Barack on Iraq

I've been away in Washington for a month so there has been an absence of posts for quite a while. Whilst I was there I was persuaded towards giving Hillary Clinton more of a chance in the primaries as her much needed health care plan is by far the best among the top tier candidates and certainly better than Obama's but so far I am still backing Barack.

Got Hope?

www.barackobama.com

Edwards and Meaningless Populism

According to CNN today John Edwards has made a speech to a labo(u)r group:

Edwards was clearly popular with the group, several times drawing standing ovations, including once when he said weapons and equipment used by America's military needs to be made in the United States. He said now tanks and ammunition for M16 rifles are being made in other countries.

"If your tax dollars are being used to produce the products that keep America safe, that provide defense for the American people, those jobs should remain in the United States of America," Edwards said.

What a load of meaningless nationalistic bollocks.

How about if the US spent a fraction of its military budget on expanding health care provision it could stop children dying of poverty in the world's richest country?

Unfortunately for all his talk of not bowing to lobbyists no Presidential candidate can resist the power of the oversized glutonous US arms companies, who now control thousands of jobs in every single State.

Prison Officers To Go To Prison?

So the Government is trying to stop the Prison Officers' strike by threatening to send them to prison if they don't go back to work?!

Can somebody please explain to me how that would work?!

Welcome back to the Home Office* Jack Straw you complete tool.

(*I know its now the 'Department of Justice' etc.)

Fire Fighters Back Loser in Presidential Race

The International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) has endorsed Sen. Chris Dodd for the Democratic nomination for President.

To put this in context, this endorsement is highly sort after among democratic hopefuls and helped elevate John Kerry in the last Presidential race in 2004. Lets all hope that nobody listens to them this time - this guy has loser written all over him.

Full Story:
http://thehill.com/campaign-2008/fire-fighters-backing-dodd-in-surprise-move-2007-08-27.html

Why do American police spend so much time hanging out in toilets?

Yet another high profile person has been caught out by US police, allegedly soliciting sex in a toilet.

Why do we never hear about the same thing happening over here? Maybe it because our police officers don't waste their time hanging around all day trying to come on to people in toilets??!!

Full Story:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/08/27/craig.arrest/index.html

U.S. officials rethink hopes for Iraq democracy

I've been expecting this story to appear on the BBC for a few days now, I first read it on the CNN website and if true could mark a pretty fundemental shift in US policy on Iraq:

Nightmarish political realities in Baghdad are prompting American officials to curb their vision for democracy in Iraq. Instead, the officials now say they are willing to settle for a government that functions and can bring security.

Continuing violence -- like this Baghdad blast from May -- is causing a rethink of U.S. goals, generals say.

A workable democratic and sovereign government in Iraq was one of the Bush administration's stated goals of the war.

But for the first time, exasperated front-line U.S. generals talk openly of non-democratic governmental alternatives, and while the two top U.S. officials in Iraq still talk about preserving the country's nascent democratic institutions, they say their ambitions aren't as "lofty" as they once had been.

"Democratic institutions are not necessarily the way ahead in the long-term future," said Brig. Gen. John "Mick" Bednarek, part of Task Force Lightning in Diyala province, one of the war's major battlegrounds.

(CNN)


This was slightly overshadowed by Bush's comparisons to Vietnam but even so this should've been in the news somewhere in the UK!

You can find the full story at:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/08/22/iraq.democracy/index.html?iref=newssearch

If you were born in the 80s?

According to the BBC, in response to the SNP 100 days' document:

'The Liberal Democrats accused the nationalists of "one of the biggest spin operations since Torvill and Dean".'

Why are we once again campaigning as if it it were the 1980s??! I thought we'd managed to escape that after the bizarre 'where's the beef?' incident(s). Even if it was still the 80s this still wouldn't be a particularly catchy analogy.

If anybody's listening please, please get some 21st century people into our press rooms!

RE: 'Keeper returns to the net'

Ok, maybe I spoke too soon before - Cameron is a berk. Well done Ming on the flooding story, not as forceful as it could've been though.

The Keeper Returns to the Net

With Cameron back from his holiday there seems to have been a welcome return to focus for the Tories, who had seemed to be leaving an open goal for Brown in Dave's absence. Hopefully they've now relegated John Redwood back to the reserve benches once and for all and are once again up for a fight in the centre ground. All we need now is for Ming Campbell to pull his finger out and it might be a bit like living in some kind of 3 party democracy?