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Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the interwebs… Simon Carr.








Posted in The Political Weblog Movement | 9 Comments

You look like you need cheering up

Unlax. The Vader Sessions will make your day.

(No? OK, how about you go jump, then…?)

UPDATE – See also: Star Trek sings Knights of the Round Table. Lots more of this kind of thing here.








Posted in Geekage | Comments Off on You look like you need cheering up

Are you ready for more red-hot sofa lovin’…?

Sofa.com are now offering you a chance to get into The Guinness Book of World Records… and all you have to do is sit on your arse. Oh, and maybe steer a bit.

How does that grab you?

:o)

(Psst! Please note the reserved-seating for bloggers and other webmasters.)








Posted in Consume! | Comments Off on Are you ready for more red-hot sofa lovin’…?

What’s that up on the road… a head?

It’s all about timing folks….

Guardian – United States to Israel: you have one more week to blast Hizbullah: The US is giving Israel a window of a week to inflict maximum damage on Hizbullah before weighing in behind international calls for a ceasefire in Lebanon, according to British, European and Israeli sources. The Bush administration, backed by Britain, has blocked efforts for an immediate halt to the fighting initiated at the UN security council, the G8 summit in St Petersburg and the European foreign ministers’ meeting in Brussels. “It’s clear the Americans have given the Israelis the green light. They [the Israeli attacks] will be allowed to go on longer, perhaps for another week,” a senior European official said yesterday. Diplomatic sources said there was a clear time limit, partly dictated by fears that a prolonged conflict could spin out of control.

Related blogagge (a list that is likely to expand today):
Blair Watch – A New Moral Low Point
Lenin’s Tomb – From the River to the Sea
Menzies Campbell – Ceasefire now
BSSC – The Green Light

Hooray. A carefully-controlled burn courtesy of the clever folks what brought us the ‘short war’ in Iraq. It is my considered* opinion that what we need to do is get Britain to get the U.S. to stop doing this shit.

(*Actually, I’m making this up as I go along.)

UPDATE – A little dose of reality for you. Enjoy.

UPDATE – Beirut musician/blogger records improv to bombs falling








Posted in It's War! It's Legal! It's Lovely! | Comments Off on What’s that up on the road… a head?

Beware the self-fulfilling prophecy

“I think that sometimes, for understandable reasons, there’s been a hesitation in putting the real truth of this situation up to people, and the fact is there are those out in that region, notably Iran and Syria, who do not want this process of democratization and peace and negotiations to succeed.” – Tony Blair

I really hate to bang on about this, but there’s also those in another region, most notably Missouri and Washington, who do not want this process of democratisation and peace and negotiations to succeed either.

Even if you choose to deny that there’s an active conspiracy to strategically place Israel at the centre of unrest in the Middle East in order to fulfill biblical prophecy and pave the way for the End of Days, you have to acknowledge that the Republicans are going to need all the support they can get in the the upcoming mid-term elections, and Bush is unlikely to say or do anything that’s likely to upset his Christian extremist base.

Prepare yourselves for a few weeks of very careful phrasing….

UPDATE – Hmm. I’d best correct that statement; Bush is unlikely to *intentionally* say or do anything *publicly* that’s likely to upset his Christian extremist base.

Reuters – Mideast crisis drives Bush to colorful language: A microphone picked up an unaware President Bush saying on Monday Syria should press Hezbollah to “stop doing this shit” and that his secretary of state may go to the Middle East soon. Bush was talking privately to British Prime Minister Tony Blair during a lunch at the Group of Eight summit in St Petersburg about an upsurge of violence in the Middle East, not realising a microphone was transmitting what he said.

UPDATE – The BBC has a report and a partial transcript of their ‘quiet chat’. Wider transcript here. CNN has a video on this page. More video links here at Crooks and Liars, who also highlight Rush Limbaugh describing this conflict as ‘a gift to the world‘…

UPDATE – Newt Gingrich is being equally optimistic. Let’s go make us some lemonade!

UPDATE (18 Jul) – There’s a nice bit of analysis on the front page of today’s Independent which is also appears here. Highlights are repeated below:

Bush: What about Kofi? (inaudible) His attitude to ceasefire and everything else … happens.

(Change of subject. Now they are on to Lebanon and the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan)

Blair: Yeah, no I think the (inaudible) is really difficult. We can’t stop this unless you get this international business agreed.

Bush: Yeah.

(Mr Blair is trying to push the idea of a UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon. That ‘yeah’ does not sound like a wholehearted agreement)

Blair: I don’t know what you guys have talked about, but as I say I am perfectly happy to try and see what the lie of the land is, but you need that done quickly because otherwise it will spiral.

(Meaning: ‘Please, George, let me go to the Middle East and be a world statesman’)

Bush: I think Condi is going to go pretty soon.

(Meaning: ‘No’)

Blair: But that’s, that’s, that’s all that matters. But if you… you see it will take some time to get that together.

(Meaning: ‘Oh well, all right, if you don’t want me to. Just a thought’)

Bush: Yeah, yeah.

Blair: But at least it gives people…

Bush: It’s a process, I agree. I told her your offer to…

(Meaning: ‘Drop it. You’re not going.’)

Blair: Well… it’s only if I mean… you know. If she’s got a…, or if she needs the ground prepared as it were… Because obviously if she goes out, she’s got to succeed, if it were, whereas I can go out and just talk.

Oh, and a lot of emphasis has been placed on the whole “Yo, Blair” thing, but the reality is probably closer to “Yo, boy!” (or perhaps “Here boy!”).

UPDATE – Blair Watch – Tweedledum and Tweedledummer

UPDATE – Blair Watch – Margaret Beckett and the Middle East: Listen to Margaret Beckett outline British Policy over the chaos in Israel, Palestine and Lebanon… Clue – there doesn’t appear to be a policy past Dubya’s analysis and a refusal to say anything bad about the grotesque actions of plucky little Israel.

UPDATE – BSSC – A Problem Denied is a Problem Solved: Those who believe that the answer to the question is “no, it isn’t the case that a new generation of militants has been created as a result of the invasion of Iraq” might want to reflect on the reasons why the Foreign Secretary has gone to such great lengths, preposterous lengths you might say, to avoid giving that answer. It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the reason for her evasion is that she knows that the actual answer is “yes, it is the case” and she can’t admit that for obvious political reasons. If there is any other explanation, I certainly can’t think what it could be.

UPDATE – Bush gave the German Chancellor an uninvited neck massage at the summit! (Another video link here.) Poor Tony! First George won’t let him play statesman, and now somebody else gets his reach-arounds. He’s going to be in a bad mood when he gets home…. we’d best prepare our excuses for tell-tale bruises.

UPDATE – Hahahahahaha! Steve Bell is some kind of psychic genius!








Posted in George W. Bush, The War on Stupid, Tony 'King Blair | 3 Comments

To comment or not to comment

Lynne Featherstone requests your input.

My view: Blogger’s new moderation features make this a much more attractive prospect for MPs and councillors, as there’s now a nifty spambot filter and you can also view comments before they are published on your site. This allows you to accept comments from people not registered with Blogger and keep the anonymous/witless party-political attacks at bay. (But if you’re just setting out or thinking of a change, you really want to aim for something better than Blogger; their support department is negligent beyond belief.)








Posted in The Political Weblog Movement | 1 Comment

MySpace isn’t your space… it’s Rupert’s

Wired – MySpace Kills Internet Tube Song








Posted in Rupert 'The Evil One' Murdoch | 3 Comments

Evidence the government does not want you to see

Craig Murray: New Labour are not as stupid as they seem. I have now had a chance to take legal advice, and that advice is as follows. To defend this case would cost the price of a London house. I don’t have a house, in London or anywhere else. I am therefore obliged to give in to force majeure and remove some of the documents from my own site. This reeking government is therefore able to mask its stink on this particular miniscule corner of the internet. Here is another piece of legal advice I received. Copyright cases cover one instance of publication in one place. Anyone else who has published any government documents that might be Crown Copyright, or not, (and I believe there are hundreds of thousands of documents on the web on which the government could, by the argument in Mr Buttrill’s letter, claim copyright), is an individual case and can wait to hear from Mr Buttrill.

Click.

Click.

Clickety-click-click-click.

:o)








Posted in The War on Stupid | Comments Off on Evidence the government does not want you to see

Back on deck

OK, bear with me guys… I’m a tad rusty:

I must finally admit that Bush and Blair’s pre-emptive strike against Iraq was a wise move. After all, this model of democracy in the Middle East can now play a vital role in restoring stability to the region following the recent unpleasantness in and around Isra….

Oh. Sorry. I’ll move on, shall I?

Britain still has a role to play, and I’m sure that Tony Blair will immediately send his envoy to the Middle East, and…

Oh. Erm… hang on…

Well, look, let’s be reasonable. No charges have been laid, no evidence has been produced, so it would be wrong to condemn the man on the basis of this theatrical arrest and without due….

Wait a minute… they what? No, that can’t be right.

Surely, as was the case with John Prescott, the matter should be based on evidence not carefully coordinated smears (and I must say that it’s heartening to see that someone in Downing Street is on the case).

And I remain sure that – even with the summer holiday nearly upon us – that the acting Prime Minister will be capable of dealing with this and other matters when…

Oh. I almost forgot about that bit.

Can I go home now?

UPDATE – Ah! Excellent! An item for sale on eBay that solves everything.

UPDATE – Lord Levy – An Apology








Posted in Tony 'King Blair | Comments Off on Back on deck

A Strong Brownian Motion Producer

Bloggerheads is shutting down temporarily in preparation for a switch to a new server. A deliberate configuration fault will refuse all comments and trackbacks while switching/testing takes place.

Please enjoy your trip through this door.

(During this difficult time, it is suggested that you check BSSC, BlairWatch, Chicken Yoghurt and The UK Today for vital/timely views.)

PS – Just to keep you busy… scum. You know why.








Posted in Updates | Comments Off on A Strong Brownian Motion Producer