In the news

and there's not a thing we can do about it
fucking putin

another dodgy politician

i hope they don't lock their bikes with those chains they don't look sold secure !

I'm surprised you're not over there Sam, with that written over their mouths.

Rape (even if it is alleged) isn't a subject to treated in such a cavalier fashion.

I was referring to all the stuff that's currently in the news, about his extradition etc. The rape stuff is, frankly, none of my business, though I concur that rape is bad (does it really require spelling out?).

I wasn't suggesting that you're a cavalier. Or a round head for that matter.

Assange allegations:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/dec/17/julian-assange-sweden

The allegations centre on a 10-day period after Assange flew into Stockholm on Wednesday 11 August. One of the women, named in court as Miss A, told police that she had arranged Assange's trip to Sweden, and let him stay in her flat because she was due to be away. She returned early, on Friday 13 August, after which the pair went for a meal and then returned to her flat.

Her account to police, which Assange disputes, stated that he began stroking her leg as they drank tea, before he pulled off her clothes and snapped a necklace that she was wearing. According to her statement she "tried to put on some articles of clothing as it was going too quickly and uncomfortably but Assange ripped them off again". Miss A told police that she didn't want to go any further "but that it was too late to stop Assange as she had gone along with it so far", and so she allowed him to undress her.

According to the statement, Miss A then realised he was trying to have unprotected sex with her. She told police that she had tried a number of times to reach for a condom but Assange had stopped her by holding her arms and pinning her legs. The statement records Miss A describing how Assange then released her arms and agreed to use a condom, but she told the police that at some stage Assange had "done something" with the condom that resulted in it becoming ripped, and ejaculated without withdrawing.

When he was later interviewed by police in Stockholm, Assange agreed that he had had sex with Miss A but said he did not tear the condom, and that he was not aware that it had been torn. He told police that he had continued to sleep in Miss A's bed for the following week and she had never mentioned a torn condom.

On the following morning, Saturday 14 August, Assange spoke at a seminar organised by Miss A. A second woman, Miss W, had contacted Miss A to ask if she could attend. Both women joined Assange, the co-ordinator of the Swedish WikiLeaks group, whom we will call "Harold", and a few others for lunch.

Assange left the lunch with Miss W. She told the police she and Assange had visited the place where she worked and had then gone to a cinema where they had moved to the back row. He had kissed her and put his hands inside her clothing, she said.

That evening, Miss A held a party at her flat. One of her friends, "Monica", later told police that during the party Miss A had told her about the ripped condom and unprotected sex. Another friend told police that during the evening Miss A told her she had had "the worst sex ever" with Assange: "Not only had it been the world's worst screw, it had also been violent."

Assange's supporters point out that, despite her complaints against him, Miss A held a party for him on that evening and continued to allow him to stay in her flat.

On Sunday 15 August, Monica told police, Miss A told her that she thought Assange had torn the condom on purpose. According to Monica, Miss A said Assange was still staying in her flat but they were not having sex because he had "exceeded the limits of what she felt she could accept" and she did not feel safe.

The following day, Miss W phoned Assange and arranged to meet him late in the evening, according to her statement. The pair went back to her flat in Enkoping, near Stockholm. Miss W told police that though they started to have sex, Assange had not wanted to wear a condom, and she had moved away because she had not wanted unprotected sex. Assange had then lost interest, she said, and fallen asleep. However, during the night, they had both woken up and had sex at least once when "he agreed unwillingly to use a condom".

Early the next morning, Miss W told police, she had gone to buy breakfast before getting back into bed and falling asleep beside Assange. She had awoken to find him having sex with her, she said, but when she asked whether he was wearing a condom he said no. "According to her statement, she said: 'You better not have HIV' and he answered: 'Of course not,' " but "she couldn't be bothered to tell him one more time because she had been going on about the condom all night. She had never had unprotected sex before."

The police record of the interview with Assange in Stockhom deals only with the complaint made by Miss A. However, Assange and his lawyers have repeatedly stressed that he denies any kind of wrongdoing in relation to Miss W.

Nice chap.

There's obviously no shortage of more important things to get upset about, but this is just a total farce:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/aug/17/pussy-riot-sentenced-two-years

Are They?
Why?

Two years, what a bullshit "trial".
I was referring to the bandannas, in a bullshit humour kind of way. Their protest however, is right on.

A large group of them were standing in silence, faces covered with multi-coloured tights, on the Southbank at the weekend, much to the bemusement (and amusement) of the gathered crowd.

Two years in jail is ridiculous. They're not 'hooligans'!

Maybe Madonna can bail them out?

here is one of their performances

NSFW

http://plucer.livejournal.com/55710.html

It's quite a big deal.

Keith Bennett's mother's just died. One last victim for Brady. Really quite sad that he could bring her that last bit of torture at the end of her life.

Nice chap.

The thing with these sorts of cases, is that it is one persons word against anothers. There is no way to prove the events either way.

The only thing that could possibly break the case is if somebody could confirm that Assange was sleeping in the same bed as the girl for the week following. If so, then she couldn't have been much upset.

But otherwise its impossible to pin blame, and in the absence of physical evidence, if the condom even broke at all.

Assange faces being locked up forever and ever and possibly tortured if he ends up entering a chain of captivity that lands him in American hands. That is an awful big deal for such unsubstantiat-able allegations.

The guy alienates everyone he meets and eventually everyone he's worked with. Those who started wikileaks with him and the journalists who dealt with him on the US cables all came away with a bad taste in their mouth, feeling let down and exploited.

Many who knew him might argue that his fuck-everyone-else dogmatism would lead to something like this happening.

But these allegations, as is often the case with rape, have little chance of successful prosecution, as initially recognised by the court before the successful appeal which lead to the extradition request.

This is clearly an exploitation of golden opportunity by the US, they can receive him with ease and legally. Beyond basic diplomatic tact, there's no need to hide it, the man is wanted in the US and he's an alleged rapist, what else would they do?

This is a good blog on why AssAnge is unlikely to be extradited from Switzerland.

http://edinburgheye.wordpress.com/2012/08/17/could-the-us-extradite-assange/

The man seems to be a selfish numpty. He's less likely to be kidnapped from Switzerland than from Ecuador. Which is the most likely way for the US to get hold of him.

I think the Argentinians want to swap him for the Falklands TBH.

One thing I don't understand is why, if he is to stand trial in Sweden for allegations of rape which took place in Sweden, is he in danger of being taken to Gitmo and tortured for ~800 days?

i.e. presumably we, being the lapdog of the USA, would have happily packed him up and sent him over in response to an extradition request- but we have not done so, we were looking at extraditing him to Sweden.

Why are the Swedes assumed to be chomping at the bit to post him to the states? Because they won't be able to make the rape allegations stick, so are thinking "may as spoil his day somehow, where's the CIA guy"?

**Expensive council homes should be sold, says Policy Exchange think tank
**

This troubles me. Are we heading for ghetto type living in London?

I think neu is talking about the Irishmen on the other side - the ones fighting for God and fascism

They are mentioned.

One thing I don't understand is why, if he is to stand trial in Sweden for allegations of rape which took place in Sweden, is he in danger of being taken to Gitmo and tortured for ~800 days?

i.e. presumably we, being the lapdog of the USA, would have happily packed him up and sent him over in response to an extradition request- but we have not done so, we were looking at extraditing him to Sweden.

Why are the Swedes assumed to be chomping at the bit to post him to the states? Because they won't be able to make the rape allegations stick, so are thinking "may as spoil his day somehow, where's the CIA guy"?

Prior extradition takes precedence.

**Expensive council homes should be sold, says Policy Exchange think tank
**

This troubles me. Are we heading for ghetto type living in London?

We want tory voters.

The localness of both the judgement of what's expensive, and the reinvestment sound like they should guard against the flaws, but i fear the devil will be in the details of how 'local' is defined. At the very least there need to be some seriously strong safeguards around how properties 'become' vacant...

While there are obvious practical arguments for this, it feels to me like capitalists green with envy that social solidarity should have built something good and determined to drag that back into the market for short term profit and long term reinforcement of the ideology that financial success is the only route to a good life.

Social cleansing is coming by many other routes. The national benefits cap combined with the escalators towards local market prices built into the centrally imposed formulae for setting council rents is one. The trend of redevelopment replacing council housing with 'social' housing that's closer to the market is another.

"Expensive" is a red herring, it seems. Surely "valuable" is a better description.

Expensive council homes should be sold, says Policy Exchange think tank

This troubles me. Are we heading for ghetto type living in London?

I wouldn't get too worried. Tis just a think tank report.

This is a good blog on why AssAnge is unlikely to be extradited from Switzerland.

http://edinburgheye.wordpress.com/2012/08/17/could-the-us-extradite-assange/

The man seems to be a selfish numpty. He's less likely to be kidnapped from Switzerland than from Ecuador. Which is the most likely way for the US to get hold of him.

what has switzerland got to do Assange