Sunday, February 19, 2006
Saturday, February 18, 2006
Friday, February 17, 2006
Any Port in a Political Storm
via The Daily Kos - It would seem that, not content with stitching up all the juicy contracts to rebuild Iraq and then being handed to Haliburton (who have no connection whatsoever with the Bush Administration at all, lest we forget) Dubya and the Neoncons (sounds like an Episode of Dr Who) have signed over the running of most of New York City's port services to - wait for it - Dubai Ports World. Apart from sounding like a particularly uninspiring theme park, it would appear that DPW are trying hard to get a foothold in a range of locations, following their takeover of UK-based P&O. For a measly 6.8 billion bucks.
There has been criticism from all sides of Congress, and dark murmurings are being made about the lack of background checks on the directors of DPW, and the potential for security breaches. But that kind of thing doesn't happen in New York, does it? *cough*September 11th*cough*.
It's less House of Bush, House of Saud - more House of Bush, House of Fraud.
There has been criticism from all sides of Congress, and dark murmurings are being made about the lack of background checks on the directors of DPW, and the potential for security breaches. But that kind of thing doesn't happen in New York, does it? *cough*September 11th*cough*.
It's less House of Bush, House of Saud - more House of Bush, House of Fraud.
Thursday, February 16, 2006
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
These Cheney Cartoons are getting better and better
Chip Bok has got a beauty right here.
Given the fact that Harry Whittington is now back in intensive care, and having suffered a heart attack, Cheney's spin doctors must be doing back flips trying to figure out what they are going to do if the 78-year-old dies as a result of his injuries.
Harry Reid (Democratic Leader of the Senate) described Cheney's non-statement on the matter so far as "typical of the Bush White House".
Given the fact that Harry Whittington is now back in intensive care, and having suffered a heart attack, Cheney's spin doctors must be doing back flips trying to figure out what they are going to do if the 78-year-old dies as a result of his injuries.
Harry Reid (Democratic Leader of the Senate) described Cheney's non-statement on the matter so far as "typical of the Bush White House".
NYT in 'Knickers-Twist Interface' scenario
The New York Times has gotten a bit hot under the collar about a bunch of blogs - The 'Top 50', they call them - who are self perpetuating themselves by linking to each other.
Right.
Isn't that what Blogs are meant to do? If they have content that inter-relates, then they link... no great conspiracy there.
But, actually, it's just a thinly veiled excuse to publish a top 50 blogs chart, albeit with a nice PDF graphic file showing the linkage.
Bruce Sterling, bless him, you remember - the one who used to be teamed up with William Gibson, but then went on to write decreasingly successful books - also has picked up on this in his blog on Wired.com. He's not impressed. But we shouldn't be too worried about him, as the next item down on his blog is about some strange character who has a lot of pictures of cigarette packets on a website. Bruce marvels at this -"This unknown guy's collection of cigarette packs is awe-inspiring."
Well, that's nice, then.
Right.
Isn't that what Blogs are meant to do? If they have content that inter-relates, then they link... no great conspiracy there.
But, actually, it's just a thinly veiled excuse to publish a top 50 blogs chart, albeit with a nice PDF graphic file showing the linkage.
Bruce Sterling, bless him, you remember - the one who used to be teamed up with William Gibson, but then went on to write decreasingly successful books - also has picked up on this in his blog on Wired.com. He's not impressed. But we shouldn't be too worried about him, as the next item down on his blog is about some strange character who has a lot of pictures of cigarette packets on a website. Bruce marvels at this -"This unknown guy's collection of cigarette packs is awe-inspiring."
Well, that's nice, then.
Monday, February 13, 2006
Oh Dear - did Adam buy an iPod Nano for Christmas?
Mr Sherwin stands archly in the way of progress, not to say that he is bitter, or anything. Tim has him banged to rights pretty good as well.
Update: Ha bloody ha
Update: Ha bloody ha
It's the Reprehensible Club!
Gordo McBrown really is swinging on a star these days. Apart from a scarily Blair-like performance on the Today programme this morning, he seems to be rather fuzzy on the actual role he now occupies. Which, he should be reminded, is not Prime Minister - and when the election comes around, he'll found out exactly how much he's not.
I suppose that since the imperious leader can't even be arsed to come back from South Africa to lose the ID card vote tonight, El Gordo feels he's really quids in. Git.
His stock price is not showing any real improvement, either.
Nick Assinder has a rather good piece on it here.
I suppose that since the imperious leader can't even be arsed to come back from South Africa to lose the ID card vote tonight, El Gordo feels he's really quids in. Git.
His stock price is not showing any real improvement, either.
Nick Assinder has a rather good piece on it here.
Wednesday, February 08, 2006
Monday, February 06, 2006
Don't go round there!
Get Me Tickets has gone into insolvency. Oh dear, how sad, never mind.
Their company address is listed as being here:
5, Denmark Street
London WC2H 8LU
UK.
This is a map of the location:
Streetmap Link
From the GMT Website after the Beeb lifted the lid on the dubious practices last March...
"Regarding the situation, Michael Rangos, Managing Director of Getmetickets.net, observed: 'Getmetickets.net is extremely proud of its excellent service, the devotion of it staff and its reputation as the 'front row specialists'. While we would have preferred to be able to provide tickets for the Glastonbury Festival this year, we consider it in the best interests of the Festival that we take these steps. The huge percentage of returning satisfied customers amongst our exquisite clientele is a unique testament to the company's reliability, professionalism and authenticity. It is to be hoped that BBC Watchdog's inaccurate reporting will be retracted and a more balanced, accurate portrayal of the company be presented in due course.'
Getmetickets.net continues to provide premium priced 'front row' or 'hard-to-get' tickets for most 'sold out' events via its website www.getmetickets.net or the hotline 020 7240 9999.
For further information:
Getmetickets.net
Michael Rangos
Managing Director
71 Endell Street
London WC2H 9AJ"
Furthermore, their domain admin contact is:
James Barrington-Brown (my, aren't we posh?)
and his phone number is: +44 (0) 870 474 8888
Not that I'm suggesting that you -
a) Go round there
b) call JBB up and let him know he's fronting for scheisters.
because that would be wrong.
Their company address is listed as being here:
5, Denmark Street
London WC2H 8LU
UK.
This is a map of the location:
Streetmap Link
From the GMT Website after the Beeb lifted the lid on the dubious practices last March...
"Regarding the situation, Michael Rangos, Managing Director of Getmetickets.net, observed: 'Getmetickets.net is extremely proud of its excellent service, the devotion of it staff and its reputation as the 'front row specialists'. While we would have preferred to be able to provide tickets for the Glastonbury Festival this year, we consider it in the best interests of the Festival that we take these steps. The huge percentage of returning satisfied customers amongst our exquisite clientele is a unique testament to the company's reliability, professionalism and authenticity. It is to be hoped that BBC Watchdog's inaccurate reporting will be retracted and a more balanced, accurate portrayal of the company be presented in due course.'
Getmetickets.net continues to provide premium priced 'front row' or 'hard-to-get' tickets for most 'sold out' events via its website www.getmetickets.net or the hotline 020 7240 9999.
For further information:
Getmetickets.net
Michael Rangos
Managing Director
71 Endell Street
London WC2H 9AJ"
Furthermore, their domain admin contact is:
James Barrington-Brown (my, aren't we posh?)
and his phone number is: +44 (0) 870 474 8888
Not that I'm suggesting that you -
a) Go round there
b) call JBB up and let him know he's fronting for scheisters.
because that would be wrong.
Friday, February 03, 2006
So, just run that past me one more time, would you?
Jack Straw Showing Dismay over the 'Mohammed Cartoon' RowJack 'Weasel' Straw has chimed in on the "Cartoons Provoke The Wrath of Allah" debate/outrage/storm in a teacup. Never one to miss a bandwagon onto which he is singularly unfit to jump onto, *cough*Uzbekistan*cough*Human Rights*cough*, Janus Jack has let it be known that he finds it 'disrespectful' for European media organisations to be re-printing these cartoons.
Well, fuck him. He was elected (sadly) in the U.K., and even though his brief is the foreign affairs desk, other countries, let alone their media have absolutely no reason to listen to him and his whining.
Shaykh Ibhrahim Mogra, from the Muslim Council of Britain:
"Muslims will respect the rights of others to choose a way of life for themselves or a religion. But at the same time we reserve the right to disagree most emphatically with those lifestyles, just as others have a right to disagree with our lifestyle. This is the most offensive thing - even the vilification of God is not as offensive as this," he said.
So burning Danish flags, surrounding foreign embassies at gunpoint, that's 'respect', is it? BBC
Thursday, February 02, 2006
Happy Happy Joy Joy
And the hits just keep on coming.
So, it would now seem that freedom of the press is a relative thing in France these days.
So, a big 'Well Done' to Raymond Lakah, whose fearless stand on this issue shows that Western European press can't be bullied.
Ooops - sorry, got that wrong - instead, sack the guilty party, and let's all move on; despite the fact that the journos on the paper all came out in support of the fallen hack.
And, lest we forget, surrounding the EU offices in Gaza over the publication of a few cartoons isn't an over-reaction. Oh, no.
And of course, destroying 1,600 year-old statues isn't racial vandalism at it's lowest, then I really don't know.
Let's see how long Saudi Arabia manages to maintain it's embargo in Danish-produced insulin.
It's a good thing that strict Muslims don't touch alcohol, as I suspect an embargo on French Champagne might be a bit of a tricky one to enforce.
So, it would now seem that freedom of the press is a relative thing in France these days.
So, a big 'Well Done' to Raymond Lakah, whose fearless stand on this issue shows that Western European press can't be bullied.
Ooops - sorry, got that wrong - instead, sack the guilty party, and let's all move on; despite the fact that the journos on the paper all came out in support of the fallen hack.
And, lest we forget, surrounding the EU offices in Gaza over the publication of a few cartoons isn't an over-reaction. Oh, no.
And of course, destroying 1,600 year-old statues isn't racial vandalism at it's lowest, then I really don't know.
Let's see how long Saudi Arabia manages to maintain it's embargo in Danish-produced insulin.
It's a good thing that strict Muslims don't touch alcohol, as I suspect an embargo on French Champagne might be a bit of a tricky one to enforce.
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
The Devil makes work for idle Cartoonists
Tolerence, a sorely undervalued concept - well in some places, at least.
Freedom of the press? Well, yes, but within limits.
Al Jazeera - the 'fury' of Muslims across the world after two different European publications printed a bunch of not-especially-good cartoons; Firstly was the Danish publication Jyllands-Posten, who are now receiving bomb threats, death threats and more besides. Now, in a wonderfully 'fuck you' kind of stylee, France Soir has decided to reprint the cartoons under the winner of a headline 'Yes, we have the right to caricature God'.
Serge Faubert, the editor, seems to need to brush up on his diplomatic skills, bless him - "Enough lessons from these reactionary bigots! There is nothing in these incriminated cartoons that intends to be racist or denigrate any community as such, some are funny, others less so. That's it. That is why we have decided to publish them."
So far, Saudi Arabia, that bastion of free-speech and human rights (but that doesn't matter, because Dubya likes the royals there) has gotten the right hump about the matter, withdrawing their ambassador from Denmark, and doubtless France is going to be next, as well as threatening all kinds of retaliation.
And, just in case you don't have access to today France Soir, here's a choice selection of these cartoon gems*
*They're not all that good, but this just rather goes to prove the point.
Other Top Stories this hour:
On Dec. 2, 3,000 Muslims gathered at the Jamia Mosque in Sangia Hill and called for the elimination of Christians and the public hanging of a Christian accused of blasphemy.
Last year, on Oct. 29th, a group of unidentified machete-wielding assailants attacked a group of girls, on their way to class at a private Christian high school in Indonesia, beheading three of them and seriously wounding a fourth, police said.
Well, I don't necessarily have a bacon sandwich every morning, but this seems a bit strong.
** Update: The Danish Embassy in Syria had to be evacuated due to a bomb threat. Reuters
*** Another Update: Die Welt Online have finally got some of the images up on t' web. As well as a good comment piece. The German's NUJ bloke didn't seem to keen on the idea of the reprint, though.
Freedom of the press? Well, yes, but within limits.
Al Jazeera - the 'fury' of Muslims across the world after two different European publications printed a bunch of not-especially-good cartoons; Firstly was the Danish publication Jyllands-Posten, who are now receiving bomb threats, death threats and more besides. Now, in a wonderfully 'fuck you' kind of stylee, France Soir has decided to reprint the cartoons under the winner of a headline 'Yes, we have the right to caricature God'.
Serge Faubert, the editor, seems to need to brush up on his diplomatic skills, bless him - "Enough lessons from these reactionary bigots! There is nothing in these incriminated cartoons that intends to be racist or denigrate any community as such, some are funny, others less so. That's it. That is why we have decided to publish them."
So far, Saudi Arabia, that bastion of free-speech and human rights (but that doesn't matter, because Dubya likes the royals there) has gotten the right hump about the matter, withdrawing their ambassador from Denmark, and doubtless France is going to be next, as well as threatening all kinds of retaliation.
And, just in case you don't have access to today France Soir, here's a choice selection of these cartoon gems*
*They're not all that good, but this just rather goes to prove the point.
Other Top Stories this hour:
On Dec. 2, 3,000 Muslims gathered at the Jamia Mosque in Sangia Hill and called for the elimination of Christians and the public hanging of a Christian accused of blasphemy.
Last year, on Oct. 29th, a group of unidentified machete-wielding assailants attacked a group of girls, on their way to class at a private Christian high school in Indonesia, beheading three of them and seriously wounding a fourth, police said.
Well, I don't necessarily have a bacon sandwich every morning, but this seems a bit strong.
** Update: The Danish Embassy in Syria had to be evacuated due to a bomb threat. Reuters
*** Another Update: Die Welt Online have finally got some of the images up on t' web. As well as a good comment piece. The German's NUJ bloke didn't seem to keen on the idea of the reprint, though.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)