INAUGURATION DAY

Calls for tickets through the roof

Chicago Tribune

By Lolly Bowean |Tribune reporter- November 8, 2008

There have been calls from forgotten childhood classmates, from long-gone girlfriends and boyfriends, and even from the widows of deceased Chicago icons.

In the three days since the election of Barack Obama, the demand for tickets to Inauguration Day events has been unprecedented, local congressional officials said.

“It’s crazy,” said Sharon Jenkins, spokeswoman for Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.). “We’re in a unique moment in U.S. history. Every day under Obama’s administration is a first, and people want to be a part of it.”

Tickets to inaugural events are free of charge and distributed through members of the incoming Congress. The ceremonies are coordinated by different committees, and the tickets to the events are distributed differently. Events include a morning worship service, a procession to the Capitol, a swearing-in ceremony, an address, a parade and balls.

MORE HERE

I was one of those sad fuckos in the 51st State who stayed up till 4am GMT watching the BBC coverage of the election. A sadistic choice of broadcaster, as it turned out, because I found the whole experience agitating and niggling from start to finish.

Not because McCain got slaughtered - I don’t particularly think Obama is a bad choice, and it turns out McCain was the poorer candidate. Obama will simply be useless and a monumental disappointment along with his democratic colleagues in Congress.

No, the coverage made my blood simmer over the course of around 5 hours because David Dimbleby’s show was blatant in its sneering, passive-aggressive liberal bias.

Dimbleby was on form, as usual. Asking away his loaded questions and cutting short the few Republican leaning pundits invited on the show in rolling segments time and time again. The smirk on his face could hardly have been contained if he tried. The BBC reporters stationed in various locations throughout battleground states were bubbling with jubilation and joy, almost as much as the Obama fans they interviewed. They were almost all Obama fans by the way. Even though McCain scored between 43 and 49% of the vote in most of these key states. The few McCain supporters who were brought up to the camera for comment seemed cherry picked on account of their disgruntled, bitter demeanour.

It became embarassing at several points, with Simon Schama being invited on the panel to patronise and gloat his way through ‘discussion’ with fellow panelists. He got into a row with John Bolton, and it takes a lot for me to end up sympathising with a right wing pro-Bush Republican. But Shawarma managed to help me on the way.

Then Bolton felt the need to intervene at one point, when the camera cut to a BBC correspondent in Colorado who exhibited shameless and disgusting bias when interviewing a leading Republican figure in that state. The reporter continued to ram home how bad the Republicans were doing, continually trying to force the Republican to admit how horrific it had all been and how the State had not voted for a Democrat in 9 out of the previous 10 Presidential elections. The interviewees response was futile, as he tried to correct the reporter’s lack of knowledge of the history of politics in the state. Bolton piped up at the end and told Dimbleby that the reporter should be sacked, apparently implying shocking bias and one-sidedness in the reporting. Naturally, Dimbleby dismissed this claim quickly and moved on.

And so it went on, with a female reporter at one stage getting embroiled in an aoutrageous argument with Bolton, again, with the reporter offering a completely one-sided and partisan view on events and why the Republicans were finding themselves being mashed.

I knew what was coming after I had gone to bed and I woke up a few hours later to go to work. When I got in to work, I had a quick browse of the net only to discover the Guardian newspaper absolutely awash with gleeful, gloating, hand-wringing news and comment on the delightful result. A massive contrast to 2004, when everything received a week of nasty comment about how nasty the Americans are and how backwards they are and everything was thereafter forgotten.

The Independent, as to be expected, took up the little notch of space to the left of the Guardian, by sneeringly and snottily (characteristics most commonly found in the left) telling readers that it was the blacks of America that delivered this marvellous result and if it were left to horrible white trash, McCain would have won.

The Telegraph, Times and other papers offered pretty standard coverage, although every medium has been infused with an all round sense of pro-Obama hope and positivity. Everyone has fallen for the vacuous promise of’change’. Everyone has fallen into the pathetic little self-made trap of thinking that the race of Obama makes a difference. That somehow it matters. No, it doesn’t. He has precious little in common with the majority of African-Americans, and even if he did have things in common, his colour should not and does not matter. The politics of racial or other identities piss me off, because it’s based on a lack of logic, it’s based on emotion and it’s based on silly daft misconceptions and fantasy.

Has no-one learned anything from 1997? I refer readers to my recent article on Obama and comparisons with Tony Blair.

Obama will, even with a Democratic Congress, make little inroads of changes. He will react to a series of world events that will be fast and will require him to almost crisis manage, rather than build up a coherent strategy or set of executable policies. He got $600 million together to spend on ads and posters and volunteers to help get him into office.

What a shame he has yet to show any interest in assembling economists and experts to draft good, solid policies on the economic crisis and other related issues his country faces.

Too early, I hear people say. OK, let’s have another look at the situation in 6 months. I, sadly, doubt much of interest will occur. And in 4 years time, 8 years time, the big difference race will have made in all this will be that black people will have been robbed of their age long excuse for failure.

What then? Will we be crying our liberal hearts out in 2015 when having a black president meant fuck all to anything?

My faith in humans’ rationality and reason fails that bit more with each passing day.

The preliminary Presidential election results, according to CNN are:

Obama	63,364,884	52%
McCain	56,022,312	46%
Nader	651,356	1%
Barr	486,121	1%
Baldwin	173,632	0%
McKinney	140,507	0%

The numbers will change somewhat as the final results come in. Nader will probably hit 700,000. McKinney does only slightly better than Green nominee Cobb did in 2004.

I voted for Cynthia McKinney, Green Party candidate. However, I did some, very minor, campaigning for Nader/Gonzalez in the last few weeks. I campaigned for Nader to maximize the progressive vote, I figure the relative strength of the Nader campaign gave it a better chance of picking up wavering voters.

A few of my co-workers talked about their minister’s endorsing McCain from the pulpit. I waited in line for about an hour and a half to vote at Inman Mills Baptist Church. Small town Republicans were motivated to vote, there was no likelihood of the Obama taking SC.

Neither was there much possibility of a progressive breakthrough. My neighbors and co-workers knew Nader was running. Almost everyone thought he was the Green Party candidate. Mentioning McKinney produced confusion, and lecturing at that stage of the game seemed counterproductive.

Of all the minor campaigns, Nader/Gonzalez was the best organized. The McKinney campaign needed one break in this election: Hillary Clinton had to be Democratic nominee. Without being situated as the progressive African-American candidate for President, McKinney’s opportunities to attract attention evaporated. The subsequent disorganization of the campaign did nothing to overcome the already massive hurdles. Maybe Nader hired all the experienced people. Maybe the Greens didn’t have any money to hire anyone. Probably both. Somebody should write a book on the third party campaigns in 2008.

The media’s complete and utter fixation on the Presidential election as a horserace precluded the introduction of alternatives even when the McCain and Obama patently agreed on an issue. The best chance for breaking this lock occurred around the breakout: when Obama and McCain both flew back to Washington to endorse the Bush-Paulson emergency plan and massive public opposition erupted. Well, we got through that and back to talking about Joe the Plumber in the space of about a week. Topics that were never even seriously entertained in the media were the essential sameness of the GOP and Dems on Healthcare - neither plan corrects the basic problem of controlling cost - and the War in Iraq - both major parties support continued U.S. military presence until a stable puppet regime is established.

A national progressive Presidential campaign should simply hire the Nader organization. There aren’t sufficient resources or opportunities to run more than one national independent-progressive campaign. A Nader/McKinney ticket would have made more since than the Green campaign we got. I don’t think this is the end of the Green Party, which has done relatively well in in local elections this time. In Chicago, the Bay Area, Portland, Maine the Greens are the second party vs a Democratic machine. It would be foolish to rebrand that local organization. It might be possible to establish a federative structure at the national level that would preserve the Green Party, but expand the base to include the independent voter’s that nader attracts, independent unions like the United Electrical Workers, state parties like Vermont’s Progressive Party, and progressive organizations like Physicans for a National Health Plan and the Wilderness Society, whatever socialist organizations that would come on board, etc. Most of these organizations either did, or came close to, endorsing Nader in 2000. There’s your ready-made cabinet.

Maybe desirable to expand the party to more mainstream independents like the Independent Party of Minnesota, which at least declined to endorse either McCain or Obama and has a strong left-libertarian element. It was always Nader’s goal to build a reform movement, not an ideological party.  Taking in the results of this election, maybe that’s a better use of energy.

Maybe a looser national structure is needed. Nader’s organization is run by the man like a CEO.  The Greens appear to be poor at articulating the effective parts of the party as a whole.  A federative structure might use the strength of both. Set political reform, national health care, and withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan as the baseline.  Emphasize independence from the two parties, not a whole new party structure.  The Greens continue to participate as a national party, the Progressives, Peace and Freedom Party and others as state or regional parties.  If the Democrats fail to establish national health care and the war in Iraq is dragging on in 2010, then you may lay the groundwork for a federation to endorse a progressive candidate, using the ballot lines available, and getting new lines in other states in a collective basis - but work on healthcare, withdrawal and political reform first.

A federated political party hasn’t really been tried in the U.S. The Labor parties of Europe were traditionally organized this way. The Conference for Progressive Political Action was an attempt in the Twenties, wrecked by labor leaders too close to the Democrats. If you learn that lesson, the thing could work, and maybe later form the basis for a new political party. A federative national platform for progressive politics could represent solutions to national problems, like single-payer healthcare, and provide a context for local campaigns to work.

]]> http://bearleft.wordpress.com/2008/11/05/pride-and-prejudice-along-the-unfinished-journey/ Wed, 05 Nov 2008 18:45:41 +0000 bearleft http://bearleft.wordpress.com/2008/11/05/pride-and-prejudice-along-the-unfinished-journey/

The Babylon 5 fans amongst you will understand how I’m waking up this morning wanting a t-shirt that reads, “I was there at the dawn of the third age of mankind… and I all I got were my civil rights taken away.”

While Michelle Obama got in trouble for saying something like this, but I’ll be crystal clear: last night was the first night I was ever truly proud to be American.

I spent last night watching with my dear friend from high school friend, Adam (who is the grandson of a pioneering black Congressman), with Adam’s wife, and with a group of their friends who were, other than me, all African American. Watching the crowds celebrating at the White House gates, at Times Square, a world away in Kenya, Adam’s wife compared the events to Bastille Day. U.S. voters have both repudiated the failures of the Bush administration, and in part if not in full, the racist heritage of this nation. It appears those voters have done so by a slightly larger margin than I predicted, with Florida turning blue and North Carolina likely to do so. Obama has captured the highest percentage of the popular vote of any Democrat in 44 years, since Lyndon Johnson’s massive landslide in 1964. We have some great new Senators - notably Kay Hagan in North Carolina - though Al Franken appears to have fallen just a few hundred votes short of toppling Norm Coleman, Alaska appears to have returned an octogenarian convicted felon to the Senate instead of Anchorage’s strong liberal mayor, and I still can’t tell what’s going on in Oregon. In the house, some of the “Better Democrats” pulled out great victories, & a few races (notably in south-central Virginia & near Seattle) are too close to call, but a lot more of the progressive Democrats fell short in their Congressional races.

But the Supreme Court is safe, as is the broader federal judiciary, and John Paul Stevens and Ruth Bader Ginsburg can retire without fearing that Roe v. Wade will be overturned. Guantánamo’s days are numbered. This administration and this Congress will bring us an Employment Non-Discrimination Act, and hopefully, and end to the military ban on LGBT servicemembers. If there’s no clear solutions to Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, climate change, the global financial crisis, or the HIV/AIDS pandemic, we at least have leadership dedicated to collaborative problem solving rather than arrogant and counterproductive unilateralism.

I can barely put into words the joy and tears of watching Obama’s victory with Adam, his wife, and their friends, as Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Virginia came in, and then as the networks all declared the race right at 11pm EST. I’d thought I’d be trading far more calls & text messages with my friends and family, but I was swept away in the emotion of the moment. Watching the rally in Chicago, the joy of the Obama and Biden families mingling so happily together, the beauty of Sasha and Malia Obama on stage with their parents (I loved it when their dad promised them a new puppy), we were overcome. I couldn’t help but think of my father and grandmother, or of how this will be the first election that my nine-year-old niece remembers, and this will be the world that she’ll take for granted. We joked about how President Obama’s photo will be in every federal building, every police station, every government office in the land, and how, like John Kennedy for Catholic Americans, how Obama’s photo will be in so very many African American households for a very long time to come. We traded stories, of personal experiences with racism and the faith to keep fighting for a better world, and toasted all the women and men who struggled against slavery and our own apartheid to make this possible - especially all those whose names we’ll never know. We’re all aware that last night wasn’t an end, but a beginning, an opportunity to seize, a door to walk through. Now the real work begins - but a moment to pause, to celebrate, to dance is definitely in order. Selah.

And yet…

It appears that a thin majority of California voters chose to write marriage apartheid into the state constitution. If I feel kicked in the stomach, and I do, I can barely imagine the pain and grief of those of you out there in the tarnished Golden State, especially those of you whose marriages and whose fundamental civil rights should never, ever been put to a popular vote. I see glimmers of hope in how a majority of white and Latino voters opposed the measure, as did voters with a college education. As a historian, taking the long view, I have deep faith that today’s defeat will be overturned, and will eventually be seen as a gross embarrassment. That does nothing at all to salve the pain today, the injustice and insult, and we will have to attend to our wounds to fight back. My friend Dave has written a scathing, must-read letter to Proposition 8 supporters, which I heartily recommend reading.

My grad school advisor titled his textbook on modern U.S. history, The Unfinished Journey, and I’ve never taken that title so personally as I do this morning. On a night where overall, the arc of the universe bent a little more towards justice, we got left behind. But we will fight back - yes we can, yes we will, and we will win.

I just have to say what I feel about this because I am in awe…

There are times when you feel a shift in the story.  When History is very much in the Now and at the same time, is very much in the Future.  And still it’s true that the Past doesn’t equal the Present doesn’t equal the Future.   But there are times when all three are merged and mold a new shape…on so very many levels:  culturally, nationally, generationally…shaping what we value, how we enact what we value, how we treat each other and the world.  Shaping possibilities, creating opportunities.

I didn’t vote for Barack Obama because of how he looks or because of his age or because of his name.  I suspect I’m not alone in this.  I suspect many voted for Barack Obama because of his call to action to get beyond divisiveness…and not in any kind of fairy tale way, but in a very measured and reasoned way that speaks to moving beyond the paralysis and helplessness, the obscene pervasiveness of fear, hatred, victimization, pain, hurt, and every other prison that has become nearly institutionalized into our culture.  He’s tapped into something we all feel…a realization of the very real difficulties that lay ahead, a recognition that fear and hate and pain exist but an unwillingness to be defined by them.  He’s tapped into and validated the genuine ability of the human spirit to rise to the challenge (and respond to a call to action much greater than shopping), a recognition and validation of our inherent ability to be something far greater than *only* fear and victimization personified…to be something far greater than Reality TV.

I remember saying the Pledge of Allegiance when I was a kid in school.  The part that always stuck with me was the promise we all made to the country - and not to any one party - when we uttered those words.  Barack Obama’s election to President is as much a mandate for unity as it is for change…for an end to the ugly hate speech and bloated inaction and bloated bungling that have put the country in a stranglehold because of obsessively self-interested people and parties…a stranglehold that has created a killer vortex with an obsessively myopic, obscenely indulgent ”ME ME ME!” person-view, party-view, political-view… that has gone sickeningly beyond beserk and frankly, needs one hell of a massive time out, even a severe grounding.

It seems to me that along with all the many divides that started to be bridged last night, last night was, and is, also a huge mandate for working together.  For “…listening to each other even more closely when we disagree” (from Barack Obama’s speech, slightly paraphrased).  

“Of the people, by the people, for the people…”    And with the people.  Here’s where the rubber meets the road.

Oh…Hope has texture.  It feels exhilirating, it feels inspiring, it feels serious and challenging but very very possible.  It feels very possibly like Junk Food Reality TV has been unplugged.  Just possibly. 

It feels like very possibly a reclaiming of our country.

If you will look at my other blog The Way I See It Anyway, I discuss my joyous and intense feelings over President-elect Barack Obama’s victory. Yes, I am centre-right on the political spectrum but have been disgusted with excesses of the Republican party and sadly disappointed with the failed policies (and I will even dare to say incompetence) of the Bush administration. I look forward to a time when the religious fundamentalists, market fundamentalists, social darwinists, crypto-racists and bigots and all other polarizing figures are purged from the party and the Republicans will follow once more follow the conservatism of Teddy Roosevelt, Dwight D.Eisenhower and my favourite Jack Kemp. Until then…

I can safely assume many of the conservative splinters of Armstrongism are spinning a negative view on the Obama victory. Trust me when I was 13-14 years old back in the early to mid 80’s, an assoicate pastor said at a Sabbath Bible Study that a Jesse Jackson presidency will spark a black uprising. The splinters today are probably saying, “The Gentiles are taking over Israel and are bringing it down to ruin.”  It seems they forget that Barack Obama’s mother was white—or do they believe in that “one drop of black blood” nonsense? It seems they do.  Their crypto-racist interpretation on the identity of Israel clouds anything positive of this event. They would rather see African Americans, Latino Americans, Asian and South Asian Americans eating the crumbs at the bottom of the table of a white northern European elite. There reasoning is, “We are Israel, we are supposed to rule over the Gentiles.” It seems they forget that in the old testament, it talked about when the non-Israelite came into their gates, they were to be treated as the Israelite. Again this is their perverse version of pick and choose with the scriptures. I see a future that ALL Americans are at the table eating the meal treated equally, no one eats the crumbs. What is wrong with that vision? It is too radical for some.

Also some of the radical Armstrongite groups are preparing their end-time scenerios. As being hard-right ultra conservative Republicans as they really are (you’ll find a few Teddy Roosevelt, Eisenhower and even Kemp Republicans there) are saying,”The end is nigh, clean up your act!” Interestingly enough when Clinton, a Democrat came into the scene in the 1990’s the Worldwide Church of God was beginning to disintegrate. I don’t know if it was interrelated but it was interesting to notice. Will an Obama presidency disintegrate the splinters to oblivion in the 2010’s. Let me answer what Obama says, “Yes we can!” How can he? Will he sponsor legislation targeting mind controlling groups. That’s a start (I would love to shake his hand if he considers the thought) but I am thinking that if he has a successful presidency (and trust me the first term he will get will be tough and challenging. Sadly for him this is not an easy time like let’s say Eisenhower had) which means he is given a second term in 2012 and somewhere in his second term, the economy is strong, America has respect in the world again, we are having real victories on the war on terror, etc., etc.—it will be MY hope and prayer that some members are going to be using their heads just for once in their lifetimes and will be tempted in a good way (I hope the US economy will be back at least in 2015) to finally enjoy the good life instead of giving 30% + their income to their leaders and finally recognize, “Hey, we’re still here! Where’s the beast power?” Man I can smell it, I can taste and I can shout through the rooftop, “Yes we can!” Yes, it my prayer to see Armstrongism virtually eliminated in the 2010’s (I believe there will be a small wacko but insignificant rump still around throughout the century) as the Armstrong Empire was beginning to disintegrate in the 1990’s.

Oh yes my prayers are with President-elect Obama and his family and with Vice-President-elect Biden. My best wishes for them is to have a successful administration and be protected from danger. God bless them and God bless the United States of America.

I don’t know much about US politics, or well, politics in general, but it seems to me that Obama is a man who has the ability to inspire hope and change within a nation, and even the world. Regardless of your what you think of him, his policies or the nation he appears to be headed to lead, you have got to respect that. I know I do.

The 2008 US presidential election is on Tuesday, November 4, 2008.

The new US president will be known in the Philippines on Wednesday. As early as 7 a.m., Wednesday, Manila time, first results from the election can be reported. At most, by 2 p.m., Filipinos know the new US president.

Timeline: Election Day through Inauguration

November 4, 2008: Election Day in 49 states, and the District of Columbia; and the last of 21 consecutive election days in Oregon.

December 15, 2008: Members of the U.S. Electoral College meet in each state to cast their votes for President and Vice President.

January 8, 2009: Electoral votes officially tallied before both Houses of Congress. Members of Congress may object to the certification of a state’s electoral votes at this time.

January 20, 2009: Inauguration Day.

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I’ve been watching quite a lot of the irritating BBC coverage of the US election lately. It amazes me how the BBC seem to think that their lofty, arrogant liberal bias is a brand embraced and adopted by anyone either side of the pond, outside of their little London centric clique of Michael Moore and Mark Thomas lovers.

I don’t personally have any love for the Republican Party of the States, and I think Obama is alright, but the BBC really can fuck off. That includes the arrogant, pious loud-mouth buffoon, Simon Shawarma. Shawarma is a history professor at Columbia University in the States, and so feels it his duty to appear on TV broadcasts and political discussion panels to wag his finger at Americans and tell them how stupid and right wing they are, and that conservatives should be eschewed in favour of Obama. Why can’t people just stick to their field of expertise and stick their pious pathetic little noses out of things they know little of?

I wouldn’t mind so much, but Schama has all the charisma and political savvy of the North African kebab, almost akin to his namesake, and it’s yet another case of the BBC wheeling out an intellectual liberal to tell us all how it is and what we should vote.

It’s the same for that yellow toothed grinning cunt Noam Chomsky. Mate, you’re an expert in linguistics. I’d sooner seek political instruction from Joe the fucking plumber. Suck my Greek balls, bitch.

Yes, yes, we all know about the demographic make up of the US electorate. We know it is steeped in religion and tradition and moral and social conservatism. We know it vests a great deal of importance in its armed forces, which are often tasked with foreign escapades. It’s not particularly clever or unique to tarnish Americans with this unflattering brush. And let’s be fair, the social democracies of Europe can harldy talk about ethics or standards or social superiority.

Though, for all the BBC’s bluff and bluster, people like myself and Mr Boatang, who are capable of making our own minds up without having to be told what to think by cunty arrogant media outlets like the BBC and Associated Newspapers, realise that there is more to this election than nasty right wingers and liberal saviours.

It is interesting to cast an eye on the phenomenon of young, charismatic politicians who rise through the ranks to take the top jobs.

For me, Barack Obama can be considered young and fairly charismatic. At least this is how he is portrayed in the media. I think he’s probably more brooding, boring and aloof than most people realise. Yet for the purposes of his political persona, he’s the man of the moment.

When he was fighting in the Democratic primaries, people were saying he is like a black JFK. This was supposed to be an enormous compliment. The trouble is, JFK’s only real achievement was handling the Cuban Missile Crisis. Other than that, he was pretty useless - made famous and immortalised because of his assassination. It was Lyndon B. Johnson that achieved the accolades of advancing civil rights. JFK was a precursor to another useless and pointless Democratic president - Jimmy Carter.

Obama will more likely turn out to be a Tony Blair figure. Someone who engenders enormous amounts of support and who elicits the potent hope of millions. Someone who attains a massive majority and huge political mandate.

Someone who, when it office, does pretty much fuck all, puts through a couple of measures that flop, and then slowly squanders away support and watches his former adoring fans slip away in despair and disgust while their leader fills his final days in office flying around the world posing with world leaders and talking a good talk about poverty and global warming.

We all know the Blair story. Three terms, completely wasted. A party left increasingly rudderless and soulless. Obama is charismatic indeed, but people still don’t realise the fact that Obama’s perceived strong points are not actually important at all. He is fairly inexperienced, his policies are vacuous and vaguely conservative in tone, indicating that spin has more a part to play than substance. We hear of ‘change’ change’ and ‘change’, yet change from what to what? And how, and why and when?

Obama will undoubtedly try to solve some of the more pressing economic issues and working class woes by introducing some watered down social Democratic measures that will fail. He will quickly realise, like Blair, that in order to shore up middle class support and prevent hemorrhaging support to the conservative opposition, he needs to leave much of the system in tact. The fact that much of their economy is based on the rolling truck that is the US military industry. The fact that low wages, high unemployment and industrial decay can’t be solved by neo-con policies, protectionism or high state spending.

Obama will likely win on Tuesday. I think in 4 years time, he’ll win again, like Blair did, but by a much smaller margin. Much like Blair did in 2005. After that, electoral turn out will plummet back to their usual disgraceful levels and people will be upset and angry about how useless the Big Hope was. Much like the British over Blair.

I suppose you could argue that this is all a facet of democracy in Western Countries. You get two main parties, both of which push to the centre to get the most votes. Enormous numbers of people are enfranchised, with only a fraction of that number having a clue about politics and what considerations matter when it comes to casting a ballot. The strangest of criteria seem to dominate the thoughts of the modern voter. How a political leader appears on Telly, how young they are and how charismatic they seem are critical. It’s partly why Hague did so badly. It’s why Sarkozy did so well in France last year.

I would say that people need to vote for Obama, just so they can learn from their mistakes and hopefully ensure they get a better standard of politician in the future. But they won’t learn from their mistakes. They never do. Not there, not here, not anywhere. Maybe it’s the democratic process or the structures of political parties and their funding and the way they choose and represent their prospective leaders.

Whatever the reason, Western Democracies seem destined to put up mediocre, piss weak leaders who don’t quite have the ability, know-how and guts to do what it takes to make proper, positive changes.

My predictions are proving to be fairly piss lame at the moment, but I’m confident of this one in the same was as I was confident Spurs would beat Liverpool last Saturday. Obama will get in, and as the months and years creep by, people will be asking what all the fucking fuss was about.

A lot of disappointed people will be turning their heads in dismay come the end of the decade.

Two Quebec comedians from a Montreal radio station are drawing international media attention after pranking Sarah Palin. The duo known as ‘The Masked Avengers’ convinced Palin that she was talking with French President Nicholas Sarkozy.  The phone conversation lasted about 6 minutes.  From the Daily Kos website, here are some delightful excerpts (with context and translation bolded in brackets) :

FNS(Sarkozy imposter): Fine, and you, this is Nicolas Sarkozy speaking, how are you?
SP(Sarah Palin): Oh…so good, it’s so good to hear you. Thank you for calling us.

FNS: Oh, it’s a pleasure.
SP: Thank you sir, we have such great respect for you, John McCain and I, we love you and thank you for spending a few minutes to talk to me.

FNS: I follow your campaigns closely with my special American Advisor Johnny Hallyday (the most famous French singer, looks like and sings like Elvis), you know?
SP: Yes! Good!
                         ………..

FNS: You know, I see you as a president, one day, you too.
SP: [Muahaaa...weird laugh], maybe in 8 years. Haha

FNS: Well, ah, I hope for you. You know we have a lot in common because personally one of my favorite activities is to hunt too.
SP: [Giggle]oh very good, we should go hunting together.

FNS: Exactly! We could go try hunting by helicopter, like you did, I never did that.
SP: [Giggle]

FNS: Like we say in France, “on pourrait tuer des bébés phoques aussi” [Translation: We could also kill some baby seals.]
SP: [Giggle] Well I think we could have a lot of fun together as we’re getting work done, we can kill two birds with one stone that way.

FNS: I just love killing those animals. Mm, mm. Take away a life, that is so fun!
SP: [Hahahaha]

FNS: I’d really love to go as long as we don’t bring your Vice president Cheney, hahaha.
SP: No, I’ll be a careful shot, yes.
                            ………..

FNS: Some people said in the last days, and I thought that was mean, that you weren’t experienced enough in foreign relations, and you know, that’s completely false, that’s the thing I said to my great friend, the Prime Minister of Canada, Stef Carse [Stephen Harper is the PM and Stef Carse is a Quebecois country singer who covered Billy Ray Cyrus' Achy Breaky Heart in French in the 90s].

SP: Well, he’s doing fine, too, and yeah when you come into a position underestimated, it gives you the opportunity to prove the pundits and the critics wrong. You work that much harder-
                            …………..
FNS: You know my wife is a popular singer and a former top model and she’s so hot in bed. She even wrote a song for you.
SP: Oh my goodness! I didn’t know that.

FNS: Yes, in French, it’s called “Du rouge à lèvres sur une cochonne” [Translate: Lipstick for a sow literally (but not properly) but it actually means an uninhibited girl or if you prefer in English Joe the Plumber, [sings] It’s his life, Joe the Plumber…”
SP: Maybe she understands  some of the unfair criticism but I bet you she is such a hard worker, too, and she realizes you just plow through that criticism like

FNS: I just want to be sure, I don’t’ quite understand the phenomenon “Joe the Plumber,” that’s not your husband, right?
SP: Mmhmm, that’s into my husband but he’s a normal American who just works hard and doesn’t want government to take his money.

FNS: Yes, yes, I understand, we have the equivalent of Joe the Plumber in France, it’s called, “Marcel, the guy with bread under his armpit, oui.”
SP: Right. That’s what it’s all about, is the middle class, and government needing to work for them. You’re a very good example for us here.

FNS: I  seen a bit about NBC even Fox News wasn’t an ally, an ally, sorry, about as much as usual.
SP: Yeah that’s what we’re up against.

FNS: I must say, Governor Palin, I love the documentary they made on your life, you know, Hustler’s “Nailin Palin.”
SP:  Oh, good, thank you. Yes.

FNS: That was really edgy.
SP: [Laughs] Well good.

Sandlappers can vote for any of the six Presidential candidates with national political campaigns.  Any one of these six could be elected president, technically.  Each represent national political movements.
For the positions of each candidate, I’ve linked to the website of the candidate and their nominating party.  Also, I’ve linked to the information supplied by On The Issues, which seems comprehensive and non-partisan.  On The Issues represents positions through short quotes or recorded votes as elected officials. Fuller quotes with citations are available through links. On The Issues has their own grid comparing the candidates which is informative, but hasn’t been updated since the primary season.

 McClatchy newspapers ran this short article on the reception that minor parties are getting in South Carolina.  Journalist John O’Connor spoke with a couple of supporters of Baldwin and Barr, no one else.  Not surprising given the conservative reputation of the state.

The LA Times published a column by a former Clinton administration official contending that given the (pre-financial crisis) closeness of the Obama-McCain race, maybe the minor parties and the Nader campaign should be considered, if only as statistical spoilers.

Journalists play-up the “spoiler” angle because its easier to figure.  Its lazy and narrowminded reporting to characterize the positive choice of one candidate only in terms of an alleged negative to another.  

All four of the national third parties represent widely held political ideals which do not and, I think, cannot find expression in the two major parties. These organizations are not flashes in the pan.  The Green Party was founded in the late 1980’s.  The Constitution Party was founded as the U.S. Taxpayer’s Party around the same time.  The Libertarian Party was founded in 1970.  Nader has been a public figure at least since taking on the auto industry in the early 1960’s.

Although the ”major-minors” are not large compared to the organizations of the Republican and Democratic National Committees, they do succeed in maintaining a national political structure and and profile under difficult conditions.  There are a plethora of small parties on the left and the right which do not have the reach or the appeal of the four “major-minor”  campaigns.   The continuing relative strength of the Constitution, Green, Libertarian and Nader campaigns is indicative of real political presence, which would no doubt be stronger if the barriers to participation were not so high.  (See the 2008 ballot access chart referenced above for an idea of the difficulties faced by minor parties in simply getting on the ballot.  The two major parties enjoy virtually automatic ballot access in most states.)

This will not be a great year for minor parties in the Presidential race; local races should be a different story.  Nader may clear 1,000,000 votes, the Obama and Palin campaign have excited the media enough to occlude other personalities.  Down the ticket, Greens hope to pick up some legislative seats in Maine, Illinois, , Minnesota, Arkansas and Arizona.  Libertarians and Constitution Party candidates are competitive in a few elections.

Success in these local elections seems to depend on running with support of independents of all kinds against the incumbent of a one-party district.  This is particularly true for the Greens in Illinois and San Francisco, where Greens run as the second-party agains Democratic machines. 

Success at the national level depends on picking up independent voters who perceive the agreement of the two parties on fundamental topics.  The economic crisis has opened up a gap for this kind of reallignment. 

The Democratic Party leadership, Barack Obama, the GOP leadership and John McCain all endorsed Secretary Paulson’s plan to deal with the credit crisis.   But popular sentiment was very much against a quick bailout.  In response to emense public pressure, the populist wing of the house GOP abandoned the President and their nominee to vote against the bailout.  The progressive House Democrats did the same for their leadership.  They didn’t arrive at these decisions independently, but were led into opposition by the upsurge in popular protest against the bailout.

In the short term, the leadership of the two major parties will pull the majority of their Congress people back on board.    Certainly this will be less true for the Democrats, who have all the advantages of controling government.   The betrayal experienced by the dissenting party supporters won’t dissappear so long as the economy worsens. This will reinforce the trend of “independent” over party identification.  

This is an opportunity for the minor parties, at least, and will ease independent work at the local level by making non-major party identification more explicable.

The 2008 U.S. presidential election is in the final week, and Yahoo has a really neat political dashboard which breaks down the likely electoral college votes that each of the candidates is expected to capture.

The Economist, however, offers its readers a different electoral college - that of the World. You can check it out here. Not surprisingly most of the world is blue (for democrat), but a few red states (for republican) can be found throughout the globe. I think these are particularly interesting. Below are those countries which are either solidly McCain or leaning McCain as of this date:

• Algeria
• Burma (Myanmar)
• Democratic Republic of Congo
• Iraq
• Namibia
• Sudan

What explains the above results? For one, we have to take into consideration that the people who are voting in the Economist sponsored internet poll are self-selected participants with certain demographic characteristics. They are likely to be affluent, educated, members of the elite, diaspora, etc, and so the 2008 World Electoral College is a bit of a misnomer. Nonetheless, it is an intriguing project that gives us something to think about.

Interestingly, two states have shifted toward Obama’s position since Douglas Muir at A fistful of Euros first brought this up: 1. Macedonia is now a toss-up, while 2. Georgia is leaning toward Barack Obama.  The choice of the U.S. Georgia is hardly surprising:  the peach state’s electoral votes are expected to go for John McCain.

For a full list with percentage breakdowns, see here.

NBC’s Conan O’Brien:

“Political experts say that John McCain’s only chance of winning the presidential election next week is to attract swing voters. Unfortunately, McCain thinks swing voters are people who listen to Glenn Miller.”

“The other day, a guy who played a game of basketball against Barack Obama said that Obama spent the whole game trash talking. He also said Obama’s trash talking is “eloquent, high-minded, and inspirational.”

“Alaska’s largest newspaper has endorsed Barack Obama despite the fact that their governor is Sarah Palin. Luckily for Palin, it’s one of the 500 newspapers she doesn’t read.”

CBS’ David Letterman: 

“Sarah Palin spent $150,000 on clothes, but she has an even higher tab at LensCrafters.”

“Don’t get me wrong. Sarah Plain is a very frugal woman. In Alaska, she makes all of her clothes out of pelts.”

“But Sarah Palin doesn’t shop at low-end stores. As a matter of fact, she thinks Old Navy is John McCain’s nickname.”

“Sarah Palin spent yesterday campaigning with Elisabeth Hasselbeck from “The View.” John McCain, meanwhile, spent yesterday looking for his slippers.”

NBC’ Jay Leno:

“Well, folks, it’s hard to believe. Just one week left to go before the presidential election. It’s amazing, isn’t it? Do you realize that when this whole thing started, John McCain was just 47 years old?”

“As you know by now, Colin Powell has endorsed Barack Obama for president, which is bad news for John McCain because at his age, he has enough colon problems.”

“And out on the campaign trail this week, John McCain said that Barack Obama is already “measuring the drapes” in the White House. But I understand Sarah Palin is already driving McCain around to look at assisted living facilities.”

I can’t quite get over what has happened with this US presidential election. John McCain was doing so well, yet like a pacemaker in a national hunt horse race, McCain has flagged off badly and has gone from front runner to a fucking donkey on the verge of pulling up.

Anyone who likes a bet, as I do, will know how it feels to support a runner, only to see it embarrassingly tail off. I’m no Republican supporter, but I put my bollocks on the line on this blog by predicting a McCain win. I’m already discredited, and if I were a betting tipster, I’d be running up the street wearing a false moustache, wondering how I can change my identify before being lynched.

The media has done a good job of explaining how well McCain is doing in the polls in the battleground states. Not only is he trailing in all of them, he’s losing a lot of strong Republican states too.

This isn’t because of disillusionment with Bush. McCain was doing well in the polls a month or so back. This is because his campaign has been a complete fuck up, in addition to The Idiot factor. To say he has stumbled over the last half dozen fences would be an understatement. McCain has proverbially unseated the jockey. The election has turned out to be a formality, with the question being: how much of a landslide will it be for Obama.

Virtually everyone has written off McCain, and virtually everyone, almost including Palin the VP candidate, has lumped on Obama for President. I’ve never heard of anything like it.

click image to enlarge

I feel sorry for McCain. He’s made all sorts of mistakes: tacking right to mop up angry core voters and to get people riled. Bringing The Idiot in as VP candidate. Failing to address the economy properly. Yet it does seem that his potential has been largely missed. Obama looks good, but that’s pretty much all it has been about for him - looking good. McCain, on paper at least, has more to offer.

McCain shouldn’t really be this far behind. But he is. It’s gone so bad for him, it almost looks as if people like Nader and Jackson could do better.

Goodbye, Republican ticket. And remember - if you want to win elections, try and create an image of strength and ability. This means telling supercilious pricks like Sarah Palin to fuck off.

It’s a tough one to answer, but it’s a question that must be asked: why do political parties keep choosing donkeys to lead us?

As I discussed in my most recent Sarah ‘The idiot’ Palin piece, the Republicans in the States are whacking themselves off in a right old stupor at the notion of choosing Palin to run for President in 2012. I suppose it’s just another case of out-of-touch grassroots activists and partisan backers siding with unelectable losers. After all, we’ve seen this happen before. In the States the Mad Old Party chose Bob Dole to run against Clinton in ‘96, where he duly got slaughtered for being a fucking idiot.

In Britain, Labour chose the unelectable Kinnock to run twice against the Tories; once in ‘87 and again in ‘92. The only redeeming feature of this choice being that Kinnock was slightly less unelectable than any of the other scroats they had at the top of that filthy, rotten socialist ladder.

Of course the Tories have undergone their fit and spasm for choosing unelectable losers to run against the opposition. The parliamentary Tory party gave the membership a choice between the wet, floppy, yet popular and incredibly capable Ken Clarke and a complete no-hoper nobody with no chance of doing anything - Iain Duncan Smith. The result was obvious. They chose I.D.S and the Tories dropped to new lows in polling history, while a directionless and utterly talent-bereft Labour Party carried on doing not a lot and ruining the country. The Tories, rather than learning from this, got shot of I.D.S and…replaced him with an equally hopeless, hapless figure, who went on to lose a general election.

Is it me, or have I got something wrong here? Aren’t political parties in the business of trying to win elections? Isn’t that the whole point of going into this business?

Yet as I clasp my brow at yet another catastrophic sequence of events over the pond, with Palin seemingly going from obscurity to potential glory on account of winning Republican hearts and souls, I have found cause to ponder events closer to home.

Back in July, when Brown was under enormous pressure to go, and news came out of a few plots here and there, it became clear that one of their potential front runners, outside of Millipede, was Harriet Harman.

I didn’t give this nauseating concept much further deliberation at the time, as I tend to like to keep my dinner down in my gut until such time as it digests and goes on to resemble our politicians in actual form. Yet checking the bookies odds recently gave me serious pause for thought. Harman is the favourite with most bookies to take over Brown.

Let me just underline this again - Harman, one of the most sickening, socialist, arrogant, hypocritical, lofty Labour Party fucking cretins, could actually receive the unmentionable privilege of leading a major political party to a general election. An election where people actually have the chance to boost her annoying fucking ego by casting a vote or two for her.

Naturally, she would be absolutely butchered by the electorate. She has the public appeal of the contents of one’s fridge which has been accidentally switched off prior to going on holiday for a fortnight. On your return, you open the fridge door to see what’s inside and you’re met with an almighty putrid stench which leads you to hurl, shortly before throwing out the contents of the fridge in a fit of horror.

The annoying thing about the idea that Harman could be Labour Leader, is not so much the notion of her spending any time in power - this is almost impossible - it’s the fact that yet another precedent would be set where a complete fucking loony with mad ideas gets to grab loads of limelight and look all important for a while.

She ought to be booted to the backbenches where she belongs, and left to sulk and slither with the rest of those pathetic careerists.

I suppose we ought to be thankful though. In America, Palin won’t be going back to Alaska. She’ll be camping out in Washington, lapping up the limelight for a full four years until she gets a pop at the top job again. At least Harman will have to face a bit of digging and infighting before she has the chance to make the bookies rich.

Aretha Franklin, Tony Bennett, Bono, Natalie Cole, Phil Collins, David Crosby, Gloria Estefan, Don Henley, Billy Joel, Elton John, Quincy Jones, Luciano Pavarotti, Bonnie Raitt, Paul Simon, Sting, James Taylor, Brian Wilson, and Stevie Wonder. Leno Lawsuit Triggers Suicide at half a mil. A mourner told The Post, ‘That did it to him,’ referring to the lawsuit. John Straus, the Macy’s heir, claims he kept the cars in a garage managed by Ricca’s company. Straus was $20,000 behind in storage fees but says he paid the money. Read Greta’s interview unqualified, corrupt, backward or, well, all of the above.” Now, as the attacks on Governor Palin continue, Senator McCain is fighting back, defending his running mate on Don Imus’s radio show. (BEGIN AUDIO CLIP) SEN.

Meet the Bloggers: Cheryl Contee on McCain’s behavior

Cheryl Contee discusses John McCain’s disturbing behavior and how it may be related to his health and age.

Author: meetthebloggers
Keywords: meetthebloggers cheryl contee john mccain age rage temper health doctors behavior jack and jill politics 2008 elections
Added: October 23, 2008

nfl predictions

Not content with throwing away one opportunity at the post-Bush era Presidency, the Republicans are swiftly planning future defeats too.

According to the Telegraph, Republicans consider Sarah ‘the one’ and that she is capable of mending a broken party and leading it to victory.

It looks like the Democrats have successfully transferred the ‘gauntlet of doom’ to the Republicans and the party of the right is running with it like Forest Gump on coke.

By developing a hard-on for The Idiot, the Republicans have effectively consigned themselves to the political dustbin for an age. Obama should now be deciding what sort of colour wallpaper he can bare looking at for the next eight years in the White House, and Michelle can safely plan her family life until such time as her hair turns grey. None of this is good news for Hilary.

It truly amazes me when a political party receives a continuous stream of feedback from the electorate, and then carries on the same path to destruction as though it had learned nothing. It reminds me of when Hague got slaughtered in the 2001 UK general election, only for the idiot parliamentary party to go on to shove out Portillo and offer the membership a choice between Ken Clarke and Iain Duncan Smith. I voted for Clarke, knowing full well what the remaining 300,000 Septuagenarians would do. The rest is history. IDS was a disaster, and they chose another out of touch, unpopular disaster to lead the party to defeat in 2005.

Palin undoubtedly appeals to the hardcore religious right wing fanatics and idiots across America. This is not under scrutiny here. As the McCain / Palin campaign has shown this time around, as Obama began to look strong, the Republican ticket tacked further and further to the reactionary far-right, until they ended up sounding like a bunch of loonies, hell bent on inspiring fear and paranoia in the people. It clearly hasn’t worked.

McCain has disappointed me, as he appeared a moderate when he first started out the campaign. But let’s not forget - Bush marketed himself as the moderate before he won. Maybe his secret formula to running the race close against a cheated Gore was that he continued his moderate image. Bush ditched the moderate facade once in power, but McCain has let the face slip before winning - perhaps why he has allowed himself to be sidelined.

Yet Palin has never had a moderate image. In fact, she has never had an image full stop, because she’s an unknown, unaccomplished half-wit that can’t name a newspaper and only manages to spout utter nauseous bullshit about ‘hockey moms’ and bellicose rhetoric on powerful world leaders like Putin.

Palin’s appeal is limited at best, even for a country as right wing as America undoubtedly is. She hasn’t gone down particularly well with women voters, even though this was her trump card. She’s shown herself to be questionable of morals and ethics, regarding the whole Troopergate business. It didn’t take long for the majority of even the most politically ill-educated people to realise that Palin wasn’t up to much.

Republican presidential candidates need not be that right wing to do well, because they generally have the traditional right wing, moral and social conservative vote in the bag. These morons are so terrified of the Democrats, who they see as pinko baby killing terrorists, they’d vote a cucumber in as President if it wore the right ribbon.

If the Republicans choose Palin for their candidate next time round, they will be fucking themselves. Though, saying that, my predictions of late on this election have been completely woeful. So maybe I’m wrong. She’ll get chosen and win in 2012, at which point World War Three will only be a short while away and the Russians will be close to redesigning the next Berlin Wall.

Amazing isn’t it? A few hundred religious dissidents hop on a couple of boats in the early 17th century and land in a wild remote part of the globe somewhere to the West. Next thing you know, the descendants of said mob have grown into the most disturbing, retarded fundamentalists known to man, with the ability to hold the world’s most powerful country by the political bollocks.

Always thought immigration was awkward.

Barack Obama told his campaign team to fuck off and leave him alone yesterday, as it emerged his grandmother has a cold and wanted him to join her in Hawaii. According to his chief adviser, Obama handed him his briefcase, told him to sort it all out till November 4th and then jetted off for some homemade apple pie and a spot of surfing.

John McCain attempted to seize on this as a sign of his opponent’s lackadaisical and flippant approach to the campaign. Unfortunately for McCain, in doing so, he had to open his mouth. Which led to another 3% drop in the latest polls.

CBS news anchor A.Hoy Therematey caught up with Democratic hopeful Obama via video link this morning, in order to find out whether Obama plans on doing any more campaigning in the run up to November 4th.

His exact words were:

“Why are you wasting my time bitch. Can’t you see I’ve got more important things to do? The voters know what they need to do, the gun loving fucking hicks. Now fucking do one, or I’ll screw up this game of Tekken with my nan and lose my fucking temper. You cunt.”

His statement has gone out on CNN already, and Fox are waiting to show it to their prime time audience later. The reason for the delay at Fox News being that they are short staffed at their News Central HQ in New York on account of 95% of their editorial staff committing suicide some time this evening. It’s anticipated that CNN will experience delays broadcasting tomorrow, because most of their staff will be partying in the streets due to the mass suicide pact at Fox.

Back to the main story, and it appears what happens in America, as usual, tends to drift very quickly over to our 51st State, the United Kingdom. Right now, in England, the Prime Minister Gordon Brown is giving a statement to the House of Commons, following a sharp bounce for him in the polls. His speech began with some choice words for his opponents:

“Now, you see Mr Speaker, as I’m sure you agree, in fact I know you do because we spoke earlier, but the Tories are really just a big old bunch of posh Southern English cunts. I’ve wanted to say this for a while now, Martin, I mean, Mr Speaker, except I was afraid this might cause a stir. Looks like I was wrong to be afraid.

Labour is at its best when unafraid. And so I declare now, that I will continue borrowing until the greedy middle class English cunts are spent little shits squirming in the dirt. All the banks will henceforth be mine, because bankers are greedy cunts, tax is going up 99%, and if the voters don’t like it, they are reactionary cunts who can suck my fat Scottish cock because I don’t give a fuck anymore quite frankly.”

Just a few minutes ago, after Brown continued his tirade, the opposition leader David Cameron walked out of the Commons and directly to the BBC headquarters in White City, where he announced to a camera that was not switched on that the Prime Minister had gone mad and that Mr Cameron would be shortly taking over. Our reporter has texted me to say that the only other person in the room, the tea boy, laughed at him and pelted him with Krispe Kreme donuts until he walked out crying.

The Shadow Chancellor, George Osborne, has also spoken with our reporter just 20 minutes ago, where he stated:

“Labour have self destructed, imploded, they are finished, and they have no respect for voters at all. It is rather amazing, and we expect to see a vote of no confidence in the government in the next few hours.”

I can now confirm that Mr Osborne has been fired for attacking the government, which is against Conservative Party policy. There was some mumbling about a dodgy donation and a Russian Oligarch, which word has it, will lead to him being Court-Martialed and shot by Ed Balls, who passed legislation last night stating that all dodgy donations were only allowed to go to Keith Vaz.

I have spoken personally with Peter Kellner of Yougov, a British survey outfit of some repute. He told me that Brown’s words have gone down well with voters, who are happy with the fact he has cowed the banks and saved them from certain doom. When asked “do you think Brown can be trusted on the economy?” 95% of voters ticked ‘yes‘. A ringing endorsement one might say, although there are rumblings about what might happen to the remaining 5%.

However, a statement from the government today has noted that should the 5% of disgruntled Yougov survey fillers be liquidated as expected, then a great act of state kindness will ensue whereby their number will be replaced by immigrants from rural Pakistan. The government are determined to ensure that the population keeps on rising, because this is good for the economy and the massive skills shortage in Britain must be handled decisively.

As I speak, Gordon Brown has tripled his poll lead on the back of the denouement of his speech…

“I would just like to thank the British people for being British and supporting Labour who are British through and through. Britain is about fairness, keeping people out of poverty, solving third world debt and keeping hospitals tidy.

Some people on the benches opposite say there are no British people left in Britain because they have been made to feel less British, which doesn’t make sense because true British values are Labour values and Labour values are British.

I therefore have no choice but to prosecute all Tory MPs under the race hate legislation, because they are racist. I’m off on holiday until 2010, due to a bad back. I will leave now and shoot off to Hawaii to see an old friend. All that remains to be said is, I hope the people vote for me when I call an election at the last possible moment in 2010.

This ought to be the case, as I’ll have ID cards and full security measures in place by then so that I have the lips of every voter in this shit hole pursed tentatively against my steaming bell end.

Before I forget, there’s no need to worry about the national debt. It’s hardly a jot, and everything is going just smoothly. The recession will be over before you know it, and if not, there’s always the noose. Do it the old fashioned British way. Bye cunts.”

End of report.

What the fuck have they done?

In the last 3 weeks, between McCain and his bumbling idiocy, constant panicking negativity and Palin’s right wing lunacy, the Republican presidential ticket has gone from shoe-in to tits up.

This latest report from the States shows that McCain has resorted to fucking off all the swing voters in all the swing states by bombarding them with automated phone calls - of a negative hue.

Has his campaign learned nothing of late? Have they not taken on board the fact that this weird negative bullshit is backfiring and going down badly with the electorate?

I can’t get over how utterly inept McCain’s campaign has become since the end of September. It was bad enough he got that stupid fucking dick head Palin on board, though even this heinous act wouldn’t necessarily have lost it for him.

But the old bastard should have concentrated on issues and left the weird playground tactics alone. They don’t work, unless used against a proven flip flopping liberal, like John Kerry. (Not that I think he was, but by American standards…)

Except it was abundantly clear Obama could never be painted as such. McCain’s campaign opted for the easy smear tactic approach, the reactionary populist shit stirrer methodology. It has justly failed, and my prediction of a McCain shoe-in has left me looking like a prize cunt.

Paddy Power are already paying out on an Obama win. Looks like they’ll be also be paying out on John Demetriou consuming his hat collection.

Indigestion tablets all round.