Steve Knight

It's certainly not working very well, in the UK, today.

That was pretty much my first thought, too. And said as much when copy-pasta-ing it to my Facebook To be honest, I really doubt that much of anything the American government/military/CIA/NSA/DHS/alphabet soup of media says these days about "rogue" states is anything remotely close to the truth. Dubya screwed the pooch on that for pretty much the whole world, with Iraq....

Not sure about the provenance of this but.... Jonathan McDowell, a Harvard astronomer who tracks rocket launchings and space activity, also said this [end of Jan 2013] week's monkey space flight was real, but he had a slightly different explanation for the photo mix-up. He claimed the light gray monkey with the mole died during a failed space mission in 2011. "The monkey with the mole was the one launched in 2011 that died. The rocket failed. It did not get into space," McDowell said. "They just mixed that footage with the footage of the 2013 successful launch."

I'll have "Training exercises and Government contracts that specify maximum amounts, even if not purchasing the full amount" for $500, please, Alex!

I hope so. Can I pass him a list I have of some that dearly need it? Start with Murdoch, please!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-21020747 14 January 2013 Last updated at 21:19 Natalie Wood may have had bruises before drowning - coroner Natalie Wood drowned during a boat trip off the coast of California in November 1981 Related Stories Wood's death certificate changed Natalie Wood: A Hollywood enigma Natalie Wood death case reopened Watch Hollywood actress Natalie Wood may have had bruises on her body before she drowned, a coroner's report has said. Medical officials say unexplained contusions and scratches on the 43-year-old's face and arms led them to amend her death certificate. Wood drowned during a boat trip with her husband, TV star Robert Wagner, and actor Christopher Walken in 1981. It was ruled to be an accident, but the inquiry was reopened in November 2011 because of new evidence. In a 10-page addendum to Wood's autopsy released on Monday, officials said the actress might have had bruises on her arms, scratches on her neck and grazes on her face before she drowned. 'Unanswered questions' "The location of the bruises, the multiplicity of the bruises, lack of head trauma, or facial bruising support bruising having occurred prior to entry in the water," Chief Medical Examiner Lakshmanan Sathyavagiswaran wrote in the report, which was completed in June. Robert Wagner's family welcomed the reopening of the investigation But officials were cautious about drawing conclusions because several pieces of evidence were missing during the review. "Since there are unanswered questions and limited additional evidence available for evaluation, it is opined by this medical examiner that the manner of death should be left as undetermined," the report said. The unexplained markings were cited in the report as significant factors that prompted officials to change Wood's death certificate last August from drowning to "drowning and other undetermined factors". Conflicting versions of what happened on the yacht have contributed to the mystery of how the actress died in November 1981.Argument Wood had been partying the night before her death, and the coroner's investigation ruled she had been drinking and may have slipped while trying to board the dinghy. The investigation was reopened after the captain of the boat, Dennis Davern, told US media that he lied to police, and that a fight between Wood and Wagner had led to her death. In his book Pieces of My Heart, Wagner acknowledged that there had been an argument with Wood before she had disappeared, but authorities have said the actor is not a suspect in his wife's death. Wood's body was found floating in a Catalina Island cove off the coast of California. Police reports said she was found wearing a long nightgown, socks and a jacket. As a child, Wood featured in films like Miracle on 34th Street and The Ghost and Mrs Muir. She was nominated for a best supporting actress Oscar for her role in Rebel Without a Cause, and for best actress for Splendor in the Grass, and Love with the Proper Stranger. Wood was born as Natalia Nikolaevna Zakharenko, to Russian immigrants in San Francisco.

No. I'm not Piers Morgan. The guy's a whole other class of xxxxwit all on his own. But like him, I wasn't educated in a country that spends $9trillion on Defence and guns per year, but only $130billion on education. You hunt deer with an assault weapon? What do you use for fishing, dynamite? Oh. Wait. You do... http://www.iimmgg.com/image/8859261aed44f0840ebe1c6e53b9295f Funny thing all the xxxxwits forget to mention about the second amendment right to own guns : Wasn't there something about belonging to a "well-regulated militia" as a pre-condition? I can't quite remember.... What's the National Guard for, and the professional military? Don't they kinda sorta totally invalidate the need for a part-time militia force? America's "checks" on suitability of ownership are a farce, even IF they're enforced. Which in most cases, they're not. And totally invalidated by allowing people to stockpile SIX THOUSAND or more rounds of ammunition. Per weapon. WTF is this xxxx?! You know who a hero is? Someone who gets other people killed. That's what will happen when you arm teachers and kids in the vain hope that history will not repeat itself and they'll shoot down the next xxxxwit with a grudge and an arsenal at his fingertips. What do you call an unarmed man talking a shooter into surrendering? And, coincidentally, proving the NRA/Gun-nut xxxxwit blather as the mere lie it is... Ryan Heber. Taft Union High School. San Joaqin Valley, California. This man deserves a presidential citation, at the very least. Instead, the Republitards are trying to cut teacher wages, and arm them in some sort of homage to the Wild West of the 1800s. The world's moved on a LONG way since then. WHY is America so determined to remain in the past? HALF of the mass killings in America since the Assault Weapon ban expired in 2005. HALF. In ALL of the years since 1776. Makes you proud to be an American, eh? Right there, in the heart, tugging those patriotic strings right up! So American are guns, they give them away when you open a frikking BANK ACCOUNT! Do you NOT see the irony, there? From 1982-1994, the average number of people killed in mass-shootings was 25.5. During the Assault Weapon Ban in 1995, to 2004, the average number killed was 20.9. After it expired, until 2012, the average number of people killed in mass-shootings went for a joyride around your schoolyards and shopping centres to a whopping 54.8! How's those "WE NEED MOAR GUNS!!!1" working out for you, eh? Kinda like Ronnie RayGun's "trickle down voodoonomics", wot? Are you all so insecure in your penis size that only fondling 400 rifles, assault weapons and high-capacity pistols gets you off? WTF is it? Come on! Enlighten us! PLEASE! And speaking of small penises, what the hell is all that circumcision malarkey about? Have a frikking shower! Did you know the NRA receives a slice of every gun sold? And then they use that to buy lawmakers and tell them "no gun control or we withdraw your funds!" They don't care that people are dying, only that more and more guns are sold...think about what that means. I know thinking is kind of a hard thing for an American to do, but do try! The more you do it, the less painful it gets Good luck fighting off the stealth bombers and cruise missiles, and UAV drones. You're gonna need a xxxx-TON of it. Still, only 12 days until the next mass-shooting. Making book on state and town it occurs. Separate book in number of dead...

The real conspiracy here is how the NRA buys the US government to stop them legislating against guns. I've just about had my fill of American mass shootings on the BBC. Every. Frikking. Time. Well, when the death count is above 5, anyway. How many people have died to weapons in the (less than) one month since Sandy Hook? ~700. Seven. HUNDRED. And that's not including suicides. What's done about it? Sod. Frikking. All. Business as usual to the gun merchants. SELL MOAR GUNS! WE NEED MOAR GUNS! DODGE CITY WAS WRONG TO REQUIRE SURRENDERING GUNS AT CITY LIMITS! ARM THE KIDS! Go ahead. Kill yourselves off out of sheer bloody-mindedness and idiocy. Just keep it to yourselves, and stop polluting the frikking world with your dead kids! Give your kids firearms. Let them think it's still 1850 and the OK Corral is the best way to sort out problems. PLEASE! Only 360 million more to go. We're counting!

http://www.alternet.org/media/bill-moyers-fcc-may-give-murdoch-very-merry-christmas-two-last-big-newspapers-america?akid=9778.286388.ef5Z09&rd=1&src=newsletter757352&t=3 So, basically, the FCC are giving this criminal the keys to the kingdom....without investigating what his empire has done over there? WOW! That's pretty much as bad as our government letting the worst of his excesses slide out of being punished, and refusing to follow the Inquiry's recommendations about a legal underpinning for an independent review board on Press Complaints...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/dec/01/watergate-scandal-secret-files-revealed?google_editors_picks=true Watergate scandal: secret files released Previously undisclosed discussions involving John J Sirica, the Watergate judge, are revealed in 850 pages made public Staff and agencies guardian.co.uk, Saturday 1 December 2012 06.05 GMT The US government has released more than 850 pages from the Watergate political scandal, providing new insights on privileged legal conversations and prison evaluations of several of the burglars in the case. A federal judge had decided earlier in November to unseal some material, but other records still remain off limits. The files from the National Archives show that Judge John J Sirica aided the prosecution in pursuing the White House connection to the Democratic headquarters break-in at the Watergate Hotel in 1972. Sirica provided the special prosecutor information from a probation report in which one of the burglars said he was acting under orders from top Nixon administration officials One newly public transcript of an in-chambers meeting between Sirica, who was the US district court judge in charge of the case, and special prosecutor Archibald Cox in July 1973 shows the judge revealed secret probation reports indicating that E Howard Hunt had cited orders from officials high up in the Nixon administration. Several of Hunt's co-defendants had previously denied any White House involvement in court testimony, and Sirica told Cox and other prosecutors that he felt the new information "seemed to me significant". The files provide useful context for historians of the 40-year-old case, revealing behind-the-scenes deliberations by Sirica along with prosecutors and defense lawyers. The documents stem from the prosecution of five defendants arrested during the June 1972 Watergate break-in and two men, Hunt and G Gordon Liddy, who were charged as the burglary team's supervisors. All seven men were convicted. In the conversations between Cox and Sirica the special prosecutor agreed with the judge's concerns that the probation report should be sealed and thanked him for the information. Cox promised that his team would not divulge the new information unless they felt there was a prosecutorial need and returned for a hearing to make it public. "Unless we came back," Cox told Sirica, "we wouldn't reveal it." The former Nixon White House lawyer John Dean, who co-operated with prosecutors and testified against Nixon during an explosive congressional hearing in June 1973, said on Friday after reviewing some of the newly released files that he believed Sirica "was very aggressive for a judge, even more than the White House was aware of at the time. No one in the Nixon White House knew exactly where he was coming from." Dean added that while Sirica's investigative zeal was well-known his dealings with Cox and other prosecutors were "eye-opening". US District Judge Royce Lamberth in November ordered the files unsealed after a request from Luke Nichter, a professor at Texas A&M University-Central Texas. Nichter wrote to Lamberth in 2009 asking for release of the materials. Lamberth held back other sealed materials but agreed to ask the justice department to explain the reasoning for keeping those materials secret. The documents released by the archives reinforce Sirica's reputation as a gruff, no-nonsense jurist. During pretrial hearings in December 1972 Hunt's defence attorney sought to delay the trial after the former CIA man's wife was killed in a plane crash. Sirica refused to put the trial on hold unless there was proof Hunt was suffering from a serious medical condition, according to the transcripts. "If he is just emotionally upset, that, in my opinion, is not a valid excuse," Sirica said. "If he gets tired during the day I will arrange for him to go down and take a rest for two or three hours if he wishes." A doctor who examined Hunt said in a letter to Sirica in early January 1973 that he suffered from ulcers and other gastrointestinal ailments but "has sufficient present ability to consult with his lawyer". The doctor, Charles E Law Sr, said he was worried that Hunt would weep in court, especially when questioned by prosecutors. Reports from prison psychiatrists and probation officers show that four of Hunt's co-defendants justified their role in the Watergate break-in on national security grounds, saying they were under orders to search for evidence that Cuban government funds supported Democratic party campaigns. Dean said on Friday that Hunt once told him that excuse was a sham used to persuade the others to participate in the burglary.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/nov/29/victims-accuse-cameron-leveson-inquiry Victims accuse Cameron of 'ripping heart and soul' out of Leveson inquiry Those who've suffered at hands of press say they feel betrayed by prime minister's decision to reject Leveson recommendations Sam Jones guardian.co.uk, Thursday 29 November 2012 19.05 GMT David Cameron has been accused of "ripping the heart and soul" out of Lord Justice Leveson's inquiry and betraying victims of press abuse by rejecting the judge's recommendation for a statutory body to oversee the new independent press regulator. Media reform campaigners and some of those who had their phones hacked or computers compromised said they were "profoundly depressed" by the prime minister's refusal to follow the recommendation. Speaking at a press conference organised by the Hacked Off campaign, the filmmaker Ed Blum – himself a victim of hacking – accused Cameron of abandoning those he had pledged to help. "I think with Cameron's statement today, he's let down the victims of press abuse," he said. "He's also ripped out the heart and soul of the Leveson report and at the same time, some papers tomorrow will call him courageous, although the British public will know that the slippery slope towards self-regulation has also let them down terribly as well." Mark Lewis, the solicitor who represents a number of phone-hacking victims, including the family of the murdered teenager Milly Dowler, said some of his clients were struggling to understand the prime minister's behaviour. "I have spoken to some people who feel that they've been let down because they were looking for an independent inquiry which was looking at the politicians themselves as well as the press," he said. "The politicians were in on this and somebody independent was coming along and made recommendations and cautious optimism lasted for about 45 minutes and then the prime minister spoke and said well he's not actually going to implement a report that he instigated." He added: "[Cameron] called for a judicial inquiry. There wasn't really much point in this judicial inquiry unless it was going to be implemented." Lewis also pointed out that in his evidence to the inquiry, the prime minister had spoken of the importance of what he termed the "victim test". Cameron had told Leveson that the inquiry should not be about placating the press or politicians but about "really protecting the people who've been caught up and absolutely thrown to the wolves by this process". By any measure, said Lewis, Cameron had failed that test. "He called it the victim test; he called it the Dowler test," said the solicitor. "It looks like he failed his own test. He appointed the lord justice to make recommendations and now he says he's not going to follow them. That's a failure of that test and he needs to resit." Other victims of press abuse told Hacked Off of their disappointment with the prime minister. The former policewoman and Crimewatch presenter Jacqui Hames said she found his remarks in the Commons "profoundly depressing", while a group representing families who lost relatives in the Hillsborough football disaster were said to be "very upset". Christopher Jefferies, the man vilified in some sections of the press and falsely arrested over the murder of Joanna Yates, told Hacked Off he felt betrayed. Midway through Thursday afternoon, the actor Hugh Grant tweeted: "With a group of (non celeb) victims including Hillsborough families listening to PM. Buzzword is betrayal." Brain Cathcart, a journalism professor and founder of Hacked Off, praised Lord Justice Leveson for producing "a thorough, balanced and powerful report" containing measures to protect press freedom and recognise the rights of victims of press abuse. He said the report had offered "a workable, proportionate, reasonable solution" to the problems facing the public, the media and the politicians. The prime minister, however, had "not done his job" and his failure to accept the report's full recommendations was both regrettable and unfortunate. "The Leveson proposals were carefully thought out," said Cathcart. "They would have made a difference. They should be implemented as quickly as possible and must not be put aside." He added that despite "their years of abuses and outrageous conduct, it seems that the prime minister still trusts the editors and proprietors to behave themselves." Cathcart described the report as a very important moment and urged Cameron to seize it. "We do not want to let it slip and surely the prime minister does not want to be seen to be the person who has let slip this opportunity which is coming once in a generation," he said. "A long time we've been having these choices and ducking them. Does he really want to be the latest prime minister to duck these choices?" To that end, Hacked Off announced that they had launched a petition urging Cameron, Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband to work together to implement all the report's recommendations as soon as possible. Jane Winter, the director of a human rights charity who discovered that emails and documents she had sent had been illegally accessed after the recipient's computer was hacked, was disheartened by the Leveson report in general and the prime minister's refusal to accept its key recommendation in particular. Winter, head of the British Irish Rights Watch, was one of 60 victims who signed a letter to the PM last October asking him to implement Leveson's suggestions. She said: "His response was, 'As long as it's not bonkers, I'll implement that'. Well I saw the report this morning and it doesn't look bonkers to me and I think he's gone back on his word and I feel betrayed." Winter added: "I'm afraid he knows who his friends are – his friends in the media – and he's not really concerned about the victims although he said he was. He made a lot of nice noises about the victims who've been to hell and back, like the Dowlers, but he doesn't mean a word of it. If he did, he would implement these recommendations." Despite her deep disappointment, however, she was refusing to relinquish hope entirely: "I still have a spark of optimism because it looks to me like both Labour and the Liberal Democrats are in favour of Lord Leveson's recommendations and we also know that there are a number of Tory backbenchers who support proper regulation for the media."

And Camoron immediately says "We need to think long and hard before bringing in such a law." Idiot is so out of touch with public opinion he's somewhere out passed Pluto. Couple of papers have also said they'd never sign up to such an oversight body.

There's been military contingency planning for thousands of years. "No battle plan survives first contact with the enemy". Always have a Plan "B" ready for when Plan "A" fails....and a Plan "C". And "D". And "E"....Through to Plan "xyz". Remember "Plan Red"? I wonder when they'll act on that one? They got plans for lots of xxxx they don't really expect to happen, but it's better to have a plan for something and not need it, than have xxxx happen to you, and put you on the back foot.

Most Annoying Trait : Lipsmacking while talking. RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGE! Screw the rambling paranoid delusions where she says absolutely NOTHING for 15 minutes. It's the sounds of an army of vaginas marching over slick mud every 15 seconds that really wants me to put my fist through the screen. Anyone got a précis of the meat of her "tale", without the sound effects, please?

Or it was a backup contingency they could no longer afford to employ after it became common knowledge Son of Mittless had bought the company.... Curse you, Intawebz!

ROFL! Hope Hospital! I was born there. If anything is ever misnamed, it's that place It merged a few years ago with Salford Royal hospital, after they shut that place down. But then, the area is rife with hospitals. Something like 7 or 8 inside a 20minute drive....There's plans now to shut some down, to save money. Travel time will be a few minutes longer, in emergencies, but something has to be done. It's fairly ridiculous... Gotta love the Daily Fail with their hysterical takes on rather benign matters. "Gotta whip them up into ranting racists or we won't sell any copies!"

If this show was in any measure meant to be half-way serious, it'd be on BBC2 or BBC4. Not the BBC3 channel dedicated to "entertainment". Nor would it be hosted by a comedian very few people have actually heard of...

Saratoga was in San Diego, undergoing a long-planned refit and overhaul. Lexington and Enterprise were ferrying aircraft to (IIRC) Midway, and Enterprise returned to Pearl Harbor DURING the attack, and had to be warned to turn away, to the south, to escape the Japanese planes. Joseph Grew's January 1941 warning came from the (again, IIRC) Peruvian ambassador to Japan (or it could have been Colombian....), and was just one of several score warnings routinely ignored by American Intelligence as being "unlikely, because Japan is too smart to attack us - they know we'd crush them in retaliation!". Hell, even the USAAF's own Billy Mitchell declared at his 1925 courts-martial that Japan would end up attacking the US Fleet while it was in Pearl Harbor (this was LONG before it became a full naval base, instead of just a part-time anchorage), and probably early on a Sunday morning, without any warning. He based that analysis on Japan's MO in the Pacific theatre. He was not much wrong.

I think I read somewhere in the media he's destroyed all (or much of) records from his time there....although there are SEC filings that dispute his claim he left the firm before or as he took over the Salt Lake Olympics fiasco....

Numerology? Seriously? What's next? "Phrenology As A Guide To Exposing Government Cover-Ups" by Nancy Reagan? I know it's human nature to look for patterns, as a survival mechanism in pre-history, but when people constantly leave the thin branch to "find" them, it's gone way beyond coincidence, and is entering Never-Never Land....

You see, the thing about polls is....they are most often (very high percentage) phrased specifically to get the answer that the customer commissioning said poll wants to get. Unless the interviewee is paying serious attention (unlikely on the high street where they're busy shopping, with kids, on their way to work/meeting/home for a cuppa tea...whatever) it's likely they will answer they way they are wanted to by the questioner. It's big money for the poll firms to do it this way. BIG money.

Speaking of Republitar...cans. Some are calling for a State Funeral. Neil would be the first to tell them where to go and what to do there. His family are similarly aghast. And yet they're still demanding it happen.

Seriously depressing. And it's probably only going to get worse. Especially if Romney and his "slash all public services spending to fund the military and rich people!" policy gets in. :\

You really don't want to go on Facebook or Twitter, for this. They were serious.

http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/2012/aug/23/15/judge-says-he-will-order-release-marine-veteran-he-ar-2151347/?referer=None&shorturl=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2FQv0Mwv