FESTERING SOURCE

THOUGHT CONTROL

2008-08-28T16:46:00.003+01:00

A BBC News executive has admitted that while preparing a recent Radio 4 Analysis documentary, security correspondent Frank Gardner met officials from a Whitehall counter-terrorism unit accused of News Management (THE RICU, "the research, information and communications unit")

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/aug/28/bbc.pressandpublishing

PSYOPS, PROPAGANDA and OFFICIAL NEWS MANAGEMENT in the UK

2008-08-26T22:25:00.003+01:00

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/aug/26/alqaida.uksecurity

Secret uk propaganda war: British counter-terrorism unit targeting media organisations.

A Whitehall counter-terrorism unit is targeting the BBC and other media organisations as part of a new global propaganda push designed to "taint the al-Qaida brand", according to a secret Home Office paper seen by the Guardian.

The document also shows that Whitehall counter-terrorism experts intend to exploit new media websites and outlets with a proposal to "channel messages through volunteers in internet forums" as part of their campaign.

The strategy is being conducted by the research, information and communication unit, [RICU]. It is staffed by officials from several government departments.

Citizen's Income

2008-01-10T21:47:00.000Z

In the news here in the uk, the Conservative party are proposing that the long term unemployed should be forced to work for their benefits.

Tory leader David Cameron says he wanted to end the "something for nothing culture".

Here is what I posted as a response in the BBC's Have Your Say yesterday (the max number of characters they allow is 500).....

(09-Jan-2008 15:29)
The something for nothing culture? Is that people born into wealthy families? People who can afford to spend their every day doing as they please because life's lottery has bequeathed them an inheritance?

It's the 21st century and it's time for radical forward thinking ideas, such as a Minimum Basic Citizen's Income, payable to all and not linked to work. There are many more important things in life than mere employment

Out of the 2,652 published comments in that BBC thread, I think I was the only person to go off message and propose a basic Citizen's Income. Here's how a couple of people responded specifically to my post...

[PetsR4Life] from Chudleigh wrote (09 Jan, 2008, 21:19 GMT):
"Planet Earth calling Russell Higgs! Where exactly do you suppose the money for this MBCI will come from? In case you hadn't noticed, money for the lazy doesn't just appear; it comes from those who work, in the form of something called 'taxes'."

and Marlene from Pendle wrote (10 Jan, 2008, 02:36 GMT):
"Who would pay for it? Yes, the 'mugs' who work for a living and pay the taxes that support this country. That's the silliest idea I have ever heard!"

Both of their posts began by using up half their allotted number of characters to quote directly from my original post, therefore multiplying the chances of somebody actually coming across my point, so thanks for that Marlene and [PetsR4Life].

Here's how I attempted to reply to them, which sadly the BBC chose not to publish (it's a "fully moderated" "debate")...

A Citizen's Income would be a BASIC income. Just as with current benefits it simply prevents starvation, it is not any kind of luxury. Most people would opt to supplement it with a wage.

How might it be financed, you ask? One such idea is based on the Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend, where every Alaskan citizen receives an annual income from their oil profits. In the UK we could perhaps share the profits from some of our own top earning assets.

Meanwhile I haven't read all of the 2,652 comments that the BBC chose to publish, but I'm left with the impression that the vast majority of them propagate that delusional idea that people on benefits live in some kind of luxury, and of course there are plenty of spiteful mealy mouthed references to "immigrants".

Later I might expand this post by adding a few examples of the predominant mood of the "debate", or you might want to dive in and sample the venom and mind bending levels of ignorance for yourself...
http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?threadID=8100&edition=1&ttl=20080110201347

but right now on the subject of benefits I have these thoughts to add...

Surely one of the main point of benefits (or one day a Citizen's Income) is to dampen the chances of a large powerful angry mob assembling and causing extreme mischief. It is in the best interests of the government to prevent the existence of any excessive number of desperate people who might unify through hunger and extreme homelessness and become revolutionary rioters.

Benefits keep enough people from starving and from being homeless etc, and therefore benefits function to keep enough people passive, like pets in a way. The workers are mostly comfortable slaves and the unemployed are mostly harmless pets. From that perspective benefits are a useful investment.

and here's some CITIZEN INCOME links...

http://www.citizensincome.org/

http://www.bepress.com/bis/

http://www.etes.ucl.ac.be/BIEN/Index.html

including their list of international Basic Income networks
http://www.etes.ucl.ac.be/BIEN/BIEN/Recognized_Networks.htm

NEW YEAR PREDICTIONS

2007-12-31T19:20:00.000Z

according to a BBC news report written during the daytime of new year's eve, we are told that ...

"Crowds of at least 350,000 people are expected in London ... In Scotland about 50,000 revellers are expected at Edinburgh's street party with 15,000 in Glasgow's George Square. In Wales some 30,000 revellers are heading for the Calennig celebrations at Cardiff Castle."

what kind of weird reporting/predicting is that?

what is the purpose in giving us numbers for something that hasn't happened yet?

REMEMBER REMEMBER THE 5TH OF NOVEMBER

2007-11-05T18:55:00.000Z

"Thousands pose UK terror threat" says today's BBC news Headline.

"There are at least 2,000 people in the UK who pose a threat to national security because of their support for terrorism" said the head of MI5

But curiously there's no mention of that Popular Hypothesis that it might be our own security services that are the real threat to us all.

This is, I feel, an especially noteworthy absence of such a commonly held hypothesis, when we consider recent mainstream news reports by the BBC regarding other countries and commonly held suspicions about those domestic security services.

recently, for example there's been coverage of the bombs in Pakistan.....

..."Implications of Pakistan bombs."...
Friday, 19 October 2007

QUOTE: Asked recently if the threats to her life emanated from al-Qaeda and the Taleban, Ms Bhutto said the Taleban "may be used" in such an attack. In a more recent news briefing in Dubai, she indicated that her life may be threatened by some "elements" within the government, including some "retired army officers". She said that she had written a letter to Gen Musharraf, spelling out her security needs as well as a list of names of those who would be responsible if anything happened to her. By implication, this meant that Ms Bhutto suspected some sections of the Pakistani intelligence apparatus and some politicians of having a motive and the ability to use militants to kill her.

and

similarly in recent coverage of the trial in Spain regarding the 2004 Madrid train bombs.....

..."Madrid train bombs verdict begins"...
Wednesday, 31 October 2007

QUOTE: Many Spaniards still have serious doubts about who was behind the attacks, says the BBC's Danny Wood in Madrid. Some theories - supported by a number of victims - suggest they were part of a coup d'etat involving Spain's secret services. etc etc etc

The EXPERT

2007-09-15T21:16:00.000+01:00

a report in today's guardian says....

"Expert who made up interviews is exposed"

"American and French media yesterday were taking a second look at the work of a so-called terrorism expert who faked his academic credentials - and entire interviews with some of the world's most prominent figures."

"For six years Alexis Debat, who falsely claimed to have earned a PhD at the Sorbonne and worked as an adviser to the French defence ministry, operated as an expert on national security in the world of Washington thinktanks, US network television and French intellectual journals."

"He was a consultant to ABC television, which sent him on trips to Pakistan, Iraq and Iran to guide their coverage on al-Qaida; a senior fellow on terrorism at the conservative thinktank the Nixon Centre; and a regular contributor to the magazine National Interest, whose honorary chairman is Henry Kissinger. Mr Debat was also a regular in the pages of the French publication Politique International."

"But, as is now only emerging, Mr Debat not only lacked the credentials he claimed, he fabricated interviews with such figures as the UN secretary general Kofi Annan, Microsoft's chairman Bill Gates, New York's mayor Michael Bloomberg, the former chairman of the US Federal Reserve Alan Greenspan, and Democrat presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton...."

when dinosaurs ruled the earth like it's 1999

2007-09-13T20:35:00.000+01:00

Prince, that "slave" of the old style american music industry, is reportedly insisting that YouTube removes "unauthorised" clips of him, blah blah blah.

a spokesman said "Prince believes strongly that copyrights should be protected across the board," ETC ETC

Prince has even hired a company called Web Sheriff to "enforce" the ban.

what a pathetic wanker.

ISRAEL

2007-09-09T20:00:00.000+01:00

the news headline says..... Israeli 'neo-Nazi gang' arrested

Revital Almog, the police official who led the investigation, told Israeli public radio "It is difficult to believe that Nazi ideology sympathisers can exist in Israel, but it is a fact,"

Personally, and I KNOW I'm not alone in thinking this, I can't tell the difference between the Nazis and the Israeli Military.

Nasty vicious cunts the lot of them.

Al-Qaeda, wink wink nudge nudge

2007-09-09T19:36:00.000+01:00

the news headline says ..... "Al-Qaeda claims Algerian bombings"

yes folks in the lead up to september 11th we are told that "Members of al-Qaeda's North Africa wing say they carried out two suicide attacks that have killed at least 50 people in Algeria in the past two days. The group, which calls itself al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, made the claim in an internet statement." blah blah blah

And then way down near the bottom of the article we're informed that this group only started calling themselves "Al-Qaeda" just last year. Before that they were "known as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC)".

So, not THE Al-Qaeda then.

Maybe in another few years they'll be even more obliging to the headline writers and rebrand themselves as simply "The Terrorists."

or how about just "The Baddies."

THE VOICE OF BRITAIN

2007-09-03T17:55:00.000+01:00

the topic once again is News Headlines and Reports based on Opinion Polls.

is it really possible for just 1,001 people's opinions to accurately reflect the opinions of the whole population of the uk?

the whole population of the uk being, what......... about Sixty Million-ish?

As a percentage, One Thousand and One is ........ (I don't have my maths head on today)

......something like 0.001% of Sixty Million.

so lets look at it this way,

if it's true that the views of just 0.001% of the population can fairly accurately represent everybody's views, then we are really really fucked up aren't we. I mean so much for independent thought etc. It implies that we're nothing more than a herd of fucking sheep.

more fact-like-statements from the bbc

2007-09-01T11:47:00.000+01:00

in it's List of "10 things we didn't previously know," the bbc today highlights the information that......

"Prison officers are on average assaulted eight times a day."

Of course this isn't nescessarily any kind of absolute fact, it's just presented like a fact. But when we follow the link to the actual article we discover this info originates (way down the page) as merely part of a quote from the chairman of The Prison Officers' Association. Is his spin on things likely to be objective and trustworthy?

More importantly it's highly unlikely there is any kind of record or objective perspective available of the reverse information....... exactly how many times a day Prisoners are assaulted by prison officers.

meanwhile, on the topic of Uniforms and Abuse Of Power...........

"Concerns over Taser gun roll-out"

From September 2007, the use of Tasers in the uk will no longer be limited to trained firearms officers.

"Concerns have been raised for public safety as Taser stun guns are made available to more police officers in England and Wales. Officers in 10 forces, who are not firearms specialists, will be able to use the 50,000-volt Tasers."

That's 50,000 volts in the hands of a Uniformed Grunt.

THE VIEW FROM OVER HERE

2007-08-31T14:05:00.000+01:00

Earlier today I was watching Brian in the uk Big Brother diary room.

He said that "everyone's point of view is valid."

And I subsequently find myself asking "is that actually true?"

Is everyone's point of view valid?

Or is that some wishy washy hippy liberal bollocks?

I genuinely don't know.

I'd prefer to believe that everyone's point of view is valid.

But unfortunately I tend to believe that there are some points of view that seem to resemble a script. Lines that have been learnt. Empty mass produced words that are automatically regurgitated whenever certain topics or situations arise. Vacuous statements that people catch like a cold.

Are zombie knee jerk points of view valid?

plus....

The (sponsored) word on the street

"Word-Of-Mouth (WOM) marketing, the latest advertising boom already established in the US and Canada, is coming to the UK" according to a report by the bbc dated 26 March 2007.

"It means the banter we enjoy with our mates down the pub on a Friday night could soon shift into sales patter."

"WOM is when unpaid volunteers are sent new products and, as they go about their everyday lives, are encouraged to tell their family and friends - even strangers - what they think of them. The products can be anything from mobile phones to sausages."

COOL

2007-08-30T07:50:00.000+01:00

"Six months ago, David Cameron's Tories were 10 points ahead in the opinion polls and all the rage in liberal metropolitan Britain. After years when even to admit you were a Tory among those Norman Tebbit once dismissed as the chattering classes was tantamount to owning up to an embarrassing disease, it was suddenly cool to be a Conservative."
( .....wrote Seumas Milne in this morning's Guardian.)

This statement tells us much about a prime meaning of the word "cool", because it was certainly never ever "hip" to be a Conservative.

No. The concept of being "cool" tends to imply people who are heavily infected by the most contagious memes of the time. Cool people are people who are susceptible to information which has enough financial backing to make itself repeatedly noticeable.

To be cool means "to fit in". It is something akin to being a Pod Person from that darned Body Snatcher invasion.

And the antidote to being cool is to stay awake.

Katrina, New Orleans 2nd anniversary

2007-08-29T18:33:00.000+01:00

US President George W Bush observed a moment of silence at the Dr Martin Luther King Charter School for Math and Science, the first school to reopen in New Orleans' Lower 9th Ward, one of the areas most affected by the flooding.

Lets see now, we've got George W Bush

in a school named after Dr Martin Luther King

marking the New Orleans tragedy of Hurricane Katrina

.....sometimes the absurdities and sick twisted ironies hit me like a piano being dropped on my head from a great height.

I-can't-believe-it's-not-a-fact

2007-08-28T15:08:00.000+01:00

"Million more UK homes go online"

The headline from one of those classic news articles where the TOP half of the article is dominated by Fact-Like-Statements.

"some 15.2m UK households - 61% of homes - now have an internet connection, compared with 54% in 2006." etc etc

But way down at the BOTTOM of the article we discover that these "millions" are in reality based upon just 1,200 adults aged over 16 in Great Britain, and 400 adults in Northern Ireland in May 2007.

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2007-08-26T19:12:00.001+01:00

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