Monday, July 25, 2011

Sick Glenn Beck At It Again

After a Norwegian fascist fanatic set off a large bomb in Oslo, and then attacked a meeting of the youth organization of the governing Labor Party being held on an island, Glenn Beck, the deranged rightwing fanatic and icon of the Tea Party movement, has compared those slaughtered on the island of Utøya by a fascist fanatic, to the Hitler Youth. Beck said the camp, where over 80 teens were systematically gunned down, was “disturbing” because it was a political camp, which “sounds a little like… the Hitler youth.”

Anything to justify a rightwing atrocity, smear the victims, maybe change the subject a bit.

Friday, July 22, 2011

Another Day, Another Pack of Lies By Murdochs

No sooner did James Murdoch, Son Of Rupert and co-conspirator in the felonious coverup of  the massive phone-hacking conspiracy by their UK newspapers finish testilying to Parliament, then already some of his lies are exposed.  Trying to leave underlings holding the bag, he claimed he knew nothing when he approved a gigantic legal settlement to quash a case that would have blown "News" Corp. out of the water back in 2008. The victim in that case, Gordon Taylor, was sworn to secrecy in return for $1.4 million. (Other cases were settled for 5 figures.) What had the Murdochs freaked out and desperate in the Taylor case was evidence Taylor's lawyers managed to pry out of Murdochs' police protectors by court order which clearly showed evidence of phone hacking beyond the single "rogue" reporter and the "private investigator" Glenn Mulcaire. At the time, and for years since until just a few weeks ago, the Murdoch gang and their police protectors were insisting that their "investigations" showed it was just the two rogues who hacked, and just a few phones- not 4,000.

Murdoch, NOT under oath, lied to Parliament by saying he knew nothing when he approved the huge settlement. Au contraire, 2 of his former executives beg to differ. Colin Myler, former editor of "News" of the World, and Tom Crone, formerly legal manager for "News" International, both said Jamie knew all the details. Which would stand to reason, as he would want to know why he was approving a huge settlement in a case that they'd been fighting tooth and nail previously, and for much more than the customary amount in such suits.

Like his father, James has been lying consistently. He actually had to gall to say a week or two ago that the only reason all this stuff is coming out is because they revealed it themselves! (Actually it's mostly due to the tireless efforts of The Guardian newspaper.)

Some morons have been treating this lik a P.R. cockup by the Murdochs. That's the same thinking that says "the coverup is always worse than the crime." Total horseshit, of course. That mentality presumes the archcriminals are innocent. In fact, when they're guilty as sin, and when their minions are engaged in a massive, long-running criminal conspiracy involving the commission of numerous crimes, as was the case with both Nixon and the Murdochs, coverup is the only way to go. The fact that once in awhile coverups don't work doesn't change that. Professional criminals are always going to try to talk their way out of trouble. They usually succeed, so why not?

Thursday, July 21, 2011

FBI, Secret Service Covered For Murdoch Computer Hacking in U.S.

Murdoch's minions hacked into the password-protected computer system of a tiny rival company, Floorgraphics, 11 times in four months. This was traced to a News Corp. IP address in 2004. In 2005, the FBI and SS "investigated," these 11 Federal felonies but no charges or prosecutions resulted.

see http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jul/21/phone-hacking-news-corporation/print

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Israel Launders Military Budget Through Hollywood

I know that sounds incredible, but that's the gist of a New York Times article with the anodyne title "New Book Recounts Tale of Israeli Agent At Home in Hollywood." The Times hid it in the Business Section, a favorite hiding place for things they don't want the general public to know about. (NYT, Business Day, Monday, July 18, 2011, p. B6, "Media.")

The book in question is Confidential: The Life of Secret Agent Turned Hollywood Tycoon Arnon Milchan, by Israelis Meir Doron and Joseph Gelman, published by Gefen Books. Seems that big wheel "movie producer" Milchan helped smuggle nuclear triggers for atomic bombs into Israel. (If most other people tried such smuggling, they'd be locked up for life by the U.S.) Shimon Peres, the longtime overseer of Israel's nuclear weapons program and permanent member of the Israeli ruling elite, admitted recruiting Milchan for clandestine work. Milchan worked for a secret organization called Lakam.

Another member of the smuggling ring, Richard Kelly Smyth, an aerospace engineer who shipped nuclear triggers through Milchan companies, was indicted in 1985. For some [not very mysterious] reason, Milchan was left untouched. Smyth was a fugitive, officially, until 2001. He was freed from prison in 2005. How's that for kid glove treatment?

Milchan acquired a lot of high tech military gear for Israel, smuggling conventional weapons and krytrons, which are nuclear bomb triggers.

The book notes that Milchan used various companies for Israel to fund various foreign covert ops (which in Israel's case always includes assassinations). This mechanism allowed the Prime Minister "to execute decisions beyond Israel's borders without the need for the formal budgeting, cabinet approvals, petty internal politics, or leaks to the press that might endanger the operation," according to the book. In other words, outside any democratic scrutiny or accountability. The way criminal rulers always like to conduct their crimes. (Cf. U.S. Presidents of recent decades.)

Unsurprisingly, Rupert Murdoch, the archreactionary media oligarch and Zionist zealot, helped fund Milchan's operations. For example, he paid $200 million for a 20% stake in Milchan's Regency Enterprises. (Is it really worth $1 billion? I doubt it.)

A lot of the info in the book came from Milchan himself, during a time when he cooperated with the authors.

See 'Hollywood producer was an Israeli nuclear agent' at http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/hollywood-producer-was-an-israeli-nuclear-agent-1.373867 for more on Milchan. Also search http://www.haaretz.com/ under "Milchan" for more of the Murdoch connection and Milchan's history. Of course the Times as usual says less in more words than Haaretz. For example, Dimona, Israel's "secret" nuclear weapons complex, isn't mentioned in the Times version of reality. (Your secret is safe with them, Israel, even if everyone except the U.S. public knows about it.) Haaretz also mentions that other Israeli businessmen were used to set up straw companies around the world, and to open secret bank accounts for financing the nuclear plant in Dimona and other Israeli "security" industries.

Chris Pizzello/Associated Press
Brad Pitt of the masculine jawline, "producer" Arnon Milchan, and Angelina Jolie with the lascivious lips that made her an object of panting desire to millions of men, and thus a star.

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

The Coming Rehabilitation of Rupert Murdoch

It's going to be "the poor old man, he spent a lifetime building a business, and now it's being destroyed around him," blah blah. Already he's being painted as the victim. Some clown publicity hound tried to throw a plate of shaving cream at him during his appearance in Parliament today and got some on his suit. His half-century-younger than him Dragon Lady wife clawed at the "attacker" (prankster) like a lioness defending her cub. No doubt that scored some points with the old reactionary. (She's always working him to get a bigger cut of his "empire" for her offspring. Rupert's adult children are by a previous marriage.)

The despicable Wall Street Journal is leading the charge already. He owns it now, but it would be defending him anyway, only maybe with not as much fervor if he didn't own it.

Lying Murdoch Told in June about Police Bribes

Back in June at a "News" Corp. board meeting, Rupert Murdoch was told of bribes to the police. Yet the liar is still pretending he knew nothing. His board of stooges also plays dumb, and backs him to the hilt.

Professional gigolo to billionaires Joel Klein, a hack lawyer who was billionaire New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg's lackey NYC Schools Chancellor for years, now works as a troubleshooter for Murdoch and is trying to blunt/deflect/minimize/coverup the scandal as best he can.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jul/19/news-corp-police-payments-macdonald

Was Whistleblower In Murdoch Scandal Murdered?

Sean Hoare, a former employee of Murdoch's rag "News" of the World, turned up dead at home. Only in his 40s, he personally implicated Andy Coulson in crimes like phone hacking. Without his testimony, making a case against Coulson and others becomes far harder.

John Yates, the #2 man at Scotland Yard until he just resigned, was head of "counterterrorism." Bizarrely, the original "investigation" of the hacking of the royals' phones was put under the purview of "counterterrorism." "Counterterrorism" is code for "political/ideological matters." Only reason to assign the case to that unit is to do something dirty- like cover up crimes, as they did in this case. Later, they cynically whined that the reason they did such an unbelievably shoddy "investigation" is that they were "busy" fighting terrorists!

This is the unit that murdered innocent Brazilian electrician Jean Charles de Menezes while he was on his way to work, then lied through their teeth about it. They murdered de Menezes while he was sitting on the subway. To justify this wanton, unprovoked murder, they claimed he had been running, away, and wearing a heavy coat which they feared concealed a bomb- two of many lies they told. No one was prosecuted, or even fired, for this racist crime. Thus the rot at the core of the British establishment continued.

Britain's politicians and judges and all complicit in the crimes of the propaganda rags. One of the few papers with integrity there, The Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/) has relentlessly clung to the story of the phone hacking and bribery through years of ridicule, denial and disinformation BY THE POLICE protecting Murdoch's minions, and the complicity of all but a few braves politicians, who were "paid back" by Murdoch's monstrous minions with the most vicious smears in his "news"papers.

Speaking of murder, the myrmidons of the Metropolitan Police (the lionized and romanticized  "Scotland Yard," including by the relentlessly pro-police U.S. media and entertainment establishment) also murdered a newspaper vendor, Ian Tomlinson, while they went about their dirty business of crushing G-20 protesters in London. Guess he was "collateral damage," to use U.S.-militaryspeak.

Yates is twisting and turning like a worm stuck on a pin, denying he did anything wrong, self-righteously and indignantly defending his "integrity" (sic) and so forth. Could his buddies have bumped off Hoare?

What of the other secret police agencies in Britain, MI5 and MI6? Murder is certainly one of their specialties. Keep in mind that the Prime Minister himself is threatened by this scandal, for hiring the criminal editor Andy Coulson, and for his friendships and constant meeting with Murdoch's henchmen, including Rebekah Brooks. Cameron was told by numerous people BEFORE hiring Coulson about Coulson's criminal involvement. The way liar Cameron tells it, NO ONE TOLD HIM ANYTHING, and BESIDES, Coulson himself assured him he was clean. Why, if you can't trust a lying sack of shit who produces lurid propaganda for Rupert Murdoch, who can you trust?

Murdoch's Minions Already Launching Counteroffensive

Murdoch's right wing rag the Wall Street Journal has launched an aggressive counteroffensive in the last few days, defending the journalistic integrity [sic!] of the Murdoch propaganda empire, attacking people who are morally outraged by his minions' crimes as indulging in schadenfreude (a German word meaning to take pleasure in the misfortunes of another). Of course, this is no misfortune that has befallen Murdoch. Rather, he and his minions are career criminals who have no ethical or moral scruples or restraints.

Will Murdoch's Minions Beat the Rap?

There's a good chance they will. Much of the evidence has been destroyed by them. And their police accomplices helped cover up for years, so statute of limitations may apply to some of the crimes. Their police accomplices may have destroyed evidence also or hinted at their vulnerabilities so they could destroy evidence.

Unless Murdoch's evil empire is dismantled, he will come back with a vengeance.

Murdoch's "Apology"

Rupert Murdoch's hired P.R. guns crafted an "apology" which appears as full page ads in UK newspapers on Friday. They also prepped him to visit the parents of Milly Dowling, the murdered 13 year old girl whose cellphone was hacked by his minions for "scoops," and who deleted messages to make room for more, deceiving her parents and police into thinking she was still alive. We are told he "held his head in his hands" and "repeatedly apologized." (Wonder how much he saves in settlement money with each "I'm sorry"?) They also prepared him for appearing before Parliament, going through rehearsals.

We can gauge the sincerity of all these games by comparing it to the interview he gave to his own Wall Street Journal on the same Friday. There, he denounced the facts in Parliament as "total lies," said his minions only made "small mistakes," his henchmen had handled the scandal "extremely well in every way possible," and grumpily added that he was "getting annoyed" and "tired" with the criticism.

Of course, Murdoch and his minions have been lying and covering up for years now about their crimes. And destroying evidence- thousands of emails and an editor's computer.  And Murdoch has a lilfelong pattern of amoral ruthlessness. This fish rots from the head.

The fact is, Rebekah Brooks and Les Hinton are two long-time top henchmen of Murdoch's. Hinton has been with him for 52 years. Now both have been thrown overboard, resigning in an attempt to cauterize the bleeding.

Janitors At "News" Corp. Hacked Phones, Bribed Cops

That seems to be what the ringleaders would have us believe. All the top editors and executives knew nothing!! Some unknown underlings hacked 4000 phones without their knowledge. And paid out hundreds of thousands of pounds in bribes to cops. Somehow they never knew! They never edited an article, never asked the "reporters" how they obtained personal, confidential information. Their lawyers never asked either- despite Britain's strict libel laws.
And all those dinners and visits that the top cops had with Murdoch's minions? And that PM David Cameron had with them too? Mere coincidence. Cameron is shocked and outraged.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Latest Pakistani Terrorism

The incorrigible Pakistanis committed another terrorist outrage, setting off 3 bombs in Mumbai, India, killing 21 people and wounding over 80, some of whom will be maimed for life. This is the fourth major terror attack on India's financial capital since 2003

It was a couple of years ago that the Pakistani military "intelligence" agency, the ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence, which the U.S. media calls a :"spy" agency when in fact it's a secret police/terrorist org.) attacked Mumbai with some of its cat's paw Islamofascist fanatics on a suicide mission, kiling 168 people, including American Jews who were specifically targetted. (The U.S. didn't seem to give a damn about that, unlike, say, its fanatical hunting down of Palestinians who kill Americans, like those who threw Leon Klinghoffer overboard on the Achille Lauro cruise ship. And U.S. courts have awarded hundreds of millions of dollars in damages to relatives of American Jews killed by the PLO, and against Iran which has been held "indirectly" responsible because it "funds terrorism." I'm just saying, I detect a cynical double standard here that is totally political, and not at all principled, contrary to the chest-beating moral posturing you hear when the U.S. goes after someone for political reasons.)

But back to Pakistan. Pakistan has launched numerous terrorist attacks against India for years, especially in Indian Kashmir. It has even attacked the Indian Congress. It allowed an Indian airliner hijacked by an Islamic terrorist to land in its territory, forcing the Indians to free a terrorist prisoner to save the passengers, and then the Pakis protected the hijacker and the freed terrorist- indeed celebrated them as heroes.

After this latest barbarism, the Pakis will do what they always do- lie and act indignant about being "accused." The U.S. will tell India not to react- don't want to "raise tensions", after all! The Indians will take it lying down. And the Pakis will plan their next terrorist attack. Because since the Pakis have nuclear weapons, they, like the North Koreans, figure they can get away with anything.

But the Indians have nuclear weapons too. They need to give the Pakis a bloody nose this time.

Pakistan has also been bombarding Afghanistan for several weeks with artillery, firing an estimated 800 shells, killing about 50 civilians, and forcing villager to flee. The Afghans have been bleating ineffectually for the Pakis to knock it off. The U.S. calls it a "misunderstanding" and studiously refuses to get involved. And the Pakis cynically claim they're shelling "Taliban." Apparently this is a way for them to show their displeasure over U.S. drone strikes against the terrorist sanctuaries the Pakis maintain on Paki territory.

Blowhard Bush declared immediately after 9/11 "You're either with us or against us" in the "War On Terror" [TM]. Musharraf, the loathsome military dictator of Pakistan at the time, pretended to be "for" the U.S. Bush, and then Obama, showered billions on the Paki military. The Pakis pocketed the weapons and did nothing until the last couple of years about the terrorists they harbored. Then some of the Frankenstein monsters they created turned on them, and they were forced to fight some of them.

The Pakis sold nuclear weapons technology and equipment to North Korea, Iran, Libya, and Syria. The Pakis created the Taliban regime. The Pakis created, sponsor, and harbor numerous terrorist groups. The Pakis created 30,000 madrassas to create ignorant fanatics filled with hate and rage as a pool for more terrorists to recruit.

Meanwhile the U.S. gives billions a year in military aid to the Pakis- mostly for weapons aimed at India, like expensive F-16 jet fighters. The U.S. has been bribing the Pakis for years, hoping the Pakis will change their ways. At this point, the open contempt the Pakis direct toward the Americans is fully merited.

Pakistan of course isn't on the U.S. State Department list of "state sponsors of terrorism." Cuba, which has absolutely nothing to do with terrorism- unless you define "terrorism" as ideas you don't like, as the FBI and U.S. State Department do- is listed. Cuba, of course, is a long-suffering victim of terrorism- from the U.S.

But what gall that the U.S. arrogates to itself the right to "officially" decide which nations are "terrorism sponsors" The U.S., with its monstrous record of supporting state terrorist regimes in Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, South Korea, South Vietnam, Indonesia, Peru, the Philippines, and elsewhere, some of which haven't changed much, really has no business setting itself up as the judge in such matters. (Never mind that the U.S. is a nation founded on the twin pillars of genocide and slavery.)

The U.S. bent over backwards after finding Osama bin Laden was living under Paki military protection all the time, taking a defense-lawyer-type stance towards the Paki culprits by saying there was no "direct evidence" of any particular Paki general knowing bin Laden was living in a large compound right under their noses in a major miitary garrison city. Meanwhile the Pakis, far from being embarrassed or abashed, were enraged at the U.S. for daring to kill bin Laden. And since then the U.S. has identified several bomb factories for the Pakis, who tipped off the terrorists just before raiding the factories so they'd be empty. Ludicrously, the U.S. press says this leads to "suspicions" or "questions" about "whether" the Pakis maybe tipped off the terrorists. DUH! YA THINK?

Just stop making me pay taxes if you're gonna keep giving it to terrorists. The U.S. and various states are so obsequious in pleasing anti-abortion fanatics that they won't give a dime to orgs. abroad  that so much as mention that abortion exists. In the U.S., they are forcing insurance cos. under Obama's health care "reform" to stop offering abortion coverage. Planned Parenthood, which provides vital health services to millions of poor women, like cancer screening, that the shitty, expensive U.S. health care system won't provide, is being defunded by GOP swine Governors, because 2% of PP's funds go to abortion- none public funds but private donations. But they make us pay for terrorism.

This is one sick, twisted nation.

Monday, July 11, 2011

Vicious Murdoch Scum Stole Confidential Records Of PM for 10 Years

Amazingly, Murdoch's hired spies were allowed to steal Gordon Brown's personal records and those of his family- tax, medical, bank, legal, phone, you name it- for 10 years, including when he was Prime Minister of Great Britain, with impunity. The police, senior civil servants, and judges all ran interference for Murdoch's criminal enterprise. stonewalling the Prime Minister of the country and letting Murdoch steal personal information to use to attack Brown in his propaganda rags.

Great Britain is truly a degenerated country, morally, politically, and legally.

The Guardian: "News International papers targeted Gordon Brown: Newspapers obtained information from the former prime minister's bank account, legal file and family medical records"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jul/11/phone-hacking-news-international-gordon-brown

Naive Illusions About James Murdoch

James Murdoch is one of the spawn of Rupert Murdoch, the immoral global reactionary propaganda czar. (But being immoral, his arch-reactionary politics doesn't stop him from cozying up to Chinese "Communist" rulers. Hey, principles have their limits!) James is being groomed as Rupert's successor when Rupert finally dies. (Soon, for the sake of humanity.) Fools and wishful thinkers like to claim James as enlightened and modern. It's like the useful idiots who see one of Qaddafi's sons as a "reformer," or Bashir Assad as a "reformer" in Syria. (Recent atrocitees by the worthies in question have shut up some, but by no means all, of the Western stooges of those monsters.)

But James has behaved exactly like Dad in the burgeoning criminal scandal in Britain by "News" Corp's rags there. (Turns out the Sunday Times and the Sun have committed crimes too, not just the News [sic] of the World. He prevaricates, issues perfunctory, pro forma expressions of regret and "outrage," and tells whopping, bald-faced lies, like claiming that the only reason all this is coming out is because Murdoch's minions themselves have revealed it.

He gets away with such whoppers without any demurral from the media!

Actually the Murdoch empire has never stopped lying since 2006 about this, only admitting things it could no longer deny, while insisting that's all there was, and that EDITORS KNEW NOTHING, which is preposterous. The rest of the media refuses to tell the public, over and over, that this is literally impossible. The way newspapers work is, reporters are supervised by editors, who monitor the progress of stories they are working on. During that process, naturally, editors ask reporters where their information comes from. No way that info comes from 4000 HACKED PHONES, and the editors NEVER ASKED.

No, the ONLY REASON the story has come out is because a real newspaper, the Guardian of London, one of a small minority of real newspapers there, stuck to the story all these years. And the police, like Murdoch's gang, lied and covered up all these years.

James Murdoch is no reformer. No more than Bashir Assad or Saif Qaddafi.

Will British Pols Let Murdoch Get Even MORE Power?

That's the question with the pending Murdoch takeover of BSkyB, the main UK cable tv system. Murdoch already controls it through his 39% ownership stake, and wants to take the remainer of the stock. Instead of letting him do it, he should be stripped of his ownership ENTIRELY.

First of all, no country should ever let its media become so concentrated in one owner's hands anyway.

Secondly, Murdoch is uniquely evil and destructive. He debases everything he touches. He is a corrupting and malevolent political influence.

In Britain, the politicians for years have trembled in fear of his power, and grovelled at his feet for his media's approval. That's how this horrible scandal occurred in the first place.

Now, swept on a tide of public outrage, the politicians are belatedly denouncing his tactics, accompanied by some mea culpas for their own past supine timidity. But it's still not enough.

Britain's Prime Minister, the creepy Conservative David Cameron, is running interference for Murdoch's takeover of BSkyB, insisting it must be allowed to go through. Cameron hired the News [sic] of the World editor Andy Coulson four years ago to be his chief propagandist, when Coulson had to resign because of the initial revelations about phone hacking. At that time, the police and Murdoch's minions successfully hid the vast bulk of the truth, claiming that only one reporter and one "private investigator" was involved, and the editors knew nothing- as if editors NEVER ASK REPORTERS WHERE THEY GET THEIR INFORMATION FROM. Cameron took Coulson along with him to 10 Downing Street this year. Recently Coulson had to quit because of the heat. Cameron now refuses to "apologize." Instead he keeps intoning the line that he was just giving Coulson "a second chance." You see, jobs at the PM of Britain's office are work rehabilitation programs! Cameron was being compassionate. That's why he hired a criminal propagandist from Murdoch's empire to be his chief flack.

Cameron is also tight with Murdoch's main henchwoman in Britain, one Rebekah Brooks (nee Wade), a violent bitch who also was an editor at News [sic] of the World and oversaw a lot of crimes there, including phone hacking. And espionage against a police detective. And running interference for two "private investigators" suspected of murder, who were convicted of child pornography and planting cocaine on a woman in a divorce case, respectively. (Some "investigators." But such immoral criminals no doubt helped produce great "scoops" for the sleazebags at Murdoch's rags.)

The "opposition" to the BSkyB takeover by other politicians so far consists of begging, basically. The "Labour" leader Ed Miliband keeps exhorting Murdoch to drop his bid- instead of trying to outlaw it. And the pathetic Nick Clegg, a clone of Cameron who heads the "Liberal Democrats" and has the booby prize of  Deputy PM, says:

"Do the decent thing, and reconsider, think again about your bid for BSkyB," Clegg told BBC News, addressing Murdoch, after meeting relatives of one of the victims of phone-hacking, a murdered schoolgirl.

Appealing to Murdoch's decency? Is the man serious? Is he daft? Murdoch's entire life history is indecent. The man is an immoral shark. This is a bad joke.

If Britain's politicians are serious, they will NOT make the problem WORSE by letting Murdoch increase his power. In fact, this Australian buccaneer should be stripped of all his UK media properties. He has no business debasing the society of a foreign country. Let him go back to Australia and drag that society down into the swamp.

Murdoch's Malevolent Minions' Latest Crimes

In Britain, turns out his scumballs at the News [sic] of the World hacked into the phone accounts of maybe 4000 people. And the British police, Murdoch's allies, kept it secret for FIVE YEARS.  They even hid from one of their own detectives that Murdoch spied on him this way.

They hacked the cellphone of a kidnapped, 13 year old who was murdered, deleting messages from her parents and friends, thus leading them to believe she was still alive.

They hacked into the phones of dead soldiers.

They hacked into the phones of relatives of victims of the London transit system terror attacks.
One of the jackass, immoral culprits defends it by saying it was just good journalism, getting at "the truth."
Here's a truth: people like him are scum.

They bribed the police. That makes the police criminals who took bribes. The police also covered up for Murdoch for 5 years, making them accomplices to the massive phone hacking. The bullshit cover here is saying the "investigation" was "flawed" or "inadequate" or "botched." No, there was no investigation. There was a coverup by the police.

They bought "royal" phone records from a policeman and tried to buy private phone records of victims of the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States. Police declined comment.

Murdoch's New York soiled toilet paper, the New York Post, libeled the sexual assault victim of Dominique Strauss-Kahn by branding her, falsely, a prostitute. She immediately sued for libel. It's about time. For once, someone is suing the Post for one of their innumerable libels.

The Post also libeled the hotel workers' union by claiming it runs a prostitution ring. It thus libeled all the hardworking room cleaners too.

But they got some great "scoops." Like this one: the son of Gordon Brown, former Labour Finance and Prime Minister, has cystic fibrosis. The public has a right to know! The Murdoch asswipe The Sun "broke" that "story" in 2006.

Reporters from across "News" International, "News" Corp's newspaper sewer, had tried to break into Brown's voicemail, steal information from his bank account and spy on his family's medical records. Posing as Brown, they tricked his bank into revealing account info.

Given the horrible, tawdry stew of lewdness and neofascist agitprop that constitutes Murdoch's "content," and his lifelong record of lies, betrayals, doublecrosses, and totally amoral behavior, none of this should be a "shock." One has to wonder if those in the media and political establishments in the UK and US expressing shock are really so naive.