The BBC was involved in a fresh row last night over the use of independent production companies after the flagship Newsnight programme admitted mixing up the chronology in a film about Gordon Brown.
As the corporation drew up plans for a complete amnesty on confessions of past trickery,
Ollie ollie ox in free!
Newsnight faced complaints from the Treasury about the film on Brown's leadership campaign.
Details at the link.
The "amnesty" for deliberate distortion is a telling move.
#1
It doesn't sound as if the deal includes amnesty from private law suits. In America the buzzards would have already abandoned the mesothelioma carcas and commenced areonautics above the BEEB.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
07/15/2007 2:33 Comments ||
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#2
The guy got in trouble for Mickey Moore filmmaking - showing stuff out of chronological order to create a different impression - and he's in trouble?
In London?
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/15/2007 7:13 Comments ||
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#3
The guy got in trouble for Mickey Moore filmmaking - showing stuff out of chronological order to create a different impression - and he's in trouble? In London?
It was the Queen, Bobby. The Queen is held in VERY high regard by 75% of all Brits. You can make fun of Charles, just about any other member of the Royal Family, and all of Parliament, but DO NOT make fun of the Queen. The People will be angry!
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/15/2007 17:07 Comments ||
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#4
Only the Queen Mum was more highly esteemed and, perhaps, rightfully so. However, to Elizabeth's eternal credit, she had courage enough to endure the Blitz along with London's commoner populace. The same can hardly be said for this new crew of Britain's spineless politicians.
showing stuff out of chronological order to create a different impression
Sound like "Lawrence of Arabia" to me. We'll please disregard how it remains one of my most favorite films.
Fremont County Colorado: Prison workers saw an unusual sight in the pre-dawn hours Thursday 25 military paratroopers floating down in the restricted airspace over the Fremont Correctional Facility. They landed in a cornfield on prison grounds, carrying rifles with rubber bullets, after missing their intended target of the Fremont County Airport.
As unusual as the incident was, Colorado Department of Corrections spokeswoman Katherine Sanguinetti said, prison workers werent very alarmed. It was pretty apparent they were military, she said. But it remains unclear which branch of the military they were with.
Nope! Wudn us. Musta been them other guys.
The paratroopers identified themselves as being with the Department of Defense, but wouldnt tell prison staff which branch they were with. Army and Air Force officials denied knowledge of the incident. A spokesman for the 10th Special Forces at Fort Carson said it didnt appear any units had filed a report required when troops miss their drop zone.
An airport manager did not return a message Saturday.
Sanguinetti said staff patrolling the perimeter of the prison first saw the paratroopers about 4:50 a.m. They spotted them right before they hit the ground, she said.
The paratroopers said they landed there accidentally. They got blown off-course, Sanguinetti said. They said they meant to land at the county airport, about three miles to the east. Trucks arrived within a half-hour to pick up the troopers, she said. More at link
The Saudi Interior Ministry has issued guidelines banning morality police from detaining suspects, after recent deaths in their custody raised questions about the role of the controversial force. Newspapers reported on Friday and Saturday that the order, which has been distributed to state prosecutors, includes an explicit ban on extracting confessions and inspections of morality police offices to ensure no one is being held there. The order follows previous efforts to regulate the activities of the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, including a royal decree last year that they must deliver suspects to Interior Ministry police officers. A source close to the affair told Reuters that this weeks order was not intended to be made public. Recent cases have caused embarrassment to the force, which has wide powers to enforce bans on drugs, alcohol and prostitution.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/15/2007 00:00 ||
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Link ||
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#1
Does Saudi Arabia have a TV show like Cops?
Posted by: Super Hose ||
07/15/2007 2:37 Comments ||
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President Vladimir Putin yesterday signalled that Russia was on a new and explosive collision course with Nato when he dumped a key arms control treaty limiting the deployment of conventional forces in Europe.
Putin said Moscow was unilaterally withdrawing from the Soviet-era Conventional Armed Forces in Europe Treaty because of 'extraordinary circumstances that affect the security of the Russian Federation', the Kremlin said. These required 'immediate measures'.
Got a purchase order you're itching to fill, tovarich?
The treaty governs where Nato and Russia can station their troops in Europe. Moscow's decision to bin it suggests that Putin's talks earlier this month with President George Bush came to nothing, and that the Kremlin has reverted to its earlier belligerent mood. The Kremlin has for months been bitterly incensed by the Bush administration's decision to site elements of its missile defence shield in Poland and the Czech Republic.
Putin has derided American claims that the Pentagon system is designed to shoot down rogue missiles fired by Iran and North Korea. Instead he says the target is Russia. Last month he said the US could use a former Soviet radar system in Azerbaijan instead. But during his seaside summit this month with Putin at the Bush family's Maine home, President Bush rejected this offer - a snub that appears to have triggered Putin's latest defiant gesture.
'The detente lasted two weeks,' Pavel Felgenhauer, a Moscow-based defence analyst, told The Observer yesterday, referring to the short-lived thaw.
Putin's decision to leave the treaty comes against a backdrop of rapidly deteriorating relations between Russia and the West
Putin's decision to leave the treaty will come into effect in 150 days after the parties of the treaty have been notified. It comes against a backdrop of rapidly deteriorating relations between Russia and the West. In particular, Russia's relations with Britain are at their lowest point since the Seventies following Moscow's refusal last week to extradite Andrei Lugovoi, the former KGB agent charged with poisoning Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko in London.
The Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, is expected to announce punitive counter-measures this week. They could see the mass expulsion of diplomats from Russia's embassy in London, and tit-for-tat reprisals by Moscow.
In Brussels, Nato bluntly condemned Russia's decision to abandon the treaty, under which Nato and the Warsaw Pact agreed to reduce their conventional armed forces immediately after the Cold War. 'It's a step in the wrong direction,' said spokesman James Appathurai. 'The allies consider this treaty to be an important cornerstone of European stability.' Estonia said it deplored the move.
The Kremlin insisted, however, it had been left little choice. Russia's Foreign Ministry called the treaty 'hopelessly outdated'. It said restrictions on Russian troop deployment were now 'senseless' and prevented 'more efficient measures against international terrorism'.
Under the treaty, signed by the former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1990, Russia agreed to scrap much of its military hardware in Eastern Europe and limit the number of troops stationed on its northern and southern flanks.
The treaty was amended in 1999, calling on Russia to withdraw its troops from the former Soviet republics of Moldova and Georgia. Russia ratified the treaty but did not pull out its troops, prompting the US and other Nato members to refuse to ratify the treaty until Russia withdraws.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov yesterday said Russia could no longer tolerate a situation where it had ratified and its partners had not. Yesterday analysts said that Putin's move would probably not make much difference to Russia's military capacities, but it would allow Russian generals to carry out exercises without informing their Western counterparts and keep Russian troops in the breakaway regions of Georgia and Moldova.
Moscow's ferocious anti-Western rhetoric is set to continue ahead of parliamentary elections in December and presidential elections next year to choose Putin's successor.
Moscow's ferocious anti-Western rhetoric is set to continue ahead of parliamentary elections in December and presidential elections next year to choose Putin's successor.
Some analysts, however, believe Moscow's move is largely symbolic. The moratorium probably wouldn't result in any major build-up in heavy weaponry in European Russia, Felgenhauer said. But it would annoy Washington, he conceded. 'This will be a major irritant. It will seriously spoil relations.'
#1
Idiot. Only a fool misruling a country of 140 million impoverished peasants wants to get into an arms race with 800 million (soon to be 900) of the richest people on the planet.
Posted by: ed ||
07/15/2007 1:32 Comments ||
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#3
Yep, 3dc. Pooty's looking westward (not really worriedly--he knows that he's looking on an already thinning swarm of euro-invertebre), while they'll start chewing on his behind pretty soon in far east.
#4
I suspect he's already written off anything east of the Urals, at least for now. The eastern European states were easy pickings for the Soviets. The far east is a lot harder to exploit -- and where they did so, they left incredible ecological devastation behind. Lake Baikal. Norilsk.
Still are massive natural resources out there, tho.
#5
I think Putin's offer of Azerbaijan makes perfect sense. Putin just doesn't realize the lesson we just learned, Bush has a stone in his head. Putin should negotiate with the EU.
On the other hand, Putin is playing hard and fast with other peoples' lives. What's with that ?
#6
Disagree with you re: Azerbaijan. The Iranians have long claimed the Azeri region as 'natural extensions' of Iran itself. It's got the world's 2nd largest Shi'ite population, after Iran, which looks to Iran for religious guidance. Putin was being disingenuous, to say the least, when 'offering' it as a site for US BMD.
#7
The eastern European states were easy pickings for the Soviets.
You're referring to the Russians who've had their asses handed to them on a number of occasions by the muzzie Chetnyians. Not what I'd call an effective or efficient organization on either side. So, you really think the Russkis want to try the Poles, this time without German help? Anything less than nuclear blackmail would be very expensive and subject to humiliating failure and absolutely give the Chinese a go ahead into Siberia. Resorting to absolute nuclear blackmail would give both the Chinese and the US the opening to play that card in turn in regions the Russians currently obstruct the former parties interests. The Great Game part deux.
#8
Russia's proposal to share a potent radar station wid the USA so close to Iran didn't go down well wid Iran's govt. Besides being JOTH = close to Iran's borders, it also hinted that Russia does not and will never consider Azerbaijan as sovereign or independent from Moscow. ala China + North Korea. Lest we fergit, during the Cold War the USSR's definition of "conventional forces" was inclusive of "dual-use" battlefield-tactical Nuke-WMD missles and tube artillery.
Some people get an inkling about the limitations of living just for today's pleasure when they get a morning look at the person they took home from the pub the night before.
For the staff at the Independent, it comes as a result of realizing their wonderful government guaranteed pensions aren't quite as guaranteed as they thought.
Europe is getting old, and fast. Birth rates are falling below those necessary to replace older people as they die. The average birth rate in the European Union is down to 1.5 children per woman, and officials warn that unless it rises to 1.7, the EU will have difficulty financing its pension system.
Portugal's birth rate fell last year to the lowest level since records began in 1935. Poland, with one of Europe's lowest fertility rates, recently began a programme of tax breaks, longer maternity leave and better pre-school provision to encourage larger families. The Nordic model includes financial incentives and flexible working, and has seen the birth rate increase slightly in Norway and Sweden.
The population projection for the EU in 2050 is 450 million, almost 10 million fewer than in 2005. Before the end of the decade the proportion of people aged 60 or over will exceed the proportion of those under five. There are steadily fewer people of working age to support the elderly.
As well as promoting higher birth rates, other remedies being considered to cope with ageing societies are raising the retirement age to save on pensions and opening borders to migrant workers. Germany voted this year to increase the retirement age from 65 to 67 by 2012.
#2
Don't worry! Fecund Muslims will fill the gap. They're the only ones having children in Europe these days.
Of course, they might vote to discontinue pensions to infidels. But them's the breaks, ladies!
#3
No problem, in the name of greater Marxism socialism, they'll just make the younger generation tax slaves serfs. The bureaucrats just need to get efficient about getting that 20 percent unemployment down first. It's one thing to steal burden the productive income of those "can do" in the name of the childrenelderlycivil servants common good, aka "it takes a village", but not a good idea while those layabout "won't do" are so numerous about them. Tends to upset the usually complicit serfs.
#6
1. Social Security and similiar systems are an intergenerational wealth redistribution system (i.e. socialist Ponzi scheme)
2. Demography is destiny. With shrinking native populations the Euros are forced to fill the gap with immigrants, and not only are they poor at assimilating them but their traditional cultures were already deteriorating from the unrelenting assaults of the Left. Many of these nations will be alien and entirely unrecognizable within a few years.
#7
Yeah, Grumenk, Social Security is a Ponzi scheme or a "pyramid" scheme if you will. One reason I suspect Bush thinks it's "right for America" to give amnesty to 12 million illegal aliens from Mexico is so we can keep getting more people into the bottom of the pyramid to keep it from collapsing. I think a better solution would be if Congress would get over thinking that Social Security is some kind of sacred cow and phase it out. Of course, I still hope to get mine from it!
#8
I'm forty-six, and I don't expect to see a penny from Social Security, nor does anyone I know. I look at it as a way to support the older generations in some small comfort, but I just hope we've saved enough out of Mr. Wife's salary and investments to keep me until I die at 120 (my mother's family tends toward long, long lives). Despite President Bush's proposed privatization scheme not passing, the increased availability of IRAs and 401-Ks has meant the de facto privatization of retirement funds since the 1980s. I know the numbers are floating around out there, but I don't believe the economists count those funds as savings. Were they to do so, Americans' savings rate would show a dramatic increase over the past two decades.
#9
Good Point TW But the chattering class desires to have the scare of the low savings rate to prop up the 'need' for government.
also, Social Security's payout is so low that unless you have an additional retirement supplement you WILL take a major hit in your standard of living.
Posted by: Abu do you love ||
07/15/2007 22:36 Comments ||
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#10
Europe's got it all worked out - radical Islamists will murder the aging retirees thus reducing the EU government's pension obligation. Also, reduces their carbon footprint. Next on the agenda - soylent green.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
The BBC was involved in a fresh row last night over the use of independent production companies after the flagship Newsnight programme admitted mixing up the chronology in a film about Gordon Brown.
President Vladimir Putin yesterday signalled that Russia was on a new and explosive collision course with Nato when he dumped a key arms control treaty limiting the deployment of conventional forces in Europe.
