Are British Publishers just Greedy Money Grabbing Parasites?

Some of you may have heard about Amazon’s Kindle ebook reader. After months of being sold out the device is now back in stock (22-Apr-2008).

Authors in the USA receive a 25% royalty for each digital book sale.

According to the Teleread web site:

“The gauntlet was thrown down in February by Random House c.e.o. Gail Rebuck, who in a meeting with agents proposed a royalty of 15% of net receipts on digital sales. That’s higher than the standard 10% royalty rate on hardbacks, but significantly lower than the 25% currently received by authors in the US for e-book sales.

“Little, Brown c.e.o. Ursula Mackenzie followed suit, writing to agents to say that the Hachette publisher would also be seeking to pay 15% royalties on digital editions. Both publishers emphasised that the rates would be short-term and subject to break clauses.”

Many readers here in the UK would love the chance to own a Kindle and would definitely not be amused if the UK launch was delayed by greedy publishers not rewarding the authors properly for their hard work.

Who could be more dangerous than George Bush?

After 8 years of death and destruction, catastrophes, financial scandals, credit squeeze, big profits for GW’s friends in the Gas and Defence companies, who or what could be worse?

The Answer: John McCain.

Can the American people trust the Republican Party ever again? Probably not according to many.
Why does the GOP (Grand Ole Party) like septuagenarian and octogenarian presidents so much?

10 things you should know about John McCain (but probably don't):

In case you are not on anyone’s mail list we will let you read the 10 things you should know about John McCain according to moveon.org:

1. John McCain voted against establishing a national holiday in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Now he says his position has "evolved," yet he's continued to oppose key civil rights laws. (Ref. 1)

2. According to Bloomberg News, McCain is more hawkish than Bush on Iraq, Russia and China. Conservative columnist Pat Buchanan says McCain "will make Cheney look like Gandhi. (Ref. 2)

3. His reputation is built on his opposition to torture, but McCain voted against a bill to ban waterboarding, and then applauded President Bush for vetoing that ban.
(Ref. 3 )

4. McCain opposes a woman's right to choose. He said, "I do not support Roe versus Wade. It should be overturned.(Ref. 4)

5. The Children's Defense Fund rated McCain as the worst senator in Congress for children. He voted against the children's health care bill last year, then defended Bush's veto of the bill.(Ref. 5 )

6. He's one of the richest people in a Senate filled with millionaires. The Associated Press reports he and his wife own at least eight homes! Yet McCain says the solution to the housing crisis is for people facing foreclosure to get a "second job" and skip their vacations.(Ref. 6)

7. Many of McCain's fellow Republican senators say he's too reckless to be commander in chief. One Republican senator said: "The thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine. He's erratic. He's hotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries me.(Ref. 7 )

8. McCain talks a lot about taking on special interests, but his campaign manager and top advisers are actually lobbyists. The government watchdog group Public Citizen says McCain has 59 lobbyists raising money for his campaign, more than any of the other presidential candidates. (Ref. 8)

9. McCain has sought closer ties to the extreme religious right in recent years. The pastor McCain calls his "spiritual guide," Rod Parsley, believes America's founding mission is to destroy Islam, which he calls a "false religion." McCain sought the political support of right-wing preacher John Hagee, who believes Hurricane Katrina was God's punishment for gay rights and called the Catholic Church "the Antichrist" and a "false cult. (Ref. 9 )
10. He positions himself as pro-environment, but he scored a 0—yes, zero—from the League of Conservation Voters last year. (Ref. 10)


Sources:

Ref. 1) "The Complicated History of John McCain and MLK Day," ABC News, April 3, 2008

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/04/the-complicated.html

"McCain Facts," ColorOfChange.org, April 4, 2008
http://colorofchange.org/mccain_facts/


Ref. 2) "McCain More Hawkish Than Bush on Russia, China, Iraq," Bloomberg News, March 12, 2008
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aF28rSCtk0ZM&refer=us

"Buchanan: John McCain 'Will Make Cheney Look Like Gandhi,'" ThinkProgress, February 6, 2008
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/02/06/buchanan-gandhi-mccain/

Ref. 3) "McCain Sides With Bush On Torture Again, Supports Veto Of Anti-Waterboarding Bill," ThinkProgress, February 20, 2008
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/02/20/mccain-torture-veto/

Ref. 4) "McCain says Roe v. Wade should be overturned," MSNBC, February 18, 2007
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17222147/

Ref. 5) "2007 Children's Defense Fund Action Council® Nonpartisan Congressional Scorecard," February 2008
http://www.childrensdefense.org/site/PageServer?pagename=act_learn_scorecard2007

"McCain: Bush right to veto kids health insurance expansion," CNN, October 3, 2007
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/10/03/mccain.interview/

Ref. 6) "Beer Executive Could Be Next First Lady," Associated Press, April 3, 2008
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h-S1sWHm0tchtdMP5LcLywg5ZtMgD8VQ86M80

"McCain Says Bank Bailout Should End `Systemic Risk,'" Bloomberg News, March 25, 2008
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aHMiDVYaXZFM&refer=home

Ref. 7) "Will McCain's Temper Be a Liability?," Associated Press, February 16, 2008
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=4301022

"Famed McCain temper is tamed," Boston Globe, January 27, 2008
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/01/27/famed_mccain_temper_is_tamed/

Ref. 8) "Black Claims McCain's Campaign Is Above Lobbyist Influence: 'I Don't Know What The Criticism Is,'" ThinkProgress, April 2, 2008
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/04/02/mccain-black-lobbyist/

"McCain's Lobbyist Friends Rally 'Round Their Man," ABC News, January 29, 2008
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=4210251

Ref. 9) "McCain's Spiritual Guide: Destroy Islam," Mother Jones Magazine, March 12, 2008
http://www.motherjones.com/washington_dispatch/2008/03/john-mccain-rod-parsley-spiritual-guide.html

"Will McCain Specifically 'Repudiate' Hagee's Anti-Gay Comments?," ThinkProgress, March 12, 2008
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/03/12/mccain-hagee-anti-gay/
"McCain 'Very Honored' By Support Of Pastor Preaching 'End-Time Confrontation With Iran,'" ThinkProgress, February 28, 2008
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/02/28/hagee-mccain-endorsement/

Ref. 10) "John McCain Gets a Zero Rating for His Environmental Record," Sierra Club, February 28, 2008
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/environment/77913/

It is not necessarily unusual for us to take a stand either for or against a political party or candidate, but we do like to get behind the public face and try to present real people and what they really believe.

Fox News eat your hearts out.

Hat Napping Sweeps the USA

Another audacious hat napping occurred yesterday in Freemont, California. Agent Fergus Fedora of the HIA (HatNapping Intelligence Agency) said that there may be several gangs involved.

Details of yesterday’s incident were reported as follows:

9:10 AM - The target arrives at work, wearing the victim.

9:15-10:25 AM - Hatnapper lying in wait to commit hatnapping.

10:30 AM - Target goes to make a phone call.

10:35 AM – HatNapper Strikes! Ransom note 1 is left on target's desk.

10:46 AM - Hatnapper delivers second ransom note with picture of hat and daily newspaper.

11:11 AM - Target returns to desk. Hat Gone! Finds picture of Hat and Ransom Note!

11:15 – 11:59 AM - Hatnapper delivers third ransom note to Water Cooler!

1:20 PM - Target sources rubber bands.

2:11 PM - Target sources paperclips.

2:30 PM – Ransom Delivered.

3:00 PM - Innocent party returns victim (Hat) to target.


Agent FF says that this was a well planned hat napping, but if you should find yourself a victim of a hat napping then you should call the HIA. Not all hat nappings have a happy ending.

Lolita bed shows Ghost of Incompetence still haunts Woolworths

You would expect that anyone in their right mind would know that naming a range of beds for young girls as the ‘Lolita’ range would be considered bad taste.

Well, not if you worked for Woolworths apparently.

A Woolworth’s spokeswoman said: “Now this has been brought to our attention, the product has been removed from sale.”

Who was responsible for this farce?

Is there anyone in the Woolworth’s organization paying attention to what is happening in their stores?

Peter Hain Resigns Pending Police Enquiry

The UK Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, said it was the right and proper thing to do.

Who do these people think they are and just how many times do they think they should get away with their rule breaking.

The right time to go was when he found out about the lapses. If he went at that time, then we could be satisfied that the man had integrity. However when he hangs on as long as possible to see if he is going to get away with these breaches, then it begins to appear sleazy.

The British public deserves better and should demand better. It is right that the Electoral Commission have passed the matter to the police for a criminal investigation. It is an extremely serious offence as it directly affects the governing and democracy of our country.

If a burglar gets caught breaking and entering does he get let off simply because he was incompetent? “I am sorry your honour, but my friend who was in charge of disabling the burglar alarm did not notice that extra circuit”. Should you reasonably expect such an excuse to stand up in court? If you think not then you will probably agree that our politicians should not get away with similar excuses.

Labour MP Ronnie Campbell in a bind over National Fetish day

Honestly, some of our MPs need to get out more. The former miner and Labour MP for Blyth Valley, was approached and asked to wear something purple to support national fetish day. He said he would wear a purple shirt.

Unfortunately for Ronnie, he did not really know what a fetish was.

Now I am sure that there must be a few honourable members who could enlighten him, maybe someone from the Tory benches could come to his aid.

MoD latest Government Department to commit “an incompetence”

The department charged with providing the security for our country is the latest to commit (what the government euphemistically calls) an incompetence.

Des Brown’s wooden tops in the Ministry of Defence (MoD) have lost a laptop containing the personal details of over 600,000 people. The data included National Insurance Numbers, Passport Details and banking information.

The information commissioner, Richard Thomas said “We will require satisfactory answers from the Mod about their data protection practices and a firm assurance that steps will be taken to improve these practices before deciding on the appropriate action to take.”

Good luck to you Richard. This is the same department who send our soldiers into battle without ammunition and without the necessary protection to save their lives. The same department who think our shores can be guarded by ancient flying death traps (Nimrods), and the same department who have never given a satisfactory answer to anyone in their entire history.

Gordon Brown says Peter Hain guilty of “an incompetence”

The Prime Minister said that Mr Hain had made a mistake which he had readily admitted to.

There are several issues here which give rise to more than a little concern:

1. Mr. Hain, if admittedly incompetent, how can we trust him to competently run a Government department?

2. Why do we bother having these rules and these expensive enquiries when there appears to be no consequences when the rules are broken?

3. Spending over £100,000 on the deputy leadership campaign and coming in fifth does appear to be more than just a little incompetent.

The Prime Minister has said that he has full confidence in this “incompetent minister”, after all his department, the department of work and pension has not lost any data. Indeed their data records have been found …twice…

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/devon/7197048.stm

Documents from the department of Work and Pensions (Yes, Peter Hain’s Department) containing sensitive personal data, including details of benefit claims, passport photocopies, and mortgage payments were found dumped on a roundabout in Devon. This is the second time in the last three months that this has occurred.

No one at Downing Street has admitted, what everyone is thinking. As well as having no more money to spend on new jails, the government has also run out of financing for storage space. Therefore a new policy of dumping unwanted data and storage materials has been initiated by the former chancellor.

NHS Patient Medical records lost in Stockport, England UK

Again we are told of the events that happened in the past rather than immediate notification of more civil and public servant incompetence.

The Stockport Primary Care Trust (PCT) lost a memory stick containing patient medical details, which includes patient names, dates of birth, NHS Numbers, and GP details.

The data has been missing since December.

According to those responsible for the loss, the information cannot be used by identity fraudsters. Yea Right! We trust these morons to be the experts on what is possible and what is not. And you will like this, also according to those responsible for losing the data in question, “The loss was an accident rather than any systemic failing in management”. Yea Right Again!

Oh! And just in case you may be willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, maybe just a one off incident. No, sorry. The Stockport PCT also had to admit that they lost diaries containing patient’s names and addresses, apparently stolen from staff cars, in two separate incidents last June.

Government Incompetence, public servant incompetence, should we trust these people with anything? There is a danger that this site is becoming a Public Data Lost and Found blog. Unfortunately, we do not find too many stories about data being found. Gordon Brown, who is also head of the British Civil Service, must love this.

Woman, 84, discharged in nightie

As you will no by now, we are completely unsympathetic to the excuses made by public servants when they do something dumb, thoughtless and uncaring. So when some unthinking moron discharges and elderly lady from hospital at 3am then we must speak out in the name of common sense and decency.

In fact, we think that the only way to remedy these situations is for the person making these descisions to take responsibility and suffer the consequences.

So whoever made this diabolical descision at Herfeford hospital should suffer the consequences. They are definitely not able to make descisions that affect people's lives.

Do you want this person to be making descisions affecting the care and health of your loved ones? Of course you don't.

The person or persons are not fit for the post and should be removed immediately before anyone dies.