Murdoch & the Eu Referendum

You might have seen all the coverage of the papers pushing for a referendum on the EU treaty. Recently The Sun newspaper (owned by Murdoch) indicated to Brown that it may ditch support for him because he wont allow a referendum on the EU treaty;

"The Sun's campaign [for a referendum], which I think is fun and ingenious, is no secret, nor are [Sun associate editor] Trevor Kavanagh's heartfelt feelings about surrendering more sovereignty. So Brown has to know that one of the factors, maybe the factor, that the Sun will consider [when it comes to an endorsement] is his position on the referendum."

Be under no illusion why the Sun and Murdoch are going for a referendum not out of patriotism but because of business interests;

But what has Mr. Murdoch got against the euro? Brussels-bashing has always made good copy for his papers. But more seriously, the coming of the euro is part of a process involving the centralisation of economic power and decision-making in pan-European bodies. And if you were a media magnate with global interests, would you want to see the rise of an increasingly powerful pan-European regulator, with uncongenial ideas about "local content" requirement and cross-media ownership?

GoatLab Radio - Oct '07

GoatLab Radio is back!!! this month with Parasite and special guest DJ/Rupture (Soot / Shockout)

Tracklisting:

1. Modeselektor - 2000007 ft. TCC (BPitch Control)
2. Cauto - Untitled (Dutty Artz - duttyartz.com)
3. Electromeca - 202 (Death$ucker)
4. DJ/Rupture & Andy Moor - live in France
5. Milanese - Mr Bad News [Clark remix] (Planet Mu)
6. DJ/Rupture & Shadetek - Reef w/ Anakissed reading the Rubaiyyat
7. Dexplicit - Good For Me
8. Maga Bo -Nqayi ft. Teba (Soot)
9. Glowstyx - Heels of steel (Cock Rock Disco)
10. Patric C (The VIP) - Let There Be House (Death$ucker / Cock Rock Disco)
11. The Bug - Skeng ft. Killa P & Flow Dan (Hyperdub)
12. Influx - Still (Sapho)

Download the show!!!
http://dswat.streamlinetrial.co.uk/thegoatlab/?Radio

Set Power Free

There is the well known phrase, 'knowledge is power' and I believe it is true. There are many sh*t things going on all over the world, many causes that need fighting. But how is it when around 1 billion people on the planet starve, around 1 billion suffer from disorders of over-eating. This is a wrong balance. Global warming threatens our (and many other species) existence and our political leaders argue over who stole whos policies. Why do we not react en-mass? I believe the key is knowledge. To me this means media activism is vital. I'm reading Ursula Le Guin's collected Earthsea trilogy and there is a phrase in the book that states this better than I ever will:

"...need alone is not enough to set power free: there must be knowledge."

With that in mind, a couple of local media project I think deserve support:

Gagged! - The Gwent based news project. They are having a benefit on the 3rd November.

The Bath Bomb - "Bath's Radicalest Tabloid!" a great new newsheet onto it's third issue.

And, of course, Bristol Indymedia and Bristle - not to mention all the bloggers out there! (see links bar on the right!).

News of Note

A couple of interesting news articles;

Cuba's communist block-by-block democracy - not true democracy, but is it really any worse than the rich-donor funded, elected-dictatorship we have?

And (more) shady goings-on in the war of terror:

"When someone works in the finance department of the military in Afghanistan, and they say they’ve discovered some things and made some enemies because of it, and when they say 'if anything happens to me, make sure it’s investigated,' and then that person is shot in the head within a secure military base, and this is being reported by CBS, I think we have a case that needs investigation."

The Iraq War is Over!

Yes people, it's all over. The evil-doers are dead;

"..last week [the Pentagon] released figures to USA Today on how many insurgents U.S. forces have supposedly killed since the invasion of Iraq ended: 18,832 since June 2003; 4,882 'militants' so far in 2007 alone.....As the USA Today report points out, last year Centcom Commander John Abizaid had suggested that the forces of the Sunni insurgency numbered in the 10,000-20,000 range. If the released figures are accurate, nearly 25%-50% of that number must have been killed this year. (Who knows how many were wounded.) Add in suspected Sunni insurgents and terrorists incarcerated in American prisons in Iraq only in the "surge" months of 2007 -- another 8,000 or so -- and it suddenly looks as if something close to the full insurgency has essentially been turned into a ghost resistance between January and September of this year.

The U$ also says;

"Our troops have killed or captured an average of more than 1,500 al Qaeda terrorists and other extremists every month since January of this year."

Now given that Al-Qaeda of Mesopotamia only has about 1,500 fighters - that must mean its all over?

Or somebody is telling porky-pies.