Stickler - can the MSHA produce an honest, report about the Crandall Canyon mine disaster with him in charge?

Richard Stickler is the man who will oversee the federal government's investigation into the disaster that has trapped six workers (3 Mexicans) in the Crandall Canyon coal mine in Utah for 15 days and in which 3 would be rescuers have died. He was appointed less than a year ago...This is what Lord Patel said at the time... Posted Wednesday, October 25, 2006 Bush the Infallible, the Immaculate... does he have divine guidance ?

" ....KING George has now appointed Richard Stickler to head the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) in deliberate defiance of the Senate, which he is allowed to do without Senate approval , when Congress is out of session.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist was forced to cancel a vote on Stickler's confirmation last June due the lack of Senate support for Stickler's nomination. Then in August, in an unprecedented action, the Senate returned Stickler's nomination to the White House before it went on break. Refusing to take the hint, the President renominated Stickler at the beginning of September. The Senate unamused and unmoved by this direct confrontation on their authroity again returned the nomination to the White House.

Senators Ted Kennedy and Robert Byrd have led the opposition to Stickler, citing his industry background and the lack of commitment to MSHA reform that he displayed at his confirmation hearing. The AFL-CIO, United Mine Workers of America, United Steelworkers, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, and the International Brothers of Boilermakers have all called on Bush to withdraw the nomination.

Kennedy called for a new nominee:

“We are in the midst of a mine safety crisis — 58 miners have already died this year, more than any year since 2002. (See actual figs from Dep of Labour)

Thirty-eight coal miners and 20 metal/non-metal miners have died in the workplace this year which began with the tragic January 2 Sago Mine disaster in which 12 coal miners died."

On his website Senator Kennedy said of Stickler

"Mr. Stickler has spent the overwhelming part of his career as a coal ndustry executive, focused on profits and production, not on worker safety. In fact, mines where he was in charge had injury rates far above the national average.... During his tenure as head of the Pennsylvania Bureau of Deep Mine Safety, he was well known for granting exceptions from safety rules for mining companies. He even bent critical rules designed to prevent mine fires on conveyor belts and to guarantee that miners could reach safe places to protect
themselves from runaway railcars......

...... read on at the website how mining company interests were protected
and promoted

Bush as ever , was not listening. His nominee, with an appalling record of overseeing mines with incredibly poor safety records stood for nothing.. nobody was going to tell George Bush what to do. Fuck the Senate - they only represent the people. It was a dialogue of the deaf on his side.

Read more here by Max Follmer at Huffington Post August 15th " Mine Safety Czar Richard Stickler: Another Bush Fox Guarding the Henhouse "

Liberal Avenger also reminds us that it is a company Murray Energy Corp,(36 mines onlyone unionised - with UMW) run by Robert Murray that operates the mine that collapsed in Utah (he purchased it in August).The safety record of his mines is abysmal, by spreading money around Washington, he was able to continue operating mines that repeatedly violated safety regulations

Murray is a man with a lot of political influence and as Tim Thompson has found out, now an ex district manager for the Federal Mine Safety and Health Administration, a lot of clout which he has been happy to use to obtain his removal from the MSHA.

Facing Thompson at a meeting in Morgantown.Va. Murray said...“Mitch McConnell calls me one of the five finest men in America, and last time I checked he was sleeping with your boss,” ... referring to the senior GOP senator from Kentucky. The quote was repeated in an Oct. 2006 Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader article on McConnell’s political influence.

McConnell - the Republican leader in the Senate - is married to Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, who oversees MSHA, has an MBA from Harvard, the first Kentuckian in the President's Cabinet since 1945, and the first Asian nominated by George Bush and has more honorary degrees than you can shake a stick at.

The Obfuscation Report posts .... "Murray's mines produce more than 20 million tons of coal annually ( UK will produce approx 40 Mn. tonnes this year) , according to the Cleveland Plain-Dealer. His companies include Ohio Valley Coal Co., Maple Creek Mining, Inc., KenAmerican Resources, Inc., American Coal Co. and PennAmerican Coal.

Robert Gehrke of the Salt Lake Tribune reported this week that Murray's Galatia mine in southern Illinois has racked up 2,787 violations over the past two years. MSHA has proposed more than $2.4 million in fines at Galatia, according to Gehrke's reporting. (Murray routinely challenges government fines and many are now on appeal. He has paid $588,000 and is delinquent to date on $116,000. Of those, 660 violations were considered significant and substantial, meaning the hazard could "result in an injury or illness of a reasonably serious nature." MSHA issued 94 orders requiring safety issues to be fixed immediately.

Another Murray-owned company - Ken American Resources - and four of its top employees were convicted in a federal court in Kentucky of conspiring to violate federal mine safety rules. 4 mine officials were convicted of 10 counts of illegally using improper ventilation, using two continuous mining machines and lying to federal investigators about the practice. KenAmerican was ordered to pay a $306,000 fine.

A judge later threw out part of the verdict, but the company was ordered to pay $306,000 in fines, an amount federal prosecutors considered too lenient. "

See also his early history from the UMWA files. Promises Made, Promises Broken - Exposing the Real Robert Murray

Alicia Colon in the New York Sun April 3rd 2007 in an article "A CEO with Spine"
quotes his testimony on March 20 before the House Energy and Mineral Resources Subcommittee, titled "Toward a Clean Energy Future: Energy Policy and Climate Change on Public Lands."

" America is dependent on our coal because it is abundant, with some of our best deposits located on public lands; it is affordable; and it is critical to our energy security to protect all Americans from the hostile and unstable governments from which much of our country's energy is currently imported."

He may have a bad record on mine safety, but he knows where that thar coal is.... anyone taking bets that he doesn't get his hands on it, the same way as as the loggers in Oregon ?

Government mine inspectors have issued 325 citations against the Utah mine since January 2004, according to Federal MSHA online records. Of those, 116 were what the government considered "significant and substantial," meaning they are likely to cause injury.

Murray testified in June this year in a hearing before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. Challenged on his safety record by the feisty Californian heavy user of the lip gloss industry, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. he retorted "My employees are important to me and I take their safety to bed every night," Murray said. He wagged his finger at his carefully coiffured tormentor , "My safety record today is one of the best in the coal industry."

Hands up thos who think Stickler is going to say any different.

North American Security and Prosperity Partnership

The North American Security and Prosperity Partnership is taking place August 20 and 21, 2007 in Montebello, Quebec with 30 of the top North American CEOs who represent the interests of the North American Competitiveness Council, ****George Bush, Felipe Calderon and Stephen Harper, surrounded by a 25 Km "security zone" . Few Americans, Canadians and Mexicans even know of this meeting and its significance.


Joint Party Statement of the Communist Party of Canada, Comminist Party of USA and the Partido de los Comunistas de México, Partido Popular Socialista de México

on the August 20-21, 2007 Summit and the SPP

The August 20-21 Summit of Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Presidents George W. Bush and Felipe Calderón, and the “Security and Prosperity Partnership” (SPP) deal which will be the centerpiece of their meeting, constitutes a grave threat to the democratic and social rights of the peoples of Canada, the United States and Mexico, to the national sovereignty of our respective countries, and to the cause of peace.

We, the undersigned parties, join with trade union, anti-war, environmental and other social and people’s movements in denouncing the corporate-driven agenda which the SPP agreement seeks to foist on the peoples of our countries, and in urging the widest possible mobilization of labour and other popular forces to stop and defeat this dangerous and reactionary ‘initiative’.

The real class forces driving the SPP are the biggest corporations and banks, acting through various ‘think tanks’ such as the Canadian Council of Chief Executives (CCCE), the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (CIDE), the Conference Board of Canada, and the (US) Council on Foreign Relations, among many others. A newly-formed “North American Competitiveness Council” composed of 10 leading corporate CEOs from each country, has been directing the SPP process to ensure that “governments look to the private sector to tell them what needs to be done.” Among the firms represented are Lockheed Martin, Wal-Mart, Exxon, General Motors, Home Depot, GE, Ford, Wal-Mart, Merck and Chevron.

According to its corporate sponsors, the SPP aims to “deepen North American integration… transforming all three nations and establishing the dynamics of a new continental economy.”

It would create a common

1. “North American security architecture”,
2. “secure the energy resources and strategic networks needed to remain competitive”
3. Impose a single “regional regulatory harmonization” over virtually all aspects of economic and social life – “agriculture, water, health and emergency services, energy (electrical, nuclear, hydro, and gas and oil), transportation systems (air, roads, rail, ports, and waterways), information and telecommunications networks, and banking and financial systems.”

In other words, the SPP is a ‘fast track’ to a “North American Union” – one firmly under the domination of U.S. imperialism and its transnationals and banks. It would consolidate corporate control over the energy, water, and other natural resources of the continent, further erode labor and democratic rights, accelerate the privatization of public services such as health care and education, and strengthen the drive to militarization under the Bush Administration’s so-called “War on Terror”.

Workers, women, Aboriginal peoples, immigrants and people of color, and all those striving to defend democratic rights, oppose war and aggression, and preserve our environment – that is, the vast majority of the people in all our three countries – have a common interest in derailing this dangerous, pro-corporate plan. As neighboring peoples, we stand for close cooperation and friendship across our borders. We categorically reject any attempt to dictate our future and trash the sovereign rights of our peoples by the likes of Exxon, Wal-Mart and Lockheed Martin, and their right-wing governments.

Unite to stop and defeat the “Security and Prosperity Partnership”

See the SPP Website for their FAQ's and their anodyne answers here eg;

Myth: U.S. Government officials sponsored a secret SPP planning meeting in Banff, Alberta in September 2006.

Fact: The U.S. Government did not sponsor the meeting in Banff. The North American Forum, (Chairman the ever present neo-con George Schultz. Ed.) a private initiative that is separate from the U.S. Government, hosted the September 12-14, 2006 conference “Continental Prosperity in the New Security Environment.” Academics, businesspersons, private citizens, and government officials from the U.S., Mexican, and Canadian governments attended the conference. The North American Forum is not a product of the SPP.

Ho.Ho.Ho. (see this)

Read Linda McQuaig Guradian Comment is Free August 7th 2007 "SPP-eak no evil"... "What is the North American Security and Prosperity Partnership? That's for them to know and you to find out. Good luck."

Here she shows is how it works ..." .... Canada recently raised the limit on the amount of pesticide residue allowed on fruits and vegetables, in order to bring Canadian standards in line with weaker US standards.

This suits the interest of agribusiness, which considered the tougher Canadian standard a "trade barrier" to the easy export of American fruits and vegetables to the Canadian market. But one person's trade barrier is another person's dinner. "

****
The North American Competitiveness Council (NACC) was convened for the first time June 15, 2006, by Carlos M. Gutierrez, Secretary, U.S. Department of Commerce, with "virtually no mention in the the Press / TV Jerome Corsi reported July 11, 2006, in Human Events Online.

The Council is an "apparently extra-constitutional advisory group organized by the Department of Commerce (DOC) under the auspices" of the SPP (see Sourcewatch)

Emphasising Gluteals.EuropeanOlympic class Stiletto Heel racing - Amazing Pictures

Lord Patel was introduced into the odd world of foot fetishism and masochism when reading as a teenager , Christopher Isherwoods's Mr Norris Changes Trains (In the US The Last of Mr Norris) which portrayed in words the louche world of Berlin nightlife in Nazi Germany of the early 30's before it's descent into lunacy, which George Grosz also captured with his acid pen. (who emigrated to the US in January 1933).

So the reports of the 2nd Annual "Stiletto Run" in Berlin came as no surprise. This keenly fought competition by 100 glamorous madchen , over 100 metres in high heels - 7 centimeters (2.75 inches) high and no more than 1.5 centimeters (0.6 inches) wide at the tip was won in an astonishing 14.7 seconds on Saturday by 24 year old Berlin office worker Denise Hanitsch.

"Make your strides as big as possible and never let your foot roll back onto the heel." she claimed to Bild was the secret of her success - and the experience of coming 2nd last year when one of her heels broke.

Was it worth it ? Well 1st prize was a €10,000 ($13,500) gift certificate for Berlin's swanky Kaufhaus des Westens (KaDeWe) department store, the Harvey Nicks of Berlin. (You Tube video)

However after the necessary and detailed research it is evident that Glamour magazine has been holding similiar (but unconnected) events - March 14th in Amsterdam and a similiar event was held by the Russian edition of Glamour magazine on August 1st in Moscow . (Video here)You may also enjoy an extensive gallery of fine pictures of the event, samples above.

Maybe these don't have quite the draw that the Annual Street High Heel race in Du Pont Neighbourhood which stated in 1987 and draws thousands to watch scores of drag queens in stiletto heels, sequined gowns and stylish hairdos - race down 17th Street between P and Q streets.

The next step(?) is evidently to set up a 10 Downing Street petition for this to be introduced as an Olympic event.

Government blog "monitoring" - first step to regulation, censorship ...

The Public Servant daily online had an interesting item on Thursday 16th August 2007 ..

Unit to monitor anti-government weblogs

The Media Monitoring Unit (MMU), part of the Cabinet Office's Central Office of Information (COI), is considering how to add blogs and forum entries into its regular summaries of public policy coverage that are distributed to government ministers.

The summaries are designed to give ministers and departmental communications teams an early warning to issues that are rising up the public's agenda.

It is also seen as a safeguard to prevent departments being caught unawares by debates that are already in full swing on the internet.

The director of the MMU, Clarence Mitchell, admitted that there were several bloggers out there that the government took increasingly seriously.

"There's a whole level of debate taking place online which simply didn?t exist before and departments feel they need to be fully engaged in that," he said.

Mitchell said that the service would not try and intervene in monitored blogs, (Perish the thought says the Lady Dame Jane Pauline Neville Jones Fan Club) but merely give the government more chance to respond to comments, like they do through other methods, like media statements.

Enough government departments would need to be signed up for the cost of the unit to be covered, and, if successful, a service could be operational by the end of 2007.

Clarence Mitchell has of course been heavily involved in providing free Government media services to the McCann family in their heartbreaking collection of funds, to keep them in the manner to which they have become accustomed whilst somebody looks for a daughter they appear to have mislaid - which has probably precipitated the most vigorous debate on UK blogs ever. (See Lord patel's post on the subject)

Linda of Birmingham has commented acutely on this at the PS Online report.

This seems to confirm the view, held by many that blogs and their authors, are subject to monitoring already... it was certainly the case when Foot and Mouth erupted mysteriously at Pirbright as we experienced intense interest from all sorts of Government departments and Agencies, Press, and TV.

Call us old fashioned but this seems a sinister (but not unexpected) turn in the relationship of the Government to their electorate.

Prison Law points out that the FT covered this here on 15th August.

Prison Law also has this interesting extract from The FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin April, 2001by Wayne D. Lord, Monique C. Boudreaux, Kenneth V. Lanning . A Developmental Perspective relating to Child Abduction cases.

FALSE REPORTS

Investigators also encounter cases involving false allegations of abduction. Typically, a parent or primary caregiver perpetrates these cases. They report a child as missing or abducted to hide their involvement in the child's death or conceal their knowledge of the child's location. Such was the case of Susan Smith, who fastened her two sons into their car seats and watched the car coast into a lake. Subsequently, Smith told police that an armed (black) carjacker had taken both her car and her children. A timely and thorough investigation conducted by experienced law enforcement personnel ultimately proved the fallacy of this allegation. In another case, a mother reported her teenage daughter missing and claimed to have received a telephone ransom demand. An intensive 3-day investigation located the daughter at a friend's house where she had been staying with her mother's knowledge and approval. An overwhelming need for attention appeared to motivate the mother's false report.

Read more about Susan Smith here.

Did China trigger Market Meltdown ?

In a very relaxed mood, as dwelling in that warm glow, when Manchester United are thrashed 1-0 by the Blues in our "Derby" match, orders were given to the pantry to break out the Bacardi Breezers and so a slightly lightheaded Toni Fabuloso has been providing me with some long overdue Ayurvedic massage - well that's we call it - something about total body karma she murmers soothingly.

Drifting (as it tends to do at times like this) mindlessly, several possibilities popped up, Collateralised Debt, Blackstone, IPO, China, slump, dollar dives...

Let's begin somewhere near the beginning ...

Stephen A. Schwarzman, 60 (roommate at Yale of Dubya and also member of the Skull and Bones ) is Chairma and CEO of the Blackstone Group LP and co founder with Peter G. Peterson 81 (who is Chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations). This "blue chip" high powered outfit in February this year "purchased" Equity Office Properties in the the largest leveraged buyout ever which required US$23 Bn of funds - a few days later Stephen invited us all to his glitzy party (Rod Stewart provided the entertainment ) to celebrate his 60th Birthday on February 13th. (Cost - US$6 Mn. , but who's counting ?).

On May 20th the Chinese Gubment announced that it's new un-named Investment vehicle ( headed by Antony Leung, Hong Kong's financial secretary from 2001 to 2003, appointed in January 2007) was buying into Blackstone with US$3Bn ahead of the forthcoming IPO at 95% of the IPO price, (The Chinese State holds some US$1.3 Trillion US Treasury Bonds ) . This will give them 10% of Blackstone (for an agreed 4 years) but this was in the form of non voting "investor units" not shares so creeps under regulatory radar. "I see it as the Chinese paying tuition to learn a little bit about how to invest in the rest of the world. " said Trevor Houser on APM radio. - Really ? Sounds like very expensive distance learning.

"To the extent that the state investment company stays below the 10 percent threshold for governmental review...and invests in securities that are liquid, which this security eventually will be, that's a very easy way for the state investment company to put large amounts of money to work with minimum to no controversy," Schwarzman is quoted saying - it also meant that he and his pal could up the IPO offer from US$4Bn. to US$7Bn. (and pocket US$3Bn. more of the readies)

This investment puzzled some folks because the last time the Chinese Gubment tried to invest in the US big style, was when Chinese oil company CNOOC tried to acquire California based Unocal, the folks who had done a deal with the Taliban for a pipleine through Afghanistan (in which famouse pianist Ms.Condileezza Rice helped put together) but which came to a sad end when President Clinton sent the Tomahawks flying into Kabul when his cocksucking girl friend's dirty washing got more publicity than it needed.

Anyway,CNOC pulled out of a bidding war which Chevron won and piled into the sunny seas off Angola at the time.

Perhaps the timing was connected with the visit the following day by Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi to meet U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson in Washington to discuss sticking points in trade in the second round of the two governments' "Strategic Economic Dialogue."

Then came the IPO.

Jim Jubak of MSN Money Markets at Street.com called this a "Must Miss" .."a very, very, very bad deal for investors " and added what now appears to be a very astute rider.."I believe investors are about to learn a great deal about this market".

Note. If Jim talks. Listen.

The market he was talking about was the go-go Private equity market in which Blackstone had shown an astounding annual 23% on average for the company's private-equity funds since 1987. Blackstone at the time of the IPO had US$80 Bn. assets under management which according to the offering showed :

US$31 billion in private-equity funds that do buyouts of public companies

US$18 billion in real estate investment funds

US$17 billion in funds of hedge funds

US $7 billion in senior-debt investments

US$6 billion in hedge funds that invest (?) in distressed bonds, stocks, near-equity debt (called mezzanine debt) and closed-end mutual funds.

What was actually for sale in the IPO was a 15% stake in the company that manages all that money that people have invested - or at least, provided them to invest and for which the co-founders wanted seven billion bucks. (Just pause to get your breathe here)

The company structure is BTW a master limited partnership, so investors will be unit holders NOT shareholders - Shareholders get to vote - on everything, investors just sit and watch the founders and hope the profits roll in like they did in the good ol' days.

Jim pointed to Fortress Investment Group who had IPO'd earlier in the year , with US$30 Bn. funds in management - Offered at US$18.00 they soared on the day to US$35 and had dropped back to US$27 when he was writing - Friday they closed at US$17.57. Ouch!!!

Blackstone offered at US$31 (valuing the company at US$33.43 Bn) closed on the first day (June 22) at US$36 and have slumped ever since to close at US$24.71 on Friday. Ouch! Ouch! - 46 days to lose one thrid of your money investment. Incidentally the day Bear Stearns let it slip that two hedge funds specializing in subprime debt ( a market said to total US$600Bn.) run by its asset management arm were facing a sudden wave of withdrawals by investors - On July 10, Standard & Poor’s announced it was downgrading $7.3 billion worth of securities sold in late 2005 and 2006. This was shortly followed by Bear Stearns CEO Warren J. Spector resigning on a Sunday afternoon.

Despite a last ditch attempt by Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles) to delay the IPO and make changes to the generous tax treatment such deals provide - he proposed that publicly traded partnerships deriving income from investment advisor and asset management services pay the federal corporation tax rate of up to 35% instead of the 15% rate Schwarzman and Petersen enjoyed .. More details of how they end up with an effective tax rate of 5% on the sale profits that Lord Patel explained here recently

Yes folks you read that right - 5% Federal taxes !!

Due to tax cuts introduced by Dubya, Stephen's old room mate at Yale, (who is incidentally a massive funder and fund raiser for the Republican Party).

However that is straying from the point. Investors don't get a vote but if you are the Chinese Gubment and have shelled out US$3 Bn. into the founding partners pockets , the founding partner is going to listen?

Now if they, (or Antony Lueng on their behalf) said "Hey fellas", look at all these funny "collateralised debt obligations" (CDO's) these massive tranches of "collateralized bond obligation"(CBO) balance-sheet CDOs and arbitrage CDOs , these "mezzanine" finance deals, "revolvers" , "ramp-ups" we have too much exposure .

Blackstone had US$13 Bn. and a further US$17Bn. in hedge funds who were heavily exposed - " ..let's unload them", says Antony Leung. Maybe. Who knows ?

Now if a big mover like Blackstone starts to dump ..... is that a shot across the bows in the first battle of economic warfare ?

Just a thought.

Fast boats in China

So it seemed sensible to see what reaction is in China to the gyrations of the market and looked at the English Edition of China People's Daily

..Passenger numbers on Chinese airlines rose to 86.7 million in the first half of 2007,16.7% on last year....construction began on the construction of the main body of the first nuclear power station in NE China at Dalian, Liaoning province ..... China on way to being world's second largest exporter this year .... China now marketing 1.5 MW wind powered generator ...

Highlighted and eye catching however was the news about Racing at day 2 of the Qingdao International Regatta, the first Olympic Test Event for sailing in preparation for the 2008 Olympic Games.

In the Women's 470 classes in which the Swede Mrs Therese Torgessen is leading (crew Vendela Zachrisson) - after a disappointing 5th at Cascais in the ISAFChampionships recently, in which Britain's Christina Bassadone and Saskia Clark won a bronze medal but who are trailing at 15th so far.(Official website) .

Just downloading this pic of some happy sailors in the sun and Toni Fabuloso cracked open another Bacardi Breezer and said some more Ayervedic massage was needed.

She talks about Kapha disorders which manifest emotionally as greed and possessiveness and physically as obesity, fatigue, bronchitis and sinus problems.



President Hu had a good time fraternising with all the other members of the SCO and the wannabees, and got nicely treated.

Remember when some mad Chinese journo "crashed the Press conference" at the White House Rose Garden last April and embarassed visiting President Hu for a several minutes ? Talk about meeting a host of indignities."President Hu, your days are numbered!" and "President Bush, stop him from killing!" , "President Bush, stop him from persecuting the Falun Gong." shouted a Falun Gongist in both English and Chinese who had upstage his predecessor Jiang Zemin, in Malta 5 years previously.

This followed the band who the crowd were told would play the "national anthem of the Republic of China" -- the official name of Taiwan - no Chinese flags on the lamp posts, and "official visit" not a "formal visit" a "lunch" and not a "formal dinner".... granting a press pass to granted a one-day pass to Wang Wenyi of the Falun Gong publication Epoch Times - the White transcript that day politely airbrushed her 3 minute tirade calling it an "audience interruption."

Wal Mart and Home Depot ,2 of the US's major retails report sales slowdowns, lower returns, GM and Ford have cut 2007 sales forecasts .. Jumbo mortgages (over US$400K) rates have gone from 6.25% last month to as much as 8%.

Don't mess with Hu.

A soldier's tale

The journey of a VIP bodyguard, sniper against the war

By Army National Guard Spc. Eleonai "Eli" Israel. August 9, 2007

"Two months ago, I took a stand that changed my life forever. As a Soldier, a JVB Protective Service Agent, and a Sniper with the Army who had been in Iraq for a year (running over 250 combat missions), I refused to continue to be a part of the occupation. I regret nothing. This is my story.... "

"In Iraq I was as a JVB Agent—the JVB (Joint Visitors Bureau) served as the protective service for "three star generals and above" and their "civilian equivalents". This included the Vice President, the Secretary of Defense, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, their equivalents in a number of our "allied nations", and others. I trained for my job as part of this "special unit" prior to deployment, and I spent the majority of my tour in the company of the most powerful people connected to the "global war on terror"."

......I have taken and/or destroyed the lives of people who were defending their families from being the "collateral damage" of the day. Iraqi boys are joining groups like "Al Qaeda" for the same reason street kids in the U.S. join the "Cribs" and the "Bloods". It’s about self protection, a sense of dignity, and making a stand.

The young man whose father and cousin we "accidentally" killed, and whose mother and siblings cry every time the tank rolls through the neighborhood, doesn't care who Osama Bin Laden is....

.......I informed my chain of command of my beliefs. I could tell from that first conversation that things were not going to go well. I told them that I believed our presence in Iraq was unlawful. I explained that I no longer believed in a policy of war and that I would file as a conscientious objector. Simply put, I could no longer in good conscience participate in a combat role against the Iraqi people....

Read the whole article here

Fred Thompson President elect - the Fred 'n' Chuck show in Iowa

Readers will know how Rep. Chuck Grassley is our favourite Senator , especially for asking those damned ornery, too, too difficult questions that pesky guys who represent the rural farming vote ask.

Well on Friday he took Fred Thompson the next President of the United States around Iowa State Fair -

"I am unabashedly pro-life," he told the state fair's political "soapbox" where numerous other candidates have appeared in recent days. "I am pro-Second Amendment. And I don't apologize for the United States of America. This country has shed more blood for the freedom of other people than all the other nations in the history of the world combined."

He may, as the pundits on the Beltway keep telling us be running late, but his views on pigs are as sound as Lord Emwsorth's . Asked to comment on the prize boar by a TV presenter, all teeth, tits and hair lacqueur, he paused, he rubbed his chin the way folksy farmers do - or at least guys acting like folksy farmers do...

The pressing media crowd waited...

"It's big" he said viewing the 1,089 lb behemoth.

Washington here we come.

Big Bang in Utah - Key West Bank building demolished by Controlled Demolition Inc.

The Key Bank Tower on 50 S. Main alt Lake City was opened in 1980 and was demolished Baltimore-based Controlled Demolition Inc. on Saturday 18th - to make way for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' City Creek Center development.

These 2 videos Video 1 Video 2 from the Deseret News show how a building is demolished using controlled explosions - completely unlike WTC 7....er....well

There are also several amateur videos on You Tube start with this one here and another here

Putin, Muscleman, muscular diplomacy - rattling the sabre and tweaking Uncle Sam's beard

Russian President Vladimir Putin, in Chebarkul after the joint Chinese / Russian military exercises which cost an estimated Russia 2 billion rubles ($80 million) dissmissed as irrelevant, allegations that the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is a military bloc, and highlighted its increasing role in economic cooperation.

Later the increasingly popular Russian president, whose recent exposure to the Russian TV audience, as an outdoor hiking, wholly to their linking, outdoorsman (Pic Putin showing how he handles his tackle) , proposed holding counter-terrorism exercises on a regular basis. He focused on the need for a multi-polar system for international security, and spoke out against attempts by any one nation to take global security into its own hands.

This followed on his thinly veiled remarks ;

"It is essential to continue forming anti-drug security belts around Afghanistan, which could be complemented with financial security belts supervised by SCO financial monitors"

The president said ;

"This will improve the effectiveness of measures to counter both drug trafficking and money laundering."

He said given that all SCO member states were interested in ensuring stability in Afghanistan, a special conference should be held to discuss means of helping the country (remember President Kharzai was of the company in Bishkek). He proposed that SCO countries' foreign ministers make corresponding preparations - a suggestion that will be met by a very large raspberry in Washington DC.

In the summit declaration that was released on Thursday evening , the SCO leaders said no outside assistance was needed to ensure regional stability and energy security, and that the organization's regional antiterrorism structure had sufficient resources to fight terrorism, separatism and extremism in Eurasia...which was a polite way of saying to the US that they should keep their tanks off the Eurasian lawn.

Member states "pledged to push forward with creating a joint mechanism to counter threats to regional peace, stability and security, and to deepen cooperation in fighting drug trafficking and illegal migration. "

Meanwhile a Russian long range Tu-95MS bomber, from a base near Blagoveshchensk -bomber flew over a US naval base on the Pacific island of Guam on Wednesday (a 13 hour round trip) and "exchanged smiles" with US pilots who had scrambled to track it after Tornadoes had been scrambled to ensure similiar "Bears" didn't penetrate UK airspace the previous week.

President Putin took the opportunity whilst at the manouevres in Chebarkul to announcein a muscular statement that Russia had permanently resumed long-distance patrol flights of strategic bombers. Suspended as a cost and fuel saving requirment after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

"I made a decision to restore flights of Russian strategic bombers on a permanent basis, and at 00:00 today, August 17, 14 strategic bombers, support aircraft and aerial tankers were deployed. Combat duty has begun, involving 20 aircraft."

UK rail freight grows and buys trains, special high capacity, hi-tech trucks from overseas

EWS Construction is the dedicated rail operator for the construction and waste markets and is part of English Welsh & Scottish Railway Ltd which has now been re-nation alised - this time by Deutsche Bahn the German state owned Railways.

They have just ordered 34 new aggregate hopper wagons adding 600,000 tonnes of additional haulage capacity per annum - In the last five years the aggregate rail market has grown by one billion freight tonne kilometres.

This requirement is to help meet the demands of contracts recently placed with SWS by CEMEX UK (The 100 year old US cement manufacturer who took over Ready Mixed Concrete/Rugby Cement in 2005)

The wagons have been built in Poland by the huge US group Greenbrier's European plant at WagonySwidnica S.A., in Swidnica Poland. They will be fitted with "track friendly suspension systems" supplied by Axiom Rail ( a subsidiary of EWS formed from their takeover of Probotec Ltd of S. Wales in 2005) , for delivery in spring 2008.

GB Railfreight was formed in 1999 and is part of FirstGroup plc, their current (and fast growing) buk frieght includes the movement of desulphogypsum (DSG) for British Gypsum from West Burton power station in Nottinghamshire to Kirkby Thore in Cumbria, and natural Gypsum from East Leake, Leicestershire and Robertsbridge in East Sussex.

(Desulphogypsum (DSG) is a by-product of Flue Gas Desulphurisation (FGD) plants, installed at some coal fired power stations in order to reduce sulphur emissions, and is now used to substitute natural gypsum. Although DSG cannot replace the high quality mineral in terms of range of end-uses, it has proved suitable for plasterboard manufacture accounting for about half of total demand.)

GBFr will be operating at 100% capacity for coal hauling by mid 2008 and so have ordered 72 new high capacity (74.5 tonnes) coal hopper wagons and used for hauling (by the new Class 66 trains made in Canada by General Motors) from Welbeck and Thoresby collieries to West Burton and Cottam Power Stations.

GBRf also won 2 coal contracts for handling imported coal in less than a year.

1. Drax Power Limited, for the movement of imported coal from the Port of Tyne to Drax power station near Selby North Yorkshire started April 2007.
2. EDF Energy (French National Energy Company) for movement of coal from the Port of Hull to Cottam and West Burton power stations in Nottinghamshire to started July 2007.

The order has been placed with IRS (Roumanian rail company based in Luxembourg) and be built by the recently acquired Astra Vagoane company in Arad, Roumania which started making trains in 1891 (and where the first electric train system in eastern Europe was developed in 1913) and deliveries commenced in February 2007 These trucks with low track force bogeys can operate anywhere in the UK.

UK coal production in Q1 2007 fell 28% to 4..0 Mn. tonnes (opencast by 42%) coal imports were 12.2 Mn tonnes of which 84%, was steam coal for the power station market.

So the UK mines less coal, imports more (75% of demand) to be used in power stations increasingly foreign owned (often nationalised utilities) to be hauled by Canadian trains, using Polish and Romanian waggons by the German State Railways (excepting the new GBRf company).

This is what the UK Gubment presumably calls their energy security policy.
Photograph of a GB Railfreight GBRf Class 66 66712 at Pelaw with 6H90 Port of Tyne - Drax power station imported coal train.Photo Ian Britton.

Mayan crop circles, MI5, Messiah Shayler and NI Police Fund - cosmic coincidences ?

This crop circle was seen on August 13th , 2007 at Stanton St. Bernard, Wiltshire, England - this represents the Mayan digit 6 which presages August 18th. The "filled"circle has on close inspection, 12 small and 1 central swirlproducing a total of 13 mini-swirls.

"Taken together, both observations lead one to believe that those crop artists are trying to tell us about '6 days' from their ancient 13-month calendar (based on motions of Venus and the Sun), where any month contained 20 days, and any year contained 13 x 20 = 260 days. "

"The Sun and Venus are moving towards an inferior conjunction on August 18, thereby ending their current 260-day Sun-Venus calendar, and beginning another."

This coincides with a report in the Belfast Newsletter today that the new £20Mn. MI5 HQ in Northen Ireland at Palace Barracks , Maryfield, near Holywood, Co. Down, with room for 400 staff is now finished.

Nationalists and republicans have objected that MI5 will assume overall responsibility for national security in the Province as the lead agency in counter-terrorist activity and intelligence gathering which had been in the hands of police Special Branch.

The Police Service of NI will, however, continue to have a role in local anti-terror operations and maintain close liaisons with MI5.

Those who support the NI MI5 operation ( like Privy Councillor, DUP MP and Policing Board Member Jeffery Donaldson) claim the fight against al-Qaeda extends to Northern Ireland, highlighting the happy coincidence of the Glasgow incendiary jihadist who had studied in Belfast.

Perhaps we should consult Messiah Shayler and ask if there is any significance in the coincidence of these events.

Those who follow events closely in Ulster will remember that under the Patten plan a Northern Ireland Police Fund which is funded largely by the government to help injured police, retired officers, widows and families and was set up at Police HQ based at Maryfield near Holywood .

On Thursday December 4th 2002 a number of computers and files disappeared and there was concern that personal details of officers may have been leaked to republican terrorists, although their database was somewhat limited.

Two members of staff were arrested one under the Terrorism Act , released and then chairman of the fund Sir John Semple said ; "I was advised that there are serious allegations, including financial irregularities, in respect of the Police Fund.

"In accordance with normal practice, two members of staff have been suspended."

This theft had of course nothing to do with the recently reported theft of computers and other IT equipment (and a reported Database of top-secret police phone taps ) from a private firm Forensic Telecommunications Services Ltd in Sevenoaks, Kent, whose clients include Scotland Yard, The Police Service of Northern Ireland etc.,

Nothing at all.

Dubya's grammatical solecisms - it's all Barbara and George Snr's fault

Language Log is a treasure trove of anecdote and example of the precise use of the English language, it's history, development, etymology and often its current, sloppy and imprecise use.

Guru Mark Liberman ***(University of Pennsylvania Linguistic Data Consortium) brought our attention yesterday to the recent remark of the future ex-employer of Karl Rove;

"It surprised me, frankly, because the impression you get from people who are reporting out of Iraq is that it's like totally dysfunctional -- that's what your -- I guess your kind of -- your friend or whoever you talked to is implying. "

Keen followers of the President's more memorable public speeches will remember this was on the occasion of the White House Press corps harassing him after he had signed into law the COMPETES Act on August 9th when he more memorably opened his remarks with ..

"Good morning, thank you. When I came into office in 2001, our nation was headed into a recession. So we cut the taxes across the board......the American economy is the envy of the world"

From inanities to insanities in the course of a few minutes.

Anyway,back to Mark who had a friend who queried the claerly ageing ( he's 60) President's use of what we have become accustomed (we think, but read on) to hear from more youthful destroyers of their mother tongue.

Mark provides a detailed, clear account of his researches which commence with an appropriate record of the actual solecism ..



He includes other examples ;

On July 19, 2007, President Bush said:
"And the reason I say that, it just shows how difficult it is to do what some assume can be done, which is, like, totally seal off the border. "
And on April 2, 2004:
"I mean, I think it's a wonderful story about a mom and a wife who, instead of getting, like totally distraught with the circumstances, says, I'm going to go back to school."

He points out, that we are accustomed to frequent usage by what he describes as "Valley girl" (an anthropological distinction which is not apparent to us goddam limeys - but we like get the idea) as an emphatic adverb meaning something like "definitely", e.g. "omg, that's totally going on my myspace".

He starts by exemplifying the usage as "an occasional modifier of gradable predicates" (like dysfunctional), totally with an illustration from Jane Austen's Emma, the 1950's beat generation ("it's like nowheresville, man") 1960's hippies ("it's like psychedelic, man") making a shrewd guess that the current generation probably learnt it from their parents, rather than the reverse.

He also quotes from an academic paper by Muffy Siegel Like: The Discourse Particle and Semantics in the Journal of Semantics in 2002.

"Using data from interviews with high school students, I first adduce evidence that lends support to Schourup's (1985) claim that the United States English adolescent hedge like is a discourse particle signalling a possible slight mismatch between words and meaning."

In an update today, as a result of reader's comments he has undertaken some more research and searching an academic treasure trove (from the Linguistic Data Corporation dated from 1975-1977) of transcribed telephone conversations ( is this what warrantless surveillance is for ?) of 15,672 female speech and 12,571 conversational sides where the speaker is male.

He makes the surprising finding that there is a considerable sexual distinction in the use of like ; 184,184 for women and 156,799 for men.

Furthermore an analysis of the use of "like" in various word associations reveals an even greater and unexpected sexual divide ...

"In this collection, women used the expression "like I say" 545 times, and the expression "like I said" 2,264 times. But men used "like I say" 563 times, and "like I said", 1,302 times.

For women, the ratio of "like I said" to "like I say" was 4.51 to 1,, whereas for men, it was only 2.3 to 1. "

All this leads him to conclude ;

1. Adults were using discourse-particle like fairly frequently in professional settings, even a decade ago;
2. Contrary to stereotype, men apparently use it more than women do.

Taught the principles of constructing an English sentence at Altrincham Grammar School by the lofty and haughty Mr Brian Millard ( for whom we had the hugely original nickname of Milord), who used to scatter red ink exclamation marks across our work, for the incorrect use of gerunds or a hanging participle, as he scoured (and scored through) our essays with the enthusiasm and skill of a hungry truffle hound. Lord Patel will now, thanks to Language Log have an ear finer tuned to the usages of "like" amongst 60 year old men approaching their retirement.

Also with a little more tolerance of a younger generation, to whom one of their more irritating spoken solecisms of our language, has evidently originated long before their birth.

So we can therefore blame Barbara and George (Snr.) for their son's mangling of the language - and we had always blamed the booze, drugs and dissolute lifestyle as a rich, spoilt kid who never really grew up after his adolescence.

***Responsible for ..(2004) "The Simpsons has apparently taken over from Shakespeare and the Bible as our culture's greatest source of idioms, catchphrases and sundry other textual allusions." (see Times 11/8/07)

This drawing illustrating the above has been stolen from Mr Murdoch

The Decider makes a decision

You Tube

Olympics 2012 - In Xanadu did Khubla Khan ... getting you to East London .. on time

If your mind is easily boggled - cop this ....there will be 7.9 million spectators in 16 days for the Olympic Games 2012 and 1.5 Million over 11 days for the Paralympic Games....every working day London’s transport systems carry 11 million passengers, with 3 million on the underground and 1.8 million passengers on national rail services.

"London 2012 organisers aim to have all spectators either walking, cycling or taking public transport to the Games. "

That is what the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) said in their draft Transport Plan (30/10/07) although athletes and other members of the "Olympic Family", in particular, media and officials, will be transported by fleets of cars, vans and coaches along the 240 km Olympic Route Network (ORN) - including 100Kms of public roads denied public access.

Members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) (some who has a quiet chat with Tony Blair in his bedroom just before voting) will (quite naturally) be staying in hotels in Park Lane in central London - 22 minutes from the Olympic Village to Hyde Park Corner in normal traffic in the middle of the day the Select Committee on Transport were told (Q 257) Raise eyebrows here, and ponder sellling the idea to "Top Gear" of a new Olympic Event, get from Park Lane to Stratford in 22 minutes in the middle of the day without Police outriders and without breaking speed limits.

The London Olympic Park will be served by ten overland railway and London Underground lines by 2012 - 78% of spectators are expected to start their journeys in London. When all the planned transport projects are complete, 240 trains will deliver spectators to Stratford East Station ****to serve the Olympic park every hour. (Eurostar will miss out Stratford for the duration of the Games - so if you are coming from Paris - forget it)

The "Olympic Javelin" high speed shuttle rail service, will take 7 minutes from King's Cross, St Pancras to Stratford International station carrying 25,000 passengers per hour (Raise eyebrows here) with 1,200 passengers on each 6 carriage train. Pause here to note that the the new high speed trains will be of main line design with fewer doors than suburban rolling stock access will be relatively slow - especially for disabled visitors for Paralympics. They also have 354 seats in single class accomodation.(BBC)

Those passengers not disabled or with children in prams, will presumably be carrying, rugs, cushions, bags with food, drink, newspapers, binoculars, cameras, jerseys, waterpoofs, umbrellas to add to the fun of the event.(Raise eyebrows here)

The good news is that the first of the Hitachi made "Olympic Javelin" ( romantically called Class 395 in the UK) trains which are being supplied in a £250Mn contract for 28 trains based on the Japanese Shinkasen trains for the Channel Tunnel Rail Link has shipped from the Kasado factory. It should arrive in Southampton at the end of this month followed by 3 more before the end of the year and the remainder by end 2009.

These will be based at the Channel Tunnel Ashford depot and the first train will be trialled (it has already been fully tested in Japan) in early October. Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL), is due to become fully operational on November 14 2007. .(Raise eyebrows here) All the trains are to be named after Britons associated with speed - preferably not enhanced by the use of drugs, so ruling out Linford Christie and Jockie Wilson.

****Outside the Olympics, Stratford East (cost £210 Mn.) will be a "ghost" station as it was originally designed that feeder trains from the North, Scotland, Midlands, for the Channel Tunnel railway would deliver passengers here for seamless onward journeys to Paris / Brussels etc., This plan was dropped in 2005 , one year after construction started as budget airlines stole passengers.



More than $30 billion will be spent on London’s transportation system prior to 2012. These include:

1. The extension of the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) in east London - 0% capacity enhancement and extension to London City Airport - Plane Crazy where are you ?
2. Extension of the East London line
3. Refurbishment and modernisation of all London Underground stations
4. 45% increase in capacity on the Jubilee Line, which will serve the main Olympic facilities.

The scale of the project, the logistics of passenger / spectator movement, the costs, are truly spectacular - for less than 3 weeks of drug fuelled "sports entertainment" - Lord Patel will be either 1) relaxing at one of his many residences, scattered worldwide 2) indoors watching it on a 76" HD Plasma TV recorded on his Skybox whilst he frolics in daylight hours with nubile girls on a sun soaked beach or one of his many luxurious gin palacesyachts.

Karl Rove - A grateful nation mourns the passing of a great Statesman

Karl Rove Memorial Dolls now available. - Inscribed on the base ..

"... it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger."

British Energy Nuclear Fleet production down 17%, profits by 14%

British Energy have produced their Q1 2007/08 results ending 1st July.

BE once produced some 20% of the UK base electricity output - the results show an astonishing (unplanned) reduction of total output dropped 17% from 17TWh to 14TWh for the period.

Of these losses 4.5 (TWh) losses were attributable to Hinkley Point B and Hunterston B (Q1 06/07: 1.1TWh). This was due to a loss due to a combination of an actual 60% load (against "planned" 70% load resriction) late return to service and ..... "other losses on return to service" (?) of 0.5 TWh. ( that is, equivelent to the ANNUAL output of ALL UK installed windfarms)

Note also, output from coal fired plant halved (1.7TWh to 0.8 TWh) - although the realised selling price has risen 14% from £36 to £41 per MWh which has helped maintain EBITDA profits down 12% from £289 Mn to £253 Mn (netted down to £168Mn operating profit - a 40% drop ****) although that has been swallowed by increased operating costs rising from £22 to £27 per MWh.Nett sales revenue however declined from £730 Mn. to £670 Mn as total output dropped 17% from 17TWh to 14TWh for the period.

Forward contracts for 07/08 are all pre contracted at £42 MWH and some 50% of output for 08/09 at the same price.

Note that the Q1 loss of output of 4.5TWh plus (optimistically) a running Quarterly loss of (say) 2TWh = a loss of 10.5 TWh on the theoretical maximum of 78TWh = 13.5% reduction in output for the complete year. (Note on Page 9 this is very optimisticaly compared mean losses over 2000-2007)

This significant reduction in output, plus continuing concerns over plant reliability, (notwithstanding expected revisions on lengthening operating life due soon) is a major concern nationally - not that any poiticans have noticed.

The reduction in revenues and profits (despite 14% increase in price - BTW did anyone notice that the unexpected drop in the RPI was accompanied by a comment that energy prices had dropped ?) does not of course encourage investors being lined up (Centrica / Gazprom ?) to join the dodgy BE management in building new nuclear plant.

**** PR Bullshit merchants are boosting net profits up, from £75m last year to £179m - but £134m of that came from the Nuclear Liabilities Fund as a one off contribution after a government stake sale reduced payments into a fund for nuclear waste.

April 19th - a day that will live in infamy - just don't say you weren't warned

Peterloo Massacre - Today 188 years ago.

60,000 people marched on St Peter's Field August 16, 1819, a site , on which the Free Trade Hall stood, the home of the Halle orchestra and which has been transformed into the extremely ugly Radisson Hotel.

The marchers wanted to hear Henry `Orator' Hunt, a popular political campaigner of the time and champion of parliamentary reform - when only 2% of adult males had the vote.

Henry Hunt, Samuel Bamford and others were put on trial at York assizes for conspiracy and sedition in connection organising the meeting which ended in the 'Peterloo Massacre'. Bamford defended himself, and his line of defence at times puzzled the judge. Bamford's star witness was James Dyson, a neighbour from Middleton. Dyson's description of the march as a kind of festive village outing ...

The wives of several of the party accompanied their husbands. There were several hundred of women with our party and the Rochdale party. I saw many of them at Manchester . . . the women who accompanied us were relatives of the men who marched in the procession. It is customary at our wakes and rush-carts in Lancashire to have banners and music; the rush-carts are held on a Saturday, and on the following Monday the men walk in procession, but they do not keep the step. Justice Bayley asked for an explanation of the term 'rush cart'. Mr Bamford explained , that it is an annual custom to have a cart in which rushes are neatly placed; this cart is drawn by young men decorated with ribbons, and preceded by young women, music, etc.

Panicking magistrates, fearing an uprising, ordered Hunt's arrest. They ordered the crowds to disperse. When they did not, the Yeomanry already drawn up in readiness, drew their sabres and charged - killing several protestors including a woman and child. 11 died and some 500 limped back home in jured . Click here for popular print of the day showing the scene - Published by J.Evans and Sons, 42 Long LaneWest, Smithfield, 27th August, 1819)

With the command to the Yeomanry Cavalry to 'have at their banners', and, as Samuel Bamford, vividly recalled, the contest for them continued throughout that terrible day. Peterloo banners that survived were regarded as sacred relics (see below) and often took pride of place among the banners and flags carried by the local Chartists.

Today on the 188th anniversary of the Peterloo Massacre, protestors led by Peter Fitzgerald, 46, gathered on the site to demand a new commemorative plaque (pic of suggested plaque) and a monument to those who fell.

Sir Richard Leese, Labour council leader, agrees the plaque should be replaced explaining the City also wanted to officially mark the Suffragette movement and the Abolition of Slavery.

Some of the flags carried that day (were ?) are to be seen in Middleton Public Library. Ben Brierley wrote of the graves of 5 of the dead in Queens Park cemetery in Harpurhey, north of the City. Lord Patel has tried to find them in the overgrown and neglected municipal cemetery - but the place is overrun in daylight hours with drug users / dealers, drunks and is none too safe to root around in.

Anyone interested in pursuing the identifying of their graves, cleaning and arranging for visotrs to find them should contact Lord Patel.

The Women at Peterloo: The Impact of Female Reform on the Manchester Meeting of 16 August 1819. M.L.Bush - History 89 (294), 209–232. doi:10.1111/j.1468-229X.2004.00298.x
"Central to the Peterloo Massacre in 1819 was the high public profile of working-class women who attended the parliamentary reform meeting that preceded it in all-female contingents, carrying their own flags, distinctively dressed in white and with their own women leaders prominently displayed on the speakers' platform."

... and an unbroken line to Annie Kenney, the Pankhursts and the Suffragettes.

"These persons bore two banners, surmounted with caps of liberty, and bearing the inscriptions: "No Corn Laws," "Annual Parliaments," "Universal Suffrage," "Vote By Ballot." Some of these flags, after being paraded round the field, were planted in the cart on which the speakers stood; but others remained in different parts of the crowd." More here


This is the Skelmanthorpe Flag (or banner) made in 1819 , not carried at Peterloo but embroidered and used in marches and protests around Skelmanthorpe near Sheffield.

"Skelmanthorp will not rest Satisfied with the Suffrage being anything but Universal."a claim / demand taken up by the Chartists. Their demand for Annual Parliaments remains.... (Original in the collection of People's History Museum, Manchester)

The event prompted Percy Bysshe Shelley to write the Mask of Anarchy...the last verse ...

'Rise like Lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number -
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you -
Ye are many - they are few.'

Daily Telegraph - 1 month late with all the news they are allowed to print

The Daily Telegraph under the headline Moscow 'unmasks' MI6 spy by Adrian Blomfield in Moscow reports today in an "exclusive";

"A British diplomat was named by Russia yesterday as an MI6 agent in the latesttwist in Moscows row with London over the murder of Alexander Litvinenko. "

This is the story of FSB operator Vyacheslav Zharko and the Moscow staff member which Lord Patel provided the whole story (and unlike the DT named the Embassy contact for Mr Z) on Monday, July 16, 2007 "UK expels 4 Russian spies - but pretend we don't have any, lies, deception by Foreign Secretary - Press act as Chorus", complete with a nice picture of Mr Zharko.

This was the day you might remember the Boy David acting as Foreign Secretary expelled some Russian "spies" from the London Russian Embassy.

Coincidence ?

Bloggers ? Fucking amateurs.

UPDATE Pic of Sergei Skripal who was imprisoned last year for spying for the UK who identified the MI6 contact - so many and varied are the names attributed it could be one guy or many. Pablo Miller is favourite.

Incidentally, Pablo was named in May Axis Global Chalenges Research ..." ...According to Grigoriev, today Tallinn is often used by the British intelligence. Kreml.org refers to ex-officer of the British intelligence, Richard Tomlinson, alleging that Platon Obukhov, who was sentenced for spying, had met his MI6 contact in the territory of Estonia. Another spy, sentenced in 2001 for seven years, the former KGB officer Valery Ojamae, was reportedly recruited in Tallinn by the British intelligence officer Pablo Miller with the participation of the Estonian Security Police or KaPo.

UPDATE Int. Herald Tribune names Pablo Miller even though UK Press / TV don't - Channel 4 makes a point of saying they won't name him. Self censorship or someone "suggest" it to them ? What bollocks - do they thik no-one has acess to the Internet ? ..perhaps they are planning for the day when we don't.

Teen Sex - A Modest Proposal

Dan Savage writes of "Savage Love" in the Nashville Scene.
Lamenting the failure of Dubya's abstinence program for tenagers and the rising rates of teenage sex, pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections he has a novel solution ...

"The time has come to take the fight to the hormones, Mr. President. The time has come to chemically castrate American teenagers.

Instead of wasting money on failed abstinence-education programs, Mr. President, put Depo-Provera and Tamoxifen, the two most effective chemical-castration drugs, into products consumed by teenagers—Doritos, Mountain Dew, lip gloss, and Axe body spray. (Some adults also consume these products, of course, but not any we want reproducing.) A chemical-castration program would not only be cheaper and more effective than your failed abstinence-education programs, Mr. President, it would also lower rates of sexually transmitted infections, decrease the number of unwanted pregnancies, save souls, prevent hurricanes, and spare elected officials who can't have kinky sex themselves anymore (thanks to fallout from the D.C. Madam scandal) from having to listen to teenagers brag about all the kinky sex they're having."

Well. It's an idea.