of any ills caused by them, no reason to ban them at all. Except the government's hatred of anyone having a good time. Christ this has made me angry. And it's 12 years since I've had mushroom. Bet your life I'll be getting some this week.

Last orders for magic mushroom enthusiasts

Mark Honigsbaum (additional dialogue by phylos)
Saturday June 25, 2005
The Guardian

Bad news for psychedelic fungi fans. There are just 24 more shopping days before magic mushrooms are declared illegal - and that's official.

Ignoring pleas from mushroom retailers and consumers, the government yesterday announced that clause 21 of the Drugs Act 2005, reclassifying psilocybe mushrooms as a class A drug alongside heroin and crack cocaine, will come into force on July 18. From that date, importation, possession or sale of magic mushrooms will be punishable by a life sentence, effectively outlawing sales via market stalls, head shops and the internet.

Laying the statutory instrument before parliament, the Home Office said the only exception would be for wild mushrooms, growing on uncultivated land. Landowners who are unaware they have a controlled substance, or who pick the mushrooms with the intention of delivering them to the police, will also be exempted.

Transform, the drug policy group which has been a vocal critic of clause 21, immediately condemned the Home Office's decision, saying the exemptions did little to clarify what it considered flawed legislation. "How is someone supposed to know what is uncultivated?" asked Transform's director, Danny Kushnick. "This has nothing to do with clarifying the law or goods drugs policy. It's simply about shutting down vendors who have been selling mushrooms."

The Entheogen Defence Fund, a group set up to protect the interests of mushroom retailers and consumers, said the announcement would make no difference to its campaign to have clause 21 overturned through judicial review. Declaring criminalisation of magic mushrooms a retrograde step, it predicted the reclassification would simply encourage more youngsters to try ecstasy, LSD, heroin and cocaine.

"The sale of 100,000 kilos of magic mushrooms per annum has had a big impact on the reduction of the illegal use of soft and hard drugs," said EDF's chairman, Mike Bashall. "Expect more crime and more deaths related to illegal drugs."

Backed by Dutch wholesalers, for whom the UK has become a lucrative export market for psychedelic fungi, the EDF has raised £10,000 to challenge the British legislation. It points out that in the Netherlands the sale of magic mushrooms is legal and says that clause 21 could be in breach of European Union law making it illegal to place restrictions on free trade except in specific circumstances, such as for the protection of health and life.

Caroline (no fun) Flint , the Home Office Minister Without Friends, who is know not to have smiled since 1978 and seems determined to bring the entire country down to her own stinkingly pathetic level of existence, spearheaded the legislation through parliament shortly before the general election, said mushrooms could trigger psychosis and there was evidence users could be at risk of self-harm. She added "I leave my house in the morning and see people smiling despite 7 years of lies and incompetence from the Labour government. These people are clearly taking drugs. I will not rest until every man, woman and child in the UK leads a life as empty and pointless as my own."

However, a Dutch study found no evidence to link magic mushrooms with psychosis and said that mushrooms did not lower users' violence threshold. Since consumption usually took place at home or in the open air, "there is no inconvenience to other people," it concluded.

Rant of the week

Not much time today. Mother phylos is in town and so I have to do the sight seeing routine, the shopping for tat and the eating/drinking of overpriced crap - the basics of a holiday in a UK tourist trap hell-hole.

I was probably only going to moan about the state of the world anyway. Les Visible will keep your ears warm.

Stop Being the Low Man on the Scrotum Pole

Okay, alright. Here’s a new piece. Sheesh, alright, to answer your question, I’m not here much because I’ve said it all and you’ve heard it all. Only a congenital idiot or a bottom feeding republican trough snorkeler doesn’t know that bush is a lying sack of shit; a coward, an incompetent bumbling empty suit, a two-dimensional cardboard cutout and one of the most inarticulate people to ever attempt to speak the English language. The insincerity drips off him like the urine from Paris Hilton’s last golden shower. You have to be an exceedingly dumb; mouth breathing, soap watching, non-soap using, bag of Jell-O fat quivering in front of Fox News watching between the big, edema soaked ankles of your sad potato chip eating, Coke-swilling, diabetic lounging on the couch like a helium filled slug, waiting to be carried by six sweating pall bearers to the grave- they shoulda used a forklift- kinda loser to believe anything that cheney, or rumsfield or rice or the neo-cons warmongers and lying bitch mainstream Medusa media has to say about anything at any time.

Continues...

Jobs for the boys

This has pissed me right of. If you or I got caught misbehaving or lying at work and were forced to resign, would we get any sort of payout? No we wouldn't. Would we then be re-employed by the same organisation? Unlikely. But if you're a member of the government different rules apply. People who resign from the government get a redundancy type payment regardless of the reason they are forced to leave. What a cozy little world they live in. Is it any wonder that so few of them really give a shit about you and I?

Blunkett got £18,000 payoff (and then came back)

By Marie Woolf, Chief Political Correspondent
24 June 2005

David Blunkett, who resigned as Home Secretary in December last year following a furore over the visa of his former lover's nanny, received a pay-off of more than £18,000, even though he returned to the Cabinet five months after quitting. The Government was accused last night of a "grotesque abuse" of taxpayers' money after it emerged that ministers who have resigned from their jobs - and then returned to government - had received thousands of pounds in compensation.

Alan Milburn, who has left the Cabinet twice, was due two official pay-offs. He was entitled to about £17,800 in redundancy cash, after he resigned as Health Secretary in 2003, and £18,700 after he resigned last month as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.

MPs called yesterday for reform of the ministerial redundancy payments, and said that members who returned to government should pay the money back. Norman Baker, the Liberal Democrat MP for Lewes who obtained the official figures, said: "This is a grotesque abuse of taxpayers' money to financially reward politicians who have to leave their jobs in government. It is a resettlement grant for those who have settled back into government. It is questionable at best whether ministers leaving office should receive any handouts, but they certainly shouldn't when they return to office with hardly any time elapsing. I call on them to hand back this money."

A number of Labour ministers have been entitled to double pay-offs, the Government says. They include Peter Mandelson, who "would have received" payments of £11,300 in 1998 and £16,543 in 2001 after leaving the Government twice, according to the Cabinet Office.

Beverley Hughes, who was forced to quit as immigration minister in April last year, was entitled to £9,449, even though she returned to the government as children's minister in last month's reshuffle. Harriet Harman, who was Secretary of State for Social Security, and returned as Solicitor General, is now a constitutional affairs minister. According to the figures provided by the Cabinet Office, she was entitled to £11,300. Ministers are entitled to receive a quarter of their salary when they leave office - even if they are appointed to another paid ministerial position more than three weeks later. They do not have to pay tax on these severance payments and are also exempt from National Insurance contributions on the funds. Many ministers earn more than £100,000 a year, because they also receive MPs salaries of about £59,000.

A spokesman for David Blunkett said yesterday: "These arrangements were introduced under the last Conservative government and recognise the need for a modest period of readjustment. That is why the Labour government introduced 30 years ago the redundancy payments scheme, which has protected the interests of millions of workers since that time." The spokesman added: "I presume Norman Baker will now pledge to forego his severance should he resign or lose his seat at the next general election."

Lucrative cabinet farewells

DAVID BLUNKETT

Why he quit: Left as Home Secretary in 2004 after controversy about the visa of his former lover's nanny.

Payment due: £18,215

BEVERLEY HUGHES

Why she quit: Left as immigration minister in 2004 following a controversy over visas for Eastern Europeans.

Payment due: £9,449

HARRIET HARMAN

Why she quit: Left as Social Security Secretary in 1998 following a power struggle with her then deputy, Frank Field.

Payment due: £11,300

ALAN MILBURN

Why he quit: Left as Health Secretary in June 2003 to spend more time with his family and in May 2005, as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, to spend more time with his family.

Payments due: £17,850 and £18,725

PETER MANDELSON

Why he quit: Left as Secretary of State for Trade and Industry in 1998, over £373,000 home loan from Geoffrey Robinson and again in 2001 as Northern Ireland Secretary in 2001 after claims he intervened in a passport application.

Payments due: £11,300 in 1998 and £16,543 in 2001

Scorn

Sometimes you read a story about bitter women (men less frequently) and their revenge and you think to yourself "Oh, that was a bit harsh". Sometimes though you think "Big up you love, the twat deserved it"

I think this falls into the latter category...

Scorned wife sells Lotus for 50p

A Birmingham radio DJ discovered hell hath no fury like a woman scorned after his wife sold his £25,000 luxury sports car on the internet for 50p.

Tim Shaw's wife, Hayley, put the Lotus Espirit Turbo on eBay after her husband propositioned glamour model Jodie Marsh live on-air on his Kerrang! FM show. Mrs Shaw, 27, said the flirtatious interview had been the "last straw" in their relationship. The car sold within minutes of it being posted on the internet site.

Mr Shaw upset his wife when he announced over the air that he would leave her and their two young children for Ms Marsh. The item description for the car on eBay read: "I need to get rid of this car immediately - ideally in the next two to three hours before my husband gets home to find it gone and all his belongings in the street."

Jodie Marsh in case you don't know is one of those famous for being famous slappers - like Abi Titmuss. She's a Z list celebrity jizz sponge, and may I say a bag ugly one as well. If you're interested enough to look her up check out her nose which has had so much surgery it is beginning to resemble the frontal appendage of a duck-billed platypus - I kid you not. It's a very strange shape indeed.

Olsen watch

Recent sticky fingered Olsen hunters have come from

Indiana State University
Universitaet Bayreuth (Germany)
Federal State Vorarlberg School District (Austria)
Abingdon School (England)
Maricopa Community Colleges (Arizona)
NASA (Pasadena, Cailfornia)

NASA!! What the f'k. Aren't you guys launching a shuttle in a couple of weeks? Keep your minds on the job, you can't afford to lose another one.

Ups and downs

As I drove home last night listening to the England v Australia ODI, I was mentally drafting a Wimbledon post bemoaning the fact that, after 4 days there were no British players left. Then the Scottish lad Andy Murray took my thunder by winning. And winning well in straight sets over the 14th seed Radek Stepanek. It’s a bit early to declare the dawn of a new era in British tennis but well done to the boy, and good luck for Saturday when he’ll play former finalist David Nalbandian.

Back to the cricket and the inevitable happened yesterday as Australia beat England for the first time this summer. We bowled well enough and 267 wasn’t a huge target, but none of the English batsmen really got into the zone. Darren Gough coming in at 10 top scored which says all you need to know. No need to panic just yet though, we should get back to winning against Bangladesh on Sunday and we meet Australia again at Edgbaston on Tuesday. It ain’t over till it’s over.

Olsen update

So, although I killed my Olsen twins link earlier this month, I am still getting around 200 hits a day from people Googling for the anorexic siblings. When people are bought into The Phylotopian from a link or a search engine, my stat counter records the link used and the IP details, so in tabloid tradition I'm going to start naming and shaming. Since 6am this morning I have had Olsen seekers from...

Boston University
Durham Public Schools, North Carolina
Bury College, UK
Institute Of Semiconductor Physics, Lithuania
Cardiff County Council
The Corporation For Financing And Promoting Technology, Vietnam
Staffordshire County Council
and
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

All of the above have been bought to The Phylotopian after doing a Google search for either "Olsens" or "Olsen twins". Pleased to see taxpayers money in both the US and the UK being so wisely used.

What a day for a daydream

Baghdad reels from multiple bombs

More than 30 people have been killed in a series of car bombings in Baghdad within 12 hours.

'New militant threat' from Iraq

The insurgency in Iraq is creating a new type of Islamic militant who could go on to destabilise other countries, a leaked CIA report says.

Many dead in attacks across Iraq

At least 31 people have been killed and more than 130 injured in a series of attacks by insurgents across Iraq.

Bomb kills five marines in Iraq

A bomb has killed five US marines near the western Iraqi town of Ramadi, a rebel stronghold where a similar blast killed five marines last week.

Iraq 'no more safe than in 2003'

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has acknowledged that security in Iraq has not improved statistically since Saddam Hussein's fall in 2003.

Rumsfeld: US not losing Iraq war

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has said that the US is not losing the war in Iraq, and will prevail as long as it perseveres.

So last week things were no better than in 2003, but this week despite 6 days of brutal violence, things are going well? What about this for a headline?

Donald Rumsfeld has his head up his ass.

The US/UK occupation is the cause of not the solution to the insurgency. I can see it, you can see it. Why can't the man who is sending so many off to die see it?

Hiding something?

I don't need to re-hash the Guantanamo/Newsweek thing again do I? You're all bright enough to sort the wheat from the chaff. But if, as the US government claim, nothing untoward is happening why not allow an independent eye in?

US 'stalling UN Guantanamo visit'

Investigators from the United Nations have accused the US of stalling over their repeated requests to visit detainees at Guantanamo Bay. The US is holding hundreds of suspected members of the Taleban and al-Qaeda at the detention facility in Cuba. The UN said for over a year there had been no response to its requests to check on the condition of detainees. This suggested the US was "not willing to co-operate with the United Nations human rights machinery," the team said.

A spokesman for the Pentagon told BBC News he had not heard of the allegations. A response has been promised by the US government.

"We deeply regret that the government of the United States has still not invited us to visit those persons arrested, detained or tried on grounds of alleged terrorism or other violations in Iraq, Afghanistan, or the Guantanamo Bay naval base," the four UN investigators said in a written statement.

They have been asking to visit Guantanamo Bay as part of an investigation into allegations of human rights abuse at the US-run prison. The accusations include "serious allegations of torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment", they said. "The purpose of the visit would be to examine objectively the allegations first-hand and ascertain whether international human rights standards... are being upheld with respect to those detained persons," the statement said. Prisoners at the base are visited by officials from the International Red Cross, but their findings are not published.

Talk is cheap

It must be the heat, but I listened to Bliar's speech to the European Parliament this morning and found myself agreeing with him on almost everything. If any point has been proven in the last couple of weeks it is that Europe is not a confederation of nation states with a shared vision, but a collection of self serving, protectionist states who will put their own egos and agendas ahead of any real, constructive, unifying policies. Chirac has to stop viewing the EU as an arm of French domestic policy, stop ring-fencing the massive subsidies his farmers get for producing food there is no market for and wake up to the fact that his country is dying on its arse and should no longer be propped up at the cost of sustained development elsewhere. UK politicians have to stop chanting "what about the rebate, what about the rebate" and realise that although £3 billion is a lot of money, it is a drop in the ocean in national budgetary terms. We go forward together or we suffer alone. The text of Blair's speech is here. Talk is cheap. What happens next will be key and although standing up to Europe will not erase the stains of Iraq from Bliar's reputation it will do it some good, domestically at least.

In other European news (and this is to be filed very much in the 'you couldn't make it up' section), the re-enactment of the Battle of Trafalgar being held next week to mark the 200th anniversary, will not be England v France but will instead be between a red team and a blue team and there will be no clear victor. Have you ever heard anything so 'king stupid in your whole life? It's history, it happened for real, we were at war with France, we won, but it was 200 years ago. We mark VE day and Remembrance Sunday every year without either event descending into jingoistic German bashing don't we? We mustn't allow our history to be neutered for short term political correctness. It pays a disservice to the men who fought on both sides. Shame on the faceless bureaucrat who came up with this pathetic sham.

Devil's gonna get you..

How I scored so high on violence is a bit of a mystery. Probably my visions of being ruler of the world.
Pleased I'm not avaricious though.

The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Seventh Level of Hell! Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	Very Low
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	Very Low
Level 2 (Lustful)	Very High
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	High
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	Very Low
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	High
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	Very High
Level 7 (Violent)	Extreme
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	Very High
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	Very High

Take the Dante's Inferno Hell Test

Mr Benn

Tells it like it is

In the name of security

Tony Benn
Wednesday June 22, 2005

Since the attack on the twin towers, in which many innocent Americans were killed, we have been told that we are engaged in a war against terrorism that threatens our way of life and our liberties. From that moment on we have been asked to adopt a whole range of measures that pose what many believe could be a greater threat to those very liberties and to our way of life.That fact obliges us to examine them, one by one, as a part of the whole, lest we slip into an acceptance of a situation where we can be seen as acquiescing to restrictions on our political and personal freedoms that would have been unthinkable a few years ago.

For example, the forthcoming debate in the House of Commons on identity cards is motivated by a determination on the part of the government to set up a massive database incorporating everything that is known about us all. It integrates our personal particulars with police and security service files that may or may not be accurate, some of which we may never be allowed to know. It is that which makes it all look so like an embryonic police state. Much of the argument may rotate around the cost incurred or the reliability of biometric testing but, important as they are, the danger lies in the accumulation, storage and use that may be made of this information. For example, under the arrangements that Britain has with the US that allow us access to their nuclear technology in the Trident programme, America has long insisted that it should have access to all our intelligence material. That means the ID database will be automatically available to it. Given the number of leaks that occur and the value of the database, the possibility that it could fall into the hands of others for their private commercial purposes cannot be ruled out - with all the opportunities for abuse that would make possible. I have retained all my wartime ID cards with my name, address and photo but none of these posed any threat of the nature set out above.

In addition, we now have the latest anti-terrorist legislation, which permits house arrest and detention without a jury trial - eroding principles going back to the Magna Carta.

Security has reached such a pitch that constituents who visit the Commons, now policed by men with machine guns, can only observe those whom they have elected through a transparent bullet proof screen, which only emphasises the widening gap between government and governed. The prime minister himself moves within a cocoon of highly armed guards, whereas Harold Wilson had a single officer from the Met with a revolver in his pocket. Even when Mrs Thatcher was nearly blown up in Brighton no such stringent measures were proposed.

Next comes the Serious Crime and Disorder Act, under which the home secretary has been authorised to declare an exclusion zone around the Commons. This will silence - and could imprison - Brian Haw, who, far from being guilty of serious crime or disorder, has been preaching peace in Parliament Square and denouncing the war that has killed far more innocent Iraqis than the number of people who died on 9/11.

The Statue of Liberty has been replaced by Guantánamo Bay, and our main ally in the coalition that invaded Iraq now sends detainees to countries that practise torture and feels able to justify it. Soon we are to be told that to defend ourselves the Trident programme is to be updated at a cost that, Michael Portillo argues, could exceed the increase in aid that Britain may pledge at the G8 summit - though how nuclear weapons could deal with Osama bin Laden is far from clear.

At the Labour conference, delegates not only have to go through tight security but are also required to open their briefcases before they enter the conference hall, to make sure they are not carrying socialist literature.

The Commons does not elect our commissioner in Brussels and we are only allowed to vote for a party list in the European elections, leaving the prime minister to select all the Labour MEPs just as he chooses all the members of the House of Lords. This explains what Peter Mandelson meant when he said years ago that "the era of representative government is coming to an end".

In 1834, when the Commons burned down, crowds stood on the other side of the Thames and cheered because they had lost confidence in it. If that ever happened again, the responsibility would lie with those ministers and MPs who are undermining democracy in the name of security and using fear to push it through.

Hey, big man

Actor Tom Cruise has said he will not press charges against the TV film crew who squirted him with water at the War of the Worlds premiere in London. Four TV workers were arrested after the 42-year-old actor's face and jacket were drenched with water from a fake microphone on Sunday.
[...]
They were arrested on suspicion of assault (assault!! wtf - they squirted him with water), but a spokeswoman for the Hollywood star confirmed he would not be pressing charges. Cruise - who attended the premiere with his new fiancee Katie Holmes - was talking to journalists in Leicester Square when he was squirted with water. The star struggled to maintain his composure, repeatedly asking one of the Channel 4 team: "Why would you do that?" He said: "What's so funny about that? It's ridiculous. Do you like making less of people?"

Well Tom, when they are jumped up, sanctimonious, self-publicising-fake-relationship-boring-arsed-tossers like yourself then yes we all enjoy seeing someone being 'made less' of.

Survivor

From Pieman

To all the kids who survived the 50's, 60's, 70's, and Early-ish 80's!!

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us. They took aspirin, ate blue cheese, tuna from a can and didn't get tested for diabetes.

Then after that trauma, our baby cribs were covered with bright coloured lead-based paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking. We would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags. Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle. We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.

We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank soda pop with sugar in it, but we weren't overweight because we were always outside playing! We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on no one worried. No one was able to reach us all day, but we were O.K.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms..........we had friends and we went outside and found them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents. Because they were accidents. We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.

We were given cowboy guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!

This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever! The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all!

Built for comfort

Not for speed. Or indeed heat. Work took me to the City today, 3 hours of meetings in an un-airconditioned office. A pathetic 'lunch' was provided though no drinks. Not even water. But I got a lay-in this morning as the first meeting wasn't until 11 and I would have been home early had not my train broken down just outside Staines.

I'm tired, hot & pissed off. Two more days. Two more and then two weeks off. Sweet, sweet laziness.

Winning the propaganda war

Think you've heard it all? Think that there can't possibly be any more disgraceful stories to come out of Iraq? Sorry.

U.S. soldiers caught planting weapons on dead, injured, and detained Iraqi teens

Cryptome.org has released a series of sixteen photographs which show U.S. soldiers placing weapons in front of a group of dead, injured, and apprehended young Iraqi teens, with the apparent goal of framing them as enemy combattants. These photos, taken on Oct. 22nd, 2004 in Buhriz, Iraq show nine photographs taken of dead and wounded Iraqi teenagers, followed by an additional seven photos taken slightly later, in which the same teens were photographed with an RPG launcher and grenades planted in front of their bodies. By all appearances, the same RPG launcher and rocket propelled grenades were inserted into each shot. Clear examples of this can be seen in several of the "before and after" shots.

The pictures, which were previously sent to New Yorker reporter Seymour Hersh for investigation, were unfortunately not released by him, although he did comment on them in a recent interview on Democracy Now. "Young kids, I don’t know how old, 13, 15, I guess . . . you see soldiers dropping R.P.G.'s, which are rocket-launched grenades around them. And then they're called in as an insurgent kill. It's a kill of, you know, would-be insurgents or resistance and it goes into the computers, and I'm sure it's briefed. Everybody remembers how My Lai was briefed as a great victory, “128 Vietcong killed.” And so you have that pattern again."

While the exact motive for U.S. soldiers planting weapons in front of these Iraqi teens has not been established at this time, there is a strong possibility that several of the Iraqi teens who survived the incident are being held in places such as Abu Ghraib, where they face the possibility of abuse, indefinite detention, and possibly execution. Please take the time to contact your congressional representatives, local media sources, and let others know about these photos, requesting that an open, transparent investigation be launched into the events of October 22nd, 2004 so that the rights of these teens and other Iraqi civilians are respected in the future.

Rights & Responsibilities

I hope I'm not alone in thinking this is very sad.

People power backfires for LA Times

It was, as the LA Times itself admitted, always a bit of a nutty idea. When the highly respected US newspaper announced last Friday that it was allowing readers to add their thoughts to online editorials, many in the media predicted disaster. Sure enough, the paper has abandoned the experiment - dubbed "wikitorial" - within days of its launch after readers flooded the site with obscene language and pictures.
The trouble began on Friday, when the LA Times posted an editorial on its website urging a better-defined plan to withdraw troops from Iraq and invited readers to add their thoughts. Within hours one user had managed to change the headline on several pages to read "Fuck USA". Editors scrambled to remove the offensive headline, but lost some readers' comments at the same time. But the number of "inappropriate" posts soon began to overwhelm the editors' ability to monitor the site and on Sunday they decided to remove the feature.
Yesterday the paper thanked readers who had logged on "in the right spirit" but said the feature would stay offline indefinitely while it looked at what happened and how to fix it.

It was imaginative and brave of the LA Times to attempt to open their editorials up to anyone. It was shallow (and yet predictable) that so many people could be no more constructive than say fuck and try to 'shock' with rude pictures and mindless abuse. What should have been a new forum for open debate has been lost.

The best and the worst thing about the internet is the freedom it allows anyone to publish anything. It brings out the best in the best of us and the worst in the worst of us. But it is the one platform we have which is uncensored, unabridged and unrestricted. There are many who want this to end and call for greater restrictions to be placed on web content. This sort of juvenile behaviour gives them more ammunition for their campaign. The few must not be allowed to prevail over the many.

Forgotten sons

1917

I knew a simple soldier boy
Who grinned at life in empty joy,
Slept soundly through the lonesome dark,
And whistled early with the lark.

In winter trenches, cowed and glum,
With crumps and lice and lack of rum,
He put a bullet through his brain.
No one spoke of him again.

You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye
Who cheer when soldier lads march by,
Sneak home and pray you'll never know
The hell where youth and laughter go.

Siegfried Sassoon



Trench Suicide - Otto Dix

2004

ARMY TROOPS IN IRAQ:

NEW NUMBERS SHOW ALARMING INCREASE IN SUICIDE RATE, MENTAL HEALTH EVACUATIONS

By Salamander Davoudi
in Washington
January 15 2004

The US army's suicide rate in Iraq is a third higher than rates for troops during peacetime, the Pentagon's most senior doctor said yesterday.

My my. What a long way we've come.

You gullible fools

What. A. Load. Of. CRAP.

Jackson's face 'appears on toast'

Michael Jackson fans have come up with a novel form of memorabilia to mark the singer's acquittal on child abuse charges - toast with his face on it. Slices of toast with the star's likeness and slogans such as "not guilty" have appeared on internet auction site eBay. Vendors claimed the slices were not faked - but popped out of their toasters before or during the verdicts.

Still, if you're dumb enough to believe Jacko is 'innocent' you deserve to be fleeced.

A principled stand

"No taxation without representation." It is an old saying coming, I believe from the US war of independence. It was bollocks then and of course it's bollocks now. I was paying tax at 16 and serving in the forces but I couldn't vote. I could die for my country but not vote for its government. I should have poured tea into the Thames.

How about a new motto? What about "No taxation without accountability"? Mrs Pat Blackburn will be our inspiration.

Blair asks to be excused court appearance

Press Association
Tuesday June 21, 2005

The prime minister, Tony Blair, is today expected to make an application to avoid a court appearance after he was summonsed by the mother-in-law of a sergeant killed in Iraq, as part of an anti-war protest. Pat Blackburn called on Mr Blair to be a witness in her case of income tax evasion after she withheld payments in protest at the war. Mrs Blackburn has said that she has given the outstanding £15,000 she owes to "an independent stakeholder" but is refusing to hand over the money to the Inland Revenue until Mr Blair resigns or shows her evidence of Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction.

Her son-in-law, Sergeant Les Hehir, 34, of the Royal Artillery, was killed when the US Sea Knight helicopter he was aboard crashed south of the Kuwait border on March 21 2003. Sgt Hehir, from Poole, Dorset, had a wife and two young sons. The case is due to be heard at Weymouth County Court at 2pm today. Mr Blair is not expected to attend. A spokeswoman for the court said a summons had been sent to Downing Street requesting Mr Blair's attendance but added that an application is to be heard requesting permission for his absence prior to today's hearing.

Mrs Blackburn said she had written numerous letters to Mr Blair, including one dated May 3 2003, which reads: "The unlawful and unsanctioned war in Iraq was privately authorised by yourself and President Bush to boost both of your political egos and ambitions. Now, Mr Blair, go rot in hell." She said that Mr Blair had sent a hand-written reply dated May 15 2003, saying: "The removal of Saddam Hussein will make Iraq, the region and the wider world a safer and better place. In the next few months, we will present the evidence of both the hundreds of thousands of innocent people killed by him in Iraq and of his weapons programme." It continued: "I do not think your son-in-law died in vain but in a cause that in future times the world will be grateful for."

Mrs Blackburn, from Dorchester in Dorset, said today: "We are still waiting for a reply from Tony Blair regarding the weapons of mass destruction."

She added: "I got a summons to say they want my tax. There were two little boxes. The question was 'Does this contravene your human rights?'. They were pre-printed, it was ticked NO, so I ticked Yes and actually sent one of these folders with all the letters in. I also sent my correspondence to and from Bournemouth tax office and also a covering letter saying I have no intention at all of paying this bill until Mr Blair replied to me or resigned. In a couple of days I got another letter saying it had been referred to Weymouth County Court and it had a column for witnesses so I just put his name down and his Downing Street address and sent it back."

Mrs Blackburn said she would represent herself in court and added: "I don't want to go to jail. This money has been held by a stakeholder. It's not that I can't pay, it's that I'm not going to pay."

How many is too many?

The Independent is now the UK’s primary campaigning newspaper. Several times a week, they devote the front page to some shocking facts that spell doom and despair for us all. The global environment, and the harm being done to it by mankind is a frequent topic, and in that context I find today’s main story is inconsistent with a truly holistic global view.

Britain's fertility timebomb

Britain is facing an infertility crisis, with the number of couples who experience problems conceiving expected to double within the next 10 years. A leading fertility expert warned yesterday that, by 2015, one in three couples may need IVF treatment or similar fertility procedures. The low success rates of such treatments means soaring numbers will be left childless.

So what is wrong with that? Well, quite simply there are too many of us already. The global population has doubled since 1960. The human race is now the planet’s biggest parasite. We are stripping our world of an ever increasing amount of resources as we try to feed, heat and clothe an ever increasing number of people. You won’t find a single politician willing to say this, but in order to save the planet we will need to control population as well as curbing pollution, cutting consumption and increasing the efficiency in the way we use things.

If you take a gaian view of things then nature is already doing its bit. As we in the west have gotten fatter and lazier so mother nature realises the burden we have become and she makes us less fertile. Bush is doing his bit as well by sending the young fertile men of the US off to die in Iraq (over 1,700 so far and climbing) but as he’s also responsible for the watering down of the G8’s environmental policy declaration his net effect is still very much in the debit column.

To beat the problems we face as a species, our leaders have to act in a united and coordinated way. Grotesquely unpopular decisions will have to be made. Survival will have to be placed against economics. I’m just pleased I have no children to answer to.

Happy solstice to you all.

Scumbags

The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) are on the same moral level as people who sell drugs to school kids. A harsh judgement but one I think I’ll justify. First this....

Mother faces music over girl's downloading

A mother whose teenage daughter was caught illegally downloading thousands of music files to her computer is being sued after the family were targeted by lawyers acting for the music industry body, the British Phonographic Industry (BPI). Sylvia Price, 53, was incredulous when she got a letter from a law firm acting for the BPI demanding she pay a £2,500 settlement fee or face court proceedings. She says she had no idea her daughter, Emily, 14, had been downloading music, her confusion compounded by the fact that she is unfamiliar with computers. But the BPI maintains that, as the holder of the internet account, she is legally liable to pay the settlement. As part of their latest effort to target those illegally downloading music, which the industry estimates costs £2.3bn a year in lost sales, the body has issued 90 such orders in the past few months, focusing on those considered the most prolific offenders.

Can I voice my opinion now? Here we go. The reason the record industry's takings are down £2.3 billion is because the music they release is shit. Complete and utter brown arsed crap. It's formulaic, predictable, dull, uninspiring soulless stodge. All the record companies do is watch each other to see what's selling to 10 year old girls then they all jump on the same bandwagon. The BPI exists solely to extract the pocket money of these kids and it does it by putting fads, fashions and hype over the development of genuine musical talent. Proof? That bastard frog thing. It outsold Coldplay by 4:1 a few weeks ago. Now I think Coldplay are a bunch of dullards, but they are the most successful British band in the US since The Beatles and sell very well here, so somebody loves them. But they were outsold in the UK charts by a ringtone, because that was the hype, that’s what the buzz was in the playgrounds of Britain that week. And now we have bouncing bears and I don’t know what else as all the record companies play follow the leader.

Blaming illegal downloading for their massive drop in revenue is a red herring. It shifts the blame from the record companies own short sighted incompetence onto the consumer who is fed up of paying over the odds for CDs containing 1 decent track (which was released as a single with 9 different re-mixes anyway) and 10 second rate filler tracks. If they stop trying to rip people off with over priced crap, people will start buying their products. It’s as simple as that.

New World Order

Saturday.

Bangladesh humble sorry Australia
Bangladesh pulled off a huge shock by completing a stunning a five-wicket victory over world champions Australia in Cardiff.

Sunday.

Brilliant Pietersen sinks Aussies
Kevin Pietersen stole the show to guide England home by three wickets as Australia were dealt a second NatWest Series defeat in two days.

Couldn't have hoped for a better birthday present!!

You did it.

You voted Sam out.
You crazy bastards!!

Stuff

If you haven't signed up to Fun Junkie's Summer Burn 2005 yet, why on earth not, you only have a few days left to register? Sign up and prepare a CD of great summer music. You will then receive two addresses to send your CD to, and you will receive in return a disc from two people. If you're lucky you may get the cornucopia of delights I'm preparing. Your musical horizons will, at the very least, be broadened.

In other news, I got a new mobile phone yesterday (I'm happy to have a contract so I get free upgrades). I'm not a big technophile, but I wanted something with a decent camera and my new Nokia has a 1.3mpix camera which is more than adequate. I can record videos and it has an mp3 player so I'm happy. I need a lead to link my phone to my PC though so I can download pics and the upload mp3's, the Carphone Wharehose quoted me £40. Balls to that - I found one on-line exactly the same for £5.80. Splendid! Shop around people, shop around.

You're not coming in

You have to pass an exam to become a British citizen now. Dear leader has published a 150 page book, Life in the United Kingdom, which immigrants to the UK have to read and then answer 24 questions on.

The BBC have a few examples here.

I only got 7/15.

Doublespeak

Have a look at this reply (to a written question) from Hilary Benn, which popped up in Hansard a few days ago.

Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what percentages of households in Iraq have access to (a) clean water and (b) electricity.

Hilary Benn: The most recent reliable source of data on living standards in Iraq is the "Iraq living Conditions Survey 2004" conducted by the Iraqi Central Office for Statistics and Information Technology in April and May 2004. [...]

In rural areas 43 per cent of Iraqi households have reliable access to safe drinking water, 22 per cent have access to safe drinking water but the supply is unreliable and 34 per cent have access only to unsafe drinking water. [continues]

Does Hilary think it acceptable that one third of the people we have 'liberated' from oppression do not have a clean water supply TWO years after the 'war' ended? Saddam rebuilt Iraq's infrastructure in 3 months after Gulf 1. I know there are major problems out there, but had the invasion been at least delayed while some sort of game plan were worked out for managing the 'peace' we may not be in this sorry mess. Is it any wonder the occupying forces are so unpopular.

That this shining example of incompetence comes from Hilary Benn depresses me thoroughly. Hilary is the son of Tony Benn one of the finest, most honourable, decent, moral, intelligent and passionate men ever to sit in parliament, whereas Hilary is a stooge of 'new' Labour with as much integrity as Eden's serpent. Shame on you Hilary, shame.

'urry up 'arry, come on

The defence secretary, John Reid, has demanded an investigation after a newspaper reporter walked around the grounds of Sandhurst where Prince Harry is a cadet, and built a fake bomb.

Isn't that brilliant. The place where the cream of the British Army are based and where the third in line to the throne is training to be cannon fodder is entered by a Sun reporter on fake credentials, who then builds a 'bomb' out of plasticine and sticky-backed plastic.

There was some po-faced old git, Major Buffton-Tuffton or something on the wireless this morning, moaning at how the media should report the news not make the news, totally missing the point that army security being crap surely is news. And it's funny. Well, I'm laughing anyway.

Can you hear?

Me, playing the smallest violin in the world?

Australia captain Ricky Ponting said he was "angry" and "embarrassed" by his side's shock one-day loss to Somerset.

The tourists crashed to a four-wicket defeat at Taunton despite hitting a sizeable 340 off their 50 overs.

Bobbies

Can the police be charged with wasting police time? Tossers.

British coppers look after pennies

British police defended taking a convicted drug dealer to court to confiscate assets that amounted to a trifling 29 pence (53 US cents).

"We are determined that no one should benefit from crime and although 29 pence may seem minuscule, it sends out a message that the courts will strip such people of every asset that can be found even if it is a few pence," Detective Superintendent Gordon Lang of the Cleveland police said.

Tabrez Khan, who made 12,710 pounds ($US22,940) through dealing, was jailed for six-and-a-half years after admitting he conspired to peddle hard drugs.

Hubris

That strange American pop star has likened his acquittal to the falling of the Berlin Wall and Nelson Mandela's release from prison. I'm surprised there was no mention of OJ. That was my first thought.

No such thing as bad publicity?

Auction webiste eBay has halted all sales of Live 8 tickets after organiser Bob Geldof called the site an "electronic pimp".

A number of winners of the text lottery for the prized tickets tried to sell them on the website for as much as £1,000 a pair. Geldof attacked the opportunists calling them a "disgrace". Moments before eBay cancelled the sales, Geldof celebrated with a thumbs up when Sky's Jeremy Thomson told him that punters had attempted to sabotage the sales by bidding an impossible £10m. Speaking on Sky News, Geldof had urged fans to "just keep messing it up". But his calls proved unnecessary when eBay stopped the sales that it had earlier defended as not illegal.

Geldof had said: "I am sick with this. It is a disgrace. It is completely against the interests of the poor. The people who are selling these tickets on websites are miserable wretches who are capitalising on people's misery. I am appealing to their sense of decency to stop this disgusting greed."

Geldof had told Sky News that he planned to speak directly to the owner of the site, adding: "From what I hear he is kind of a good guy."

More than 100 pairs of tickets appeared on eBay, after the 75,000 people who got lucky in a text message lottery were told they had won. The Hunter Foundation, which is helping Geldof organise the Scottish leg of the event, had also urged sellers to withdraw the lots. Chief executive Ewan Hunter said: "It is obscene for anyone to profit from Live 8. "Live 8 is about the 30,000 kids that died today, will die tomorrow and the next day. Is that something you want to profit from or stop happening?"

Sometimes it's the small victories that count.

The beautiful game

Shame it isn’t always played by beautiful people.

Arsenal star Robin van Persie has been arrested in Holland on suspicion of rape, the Dutch authorities have said.

Liverpool footballer Steve Finnan has been arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving.

Football legend George Best has been arrested and bailed on suspicion of indecently assaulting a young girl.

When I said...

in my 'Three Things' post earlier this month that human stupidity scared me, I should have said something about human greed and selfishness.

As I have had cause to say before, how utterly predictable, how utterly depressing.

Live 8 show ticket bids 'obscene'

People selling [their FREE] Live 8 tickets on the auction site eBay have been criticised by a group helping to organise the Scottish concert with Bob Geldof. Scores of pairs of tickets have already been put up on the site for the London show on the 2 July, with some pairs being offered for £1,000. But The Hunter Foundation urged sellers to withdraw the lots and return any profits to Live 8. Hunter Foundation chief executive Ewan Hunter called the situation "obscene".

'Free market'

"We would urge anyone selling Live8 tickets on eBay, or anywhere else for that matter, to withdraw them immediately," he said. "If you can't go, return your tickets to Live 8, if you see them being sold, don't bid, we implore you." More than two million text entries were sent in the competition to win tickets for the London leg of Live 8. The deadline for pop fans to apply for tickets for the Hyde Park show to fight African poverty expired at midnight on Sunday. Meanwhile, phone lines for a similar text competition for tickets to a second concert in Edinburgh on 6 July opened at 0800 BST. A spokeswoman for eBay said: "The reselling of charity concert tickets is not illegal under UK law, so Live 8 tickets are allowed to be resold on ebay.co.uk. "We have offered to make a donation to the Live 8 organisers at least equivalent to the fees we collect from the sale of Live 8 tickets. "We are allowing the tickets because we live in a free market where people can make up their own minds about what they would like to buy and sell."

When evil empires meet

$$'s are of course more important than freedoms. As Yahoo already know.

Microsoft censors Chinese blogs

Chinese bloggers posting their thoughts via Microsoft's net service face restrictions on what they can write. Weblog entries on some parts of Microsoft's MSN site in China using words such as "freedom", "democracy" and "demonstration" are being blocked. Chinese bloggers already face strict controls and must register their online journal with Chinese authorities. Microsoft said the company abided by the laws, regulations and norms of each country in which it operates.

Banned words

The censorship is thought to have been introduced as a concession to the Chinese government. Also being restricted on the free parts of the site are journal entries that mention "human rights" and "Taiwan independence". Those using these banned words or writing entries that are pornographic or contain sensitive information get a pop-up warning that reads: "This message contains a banned expression, please delete this expression."

Some more good news

We're winning.

Poll shows big drop in support for ID cards

Plans to introduce identity cards have suffered a serious setback with the publication of a poll which discovered rising public hostility to the scheme. The number of voters backing the move has slumped from more than 80 per cent to 55 per cent in six months, according to the survey of 1,010 voters by ICM Research released yesterday. The number of opponents has more than doubled to 43 per cent. The rebuff came two weeks after the Government reintroduced the ID Cards Bill, which it had to put aside as time ran out before the last election. Ministers argue that the measure is essential to combat identity fraud, terrorism and fraudulent use of public services. They have also insisted that a clear majority of voters back it.

ICM found in December that 81 per cent of voters supported the scheme and just 17 per cent thought it was a bad idea. But the new survey, commissioned by No2ID, found backing slumped when the public were reminded that the cost of a combined passport and ID card could be £93. A total of 55 per cent believed it was a good idea, against 43 per cent who opposed it. Anti-ID card campaigners have argued that support for the cards would haemorrhage once the cost and civil liberties implications became better known.

If you haven't yet signed the pledge to refuse to register for ID cards and the introduction of a police state what are you waiting for?

Memo II

There's a second Downing Street memo. And it's more explosive than the first. It shows that Blair pulled out all the stops to massage public opinion to get popular support for the illegal and immoral invasion of Iraq.

It should be bigger than Watergate. Bigger than Profumo. But are we going to see it on the mainstream media? Are we fuck. Some pop star has just been acquitted of Jesus juicing some kids and it seems that nothing much else has happened today. I bet not much will happen tomorrow either. Just some skinny white bloke with a strange, rather intense look of relief on his face. (Or what passes for his face.)

So here's the memo. Read it. Think about it. Write to Bush. Write to Blair. Write to you MP or senator. Ask what they intend to do now we have conclusive proof that we were lied to. Write to the BBC and ask why this isn't being covered. When I switch on the news I want the fucking news not celebrity gossip. We should demand that the BBC rise up to our level, we mustn't sink down to theirs. I've emailed them. Bastards.

Cabinet Office paper: Conditions for military action

The paper, produced by the Cabinet Office on July 21, 2002, is incomplete because the last page is missing. The following is a transcript rather than the original document in order to protect the source.

PERSONAL SECRET UK EYES ONLY

IRAQ: CONDITIONS FOR MILITARY ACTION (A Note by Officials)

Summary

Ministers are invited to:

(1) Note the latest position on US military planning and timescales for possible action.

(2) Agree that the objective of any military action should be a stable and law-abiding Iraq, within present borders, co-operating with the international community, no longer posing a threat to its neighbours or international security, and abiding by its international obligations on WMD.

(3) Agree to engage the US on the need to set military plans within a realistic political strategy, which includes identifying the succession to Saddam Hussein and creating the conditions necessary to justify government military action, which might include an ultimatum for the return of UN weapons inspectors to Iraq. This should include a call from the Prime Minister to President Bush ahead of the briefing of US military plans to the President on 4 August.

[...]

Introduction

1. The US Government's military planning for action against Iraq is proceeding apace. But, as yet, it lacks a political framework. In particular, little thought has been given to creating the political conditions for military action, or the aftermath and how to shape it.

2. When the Prime Minister discussed Iraq with President Bush at Crawford in April he said that the UK would support military action to bring about regime change, provided that certain conditions were met: efforts had been made to construct a coalition/shape public opinion, the Israel-Palestine Crisis was quiescent, and the options for action to eliminate Iraq's WMD through the UN weapons inspectors had been exhausted.

3. We need now to reinforce this message and to encourage the US Government to place its military planning within a political framework, partly to forestall the risk that military action is precipitated in an unplanned way by, for example, an incident in the No Fly Zones. This is particularly important for the UK because it is necessary to create the conditions in which we could legally support military action. Otherwise we face the real danger that the US will commit themselves to a course of action which we would find very difficult to support.

4. In order to fulfil the conditions set out by the Prime Minister for UK support for military action against Iraq, certain preparations need to be made, and other considerations taken into account. This note sets them out in a form which can be adapted for use with the US Government. Depending on US intentions, a decision in principle may be needed soon on whether and in what form the UK takes part in military action.

The Goal

5. Our objective should be a stable and law-abiding Iraq, within present borders, co-operating with the international community, no longer posing a threat to its neighbours or to international security, and abiding by its international obligations on WMD. It seems unlikely that this could be achieved while the current Iraqi regime remains in power. US military planning unambiguously takes as its objective the removal of Saddam Hussein's regime, followed by elimination if Iraqi WMD. It is however, by no means certain, in the view of UK officials, that one would necessarily follow from the other. Even if regime change is a necessary condition for controlling Iraqi WMD, it is certainly not a sufficient one.

Continues....

14. It is just possible that an ultimatum could be cast in terms which Saddam would reject (because he is unwilling to accept unfettered access) and which would not be regarded as unreasonable by the international community. However, failing that (or an Iraqi attack) we would be most unlikely to achieve a legal base for military action by January 2003.

20. Time will be required to prepare public opinion in the UK that it is necessary to take military action against Saddam Hussein. There would also need to be a substantial effort to secure the support of Parliament. An information campaign will be needed which has to be closely related to an overseas information campaign designed to influence Saddam Hussein, the Islamic World and the wider international community. This will need to give full coverage to the threat posed by Saddam Hussein, including his WMD, and the legal justification for action.

First Blood

Had I been blogging when 20/20 cricket started a couple of seasons ago, I would have been very sniffy about it. I'm a confirmed lover of the long game, noble warriors in white battling it out over 5 days.

But the first international 20/20 match in England has just finished down at Hampshire's Rose Bowl. England v Australia. The old enemy. And we murdered them.

England 179/8, 20 overs
Australia 79, all out 14.3 overs

As an ex-Yorkshire member I've seen a lot of Darren Gough, but I've never seen him so fired up as he was this evening. It was personal. He won. We won.

Donald Bradman, Richie Benaud, David Boon, Alan Border, Dennis Lillee, Rodney Marsh, Donald Bradman, Donald Bradman, can you hear me?

Your boys took a hell of a beating.

I just hope I'm not made to eat these words come July & August.


Gough & Flintoff

Why

do the people with the loudest car sound systems always have the worst taste in music?

Just wondering....

Manchester Buccaneers

Super satire of Glazer's take over at the Nike Trafford Ballpark. Probably written by a Leeds United fan with a sense of humour. You do the punchline.

Pledge

The No2ID card campaign now have their own pledge site for those of us who want nothing to do with ID cards.

Pop along and sign up.

Genius

Meme-age from a sagacious blonde.

Your IQ Is 125

Your Logical Intelligence is Above Average Your Verbal Intelligence is Genius Your Mathematical Intelligence is Exceptional Your General Knowledge is Genius

A Quick and Dirty IQ Test

Shining on

The credibility of the Live 8 gig next month has shot up immeasurably in my mind with the news that Pink Floyd are reforming for the show.
I am though annoyed that so many people on the radio are saying that ‘the original Pink Floyd’ are reforming. Unless Syd Barrett has come back from the 3 year acid trip he took in the late 60’s it isn’t the original line up at all. Syd was the creative force behind the formation of the band and all their early recordings. Like many a genius his light shone brightly but only briefly.

Roger Waters then became the driving force of the band until 1981 when he decided that, as a band, they were a spent force. There followed years of legal wrangling over ownership of the name Pink Floyd which finally went to Dave Gilmour. By the mid 80’s Waters had a new band which released the mediocre Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking and the (in my opinion) superb Radio KAOS. A reconstituted Floyd released some formulaic rubbish which sounded like Pink Floyd but it didn’t have any soul. Both bands embarked on tours and in 1987(ish, maybe '88) I saw Waters at Wembley Arena then Floyd at Wembley Stadium within a few months of each other. Waters put on by far the better show. The sound and effects were superb. He wove old and new songs into a tight thematic show about the world being saved from a nuclear holocaust by a Welsh lad in a wheelchair. Pink Floyd live suffered from the same problem as their albums in that it certainly sounded like Pink Floyd, but something was lacking. It ticked all the boxes, there were the huge puppets, flying pigs, collapsing walls but no heart.

Come Live 8 day I doubt Pink Floyd will get the chance to do more than 3 songs (I assume Money will be one of them) but if they really have put their differences aside a full tour must be on the cards. What about the opening gig of the new Wembley Stadium next year? I’d certainly be there.

A good start

It's not all bad news.

G8 reaches deal for world's poor

The world's eight richest countries have reached a debt relief deal to help the world's poorest nations.

The move provides relief for 18 nations, mostly in Africa, freeing up revenue for spending on health, education and development.

The agreement was announced at a meeting of G8 finance ministers in London on Saturday.

Britain, which will host a summit of G8 leaders next month, has vowed to make poverty reduction a priority.

The plan, which was devised by the UK, secured the backing of the US administration on Friday - paving the way for its adoption at the London meeting.

Law being an ass

For a few months I was an NTL customer. I found them to be the most incompetent, unreliable, disorganised, shambolic and complacent company that I have ever had to deal with. My problems stemmed from the fact that I moved house. NTL’s computer system couldn’t cope with that so my the account for the old house was ‘closed’ and I was given a new account for the new house. Except the old account wasn't closed and NTL billed me twice. Even after receiving two letters from the Chief Executive assuring me that that my account was clear and not in debt I was still chased by NTL’s hired gun lawyers, who (I was told by one such lawyer) also considered NTL a shambles but were making a good living out of it.

Ashley Gibbins is therefore a hero. And he’s been found innocent in a court of law. If NTL spent the money they have wasted prosecuting Mr Gibbins on improving their service then maybe people would be less inclined to abuse them in the first place.

Caller swears revenge on helpline

CUSTOMERS who rang the helpline of one of Britain’s biggest cable television companies were stunned when they ran into a message featuring a tirade of four-letter words.
“Hello, you are through to NTL customer services,” it said. “We don’t give a fuck about you, basically, and we are not going to handle any of your complaints. Just fuck off and leave us alone. Get a life.”

What they were listening to was the voice of Ashley Gibbins, an irate customer who had discovered that it was possible to change the company’s recorded message asking customers to hold the line. He was wreaking revenge for being put on hold for an hour. NTL complained to the police and Mr Gibbins, a taxi driver from Redcar, Cleveland, was arrested and taken to court accused of making a grossly offensive message. Teesside magistrates decided yesterday that the message, although offensive, did not reach the “grossly offensive” standard for prosecution under the Communications Act 2003 and acquitted him. Mr Gibbins, 26, who was trying to order a broadband internet connection, stumbled across the facility to change NTL’s recorded message while pressing the “star” key on his telephone to access a number of options. John Nixon, his solicitor, said: “He pressed his star key twice and that gave him access to the command centre, so he was able to record a new message. NTL admitted that it was a serious security flaw in their system.”

Vicky Turner, 39, from Billingham, Teesside, was one of the NTL customers who heard the message during the two hours before it was removed. “I was horrified and shocked,” she said. “But I have to admit that the second time I heard it I had to laugh because I agreed with what the message said.” She said that she rang the line to buy a Middlesbrough football match, which was on pay-to-view. “I was put on hold for 1½ hours, by which time the match had started, so there was no point buying it. But when I did get through to a human being I was cut off. I thought I would call to complain, but I got the message first.”

Malcolm Padley, a spokesman for NTL, said: “We are as outraged as any customer who tried to contact the line. We absolutely apologise for any offence caused.” Mr Gibbins faced six months in jail or a £5,000 fine. He did not get broadband because the company removed him from its list of customers. Alan Byfield, the chairman of the magistrates, said that he and his colleagues had consulted The Chambers Dictionary and decided that the words were offensive but not grossly offensive. A spokeswoman for the Crown Prosecution Service said: “The main question was whether the message was deemed to be offensive or grossly offensive.”

So there you have it. The word fuck is offensive, but not grossly offensive. I wonder why its still beeped so often on TV.

And speaking of wasting money on futile prosecutions, how does this sound? Ridiculous, do I hear?

Student arrested after 'gay' horse jibe

A student at Balliol College was arrested and detained in custody for a night after he verbally abused a police horse early on Monday morning. Sam Brown, a third year English student, had his fingerprints taken and was released with a fine of £80 following the incident which took place on Cornmarket Street.

Brown was fined for “causing harassment, harm or distress”, after he repeatedly called the officer’s horse “gay”.

Brown and his friends, including former Balliol JCR President Daniel Konrad-Cooper had emerged from the Cellar Bar and were surprised to encounter two mounted policemen.

Brown inquired, “How do you feel about your horse being gay?” of one of the policemen, stating that his colleague’s was clearly not gay. After repeated comments on the sexuality of his horse, and despite warnings from the policeman about his behaviour, Brown’s offer of an apology to the horse was rejected and he was handcuffed and taken by the officers to the police station.

The arrest was made at 2.20am on Monday morning, and Brown was in a state which he described as “pissed out of my head”.

He had tried to escape the police by hiding in a doorway in Ship Street, but was found after back up had been called for. A total of six policemen were involved in making the arrest.

One member of the party, Matthew Williams, a former LGB rep of his college, told the policeman that he found it offensive that the term “gay” was being interpreted as a derogatory insult.

Brown said that the police officers had been “very nice about it”, adding, “I think they realised how absurd the charge was.” He was accompanied to the station by one of his friends, who kept a “vigil” outside his cell. Brown reported his cell to be “comfortable”, but admitted that his state of drunkenness was such that he was not particularly aware of his surroundings. “I felt more sorry for my friend who was stuck in the freezing corridor”, he said.

Police horses have feelings too you know.