The Old Politics Thread

Goat · **Posted:** Tue Mar 03, 2009 9:51 pm

Speaking of awesome articles:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree ... oliticians

Whoa. :dio:

to the max.

Rhys · **Posted:** Wed Mar 04, 2009 10:17 am

Sri Lankan cricket team gets attacked in Pakistan.... the gunmen kill police and Pakistani civilians.....

Thoughts?

Azrael · **Posted:** Wed Mar 04, 2009 11:58 am

rio wrote:

Btw Monbiot's take is quite interesting.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree ... itan-jails

Quote:

The corrupt judges were paid by the private prisons not only to increase the number of child convicts but also to shut down a competing prison run by the public sector. Taking bribes to bang up kids might be novel; shutting public facilities to help private companies happens - on both sides of the water - all the time.

The Wall Street Journal has shown how, as a result of lobbying by the operators, private jails in Mississippi and California are being paid for non- existent prisoners. The prison corporations have been guaranteed a certain number of inmates. If the courts fail to produce enough convicts, they get their money anyway. This outrages taxpayers in both states, which have cut essential public services to raise these funds. But there is a simple means of resolving this problem: you replace ghost inmates with real ones. As the Journal, seldom associated with raging anti-capitalism, observes: "Prison expansion [has] spawned a new set of vested interests with stakes in keeping prisons full and in building more ... The result has been a financial and political bazaar, with convicts in stripes as the prize."

As usual filthy lucre is to blame for the worlds ills...

if prisons are to be privately-run then you can't expect them to do so at a loss. as the article pointed out this creates an incentive for harsher punishments (time in prison), i guess this just shows that certain services should be kept public.

Goat · **Posted:** Fri Mar 06, 2009 11:55 am

Lol:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7927668.stm

Won't make any difference, of course, but stuff like this always amuses me. She's so polite about it, too.

rio · **Posted:** Fri Mar 06, 2009 11:57 am

Haha take that Mandelson, you fucking tossbag.

:dio:

rio · **Posted:** Fri Mar 06, 2009 11:57 am

Azrael wrote:

rio wrote:

Btw Monbiot's take is quite interesting.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree ... itan-jails

Quote:

The corrupt judges were paid by the private prisons not only to increase the number of child convicts but also to shut down a competing prison run by the public sector. Taking bribes to bang up kids might be novel; shutting public facilities to help private companies happens - on both sides of the water - all the time.

The Wall Street Journal has shown how, as a result of lobbying by the operators, private jails in Mississippi and California are being paid for non- existent prisoners. The prison corporations have been guaranteed a certain number of inmates. If the courts fail to produce enough convicts, they get their money anyway. This outrages taxpayers in both states, which have cut essential public services to raise these funds. But there is a simple means of resolving this problem: you replace ghost inmates with real ones. As the Journal, seldom associated with raging anti-capitalism, observes: "Prison expansion [has] spawned a new set of vested interests with stakes in keeping prisons full and in building more ... The result has been a financial and political bazaar, with convicts in stripes as the prize."

As usual filthy lucre is to blame for the worlds ills...

if prisons are to be privately-run then you can't expect them to do so at a loss. as the article pointed out this creates an incentive for harsher punishments (time in prison), i guess this just shows that certain services should be kept public.

Agreed of course.

rio · **Posted:** Fri Mar 06, 2009 6:14 pm

Pretty late but I like this article

http://www.marksteelinfo.com/writing/default.asp?id=106

Quote:

“You wouldn’t have caught Spartacus rounding up his forces by putting a message on Facebook saying ‘Hi Cum 2 Rome 4 gr8 fite 2 liber8 slaves lets kill emprer lol’”.

noodles · **Posted:** Fri Mar 06, 2009 6:45 pm

aww i wanted it to keep going :(

stevelovesmoonspell · **Posted:** Fri Mar 06, 2009 7:31 pm

rio wrote:

Pretty late but I like this article

http://www.marksteelinfo.com/writing/default.asp?id=106

Quote:

“You wouldn’t have caught Spartacus rounding up his forces by putting a message on Facebook saying ‘Hi Cum 2 Rome 4 gr8 fite 2 liber8 slaves lets kill emprer lol’”.

your quote is hilarious

traptunderice · **Posted:** Sat Mar 07, 2009 3:52 am

rio wrote:

Pretty late but I like this article

http://www.marksteelinfo.com/writing/default.asp?id=106

Quote:

“You wouldn’t have caught Spartacus rounding up his forces by putting a message on Facebook saying ‘Hi Cum 2 Rome 4 gr8 fite 2 liber8 slaves lets kill emprer lol’”.

That article is cute. I need to take part in some more direct action business. I could've protested at an un-air conditioned factory last year but I passed since I'm lazy.

noodles · **Posted:** Sat Mar 07, 2009 3:57 am

i'm thinking of dressing up for a "Night of the Living Debt" protest thtat's happening soon.

rio · **Posted:** Sat Mar 07, 2009 9:36 am

traptunderice wrote:

rio wrote:

Pretty late but I like this article

http://www.marksteelinfo.com/writing/default.asp?id=106

Quote:

“You wouldn’t have caught Spartacus rounding up his forces by putting a message on Facebook saying ‘Hi Cum 2 Rome 4 gr8 fite 2 liber8 slaves lets kill emprer lol’”.

That article is cute. I need to take part in some more direct action business. I could've protested at an un-air conditioned factory last year but I passed since I'm lazy.

Yeah, I've done that kind of thing a few times but never very much... just been on a couple of demos etc. Sometimes while you're on them it feels a bit futile, but then articles like that inspire you again.

The guy that wrote that column has pretty much spent his life doing that sort of thing. I don't know if you can get his book called "Reasons to be Cheerful" in North America, but it's pretty much the best book available for anyone that wants an eye-witness account of the socialist movement in the UK during the 1970s and 1980s and its many tangles with Thatcher. (And let's face it, who doesn't want to know about that!

) Very funny, too.

Goat · **Posted:** Sun Mar 08, 2009 8:53 pm

rio wrote:

Haha take that Mandelson, you fucking tossbag.

:dio:

She's been arrested. :sad:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7931185.stm

And assuming it was the Real IRA which carried out that attack on that base, what a bunch of shitheads.

Cú Chulainn · **Posted:** Mon Mar 09, 2009 2:03 pm

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/4/20090309/tuk ... a1618.html

Talking about this? Fuck, here we go again...

Cú Chulainn · **Posted:** Tue Mar 10, 2009 4:30 pm

http://mediamatters.org/items/200811120011

Kinda saw this coming. Why can't the Republican party just roll over and die?

Goat · **Posted:** Tue Mar 10, 2009 4:32 pm

You honestly thought that they'd start playing nice when Obama won? This is nothing.

stevelovesmoonspell · **Posted:** Tue Mar 10, 2009 9:55 pm

Goat wrote:

You honestly thought that they'd start playing nice when Obama won? This is nothing.

Did you see Limbaugh's Republican rile up speech to the Conservative Action Committee?
It was hilarious they honestly think people believe them after any semblance of their creed of 'smaller government' was destroyed under the 8 year presidency of George Bush.

Azrael · **Posted:** Tue Mar 10, 2009 10:37 pm

there's a paper by UCLA professors Pedro Santa-Clara and some guy with a russian-sounding name about the relationship between the party in power and the S&P 500. IT ACTUALLY PERFORMED BETTER UNDER THE DEMOCRATS LOL.

Eternal Idol · **Posted:** Tue Mar 10, 2009 11:05 pm

LOL, too bad Allan Colmes isn't around to refute what hannity said there.

And by refute, I mean agree completely with Hannity and then have buttsex with him.

traptunderice · **Posted:** Wed Mar 11, 2009 2:25 am

Eternal Idol wrote:

LOL, too bad Allan Colmes isn't around to refute what hannity said there.

And by refute, I mean agree completely with Hannity and then have buttsex with him.

HA!

Oh man that made me snort apple juice.

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