BBC 2 News

The wider use of anti-terrorist powers

Regulation Investigating Powers Act - Poole council used the act to follow a family and check whether they had been cheating the school catchments system. Another council used the powers to clamp down on dog fouling

Aiding and abetting misconduct in a public office - The common law offence under which Damian Green was arrested. Yesterday a prosecution of a local newspaper journalist for the same offence collapsed after police bugging evidence was declared inadmissible

Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act - The Treasury deployed the act to seize assets of a collapsed Icelandic bank in October. It was the first time the sweeping discretion the law offers to combat "action to the detriment of the UK's economy" was used in a non-terrorist case Public Order Act Civil rights group Liberty is concerned over the use of public order powers in cases of legitimate protests. A protester with a placard reading, "Scientology is not a religion, it is a dangerous cult", got a summons on the basis it was "threatening, abusive or insulting"

Section 44 of the Terrorism Act - Police were given the right to search suspects if it is deemed "expedient for the prevention of acts of terrorism". These powers have been used against protesters, including an 82-year-old heckler at a Labour party conference

From FT.com

Icelandic protesters clash with police

Iceland’s government may be forced to call an election two years ahead of schedule as anti-government protests intensify following the collapse of the country’s banking system and economy last year.

from FT.com

Glimpses of light

Money is switching into other strategies, but the industry is fighting back with new products and there are glimpses of light in the hedge fund tunnel.

from FT.com

Ayyub King - After the Dance

Podcast courtesy of DJ Ayyub King, click to download or stream from podomatic.

Tracks:

Type & JB - The PL (Root Elevation)
Henrik Schwarz - Marvin (Moodmusic)
Raphael Saadiq - Sky's the Limit (Yam Who Spiritual Rework) (White Label)
Mark E & Dragon - Good Times (Quiet Village Mix) (Internasjonal)
Project Sandro - Blazer (Sonar Kollektiv)
Peshay - The Real Thing (90 BPM Version) (Mo Wax)
Curtis Mayfield - Give me Your Love (Tangoterje re:edit) (Supreme)
Antena - Camino Del Sol (Todd Terje Remix) (Permanent Vacation)
Sinclair - Georgy Porgy (Source 360)
Quiet Village - Can't Be Beat (Whatever We Want)
Marvin Gaye - After The Dance (Tamla Motown)

Rachel North: 'I don't believe British people bought into authoritarianism'

The 7/7 survivor discusses her views on the erosion of civil liberties in Britain and what has been sacrificed for our personal freedom

from the Guardian

'Credit crisis caused by fighting wars and short-term vision'

The problem originated in 1909 when the gold standard was abandoned. Two countries were responsible for this: France and Germany. They sensed that war with each other was in the offing, and so both Germany and France abandoned the gold standard by ceasing to pay their government officials in gold coins, and instead paying them with paper money.

-Right, whereby one is still under the impression that it's being backed by the government: 'It will turn out alright'.

Yes, 'It will turn out okay'. This paper money then went into circulation, and the gold was used as backing for the weapons industry, at which point an arms race started first between France and Germany, followed later on by all other Western countries.

from deep journal

World's hottest CEO wives

Being a CEO has all kinds of perks, from a really good parking space to the company jet. Also you get to run the economy into the ground, and no one can stop you.

But perhaps the best part of being the big boss (other than making millions in redundancy when everything goes tits up) is that many women look at you in a completely different way than they look at the intern in the mailroom.

from asylum australia

Asia's crouching cinematic tiger

This film has something that its American counterparts lack. Its apparently unlikely combination of song-and-dance, fantasy, spectacle and balletic violence somehow works. It achieves the kind of ironic distance from all of its subject matter that Hollywood has groped for and failed dismally to pull off. This enables it to transmute the violence and tragedy on which so much cinema depends into a continuous feel-good experience.

from the guardian

I can't trust Obama. He's an Arab

"No, ma'am. He's a decent — family man — citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues."


from the Arab American News

The Knowledge Network Project - the new Big Ben?

Ever wondered of the tight formation of the Labour party, a pyramidal structure perhaps, aided by technology? Well...
Since Mandelson is so enthusiastic that 'new technology' should be used as a means by which 'direct democracy' should 'supplement' creaky, elitist representative democracy, consider New Labour's new toy: the 'Knowledge Network Project" (its new electronic information and rebuttal system). This system sets out to 'explain the Government's core message' so that citizens can get the full facts without going through the distorting prism of the prism'. It also seeks to tell politicians form the Cabinet down to the humblest councillor the No 10-approved 'line to take' on any given issue. Unlike Excalibur, New Labour's general election 'rebuttal machine', all this is paid for by the public purse. Yet the 'knowledge' that can be accessed from this network has several grades. Only the clique around the Prime Minister will have access to 'quality' (i.e. unfiltered) information. Cabinet ministers get less. MPs less still, the 'three best arguments' and 'five best quotes' with which to support any given policy. Party members will get platitudes. The general public just gets propaganda - carefully filtered and doctored feelgood blantitudes with zero verifiable content. No wonder Blair had Jack Straw throttle the Freedom of Information Bill with its own legislative umbilical cord. Even the Guardian's editorial came out and said plainly that no government should have such power, and feared what any government 'even a Labour government' might do with such a powerful propaganda tool.
from "The Rape of the Constitution?", Mike Diboll
administer - ad + minister - to manage (affairs, a government, etc.); have executive charge of,
to bring into use or operation,
to act as a servant,
regulate - to control or direct by a rule, principle, method, etc.,
to adjust so as to ensure accuracy of operation, to put in good order,
clock by which other timepieces are set

HEALTH NEWS: The guy who made my computer is dying!

This week apart from shopping in the same place as Simon Cowell Mr Jobs also released a letter aimed at inspiring confidence in stockholders concerned about his wellbeing.

from NVWLS

The Office of Strategic Influence Is Gone, But Are Its Programs In Place?

Rumsfeld: "And then there was the Office of Strategic Influence. You may recall that. And 'oh my goodness gracious isn't that terrible, Henny Penny the sky is going to fall.' I went down that next day and said fine, if you want to savage this thing fine I'll give you the corpse. There's the name. You can have the name, but I'm gonna keep doing every single thing that needs to be done and I have."

from fair.org

The Genius of Ari Fleischer

Fleischer speaks a sort of Imperial Court English, in which any question, no matter how specific, is parried with general assurances that the emperor is keenly aware and deeply concerned and firmly resolved and infallibly right and the people are fully supportive and further information should be sought elsewhere.

from slate.com

Britain on verge of 'new Renaissance'

Britain may be about to produce "the greatest art yet created", ushering in a "new Renaissance" comparable with that in 15th century Italy, according to a policy review to be published by the government next Thursday.

from the guardian

Interview with notorious lawyer Maitre Verges

SPIEGEL: Could it be that you use your profession mainly for permanent intellectual provocation?

Vergès: I use it mainly for permanent intellectual enrichment. Our view of the world changes with time, because we see it from different perspectives. Thanks to my profession, I am now familiar with the view of the world from the perspective of the terrorist and the policeman, the criminal and the idiot, the virgin and the nymphomaniac. And I can tell you that this improves one's own vision.

from Spiegel online