The most incredible thing about this is that David Cameron, The Boy-Weasel, is defending Andy Coulson the man who in all likelihood initiated these taps.

Coulson is Cameron's Communications Director.

With a bit of luck though this will spell Cameron's downfall.

Although a small part of me looks on that with trepidation as when Michael Howard went none of us suspected that the Conservatives would field an even worse monstrosity as leader.

Anyway, that aside, Coulson's statement of denial, especially from one so versed in the ways of spin and disguising meaning is tantamount to a confession:

This is too specific to mean what it is intended to mean.

There is no denial of involvement. That the payment was made after Coulson left NOTW is not in doubt. That the payment relates to activites carried out during his tenure is not and most likely cannot be denied. If it could be, it would be.

Specifically having no knowledge of the settlement made to Gordon Taylor does not mean that Coulson had no knowledge of Taylor's activities.

At first glance this may sound like tin foil hat stuff, but it's the way official statements are crafted. There are no lies but this is sleight of hand intended to draw attention away from the truth.

Fixed link.

And I have to wonder about the difference in privacy concerns in the UK vs. the US, given the whole "Big Brother" effect already in place over there, (and here, with warrantless wiretaps.)

And I really hope for an extension to this investigation that implicates them in American shenanigans. Murdoch is a blinkered anachronism who needs to be unseated. News is not Capitalism, per se.