[russian election] just came home from voting

BBC:

Civil servants have been ordered by their managers to vote, and there are reports that police and teachers are under similar pressure, our correspondent says.

This much is true. Why not? Aren't all westerners urged to turn out and vote by the powers that be?

There has been very little scrutiny of voting by Western election observers ...

I'd say none - the west simply does not want to know the truth.

There are already reports of irregularities.

OK - the best way to check this is to go there and see for myself. There are two polling stations near me - one I should really go to, according to my chit and the other - my old school where I stand a better chance of being recognized.

I decide to take a chance on my old school which raises the question - should I go along as a foreign observer or as a Russian?

I decide to go as a Russian, gather the documents, dress in my regulation black and head out into the slushy +1 degree with wet snow lightly falling.

As I approach the school, there are no how-to-vote cards, no one at all except for one lone militsia sitting on a chair at the top of the school steps and looking bored as I go in. Once inside I know my way about and immediately run into my old colleagues, which I think reassures the two militz over by the wall.

Slight difficulty when the militz on the door asks which number in my street I live at ... Oh no, you have the wrong school ... Er - how stupid of me ...

So I go to the other side of the foyer and on the wall, alongside the rogue's gallery of teaching staff [I notice my photo is no longer there] is a metre by metre poster of the four candidates and their blurbs.

Can't help feeling Zhuganov and Zhirinovsky are looking a bit old these days.

So to the voting room, long and thin before me.

To the left is a honey in uniform and I will her, with my eyes, to detain me and interrogate me for a couple of hours but she just looks bored. So I think I'll stir it up a bit by talking to her, pulling out my Electoral Commission "invitation to vote" and show it to her.

Took a bit of doing to get her to smile but now she laughs that I've come to the wrong school. Only she looks a bit puzzled by my accent but my docs are at the ready.

The Vice-Director of the school now comes through, recognizes me and starts chatting about her daughter and the new grandchild - the militz honey sits down again, still puzzled.

I'm urged to have a cup of tea and to come back and teach at the school next semester and now I'm given the guided tour of the polling station.

Up front I ask where the ballot boxes are, worried that they're beside the registration trestle tables down the right wall [the booths are over by the left wall].

At those trestle tables are a member of the commission and various civilians. I tell my host straight away that I'm observing as the west should have done and that I plan to write it up and post it.

The Vice-Director, in answer to my question, points to two large white upright boxes in the centre of the end wall, well away from either booths or registration tables. Locals who've voted stand about chatting then go home.

I go home and write this to you.

It may well be that there are bombs in the south and irregularities - how can I say? They're always stirring things up against Russia down there. But irregularities here in our neck of the woods?

This is absolute rubbish. Why, oh why, couldn't the west send in observers to see what really is going down?

Answer - they don't want to be forced to see that an election is taking place today and to have to admit that Medvedev is legit.

[meet your new leaders] a psychological profile

Sean has been digging and the blurb he found says:

I am the MP for Gateshead East and Washington West. I am PPS (Parliamentary Private Secretary) to Bob Ainsworth, Armed Forces Minister:

Sharon [Hodgson] is a Common Purpose graduate and was delighted to be able to go back and contribute something to the course. She was invited to speak to the latest graduates and It was great to see so many people benefiting from the work Common Purpose does. As an international leadership programme they can really help build peoples’ confidence and develop their skills careers.

A CP grad is PPS to the Army? I'm feeling faint. Wonko puts it nicely:

The problem with Common Purpose is that the attendees are not allowed to talk about what happens on their courses and no minutes are taken at Common Purpose training courses or meetings. Attendees may have been encouraged or induced to promote Common Purpose but there will be no records to confirm this and the attendees have agreed to keep what happens a secret.

This certainly doesn’t encourage open government, transparency or accountability. How does the Ministry of Justice know that what the attendees have been taught and agreed to do in their secret meetings is in the best interests of the department or the electorate, especially when the course teaches attendees to lead beyond their authority?

The mentality of a CP graduate is what interests me and looking at Ms Hodgson, one really wonders. Possibly a nice PC lady in herself with the good of humanity and her family at heart but representing a very suspect organization nonetheless. Wolfie, who's dealt with such people even more than I have feels, in effect, that they they are limited people in themselves, high on ambition but lacking ability and prone to error.

I think events in the public private interface in Britain have borne that out. The excellent Wat Tyler puts it this way at his blog:

They spend 43% of our income, yet fail to deliver decent services. They promise prosperity, yet tax and regulate our economy into stasis. They talk up social justice, yet consign millions to welfare dependency. Enough is enough. We the peasants demand our high-spending, high-living, conflicted politicos mend their ways.

This is the sort of fine detail he gets into, should you wish to look into it. Others like DK and Mr. E do it in a more general way.

I worked for two years for the civil service in what is now HM Revenue & Customs and was that ever an eye opener. One thing for sure - they look after their own in there and I feel like a traitor ratting on them now, as I was protected more than once from "predators" from the private sphere.

There was an incident when an abrasive newbie shipping agent felt I was going slow on his company's application for exports and the truth was - I was going slow. I didn't like him or his pushy manner. You need to understand here that no boat sails without the paperwork stamped, every hour is further expense and I had that stamp in my hand.

I was duty bound to stamp it if everything was in order but there was no law about how and when I did that. The young buck saw it, said something about meeting me on the street, I offered my cheek across the counter for him to hit, he lost his nut and took a swing, sprawling across the counter.

Oh dear, I thought - I'm in trouble. My inspector hauled me in and wanted every detail, then told me to get back to the counter, adding, in parting, "Tell me if you have any more trouble." I noticed that next day the head of the company brought whisky and went to visit our inspector. He then came to me and apologized for the street-fighter and the young ASBO was never seen again.

This blog ran a profile of the mentality of the CP graduate without attaching the label CP and if you can wade through it, it's about the susceptibility of a particular type of person that departmental talent spotters latch onto.

The key mental components are PCishness, up-front work ethic but prone to the shortcut, limited real ideas of any paradigm shifting substance, susceptibility to acceptance of trite presented paradigms couched in PC friendly language, ambition and clubbability - a person strongly affected by inclusion in "the club" and viewing enemies of "the club" as her enemies too.

This last comes through strongly in Julia Middleton's infamous "jerk" remark. They really do believe they're the elite who are going to take over at local regional government level in "the emergency" they're training so hard for.

Of all the words written, of all the blogposts across the UK and NA spheres on the matter, the one which remains with me is the Scottish Arts Council. At the time "the leading figures in the Scottish Arts had been led in a "debate" which was not a debate":

After an obviously unwanted debate (chaired by Mrs. Jack McConnell, Labour Party) in which the audience clearly did not accept what they were told, the final words from Seona Reid (then Director of the SAC) conveyed the impression that some form of transaction had taken place, that "SAC was working to ensure the arts were incorporated into the range of Government policies - but arts organisations and artists needed to play their part in making this a reality".

In other words, funding had been reduced, a crisis created, in came the CP and put a deal to salvage "the arts" but it involved artists knuckling down to certain new rules of the game.

This stinks.

Do you actually wish to be led in your local area by someone like Sharon Hodgson? Would you entrust your life, the bread on your table and even your children to her maternal care? Or are you just a "jerk" who'd like to be left in peace to run his/her own life, thank you very much if it's all the same to you?

In praise of my countrymen and women

They have a wonderful way of resisting that which is not liked, which I was on the receiving end of in the Blogpower thing in January. They simply shut out the troublemaker, ignore, go about their own business until the thing just dies away or becomes unworkable.

While one half of me was up in arms at the time, the other half was affectionately smiling at my blogfriends. I fervently trust that when all this rubbish, from ID cards on, is foisted on us, the same process of resistance will take place.

Common purpose links

* This is one of the best, from Ian Parker and opens onto many others.

* This is my most widely read though I think later ones go into more detail.

* Some others are here, here and here.






Other excellent sources

1. John Trenchard said, on 14 October 2007:

I'm doing my bit to spread the word about Common Purpose over at my blog
here
here
and
here
(video of the Brian Garrish presentation)

there're a LOT of returns if you search for it on TheyWorkForYou. Questions are being asked in the Commons - and its cross departmental, including the MOD.
They Work For You search

Why is Julia Middleton such a leadership guru when she's never lead anything in her life , beyond running Common Purpose.

Here's a video of her
Note the mad , staring , psychotic EYES... very very weird. If somebody like that started speaking to me I'd run a mile. Instead , the government is going in the opposite direction , putting thousands of public service workers on Common Purpose "leadership" courses.

2. Some nice reading from Englisc Fyrd on it and related issues.

3. The inimitable Ian Parker can't be missed.

Libertarian Party

If you prefer to make your stance more politically, there is a party called the UK Libertarian Party:

Click on pic

[penitentiaries] big business in the states

First, the other news in the U.S.:

"While one in 30 men between the ages of 20 and 34 is behind bars, for black males in that age group the figure is one in nine." The total of 2.3 million adults held in prison - or one in every 99.1 adults - puts the US far head of other countries.

China, with its far greater population, has 1.5 million people behind bars, and Russia has 890,000.

China executes increasing numbers of its naughties and not-so-naughties, using the new death buses. The question is, of course, why the U.S. seems to want to incarcerate a sizeable proportion of its citizens in penitentiaries.

One brief aside might help explain - the Executive Order 12656 of 1988 “Continuity of Government” (COG), which, if you read it, provides measures for the legally elected government to remain alive and in power should there be any disaster "natural or man-made". Part of this deals with incarceration of those not acting in the interests of "the nation".

In a similar vein was Rex-84 Alpha Explan whose source I can't find but it's partly supported by Wiki:

The Rex-84 Alpha Explan (Readiness Exercise 1984, Exercise Plan), indicates that FEMA in association with 34 other federal civil departments and agencies conducted a civil readiness exercise during April 5-13, 1984, in coordination and simultaneously with a Joint Chiefs exercise, Night Train 84 (including Continental U.S. Forces or CONUS) based on multi-emergency scenarios operating both abroad and at home.

Rex-84 Bravo, FEMA and DOD led the other federal agencies and departments, including the Central Intelligence Agency, the Secret Service, the Treasury, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Veterans Administration through a gaming exercise to test military assistance in civil defense.

So there appears to be a need not only to expand correction facilities across the nation but to provide instantly transportable facilities to meet any citizen insurrection which might arise for some reason. A logical constructor of such transportation might be Gunderson, who have experienced a great upsurge in their business in the last decade or so.

Gunderson watchers have alleged the construction of boxcars with "shackles" and even a guillotine at one end of the car but Gunderson has countered by offering $1000 for anyone who can provide a photo of such a car. There are photos circulating, such as this one:




... but detractors say these are simply vehicle shifters. The point is that it's not going to be proven one way or the other until they are rapidly adapted to their new purpose ... or not.

All this still doesn't seem sufficient reason for the explosion in penitentiary building but this gives an insight. It refers to a Prison-Industrial Complex which is expanding prison facilities as rapidly as humanly possible:

It is composed of politicians, both liberal and conservative, who have used the fear of crime to gain votes; impoverished rural areas where prisons have become a cornerstone of economic development; private companies that regard the roughly $35 billion spent each year on corrections not as a burden on American taxpayers but as a lucrative market; and government officials whose fiefdoms have expanded along with the inmate population.

One name which always comes up in this connection is Kellogg Brown & Root, a Halliburton subsidiary and some dire things have been alleged about them, presented as "facts". One such is Camp Six:

The 200-bed compound, known as Camp Six, is expected to cost $24 million and will be the base's second permanent prison structure. The first, a 100-cell, super-max style facility known as Camp Five, opened in April.

Together, the two structures represent the future of Guantanamo Bay, which is being retooled to house those prisoners found to pose a continuing threat to the United States.

"If your threat level is high and your intelligence value is high, you're probably going to live here for awhile," says Army Brig. Gen. Martin Lucenti, deputy commanding general of the joint task force in charge of detentions at Guantanamo Bay.

Some of you will recall Kellogg, Brown and Root in connection with the four Blackwater operatives killed in Iraq:

U.S. Rep. Chris Van Hollen held up a copy of Blackwater's contract, which said Blackwater was ultimately working for the Army's main contractor in Iraq, Kellogg Brown & Root, with two companies in between.

The Army and Kellogg Brown & Root denied in a letter that Blackwater had done any work for them.

Clearly money is a prime motivator here, which detractors call "profiteering":

To be profitable, private prison firms must ensure that prisons are not only built but also filled. Industry experts say a 90-95 per cent capacity rate is needed to guarantee the hefty rates of return needed to lure investors.

Prudential Securities issued a wildly bullish report on CCA a few years ago but cautioned, "It takes time to bring inmate population levels up to where they cover costs. Low occupancy is a drag on profits." Still, said the report, company earnings would be strong if CCA succeeded in ramp(ing) up population levels in its new facilities at an acceptable rate".

Roughly half of the industry is controlled by the Nashville-based Corrections Corporation of America, which runs 46 penal institutions in 11 states. It took ten years for the company to reach 10,000 beds; it is now growing by that same number every year.

CCA's chief competitor is Wackenhut, which was founded in 1954 by George Wackenhut, a former FBI official.

Just to reiterate part of that: "time to bring inmate population levels up to where they cover costs" - there is a scenario where the prison industry is big business, where it's necessary to rapidly increase prison populations to meet costs, there appear to be a large number of convertable, deployable boxcars, an expected civil threat in the near future and the ever present current threat of terrorist attacks.

Meanwhile, here is something to occupy the kiddies whilst mummy and daddy are being processed:

It's a good thing that state mentoring is expanding at the same time, to fill the gap left by unsatisfactory parents. Wickedly inaccurate conclusions? Fear-mongering? You can draw your own conclusions, as is your wont.

[birthday] feb 29 is a special day

Happy Birthday, Grendel, who is four times less than the rest of us in age - Peter Pan eat your heart out! Come and get your cake, young man.

GREAT NIGHTWEAR PARADE

Well, some of the ladies have now obliged [raunchy] and a fifth has promised so things are looking up. Some gents have also submitted entries and it should be fun tomorrow.

You do realize, of course, that we don't necessarily need anything risque - it's just an excuse to show you on the blog. A pic vaguely in the field of "your nightwear" would be good and thanks to those who've submitted entries so far.

Send your nightclad bod to jameshigham@mail.com ! :)

[music post] do you usually skip it

When you see a fellow blogger's YouTube of some music, do you:

1. Listen through it once;

2. Give it a few seconds listen;

3. Make a quick comment on the post without actually listening and hope he comes over to your blog to listen to your music clip?

If you read something from the blogger extolling how great the music is, do you skip the post immediately?

The last dinner party I ever went to was a strange dinner for four. The dinner was fine but the problem came with the music. We must have each brought a dish and a disc from memory and I still remember the crisis.

I wanted to play the track below [which Oakenfold did a version of] but everyone objected. The other guy was next and he wanted to play some uptempo Paul McCartney and Wings and jollied me along - wasn't the old music the greatest? I said nothing and the two girls refused point blank.

Next was his girl and she wanted some romantic Demis Roussos which I liked too but no one else did. Lastly was my girl and she wanted Sting and Tatu and a few other things, part of which I found bearable and his girl did too but not him of course.

We ended up with no music because no one could agree. Now this is a worry because there was a time where each new song on the radio - virtually everyone listened to it and loved it. Even in the late 90s, it was rare for people not to like Back Street Boys. But generally, the thing has fragmented, splintered and I wonder why.

And it's really depressing when there's music we bop to but no one else does. So we live within our earphone world, listening to our own music which we think is so cool. We'd love everyone to share it and they feel the same way with their music and yet no four people can agree.

[uk funding] on all but important projects

Here is British "powers-that-be" mindlessness at its worst:

Gemini South and Gemini North [astronomical facilities] are only now reaching their full potential after 15 years of development.

Is the UK in there as a major world player, now ready to reap the benefit from the facilities? Yes, yes they were. The word is "were":

Having invested something like £70m in their development, the UK currently puts about £4m into the consortium each year to maintain these remarkable telescopes.

Researchers were therefore aghast when the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), which looks after UK astronomy funding, announced its intention to negotiate a withdrawal from the Gemini consortium.

Its Gemini partners (which include the US, Canada, Chile, Australia, Brazil and Argentina)) were also upset by the decision and moved swiftly to throw the UK out. They even removed UK flags from observatory buildings and the UK's name from the consortium's website.

Stating the obvious but they were already investing heavily, the STFC and they decide to pull out? We can't even begin to scratch the surface of what this says about the UK mindset, the way things are funded in our country and so on.

Immediate links for now:

Universe Today

Wiki on the STFC

STFC Funding Crisis: Astronomy.

All right - looking at funding crises generally in the UK:

* University physics departments are facing the worst funding crisis in more than 20 years following government budget cuts, academics warn today.

* In the ombudsman's annual report 2002-2003 (HC 760) published in June, she said that she had completed three further investigations into long term care since her special report in February 2003. These have “highlighted serious deficiencies in eligibility criteria and assessments, which had resulted in severe financial hardship in some cases and had widespread implications for other people in a similar position”.

* Then the bomb drops when you get further down the ACE website and read: "Here is a list of the 65 confirmed new regularly funded organisations for 2008-2011." It then continues: "A further 16 new investments are planned, details of these will be added to this page as they are confirmed. Here is a list of the organisations we are no longer funding." And that is the bombshell - over 200 [arts] organisations have been removed from the funding.

* Ministers are being forced to abandon a scheme designed to improve teaching standards and discipline in schools as a result of this year's education funding crisis. One of the aims of the £59m programme was to give newly qualified teachers tips on classroom control and how to deal with unruly behaviour.

And so it goes on - rape crisis centres, youth work and so on. Ian Parker reports:

DK writes today of how the public sector debt is just continuing to rise, as it has done from the day that Gordon Brown took the reigns of the economy. How fortunate ... that Burning Our Money is prepared to take the time to work it out.

My goodness - the UK is bankrupt, it seems. There's really no money left in Britain? Well there is, if you are a new region funded by the EU, especially through CP. See The Common Purpose across Europe. If you're a region, you realize how hopeless UK funding is and how "gravy train" EU funding is, along with all the attached strings:

Most British regions would prefer to be funded from Brussels than from the Treasury. "You are given funding as a result of objective criteria, and you have the certainty of being given it for a six-year period so you can plan," one UK regional official said. "But if it comes direct from Whitehall it all depends on politics, and it could all be taken away at any moment to be spent on health or education."

Yep, as John Trenchard shows, there's plenty of funding ... of the "right kind" in EU terms:

Yet more EU funding from another regional authority - the London Development Agency.


Even more funding , via the EU, courtesy of EMDA.


Yet more funding from the EU

So, in this happy EU frame of mind, they'll also fund solutions to real local crises, won't they? Er ... no:

Merseyside and South Yorkshire are to lose their "Objective One" status funds, given to regenerate poor areas.

To recapitulate - anything involving regenerating poor areas, local crisis management and genuine needs - the EU won't fund. But they will fund well-being projects, Arndale type centres and Anfield. Neither the EU nor the UK will fund national prestige projects, e.g. the Gemini observatories.

Interesting.