The McCann Gallery

Blog News

2012-01-10T15:05:00.002Z

I have arrived at the conclusion that it was a mistake for me to re-open this and other McCann related blogs. There will be no more updates. Thank you.

Happy New Year

2011-12-31T18:11:00.002Z

An Impossible Rumour

2011-12-24T13:57:00.016Z

Whereas I may have returned to the fold in other areas, e.g. opening Wristbands again, it is my intention that this side of things, the Gallery, remain firmly closed; the previous post only being a ''must.''

However, 'tis Christmas, and this posting is in response to a request.

There is apparently, an impossible rumour that Dr Dim might somehow be mentioned in the new year's honours list. Consequently, a small gallery to illustrate that rumour.

And rumour is all that it had better be, otherwise I can be found, in the New Year, at Speaker's Corner. Easily recognisable, I shall be the one calling for armed insurrection.

A series of three then, choose your own ending.

"Photoshop Justice"

2011-12-19T08:52:00.044Z

Cop Art: The Rise of the Citizen Satirist

Photoshop Justice. Not a term of mine, but rather, one taken from the story below. I think I can live it, in fact I know I can.

I have taken the opportunity to upload a seamless gallery of the main players in this, the most blatant and the most bizarre miscarriage of justice this country has ever known. Editors choice if you will; for the most part, in no particular order.

- - -

.....But Pike's actions were bizarre, and thus, this satiric "Photoshop Justice" (as BoingBoing writer Xeni Jardin dubs it) seems to better capture the moment, and the moral outrage the viewer feels, than the photo itself. Great satire does just this: it turns reality on its head, making us laugh while, at the same time, revealing some sort of ugly truth that we can't confront without laughing.

Cop Art: The Rise of the Citizen Satirist
by Adam Bessie
Sunday 18 December 2011

"My name only comes up when some a-hole wants to end an argument..., " Adolf Hitler yells to his generals in the climax of a 2004 film "Der Untergang." depicting the final ten days of the Third Reich. "Now you tell me some campus cop is 'The New Face of Evil?'"

Indeed, Hitler is right for once - at least, the Hitler created by filmmaker Sarah Harbin, who dubbed the brilliant YouTube satire "Hitler Reacts to Pepper Spray Mime," posted November 22. Four days earlier, on November 18, University of California, Davis campus cop Lt. John Pike, who casually pepper-sprayed students at an Occupy protest in the quad of my alma mater, has become the "New Face of Evil," his blasé use of excessive force a social media phenomenon on par with Charlie Sheen's "Winning" rants.(1)
Pike - "Casually Pepper-Spray Everything Cop" - has become an icon, a cartoon, digitally cut from the UC Davis protest and pasted into history. He has been Photoshopped into pretty much every famous image available on Google; he's pepper-spraying baby seals, Steven Hawking, the "Wizard of Oz's" Cowardly Lion, the Declaration of Independence, MC Escher, and doing so with his trademark cool detachment. He has a Twitter account with over 1,000 followers, where he brags: "My kid can pepper spray your honor student. " He also reviews pepper spray on Amazon: "Whenever I need to breezily inflict discipline on unruly citizens, I know I can trust Defense Technology 56895 MK-9 Stream, 1. 3 percent Red Band/1. 3 percent Blue Band Pepper Spray to get the job done!" And, of course, he has a T-Shirt available at CafePress, just for toddlers: "Eco-conscious parents love this Pepper Spray Cop Butterflies toddler t-shirt that is super soft on young skin, yet durable enough for the most rugged play time." (Like getting pepper-sprayed?) Want to know more? You can find links to all this information on "Casually Pepper Spray Everything Cop" on his Wikipedia entry (or his more complete and insightful entry, where I did my research, at Know Your Memes).
But you probably know all of this. As of writing this today - one week after Pike sprayed his way into history - I'm already very, very late to the Pepper Spray Cop game (In fact, I'm already showing my age, as he already has an acronym: PSC). There have already been a number of astute analyses on PSC, most notably Megan Garber's November 21 essay from Harvard's Neiman Journalism Lab, "Image as Interest: How Pepper Spray Cop could change the trajectory of Occupy Wall Street." She dissects PSC with insight and intellectual vigor usually reserved for the famous paintings into which PSC is now carefully Photoshopped. Garber observes that the image takes on "almost allegoric dimensions," imbuing it with the universal resonance of "the powerless being exploited by the powerful," which renders the "particularities (geographical location, political context) all but irrelevant."

Pike is not a cop; he's not at UC Davis, and the students are not students. Rather, to Garber, the iconic image of Pike coolly spraying the students is transcendent, rising above any of the particularities of the real event, and reaching toward the timeless struggle for equality, "a kind of ... Platonic concern ... [becoming] something more than a political movement." In other words, the image of PSC walking down the Beatles' Abbey Road, spraying Paul in the face, is more than a joke - no, our laughter helps us reach toward the best of human nature, toward Plato's "Republic."

Call it Sgt. Pepper's Republic.

And, no doubt, the PSC craze may seem about as bizarre as the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper" album (on which someone has pasted Pike, as well). But Pike's actions were bizarre, and thus, this satiric "Photoshop Justice" (as BoingBoing writer Xeni Jardin dubs it) seems to better capture the moment, and the moral outrage the viewer feels, than the photo itself. Great satire does just this: it turns reality on its head, making us laugh while, at the same time, revealing some sort of ugly truth that we can't confront without laughing. Consider Jonathan Swift's "Modest Proposal" for helping the poor in Ireland, by serving their infants "stewed, roasted, baked or boiled, " in a "wholesome ... fricassee or ragout. " While few remember the particulars of what Swift was satirizing in 1729, his bizarre and beautiful "Modest Proposal" reveals a sort of universal moral outrage on the treatment of the poor - which still, to this day, in its utterly true strangeness, makes us laugh, and makes us mad, all at the same time.

Yet, though riotously funny, @PepperSprayingCop is not ghostwritten by Swift. It's not even written by a single author, nor by a team of comedians at The Onion - rather, this satire has been crowd sourced, composed in the cloud by thousands of anonymous citizen satirists, who use Photoshop to make a mockery out of the photos and videos taken by citizen journalists. Formerly, popular satire was only the terrain of the professionals, like Swift or Jon Stewart, who had earned and scrapped their way to satirical stardom, making it into our textbooks and TVs; now, anyone with Photoshop can cut and paste their way to our attention, and make us cry with laughter and rage.

"Pepper Spray Cop" is satire by mob.

For San Francisco State University English lecturer and Philip K. Dick scholar David Gill, writing in a Facebook post, the PSC phenomenon is "heartwarming and brilliant." The ceaseless satires of Pike, these "new juxtapositions of cruelty with iconic images of Americana allow us to replay our outrage over and over again, all the while rewarding us with humor. "In other words, Gill astutely points out that these satires - repeated over and again in new forms - make us laugh, but also allow us to experience the outrage over Pike's actions, over and again, keeping our anger actively burning beneath our chuckles."(2)

I think Gill is right - our citizen satirists, who have made Pike pepper spray the innocent across history, who have made him the "New Face of Evil, " who have turned him into a transcendent allegory of oppression, have captured the spirit of injustice, keeping our outrage aflame longer and brighter than it might with the images by themselves.

But I also think that, by pulling Pike from his original context, by yanking him from the UCD protest, and turning him into a cartoon character - "Casually Pepper Spraying Everything Cop" - we also stripped him, and the protesters, of their humanity. Pike, nor the protesters, are allegory, but are real people, engaged in a real struggle, in a real place - and once Pike is everywhere, he is nowhere. By repeating his image over and again, it is transmogrified from the horrific, to the humorous, and ultimately, the meaningless, not unlike Andy Warhol's Pop Art images,(3) yet instead of Marilyn Monroe repeated again and again, it's Lieutenant Pike's fire-red mustache.

Call it "Cop Art. "

The ultimate irony - or perhaps, "Photoshop Justice" - is that the citizen satirists dehumanize Pike as he dehumanized the protesters. In doing so, the citizen satirists have pulled the injustice of Pike's actions from the original, real-life context, and abstracted it so distantly from the "particularities" of history that the image is bled of the moment, becoming nothing more than a static icon, a symbol of injustice, to be turned into a logo for a toddler T-shirt, not unlike Che Guevara or Nike, ready for manufacture in a factory somewhere far away. (But to stave off his pain, as one of my friends put it, Pike could make a mint if he were savvy enough to trademark his image now.)

Perhaps, I just don't get the joke - as I told you, I'm late to the "Pepper Spray Cop" game. After all, as one of Hitler's generals famously advised him: "Mein Führer, some people don't understand satire. "

Truthout

Story

- - - - - -

And a special little gallery for all my chummies at the MM Forum. It could have been much larger, but these few are sufficient for purpose.

I'm ever so sorry Mister Kennedy, ever so sorry indeed.

Justice works in silence, not controversy.

Gallery Final

2010-12-30T20:59:00.003Z

I wouldn't Want to SkateOn It. Assange - Sex Accusers Boasts

2010-12-12T05:46:00.007Z

Sex accusers boasted about their 'conquest' of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange

Based on information available on various websites quoting police and court files, and reports in the Swedish media, here's an account of what happened.

The story goes back to August this year, when Assange was in Stockholm to speak at the invitation of Sweden's Social Democratic Party.

The event organizer was 31-year-old Anna Ardin, press secretary of the Brotherhood Movement, which is an adjunct of the Social Democratic Party. Ardin, who has been described as a feminist, leftist and animal rights activist, previously worked at the Uppsala University, handling equality issues for the students' union. (After pressing charges against Assange, she has been called a "CIA agent" on various blogs and Twitter. The internet is abuzz with conspiracy theories on how Assange was framed. Speculation about her ties to CIA is being fuelled by her alleged association with anti-Castro groups funded by the US.)

The two Swedish women who have brought sex charges against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange boasted about their relationship with him days before going to police.

Based on information available on various websites quoting police and court files, and reports in the Swedish media, here's an account of what happened.

The story goes back to August this year, when Assange was in Stockholm to speak at the invitation of Sweden's Social Democratic Party.

The event organizer was 31-year-old Anna Ardin, press secretary of the Brotherhood Movement, which is an adjunct of the Social Democratic Party. Ardin, who has been described as a feminist, leftist and animal rights activist, previously worked at the Uppsala University, handling equality issues for the students' union. (After pressing charges against Assange, she has been called a "CIA agent" on various blogs and Twitter. The internet is abuzz with conspiracy theories on how Assange was framed. Speculation about her ties to CIA is being fuelled by her alleged association with anti-Castro groups funded by the US.)

When Assange arrived in Stockholm on August 11, Ardin invited him to stay at her flat while she visited her family for a few days out in the country. Ardin returned home on August 13; she and Assange had sex that night. Both have admitted a condom was used and it broke. On August 20, Ardin would go to police alleging that Assange deliberately broke the condom during sex.

Ardin's co-accuser, 26-year-old Sofia Wilen, an aspiring photographer, had sex with Assange on the evening of August 16 and again the following morning. The first time, a condom was used; the second time, there was no condom. On August 20, Wilen would go to police alleging that Assange had refused to wear a condom.

Assange insists that the sex with both women was consensual. After the sexual encounters, neither woman seemed to harbour any resentment against Assange. One of Assange's lawyers has been quoted as saying: "The exact content of Wilen's mobile phone texts is not yet known but their bragging and exculpatory character has been confirmed by Swedish prosecutors. Neither Wilen's nor Ardin's texts complain of rape."

On August 14, the day following the night of "crime", Assange delivered a 90-minute speech about how the first casualty of war is truth. Ardin was in attendance (as was Wilen) but showed no signs of the previous night's "trauma". The two women can be seen in a video of the conference . At 2 o'clock that night, while hosting a party in Assange's honour at her flat, Ardin tweeted: "Sitting outside; nearly freezing; with the world's coolest people; it's pretty amazing."

After going to police on August 20, she deleted the tweet. The post deleted from annaardin.bloggy.se and twitter.com/annaardin can still be seen on this cached page . After sex with Assange on the morning of August 17, Wilen went out, and bought, then cooked breakfast – oatmeal and juice.

On August 18, Wilen called up Ardin and told her that she had unprotected sex with Assange. She said she was upset he didn't use a condom and was afraid she might have contracted an STD or become pregnant. Ardin said she too had sex with Assange. On August 20, both women filed charges against him.

And an obscure Swedish law was invoked. It is sometimes called the "surprise sex" law. In essence, it holds that if a woman withdraws her consent at any point during intercourse, and the man continues, it becomes rape. This transition from consensual to non-consensual sex is what Assange is accused of. All this will have to be proved in the court — a Swedish one.

One thing, however, is certain: the word "rape" has come to stick to Assange's name and his creation, WikiLeaks. A Google search for "wikileaks rape" returns 3.09 million results. But will this association deliver a blow to the idea that is WikiLeaks?

Just a day after the two women went to police to file charges against Assange, Nicholas John Mead, a British freelance journalist, wrote on his blog : "Whether this is an orchestrated smear campaign, just two very silly girls, or a genuine case of rape and harassment, the fact is that WikiLeaks is bigger than Assange as he I'm sure would be the first to admit. It, and other projects like it, cannot be stopped."
Times of India

Every Now and Then

2010-12-04T16:14:00.001Z

Something comes along that really cracks me up.

I Can See You're Naval

2010-11-30T18:53:00.009Z

Does that make you an orange, or is it your belly button I'm looking at? Hello Sailors, a little gallery that followed its own direction and ended up in a naval/truth/trust theme.

Visitors from afar might wish to read a bit of this in order to have a better understanding of what's below. The Lutine Wiki, the Lutine Bell. - Lloyds and the Lutine Bell

Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities. Truth isn't

2010-11-27T17:06:00.004Z

It is hard to believe that a man is telling the truth when you know that you would lie if you were in his place.-Mencken

Tagged Madeleine McCann.

Monkey Business

2010-11-22T15:48:00.023Z

Originally intended to be a book gallery in response to the forthcoming McGrim's fairy tales, until that was, the first ape showing up and hi-jacking the theme.

And what picture gallery featuring the religion of peace would be complete without the infamous rage boy?

Recommended:Wafa Sultan

The Dedicated to, Mike O'Sullivan BBC East Midlands, Gallery

2010-11-15T22:25:00.005Z

Before moving down the page to the few pics there, I think it important that I pay due homage to the recipient, to my dedicatee of choice, BBC East Midlands alleged reporter Mike, I'm such a brown nosing little fuck, O'Sullivan.

No gallery, themed on the Lisbon court house, would be complete if it were not to include this short clip. I include only the first two shining examples of what apparently constitutes journalism in O'Sullivan's world. He does attempt further to crawl up the arse of Gerry McCann, but McCann ignores the sycophantic little shit, as I shall.

BBC, this is your journalist, grammar and all.

"They’re just raking up old ground isn’t it Gerry".... followed soon thereafter by...

"But there’s nothing new being said by the police."

You must be so proud.**

Hard to imagine, especially if you not of our culture, that once upon a time when reading the news, BBC Radio News presenters wore black tie.

A few pics then, inspired by the recent goings on in Lisbon.

I was tempted to use the above for McCann's example, but no I thought, let's keep it to Lisbon based picks. But it's still worth upping you must agree, I can't decide what he's off his face on, Nitrous Oxide or Colombian marching powder?

But nowhere near as 'umble as this greasy fucker, at least you're being recompensed for your sycophancy Isabel, I do hope it turns out to have been worth it.

These are the best ones, someone else's.

And a few bits.

Caption anyone?

** Putting aside my rhetoric, we must never loose sight that the kind of behaviour exhibited by O'Sullivan and others of his ilk, if not quite etched in stone as official policy, it is condoned and accepted by the BBC. It's undeniable that this is the case, the proof being by virtue that this hack is still employed by this propaganda organ of state.

* I'm embarrassed by the amount of time I spent trying to find a piccy for this.

Somebody that would fit on the bike, but the criteria for finding the just right thing were enormous. By the end, I felt happy enough that I had found what I did, but no matter what, I was determined that I was going to use it one way or the other.

It's Called Collusion... Well Not Really

2010-11-11T12:12:00.003Z

It is in fact another fine post from John Blacksmith entitled, Beneath the smoke and mirrors. And if you're wondering, it's not about the Six Counties either.

Beneath the smoke and mirrors

Our friend Clarence Mitchell was honoured by his peers in the trade for his achievement in swinging opinion behind the McCanns. Since the acknowledged supporters of the pair were numbered in millions before his appointment and stand now, according to the bright new petition,at some thirty thousand plus, there might be something amiss with their assessment.

There always is. People who work in the news and presentation industry have a natural tendency to over-estimate the importance of their trade. And sometimes the sheer scale of the noise and excitement can draw the rest of us into thinking that the media fuss represents what is really going on.

For the interviews, the acres of newsprint, the campaigns, the PR triumphs and disasters – what have they all actually achieved?

Delay.

Nothing more has been accomplished, not victory, not defeat, not the elusive “clearance”, just delay. And what is delay but the temporary suspension of hard reality, not the reality itself? The last three and a half years amount to one long delaying squirm by the people at the heart of the affair, dramatic, newsworthy, fascinating but ultimately futile. The longer they try to disguise the truth, the worse it continues to get.

It all derives from one decision by the parents and some of their friends, something that can never be undone, for the evidence about it is known, documented and continuing to surface. We are moving to the later stages of the slow – agonisingly slow - demolition of their case piece by piece, not in the media but in the interview rooms, the lawyers’ offices, the courts and the judges’ chambers.

It’s called collusion

As we pointed out to Mr Simmons, the oldies are the goodies. The examples we gave were all linked and they stand out with increasing clarity amid the litter of answered questions (the ones that didn’t matter, such as the “tenth tapas”) and discarded theories (Gordon Brown, where are you?). They all represent the doomed attempt to escape the charge that they colluded to conceal the truth of what happened on May 3.

As is well known the Tapas 7 won substantial libel damages regarding their behaviour on May 3 and afterwards, without testifying in court. According to a statement by Mr Adam Tudor of our friends Carter Ruck, some of the settlement was for claims that “the friends had covered up the true facts and misled the authorities”, in other words that they had not told the truth. The newspapers did not defend the action.

That was in October 2008: three months after the prosecutors’ archiving report and release of the case files; six months after the rogatory interviews, the details of which, however, were not known to the UK press at that time; over a year before the Lisbon gagging injunction hearings. If only the archiving report really had meant the end of the case!

Shall we repeat the “libel” but with the incontrovertible evidence this time that the newspaper lacked? more

It's a Funny Old World

2010-11-10T18:13:00.004Z

I suppose there is one consolation, there being no suggestion for, kate mccann crying.

Well there wouldn't be would there? as I don't suppose there are suggestions for a lot of things, Clarence Mitchell and truth, being the first to spring to mind.

More Mitchell

Be Careful What You Ask For

2010-11-07T11:08:00.011Z

If it were not James Murray, I might have thought the reporter was taking the piss.

POLICE CHIEF: WE WILL REOPEN MADELEINE MCCANN CASE
Sunday November 7,2010
By James Murray in Praia da Luz: Exclusive
DETECTIVES working on the Madeleine McCann case say they are ready to reopen the investigation into her disappearance.

Portuguese police have indicated they would be happy to work with the missing girl’s parents and their friends.
(Can't help but ask will parents and friends be as happy to work with Portuguese police? For answer, see graphic.)
The gesture will come as a huge boost to Kate and Gerry McCann, who last week launched a petition and urged Home Secretary Theresa May to request a review of the case.
Kate and Gerry McCann have welcomed the offer of a new search for Madeleine. More and Sunday morning round-up.

Something tells me it's not a new search that the PJ would have in mind.

McCann Body Language: We Can't Stop Doing What We Do

2010-11-04T21:22:00.016Z

I am not going to concern myself with what is said here in the main, that I am sure has already been picked over at numerous places around the web.

Just what takes my fancy then, and for the purpose of this gallery, my comments are above the relative pics.

So we're straight in with a demand, I find that only works well with a gun in your hand, otherwise, please, invariably seems to achieve the desired results.

And what has become now a pre-requisite for any interview, the obligatory clasping of hands accompanied by the even more obligatory wristbands. Good quality I hope.

Look what's on its way.

Getting closer.

Voila! Must be talking about her daughter, or perhaps it was us lot on this occasion.

Ever the same aggressive little fuck as always.

Right so! that's the bits out of the way.

I think we all know what this is about without me giving a protracted intro, so let's drive on without more ado.

Or should I phrase it, they're under starters orders and; they're off!

Showing well well after ten seconds, in the green it's Gerry McCann with a head scratch. (Times on the slide bar.)

Darshna Soni You are calling for a review of the investigation. Explain to us why.

DS Do you think it makes it difficult for them, though, because you have got your own private investigators looking for your daughter? Does that make your relationship with the police difficult?

DS Leicestershire Police have said to us that they haven’t shelved the investigation because it was never their investigation to shelve because it was being led by the Portuguese. What more would you expect Leicestershire Police to do?

Still on the same question. Pennies from heaven. (If I cross post this at the plod blog, what might you think the header might read?) Now done.

GM Leicestershire have, you know, largely played their part and they have done that to the best of their ability.

There were numerous shots in this Mrs Kate series, but in fairness I think it was the genuine article in this case.

DS And how do you keep going? How do you keep hoping? There must be days when it is very, very difficult.
KM Well we’ve worked so hard. I mean, understandably, we’re Madeleine’s parents and we are going to do everything that we can and we work really hard.

"And we work really hard." Sounds a tad familiar.

Unprompted, but that doesn't mean to say it's not in response to something going on in the asylum of his mind.

Part Two

There are two particular instances in part two that I found, I was about to say amusing, but on reflection and for want of something better, just let me call them interesting.

This next example includes both question and answer.

DS You’ve also spent money on your own investigators as you’ve said. There have been reports that some of these detectives have taken money but then not delivered. They are dodgy detectives if you like. How can you reassure people that money won’t be spent on people like that in the future.

GM Well we’ve very much had for the last two and a bit years, we’ve had Dave Edgar who is a very experienced detective who was near retirement. He’s been working with us. He’s very much accountable for the spend. He feels he can justify every penny. But at the same time I hope the public realise as well as directors of the fund in particular when we were arguido and there was no search going on that it was incumbent upon us to continue a search in very, very difficult circumstances. So we have made decisions along the way which have always, we felt, been in the best interest of the search to find Madeleine and we are very accountable. All the expenses are there err, receipts and we’ve got quite a tight-knit team working on this but we need them. Without it there would be no-one there to go and interview people and follow up leads.

It is amusing isn't it? in fact it's more than amusing, it's comical given who he's talking about.

This next piece isn't amusing, for me it's hilarious. But to truly appreciate what's going on with Doctor Dangerous, you have to click here first.

More at the Sandra Felgueiras archive.

Watch the struggle, watch the conflict, as he tries not to scratch his ear. Then try it on the clip.

These bottom three, I don't know where they came from. I must have grabbed them somewhere else. Confusion isn't a hard thing when you're screen-shotting, it's not hard to end up with a zillion shots in the folder, particularly if you wonder, "did I get that one" and you go back and have another basin full. Imagine a professional photographer where he might take dozens of shots of something, all seemingly the same. Well it's a bit like that only not quite as organised.

And finally, a big tip of the hat to Bren at Headlines today for saving me hours of work by having transcripts of both clips. They can be found here along with the Youtube versions and much more.

You might recognise along the way, where I found the quote for the header, though as I recall, I don't think it was body language that McCann was describing at the time.

h/t to original uploader. Ch4 News as it happens.

Will He Never Shut Up?

2010-11-03T17:22:00.008Z

Certifiable!? not half.

I wouldn't normally feature stuff from Martin, I'm such a little tart of the yard no less, Brunt, but this latest from McCann is a pearl.

Try this bit:

An independent report by Jim Gamble, of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre,

An "independent report" by Gerry McCann's best mucker, Jim Gamble, yeah right. Do you know what that report is worth? about as much as Jimmy's little rubber stamp; and that was before Gamble decided to, or was helped to decamp the CEOP.

I'm not surprised the Home Secretary won't give it to the little bollocks, fuck me! listen how he whines now, can you imagine what the demented fucker would be like with that in his hand? Stroll on!

And you do know don't you, that that is all he wants the thing for, to wave it about and to whingen and whine and cry, "look how not guilty Jim Gamble says we are."

Jesus wept, how these two are still at liberty is beyond me, absolutely and totally beyond me.

Madeleine Petition As Parents Rap Home Sec

Martin Brunt, crime correspondent

Madeleine McCann's parents are launching an online petition to help force a UK and Portuguese joint review of all evidence in the case of their missing daughter.

They hope it can lead to a new police investigation into the girl's disappearance from the family's rented holiday apartment in Portugal three-and-a-half years ago today.

Kate and Gerry McCann also accused Home Secretary Theresa May of offering "words, but no action" to help the search for their daughter.

Mrs McCann said: "Reviews are done in all major investigations, at least in this country.

"The benefits of pulling together different bits of evidence can be enormous but, until that is done, we can't be sure what has been missed.

"You have to ask why it isn't being done in Madeleine's case. What is the block?"

An independent report by Jim Gamble, of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, is thought to back the couple's demand for a review of all the evidence gathered by British and Portuguese police.

The report was commissioned by Labour Home Secretary Alan Johnson but not completed until the summer, when Mrs May took office under the coalition Government.

Yet the Home Office refuses to disclose its recommendations to the McCanns.

"There is no reason why the contents of the report can't be made available to us. They say some of it is sensitive, but we are Madeleine's parents for goodness sake," said Mr McCann.

"We've made it clear we will not divulge any of it except to help our own investigators."

The couple met Mrs May in August, but say they were left with little optimism of government help.

Mrs McCann said: "We didn't get answers. We got a lot of words but no action, nothing concrete. I can't get my head around the fact that the Government has given up on Madeleine." blah blah

we are Madeleine's parents for goodness sake," said Mr McCann. For fuck's sake stop.

And this bit: "I can't get my head around...." Can't get your your head around it! I'll tell you something sunshine, you just keep it up, because you're going to end up getting the fucking you deserve.

Or to borrow a phrase, The only justice you will get is what's coming to you.

Is This The Kind of Journalism That You Speak About Mister Marr?

2010-10-25T20:23:00.003+01:00

This is the concluding half of an article by Jon Pilger entitled The BBC is on Murdoch's side. Posted here because I don't want to knock this post (of the last hour) off the front page.

It would appear Journalist, John Pilger is less than little impressed with your hackery Mister Marr.

Blair was embraced by the new BBC corporate class, which regards itself as meretorious and non-ideological: the natural leaders in a managerial Britain in which class is unspoken. Few did more to enunciate Blair’s “vision” than Andrew Marr, then a leading newspaper journalist and today the BBC’s ubiquitous voice of middle-class Britain. Just as Murdoch’s Sun declared in 1995 it shared the rising Blair’s “high moral values” so Marr, writing the Observer in 1999, lauded the new prime minister’s “substantial moral courage” and the “clear distinction in his mind between prudently protecting his power base and rashly using his power for high moral purpose”. What impressed Marr was Blair’s “utter lack of cynicism” along with his bombing of Yugoslavia which would “save lives”.

By March 2003, Marr was the BBC’s political editor. Standing in Downing Street on the night of the “shock and awe” assault on Iraq, he rejoiced at the vindication of Blair who, he said, had promised “to take Baghdad without a bloodbath, and that in end the Iraqis would be celebrating. And on both of those points he has been proved conclusively right” and as a result “tonight he stands as a larger man”. In fact, the criminal conquest of Iraq smashed a society, killing up to a million people, driving four million from their homes, contaminating cities like Fallujah with cancer-causing poisons and leaving a majority of young children malnourished in a country once described by Unicef as a “model”.

So it was entirely appropriate that Blair, in hawking his self-serving book, should select Marr for his “exclusive TV interview” on the BBC. The headline across the Observer’s review of the interview read, “Look who’s having the last laugh.” Beneath this was a picture of a beaming Blair sharing a laugh with Marr.

The interview produced not a single challenge that stopped Blair in his precocious, mendacious tracks. He was allowed to say that “absolutely clearly and unequivocally, the reason for toppling [Saddam Hussein] was his breach of resolutions over WMD, right?” No, wrong. A wealth of evidence, not least the infamous Downing Street Memo, makes clear that Blair secretly colluded with George W Bush to attack Iraq. This was not mentioned. At no point did Marr say to him, “You failed to persuade the UN Security Council to go along with the invasion. You and Bush went alone. Most of the world was outraged. Weren’t you aware that you were about to commit a monumental war crime?”

Instead, Blair used the convivial encounter to deceive, yet again, even to promote an attack on Iran, an outrage. Murdoch’s Fox would have differed in style only. The British public deserves better.

John Pilger homepage, have a wander through the site there is a wealth of stuff to be found there.

A Verdade Da Mentira Freedom of Speech Gallery

2010-10-19T19:36:00.012+01:00

Am I To Take It Madam Home Secretary Your Answer Is

2010-09-15T17:14:00.009+01:00

On the assumption of course, that the cap fits.

A couple of weeks ago I steeled myself to watch Andrew Marr* interview Tony Blair, mass murderer and Christian of the Catholic persuasion. Of all that slithered out of Blair's mouth, only two things I was prepared to accept as true. One of those things. Had the disciples of Islam on the eleventh of September, had the opportunity to murder three hundred thousand instead of three thousand, they would have done so gladly.

And the other? dropping a monumental clanger by implementing the Freedom of Information Act.

Not that he has that much to regret, not if we consider this response from Home Secretary Theresa May.

Home Office response to FoI request concerning meetings and activities undertaken in support of a possible case review McCann Exposure

13 September 2010

Home Office
Information Access Team
Information Management Service
Financial & Commercial Group
On behalf of the Home Office Police Powers and Protection Unit (PPPU)

2 Marsham Street, London, SW1P 4DF
Switchboard 020 7035 4848
E-mail: Info.Access@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk Website: www.homeoffice.gov.uk
[name and email address redacted]
Our Ref: 14551

09 September 2010

Dear [redacted],

Thank you for your e-mail of 24 March, 2010 in which you ask for the following information

Academic as they are, for it is the reply that concerns us here, the twelve questions can be found at mccannfiles.com. I do not promote liars here.

Your request has been handled as a request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOI) and we can now provide you with a substantive response to your request.

I can confirm that the then Home Secretary met Mr and Mrs McCann in October 2009. Also present were two members of the Minister's Private Office and a Home Office Official. There were no subsequent meetings between Home Office Ministers or Home Office officials and Mr and Mrs McCann or any representative acting on their behalf, between then and the date of your letter.

I confirm that the Home Office holds some information relevant to remaining parts of your request but that, other than the information provided above, we consider that information to be exempt from disclosure under sections 31(1)(a) and (b), s.40(2) and s36(2)(b)(i) and (ii) of the Act.

Furthermore, we neither confirm nor deny that we hold any further information by virtue of Section 23(5) – information relating to an organisation listed in Section 23(3) of the Act. Section 23 confers an absolute exemption from our duty under section 1(1)(a) of the Act and does not require any further consideration. This response should not be taken as conclusive evidence that the information you have requested is or is not held by the Home Office.

The general policy of the Home Office is not to disclose to a third party, personal information about another person. Section 40(2) of the FOI relates to the handling of personal information under the Data Protection Act. The Home Office has obligations under that Act, and in law generally, to protect the personal data that it holds. Mr and Mrs McCann would have had a legitimate expectation that any meeting with the Home Secretary was a private meeting. We have therefore, concluded that such information as you have requested which relates to Mr and Mrs McCann’s participation in the meeting and any views or opinions expressed, is exempt from disclosure under section 40(2) of the FOI, on the grounds that the such disclosure would breach the first Data Protection Principle in that it would constitute unfair processing of their personal data. The same exemption applies in relation to the details of Home Office officials present at the meeting. Section 40(2) is an absolute exemption and does not require any further consideration.

Section 31(1)(a) provides that information is exempt if its disclosure would or would be likely to prejudice the prevention or detection of crime, and section 31(1)(b) if it would potentially prejudice the apprehension or prosecution of offenders, and (in both cases) the public interest falls in favour of applying the exemption.

Sections 36(2)(b)(i) and (ii) apply to information which, in the reasonable opinion of a qualified person, would if disclosed, be likely to inhibit the free and frank provision of advice, or the free and frank exchange of views for the purpose of deliberation. Section 36 is also subject to the supporting arguments of a public interest test.

Consideration of the public interest test in relation to these elements of the Act is detailed in Annex A.

If you are dissatisfied with this response you may request an independent internal review of our handling of your request by submitting a complaint, within two months, to the address below, quoting the reference number at the top of this letter:

Information Access Team
Home Office
Ground Floor, Seacole Building
2 Marsham Street
London
SW1P 4DF

Alternatively you can e-mail:

foirequests@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk

If you ask for an internal review, it would be helpful if you could say why you are dissatisfied with the response. As part of any internal review the Department's handling of your information request will be reassessed by staff who were not involved in providing you with this response. If you remain dissatisfied after this internal review, you would have a right of complaint to the Information Commissioner as established by section 50 of the Freedom of Information Act.

I apologise for the very long delay in replying to your request owing to the need to apply and fully consider the public interest test in this case.

Yours sincerely,

Ian Lister

Information Access Consultant

Isn't she a dear, a candidate for joining the flock methinks, but not tonight, soon perhaps.

* Just to say I really enjoyed Marr's History of Modern Britain. You can find it here on Google vids if you haven't watched the thing as yet.

Hard to say which I enjoyed the more, Marr's history of, or The Trial of Tony Blair. (Link updated)

An amazing two minutes if we consider the number of talking points the Woman touches upon. It may even sound a tad familiar towards the close.

Teddies For Truth Investigate The Evidence For McCann Abduction Claims

2010-09-14T17:19:00.006+01:00

Teddies For Truth. It's a none starter I'm afraid, type Teddy in the search bar.

It's Absolutely True Because I Read It In Paul Dacre's Daily Mail

2010-08-29T20:10:00.018+01:00

Update. Edited and links added at the bottom of the page, where can be found other such sterling examples of reporting, the quality of which we now accept as synonymous with Paul Dacre's Daily Mail.

I confronted the sweaty, corpulent figure in an ill-fitting jacket twice last Friday: the first time at 10am, as he sat slurping coffee and cakes at the Kalahary cafe in Portimao with his colleague, Chief Inspector Guillermino Encarnacao; the second just before 3pm, when the two men made their way from a restaurant to a waiting black Mercedes, in which they were driven 400 yards to meet officials at the courthouse.

The reaction was the same both times: "No speak! No speak!" was all Amaral would say, making a swatting motion as though batting away an insect.

But Amaral's official silence is not the only difference between him and his counterparts in Britain.

In the UK, it is unlikely he would be leading the McCann inquiry at all.

David Rose writing for Paul Dacre's Daily Mail (link below)

It's absolutely true, I read it in the daily Mail.

And I rest my case.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Motivated by this short video posted on the blog of Joana Morais, I thought I might take another look at the Daily Mail's distorted coverage of the McCann affair. Before going further, you might wish to view or re-view this little offering from Dan and his alter ego.

I have on occasions *prior, featured Paul Dacre and his agenda driven specious rag, the Daily Mail. (*Links at the bottom of the page.)

I pick on the Mail for very few reasons, one of which can be found on this recent post under the unapologetic header, Paul Dacre is a Slag.
Two words give us two other reasons for my choosing the Mail, they being, subjectivity and objectivity.

The subjective reporting by the Mail, has been, and still is, simply wretched, wretched, repulsive and truly reprehensible, and I add, as disgraceful as it is obvious.

On the matter of objectivity, I could say that the McMail has shown not one scrap of it these three years past, but that wouldn't be entirely true. They did manage to exhibit a little when, and proving that they are capable of a bit of investigative journalism when the fancy takes them, which is more the shame, they did manage to exhibit a little when they reported and exposed Dave Edgar for what he really is, a front, a useless front in fact.

A front, nothing more nothing less, somebody on who, for a few pieces of Silver, the McCanns could hang the tag "Our Investigators" no matter how ridiculous and ineffectual that somebody might be.
And just in passing, a reminder of the architect who drew up and instigated the repugnant farce in question, the odious Mitchell, another whore who knows the price of Silver. And must be said, all this aided and abetted by the sycophantic Paul Dacre and his ilk in printing every word of Mitchell's tripe.

As I say, I have previously featured the Mail on these unhallowed pages. One such feature was to compile a collage of Kate McCann photographs that had been deliberately chosen and employed by Dacre's Mail. See below.

Amassing such examples was in fact quite easy, doing little more than entering, Daily Mail + Kate McCann, in a Google image search. And laid before me such results, like pearls before swine, a catalogue of woe that would make your heart break; if of course you didn't know otherwise.

Because to know otherwise put a somewhat different slant on things, the Mail's deliberate attempt to portray a woeful Kate McCann, to elect sympathy for, and to bathe the dear Sainted Mother in an aura of pathos was, apart from being extremely nauseating, quite simply pathetic.

So, having gone by the previously described easy route, I thought it might be of interest to see what manner of story accompanied these photographs, photographs that appeared just as phony, just as contrived, and just as wooden as does the subject herself.

In truth, not the greatest of ideas I have ever had, quite tiresome in fact. Making the mistake of starting with contemporary news items didn't do much for the process, so I reverted to the start of this sorry affair and proceeded to wade through all the articles for the first six months.

It was tiresome and it was boring to say the least and it wasn't long before the seriousness wore off along with the novelty. So my choice in what I offer up may not all be in the vain of the deadly serious, somewhere along the line things changed a tad, a slightly more irreverent theme crept in. There is still plenty of stuff that highlights and exposes the Mail's nefarious goings on, but it is a smattering of aforementioned irreverence that accompanies things, something which, if you have clicked on any of the above links, you are already aware.

It was with the same irreverence that I started to note the captions that accompanied the photographs, by gum, I've never seen ascribed, so much "torture" so much "pain" and so much "agony" since... since... since watching Charlton Heston in the Agony and the Ecstasy, which I have to add was the most aptly named film of all time, absolute bleedin' agony to watch and pure ecstasy when it ended.

Nuff said?

I have chopped these screen shots up and married the relevant bits together, various bits of text and captions should be of interest in retrospect.

I had planned on upping the video and text for this performance, but I don't think I could bear it again. It can be found at this link if you must. My view.

My view.

The bottom line on this key saga would be of interest methinks.

Talking of which, anybody seen CC lately?

Ah the agony puts in an appearance, which is more than Fiona Barton must have done. It says from Praia da Luz, the coal shed more likely, because we all know what the reality really was. Complete with a rare bit of footage of the heartbroken parents leaving the church.

Sick

Tortured, is that what it looks like?

Even the tears are tortured, err hang on a minute, what tears?

No comment.

"In the depths of despair, the McCanns inspire awe" Whatever you say.

"Gone but not forgotten" "praying for a miracle" it would take a miracle alright, one of biblical proportions.

Ah, dear old Jane.

Murat had child porn and a picture of the Saints McCann in church, and for my chosen subject, the bleedin obvious.

My view.

Says Gerry McCann with his eyes shut yet again, just the same as you didn't give your kids sedatives. "The search goes on" FFS! "Kate and Gerry share a quiet moment today" Yes I'll bet it's quiet, about as quiet as this off camera.

Poor old CC being used to hide behind again. Anybody seen CC lately?

Found on the web.

Off on another jolly and photo op. My view.

My view.

I've never known two kids like a crèche so much, what next?

Searching.

My view.

You're not alone old lad, you're not alone .

Whatever you say, but catch the caption at the bottom it's a cracker, I think I would consider the same if I had scammed as much as this pair.

I don't think you'll find her in the Whitehouse you arshole, but you did meet a comrade in arms, another lying arsehole, Alberto Gonzales, Solicitor General of Ameriki. Have a listen to Gonzo doing his stuff before the Senate Judiciary Committee, you just could not make it up.

Of Gonzo, Bush had this to say.

"It is sad that we live in a time when a talented and honourable person like Alberto Gonzales is impeded from doing important work because his good name was dragged through the mud for political reasons," Bush said in Crawford, Texas.

Only in Ameriki folks, only in Ameriki.

More agony and the Mail's Iconic Poor Kate photo.

My view.

Yes dear.

Three guesses.

More anguish.

Anguish and agony, you don't look too shabby on it.

My view.

We've already had that video.

Gerry and Kate McCann at church again.

Links

The Daily Mail's Kate McCann Gallery of Woe Includes a little trivia about the Wail and its editor.

I Don't Know Who Sounds The More Desperate, The Daily Mail or The McCanns
The Wail at it's best and written by David, I'm such a lying xenophobic McCann sycophantic twat, Jones.

Or is it that you are none of these things, but feel that after confessing to being so "horribly wrong" you feel compelled to write in the manner you do?

Or are you, as I fear, just a cunt?

From yet another and McCann shill and Mail employee, Fiona Barton. Not by coincidence I don't suppose that this article is featured above, I post below, the relevant part of what is a very long article. No blog link in this, just a direct link to the Mail's story.

And finally, of dignity, wouldn't it be nice if the Mail discovered a little, not to mention the parents.

This from the Mail, and yes, the date is correct, and printed under the header-

On Madeleine's fourth birthday, the agony goes on
by FIONA BARTON in Praia da Luz
Last updated at 12:24 12 May 2007

Blank-faced and hiding behind her hair, she appeared almost catatonic as she stood silently beside her husband, clutching, as always, Madeleine's favourite toy, called Cuddle Cat by the little girl. The Daily Mail, Paul Dacre Editor.

The agony goes on 12 May 2007 - Blank-faced and hiding behind her hair, she appeared almost catatonic as she stood silently beside her husband, 12 May 2007

There be much at this next link, starting with this nauseating drivel, headed.

Madeleine, we're still looking for you. Tell someone who your mummy and daddy are'

And continued in similar vain.

Her father, now 41, reassured the little girl: "Madeleine, we're still looking for you. Tell someone who your mummy and daddy are, who you are."

Kate, 42, said: "We love you very much, Madeleine, and we're not going to stop what we're doing."

And who must we thank for this edifying piece of journalism? why none other than Mirror slag and McCann creature extraordinaire, Rod Chator.

This article was destined to be short lived, this you might remember, was the article that carried the Madeleine/make up photograph. Fortunately the full article, of which you can well imagine, I had a few to say, is posted on the blog. Posted twice in fact, the first being as writ, and the second more in the style of what you may have become accustomed to.

The post then moves on to the Wail to an article that leads off, and I kid you not, as loathsome as it is unbelievable, the Mail treats us to this.

Gerry McCann breaks down as he tells how hunt for Madeleine 'is shaking his Catholic faith'

What can I say? other than that already uttered at, The Corruption of Innocence.

The Editor Daily Mail and Kate McCann

Barking Mad

I confronted the sweaty, corpulent figure in an ill-fitting jacket twice last Friday: the first time at 10am, as he sat slurping coffee and cakes at the Kalahary cafe in Portimao with his colleague, Chief Inspector Guillermino Encarnacao; the second just before 3pm, when the two men made their way from a restaurant to a waiting black Mercedes, in which they were driven 400 yards to meet officials at the courthouse.

The reaction was the same both times: "No speak! No speak!" was all Amaral would say, making a swatting motion as though batting away an insect.

But Amaral's official silence is not the only difference between him and his counterparts in Britain.

In the UK, it is unlikely he would be leading the McCann inquiry at all.

Madeleine's parents Kate and Gerry may never be charged with anything, despite their present status as arguidos, or official suspects, and by the end of last week, apparently well-placed sources were admitting that any case against them is circumstantial and weak. Direct link.

This story came up when I searched my own blogs for "Daily Mail" it being mentioned just the once in text. I only mention this because generally I'm not too impressed with the results of the in-house search gadgets. The opposite however applies to the article from the link, Madeleine McCann: A Rainbow takes the glitter off the McCann's pot of gold by invariably impressive, Mike Hitchens,

This is a Times/Halligen article which I chose for one of the comments left, rather than the story itself. The comment, you might agree after reading, has a certain familiarity of style. Gallery eighty Two

The Second (Dis-Reputable) Mother Trucking Gallery

2010-08-18T21:24:00.020+01:00

These uninspiring photographs of Stobart's truck were evidently snapped in the Netherlands and have been gathering dust in a folder for a few weeks. Gathering dust that is, until I came across this post from Anna Andress, just the first paragraph then to see where the theme and the inspiration came from that led me to produce this second trucking gallery.

In February this year, the McCanns were successful in persuading a Portuguese judge that their right to a 'good reputation,' was more important than Dr Gonçalo Amaral's right to freedom of speech, and the injunction banning Dr Amaral's book, "The Truth of The Lie," was upheld.......
Gerry and Kate McCann: serial child neglectors in search of a reputation

I would like to add a word or two more, not a great deal, but I have had it for today, so tomorrow it is.

Tomorrow it is and truth be told I'm struggling just as much this morning as I was last night to order my thoughts and convert them into words.

I should know by now, this it's far from the first time that a lucid train of thought has fell victim to, what can I call it, a causality of the cesspit? yes that fits the bill.

I should write the text first, that's what I'm saying, get the words down before I do the graphics, get the thoughts and words down before they get sullied, soiled, stuck in the Machiavellian mire of the cesspit that is Kate and Gerry McCann, and as such, as in this case gone forever.

You may wonder what on earth I'm talking about, to perhaps fully understand what I'm saying you perhaps need to blog about this case, and I might add, to so in a big way. To immerse yourself to such a degree that you too become a victim, a victim of your own anger, a victim of utter frustration, but far worse than these you become something else.

You become a spectator, a witness, a witness to an injustice that the likes of, has never been seen before. You become a witness to something that transcends farce. You become a witness to the many and varied institutions that are charged with the well being of this country, institutions for which there can be no other description than corrupt. Other than perhaps, blatantly, obviously and transparently corrupt.

This is the lot of the serious blogger.

There has been work done on this case by others that can only be described as monumental, Joana Morais, Astro, Kazlux, Anna Andress and many more. I am sure I can speak for you all who rail against this travesty playing out before our eyes, saying as much that without the tireless unpaid efforts of these volunteers, we would be lost, as lost as justice is to us at this present time.

We all express our gratitude freely and openly, but might I ask you to consider one other thing, to spare a thought for the toll it takes on these bloggers, and by bloggers I specifically mean the Portuguese Nationals. Nationals, who while producing the monumental work that they have, have done so whilst enduring an attack on their country and all things in it, an attack so venomous, so xenophobic and so terribly unjust that it brings nothing but shame and disgrace to this country mine.

And disgrace it is. As a Brit I get angry, by gum I'm glad I'm not Portuguese.

And what is it all for? Two chavy Doctors who are as clearly guilty of all they are suspected of, as equally clear they are both categorically insane. And insane they are, who else in their right mind would have the front to talk about reputation given the circumstances that surround them? People on occasion ask me how I can be so sure they are guilty, invariably my reply, I can use a spoon. And that really is it in nutshell, once you have reached that level of sophistication this farce, this charade lays open to you, all Danae to the stars if you will.

It is this paragraph above that achieves what I have been trying to say from the very beginning, a tad circuitous forgive me, so let me reiterate, only a complete nutter could, under the circumstances, could even contemplate reputation, least of all talk about it.

eta: When I talk about a bloggers lot and it's toll, please I beg you, don't think I'm looking for sympathy or thanks. I embraced this cause for justice voluntarily, and that's all I'm looking for, justice, justice for Madeleine McCann and justice for what is right.

I brought over this extract from an earlier post, when I was struggling to string a few words together, I thought it might substitute for what I couldn't say. It is relative to that part of the case that I have been discussing, I don't think it needs further introduction than that which I gave it at the time. But it does rather prove my point, if you can stomach it that is.

I have no wish to highlight any of the more loathsome parts of what was uttered by this vile creature, all I ask is that you read the thing slowly and appreciate the true horror and enormity of what this abomination of a man is saying.

Read it slowly, and perhaps as you do so, you might spare a thought for the girl that once had this reptile for a father.

"Freedom of speech should not include distortion of the truth, lies, fabrication and slander," said Kate McCann on Friday.

Gerry McCann added: "The key thing here is we're here to fight for our daughter, and if anyone steps over the lines then they should be prepared to defend what they say in court."

“We are pleased with the Judge’s decision preventing further distribution and sale of Mr Amaral’s book and DVD –‘The Truth of the Lie’.

“Mr. Amaral’s central thesis has no evidence whatsoever to support it. To claim as he did, that Madeleine is dead, and that we, her parents, were in some way involved with her disappearance, has caused our family incredible distress and it continues to do so.

“Without doubt, Madeleine will have suffered as a result of the negative effect this book and DVD will have had on the search for her.

“Sean and Amelie need protection too from such awful claims.

“Hopefully this injunction today will go a long way towards reducing further unnecessary and unjust distress to us all and allow people to concentrate completely on what is important - finding Madeleine,” the statement read.

“There’s one thing that has been revealed in the case files which is that there is no evidence that Madeleine is dead and there is no evidence to suggest that Kate and I were involved in any theories. It’s about Madeleine. As her parents, I hope people understand that we have to do what we are doing.”

In a statement after his participation, McCann asserted that, although there was no advancement in the investigation, there is also “absolutely no indication that she suffered any hurt or harm, therefore we must believe that she is alive out there and we cannot stop looking for her”.

“As parents, it is our obligation to continue searching for her; we must convince people that the searches must continue, and we should return to Portugal”, he said.

eta:I shall atend to this below presently, but might I ask your opinion on the colour of the text on the postings. Is it perchance a tad too white, a tad bright?

The other thing I would like to mention, or appeal if you will. Are there any professional truck drivers among you that visit here? Nothing earth shattering but I am a little curious about one or two truck related things. And this too will have to wait till the morrow, it would appear my email/profile thingy has buggered orf into cyberspace.

Sorted and thanks.

But I have as you may notice, converted our truck to a high body, it just made for a slightly larger canvas.

This picture below nearly ended up with a dedicated gallery all of its own.

Take a minute or two and have a proper think about it.

For reference only.

The Comments Are...

2010-08-13T07:57:00.005+01:00

The Comments Are...

Good to know that Jim Gamble measures success in the field of child protection by how many people click a Facebook link.

Maybe if I pester Facebook into adding a "Jim Gamble is a cunt" button, I could claim to be an overwhelming success too, and hope to divert more funds to my little slice of empire...

I would replace all my light switches with real physical Jim Gamble is a Cunt Buttons, just so I could press them often.

Which as you can well imagine I fully endorse. And he is a cunt, he must think we all came down with the last shower.

The message is.

CEOP claims success for Facebook 'panic button'
Threefold increase in reports

The Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre has received 211 reports of "suspicious activity" on Facebook since the launch of a branded app last month, it announced today.

By comparison, earlier this year CEOP said it received 257 complaints about activity on the dominant social network in three months.

The "ClickCEOP" button, an app available as an option for users to add to their profile pages, was launched following sharp criticism of Facebook's user safety features by CEOP chief Jim Gamble.

"The sheer numbers of people who have engaged with the app - including the volume of positive comments received via the wall - has shown that this move as been extremely well received by parents and young people alike," he said today.

More than 55,000 users have added the app, CEOP said.

According to Hitwise, Facebook has 26 million UK users. Children under 13 aren't allowed to register.

More comments here.

Jim Gamble post links here.

Hey Up! There's Trouble at t'Kennedy Mill

2010-08-12T19:22:00.003+01:00

Accountant I ain't, but this doesn't too healthy.

BUILDING Plastics Holdings, the holding company for entrepreneur Brian Kennedy's window manufacturing empire, has breached its banking covenants and is in ongoing talks with lenders over its debt pile of more than £30m.

The company, whose 26 subsidiaries include Macclesfield-based window frame maker Spectus Systems, Latium Management Systems, Clitheroe-based conservatories maker Ultraframe and Everest, has just filed accounts for the year to December 31, 2008 which show a pre-tax loss of of £13.3m on sales of £91.2m.

The accounts were filed late as a result of the company's ongoing negotiations with bankers over its debts.

By its 2008 year end, the company had net debts of almost £32m. Its net assets had also dwindled from £15.9m to £3.4m.

It owed £21.75m to its main lender, Bank of Scotland, £7.4m to National Australia Bank and £1.3m to another company controlled by Kennedy.

Notes accompanying the accounts show that it has since managed to renegotiate its debts with Bank of Scotland, which has extended two term loans and renewed its overdraft.

However, it has been unable to agree a new deal with National Australia Bank after it breached the covenants of its loan agreement.

The group's auditor, KPMG, said that its ability to continue as a going concern was "dependent upon the group directors concluding their ongoing negotiations with lenders, including agreeing a waiver in relation to current covenant breaches, a resetting of those covenants and an additional capital contribution in relation to a loan of £7.4m".

Since its year end, however, another Kennedy-controlled company has injected a further £5.5m worth of loans into the business.

Building Plastics Holdings was previously known as Latium Plastics Holdings and acquired Ultraframe in a £29.2m public-to-private deal in June 2006. Prior to this purchase, Ultraframe had incurred heavy losses.

The company was contacted about its accounts, but declined to comment.

Registration required.
http://www.thebusinessdesk.com/northwest/news/27829-kennedy-seeks-window-of-opportunity-with-banks.html

h/t Anna Andress

A McQuestion Or Two

2010-07-31T16:08:00.003+01:00

.
19 second update.

1 When the McCann’s fled Portugal in September 2007, the British Police assisting the Portuguese enquiry left also. Madeleine was still missing, supposedly abducted. So why did the British Police quit the search the day after they were both made official suspects?

2 Since that day in September 2007, not one legitimate Police force has been actively looking for Madeleine, why?

3 Why were the Tapas 9 so keen to control the early stages of the investigation by writing out all of their timelines on Madeleine’s sticker book, before the Police had even arrived on the scene?

4 Why did the McCann’s with their limitless amounts of money coming in from generous donations, hire people who specialised in fraud and bomb disposal?

5 Why did the McCann’s ignore crucial Police advice by publicising Madeleine’s distinctive mark on her eye, which would almost certainly have guaranteed her immediate death and disposal?

6 Why did the McCann’s make Madeleine a Ward of Court after she had vanished? Was it to prevent any details of her medical records and other information from being made public for 75 years?

7 Why was it necessary to hire such a large team of lawyers when Madeleine first vanished, which also included Pinochet’s infamous extradition lawyer?

8 Why did Kate McCann refuse to answer all of the questions put to her?

9 Why did the McCann’s claim to know instantly that Madeleine had been abducted, yet waited 40 minutes before first contacting the Police?

10 Goncalo Amaral’s book, ‘The Truth of the Lie’, has now been released in 6 European countries, but not in the UK. It has recently been banned in Portugal. It is a factual account of the early stages of the investigation based on information contained within the officially released Police files, so why has it been banned?

11 Why did the McCann’s want the investigation shelved? It was within their legal rights to ask for the enquiry to remain open, which they turned down? Why?

12 Why did 3 UK Detectives deliver several files of information to the McCann’s home, shortly after they got back to the UK whilst they were still suspects?

13 Why did the cadaver and blood sniffer dogs Eddie and Keela, only indicate to their apartment and their car? I believe 7 properties and 10 cars were searched in total that day, but only the McCann’s apartment and car tested positive.

14 Why did the Home Office refuse to hand over to the Portuguese investigators details of the McCann’s bank details, credit cards and medical records? These are one of the first things any Police force obtains at the start of an investigation. So why were they refused assistance?

15 The British Authorities later informed the Portuguese Police that the McCann’s did not own any credit or debit cards? So how did Gerry manage to pay for his holiday?

16 Why were the McCann’s and their Tapas friends never seriously interrogated? Instead, during their Rogatory interviews the British Police assisted them with some of their answers, which can be clearly seen in their statements.

17 Why did Gerry delete all the phone calls from his mobile on the 2nd of May, the day before Madeleine disappeared and also one received from Kate on 3rd May at 23.17 p.m., just over an hour after she had raised the alarm? Neither went to search for Madeleine, so why did Kate need to call him? Where did he go?

18 Why did Gerry have to fly home to obtain something with Madeleine’s DNA on? Did he actually supply an accurate representation of Madeleine’s DNA to the Police? Why was there no DNA of Madeleine’s found in the apartment the night she vanished?, an apartment which she had lived in for 5 days? Not one strand of hair was found there belonging to the McCann twins either. It’s like the apartment had been scrubbed clean.

19 Why is the case filed under Homicide, Simulating a Crime & Hiding a Cadaver and not abduction?

20 How did the scent of cadaver from a dead body get on Madeleine’s Cuddlecat, a child’s red T shirt, Kate’s black/white cheque trousers and her white sleeveless top? Why only these items?

21 Why did Gerry have to move the position of the sofa in the lounge? The exact same sofa which was identified by the blood dog Keela, as containing minute traces of blood in 3 different positions on the back panel. The exact same sofa that Eddie the cadaver dog also identified the scent of cadaver behind. Is this just a coincidence, or is this evidence of staging?

22 Why did the British Government intervene and support them on an unprecedented level from day one?

23 Why did the British Government feel the need to appoint a spokesman Clarence Mitchell, to speak in public for the McCann’s and is still assisting them today? Has the British tax payer been paying for his services all this time?

24 Why are the British papers only interested in reporting on the abduction line, when there is not one shred of evidence to support this theory? In 2008, one third of the official police files was made available to the general public. Facts that every newspaper could have easily been printed without any fear of litigation. So why have they ignored all of this information?

25 Why was Kate so annoyed at being asked to attend the Police station in the early days to identify a little girl caught on CCTV, that was believed to be Madeleine?

26 Why would the McCann’s leave Madeleine in an unlocked apartment knowing she had a tendency to wake up and wander frequently at night?

27 Why did the British Secret Service immediately put the McCann’s under telephone surveillance and not inform the Portuguese Police?

28 Why would SOCA (the Serious Organised Crime Agency) get involved with a missing child?

29 Why did the British Police withhold a statement for at least 6 months from the Portuguese Investigators involving David Payne and Gerry McCann, over lewd allegations of paedophile behaviour as witnessed by another Doctor friend of theirs on a previous holiday?

30 Why was Gerry in possession of sensitive Police manuals only used by Special Police Services and Government Agencies? Who gave them to him and why?

31 Why did the McCann’s want Leicestershire Police heading up the investigation and not Scotland Yard? They wanted the help from the Government, but not the top Police Force, why?

32 Why was the McCann’s Lawyers worried that Kate’s answers could be seen to be incriminating, but not Gerry’s?

33 Why did they destroy Madeleine’s sticker book when there was a perfectly good note pad on the table?

34 Why was someone allowed back into the apartment to remove personal items before forensics had finished looking for evidence?

35 Why was Robert Murat made a suspect when none of the photo fits depicted a man who wears glasses?

36 Why did it take the British authorities nine months to pass the Gaspar’s statement over to the Portuguese investigators?

37 Francisco Moita Flores has said that “the mystery lies with one or two of the ten or twelve elements that used to enter that apartment”. Who are the other 3 people is he referring to?

38 In Kate’s diary she states, "I can't stop thinking about Madeleine, about her fear of pain". How would she know that Madeleine had a fear of pain?

39 Why did Kate in her group statement say that she pulled the curtains open, yet in the documentary state that the wind blew the curtains open?

40 Why did Gordon Brown and Jackie Smith both have to visit Leicestershire Police three days after the McCann’s flew home? Both have publicly claimed that they do not interfere in ongoing Police investigations.

41 Why did several members of the group claim Rachel made the Tapas reservation, when the receptionist has clearly stated it was a man?

42 Why was a CRG (Control Risks Group) fraud expert brought in on a missing child case?

43 Why did Brian Kennedy feel the need to contact the family who claimed that they saw Gerry McCann carrying a child in the streets just before the alarm was raised?

44 Why was it that only Kate’s fingerprints, was found in a position of opening that window?

45 Why did the McCann’s need a service wash the day after Madeleine vanished, washing clothing that belonged to Madeleine that could have been important to the investigation?

46 Why did David Payne not want the McCann’s to speak to Yvonne Martin, the Social Worker who tried to offer them help?

47 Why didn’t Dianne Webster want to rush off and check on her own grandchildren when Kate shouted Madeleine was missing?

48 Why did David Payne claim that everyone went to dinner together, yet Fiona claimed that David would stay behind to watch the children?

49 Why did the FSS when testing the hair samples found in the boot of the McCann’s hire car, refuse to confirm if it had come from a living or dead person, simply by checking to see if they showed any signs of proximal banding?

50 Not one single hair of Madeleine's was ever recovered from the apartment, so how did the McCann’s manage to find one to give to Danie Krugel the South African body finder?

51 Why did the McCann’s need to air their car boot?

52 Why did Gerry not tell Mrs Fenn that it was his daughter that had gone missing?

53 Why did Paul Gordon, the previous occupant of the McCann’s apartment, say he feels like a “chess pawn” after being contacted several times by Brian Kennedy?

54 How could Matt Oldfield claim to see the twins breathing laying inside their cots, when he never even entered Madeleine’s bedroom?

55 Why did Gerry first claim the doors were left locked, then changed his statement saying the patio door was left unlocked?

56 Why did the PJ need to forensically examine an apartment in Burgau in relation to this case?

57 Why did the Vatican remove Madeleine’s details from their website, one week after Kate and Gerry were made suspects?

58 Why would a missing child of only 13 days be made a Ward of Court?

59 Why did Stuart Prior when examining all the evidence against the McCann’s, say that "he had arrested people in England with much less", yet they never got arrested?

60 Why did the McCann’s and their supportive friends refuse to help the investigation by not doing a reconstruction?

61 Sir Christopher Meyer publically stated that the McCann’s did not want the press to be stopped, they had been asked, but they turned the offer down. So why did they later complain that the press were outrageous?

62 Kerry Needham, the Mother of Ben Needham who went missing from the Greek Island of Kos in 1991, has never received the same level of help the McCann’s got. Why was that missing child treated so differently?

63 Jill Renwick says she spoke to Kate at 7am, the morning after Madeleine vanished saying, ''Kate was at the police station in hysterics. When we spoke she said the police weren’t doing enough.'' Yet Kate did not go to the Police Station until that afternoon, so which one of them is lying?

64 Why have the McCann’s never once shown us the inside of Madeleine’s bedroom as it now looks?

65 Why were there other Doctors booked in the Ocean Club that week, not part of the Tapas 9 group?

66 Why did Gerry and Kate delete so many calls from their phones before the Police arrived?

67 When Oprah Winfrey asked Kate why she never showed any emotion, Kate said, “the last thing I want obviously is to cause any extra further harm to Madeleine”. Yet they have always stated there is no evidence that Madeleine has come to any harm, so what “extra further harm” is Kate referring to?

68 Is it just a coincidence that on the 13th May 2007, Jose Barra da Costa, former member of the PJ publicly claimed that the McCann’s are swingers, then two days later on the 15th May 2007, Robert Murat is declared arguido?

69 Why did the McCann’s ignore Police advice concerning the dangers of highlighting Madeleine's distinctive eye, which would ensure that she was killed?

70 Why did David Payne say “we have a pact”? A child is missing and they feel the need to have some kind of agreement. What for?

H/t to all contributors, a special thank you to Stella for compiling the questions, and all made possible by The Maddie Case Files.

Just The One

2010-07-17T14:30:00.005+01:00

Well two in actual fact, but sometimes you need a bit of something to really give a thing context.

And giving it a little thought I think this previous post might not go amiss here.

In what now appears to be my second career, sending a message, through what now must be a multitude of pics, and if you will forgive me saying so, some have been quite brilliantly spot on, inspired if you will.

Having modestly awarded myself such an accolade and presented myself with a bouquet of flowers for the "quite brilliant" ones, what then does it say of the rest?

Well, having set that kind of metric, I suppose the only way from there is down, downward yes, but by degrees, you would afford me that surely?

Degrees that have covered the full spectrum, top to bottom, from close, but no cigar, to totally off the mark. I do however, in my own defence say, I did have a little help with the graphics that fell into this category, Paulo Rebelo for one, and the Express for another. Need I say more?

This first picky below I think typifies those in the "close, but no cigar" category. Why so you may ask, it's not a million miles from the truth as you or I might see things? Perhaps at the time you might have even thought the thing worthy of a cigar, perhaps it was.

But things change, that's if they don't stay as they are of course, but change they do, or perhaps develop and progress might be a more accurate way of putting things. Ever since the Express rolled over, delighting us all with a display of its true colours, we have seen increasingly the attempts to gag the ungaggable, the internet.

Such attempts, and some enjoying local success it must be said, but such attempts, in reality, are futile. Not to understand this futility, that no one person can censor the net, though making numerous attempts to do so, is I think, a measure of the world that said person inhabits.

Though I could, and have done so on numerous occasions past, describe Adam Tudor in numerous and far from pleasant ways, I would never think to call him things that would question his intelligence. That is simply something I cannot do for reasons obvious.

So with this in mind, and in light of ever increased threats, accompanied by a cacophony of Sabers rattling, makes me but wonder if Adam Tudor is giving his client the best advice possible, or heaven forbid, his love of Mammon supersedes the interests of his client?

Shurely not, shurely shome mishtake? But a question nonetheless that brought about a subtle change in our featured piccy.

And so this roomful of reporters consented, in essence, not to be reporters.

2010-07-04T18:55:00.006+01:00

Hey up! deja vous, or is it infectious?

Check out the comments while you are there, the first one starts....

You know what? There is something f—– up with this dad… Let’s not. Forget dad was at the gym too with his wife 5 days after kyron went missing!!

......Today, Kaine Horman and the Youngs sat at the head of a table in a room filled with more than two dozen national and local reporters for print, TV and radio. As the meeting began at 10 a.m., Kaine Horman started out by explaining “the agenda.” This wasn’t going to be a typical press conference.

Horman said the family’s goal was to make “the story” about Kyron. With news of the divorce and investigators homing in on the stepmom, media coverage (including in WW) has increasingly focused on Kyron’s troubled family.

First came Horman’s “ground rules,” as he described them. No cameras. No recordings. Everything was off the record and couldn’t be reported, unless agreed otherwise. Horman made everyone in the room agree to these rules before proceeding. And so this roomful of reporters consented, in essence, not to be reporters.

Horman then laid out how the meeting would go. They would take questions, make some phone calls (presumably to investigators, to find out what they could say in their answers), then return and make an on-the-record statement. But first, Horman wanted all the reporters he didn’t know to introduce themselves. more

Update: I have no great interest in the story, but a couple of links here for what they are worth.

http://scaredmonkeys.net/index.php?board=72.0

http://www.thehinkymeter.com/2011/10/14/kyron-horman-case-divorce-delayed-again-terri-continues-to-look-bad/

It's only my personal reflection, but if I was issued a parking ticket in the US, I would lawyer up.

Lori Campbell's Alphabet Soup

2010-06-28T18:25:00.018+01:00

Though searching the archives for something else,I stumbled upon this old, this... hard to describe it really. Let me describe thus. It is an extraordinary read, truly remarkable. As obvious as it is extraordinary, and as transparent as it is remarkable, this is one piece of agenda driven scribbling as you are likely to find anywhere.

Maddy was alive when taken

Lori Campbell In Praia Da Luz, sundaymirror.co.uk 12/08/2007

MADELEINE: 100 DAYS OF HELL

Missing Madeleine McCann's favourite pink Cuddle Cat toy was taken from her arms as she slept and placed beyond her reach by her kidnapper. That is why police are certain Madeleine was snatched while she was asleep - and was NOT killed or injured in the holiday apartment.

When her mum Kate, 38, tucked Madeleine into bed, the four-year-old was cuddling the toy - but it was later found placed on a ledge that Madeleine could not have reached.

There is also further "concrete evidence" that Madeleine was still ALIVE when she left the holiday apartment. Her kidnapper had a window of just five minutes to strike - from when dad Gerry last checked on the children until family friend Jane Tanner saw a man carrying away a child she is sure was Madeleine wrapped in a blanket.

The new revelations rubbish reports in Portuguese newspapers this week that she was murdered or died in an accident inside the villa. And they come as local police Chief Inspector Olegario Sousa ruled Gerry and Kate out of the inquiry - and admitted for the first time Madeleine could be dead.

Now, the Sunday Mirror can give a true picture of what happened when Kate found her daughter missing. We can reveal:

Police have specific evidence from the apartment that she was still alive

Madeleine was kidnapped as the toy she had fallen asleep with was left on a ledge placed too high for a child to reach

There was a window of less than five minutes for a kidnapper to pounce - not enough time to kill her and clean up

Police do not believe blood found in the apartment was Madeleine's as it was not consistent with signs of a struggle

The patio doors were unlocked but the intruder used the window to escape with Madeleine as the shutters were forced up.

We can also reveal that devastated Kate was reduced to tears several times by the aggressive questioning of Portuguese police this week. And yesterday the parents were hit by further cruel claims in Portuguese papers linking them to Madeleine's disappearance on May 3.

But our dramatic information confirms Madeleine was most likely to have been abducted by a stranger who had watched the family's routine for up to four days.

And it shows Portuguese police from the beginning have had firm evidence Madeleine was still alive when she was taken from the ground-floor apartment.

The McCanns were told in a secret meeting with police within days of Madeleine going missing what this evidence is. They have been unable to discuss it publicly in case it jeopardises the investigation - and have even been banned from telling close friends or family.

Kate has refused to say where she found the Cuddle Cat toy when she returned to the villa in Praia da Luz at about 10pm to find her daughter's bed empty. Sunday Mirror

Isn't that nice, a wonderful piece of journalism if ever there was?

If good for nothing else, it was good for a little inspiration, something that is becoming harder to find by day. However a little creativity came to the fore and resulted in me producing this small gallery. I might have been inclined to offer you more, but it was extremely tiresome to create, every individual letter being a separate image. No matter, have at it.

Every time it rains it rains
Pennies from heaven.
Don't you know each cloud contains
Pennies from heaven.

And sure didn't I get myself a penny from heaven when looking for a pic of bollocks to accompany this one of Patricia Ramsey displaying her faux grief and theatrics. And my penny from heaven? and I swear I haven't "shopped" this screen shot from the Daylife site, my penny then, below.

Nigel Moore has lots on this sorry saga.

Dr David Kelly Blair Government Cover-Up

2010-06-27T23:16:00.006+01:00

It's funny what the Mail can manage to report when it suits.

Graphic from: Can We Please Stop The Outrage About Madeleine McCann

Dr David Kelly: The damning new evidence that points to a cover-up by Tony Blair's government

The official story of Dr David Kelly is that he took his own life in an Oxfordshire wood by overdosing on painkillers and cutting his left wrist with a pruning knife.

He was said to be devastated after being unmasked as the source of the BBC’s claim that the Government had ‘sexed up’ the case for war in Iraq.

A subsequent official inquiry led by Lord Hutton into the circumstances leading to the death came to the unequivocal conclusion that Kelly committed suicide.

Yet suspicions of foul play still hang heavy over the death of the weapons expert whose body was found seven years ago next month in one of the most notorious episodes of Tony Blair’s premiership.

Many believe the truth about the manner of Dr Kelly’s death has never been established properly. Some even fear that the 59-year-old, the world’s leading expert in biological and chemical weapons, was murdered.

Of course, it would be easy to dismiss these sceptics as wild conspiracy theorists — but for the fact they include eminent doctors and MPs.

The blanket of secrecy thrown over the case by the last Labour Government has only fuelled the sense of mystery.

In January this year, it emerged that unpublished medical and scientific records relating to Dr Kelly’s death - including the post-mortem report and photographs of his body - had been secretly classified so as not to be made public for 70 years.

Lord Hutton, who had been appointed by Blair, was responsible for this extraordinary gagging order, yet its legal basis has baffled experts accustomed to such matters.

Against this shadowy background, we have conducted a rigorous and thorough investigation into the mystery that surrounds the death of David Kelly. And our investigation has turned up evidence which raises still more disturbing questions.

Our new revelations include the ambiguous nature of the wording on Dr Kelly’s death certificate; the existence of an anonymous letter which says his colleagues were warned to stay away from his funeral; and an extraordinary claim that the wallpaper at Dr Kelly’s home was stripped by police in the hours after he was reported missing - but before his body was found. more

h/t Daoud

Bits n Bobs

2010-06-14T18:14:00.009+01:00

This little hotch potch of stuff is the result of a browse through the archives.
Gerry in the dock has been sat in a file for long enough, Kitty was a result of reading something today, and the other cartoons, some relative some not, have been sat in a folder forever.

The poem, although I don't remember, I had posted a good while ago on Only in America. A poem I must say, that is a lot cleverer than might first appear, especially so if you consider all the talking points it covers.

Back in May our Madeleine,
Vanished while we had a gin.
We never got to go for dinner,
Unless we put a dope pill in ‘er.
When Kate checked up – I had to make ‘er,
“They” had had the gall to take ‘er!
We all jumped up and had a search,
That brat had left us in the lurch.
Then Katie said, “Oh never mind ‘er.
Call Sky News and they can find ‘er.”
But still the case was not resolved
And so policemen got involved.
We printed lots of photos of ‘er,
But then we thought, “Why should we bother?”
If we set up a fund instead,
Others can find her – we’ll stay in bed.
So we dumped the twins inside a crèche,
And learned to live our lives afresh.
We went on shows, we went on telly,
Our lips a-quiver, like raspberry jelly,
We begged the crowds to give us cash,
And amassed a tidy little stash.
We practised looking devastated
Our lust for fame could not be sated.
Every day was filled with hope,
We even got to meet the Pope!
He said to Kate, “Bless you, my child”,
And Katie simpered, blushed and smiled.
Then gazed towards the camera crew,
With doeful eyes and woe anew.
Then at a press meet, some H*n git,
Went and asked us if we’d done it?
We said, “How dare you! What a farce!
Look at us – we’re middle class!”
Well, not quite that, but that’s the gist
And we crossed her off our Christmas list.
Then the police came round to call
And said they’d found blood on the wall,
Philomena, round and fat,
Said it could have been a gnat.
And, you know, it could be true,
Mosquitoes leave a death scent too.
How’s a dog supposed to tell,
If someone is alive and well?
But it’s OK – they don’t suspect us,
The Portuguese love and respect us.
And so does everyone, it seems!
We are the stuff of poor folks’ dreams.
We’re classy and so dignified,
We’ve never screamed or retched or cried.
We don’t attempt a dirty search,
Instead we sit inside the Church,
Kate folds the pages of her Bible,
And talks of Maddie’s unusual eyeball.
The press at home can’t get enough,
Of all this ‘wonderful parents’ stuff,
They rightly tell the common classes,
All our critics are jumped-up arses.
But the Portuguese are not so nice,
Their press are looking at us twice.
They ask why we left the kids alone,
But EVERYONE does this at home.
They’re dropping hints – the feeling is
We have something to do with this!
It’s hurtful, unhelpful and just not true,
(Well, it might be, but we’re not telling you.)
The evidence grows day-by-day,
It’s all a bunch of lies, we say.
They’ve found death scent inside our car,
And the mileage has gone up too far,
There’s bodily fluids where the wheel should be,
(Hey, that’s just where we told the twins to wee.)
They’re claiming they’ve found DNA,
But is it Madeleine’s – who can say?
They’ve found a great big clump of hair,
But we say that they put it there.
“We cannot trust these Keystone cops!”
Katie rants and raves and strops.
They take us in and say we did it
And ask us where on Earth we hid it.
We will not answer such accusations
We use our initial allegations,
“Maddie was taken by a bunch of paedos!”
But still they make us both arguidos
This is not good – this is quite bad,
And Kate is getting really mad.
We need to get her home, it’s clear
Or else the twins will disappear.
So off we went on EasyJet
But we weren’t beaten – no, not yet!
We got the most expensive brief
And the government’s worn-out P.R. chief
That chap Branson's agreed to pay,
A fool and his money, as they say.
We ridiculed the use of science,
A most discredited appliance,
Our friends and family spread the word,
That all these rumours are quite absurd.
They’re utterly ridiculous.
In fact, they’re downright ludicrous.
We know that Maddy is not dead,
She’s gone to a better place instead.
Wherever she is, whatever her fate,
She’s better off now than she would be with Kate.

Author unknown.

Are We Nearly There Yet?

2010-06-10T12:03:00.004+01:00

Because I think I'm going to throw up.

Well that was my original reaction, but now....

I just think they are taking the piss.

How bad does it get, Kate McCann artwork in aid of missing kids?

But just look who the ten watt bulb chooses to quote.

Then read the goddamn verse.

Taking the piss!?

Not 'alf.

h/t Anon

Jim Gamble. Where I come from, we have a technical term for this sort of thing

2010-05-28T20:20:00.007+01:00

We call it, taking the piss.

The corner stone of this nonsensical abduction story offered by the McCanns has always centred around the window and the "jemmied shutters."

I have written about the shear impossibility of such a scenario here, and Dr Martin Roberts addresses the same likelihood and can be found at this link.

Below in black, white and red, are the accounts of McCann family members and friends, etched in stone as it were, and there is only one indisputable source for these accounts, Kate and Gerry McCann.

But firstly, prior to reading these accounts, we have to take a good look at the latest incredible words of Kate McCann.

This single paragraph is but one of many taken from the McCanns feeble effort to limit the fallout from what came to light in Lisbon. This latest blog entry written by Kate McCann? after their failed and misguided attempt to silence Goncalo Amaral and as such silence the truth.

The window: I described to the police officers exactly what I found that night, as it was and is highly relevant and I knew that every little detail could be helpful in finding my daughter which is our only aim. The window which is a ground floor window was completely open and is large enough for a person to easily climb through it. Whether it had been opened for this purpose remains unknown. It could of course have been opened by the perpetrator when inside the apartment as a potential escape route or left open as a 'red herring'

In the immortal words of John McEnroe, you cannot be serious, you really really cannot be serious.

Apart from a few lines by way of introduction, I have posted just the relevant parts of various articles.*

~ ~ ~

Agony as 3-yr-old vanishes from holiday flat

A HUGE hunt was going on last night for three-year-old Maddy McCann, feared snatched from her holiday flat.

Maddy is believed to have been taken as she slept in the complex on Portugal's Algarve as her doctor parents ate at a bar 120ft away. Her scent was picked up by a police sniffer dog. But it petered out after 400 yards.

Yesterday, 24 hours after the young child vanished in quiet Praia da Luz, anguished parents Gerry and Kate, both 38, of Rothley, Leics, begged for her return.

A friend said: "Kate rang us totally hysterical, saying Maddy was abducted. They're devastated."

The appalling news that three-year-old Maddy McCann was feared kidnapped from her holiday flat came in a distraught phone call early yesterday from her dad.

Heart specialist Gerry McCann rang his sister Trish in Scotland after Maddy vanished from her cot placed between two-year-old twins Sean and Amelie.

Trish revealed yesterday: "He was breaking his heart, saying 'Madeleine's been abducted, she's been abducted'."

Trish said: "When Kate checked, she came out screaming. Maddy had gone. The door was open and the window in the bedroom and shutters were jemmied open. Nothing had been touched and no valuables taken.

"They think someone must have come in the window and gone out the door with her."

Close family friend Gill Renwick, of Liverpool, who also spoke to GP Kate yesterday, said: "Poor Kate and Gerry don't know where to turn.

"Madeleine has obviously been taken. She couldn't have gone out on her own and the shutters were forced."

"The window shutters, which had been closed since we arrived on Saturday, were open along with the window. They can be opened from the outside.

"The window opens on to a car park. The door to the room was shut. It looks as if someone has come through the window and possibly left through the door."

~ ~ ~

Close family friend Jon Corner, of Liverpool, told how tearful Kate sobbed down the phone early yesterday: "Someone has taken my little girl."

Jon, godparent to the McCanns' twins, said: "She was in an absolutely hysterical state - very, very distressed. She blurted out Madeleine had been abducted.

"Kate said the shutters of the room were smashed. Madeleine was missing It looks as though someone had gone straight past the twins to get to her. Kate was incredibly upset. I've spoken to her since, and she's still completely devastated.
"She's also very upset that the police don't seem to be doing more to find Madeleine. She thinks there's too little happening."

Mark Warner management denied there were signs of forced entry at the flat claiming instead that roller shutters had been slid up and the bedroom window opened.
~ ~ ~

Jon Corner, a close friend of Mrs McCann and godparent of the twins, said Kate telephoned him in the middle of the night distraught.

He said: "She just blurted out that Madeleine had been abducted. She told me, 'They have broken the shutter on the window and taken my little girl.'

"They had left the apartment locked while they were having their meal, but when they went back the last time they saw the damage."

After speaking to her a second time, he repeated his earlier account, but this time in stronger language

He told how tearful Kate sobbed down the phone early yesterday: "Someone has taken my little girl."

He continued: "She was in an absolutely hysterical state - very, very distressed. She blurted out Madeleine had been abducted.

"Kate said the shutters of the room were smashed. Madeleine was missing It looks as though someone had gone straight past the twins to get to her. Kate was incredibly upset. I've spoken to her since, and she's still completely devastated.

"She's also very upset that the police don't seem to be doing more to find Madeleine. She thinks there's too little happening." (Get it in early.)

~ ~ ~
Brian Healy Grandfather.

"Gerry told me when they went back the shutters to the room were broken, they were jemmied up and she was gone," said Mr Healy. "She'd been taken from the chalet. The door was open."

~ ~ ~

A first rate argument for no abduction:

How did the alleged abductor snatch Madeleine in a time slot of no more than 3-4 minutes?

by Barbara Nottage

More excellent essays and analysis from Dr Martin Roberts, here and here.

Jim Gamble The CEOP A Horse's Arse

2010-05-23T22:24:00.011+01:00

A small gallery to act as a reminder of the CEOP's efforts outside its remit. Any Government organisation given just the basics of this case and the McCann's appeal for, and use of, publicly donated money, should be more than sufficient cause for that organisation to treat this pair as what they are, pariahs.

One can only wonder at their motives, their integrity, and I won't say judgement, because quite obviously, the pro-active efforts by the CEOP on behalf of the McCanns does not exhibit bad judgement, it displays something else altogether.

You will have probably all seen photographs by now of the CEOP Logo on the blankets of the Met's horses. The Jim'll Fix It theme however is quite parochial, and a touch in the past, for readers from afar, Wiki-Jim'll Fix It.

What a diverse world this is, and people we are. I took a swift look on the web hoping I might drop lucky and find a piece of tape to stick Goncalo's gong on his bike.

People get passionate about all sorts of strange things, sticky tape being no exception. I Love Sticky Tape.

Jimmy's Little Rubber Stamp

2010-05-20T11:56:00.007+01:00

How did I end up here? It was after making Gamble's stamp that I did a quick image search for "worthless" which of course brought up Zim dollars, which led to the diesel story, and the rest is history.

A small selection from the library, for your reading pleasure.

I see Trafigura is back in the news, (Joana) so here's an oldie featuring the parasitical Adam Tudor.

Gerry McCann. On Yer Bike

2010-05-16T20:37:00.011+01:00

Update below.

That's as much as you're getting, for whatever reasons, I have all day invested in this thing.

In response to a comment, this previous post by way of an explanation.

It's late and I have no desire to reiterate my feelings on this subject, because nothing sets me on fire as does a father trademarking his daughter, it sets me on fire, and I burn.

So all I say tonight, is this about the timing, haste, such incredible indecent haste.

Is money that important to them? Madeleine McCann - Money Machine. Nothing drastic here, just a few highlights.

Madeleine’s Fund created,

Companies House ‘Current Appointments Report’ shows that Madeleine’s Fund – Leaving No Stone Unturned Limited’ was created on this day:

Current Appointments Report for:
MADELEINE’S FUND: LEAVING NO STONE UNTURNED LIMITED
06248215

company was created 12th May 2007

It was initially set up, on behalf of the McCanns, in 48 hours, by the International Family Law Group (IFLG). This does appear to be something of a rush job. When jobs are rushed mistakes can be made.

Trademark application filed

The campaign to find Madeleine McCann has applied for British and European trademarks to protect its fundraising, internet and print promotions. The applications, which were filed on May 18, seek to protect the name “Madeleine’s Fund: Leaving No Stone Unturned”. The European application also seeks protection for the provision of social services and advice for people affected by missing children. more Justice for Maddie

The Second McCann Punch and Judy Show

2010-05-10T19:09:00.025+01:00

Snippet

One to remember for the Yankee Doodles, an old article on polygraphs I picked up from Twitter.

McCann spokesman Clarence Mitchell said: "Of course they are not going to take the test. It's inadmissible in Portugal and there are doubts about the accuracy.

"Gerry and Kate don't need to do one as they are telling the truth."
Mail Nov 2007

So There you go, see how far that one gets you.

Which reminds me....

Which also reminds me.... Gallery Fifty

And that reminds me of...

Being somewhat reminiscent of...

Making me recall...

Oh go to bed for fuck's sake, but not this one.

This update, is I suppose, worthy of a gallery of it's own, if for no other reason to let the Mail know what I think of the incessant shite they print regarding poor Kate McCann.

Well there is another way, if you feel as I, to let them know how you feel, click this link to their latest bit of trash.

Kate McCann's tears for mother of murdered schoolboy at heartbreaking memorial service

And I don't have to say it do I? Tears from Kate over......

Well I'll give you a tear from Kate McCann, well half a one, and just like the arsewipes that keep giving us "Exclusives" this is an exclusive, it would have to be wouldn't it.

A much truncated post showing the tearful Kate.

And some fecker accused me of being cruel today, not half as cruel as the fucking Mail is when they try and foist their shite on me.

So this one is for the tosser (4th down) that left the comment, all yours.

There are some biggies in this lot, so they will need clicking again after opening.

For a friend.

First Punch and Judy Show

Do not copy paste the entire gallery anywhere else on the net. I own the intellectual property rights, images are free to others for non-commercial use, but please keep it reasonable.

In Collusion With Senior Bent CEOP Cop Jim Gamble

2010-05-09T12:02:00.007+01:00

In Collusion With Senior Bent CEOP Cop Jim Gamble, The Screws Brings You This None Story.

In Collusion With Senior Bent CEOP Cop Jim Gamble, The Screws Brings You This None Story.

And if you read it, that is exactly what it is, other than of course to fulfil it's real purpose, that of conditioning the sheeple in readiness to accept a pro-McCann outcome from whatever dodgy probe/review Jim Gamble can push forward in his oh so obvious and desperate machinations.

Machinations who's sole purpose is to try and present the McCanns as victims in Madeleine McCann's disappearance, instead of what they really are, the perpetrators of that disappearance.

You must think we came down with the last shower, you transparent fuck.

Posted here rather than at Good Quality Wristbands, because I would like the present post to stay at the top of the page for a while.

Murder chief for Maddie
Top cop spearheads new probe into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann

By Lucy Panton, Crime Editor, 09/05/2010

BRITAIN'S top murder cop has been lined up to spearhead a new probe into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, we can reveal.

Det Chief Insp Colin Sutton, 49, who has been involved in some of the UK's biggest inquiries - including the murder of Milly Dowler and the terror reign of the Nightstalker sex beast - is seen as the best man to handle the challenging review.

Senior child protection officer Jim Gamble has asked Scotland Yard to take a fresh look at the three-year investigation.

He blasted Portuguese cops for their handling of the hunt for Maddie - who vanished aged three from her family's Algarve holiday apartment in 2007. Now the Met Police are set to review all leads in the case, using technology and standards expected in a UK homicide or kidnap.
It will delight Maddie's parents, Kate and Gerry McCann. A senior police source said: "They deserve reassurance that everything that can be done has been done. The Screws

Pilger on the BBC.

On press responsibility, propaganda.

My stuff featuring John Pilger. If you have the bandwidth try "Stealing a Nation" Land of Hope and Glory, yeah right.

If nothing else, check out my GIF, which isn't supposed to work on Blogger.

Always a good source.
http://www.democracynow.org/

The McCann Gallery of Obscenities

2010-05-06T01:08:00.017+01:00

These are just but a few of the images I find most obscene. I have tried to keep my comments to a minimum, and often a single image will have to suffice as representation for the many, be it group or subject.

The misuse and abuse of Madeleine McCann, the greatest obscenity of all.

Iconic photograph depicting the true nature of the McCanns.

Best selling items, add to cart. Madeleine McCann online store.

The other iconic photograph of the heartbroken parents of the lost child.

Our Daughter, registered trade mark.

Unless grouped, alphabetical order from here down.

Bent.

Parasite.

Who do we report you to Jimmy? you transparent fuck.

Disgusting.

It's the pure sham and theatrics that gets this one included.

Complicit.

Whore.

Posters of the deceased.

Balloon man.

Not content in destroying the place once, they go back for another bite of the cherry.
And the tragedy is not, for those that were dependant on it, the lack of income per se, but the pressure that would have been put on countless family units and subsequently damaged by loss of livelihood. It is not in a light-hearted manner that I quote my mother, "When the Wolf is at the door, love soon flies out the window." And all this at a time when the McCanns were living high on the hog off other peoples money. eta: And still are; "Kate given up doctoring to concentrate on searching for Maddie." Stop!

Corruption at work.

CEOP Gamble approved.

Agenda.

Providing a second to none police service.

List of shame.

Giving the gutters a bad name.

Totally obscene.

The Mail is truly a disgusting rag, typified here by their own pathetic use of pathetic Kate McCann photographs. Is it the worst paper of them all? I would have to say so.

Yes it is, even by the standards set by the shameless, shabby little whores of the turncoat Express

Slag.

Twat.

Matt Baggott, Christian at prayer.

Showbiz.

McCanns in a church.

Vile.

Beyond words.

For all attendees to the McCann Gala Ball.

I've allowed myself one light note, dress sense, how obscene is that?

Shameless. And I don't mean him.

That should have been plural, it's an extended family.

The Portuguese Justice Ministry and their unprecedented and obscene haste in archiving the case of a missing child.

What's obscene about candy floss? nothing, but being pink, sugary and sickly, represents the sick and demented people who set up such, normally pink, websites as below. The likes of which nauseate me beyond the telling, because they are not at all about Madeleine, they are all about the owner.

Obscene silence.

Seemingly invisible to all but a few.

For all the thousands of kids around the world that have been used so shamelessly.

To say nothing of the photo op.

See comments.

The Big Mothertrucking Gallery

2010-04-25T18:02:00.032+01:00

Well, I don't know how many trucks yer man has, but I got a fleet of the rascals.

Drive on!

Original pics.

Posted in alphabetical order. Click again when opened.

And a big tip of the hat to Jill Havern for sending me the pics.

Saint George's Day. I'm So Proud

2010-04-23T14:39:00.009+01:00

Aren't you?

Just a re-up for these two oldies, and for today I have granted Dr Amaral temporary citizenship, or perhaps I should make that Sainthood.

What a great country this is when the only public face to seek justice for Madeleine McCann is a Sardine Muncher. Pardon me I forgot the sweaty, and one or two other things.

And if that doesn't set your your blood racing, near bursts your heart with pride for this England, this green and pleasant land, then we don't want you in the BNP, thank you.

Oh to be in England now that April's election is here, and another clutch of fawning, disingenuous twats pander for our approval to which one of them we might allow to fuck us over for another four or five years

This democracy, how so it sets my heart on fire, I think I have a touch of the vapours, I must rest.

O, to be in England

Now that April 's there,

And whoever wakes in England

Sees, some morning, unaware,

That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf

Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf,

While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough

In England—now!

And after April, when May follows,

And the whitethroat builds, and all the swallows!

Hark, where my blossom'd pear-tree in the hedge

Leans to the field and scatters on the clover

Blossoms and dewdrops—at the bent spray's edge—

That 's the wise thrush; he sings each song twice over,

Lest you should think he never could recapture

The first fine careless rapture!

And though the fields look rough with hoary dew,

All will be gay when noontide wakes anew

The buttercups, the little children's dower

—Far brighter than this gaudy melon-flower!

Robert Browning