This was a busy week in the world. Riots in Greece with the added dimension of innocent deaths, the passing of a President in Nigeria and the swearing in of a new one. The concept of The Hung Parliament to get used to in Britain, and the ever-present oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico.

(BP - trying to dig out of a hole, one fathom at a time)

From the CBC Radio One program The Current on May 5th, the ongoing disaster in the Gulf of Mexico and the PR campaign BP has been working on to get out from under a searing light. The promise of "we'll pay for everything" seems to be missing the point. But then, in the "never-never land" of big business, all things return to normal at the sign of a fat check, or so it would be hoped.

(A street in Athens this week - anger of Hellenic proportions, but then it turned pointless)

Via the BBC World Service Newshour for May 5th. The riots in Greece took an ugly turn with the deaths of three innocent bank employees, one a pregnant woman, when the bank they were working in was torched by rioters on this Wednesday. The anger turned to revulsion but the crisis continued.

(The late President Umaru Yar'Adua of Nigeria - genuinely liked everywhere)

It had been eluded to for some time, but Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua had been stricken with Cancer for a while and had not been seen in public for months. When Nigerian Radio broke the news of his passing it sent a wave of sadness and resigned shock throughout Africa, as was reported on May 6th by this special edition of Africa Today from the BBC Africa Service.

(Newly sworn in Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan - even the name is optimistic)

Within hours of Yar'Adua's passing, Goodluck Jonathan was sworn in as the new President of Nigeria, at least for the next six months before the official elections begin. BBC World Service Global News for May 6th reported on the swearing in and the future for Nigeria. Also in the broadcast are reports of new tunnel activity in the Gaza region. The Middle East is never too far away from new drama.

(Britain's answer to Joe The Plumber - A Pullet Surprise)

And finally, as the General election in Britain ended with a Hung Parliament, pundits and crystal ball gazers on both sides of the Atlantic are twisting like pretzels to figure out what it all means. As this BBC Five Live Story Of The Day from May 7th illustrates, the arduous task of coalition building and negotiation now takes place . . well, until the next election in six months time. And by then the world may have spun further off its axis.

And so went this week. Even though you may have slept through it there's still next week to consider. Or not.

The latest in the Rupert Murdoch/News of The World/News Corp/News International Phone hacking scandal finds the much-awaited release of the findings of the Leveson Inquiry damning of Rupert Murdoch and the Editors in charge at News Of The World.

In short, the Members Of Parliament found Rupert Murdoch had a curious habit of "looking the other way" with regards to the Phone Hacking Scandal. And as a result, was deemed by the panel to be "unfit to run an International Business".

Although the panel was split along Partisan lines - with four of the Conservative Members of Parliament voting not to include the "unfit to run a company" disclosure, they were unanimous in their agreement that Murdoch had mislead and deceived the Leveson Inquiry as to the true nature of the scandal.

In the report findings, aired over BBC Radio 4 's program PM, it was considered by some to be not all that earth shattering and that the scandal as a whole had more interest in Westminster than it did on the street.

Whether or not that's true remains to be seen. It's interesting to note that calls on this side of the Atlantic for an FCC inquiry into the operations of Murdoch's Fox News seem to have made more newsworthy headlines in the UK than over here. The move may be regarded as more symbolic than anything else, judging by the somewhat punchless and ineffectual state the FCC is in. However, there is still the ongoing DOJ Investigation of Phone Hacking and Bribery charges involving News Of The World related cases over here.

And all that lurks somewhere in the future.

But for now, Westminster has spoken and Rupert Murdoch's school of Tabloid Journalism received a slap on its faux-incompetent wrist.

ED. NOTE: We are just thisclose to our fundraising goals to protect this fabulous archive of Gordon's. If you haven't contributed (even $5 moves us closer to the goalposts), please consider doing so tonight.

Characterized as something of a tossup between an inept Mafia Don and a morally bankrupt enabler, James Murdoch went again before the Parliamentary committee investigating charges of phone hacking at the defunct News Of The World today. Not expecting any revelations, the committee pressed forward on contradictory testimony given by Murdoch previously with regards to settlement payments to phone hacking victims.

The biggest bone of contention centered around the now infamous "For Neville" e-mail which outlined widespread phone hacking within the News Of the World organization and whether Murdoch knew and didn't care or really didn't know and was therefore inept at running a company of that size. Murdoch rejected Labour MP Tom Watson's assertion that News Of the World had adopted a Mafia "Omerta" code of silence with regards to the practice.

The "stuck between a rock and a hard place" scenario had many wondering just how this testimony would go. But after 2 1/2 hours of grilling and testimony, the committee were left with probably more questions than answers and no doubt many more months of investigating to lie ahead with new revelations just around the corner.

At last count, there were some 300 million (yes, Million) e-mails Scotland yard was sifting through involving some 5,700 people who were believed to be hacked. At present, only 600 victims have been interviewed.

Needless to say - the legs on this story aren't getting any shorter. Although it isn't believed there will be any more public hearings after today.

Here is a wrapup of the days hearings via BBC Radio 4's PM Program which ran at 5:00 pm in London (9:00 am Los Angeles time).

While the press is generally offering up a Post-Mortem to the proceedings of the day before, there are stories bubbling under the radar which are sure to gather steam in the coming hours/days.

One of course is the FBI involvement in possible phone-hacking of victims of 9/11. The other is a request for further scrutiny at previous trials involving Newscorp going back to 2003. The latest is that the testimony James Murdoch gave at the inquiry has been questioned by none other than the former editor of News Of The World and a member of the Legal staff over some statements the younger Murdoch gave to be patently false, There is rumor of proof and it will no doubt come to light shortly.

Here are two audio reports via The Guardian website. The first one is Politics Weekly, a wrapup of the week and speculation over the coming week as filed earlier today (before the latest batch of allegations were made). The second is a special edition of Media Talk which was aired yesterday and features a panel of Guardian columnists (Matt Wells, Alan Rusbridge, Nick Davies, Jonathan Freeland, Jane Martinson) and a special report by Vanity Fair U.S. columnist Sarah Ellison on U.S. reaction to the scandal in general and the hearings specifically.

Everyone is in agreement this whole scandal is gathering steam. How it will play out in the U.S. may be much worse for the Murdochs than even the current UK scandal, particularly if the phone hacking question surfaces with regards to the 9/11 victims. That may prove to end the Murdoch dynasty (as it seems to be doing now but in a much more devastating and universal way).

Despite the revelations a few hours ago, it is doubtful James Murdoch will be in any position of power within the Newscorp/News International camp. The bigger question has been, how is this impacting on the David Cameron government. There have already been some calls from the Right Wing British Blogosphere for Cameron to step down. That his error in judgment in hiring Andy Coulson signaled some weakness in his leadership ability. I expressed that hunch some days ago, but in light of all the circumstances and fast moving developments, any hunch or speculation on my part is completely pulling something out of the air.

It's gone past the point of being believable. So I'm not even trying.

The top player is the Politics Weekly Podcast from The Guardian and the bottom player is the one-hour audience participation special on the Media Talk program.

All in all, a very busy week with no letup in sight.

The world had a look. It was covered by everybody and their brother. Even Fox News turned on the feed. And in the end there were no revelations, no bombshell disclosures, surpluses of stammering, flashes of defiance but mostly a sad disconnect. Disconnect of arrogance, absolute power feigning impunity, an inability to acknowledge or even truly comprehend the extent of damage they have caused to countless people and institutions over such a long period of time.

The elder Murdoch, at 81 has become a figurehead - claiming unawareness of what either the right or left hand are doing and truly caring less. The proclamations of humility and contrition rang as hollow as a cardboard tube because he is convinced beyond any measure of doubt that he is innocent. The Murdoch Style is free of any fault, absolute in its righteous quest for domination in the marketplace.

The younger Murdoch is a poorly assembled clone, cast in the ill-conceived role of heir. Stumbling over himself while feigning an air of well-rehearsed assurance. It didn't wash.

It was, for all intents and purposes, sad to watch. A poor man's Nuremberg Trial. With proclamations of victimhood and refusals to accept responsibility. By pointing fingers and blaming the oversights of others for this terrible mess they are in. That they knew nothing.

And it went that way for the better part of 3 hours. Broken up only by an attempted pie toss. A maladroit attempt at cashing in on fame by one Johnnie Marbles that wound up becoming the big distraction and ultimately has become the headline for the day. The real issues getting buried somewhere in the back. But maybe that was the intention. As we all know, The Murdoch Style of Journalism has been to deflect from real issues by glorifying insignificant ones. Replacing useful information for trivia. So perhaps, just perhaps it was an orchestrated stratagem, guaranteed to deflect from the severity of the moment. We'll never know for sure.

No doubt you have all been glued to your TV sets and computers all day, watching this sideshow unfold. But for those of you who may have missed it, didn't Tivo it, and don't want to hear soundbites, here is the entire testimony as it was broadcast by LBC in London. It's broken up over two players, each about an hour in length.

And as a supplement, there is also the testimony of Rebekah Brooks some ten minutes later. Not all that much different than the Murdochs claims of innocence and ignorance, but without the pie. Her humility and contrition were strangely missing as evidence continues to pile up against her.

So, here is the complete testimony of Rebekah Brooks, also as it was broadcast by LBC.

Interesting day for a story that has no end in sight.

And next?

Amid the breaking news this morning that Newscorp/News International/Rupert Murdoch are abandoning their takeover bid for BskyB, and with the growing firestorm surrounding the phone hacking scandal at the now-defunct News Of The World becoming something of a Perfect Storm, questions are now being raised if in fact Rupert Murdoch will survive this scandal and if he will abandon the UK as any place to continue his empire.

Bets are on he will, as he has done many times in the past. Whether his son James or his coveted, trusty assistant, confidant, whatever-she-is Rebekah Brooks will survive is another question. Odds are neither Rupert or James will be obliged to testify at the Home Affairs Select Committee Hearings, since neither are actual British Citizens (oh, that citizenship thing again), but Brooks will be since she is a British citizen, and it may make for very interesting theater on Tuesday (the day testimony is tentatively scheduled).

As of yesterday there were calls by Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Sen. Jay Rockefeller to begin hearings on Newscorps' possible violations here while stockholders in Delaware are making their discomfort known. It has also been mentioned by various sources there is a wave of gripping fear overtaking Fox News at the moment.

As was indicated last week when the bomb was dropped over the closing of News Of The World, the story is changing constantly and quickly. At the rate this is going, it may change again by Friday.

But for the moment, here is BBC Radio 4's PM Program with the latest as of this morning (afternoon in the UK).

Stay tuned.

Technical note: there is a portion of a 1989 interview with Murdoch missing. It was missing on the PM broadcast.

(Funkadelic - where, where, where are you, now we need you?)

Probably one of the most underrated bands in the history of Funk, or any genre of music for that matter. Funkadelic (and the sister group Parliament) were the brain children of George Clinton, whose outrageous ideas in stage presentation were second only to his incredible ideas about the music. I had the pleasure of working with George many years ago and the man was just as great as his music (which is always a relief). Truly innovative and straddling a lot of different forms at once, but doing them successfully. Their appeal, at least to me in the 70's, was they reminded me of what a lot of the progressive bands in Europe were doing at the time. And that they added Funk to the equation made it even more appealing.

They were also great at icon bashing and "screwing with perceptions", as is evidenced by this track, the immortal 1974 Jimmy's Got A Little Bit Of Bitch In Him. A band as equally at home with crafting great songs as they were taking the piss out of convention. It is probably much of the reason their music has remained timeless. Thank God.

If by some strange chance you aren't familiar with them. I urge you to go over and check their stuff out.

But don't take my word for it.

btw: check out George's site - there's a tribute to founding member Garry Shider who passed away just recently.

(Fishbone - exploded on the scene would be a good description)

Luckily for everyone Fishbone is still around and still playing. Although the personnel have changed a lot over the years, the concept of hardcore funk/punk/ska/ is still intact. A sort of Ska version of Parliament/Funkadelic would more or less begin to describe them. They were completely unique when they first landed on the scene in 1977. By the time they secured their first label deal (Sony) and their first single (Party At Ground Zero) they had a huge following and Party At Ground Zero has been a favorite song (even being touted as one of the 500 greatest rock tracks of all time) with a lot of people.

So I may be preaching to the choir tonight - but it's Friday (rapidly becoming Saturday) and it's the weekend and it's time to increase the voltage.

Play loud. Very loud.