Ray McGovern and the Sam Adams party have presented the Sam Adams award to Edward Snowden. I am delighted. This from Ray’s account of the event:
In brief remarks from his visitors, Snowden was reassured — first and foremost — that he need no longer be worried that nothing significant would happen as a result of his decision to risk his future by revealing documentary proof that the U.S. government was playing fast and loose with the Constitutional rights of Americans.
Even amid the government shutdown, Establishment Washington and the normally docile “mainstream media” have not been able to deflect attention from the intrusive eavesdropping that makes a mockery of the Fourth Amendment. Even Congress is showing signs of awaking from its torpor.
In the somnolent Senate, a few hardy souls have gone so far as to express displeasure at having been lied to by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and NSA Director Keith Alexander — Clapper having formally apologized for telling the Senate Intelligence Committee eavesdropping-related things that were, in his words, “clearly erroneous” and Alexander having told now-discredited whoppers about the effectiveness of NSA’s intrusive and unconstitutional methods in combating terrorism.
Coleen Rowley, the first winner of the Sam Adams Award (2002), cited some little-known history to remind Snowden that he is in good company as a whistleblower — and not only because of previous Sam Adams honorees. She noted that in 1773, Benjamin Franklin leaked confidential information by releasing letters written by then-Lt. Governor of Massachusetts Thomas Hutchinson to Thomas Whatley, an assistant to the British Prime Minister.
The letters suggested that it was impossible for the colonists to enjoy the same rights as subjects living in England and that “an abridgement of what are called English liberties” might be necessary. The content of the letters was so damaging to the British government that Benjamin Franklin was dismissed as colonial Postmaster General and had to endure an hour-long censure from British Solicitor General Alexander Wedderburn.
There has been a determined attempt by government to justify the need to intercept everybody’s communications, all the time. We have, yet again, had MI5 claim there are many thousand violent Islamic terrorists running around the UK, (yet somehow not managing to kill anybody). The cry of “paedophiles” is raised, as always. I can imagine them suggesting the entire population be shot dead, and justifying it as making sure they get the paedophiles. The tabloids would go with that.
There still had not been a single credible claim by the mainstream media that any named individual has died, despite that contingency being trotted out all the time as the reason Snowden and Manning should not have revealed state crimes and abuse of power. I am hopeful that, with the internet still largely free to the dissemination of information, out next massive whistleblower is only weeks away.
Bighangups
Brand update:
“Russell Brand buys a character-filled home in Hollywood Hills West”
Russell Brand — he of the off-color humor and wild-eyed visage — has bought a character-filled home in Hollywood Hills West for $2.224 million.The restored 1926 traditional-style house was designed by Roy Selden Price, an architect known for his period revival work.Beyond a somewhat modest entry lie 4,800 square feet of interior space with arched doorways, an office, a home theater with two tiers of seating, five bedrooms and 5.5 bathrooms. The dramatic arched-ceiling living room features a fireplace.
http://touch.latimes.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-77822757/
“Just popped in to second Technicolor’s question”
A master troll quoting a trainee troll; must be missing the successfully groomed but errant Village Idiot.
AlcAnon,
My only surprise at this non-event is that the Met Office hasn’t tried to spin it as the result of man-made climate change.
Teacupstorm
“Don’t travel unless you absolutely have to” they just said on “Sky News”. That’s not the Met Office official advice. They just made it up themselves.
Shhhh!. Jemand – the pooch in the pouch with the big punch – is sleeping right now.
A voice much sweeter than wine.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpD5_c2j1OM
I know you’ve been busier than as a blowie at a barbie and need a good kip, but…
Jammo “The Wombat”. 2 36am
“@Sofia KN
By referring to me as “The Dingo”, much like some Americans refer to negroes as “coons” (as in racoons), you are revealing an unpleasant racist side to your childish persona…”
and
Jammo “The Kuala”. 1 00pm
“We get that from both pseudo-cosmopolitan types and disgruntled non-whites like you all the time. “
Crikey mate! How does a bright bloke like you get to write such a load of old cobblers! Didn’t they tell you in hasbara school, when you’re in a hole you should put down the shovel?
Or maybe I’m just a few tinnies short of a slab, on account of me sun-tan, and don’t understand.
Can you can explain just what you meant, s l o w l y, in Pigeon English.
“Benefit Sanctions Are State Terrorism And Must Be Stopped Without Exceptions”
http://johnnyvoid.wordpress.com/2013/10/27/benefit-sanctions-are-state-terrorism-and-must-be-stopped-without-exceptions/
Yet more shite on Sky News about wind speeds forecast for Heathrow.
Here’s the Met Office page Max sustained windspeed speed at 6am 32mph gusting to 57mph
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/public/weather/forecast/london-heathrow-airport-greater-london#?tab=fiveDay&fcTime=1382918400
Sky News just quoted fantasy figures for Heathrow under “Breaking News”
That said the live Atlantic isobar chart does look just a little bit ooh-err so maybe the Met Office are about to upgrade to “Red” and Sky are right. Probably not though but we’ll see.
Another intellectual giant here,
Top lawyer’s advice: keep the bombing and torture of Palestinians short and sharp… http://jfjfp.com/?p=50653
FFS Up to 92mph at Heathrow after 6am up until about mid-day they just said on Sky. Well if that happened it would be a disaster. Where are they getting this from? They claim it is from a Met Office emergency update to airports. My assumption remains they are making it up but we will see. Absolutely none of the Met Office official output supports any of this.
Ben,
Some nice images of Ison taken, believe it or not, by the GLP observatory.
http://img46.imageshack.us/img46/3932/8vxc.jpg
http://h.dropcanvas.com/t6n70/ISONtimelapse102713.gif
GLP threads at http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message2394807/pg1
and http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message2394919/pg1
Posted by Dr Astro (real astronomer) and Ghetto Monk (GLP admin) so it’s legit.
Brian,
This one’s for you
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsIC3TvzLXE
Genesis say goodbye to the “old stuff” one last time. Rome 2007.
Anyone else not killed by the death storm can watch it as well.
@Sofia KN (the man who impersonates a young girl on the internet) @12:33am, you and Macky need to make your mind up as to whether I am a neo nazi or a hasbara troll.. I can’t surely be both.
It’s not surprising to see your composure collapse like a cardboard cut-out and you revert to childish ridicule when your silly claims are rebutted. Your one-dimensional image of being morally and intellectually superior couldn’t even withstand the slightest breeze of reason when that anti-European fairytale about the intentional spreading of disease was roundly trashed. You weren’t even able to offer a dignified admission of failure. Don’t you realise that you are contributing to ethnic tensions when you peddle racist myths that perpetuate the “cult of race”?
@Macky, we never did discover who impersonated Habbakbuk on this blog in an attempt to smear him. Your recent posting of a comment in Mary’s name has given me pause for thought about the possibility that you were behind that.
Was it US? Was it Them or Was it the One we can’ mention?
INTERPOL ALERT – False flag artists wearing Australian tennis player garb flying out of Dubai are expected to cause mayhem at Far Eastern Airports. (with luck and much conviction that should put paid to Jemands Thai holiday, for good measure yiddish tennis players or MKO “Iranian” terrorists are not welcome there any more).
What would we do without the light comic relief afforded by the English Knight who dons another (hospital issue) gown to become Kedem Forever to take the edge off of these feisty exchanges?
With the NHS tightening its belt I expect access to broadband internet in its medium security facilities might become a fee for service in the near future, so we might soon find out.
Jemand: “I am a neo nazi or a hasbara troll.. I can’t surely be both”
You mean not like your fell Islamophobic obsessives in the EDL, & a certain Anders Behring Breivik ?
Jemand : “we never did discover who impersonated Habbakbuk on this blog in an attempt to smear him”
Sorry to disappoint but I wouldn’t allow anybody to cause me to corrupt my dignity by engaging in such tactics, I leave that to those that consider such tactics a virtue, and something to boast about a la “By ways of deceptions,..”
It’s a shame that Post got deleted, otherwise once again tell-tale spelling errors or other clues might have found to point to the culprit.
The fact that you still cling to trying to discredit me by citing my post that appeared with Mary’s name, reveals that your desperate malice trumps both your commonsense & your own dignity. The fact that you can hypocritically accuse Sofia of “contributing to ethnic tensions when you peddle racist myths”, is the very definition of that Zionist trait specialty, chutzpah.
So it was a storm. Lots of work for fencing contractors, power line workers and men with chainsaws no doubt but it did not deserve the overhyping that has gone since Thursday when I said it was being amplified.
Sky have just had an lecturer in ‘disaster manager’ from Kingston University in an attempt to justify their wild exaggerations over the last 24 hours.
No comparison to 1987 as it was being suggested. I have not heard of any deaths thankfully. There were over 100 then and whole forests were felled like matchsticks.
I was widowed that year and spent a fearful night listening to the roof tiles lifting and settling. The old house (1908) survived well and there was no damage.
I was a practice manager at a local vets at the time and made my way to work very early through fallen branches and debris. The phones were going mad. Many large animals had been injured and those that had escaped over broken fencing had barbed wire injuries. Their owners were distressed.
The weather observations on the Met Office site for the last 24 hours reveal the highest wind speed here (20mls SE of London) at around 50 mph for gusts. There was talk of +80mph. It is now a lovely morning with clear blue skies and the odd cloud scudding by in a W to E direction.
Pity the commuters and travellers who have had no transport this morning. Blame it on the drama kings and queens on the corporate media who are still at it this morning appealing for photos and videos.
This happened overnight in Whitehall. No ConDem was harmed.
http://www.constructionenquirer.com/2013/10/28/storm-watch-scaffolding-hit-by-high-winds/
The flame haired beauty, Coulson and the others have just arrived at the Old Bailey.
s/b
Sky have just had on a lecturer in ‘disaster management’ from Kingston University in an attempt to justify their wild exaggerations over the last 24 hours.
I’ve had to take the day of work, the hurri…, blustery wind has blown some leaves onto the path and they look a bit damp. Don’t want to end up in A+E with a broken arm, or worse. If they don’t dry out by this afternoon I will call the emergency services, better safe than sorry. Just heard on Sky News that a tree has blown over in Hampshire – brings back memories of the Blitz.
Mary
Storms can amplify – and even today such amplifications cannot be predicted. This is what happened in1987 – remember Michael Fish – it didn’t last night. Talking of amplification there were 22 deaths in 1987 not 100.
“Subtlety doesn’t sell. But bad habits aren’t imposed from the top down. Across blogs and social media you can see how the internet amplifies and facilitates the impulse to think the worst of people you have never met and to ignore any facts or context that might take the wind out of your indignation …
“The quicker we are to distort and condemn, and the slower to understand or forgive, the more things we purport to care about will simply go unsaid.”
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/22/politicians-celebrities-social-media-nigella-lawson
* Whitehall was closed both ways between Parliament Square and Horse Guards Avenue due to a collapsed crane.
* QE2 bridge across The Thames is closed between Kent and Essex.
* Storm force 11 winds were reported at Dover.
* London Overground line halted – but Tube lines were running normally.
* Several ferry companies have cancelled services.
* A gust of 99mph (159km/h) was recorded on the Isle of Wight.
* Boy feared dead after being swept out to sea in New Haven, East Sussex.
* An empty passenger train has hit a tree near Ivybridge station in Devon.
* Severn crossings between South Wales and England have reopened.
* More than 40 railway line blockages caused by falling trees have been cleared.
* Sussex Police tweeted that there were 125 trees down across roads in the county by 6.30am.
* UK Power Networks says up to 140,000 households are without power across England.
* Heathrow Airport said around 130 flights had been cancelled.
* Transport for London (TfL) said there was disruption to six Underground lines due to debris from the storm on the tracks.
Parts of the country remain on flood alert with the Environment issuing 17 flood warnings for the South West, as well as 152 flood alerts for the rest of England and Wales.
The public had been warned to expect the possibility of power cuts, trees blocking roads and transport disruption.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/st-judes-day-storm-batters-britain-bringing-down-power-and-travel-networks-with-hurricaneforce-winds-8901530.html
Pity the poor people of South Africa.
Their president Jacob Zuma builds himself a palace costing £17.5m. They live mostly in shacks in squatter camps. This is nearly 20 years since they were supposed to have empowerment and the vote.
The Mail see it in terms of wasteful UK overseas aid of course.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2238017/UK-gives-19million-aid-South-Africa–president-spends-17-5million-palace.html
~~
G4S are discovered to have cruelly treated inmates in Mangaung prison using forced injections and electric shocks. The running of the prison has been taken away from them. When are the gangsters-in-charge worldwide going to stop employing G4S?
South Africa G4S prison staff accused of abuse
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-24699725
Some background on the prison. Sounds like a terrible hellhole. The staff were on strike and G4S sacked 331 of them.
http://article.wn.com/view/2013/10/04/Mangaung_prison_violence_to_be_probed/#/related_news
G4S have a bad record in Israel too.
UK union head calls on G4S to end Israel contracts
http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/uk-union-head-calls-g4s-end-israel-contracts
Yes ResDis and Dreolin. A storm, not a hurricane as they repeated endlessly. They (the media) are trying to obtain photos of trees on cars, collapsed scaffolding etc. Those events happen at other times and are hardly reported.
My point here has been that there is a strategy in place. People are being made to feel victims, powerless like corks in a vast ocean and to feel even more disempowered than we are.
I recall a storm about 4 or 5 years ago. The wind was screaming in the tree tops then. Not last night. And nary a mention from the ‘medja’,
Oh what’s that that I can smell? Oh it’s the coffee. 😉
Had better go and then walk the dog!
Oh what’s that that I can smell? Oh it’s the coffee.
Then might I suggest you sit down, drink a cup and relax – rather than dreaming up silly conspiracy theories.