The Election. Aftermath roundup.
It’s going to be alright now.
These pics are so sweet. People can be awesome.
Election maps are fun. Lots of red and blue and some grey. These maps of the results are very cool.
The official website of the office of Change went live yesterday.
How he did it.
Collection of hundreds of Obama newspaper headlines.
Change. Literally. Loose change.
I watched the latest episode of South Park this morning. True to form it was as odd as usual, though the amazingly fast turn around is very impressive.
This sums up the dream in so many ways.
This comic by American Hell sums up the election for me: live coverage from BBC News, 5 news websites open and Twitter.
It is truly one of the greatest sources of photojournalism. Always exceptional images and the election...
Today is monumental and historic. With months of build up Barack Obama is the new president of the United States of America. The most powerful election in the world, and the best man won.
The time has come when, despite still lingering rasicm throughout the US, a Black man can become president, the people are able to look beyond skin colour and base judgement on what he stands for.
Lets hope we see the change.
And what a win it was:...
It appears that the phoney war between Iran and the USA/UK has reached the levels of cartoon comedy already.According to reports, the ayatollahs arrested two 'spy pigeons' who were flying suspiciously near their controversial uranium enrichment facility, which the Western powers allege is being used to develop nuclear bomb capacity.The ever sober and responsible online editors at Sky News' website have produced this mock-up below of the errant birds:However, I'm more inclined to envisage the event something along the lines of this:Only, Dick Dastardly would be wearing a big, bushy Mullah beard, Muttley would be in a burqa and the pigeon would be sporting a Star of David, of course....
Most of the photographs on this blog and the photoblog will have been taken within the two weeks prior to posting, so I’ve decided to post on a semi-regular basis an older favourite and explain a little of how it was taken, what I do and don’t like about it now.
This photograph was taken in Times Square, New York City, a year and a half ago, where neon lights are a legal requirement and McDonalds are everywhere. Each letter of the sign lit one by one before all lighting up, and repeat.
And one of the most New York of icons, the Yellow Cab, flying by, 1 of over 12,000 in the City. Almost a requirement to have one in every shot....
Unless you care about: healthcare, everyone deserves to be taken care of when they’re sick, gun control, civil rights, women’s rights, rising gas prices, the war, social security, minimum wage, welfare, the economy, gay rights, abortion, first amendment, the second amendment, the future, the world, your country, everything.
It’s good to see so many famous people getting political; showing how much they care. Not necessarily for one side or the other, but simply to get people to think. And to vote.
“Only 54 percent of eligible voters cast their ballots during the last four decades of presidential elections.” (wikianswers.com)
“…more than a hundred million Americans usually don’t vote, which means about 40% of eligible voters forego their...
Apparently it IS possible to make Brack Hussein Obama even more unelectable than he already is.Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the next never-will-be-vice-president of the United States, Joe Biden.Okay, he's an aged white man, just like the Obamaniacs wanted (though one wonders why.)But he's also one of the wettest eco-liberals in US politics. Not exactly the sort of person to mitigate and soften Obama's own hyper-lefty tendencies so much as exaggerate and amplify them.Biden's pro-environment, pro-choice, anti-tax cuts, pro-gun control and pro-gay civil unions. Whatever the merits of any of those individual positions, they certainly won't endear the Obama ticket to the MOR Republican-lite voters and undecideds that they need to get over the line in November. If anything, the opposite.He...
Ever get the feeling that air travel is becoming impossible?I don't mean that the physics underpinning flight has been found false. To my knowledge, planes do still take off.But in recent years, air travel has come a long way from the luxurious pampering and glamour which it was known for in the Sixties and Seventies.These days, Ryanair flights resemble cattle trucks, with the lame and the disabled abandoned on the tarmac as the other passengers scramble into the world's least comfortable space for a seat.Other airlines are little different, and totally indifferent to the cares of customers as a recent run-in I had with allegedly decent airline Qantas revealed. (The allegation about Qantas being decent is one I can happily refute, incidentally.)But now I get the impression that...
The traditional view of Americans participation in the "Peace Process" here is generally seen as "cynical playing to the green Irish vote" by taking the side of nationalists and/or republicans. This was particularly true under the Clinton years.
With the new presidency race I think the best some of us were hoping for was that any new administration would have more important things to worry about than the rather tedious affairs of Northern Ireland, yet still its hard to shake the feeling that the votes of 36 million "Irish Americans" may prove too tempting to ignore.
That's why I was so surprised to read today that President Bush's special envoy to Ireland, Mitchell Reiss, has criticised Tony Blair for giving too much to Sinn Fein/the IRA, who he said became used to the government...
Before heading to Boston we spent the day doing a little more of the usual. Ronan went to church, while I had a pint of Harp (bad idea).
After the very nasty pint I sat on the church steps and watched people for a while. I could do this for hours, especially in this jungle of a city.
Shortly after a few more slices of pizza we headed to the New York City Library where I registered for Internet Access - I even got my photo taken. A queue system is run for access to the global datasphere, we didn’t have time to wait.
Back to the hostel, collect our belongings, then to Port Authority bus terminal. We arrived 10 minutes early for our 9pm bus to Boston, but there was no bus. It had left without us as it was full. In line we stood and sat for 2 hrs until the next bus which would bring...
As previously mentioned, this time in New York City was about being a little more of a tourist than a crazy party animal drinking like the world was crumbling around me, celebrating my 20th birthday and enjoying too much the fact that I was actually getting away with drinking in the first place.
This time it was all about capturing everything. In many ways I am glad that I got to enjoy the States last time without the camera, just to relax and not constantly worrying about getting the photograph, but to enjoy it. I had an idea of what to expect.
On day 2 Ronan and I went to the ‘Top of the Rock‘; the observation deck on the 67th, 69th and 70th floors of the GE Building. We went in the pitch black of night, we were the last lift-load of people to hit the top, with limited time...
I think I’ve just about gotten over the jet lag. It’s bee a tiring few days since i got home at about 6pm last Sunday after 18 or so ours of traveling; trains, planes and buses. I can definitely see how the novelty of traveling can wear of quickly.
I am back, but never the same. Unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to write an entry before I left as I had planned, but with packing for moving house and packing for going away I just didn’t get a chance. So for those of you who don’t know I was in the United States of America for three weeks from 25th Aug until 16th Sept. And the reason I haven’t written about it until now is quite similar, I have been moving into the new house and unpacking.
Two years since my first life-changing adventure State-side, my...
Where to begin…
Well right now im in sunny, extremely humid, Florida. I’ve seen the sand, the sea, the sun, got sunburnt (on my feet!), seen an awesome thunderstorm, been to the Wal-Mart Superstore, watched the sweat drip down my face like rainwater and tomorrow I’m going to see some alligators!
It’s hard to know where to start retelling the story of being on such a great holiday for the last two weeks. I love it out here and I keep coming back. I love the madness of New York City, I love how chilled out Boston is in comparison, I love that my friends in Rhode Island have deers that visit their garden, how pleasant the people are with their “have a nice day” and “how are you” whenever you make a purchase.
Second time around and everything is...
The National Anthrax Association (NAA) has reacted furiously to suggestions that the ownership of the cattle-related disease should be subject to regulation.
Following recent tragic events, in which the use of anthrax has resulted in the deaths of many people, there have been calls for the ownership of the carnage-causing illness to be limited. The chief spore of the NAA however, Ben Moses, has insisted that the demands are the result of lily livered liberal types, whose nannying will see us all back in communist Russia.
“Having dangerous materials and being able to use them to defend myself is my constitutional right, ” he cried in his best Mount Sinai voice. “I’ll tell you the only way they’ll take my biological agents away from me. From my cold, dead...
Who Shaves just the neck? cmon! Dude you were getting sloppy! Should never have done celebrity......
I've just discovered below that there are 42 people with my exact name in the United States of America. Which is strange really, since there were at least two people with that name in my family home when I was growing up, and it was an awful lot smaller than the USA.The other interesting element of this is the number 42, which as every geek knows is the answer to the meaning of life, the universe and everything in the late and much missed Douglas Adams' Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy.Like Marvin the paranoid android, I'm still pondering the meaning of all of this.It seems also that there is only one person with Mrs Skinner's name in the US. I think it may actually be her. There is also one person with Mini-Skinner's name in the States too, but I'm pretty sure that's an imposter.Either...
President Bush in one of his “If we only knew now what we knew then” kinda speeches. Picks possibly the worst place in the world to talk about the failures of the Vietnam war!
HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — U.S. President George W. Bush said Friday the United States’ unsuccessful war in Vietnam three decades ago offered lessons for the American-led struggle in Iraq.
“We’ll succeed unless we quit,” Bush said shortly after arriving in this one-time war capital.
Bush met here with Australian Prime Minister John Howard, one of America’s strongest allies in Iraq, Vietnam and other conflicts.
The president said there were lessons to be learned from the divisive Vietnam war — the longest conflict in U.S. history — as the United States wages...
And the first casualty of the Republican Party's dismal performance in the US elections appears to be Donald Rumsfeld.Couldn't have happened to a nicer bloke.Now, will someone please charge him with war crimes and ship him to The Hague to make my joy complete?This sudden move seems to imply that George Junior reckons it is Iraq that has seen the House and probably the Senate too fall to the Democrats.Which just shows he really is as thick as people say, since it's clearly the falling house prices, spiralling budget deficit and rising unemployment. In other words, it's still the economy,......
Watch this space President Bush is on message Sadamists are taking over the asylum and the Fourth Reich of the Apocalypse is bering down on the free world (if you can afford the subscription) so where is the liberal media in it’s rebuttal or backing of the march from war? Well here it is ABC’s “THE PATH TO 9/11″ which the ever fair and balanced Fox News refers to as: “the miniseries no one wanted to see”…”From the looks of it, the story is going to be about how stupid the government was: If only they’d listened to one man, all would have been right!”
A few shot well placed advertisements for small cash loans (small cash? classy place) later: (the bold letters are some shitty attempt at Googlejuice by fox )
O’Neill left...
The Bush administration has drafted amendments to a war crimes law that would eliminate the risk of prosecution for political appointees, CIA officers and former military personnel for humiliating or degrading war prisoners, according to U.S. officials and a copy of the amendments.
The draft U.S. amendments to the War Crimes Act would narrow the scope of potential criminal prosecutions to 10 specific categories of illegal acts against detainees during a war, including torture, murder, rape and hostage-taking.
Left off the list would be what the Geneva Conventions refer to as “outrages upon [the] personal dignity” of a prisoner and deliberately humiliating acts — such as the forced nakedness, use of dog leashes and wearing of women’s underwear seen at the U.S.-run...
Remember the kid who used to get bullied by everyone at school? You know, the weedy one. The kind of child who could do nothing right, and who everyone picked on to vent their own frustrations, even the teachers, who probably thought the same as you. You felt sorry for them, and knew there must be some reason for it. Bad home, mental health problems, both most likely. Everyone knew no one would ever care you see. But still, it was so easy. Everyone piled in and made his life hell. That poor wean is Lebanon.
Its so easy for countries around the world to use Lebanon as the way to vent their frustrations. Israel knowing its all Syria and Iran’s fault, but too afraid to send missles and bombs their way. Oh no, those kids are far too big. Much easier to pick...
There is a good retrospective, somewhat introspective piece over at “The Young Unionists’” Website by Brian Crowe about the Orange tradition and it’s place in history. The Young Unionists website is a good one and while some of it will make some readers blood boil and others cheer they should all still read it.
Coming from the American Republic tradition and understand it’s ideals and failures, but I can’t help but acknowledge the irony of praising the Declaration of Independence written in the good republic (rather then the neighbor republic). Viewed through the eyes of time and the lens of Northern Ireland it’s a wonderfully relevant piece. What I see as a new found embracing of the American revolution by Unionism and The Orange is little more...
So a new round of talks have started, focussing once again on attempts to get Sinn Fein and the DUP in the same executive.
In many respects, of course, there’s nothing between the parties. They’re both strongly nationalist with a small n, they’re suspicious of the European Union and they believe they’re both on a great crusade with right on they’re side. They also both revel in hypocrisy with the best of the them.
Ian Paisley claims that the DUP “will not be entering into government with criminals”. That rules him out then. He has been found guilty of organising an illegal demonstration. It also rules out his deputy, Peter Robinson, who has been found guilty of unlawful assembly. Not the most henious crimes, but perhaps the good...
Suddenly, oil has no friends. When even a Texan ex-oil company owner turned president starts turning against it, you realise its getting a bad press.
There’s an interesting article by Robert Newman, discussing how environmentally friendly policies and capitalism are mutually exclusive. The capitalist way of opposing this would be to say “The market demands non-oil energy, therefore it will be provided. The profit motive will find a way to meet the demand.” I have a sneaking regard for Newman’s ideas though. The kind of investment needed to replace the easy energy that comes from oil can only come from the resources that rich states can produce. But there’s no guarantee that any discovery can be made. Maybe this high energy blip will end with...
Suddenly, oil has no friends. When even a Texan ex-oil company owner turned president starts turning against it, you realise its getting a bad press.
There’s an interesting article by Robert Newman, discussing how environmentally friendly policies and capitalism are mutually exclusive. The capitalist way of opposing this would be to say “The market demands non-oil energy, therefore it will be provided. The profit motive will find a way to meet the demand.” I have a sneaking regard for Newman’s ideas though. The kind of investment needed to replace the easy energy that comes from oil can only come from the resources that rich states can produce. But there’s no guarantee that any discovery can be made. Maybe this high energy blip will end with...
The brand “Democracy” is in crisis tonight, as its main sponsor, the USA, threatened to withdraw funding from its plans for worldwide expansion.
The US leader, George W Bush, said “We thought democracy was a great idea. Who doesn’t love a brand that lets you drink Coca-Cola, watch trashy Hollywood films and give contracts to ol’ Dickie’s Haliburton?”
However a hitherto unknown, and potentially disasterous, side to the brand has reared its ugly head in recent days.
“Apparently, ” said Mr Bush, “people can elect who they want to be leaders with this crap, even people we don’t like!”
Mr Bush was referring to the recent democratic event in Palestine, where the Hamas political grouping won an overall majority...
There was outrage Tuesday after New Orleans Mayor Nagan said.
“Surely God is mad at America. He sent us hurricane after hurricane after hurricane, and it’s destroyed and put stress on this country,” Mr Nagin said.
“Surely he doesn’t approve of us being in Iraq under false pretences.”
He also said that New Orleans must be a mostly black city again because “it’s the way God wants it to be”.
“This city will be chocolate at the end of the day,”
God does get mad but he does not get mad at Americans just evildoers. Things seem to have returned to normal operations in the U.S. as people were upset about New Orleans being a “Chocolate City” and “God is mad at America”, totally overlooking the legitimacy of...
The Unighted States has blocked the use of American parts in a order of planes and boats for Venezuela to be made by Spain. More expensive European parts will be used instead in a deal that would create 1000 Spanish jobs.
Earlier this week, Venezuela accused Washington of blocking the purchase of training jets from Brazil, because the planes contained protected US technology.
Mr Chavez had said the 12 transport airplanes and 8 patrol boats for about 1.7 billion euros, or $2 billion supplied by EADS-Casa will be used to combat drug-trafficking on the Colombian border.
Mr Chavez has condemned the US position as “horrific imperialism,” Reuters news agency reports.
The US accuses Mr Chavez of harassing the opposition and spreading instability across South America....
The Unighted States has blocked the use of American parts in a order of planes and boats for Venezuela to be made by Spain. More expensive European parts will be used instead in a deal that would create 1000 Spanish jobs.
Earlier this week, Venezuela accused Washington of blocking the purchase of training jets from Brazil, because the planes contained protected US technology.
Mr Chavez had said the 12 transport airplanes and 8 patrol boats for about 1.7 billion euros, or $2 billion supplied by EADS-Casa will be used to combat drug-trafficking on the Colombian border.
Mr Chavez has condemned the US position as “horrific imperialism,” Reuters news agency reports.
The US accuses Mr Chavez of harassing the opposition and spreading instability across South America....