search and harrass is indeed a racist policy

[bad girls, bad girls, whatcha gonna do?]

During the time of the riots in Tottenham, last summer,
I opined how the government cut-backs to policing
were causing cops to take out their frustration
on the people. That has proven to be true,
but it's worse than I thought.

As it turns out, the law which allows unwarranted
stop-and-search of cars is SECTION 60.

Now section 60 has been proved to have been applied in a
racist manner by police.
and in an indescriminant manner. 6% success rate.
and that success was probably of the broken taillight
variety.
You don't have to tell me that it's racist. Any time I was
in East London at night, the cops were always remonstrating
with South Asian lads in daddy's Merc.

AND! the policy was employed with full-court pressure.
All somebody had to do was ask 'are we done here'
and they'd end up in jail.
So, the riots were not about stop and search, but that
policy, and the murder of a young chav were enough
to open the floodgates.

Checkitout: Guardian
'Racist' stop-and-search powers to be challengedCourt gives woman go-ahead to take controversial section 60 to task over allegations it discriminates against black people
Vikram Dodd, crime correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Friday 8 July 2011 18.47
The high court has agreed that a full legal challenge can be brought against a police stop-and-search power alleged to be used in a racist way against African-Caribbean people.

The challenge follows officers stopping and searching a 37-year-old woman with no convictions, after they claimed she was holding onto her bag in a suspicious way.

The woman, Ann Roberts, ended up being held down by officers on the floor in front of other people, handcuffed and taken to a police station where she was wrongly accused of being a class A drug user and placed on a treatment programme under the threat of arrest if she failed to attend.

Roberts was stopped under section 60 of the 1994 Criminal Justice and Public Order Act, brought in to tackle illegal raves. The power allows police to stop and search people without having a reasonable suspicion they are involved in criminality.

Roberts, a special needs assistant, argued that a disproportionate number of black Londoners are searched in violation of article 14 of the European convention on human rights, which bans discrimination.

Her lawyers say statistical evidence implies that a black person is more than nine times more likely to be searched than a white person. They go on to say section 60 is "incompatible" with three articles of the convention: 14, 5, which protects the right to liberty and security, and 8, which protects the right to private and family life.

Police say section 60 is a valuable tool which has been used to tackle areas plagued by violence.

On 9 September 2010 Roberts was on a bus when an inspector found she had insufficient money for her journey on her prepaid Oyster card.

Police were called when she could not produce identity documents.

According to her lawyers, she was searched under section 60 after a police officer took the view she was holding on to her bag in a manner that suggested she had something to hide.

She was told the area she was in was a "hotspot" for gang violence and the possession of knives. Few, if any, acts of gang violence are committed by married women in their mid 30s.

Roberts asked to be searched in a police station rather than in public in case it was seen by young people with whom she worked.

Police refused and when they tried to seize her handbag a struggle followed which led to officers restraining her on the floor.

Three bank cards with different identities were found in her bag. She explained they were in her name, her maiden name – having recently married – and her son's name.

She was told she was being arrested on suspicion of fraud and taken to Tottenham police station.

She was subjected to a drugs test which she was told showed small amounts of crack cocaine, but a later test showed she was clear.

After being put in a cell, she was interviewed and told she was no longer suspected of fraud but was being detained on suspicion that she had obstructed a police search.

Later a caution was administered for obstruction.

Brits stop eating as a revolt against Tesco

Here we go, back to Maze prison. Hunger strike. Bobby Sands.

seriously, though. How does a supermarket cover up the fact that
the British public is too economically squeezed to buy food?

Let's watch them try:

checkitout:
Big Price Drop promotion in UK fails to halt slide in sales as cash-strapped consumers cut back on groceries
Zoe Wood
* guardian.co.uk, Thursday 8 December
more later

Chicago Merc Exchange takes over bookies and politics

Just all in a day's work in Chi-town.

If you go to a Futures exchange, like the Chicago Merc, the
one that has no rules to protect MF Glow-ball
from stealing customer money, and now they get to
run a bookie game and totally skew democracy.

You will soon be betting on presidential futures.
This taking futures markets
to a new stratum in Dante's review of Hell.
with one fell swoop, they wiped out bookies and democracy.

As was mentioned in this great show by Max Keiser, just like with
gold, the paper market (on politics) will be the tail wagging the
democratic dog.
I say, in the case of the US, Old Yeller was asking to be put to sleep,
what with rigged voting machines and hanging chads, and hanging
minorities.

See what Max Keiser says about it
Let's cut to the video:

Predator is the Bain of our existence

It's nice to see some people, if politicians are people,
complaining about Romney's history of predatory capitalism
through his Bain Investments. Of course, the politicians
are not trying to score points against Romney, they're just
jealous. it's not enough having insider trading rights in Congress.

I can't get too excited about mergers and acquisitions. That's
so quaint. I reminds me of the first Wall Street movie,
where we learned (and I mean that) that greed is good.
All they were doing was vulturing diving on still living
companies and decimating them to make a profit, putting
thousands out of work.

["don't wory, bee happy"]

Now, the game is so much bigger. They predators have killed off
whatever the Chinese industrial giant hasn't, and Western economies
are down to their bone skeletons.

Romney could say, "the market would have done it anyway". Well, I
look at the bones that were a company 5 minutes ago and I say,
"that was some crash diet"; like what they did to Greece.


[elephant skeleton still trying to walk. doesn't know it's dead yet]


[a fully Bained elephant]


As an anthropologist, I'm still trying to figure out if Romney's type
of business is preying on those creatures weaker than themselves,
i.e. leveraged vultures, or whether it's feeding on humans in either
a fratricidal mania, or as a cannibal. I'm having some trouble with
this one.

Romney's religion is a strange one that puts beverages like coffee
tea and booze in the forbidden category, but then allows vulture
capitalism, and condones polygamy (they've never stopped anybody).

If I were a Mormon and a moralist, I'd have crapped my temple garments.
Perhaps those temple garments are just a way
to keep Mormon women's minds on their man's pecker,
because they only get to see it (biblically-speaking,
not Book of Mormon-wise) once every 2 weeks.

I shit you not!
google that: temple garments + Mormon




I'm glad to see that political documentaries have not been made illegal
in the US. Especially considering the Citizens United case which has
opened the door to unlimited political contributions. But money is power.
truthful documentaries are sick, twisted propaganda, innit?

checkitout: from Max Keiser
William BANZAI ON ZeroHedge
MITT SWAMNEY IS THE “LBO LOVE GURU!”
Posted on January 14, 2012 by williambanzai7| 7 Comments
ZOMBINOMICS 101: LBO Job Creation
STEP 1: Find underpriced and under leveraged public companies that are generating tons of excess cashflow. Borrow tons of money to purchase them and take them “private.” Pay yourself tons of closing and management fees.

STEP 2: Strip and sell off non-core assets. Maximize operating efficiencies (a euphemism for restructuring the workforce, i.e., you’re fired!) in order to service tons of new debt, pay yourself ongoing management fees and special dividends.

STEP 3A: Wait for the right opportunity to exit via a strategic sale or IPO. Collect more fees. Fire some more employees for good measure.

STEP 3B: Blow the company up and liquidate everything. Collect more fees. Fire all the empoyees.

STEP 3C: Bankruptcy– pass the whole piece of junk your distressed asset team. Collect more fees. Somebody’s going to get fired.

Job Creation: Hire more associates and analysts to look for more LBO deals.

Q: Hey Banzai, private equity doesn’t work that way anymore, right? There’s just too much competition for too few deals.

A: Perhaps, but this is how it worked when Swamney was the…LBO LOVE GURU!

Montagues vs the Capulets

a pox on both their houses.

When David Cameron went to Brussels to kick the Continent around,
it was just more kabuki theatre.

Every time those 'heads' meet, I gotta find out the true meaning
of their actions. So, watch the video below.



You thought it was only Cameron playing the baddie?
Well, the other option, the 'just piss off, Dave' option,
was to allow the EU's unelected bureaucrats to run your
ministry of finance, if they see fit. It is again creeping
anti-democracy, in the guise of saving a Euro currency
whose goose is cooked.

How do you like them canards? Conneries? Putain!

Luckily, some of the former Eastern Bloc countries, like
the Czech Rep and Poland recognise imperialism when they
see it.

checkitout: Carl Denninger
European leaders must cease their “theatrics” and avoid curbing economic growth in forging a closer fiscal union to overcome the region’s debt crisis, Polish Deputy Prime Minister Waldemar Pawlak said.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-13/eu-must-stop-theatrics-to-fortify-bloc-polish-minister-says.html

Thatcher unleashed a bunch of Enrons

fleecing the public is good for business.
It was stupid to have the government monopolise heating and electricity.
It's so inefficient.
It's much better to take the riches that Britain provides to all,
and give them away to something called an 'oil company'. Since they
can get the oil, it's theirs, not everybody's.
It's best then to help that oil company re-cuperate its expenses
by gouging the public.
There are now 5 or so energy companies in the UK. They are a cartel,
and fix the prices, which is uncompetitive.
They pass on increases in oil costs , but not the decreases.

Apparently 2000 people die each winter because they don't have enough
money to heat their homes.

I'm sure those companies are trading on CDOs and CDSs as well, with
fancy accounting and the tax haven tricks. Just like Enron, and
everybody else in the oligarchy.

more later

UPDATE:
Ed Milliband has heard the call.

checkitout:
Ed Miliband calls for an end to Britain's 'rip-off consumer culture'
Labour leader urges David Cameron to take a tougher approach to 'predatory' companies that exploited customers
Ben Quinn
* The Guardian, Wednesday 18 January 2012
....
• Energy companies: the big energy firms should be broken up and transparent pricing introduced to enable proper competition.

2 DAILY MAIL
Thousands dying because they can't afford heating bills... and green taxes are adding to the burden

* Cold houses also result in tens of thousands of cases of respiratory problems and sickness
* Profits of energy firms have risen to £125-a-year per customer
* Consumer group says Government is a long way from getting to grips with crisis that puts a strain on NHS during winter

By Sean Poulter, Consumer Affairs Editor

Last updated at 3:22 PM on 20th October 2011

Rising profits: The dark yellow net margin line on this graph spikes from August this year upwards, with Ofgem predicting that suppliers' margins will level out more next year if fuel bills and prices remain the same

More than 2,700 people are dying each year in England and Wales because they cannot afford to keep their homes warm, according to an official study.

The spiralling cost of gas and electricity combined with the impact of green taxes is putting health and lives at risk, researchers found.

The study concluded that green taxes on household power bills are ‘regressive’ and have a disproportionate impact on poorer households.

The warning of the dangers to health comes from social policy expert Professor John Hills, of the London School of Economics, in a study commissioned by Energy and Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne.

On the policy of adding green taxes to bills, Professor Hills said: ‘Those energy and climate policies that lead to higher prices will largely have a regressive impact.’

He highlighted a government study which found that the poorest one-fifth of households would see their income fall 0.8 per cent as a direct result of green taxes and the move to renewable energy, while the richest fifth would break even.

Professor Hills said: ‘Whether this regressive outcome, which would tend to increase fuel poverty, occurs depends on both more recent developments, such as the Warm Home Discount, and decisions yet to be taken.’

The Warm Home Discount of £120 off electricity bills is currently being offered to around 600,000 of the poorest households.

Green taxes designed to meet a £200billion bill to switch to wind, wave, solar and nuclear power currently add around £100 to annual bills.

However, this figure is set to rise sharply in the next few years and will hit the poor, particularly pensioners on fixed incomes, harder than most.

When is telling the truth damaging to your health?

When you're running for the Republican nomination for president.

Ron Paul is taking a lot of risks by calling a spade a spade.

I fear for his life, because he’s on track to win the GOP, and
that will simply not be allowed to happen.

Paul has said, repeatedly:
-US democracy is not fair
-Patriot Act was opportunistic grab of civil rights
-US army's actions around the world cause terrorism
-US wars should end

Watch out for grassy knolls, my friend.
[watch out for men dressed as kids' characters from Britain, especially the 'gay' one]

checkitout: zerohedge
Ron Paul: “The PATRIOT Act Was Written Many, Many Years Before 9/11 [And The Attacks Simply Provided] An Opportunity
Submitted by George Washington on 12/09/2011 18:16 -0500
Politico notes:
Ron Paul isn’t backing down from his position that the U.S. has provoked terrorists through foreign military occupation and that officials tried to capitalize on Sept. 11 attacks.
“Think of what happened after 9/11, the minute before there was any assessment, there was glee in the administration because now we can invade Iraq, and so the war drums beat,” Paul said Thursday night before a packed room of more than 1,000 students and supporters. “That’s exactly what they’re doing now with Iran.”
His libertarian ideals have struck a cord with many, but conservatives remain deeply wary of Paul’s foreign policy positions, including his assertion that the U.S. provoked the Sept. 11 attacks by maintaining military bases in foreign countries. Paul’s position as the lone dove in the GOP race has made him a foil for some of his hawkish Republican opponents.
“Extremists have taken over, and they’re the ones who run the foreign policy and have convinced us to go along with all these wars,” Paul said Wednesday night.
Paul said that claims Iran could be developing a nuclear weapon are just part of an effort to scare Americans into going to war again.
Paul said of the possibility that Iran has a nuclear weapon is “not true at all.” “It doesn’t mean they might not want a nuclear weapon.”
No other country, Paul said, is capable of attacking the United States.
“How many foreign countries can threaten us right now?” Paul asked sarcastically. “How many are likely to invade us or drop a bomb on us? I can’t imagine.”
“The PATRIOT Act was written many, many years before 9/11,” Paul said. The attacks simply provided “an opportunity for some people to do what they wanted to do,” he said.
“I wish we could guarantee a democratic and honest election in this country as well,” Paul said. “The democratic process in this country has a long way to go.” Mr. Paul is right.

The Daily Mainstream Media Faberian

[I'll buy that for a dollar- somebody wants a newspaper. Robocop movie, addictedtoquack]

Read all about it: RECENT NEWSPAPER TITLES
All harmless political activity is illegal.

All malfeasance has the government stamp of approval.

Move along. Nothing to see here.

[Brooklyn Bridge Gauntlet]
[Greek police break up beach volleyball]
[Rome]
[washington post]


[don't watch the tv news. it stinks.-william banzai]

Grimace and Gromit

[Reuters]
[Orange]
[Guardian]
The mark of the fool, Cameron, is still there. Look at his grimaces.
Turn up the heat a little , and it's a gern-fest. Clegg , too.
He feels the pain of not being part of the continent he
loves. It’s a theoretical love of European history, Roman and so on.
He did the right thing for the wrong reasons. He was given orders by
the banks, who are in turn
ruining the British and EU economies, if not the whole world.

David Cameron did the only other thing he could have and
followed his banks' desires. Another reason for this is
that GB is fiscally vulnerable and can’t do a 3% limit on its
yearly defecit, because of the banks and the debt they’ve
shifted to their loosey-arsed sovereign.
I support most of what Ash says (below), but I also think
that, though fiscal control is good I’m more worried about
the accumulated debt. Also, I don’t go for the federal EU
because look what it did to Greece’s and Italy’s democracies,
just to save a few northern banks. That’s not the right
kind of union. In fact there’s too much money being
thrown at unelected politicians in the Commission of Barosso,
and van Rumpoy.
They’re profligate and beyond reproach. I think they should
have stuck to a trade union and a few laws to protect the
environment and labour.
Also all this recent bullshit will not turn the tide with the
current crisis. It’s like, there’s a fire today and instead of
fighting it, they’re ordering new fire trucks for 2 years from
now.

If you want good reasons for not signing the treaty,
look at the other Chuks'
(Czech Rep, Hungary, UK, Sweden) reasons,
particularly the Czech Chuks.
They just threw off the Russians, and were not wearing
rose-coloured glasses and were not enamored of the EU,
but merely a practical nation joining a customs union,
or so they thought.

checkitout: Ash in the Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/dec/09/cameron-european-gang-of-four-chuks
“The Czechs are profoundly Eurosceptic and an observer said the domestic problems of Petr Necas's government were so acute that "it is unrealistic now to be part of some agreements of this kind". He added: "There are no real euro fans in the Czech Republic."Jan Zahradil, a fellow member of the Civic Democratic party and chairman of the European Conservatives and Reformists group, explicitly praised David Cameron and Necas for "defending the interests of their citizens" and refusing to surrender fiscal sovereignty."The leaders of the eurozone unfortunately missed the opportunity to transform the EU into a flexible, open structure, insisting instead on a narrow-minded and obsolete federalist concept, which leads the EU only in one direction: that of ever-closer integration," he added – welcoming a two-speed, two-tier Europe and insisting on protection for the single market.”

Merkel plays Punch and Judy with Cameron

The Euro referendum try by back benchers was an attempt to sweep
away anti-EU sentiment for the next few years, because it takes a
few years for the lazy Conservative back benchers to get up the
guts/blood pressure to make a rather opinion felt.

One of the lazy, fat victims is Boris Johnson the ‘second’,
some say first Conservative politician in the UK. He thinks
that Cameron will stand up to Merkozy, when he has studied
the history of the Continent since antiquity and sees
himself as part of that history. He will ask for nothing
and be thrown a bone by Merkozy that he can take home
for the UK to nibble on.