Leveller

here we go again…

Originally uploaded by loungerie

American Republican’s say that because Ms Pelosi was mean to them, they decided to throw their toys out of the pram in a fit of pique. Apparently throwing themselves into a major recession it is more important so as to preserve their cherished beliefs in Reaganomic market voodoo.

Perhaps the next time they vote on this they’ll add a clause to grab back the $36 billion in bonuses the city spiv’s paid themselves last year.

EDIT: following the vote $1.2 trillion was wiped of US share prices.

That’s a big whack out of everyone’s 401K and all because Nancy made the Republican’s cry.

Naturally they have fucked it up from the start. This isn’t designed to be a card for some white middle class lass, oh no. This is a card specifically designed for someone with black skin, more than likely male, and with a name akin to Mohammed or Ishmael.

Bastards!

Tracy Island by Fender5

London Mayor Boris “Rupert” Johnson is considering building an artificial island in the Thames Estuary as an answer to overcrowding at Heathrow Airport.

The previous proposal to build a new airport at Cliffe in Kent was rejected due to environmental concerns and the fact that the area is a major winter roost for seabirds the danger to aircraft taking off and landing was decided to be far too hazardous, and was even advised against by BAA.

Perhaps the idea of aircraft falling out of the sky onto the people of Sheppey rather than Cliffe isn’t so bad an idea, Cliffe is after all only just across the river from East Tilbury, and well Sheppey is Sheppey.

The US Federal Reserve bails out AIG with almost $100,000,000,000 as its stock value crumbles. But what has brought this giant of insurance down? The answer appears to be that the value of AIG’s investments known as Credit Default Swaps (CDS), apparently these are supposed to be a form of insurance policy (AIG’s business is insurance) against bad debt.

At the end of last year concerns were being expressed that the value of these insurances were grossly overestimated resulting in a write down of $4.88 billion.

It seems that not only was AIG’s insurance risk assessment lacking but their Crisis Management Services just wasn’t up to the job either.

Over the last couple of decades companies like AIG have charged huge fees, and paid themselves massive bonuses, for advising on, and selling derivative investments like Credit Default Swaps.

Today many suspect these derivatives are worthless.

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In answer to a question from Christopher Price MP, Home Secretary Merlyn Rees said that under the control of the Metropolitan Police there are nine closed-circuit television cameras on fixed sites used mainly for crowd and traffic control.

Mr Rees added: "The Home Office has asked chief officers to satisfy themselves that the use of surveillance equipment is justified in all circumstances and is authorised at an appropriately senior level in the force. Chief officers are well aware of the sensitivity of material obtained in this way’.

Hansard 27/11/1978

Surveillance not to be used to catch litter droppers

Council leaders have been warned this week to stop using surveillance equipment to crack down on “trivial” matters such as “dog fouling and littering”.

In a letter sent to councils this week, Sir Simon Milton, Conservative chairman of the Local Government Association (LGA) called on authorities to undertake an urgent review of surveillance operations carried out under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA).

The letter stated that powers in the Act should only be used after “careful consideration” and that the required operations are “necessary and proportionate to prevent or detect a criminal offence”, as stipulated in the Act

JPBR-1707-3-B World Bank

Originally uploaded by
World Bank Photo Collection

Ten days ago news was released of the discovery of a tribe of Amzonian Indians in rainforest in the state of Acre in Western Brazil.

The last tribe to be contacted were the Murunahua tribe in neighbouring Peru, 50% of which subsequently died of colds and other illnesses.

With modern society on their doorstep the clock cannot be turned back, but they should be allowed the time and space to decide how and when they will interact with the 21st century. To that end they need to be protected from loggers, gas and oil speculators, and Evangelical Christians.

Originally uploaded by
ANZ Cluster Munition Coalition

Ministry of Defence, which wanted to retain two types of cluster munitions in the British armoury, against Downing Street and the Foreign Office, which want to honour Gordon Brown’s pledge last year “to work internationally for a ban” on those weapons that cause unacceptable harm to civilians.

“The types of cluster munitions we intend to retain are legitimate weapons with significant military value which, as a result of mitigating features, is not outweighed by humanitarian factors.”
Defence Secretary Des Browne

However, after hearing evidence from those maimed by the weapons in statement from Downing Street Gordon Brown said:

I am delighted that the negotiations in Dublin have come to a successful conclusion and congratulate the Irish Government and all those involved.

I am confident that this agreement is in line with British interests and values, and makes the world a safer place.

The main producers and users of cluster bombs, the United States, Israel, China, Russia, India and Pakistan, have said they would not support the convention. So, it is unclear what effect it will have once it comes into power.

The Commons overwhelmingly passes the bill allowing for hybrid embryo research(336 to 176). Actually, despite opposition, it looks like it was game set and match for science these last two days, with MPs leaving alone the time limit on abortions (304 votes to 233), and allowing for ‘Saviour siblings’ (342 votes to 163).

A Q&A on the bill can be found on the BBC website which includes information on why scientist say that the research is needed to further understand complex diseases such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and Motor Neurone Disease.

With the Reverend Blair out of the way, the leaders of all major UK parties gave their backing to the bill. Predictably the main opposition came from the Catholic church, the main spokesperson in amongst the MPs saying:

“We do not believe that regulation is enough. We believe this is a step too far and therefore should be banned.

“In embryos, we do have the genetic make up of a complete human being and we could not and should not be spliced together with the animal kingdom.”

being a conservative lawyer Edward Leigh is in the perfect position to know.

Credits:
Rat head by ChinchillaVilla used under a BY-NC Creative Commons License

UK aid being unloaded in Rangoon, Burma

Originally uploaded by Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Today is two weeks after Cyclone Nargis hit Burma and the miltary junta are still pissing about over whether aide should be allowed into the country and who should distribute it.

What a bunch of arseholes!

The official death toll for Burma’s cyclone disaster has jumped to almost 78,000 people, with nearly 56,000 missing, according to state TV.

Whilst a small amount of aide is trickling into the country most of it is being taken by the military, hardly any is reaching those affected.

Some Governments are just more wrong than others.

Anyway congratulations to the Burmese Government on being the first winners of the Shit of the Week Award.

From the BBC:

Liberal Democrat leader “No Shit Sherlock” has pledged to tackle “bad practice” in the City of London as he outlined plans for a better system of regulation.

The current turmoil is due to thieving by the financial institutions, at the moment we are focussing on the write downs that the banks are announcing, but in the end they will mostly recoup these ‘losses’ by selling the repossessed properties. In reality the losers are the poor in the USA who were duped into signing mortgage agreements. This whole fiasco is the largest transfer of equity from African Americans to City Financiers since the ending of slavery.

This isn’t the first time that financial institutions have been caught either. There was miss selling of pensions on the 1980s, miss selling of endowment mortgages in the 1990s, and now these sub-prime mortgages which sounds remarkably like Savings & Loans mk2.

You’ll hear the pundits, politicians, and industry apologists excuse the behaviour, they’ll tell you that no one could have foreseen it, and that extra regulation isn’t the answer. Well may be it isn’t, what we should do is pick ten or twenty of the leading bankers and chop their thieving fucking hands off.