A German firm is renting out photogenic youths to protest
organisations, to swell the numbers at their marches and
demonstrations. One critic quoted in the
Blog
-
In need of an asylum
I’ve often wondered whether the Express and the Mail are cynical or stupid in their coverage of asylum seekers and immigration. A strong voice for the ‘stupid’ lobby comes from a Committee hearing in Parliament, at which the editors of those two soiled organs gave evidence. The Express’s editor, one Peter Hill, as reported in the Guardian brought forth the following description of asylum seekers
hundreds of thousands of people many of whom hate this country; people who want to destroy this country, people who want to become suicide bombers.
Disturbingly, Express readers also believe that the number of immigrants in the country is three times higher than the actual level (7%). Frightening stuff.
-
Madness, just madness
US columnist slams the Weather Channel as part of the great liberal conspiracy (via MeFi).
-
Tip us over 3,000
Remember that survey I mentioned on the Democratic Society’s website? You know, the one that would help us map how different political opinions relate to each other? Well, we’re up to 2,990 responses – and you could be the 3,000th respondent. Not that you’d win anything. Or even know. But … you know … would be kinda cool.
Anyway, here’s that link again.
-
Garry Trudeau interview
The creator of Doonesbury interviewed at length in the Washington Post.
-
Comment is free: The West Loathing Question: Tam’s complaint
A comparatively uninteresting article by Iain McWhirter on the Guardian website provokes an interesting set of responses on devolution and nationalism from the CiF crowd.
-
Half empty? Half full? Why can’t it be both?
Wendell notes two AP stories on US attitudes to the forthcoming year. One is very downbeat, the other very upbeat – but based on the same poll data.
-
Selective Amnesia
Glenn Greenwald attacks the lack of accountability in the American media, particularly in relation to the Iraq war.
-
The benefits of immigration in the US
From Salon.com.
Twenty-five percent of the technology and engineering companies started in the United States between 1995 and 2005 had at least one key co-founder who was an immigrant, reports a new study from researchers at the Pratt School of Engineering at Duke University. The researchers estimate that these companies generated $52 billion in sales and employed 450,000 workers. Immigrant non-citizens were also responsible for 24 percent of all international patent applications filed from the U.S. in 2006. Indians alone started more engineering and technology companies in the U.S. in the last 10 years than Chinese, Taiwanese and Japanese combined.