OPEN THREAD

>> FRIDAY, AUGUST 14, 2009

The Rielle Story Did you know the BBC has only mentioned Rielle Hunter once ever on its website?

I didn't intend to post about this. It just happened I had read on some US blogsand in the papers that John Edwards was being investigated by a Federal Grand Jury over illegal payments to Ms Hunter to buy her silence over their affair and was, you know, checking the BBC website for news about it. Silly me.

Seems odd. John Edwards is quite an important person - if the 2004 election had gone the other way he'd have been Vice President of the United States of America, and he had hopes that were not by any means crazy of becoming President himself. Furthermore one would have thought that the story had a certain degree of human interest - Edwards cheating on his terminally ill wife, the love child, getting his aide to take the rap, the birth certificate with no father listed, finally getting caught by the National Enquirer when all the respectable papers wouldn't look at the story. 

"John Edwards" is a common name. A search gives loads of irrelevant results. I did try "John Edwards" and "affair" - didn't get much. Almost as if the BBC didn't want to talk about a Democrat behaving badly.

I suppose one of these days the BBC will run a second story on the matter.

There were a hundred and twenty seven stories on the BBC about a sex scandal (which didn't involve any actual sex) concerning the Republican Mark Foley.Foley represented the 16th District of Florida in the House of Representatives.

OPEN THREAD

Friday evening and the weekend approaches! Time for an open thread and your chance to highlight the issues that concern you most...

GOOD NEWS FRIDAY

I was pleased to read that one bunch of Islamic killers are busy killing another, as the BBC reports. The odd thing is the way in which the BBC report refers to those fighting against Hamas as being "radical". I wonder if this is a BBC term of endearment? Hamas are about as "radical" as they come in the world of Islam but it seems that they have met some followers of Al Queda who have turned up in Gaza of all places. Who would have guessed that Hamas now represent the forces of conservatism in Gaza????

HANNAN ONSLAUGHT

The BBC are really milking the Daniel Hannan comments on the NHS. I see that this is the LEAD story this evening on the BBC with the risible Health Secretary Andy Burnham declaring Hannan "unpatriotic" for his "attack" on the NHS. The BBC keep repeating the lie that Hannan has "attacked" our wonderful socialised health care system when in fact all he did was point out the all too obvious failings it has. The BBC meme is simple - any criticism of the NHS is unacceptable and when an intelligent man like Hannan steps out of this sickening consensus on Health he is deemed a traitor to his country. I also notice that the BBC comedians are also on Conservative attack mode this evening, I caught a little of the Now Show and they were getting stuck in. The BBC is happiest when it is damning the Conservatives in general and forcing them to come out with pro-socialist statements.

MUSLIM WEDDINGS

Well, it's not everyday I feel a sense of sympathy for a Labour MP but in all fairness, I did feel a little sorry for Jim Fitzpatrick when he was beinginterviewed on Today this morning. Fitzpatrick has incurred the wrath of all those "moderate" Muslims out there by walking out of a Muslim wedding that he and his wife were attending when they askes to sit apart from each other. Listen to the excerpt from BBC Asian network discussion played here - note the lady who speaks at the very end. More Muslim moderation. In all fairness to Fitzpatrick, he has no chance here. Islam is intolerant of women, of course, but it is also entirely incompatible with our western value system. Fitzpatrick was lucky his wife was not asked to don the Burqa. The liberal BBC shills for the dark ages mindset of Islam and Mr Fitzpatrick gets no sympathy for his stance. Nothing new here, move along....

THE AFRICAN QUEEN...

Did you catch Evan Davies glowing report of Hillary Clinton's grand tour of Africa? I had to laugh when he declared that Obama is promoting good governance in Africa by stating that "Africa's future is up to Africans." Well, that should ensure that there is no good governance given the track record of the collective of thugs and tyrants that hold power across the dark continent! The guy being interviewed, Gibril Faal, did not appear to pick up on all the pro-Obama/Clinton vibes that Davies was giving off so the interview meandered nowhere really - a bit like democracy in Africa.

DANIEL IN THE LIARS DEN...

OK, stick with me on this one please.

BBC bias is often sophisticated and nowhere is there more obvious than on any discussion of State monoliths such as the NHS.

One of the few Conservatives that impress me is Daniel Hannan. He is courageous, independent-minded and best of all, an actual conservative. That's why I am not that shocked to read that he has been rebuked by his party leadership for endorsing American criticisms of the National Health Service.Thou must not criticise the NHS is the 1st commandment of British politics. It doesn't matter how useless it is, it doesn't matter how many it kills through poor hygiene and sloppy standards, it doesn't matter how many bureaucrats it piles onto the payroll each year, it doesn't even matter that it offers shocking value to patients for the £££ billions it receives. All that matters is politicians control it - lots of votes in it, you see.

Hannan has broken the golden rule and so the BBC delights in putting upAndrew Lansley - that political giant - to slap down young Daniel. The easy consensus - between all the political elite and the likes of the BBC - is that the NHS is a good thing and those who criticise it are bad. In this way, the NHS gets away with being the National Death Service and grins all round.

There are plenty of us who have real doubts about the NHS, and there are some of us who would like to see it de-linked from political control. Of course that then creates a rather unfortunate template that the BBC does not like. We no more need a National Health Service than we do a National Broadcaster. They are both creations from another age, they are both anchored in socialism, and the sooner they both go the better. Such a view as that which I have just expressed brings convulsions to the BBC and is rarely given media time. And so when Daniel Hannan dares to go on...gulp..Fox News, and speaks honestly of the failures in the NHS, he is pilloried by the smug elite who then use the State Broadcaster to stick the knife in, surgically. In this way, the BBC acts in conjunction with the politicians to maintain the status quo even thought it is, literally, killing us.