Monthly Archives: May 2012

FAST & FURIOUS – A PRIMER

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We’ve been banging on about Operation Fast and Furious for quite a while here on Biased BBC but, understandably, some people may still be not up to speed on the topic. It’s a growing scandal in the States and has the potential to become a big issue in the US presidential campaign. The BBC has touched on the story, but only in that unenthusiastic late-to-the-party nothing-to-see-here manner it adopts whenever there’s potential embarrassment for Obama and his administration.

For those wanting a quick rundown about the whole sorry saga here’s Katie Pavlich – author of “Fast and Furious: Barack Obama’s Bloodiest Scandal” – interviewed on today’s Dennis Miller show.

WE’RE ALL SOCIALISTS NOW!

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Well then, EU-phoria rules at the BBC this morning as they celebrate the “decisive” victory by their poster garcon Hollande in France last evening. Hard to know where to start but Evan Davis was in Paris and seemed almost giddy with excitement as the new red France era dawns. Did you hear him?

The funniest moment for me was when they wheeled on Peter Mandelson who was  suggesting that the UK should now join the Eurozone (Well, Peter does have to work so hard  for his generous pension provision from Brussels, you know) and that the markets would not over-react to Comrade Hollande’s victory. The BBC then reported, stony-faced, that the Euro has fallen to a three and a half year low against the British Pound. Vive le difference!

Another key line the BBC have been parroting is that Hollande represents hope for Europe and a new policy of “growth”. When they try to analyse this “growth” strategy it comes down to more State spending – the reason WHY we have a crisis in the Eurozone in the first instance but since the BBC is fervently pro the EU it glosses over this crucial fact as if it were a detail, instead of a massive elephant in the room!

A final cracking moment came in an interview with a French financial executive. Davis jokily introduced the item by asking her if she and her colleagues were thinking of moving to London as a consequence of Hollande’s tax plans. She responded that they had already all moved to London and she was the last one in Paris! Not what our Evan was looking for!

ALL WHELAN GOOD

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Biased BBC’s Alan observes;

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01h7k21/Have_I_Got_News_for_You_Series_43_Episode_4/

‘Have I Got News For You’ loads the dice by having Jeremy Clarkson host the show…..easy meat for Hislop and Merton when Murdoch has just been villified by people with no vested interests what so ever.

Clarkson as well as being a columnist for the Murdoch (Boo Hiss) Sun is also one of the notorious ‘Chipping Norton Set’ renowned for eating babies and hunting down members of the public for sport whilst riding Rebecca Wade’s horses that she stole from the Met Police’s Community Riding Facility for Disadvantaged Toerags. (In a way that’s not a joke…..Cue one unemployed family with a son who is a ‘slow learner’. The council pays them £300/month to spend on anything they like that will ‘improve’ the boy’s life……they own 5, count ’em, five, horses.)

The programme admittedly was v. funny and Clarkson the butt of the jokes regarding his closeness to all things Murdoch…..he took it all very well….even Merton’s poe-faced disapproval of his association with Murdoch & Co.

Fourteen minutes in we get a reference the anti-aircraft rockets place on a block of flats in London and to Brian Whelan, once a  journalist himself and now a Yahoo editor and concerned citizen. Whelan says he is opposed to the missiles as they make his home a target for terrorists.

However he was the one that immediately tweeted their location to the world and is milking the situation for every penny with appearances on most of the media including the Sunday Times….and is selling the rights to the photos…if you want some contact:
‘Brian Whelan ‏ @brianwhelanhack
Photoset: Missiles appear on the roof. Email for publication/syndication rights ©‘
　
He is now being evicted from his flat for breaching his lease agreement but it’s OK, a Hooman rights lawyer has seen his dilemma and come to his rescue…..and his sister has defended his honour after Jeremy Clarkson called him a ‘Twat’. Whelan is now pretty obsessed with ‘exposing’ the EDL and all things Right Wing. Expect to hear more from him on the BBC who no doubt will be in touch.

I think it is a fair comment that this week’s HIGNFY was a ‘Murdoch Special’ and set up to allow as much comment as possible….Hislop is no friend of News International and nor is Merton…..Nancy Dell’Olio is  a Sun columnist (fashion) but hardly speaks a known version of English and Clarkson is a genial orangutan who is not going to take too much umbrage or defend Murdoch overly much.  If only Murdoch had a sister like Brian Whelan’s who would leap to his defence in a flurry of outraged blog he might have a coherent and strong defence

CONTRAST AND COMPARE…

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A B-BBC reader observes;

London Mayor:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-17946742

Boris wins ‘by tight margin’

(51.5% vs 48.5%)

French President:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17975660

Hollande has won ‘a clear victory’

(51.7% vs 48.3%)

An impartial observer might note that the percentages are practically identical. But for the BBC? when a socialist loses, it’s ‘tight’; when a socialist wins, it’s ‘clear’. Ho hum.

Life In These United States – No. 3

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The latest edition of my report is up on EyeTube now (no embed possible at the moment). It clocks in at 15:23. Some stuff the BBC covered badly, and some they haven’t covered at all. Sources are below, and my thanks to all those who took the time to listen to the previous editions.

Life In These United States – No. 3

SOURCES:

BBC report about slowing US jobs growth, “fewer than expected”

Civilian labor force at 30-year low

NY Times report about slow jobs growth and people dropping out of the workforce

Washington Post trying to defend the President on unemployment

Long-term unemployed make up 42.4% of the total people out of work

Commodities and oil down

BBC report on new Keystone pipeline plan

President caves on part of Keystone after trying to put it off until after the election

Sierra Club criticizing new plan

Democrats voting for pipeline approval, too

Canada will just sell the oil to the Chinese

85% of tungsten supply is mined in China

China has 60% of tungsten market

China floods tungsten market to keep prices down and maintain their hold

US could be world leader in mineral supply

Obama Administration’s regulatory agenda hurting mining, energy production

Obama Adminstration still trying for more restrictive mining regulations

Niobium in Nebraska

Government prosecution of student loan default rose 25.7%

Columbia University course on the Occupy Movement

Government screwing up student loan interest rates

Student loan defaults rising

$67 billion in student loan default

The President reads policy speech on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon

Yes, it’s a violation of campaign law

BBC Censorship: Occupiers Arrested In Plot To Blow Up Bridge Edition

OccupyArrests.com

Occupy violence in Seattle, LA, SF, NYC

Occupiers attack photo-journalists

Katty Kay on the Occupy Movement