Wednesday, February 11, 2009
I Loves The Internets
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
The White House's official site has been updated with what, sadly, in 2009 we still have to call a brave list of commitments to equality for LGBT citizens of the United States. It will be truly inspirational if it passes. The thing that this doesn't make clear is that while Obama supports civil unions and opposes same-sex marriage ban legislation, there's nothing about what's going to happen to the POTSS that have actually got married, as opposed to unioned. Will they get legally recognised as married again or will they be downgraded to just being in a civil union?
Labels: American Presidency, Barack Obama, Civil Partnership/Gay Marriage, gay, lesbian, lesbians, United States
Wednesday, November 05, 2008
This one's for Patrick and Kevin, The Onion accidentally slips into reportage rather than humour.
Nation Finally Shitty Enough To Make Social Progress.
Meanwhile, good luck to Californian gays and lesbians as they try to get Proposition 8 overturned.
Nation Finally Shitty Enough To Make Social Progress.
Meanwhile, good luck to Californian gays and lesbians as they try to get Proposition 8 overturned.
Labels: American Presidency, Barack Obama, Civil Partnership/Gay Marriage, homophobia, United States
John McCain's concession speech. Officially ten times more dignified than 93% of his campaign.
Labels: American Presidency, United States
HE MADE IT.
The pictures on the telly this morning are amazing, street parties in Washington, Jesse Jackson with tears in his eyes, the new First Family standing on stage.
Cynicism glands are already starting to do their stuff so I've probably got about another thirty minutes before I remember how fucked the United States is and how Barack Obama is probably going to be spending the bulk if not all of his Presidency sorting out the absolute mess that the Republicans have made of the country in the last fifteen years.
One of the most striking differences between the United Statesian and British modes of politics is that when failure encourages a party to head out to it's extreme that impulse doesn't tend to achieve much in Britain whereas it reaps dividends in America. William Hague, Iain Duncan-Smith and Michael Howard all proposed going further and further to the Right after the Tories were ejected from power in '97 and it didn't do them much good, David Cameron has swung left and it's working, though it's equally that people are sick of the party in charge. But in the United States, ALL the Republicans who were standing to be their candidates were various degrees of batshit insane.
What has been depressing over the last week is that people have been even talking about Sarah Palin standing in 2012. Really? It's the Religious thing that I don't think secular people can understand, but the misadventures of Shrubya in office I would have hoped would have taught the Religious Right that God doesn't help you make up for an incuriosity about the world around you and an ignorance of how things work. If the Republicans had any sense they'd try to find a member of their party who actually knows what a conservative is and has conservative values rather than looking for a holy fool so devout they have stigmata. Leave them for the Catholics.
But yeah, good news last night. The United States can finally stop being embarrassed on the world stage (think of that Simpsons episode where Bart and Lisa strain their neck muscles because they've never had to hold their heads high before with respect for their father) and rededicate itself to actually trying to help make the world a better place again.
The pictures on the telly this morning are amazing, street parties in Washington, Jesse Jackson with tears in his eyes, the new First Family standing on stage.
Cynicism glands are already starting to do their stuff so I've probably got about another thirty minutes before I remember how fucked the United States is and how Barack Obama is probably going to be spending the bulk if not all of his Presidency sorting out the absolute mess that the Republicans have made of the country in the last fifteen years.
One of the most striking differences between the United Statesian and British modes of politics is that when failure encourages a party to head out to it's extreme that impulse doesn't tend to achieve much in Britain whereas it reaps dividends in America. William Hague, Iain Duncan-Smith and Michael Howard all proposed going further and further to the Right after the Tories were ejected from power in '97 and it didn't do them much good, David Cameron has swung left and it's working, though it's equally that people are sick of the party in charge. But in the United States, ALL the Republicans who were standing to be their candidates were various degrees of batshit insane.
What has been depressing over the last week is that people have been even talking about Sarah Palin standing in 2012. Really? It's the Religious thing that I don't think secular people can understand, but the misadventures of Shrubya in office I would have hoped would have taught the Religious Right that God doesn't help you make up for an incuriosity about the world around you and an ignorance of how things work. If the Republicans had any sense they'd try to find a member of their party who actually knows what a conservative is and has conservative values rather than looking for a holy fool so devout they have stigmata. Leave them for the Catholics.
But yeah, good news last night. The United States can finally stop being embarrassed on the world stage (think of that Simpsons episode where Bart and Lisa strain their neck muscles because they've never had to hold their heads high before with respect for their father) and rededicate itself to actually trying to help make the world a better place again.
Labels: American Presidency, Barack Obama, Fundamentalists- Christian, George 'Shrubya' Bush
Tuesday, November 04, 2008
While we wait for Patrick to work out what possible reason his countrymen might have for voting for Obama, let's review some highlights of the right-wing bloggers various smear campaigns.
Labels: American Presidency, Barack Obama, blogs, United States
Fuck!
The United Statesians are voting today and I have no alcohol in the house. I'm going to have to get through the night sober. Oh well, might as well try sleeping then...
Labels: American Presidency, United States
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
One of the funniest things about the U.S. election at the moment is all these Republicans who, having given up on McCain and Skippy Ewebecha, are now trying to persuade the American public that they have to at least vote some Republicans back into Government because it would be terrible for the country if Democrats controlled all branches. And I'm sure we all remember how, back in 2001-2, when the GOP went on telly and said "We've decided that it's not a good idea for democracy if the Republicans control all branches of Government so a load of us are going to step down and not contest our seats so as to even things up a bit".
Labels: American Presidency, Barack Obama, United States
Monday, October 13, 2008
Because supposedly liberals have been so nasty about that lovely Sarah Palin (NSFW). My entire arse. [via Washington Scandal, via Pandagon.] But then, are some Republicans okay with their casual racism, or is this some sort of humour that doesn't translate over the Atlantic?
Labels: American Presidency, Barack Obama, racism, United States
Wednesday, October 01, 2008
"You don't have to use facts, use threats!"
Monday, September 08, 2008
Palin for President!
[via pretty much everyone I know on the intarwebs who doesn't think that choosing some deranged church looney on the sole grounds that they don't have a Y chromosome (and whats more, have you heard all the Fundie Christians start praying that McCain has a heart attack and dies once in office as President, how fucked up is that?) is a sensible basis for selecting a running mate.]
Labels: American Presidency, comedy, Monty Python's Flying Circus, Republicans, YouTube
Sunday, September 07, 2008
If the world could vote?
If the world could vote?
Posted using ShareThis
Posted using ShareThis
Labels: American Presidency, Barack Obama, Democrats, Republicans
Monday, June 23, 2008
At Last, a Real Presidential Candidate For America
Thursday, March 13, 2008
A cynic might suggest that The Bush Tragedy: The Unmaking of a President by Jacob Weisberg is a book designed to appeal to me the most. An attack on George W. Bush from the left, it uses the two common views of him, as an empty cypher for the villanous policies of Cheney, Rove et al, or are the bloodiest mass-murderer in American history. Anyone following the Great British pantomime at the Royal Courts of Justice will be aware that it seems increasingly difficult in the modern age to define objective facts about people any more and, given that the Bush family obviously didn't help with the book and are not given to public introspection anyway, it would be fair to point out that all of Weisberg's suppositions are based on his reading of history. That said, it's a thrilling reading of the story, casting Shrubya as a largely empty vessel who has defined his adult life by trying to surpass his father by doing the same as him in the hopes of doing better, hence his laughable business career followed by the transition to politics. Weisberg points to mistakes in his father's era in the Presidency that could be argued to inform how the son became Texas Governor and then President.
Weisberg reserves most ire for Cheney and Rove, the former a Machiavelli who knows exactly how to push Bush's buttons to get him to do what Cheney wants while the latter worships Bush to such an extent that he's willing to dismantle the American Constitution on his behalf.
I did enjoy zipping through The Bush Tragedy but I expect that one's appreciation of the book will depend on how strongly one believes the central premise about the key players before they even pick the thing up.
Weisberg reserves most ire for Cheney and Rove, the former a Machiavelli who knows exactly how to push Bush's buttons to get him to do what Cheney wants while the latter worships Bush to such an extent that he's willing to dismantle the American Constitution on his behalf.
I did enjoy zipping through The Bush Tragedy but I expect that one's appreciation of the book will depend on how strongly one believes the central premise about the key players before they even pick the thing up.
Labels: American Presidency, books, George 'Shrubya' Bush, The War Against Terror, United States
Friday, January 25, 2008
While I generally like Andrew Sullivan and generally dislike Hillary Clinton, when the former, talking about the latter, approvingly publishes quotes like If Hillary Clinton wins, her success will become a lesson in how women should achieve power: marry well; put up with any humiliations your husband throws at you, and then, maybe, if you fight dirty, and ask your husband to run your campaign, you might be able to ride his coattails to your 'own' political success. and then says The damage she has done to feminism endures it makes me start to question my opinions on both.
Labels: American Presidency, Andrew Sullivan, Clinton- Bill or Hillary, misogyny
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Bush's Last Day. Although, seeing some of the candidates up for the Republican nomination this time round this might turn into a mourning rather than celebratory experience.
Labels: American Presidency, George 'Shrubya' Bush
Friday, January 04, 2008
