Yeay! We Are Great!

Prescription charges in Wales end today! Take that the rest of the UK!

Patients in Wales are now entitled to free prescriptions, on the day the cost rises to £6.85 in the rest of the UK.
GP and pharmacist representatives in Wales said scrapping the charges was “good news” for those who find paying for medicines difficult.

Prescription charges had been gradually reduced to £3 – but Welsh Assembly members voted earlier this year to scrap them altogether from 1 April. –

Big pharma are of course moaning as the link between money and health is altered to give priority to need not profit. Socialised medicine in the Motherfucking House!

Idiot Journalist Watch- AP’s Steven R. Hurst

In a blow job of a piece on Former Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi & CIA stooge he says:-

In an interview with The Associated Press last week, Allawi said the U.S.-backed draft oil law has the potential to “cause a severe backlash in society.”
The draft law, designed in part to create a fair distribution of oil profits to all Iraqis, is perhaps the most important piece of legislation for Iraq’s American patrons. But the measure, which would give foreign companies some access to the country’s enormous oil reserves, has not yet been put before parliament.-

Er, is he actually on the same planet as us? Is this a parallel Iraq where the oil law wasn’t an imperial atrocity written by big oil/Bushco? –

Vice-President Dick Cheney, who said in 1999, while he was still chief executive of the oil services company Halliburton, that the world would need an additional 50 million barrels of oil a day by 2010. “So where is the oil going to come from?… The Middle East, with two-thirds of the world’s oil and the lowest cost, is still where the prize ultimately lies,” he said.

Oil industry executives and analysts say the law, which would permit Western companies to pocket up to three-quarters of profits in the early years, is the only way to get Iraq’s oil industry back on its feet after years of sanctions, war and loss of expertise. But it will operate through “production-sharing agreements” (or PSAs) which are highly unusual in the Middle East, where the oil industry in Saudi Arabia and Iran, the world’s two largest producers, is state controlled.

Opponents say Iraq, where oil accounts for 95 per cent of the economy, is being forced to surrender an unacceptable degree of sovereignty.-

The AP provides copy for thousands of news outlets so one bad or bought hack can have immense influence, worse still stories may not be credited to a named writer so you may not know you are reading Stevie boy’s hapless fantasies.

Outsourcing And The Corporatocracy

When government is nought but a commissioning agency for corporate contracts the take over will be total, and corporations will not be answerable to you, they can hire their own military and deal with you. Good times ahead!-

Since the 2001 terrorist attacks and wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the federal government’s demand for complex technology has soared,” writes by Bernard Wysocki, Jr. for the Journal. “But Washington often doesn’t have the expertise to take on new high-tech projects, or the staff to oversee them.
“As a result,” he continues, “officials are increasingly turning to contractors, in particular the hundreds of companies in Tysons Corner and the surrounding Fairfax County that operate some of the government’s most sensitive and important undertakings.”-

He fails to say the govt. chose to have these needs thus creating a market for the contractors it now ‘needs’ because state employees have been progressively reduced under the ideology of privatisation, which of course was enacted by er, them. It’s a classic grift, create a problem then miraculously provide a solution which also exacerbates the original problem making a rising spiral of corporate welfare:-

The number of private federal contractors has now risen to 7.5 million, which is four times greater than the federal workforce itself, the report indicates. Such a trend is leading the government to what Wysocki calls the “outsourcing [of] its brain.”-

Simply it is the ending of democratic influence (small though it is) on the ruling classes who flit between elected office and CEO positions continually -purely for the purpose’s of stripping democratic control of our capital and institutions, in govt. to pass the laws and sign the contracts, then joining the corporations who profit from the same laws and contracts – you are laughed at for raising the question of ‘conflict of interest?’ even when the political operatives are holding positions in corporations concurrently- and guess who’s funding it? Us. The article is in the Wall Street Journal so it does not go into these motives particularly, the most important thing to remember is that the largest private military contractor Blackwater is run by a christianist republican who currently profits from the genocide level of slaughter in Iraq. His barbarity and that of his atrocity hardened troops will be a valuable asset should any of us get uppity over our stolen democracy.

GitMo-therfuckers

In an article in the NY Times some blackly hilarious evil is described:-

Speaking before a combatant status review tribunal charged with determining whether he had been properly designated an enemy combatant, Mr. Nashiri said he had confessed to many terrorist activities under torture.

“From the time I was arrested five years ago, they have been torturing me,” Mr. Nashiri said through a translator, according to the transcript. “It happened during interviews. One time they tortured me one way, and another time they tortured me in a different way.”

The president of the tribunal, a Navy captain whose name was not disclosed, said, “Please describe the methods.”

The four-paragraph passage that followed in the transcript was redacted in six places, and the 36-page transcript, of a two-hour hearing, was redacted in many other places.

“They do so many things,” Mr. Nashiri said in one passage made public. “So many things.”-

This ‘hearing’ where the officers involved remain anonymous, where the trial transcript is blacked out by the prosecuting authority. Combined with yesterday’s blackmail gag order on David Hicks, Gitmo is a mockery of civilisation, that anyone can allow and even support this simply shows how easy it must of been for Hitler to rise to power, there’s always enough sheeple and bastards to let the cancer grow. Fuck me these Bushistas would probably support a bucket of dribly cum if they were told to (in fact they do with their rabid anti abortion base). Somewhat less funny is the clear lesson this teaches us, the human race has forgotten the lessons drawn from WWII within a lifetime. Everyday is a demonstration that the concept behind the name of this blog is deadly fucking accurate. Human fucking idiot race.

Iran Blogapalooza 3-Colours Blog

You may notice a slight change to the Iran Blogapalooza logo, so here is the story; Jadi wrote a post about the little logo:-

As you can see I have added a PEACE FOR IRAN logo designed by RickB. To be honest at first glance I wanted to ignore this logo but in the second toughth, I realized that I have to use the logo but ask RickB to change it. Why ?
As you can see, the logo contains a Peace in Farsi and English and a flag of Iran. But this is not MY FLAG. As most flags, Iran’s flag contains three colors:

Green. two interpretations: 1-color of life, 2-this is an Islamic country.
White. Peace
Red. Iranians are ready to die for their flag / country.

I am not an Nationalist and I do not insists that “we are raedy to die for our flag” or anything. Instead I want to talk about the Symbol in the middle of the flag.
In the white area (in the middle of the flag there is a symbol). This symbol represents the eras of Iran’s flag. The ancient one had a lion and a sun in it. Have a look youself:

This is not an Monarchy sign but a sign of all eras and many groups agree on it (even communist parties).
After the 1979 revolution, the new ideological regime changed the logo to this one:

It is a combination of Allah (In Farsi letters) and some other symbols (for justice and sword and …). I do not like it represents ONLY this ISLAMIC REGIME which tortures peoples and censors everything. I do not stand in front of this flag and do not believe in it. my PEACE sign does not has an ISLAMIC REGIMES sign on it. I want peace but without supporting this regime. I my self prefer a simple three color flag, without any ideology on it. I want a flag without Lion, without Allah and without Swastika. This does not means I am against Lion and Allah but it means my flag should mean Iran and not ISLAMIC REGIME or any other ideology.

RickB ? Are you interested in changing your Islamic Regime’s flag to Iran’s flag ?-

So my answer is yes I am more than happy to change the logo not least because a simple 3 colour band of green, white, red was my original design! D’oh. Plus Jadi made & sent me the gif of ‘Peace’ in farsi/Persian that adorns the logo so it is in fact a co-operative Anglo/Iranian logo and as such should be made so that both of us are happy.

David Hicks Gets 9 Months In An Australian Jail

Australian Guantanamo detainee David Hicks will be sent home to serve nine months in prison after being sentenced by a military judge at the facility.-

Pragmatically speaking this is a good result for his immediate welfare.

Bisher al-Rawi Update

The Independent talk about Bisher al-Rawi’s involvement with MI5 and also list other UK residents in Gitmo:-

JAMIL EL-BANNA
Jordanian. In Guantanamo since March 2003. Arrested, with Bisher al-Rawi, in the Gambia.

BINYAM MOHAMED
Ethiopian. In Guantanamo since September 2004. Indefinite leave to remain in UK. Travelled to Afghanistan in 2001.

SHAKER AAMER
Saudi Arabian. In Guantanamo since February 2002. Was applying for British nationality. Seized in Pakistan in 2002.

OMAR DEGHAYES
Libyan. In Guantanamo since August 2002. Allegedly appears on a “Chechnyan training video”.

AHMED ERRACHIDI
Moroccan. In Guantanamo since May 2002. Worked in UK for 18 years. Accused of attending a terrorist training camp in 2001.

AHMED BELBACHA
Algerian. In Guantanamo since March 2002. Alleged to have attended a training camp.

ABDELNOUR SAMEUR
Algerian. In Guantanamo since June 2002. Went to Afghanistan in 2001 and was shot in Pakistan.

JAMAL (TONY) KIYEMBA
Uganda. In Guantanamo for more than three years. Was travelling in Pakistan when he was seized. –

The Bush Crime Family

The Bush crime family (Mike Malloy’s phrase) proves itself as such with this deal to silence David Hicks:-

AUSTRALIAN terror detainee David Hicks agreed today to withdraw charges that he was abused while held by the United States as part of a plea deal that limits his prison term to seven years.

US Military judge Colonel Ralph Kohlmann asked Hicks if he agreed that he had “never been illegally treated by any persons in the control or custody of the United States” during his detention in Afghanistan and subsequent transfer to the Guantanamo Bay prison camp in Cuba.

Hicks replied, “Yes.” –

Don Corleone would be proud.

FNT: Jon Benjamin as Coach McGurk in ‘Home Movies’- Insomnia

Jon Benjamin -comedy God.

The Hellbound Heart- Updated

H/t to the posting machine that is Lenin’s Tomb,

-Dr. Les Roberts from Columbia University discusses the famous Johns Hopkins/Lancet studies of “excess civilian deaths” in Iraq since 2003, the UK government scientists who told Tony Blair that Lancet had, if anything, underestimated the dead at 655,000 (more than the Rwandan genocide of 1994), the deliberate efforts of the U.S. government to suppress numbers of the dead.-

The interview is only a quarter of an hour so you owe it to yourself and the dead to listen. It has added resonance now we know the Govt. acknowledged the methodology as sound but still disputed the study.

Anthony attends catholic masses with Cherie and so may well understand the the concepts of sin and what constitutes a mortal sin “Immediately after death the souls of those who die in a state of mortal sin descend into hell.”. Which just this week Pope Benny the butch insisted was a real place of eternal torment and not a spiritual metaphor. Good.

Unfortunately that’s all so much mumbo jumbo, how do we make this right? Because we have to otherwise we might as well strap on a swastika armband right now and be done with it.

Withdrawal, reparations, trials of the war criminals.

Would be a start.

Update- Blairwatch asks some important questions:-
The BBC ran the story online on Monday the 26th of March, after ‘Iraq Week’, after the Question Time Iraq Special and all those Newsnight segments on the cost of the war.
Yet the BBC tell us they received the information on 14 March 2007 – Twelve days before they broadcast it. –

All I’m Saying Is- Prisoner Exchange

Dear President Ahmadinejad,

it’s an offer from me to you and really, you can keep them indefinitely, bang ’em up for life, it’s the only language they understand.

Welcome To The Memory Hole

News that Bisher al-Rawi will be released from Gitmo, yet in all the reports no mention that he was a British secret service asset and we dropped him into this hell for 5 years. Is there a D-notice on this or just the usual MSM laziness?

So to jog our memories, from the Independent in Jan ’07 :-

He was open about his friendship with Abu Qatada and acted as a translator and a go-between for MI5, delivering messages given to him by agents and collecting information about his views for the service. But when his brother asked to go into business with him he leapt at the chance. With Jamil el Banna he devised plans to start to a mobile peanut oil factory in Gambia. It was on a trip to the West African state to establish the plant that he was seized.

After five years of imprisonment, Mr al-Rawi’s mental health has deteriorated to such an extent he now talks to himself constantly. Lawyers who have visited the 39-year-old Iraqi citizen say that his behaviour verges on hysteria and fear he may be losing his grip on reality.

His friend Jamil el Banna, who was seized with him five years ago by the CIA, is diabetic and, because he does not receive an appropriate diet, is beginning to lose his sight.

The men, known in Guantanamo as prisoners number 905 and 906, have not been charged with an offence and are not deemed enough of a security risk to be incarcerated in the UK or even for a control order to be imposed. Indeed, Mr al-Rawi was trusted enough to be recruited by MI5. –

There is no word on his friend being released and no mention of the spooks involvement in this.

Profit Of Doom

From Danny Schechter, News Dissector:-

The Oil & Energy Investment Report offered this backgrounder:
Iran also has three strategic advantages that make it a formidable threat to close the Strait of Hormuz.
Advanced antiship missiles. The newest of these skims the surface of the waves (too low to be reliably tracked on radar) at twice the speed of sound (so there’s very little time for defenders to react), and blows a hole in the target vessel right at the water line.
The only effective defense the US Navy has against these ship-killers is simply to keep enemy craft from approaching close enough to launch them.
But this is possible only on the open ocean, where AWACS radar surveillance aircraft orbiting high above the fleet can track everything in motion for hundreds of miles in every direction, and direct US fighter planes to intercept.
By contrast, the Persian Gulf is almost a narrow lake. More than 70% of its surface area lies within easy missile range of the Iranian shoreline—along which every sand dune or hillock could conceivably hide a landbased missile launcher.

In the history of naval warfare, there has never been a sea battle fought with large numbers of sea skimming antiship missiles….In addition to the hitech threat to Persian Gulf shipping, Iran also has a credible lowtech threat: antiship mines.
These are inexpensive, and can be tossed over the side of a speedboat or out the window of lowflying aircraft. After the first ship got blown up, traffic would slow to a crawl—which is almost as good as closing the Strait entirely.
…. Bottom line: Once Iran closes the Strait, and takes 20 million barrels of oil a day off the market, no one knows how long it might take to get all that oil flowing again –

If the oil supply is reduced, up goes the price, up goes the profits, as happened with the Iraq invasion. Thus military action against Iran will increase profits for oil and oil services corporations. Now can you guess who among the Bush administration are tied to said corporations?

If you answered all of them, well done!

Showdown

The US Senate on Thursday passed a spending bill for the conflict in Iraq that calls for US troops to be removed from the country by March 2008. The 51-47 vote in Congress’ upper chamber intensifies the showdown with US President George W Bush, who has promised to veto any congressional bill that sets a timeframe for a withdrawal. The House on Friday narrowly passed legislation that set a September 2008 pullout deadline. The 122-billion-dollar Senate bill mainly funds military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and includes money for some
domestic spending projects. Bush has warned that funds for US troops will begin running out by April 15, and wants Congress to immediately approve the spending without a withdrawal timeframe.-

Well that’s it boys and girls, both elected chambers have passed bills that incorporate withdrawal of US forces, which means one man- King George stands in the way. If he vetoes, then it will be expected. At which point anyone not on the impeachment wagon is a fucking imbecile.

Banlieue 13

Nicholas Sarkozy is once again using the riot police as an election lubricant, which reminded me of the enjoyable parkour action flick District 13, set in 2010 when the Govt. wall off the ghettos as a preparation for…

In 2005, the year after the film’s release in France, major riots erupted throughout the real “banlieues” and housing projects of Paris, then spreading to other towns. The riots and car burnings received worldwide press attention and were seen by many as an expression of anger and hopelessness from the primarily Arab and black residents of the city’s poorer areas. These so-called suburbs (“banlieues”) outline the central districts of Paris, although as opposed to world of the film, no wall exists to separate them into an official ghetto. However, as in the film, these areas are widely seen as ignored or feared by more prosperous elements in French society. They are often under the control of gangs, and poverty and unemployment are rampant, many blaming them on employers’ discrimination. Set only six years in the future from its release date, the banlieues of the film were obviously based on modern day reality.
The French government struck back at the rioters with harsh rhetoric, with minister Nicolas Sarkozy causing the greatest controversy. Some who sympathized with the rioters’ concerns compared the response of Sarkozy to the politicians in the film. Sarkozy used a similar word “scum” to the word used by the corrupt politician in the film to characterize residents of Banlieue 13.-

The heavy flash (click About The Film for a nice 3D effect) website for the movie is here.