Thursday, June 04, 2009
Wednesday, June 03, 2009
"Three thing taught me conservative love, Jesus, Ronald Reagan plus Atlas Shrugged"
Hilarious.
They've also knocked up a website too, where they continue to play the game to the hilt.
They've also knocked up a website too, where they continue to play the game to the hilt.
Labels: Conservatives, humour, music, politics, United States, YouTube
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Your Master's Voice
Ben Summerskill in the Guardian today:
The world of campaigning has changed massively over the last 20 years. Waving banners can be therapeutic, but it doesn't necessarily get you anywhere. But there are gay campaigners in 2009 who would love to be back marching in the streets, instead of having to negotiate with Whitehall officials about drafting tough bits of legislation.
Pffft! Silly poofs! When has demonstrating in the streets (or outside the V&A) achieved anything for anyone?
[Harvey] Milk himself was very determined. He was someone who was prepared to campaign hard but also to sit down and bash out compromises. He also had the ability to attract really quite dishy men - not unlike at least one gay politician I can think of today.
Reminds me of at least one student union president I knew who professed to find Tony Blair attractive.
The world of campaigning has changed massively over the last 20 years. Waving banners can be therapeutic, but it doesn't necessarily get you anywhere. But there are gay campaigners in 2009 who would love to be back marching in the streets, instead of having to negotiate with Whitehall officials about drafting tough bits of legislation.
Pffft! Silly poofs! When has demonstrating in the streets (or outside the V&A) achieved anything for anyone?
[Harvey] Milk himself was very determined. He was someone who was prepared to campaign hard but also to sit down and bash out compromises. He also had the ability to attract really quite dishy men - not unlike at least one gay politician I can think of today.
Reminds me of at least one student union president I knew who professed to find Tony Blair attractive.
Labels: demonstrations, gay, Government, lesbians, politics, Stonewall
Saturday, October 04, 2008
Sarah Palin has dashed to her tame TV station to complain about how mean Katie Couric was to her. Much as each interview she does demonstrates yet another area of life on which she has no knowledge or intellectual curiosity so here she expresses anger that Couric actually asked questions to try and elicit some evidence that Palin ever thinks or what McCain is standing for rather than just standing back and letting her have a go at Obama. To be honest, if she's wanting to go and claim that Obama has crazy mad spending plans after eight years of Shrubya it's probably best for the Republican party that those sorts of claims are restricted to GOP-TV where rampant lying is standard. It is worth remembering that the McCain campaign approached Couric believing her toothless interviewing style was best suited to introducing Palin to the country. To paint Couric as Jeremy Paxman is silly but hey, all politics is 99% farce so it'll probably work.
Talking of farce, Peter Mandelson is back in UK politics. When you've been in power for over a decade it's difficult to find new faces for Cabinet posts but it seems a desperate choice for Gordon Brown to make, maybe he hopes to have some luck by having someone in Cabinet less popular with the British public than him, and a strange choice for Mandelson to accept, what with the imminence of Labour's exile to the Opposition benches, you'd have thought that he'd wait until after that to then come back and start the fight back, much like he did with Blair and Brown in the Eighties.
Talking of farce, Peter Mandelson is back in UK politics. When you've been in power for over a decade it's difficult to find new faces for Cabinet posts but it seems a desperate choice for Gordon Brown to make, maybe he hopes to have some luck by having someone in Cabinet less popular with the British public than him, and a strange choice for Mandelson to accept, what with the imminence of Labour's exile to the Opposition benches, you'd have thought that he'd wait until after that to then come back and start the fight back, much like he did with Blair and Brown in the Eighties.
Labels: media, politics, Republicans, stupidity, United Kingdom, United States
Sunday, February 10, 2008
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What's Your Political Philosophy? created with QuizFarm.com | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| You scored as Green The Green Party believes in an America where decisions are made by the people and not by a few giant corporations. Their environmental goal is a sustainable world where nature and human society co-exist in harmony.
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Labels: environment, politics, United States
Thursday, January 31, 2008
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
The Declaration of Independence of what would come to be known as the United States of America read by Debra Jean Dean. [via BoingBoing]
If you're really hardcore, you might like to try the entire US Constitution but I think that would be too much for me.
The Declaration of Independence of what would come to be known as the United States of America read by Debra Jean Dean. [via BoingBoing]
If you're really hardcore, you might like to try the entire US Constitution but I think that would be too much for me.
Labels: history, politics, United Kingdom, United States
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
The Liberal Democrats have a real problem when it comes to choosing their new leader in that all their M.P.s that had any standing with the public stood last time and won't be standing again. There are members of the public walking our streets who cannot correctly name the Prime Minister of this country, what chance does a non-entity like Chris Huhne stand with them? Anyone who wants to stand for leader of the Liberal Democrats in the current leadership election will have such low public standing that their first step will be admitting at dinner with their family this evening that they are actually a Lib Dem M.P.
Labels: Liberal Democrats, politics
Sunday, October 07, 2007
Obviously I'm no friend of the Labour Party but some of the headlines over Gordon Brown's decision not to call an unnecessary General Election now seem rather harsh. We can ignore News International, who's policy of claiming that every full stop of government policy is dictated by a NotW poll rather than what Murdoch wants to do today went past ridiculous some time ago and is now over the cliff with the legs still moving, Wil. E. Coyote style. Even the Sindy is going for the jugular, with numerous cartoons of Gordo spilling or not drinking from the bottle marked Courage. But all the news organisations seem to be engaged in a pretense that it was the Government, not they, that were driving the story of whether there was going to be a snap election.
I expect that in a day or two, once the election non-story has died down, there will be a return to the 'Is Ming too old to be a political leader?' story, because Cameron has done enough to put down some of the stories about his leadership for a while (until anyone else in the party says anything else about Tory policy and exposes that they are secretely glad not to fight an election when they don't have a clue what to stand on). I don't know who can take the blame for this, but it does seem that in the last few years, there's been at least one main political story rumbling on and on at any one time, Charlie Kennedy and the whisky bottle, Why have the Lib Dems chosen Ming Campbell, Cameron takes over the Tories, the Cameron bounce, When will Tony Blair leave, why did he announce a date so far in advance, counting down Blair's last three months/two months/six weeks/one week/one day/one hour in office, wasn't Tony Blair a great PM? The Brown bounce, the Cameron stumble, the unnecesary election...
I expect that in a day or two, once the election non-story has died down, there will be a return to the 'Is Ming too old to be a political leader?' story, because Cameron has done enough to put down some of the stories about his leadership for a while (until anyone else in the party says anything else about Tory policy and exposes that they are secretely glad not to fight an election when they don't have a clue what to stand on). I don't know who can take the blame for this, but it does seem that in the last few years, there's been at least one main political story rumbling on and on at any one time, Charlie Kennedy and the whisky bottle, Why have the Lib Dems chosen Ming Campbell, Cameron takes over the Tories, the Cameron bounce, When will Tony Blair leave, why did he announce a date so far in advance, counting down Blair's last three months/two months/six weeks/one week/one day/one hour in office, wasn't Tony Blair a great PM? The Brown bounce, the Cameron stumble, the unnecesary election...
Labels: Conservatives, David Cameron, Gordon Brown, Labour, politics
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
A Reasoned Critique of Something or Other.
Its time to point out just how much evil, death and human destruction the left - including the British left - have been responsible for.
Bravo Man in a Shed!
Bravo Man in a Shed!
Labels: Conservatives, humour, politics
Monday, September 10, 2007
Here's an interesting article from Vanity Fair about the trials and tribulations of the Al Gore 2000 Campaign for the Presidency, though, without the use of extraordinary rendition and Cheney-approved torture we're unlikely to get the whole truth about why so many lies were told, and of course, those who could tell us the most about the story ain't talking.
Labels: politics, United States
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
David Cameron in big time freakout. We're a few months into the Gordon Brown premiership and not only has the country not ground to a halt but he's also managed to come out of crises looking pretty good. Which probably explains why Cameron has decided that the new Tory policy is to ditch all the Green, Youtube, Blairite stuff and headback to old school Tory values, you know, the things that helped them to those three General Election defeats. So John Redwood is let out of the cupboard under the stairs where they keep the crazy unpopular members of the party and now we have more of that stuff that always feels like it should be prefaced with the words "I'm not a racist but..."
The whistling sound you can hear is from Gordon Brown's advisors as they exhale in relief, realising that David Cameron has handed them the next election, whenever Brown decides to call it. The grinding noise is Tony Blair's teeth when he realises that his old enemy is going to win a general election, based on his own negligable popularity and not dragged down by the memory of Blair, whom he followed into every unpopular policy. At least David can stop riding that bicycle to work now, his 'green' credentials aren't going to whitewash the brown slurry coming from Tory Central Office (do you see what I did there?).
Related: How did David Cameron lose his nerve and his bearings in just one month? Martin Bright looks at the disarray that has engulfed the Conservatives since Gordon Brown became Prime Minister.
The whistling sound you can hear is from Gordon Brown's advisors as they exhale in relief, realising that David Cameron has handed them the next election, whenever Brown decides to call it. The grinding noise is Tony Blair's teeth when he realises that his old enemy is going to win a general election, based on his own negligable popularity and not dragged down by the memory of Blair, whom he followed into every unpopular policy. At least David can stop riding that bicycle to work now, his 'green' credentials aren't going to whitewash the brown slurry coming from Tory Central Office (do you see what I did there?).
Related: How did David Cameron lose his nerve and his bearings in just one month? Martin Bright looks at the disarray that has engulfed the Conservatives since Gordon Brown became Prime Minister.
Labels: Conservatives, David Cameron, Gordon Brown, Labour, politics, Tony Blair
Sunday, July 01, 2007
Anyone speak Portuguese? I've found canal*MOTOBOY, which looks like a very interesting photoblog by motorcyclists in São Paulo, but am hindered more than a tad by my poor language skills. There's a bit more information here, which is where I found the first link. I've also been looking at some of the corredor -running videos on YouTube. [via The Abaporu Project]
Labels: blogging, Brazil, citizen journalism, politics, YouTube
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
Hang on!
Watching PMQ, Tony Blair has said that the Home Office is changing to 'The Ministry of Justice'. Is he in some sort of race with himself to see which future dystopia we reach first, Airstrip One or Mega-City One?
Labels: politics, Tony Blair, United Kingdom
Monday, May 07, 2007
This am your news
Let's ease in to this gently by going with The Sun, always trying to position itself as The Onion for urban Conservatives: Paris Hilton scared of prison lesbians. Elsewhere, Pete Doherty has apparently been caught with drugs again but no doubt the trial judge will find some way to see this as proof that he's trying to stop taking drugs and he'll get off scott free.
In real news The Times reports Cameron's Conservatives finally ready to start explaining what they stand for, which is handy just after a national round of local elections which were seen as a referendum on the Labour Government. Seeing as the Murdoch stable seem happy to big up Blair while giving Brown any number of paper cuts it seems the first principle of Cameron Conservatism is to get News International onside, hence the fact that The Times seems to have been told what will be said tomorrow. There's still some scepticism apparent, as we wait to see whether Tories are desperate enough for power again yet that they are willing to go with Dave.
The Guardian has an article on New Atheists, they loathe religion far too much to plausibly challenge it, apparently. Google currently gives 'about 44,000' results for a search. The claim that Richard Dawkins goes too far in attacking religion is not a new one, nor is it particularly inaccurate. The problem is that by trying to grab a bunch of authors who have nothing in common other than having written books attacking the religiosity most commonly typified by the Conservatives of the United States and the Conservatives of a number of Muslim countries < pause for breath > and calling them The New Atheists makes it seem as though they sit together in their secret volcano base plotting each day how to defeat religion.
"What are we going to do tonight Richard?"
"The same thing we do every night Dennett, try to vanquish the religions of the world!"
Also, by ignoring completely what may have caused this small spate of anti-religious books (and their apparent popularity) Madeleine Bunting gives the unfortunate impression that religion of various denominations had been pootling along for the last decade minding it's own business and hurting no-one.
I've never really understood religious anti-Darwinism and anti-evolutionism, I'll admit I haven't read On the Origin of Species but I have read the Bible and, while it's true to say that it doesn't say that God creates evolution it says nothing to deny the possibility and would also suggest that God is a non-omnipotent being, with limits, who needs six days to make a planet and who needs a day to rest up. I haven't got a copy to hand so I'm not sure if it explicitly states that God creates the passing of time or the ability to reproduce through the interaction of people's naughty bits. Anyway, this is just a long preamble to a link to an article in the NYT in which Conservatives are battling the ultra-religious elements in their own ideology over Darwinism. I've always assumed that the urge to oppose Darwinism was no more than the desire to oppose what the Religious Right assumed the scientists stood for, birth-control, abortion, separation of church and state and so on. Can the Conservatives take the Republicans back from the Christians? Could they still have power if they aren't following an unreconstructed two-thousand year old ideology?
In real news The Times reports Cameron's Conservatives finally ready to start explaining what they stand for, which is handy just after a national round of local elections which were seen as a referendum on the Labour Government. Seeing as the Murdoch stable seem happy to big up Blair while giving Brown any number of paper cuts it seems the first principle of Cameron Conservatism is to get News International onside, hence the fact that The Times seems to have been told what will be said tomorrow. There's still some scepticism apparent, as we wait to see whether Tories are desperate enough for power again yet that they are willing to go with Dave.
The Guardian has an article on New Atheists, they loathe religion far too much to plausibly challenge it, apparently. Google currently gives 'about 44,000' results for a search. The claim that Richard Dawkins goes too far in attacking religion is not a new one, nor is it particularly inaccurate. The problem is that by trying to grab a bunch of authors who have nothing in common other than having written books attacking the religiosity most commonly typified by the Conservatives of the United States and the Conservatives of a number of Muslim countries < pause for breath > and calling them The New Atheists makes it seem as though they sit together in their secret volcano base plotting each day how to defeat religion.
"What are we going to do tonight Richard?"
"The same thing we do every night Dennett, try to vanquish the religions of the world!"
Also, by ignoring completely what may have caused this small spate of anti-religious books (and their apparent popularity) Madeleine Bunting gives the unfortunate impression that religion of various denominations had been pootling along for the last decade minding it's own business and hurting no-one.
I've never really understood religious anti-Darwinism and anti-evolutionism, I'll admit I haven't read On the Origin of Species but I have read the Bible and, while it's true to say that it doesn't say that God creates evolution it says nothing to deny the possibility and would also suggest that God is a non-omnipotent being, with limits, who needs six days to make a planet and who needs a day to rest up. I haven't got a copy to hand so I'm not sure if it explicitly states that God creates the passing of time or the ability to reproduce through the interaction of people's naughty bits. Anyway, this is just a long preamble to a link to an article in the NYT in which Conservatives are battling the ultra-religious elements in their own ideology over Darwinism. I've always assumed that the urge to oppose Darwinism was no more than the desire to oppose what the Religious Right assumed the scientists stood for, birth-control, abortion, separation of church and state and so on. Can the Conservatives take the Republicans back from the Christians? Could they still have power if they aren't following an unreconstructed two-thousand year old ideology?
Labels: atheism, atheists, Conservatives, David Cameron, Evolution, Fundamentalists- Secular, Islam, newspapers, politics, religion, Republicans, Richard Dawkins, science, United Kingdom, United States
Thursday, March 15, 2007
I know it's a glacially slow news day, the prospect of British Government committed between now and 2025 to buying nuclear weapons by someone whose own political future is now measurable in double-figure days isn't particularly sexy. But for fucks sake. If everything I see, hear, taste and touch around me weren't a cunningly designed prison intended to drive me completely mad there is no way this shit would count as news.
Labels: Conservatives, David Cameron, politics, stupidity
Thursday, March 08, 2007
AMERICA IS DEAD! Don't worry, he'll probably walk out of the shower before the story ends.
The Daily Mail has been reading Isaac Asimov, Robots to be programmed with 'code of morals' so they won't attack humans, and 'prominent off/on switches' that will be all that stand between us and horrible T2-style destruction.
The Guardian has an interview with the Modified Toy Orchestra. The album is worth getting and can be ordered here.
The news of a woman being repeatedly punched while being subdued by police is worrying, though if the woman does have epilepsy and did have an attack right after drunk and disorderly with police then it's understandable that they might not have realised, but surely 'punching someone in the head or neck until they stop struggling' isn't in the police manual as an acceptable method of getting someone to stop struggling, especially when she's one woman and there are three men sitting on you?
Lord Levy has only five hours to live! Well all right, the Government are worried that he's going to implode, which I presume means they are worried that he's going to tell police stuff that he hasn't told them in two interviews under caution. What's rather annoying is that there's now a strand of the story starting to come out that this has nothing to do with whether he did anything illegal but because he's Jewish. I could have some sympathy for Levy if it wasn't for the fact that since his first interview last year his every utterance upon the subject has given the impression that he feels that now he's a lord he should have immunity from prosecution whether he committed any crimes or not. And to suggest that the party fundraiser shouldn't be closely scrutinised in an investigation into party fundraising seems crazier than Tony Blair telling me that ID Cards will help fight terrorism.
The Scum and Mirror have also run a number of small stories on Beth Ditto in the last few days. Her lesbianism has been overlooked, probably on the grounds that she's a fat lass, which has been what they've concentrated on. One of the last acceptable prejudices?
The Daily Mail has been reading Isaac Asimov, Robots to be programmed with 'code of morals' so they won't attack humans, and 'prominent off/on switches' that will be all that stand between us and horrible T2-style destruction.
The Guardian has an interview with the Modified Toy Orchestra. The album is worth getting and can be ordered here.
The news of a woman being repeatedly punched while being subdued by police is worrying, though if the woman does have epilepsy and did have an attack right after drunk and disorderly with police then it's understandable that they might not have realised, but surely 'punching someone in the head or neck until they stop struggling' isn't in the police manual as an acceptable method of getting someone to stop struggling, especially when she's one woman and there are three men sitting on you?
Lord Levy has only five hours to live! Well all right, the Government are worried that he's going to implode, which I presume means they are worried that he's going to tell police stuff that he hasn't told them in two interviews under caution. What's rather annoying is that there's now a strand of the story starting to come out that this has nothing to do with whether he did anything illegal but because he's Jewish. I could have some sympathy for Levy if it wasn't for the fact that since his first interview last year his every utterance upon the subject has given the impression that he feels that now he's a lord he should have immunity from prosecution whether he committed any crimes or not. And to suggest that the party fundraiser shouldn't be closely scrutinised in an investigation into party fundraising seems crazier than Tony Blair telling me that ID Cards will help fight terrorism.
The Scum and Mirror have also run a number of small stories on Beth Ditto in the last few days. Her lesbianism has been overlooked, probably on the grounds that she's a fat lass, which has been what they've concentrated on. One of the last acceptable prejudices?
Labels: cash for peerages, comics, ethics, fat, Labour, music, news, police, politics, robots
Monday, March 05, 2007
"Tired of the LIBERAL BIAS every time you search on Google and a Wikipedia page appears? Now it's time for the Conservatives to get our voice out on the internet! to make a real half-arsed effort to do something about it.
Conservapedia, for when you want to obfuscate issues rather than debate them. And it has that crunchy American bias that you'd expect from drawing from such a narrow pool of contributors, nothing for Tony Blair, a paragraph for Margaret Thatcher with at least two factual inaccuracies that I could spot and one dodgy sentence which would appear to say the opposite of what I expect they mean. Sadly, they are locked up tighter than wikipedia so I couldn't make corrections, being a helpful sort and all.This is what happens when you let school projects loose on to the Internet.
Conservapedia, for when you want to obfuscate issues rather than debate them. And it has that crunchy American bias that you'd expect from drawing from such a narrow pool of contributors, nothing for Tony Blair, a paragraph for Margaret Thatcher with at least two factual inaccuracies that I could spot and one dodgy sentence which would appear to say the opposite of what I expect they mean. Sadly, they are locked up tighter than wikipedia so I couldn't make corrections, being a helpful sort and all.This is what happens when you let school projects loose on to the Internet.
Labels: Conservatives, internet, Margaret Thatcher, politics, United States
Friday, February 23, 2007
What's more telling is how unpopular the war is in Britain, and how an entire generation of Brits have now grown up thinking of the United States as a bullying, torturing force for instability in the world.
When Andrew Sullivan is right, he's right. In my case, part of the disappointment and anger comes on behalf of a little five year old boy that thought brilliant was practically a synonym for the United States, that assumed that all the best telly, toys and music had to come from the States. When, around ten years later, he discovered exactly what that country was up to, along with the country he grew up in, he was so appalled and I don't think he ever recovered.
When Andrew Sullivan is right, he's right. In my case, part of the disappointment and anger comes on behalf of a little five year old boy that thought brilliant was practically a synonym for the United States, that assumed that all the best telly, toys and music had to come from the States. When, around ten years later, he discovered exactly what that country was up to, along with the country he grew up in, he was so appalled and I don't think he ever recovered.
Labels: Andrew Sullivan, politics, The War Against Terror, United States
Westwood Ho?
The New York Times wonders if the liberals are coming back. Is 'liberal' still used as a term of insult in the United States, or has it been replaced by 'Democrat'? I also question their claim that Senator McCain could be considered appealing to liberals.
The New York Times wonders if the liberals are coming back. Is 'liberal' still used as a term of insult in the United States, or has it been replaced by 'Democrat'? I also question their claim that Senator McCain could be considered appealing to liberals.
Labels: liberals, politics, United States
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
The politics of Twenty-Four . It interests me that even the military have approached the producers and asked them to tone the torture down. And the producer of this show is the guy trying to get the Conservative Daily Show off the ground. [via Fridgemagnet]
Labels: Conservatives, politics, Television, Twenty-Four
