Guardian – Fraud and corruption: Forget the UN. The US occupation regime helped itself to $8.8 bn of mostly Iraqi money in just 14 months.
Of course, in the interests of world peace, it’s far more importnat that we undermine the UN. So feel free to ignore this (or, at your discretion, replace “but Clinton…” with “but the UN…”).
(Link via Bob Piper.)
I’ve suggested previously that bloggers and proxy-bloggers note/scan and publish any questionable campaign material. Now we have a big gun on the case, too.
BBC – Election 2005: Below the radar: In the run-up to this year’s General Election, Newsnight’s Michael Crick will examine each party’s campaign, but we want you to get involved too.
No need to change the plan, just make sure that when you publish, you also send it on to Michael Crick – and that you get a name-check for your blog in return.
Moving right along…
Guardian – Tories issue libel writ against Times: The Conservative Party last night raised the political temperature in the run-up to the expected general election in May by issuing a writ against the Times newspaper for defaming its campaign director, Lynton Crosby. The action follows two articles in the Murdoch-owned newspaper claiming that Mr Crosby had told Michael Howard that he was going to lose the next election before the campaign even officially started. The decision to sue, personally approved by Michael Howard and Guy Black, his director of communications, reflects concern among leading Conservatives that the Times, once the paper of the Tory establishment, is becoming a cheerleader for Tony Blair.
Becoming? As in only just now? Has David Hencke been paying attention these past 7 years?
Finally, some news from Bloggerheads:
The briefing/planning meeting for Backing Blair goes ahead as planned this evening. Barring the unexpected, the site should launch sometime tomorrow. Perhaps in the evening.
The London Underground Song is doing extremely good work in the pre-launch period. It was reaching upwards of 3,000 people a day last week and recently has been reaching over 10,000 people a day. Yesterday it reached 26,485 unique visitors. 1,974 of them were curious enough to check out the (currently empty) main page of Backing Blair, even though there’s no direct link to it from the Flash page.
So we’ve got a strong wind behind us, and we’re almost good to go.
Core materials for Backing Blair will be seen for the first time at our meeting this evening. I’d love to give you a sneak preview, but the squirrels insist that I keep my nuts close to my chest for now. I can, however, tell you what’s at the core of the campaign… we’re going to subvert/mock key Blair messages by cutting them down to their bare bones and raise issues such as Iraq and the ‘war’ on terror in an overly-positive fashion that borders on the Orwellian.
Along the way, we plan to:
– Raise awareness of the website/message via grass roots campaigning (posters, stickers, local groups)
– Raise funds via the website
– Use that money to raise awareness of the website/message via mainstream advertising
We start with nothing but elbow grease and goodwill, and can continue at this level throughout the campaigning season and still have an impact. But if we raise as little as 1,000 squid… ooh, boy are we going to have some serious fun.
Shmoo Group exploit: 0wn any domain, no defense exists: Shmoocon ended today. And just to prove The Shmoo Group wasn’t sitting on their asses for the entire time while planning the con – A new exploit was demo’d by EricJ that left all jaws our on the floor. Want to own ANY domain? Want a trusted SSL cert for it? Check it out here.
Holy crap in a crud-bucket! Can anybody else hear the sound of screen doors opening and shutting in the background?
DailyKos – GOP proposes bill that would suspend ALL laws: It’s an incredible usurpation of the rule of law. A cabinet secretary is given the right to suspend any and all laws. And guess what? The courts are prohibited from reviewing his decision! Perfect! So the Secretary can abuse his ‘authority’ all he wants. No review. No nothing. Welcome to the Second Term.
Independent – My life as a blog: 12 of the best sites: Yes, this really is the blog of the tousle-haired Conservative MP. It’s a bit bumbling on the surface, but that disguises an honesty, keen organisation and depth that put many rivals into the shade; rather like the man himself, in fact.
Well done, Boris. Well done also to Wibbler for an excellent build.
UPDATE – Tim work too late. Brain no work. Congratulations also to the lovely Melissa.
:o)
Yay – Boris Blog site is praised
To the individual who obviously wishes to remain anonymous: thank you.
:o)
Independent – Official: Campbell back on party payroll to head Blair’s ‘dirty tricks’ unit: Although Labour has admitted previously that Mr Campbell was acting as a “consultant”, his appointment to a full-time titled position is revealed for the first time today.
There’s also this juicy snippet: His reappearance could also upset relations between Mr Blair and Gordon Brown, further damaged last week by renewed speculation that the Chancellor is to be moved to the Foreign Office if Labour wins a third term. Jack Straw, the current occupant, has told friends that he blames “people in No 10” for briefing The Times and The Sun about the story. “He feels that it risked undermining him, especially as it appeared just as Condoleezza Rice was about to arrive,” one said. “It was a competition as to who was more furious, Brown or Straw,” another said.
Ooh, and a very quick response from Mr Milburn on the Labour website: “For the record, people should know that Alastair Campbell, who I am delighted to see back in the Labour team for the election campaign, had nothing whatever to do with the Freedom of Information requests that have become the subject of a good deal of media comment.”
But what sticks with me is how cocky Blair seems. Campbell was Head Bullshit Artist when Blair was making false/dubious claims about WMD… his return to the spotlight (he was never really out of action) is a bold move that suggests that Blair thinks (or his pollsters confirm) that the Iraqi elections make that little problem go away.
UPDATE – An unrelated extra… Europhobia – BNP in favour of Veritas?
UPDATE – A related extra… Chicken Yoghurt – Race for the bottom
I wanted to do a long post this morning about the government boldly acting on perceptions ahead of problems (including such aspects as that wonderfully high percentage of people who confuse asylum with immigration), but I just don’t have it in me today. Page 3 has sucked all the fun out of it.
Today, Nicola T (22, from Croydon) backs Labour’s tough stance on immigration – as long as those in real need are not targeted. She says: “We must be sure people in need of genuine help are not turned away. That would go against everything that Britain stands for.”
Yes. Which is why the Tories – and now Labour – are so keen to emulate the Australians.
Oh, I do apologise. I appear to have deliberately blurred the line between asylum and immigration. You see how easily these things can happen?
Oh. My. God. (12.6Mb WMV file)
UPDATE – Ooh, look… here’s the site of the guy who made it (link via BoingBoing).
Electoral Commission campaign urges voters to act now: The Electoral Commission launches a multi-media campaign on Monday 7 February encouraging people to register to vote. The campaign reminds electors they need to register by 11 March to be able to vote at the County Council elections in England on 5 May. If there were to be a UK Parliamentary general election on the same day, 11 March is also the final date to register.
Cheers to Honourable Fiend for the heads-up.
Other stuff:
Guido brings us this mild sense of deja vu.
Robin Cook – A manifesto like this would actually motivate our voters
Reminder: First Backing Blair meeting Tuesday Feb 8, 7:30pm
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