Ominous overtones III...

It's been a while since I last posted on Venezuela but I thought with Hugo's outburst today about the Falklands (not for the first time), which are in the news again - Kirchner's games earlier this week meeting with a cool reception, not the birthday present she wanted - merited a mention, not that Hugo the Clown's speech was all about the UK but he does tend to lurch from one thing to another when he starts waffling: during a cabinet meeting today he burst out with:

"Hasta cuándo Inglaterra pretenderá, rompiendo con todo el derecho internacional, violar los principios básicos de la geografía. Vayánse de ahí"..."A los ingleses se les agota el petróleo del Mar del Norte y están desesperados. Los yanquis también están desesperados"

[my translation] "How long does England [sic] aim - breaking all international Law - to violate the basic principles of geography. Get out of there!"... ... "North Sea Oil is running out for the English and they're desperate. The Yankees also are desperate"

Interesting that both in the article from El Universal, and Chavez, use 'England' and not 'Britain'...Update: although in later reports, i.e. HERE they are using Reino Unido (United Kingdom)

Anyway, that wasn't why I was posting; the reason was that the article is about military excercises taking place with the "peasant militias" (Something I've touched on before, when they were springing up in every city a few years ago) and Hugo stating that 'we will not attack anyone, we are only preparing more and more - and better - for the overall defense of the Republic.'...Yep. Or maybe there's another reason: by coincidence the Venezuelan government has vociferously decried the military coup in Niger; getting a little nervous Hugo?

Update: the Chavez/Falklands thing now being reported as a story in its own right with the militia story secondary.

Outstanding opposition...

Very good and very funny; WHY did it take them so long? In response to Labour supporters' joke Tory posters; remember the David Cameron ones? We have a site dedicated to Labour (click on image) and many are hilarious; my favourites are the burglar on sentencing policy and the benefits ones for instance: ENJOY.

Update: just read the graveyard one re postal votes! ROFL!

Update 2 (Friday): more equally funny but non-filtered posters at jontomes place.

Oddities...

Juanes, a Colombian megastar in case you're interested - but not quite a male Shakira - is in the news today with the PIN to Hugo Chavez's Blackberry: H1J0D3PU7A. Try and work it out but if not: meaning, LOL!

The delectable Rania Al Abdullah (Queen consort of Jordan) is back in Barcelona and staying at the new Hotel W. Nothing odd in that except the suite is called Extreme Wow (naturally top of the range!)

Dodgy MP is a lying scumbag. Interesting progression of his expenses (152,749 quid in 2007/08).

China break Russia's 46-year hold on pairs figure skating gold. Now that's over they can have sex! "Don't wait until you're 37... ...to get your gold" said Zhao.

Obstrobogulous overt opportunism...

"The best publicity Brown is ever likely to get".[Link] as Fraser Nelson calls it in The Spectator. Probably, almost certainly, but the question remains WHY is Brown allowed to do it? With an election looming how is it possible to get a national, prime-time, touchy-feely, super-hyped and incessantly pre-plugged (due to his [genuine...] tears) interview that is patently obvious electioneering. Let's not forget that Brown was Chancellor for ten years, he's been Prime Minister for nearly three more (13 fucking years of this lying, bullying, charlatan). The fact remains that Piers Morgan's Life Stories show is a chat show, entertainment, with ex sports stars, TV celebs and singers...WTF is going on?

It was a production featuring not just Brown, but the planet's entire inventory of people who like him... ...all the stops were being pulled out because they all see this as a campaign device. Sarah, easily Brown's no.1 weapon, was on full display. The camera kept cutting to her, as if they are a joint ticket.

Very presidential electionish in the US style. As Fraser goes on to write, "Prepare for plenty more of this in the campaign", indeed. As if to say 'look how nice and normal Sarah is, Gordon must be decent.' Well, that's obviously the intent and no doubt many thousands of morons will be convinced by it.

"It's unusual, in a democracy, to see such a favourable piece of television for a government leader - the audience were almost indecently supportive. God knows where they found them from."

I'll say it's unusual! Iain Dale writes:

"As an interview it stank. And I say this with some regret because I actually think Piers Morgan can be a very talented interviewer. But there was no probing, no exploring, nothing. It was just an hour long party political broadcast on behalf of the Gordon Brown Party".

And Iain goes on to say that it "clearly breaches various aspects of the OFCOM code". Well, we'll see if anything gets done...

Another Iain, Martin in his WSJ blog raises an interesting point about the contradiction revealed in how Brown reacted to the death of the then Labour leader John Smith, oddly enough I think the new version that he immediately phoned Blair to discuss the leadership is far nearer the probable truth than the "Brownite image... ...of a Brown immobilised by grief at the death of his friend Smith and incapable of thinking clearly about the politics of the situation". IM also seems to think that because no politics was mentioned in the interview that,

"In the end it was a lame interview and amounted to a considerable journalistic failure. After all, here was a Prime Minister 'opening up' for an hour of popular television. But out of it Morgan got no revelation, interesting insight or truly fresh perspective."

...but I think it is clear that this wasn't the aim at all, far from it: the politics was left out on purpose, after all, on any political question the real ogre that Brown is would reemerge and that is precisely what dear Piers was intentionally avoiding.

So, as the title suggest I think this was gross opportunistic and excrutiating; therefore I think plans for Cameron to do the same should be avoided at all cost.

PLEASE, Conservatives, DO NOT do this shit!

Update 4pm: I quite like the daily Mash's take, HERE: "GORDON Brown was today waiting for opinion poll results that will reveal whether or not Britain really is that stupid."

Photo credit Judy Yaker; image links to her site.

Onset of obesity: overweight or obese II...

We've been here before. "Obesity 'often set before age of two'" [BBC]. Obesity is now recognised as a major public health issue and not a month goes by without some new study; this latest is from the US where it is reported that,

"of more than 100 obese children and teenagers found more than half were overweight by 24 months and 90% were overweight by the age of five."

It's not only the US: according to the World Health Organization the statistics of obesity in the whole of Europe (not just the EU) are staggering, reaching epidemic proportions. In only two decades this problem has trebled, and if no action is taken there will be an estimated 150 million obese adults (20% of the population) and 15 million obese children and adolescents (10% of the population) in the region by next year (2010). In most countries today, between 30% and 80% of adults are overweight. [EOD Link]

Clearly what happens in the first few years of life is important: general health and education tend to be dealt with reasonably effectively in most cases but weight tends to be ignored...ignored, not overlooked because it is noted but nothing is done. "Currently, it is estimated that one in three children in the UK will be overweight or obese by the time they reach year six." [Healthcare Republic]

We want GP practices to measure children for signs of obesity at eight months and then again at two years as part of the QOF

Last year there were reports that the Department of Health was considering assessing 2yr-old's growth as part of its Quality and Outcome Framework strategy but so far it hasn't happened: the target is to "Reduce the rate of overweight and obese children to 2000 levels by 2020..." but 'for the purposes of this childhood is defined as children age 2-10 years old, and "To demonstrate a reduction from the forecast rate [...] the prevalence of child obesity in under 11s needs to be a maximum of 18.1% by 2011." [HM Gov Delivery Agreement: PDF]. If it is estimated that currently one in three under six-year olds are overtweight or obese and that under two's aren't checked, then taking into account the recent research it seems this target is another that is already doomed to failure.

"Rapid weight gain in the first 12 months of life to increase risk of obesity at age 7"....but checks should start preconception (obviously not on the as yet uncreated child!) so says The Child Growth Foundation [CGF] and their approach: PDF

Organic overheads...

Two stories really. The first, looking at the four pictures below: who is the current head of the EU? Click on the image to take you to the Guardian account earlier this week by Ian Traynor (and others) on the crisis of confidence the EU is suffering. The article is well worth a read and highlights just some of what could be a real future headache for the EU after the 'emergence of a G2' at Copenhagen and the intense squabbling that accompanies and compliments the 'appetite for summitry'
The answer to the question: they all are! ...which helps explain why "in Washington they're not sure who's in charge". You should recognise at least two maybe three of the images and the 4th, who you may need help recognising, is Jerzy Buzek, a former Polish prime minister who is president or speaker of the European parliament (the others clockwise from top left RIGHT are: European Council president Herman Van Rompuy, rotating six-month EU presidency José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, the Spanish PM and European commission president José Manuel Barroso of Portugal).

The organic overheads could refer to too many heads (OK!) but the organic part of the post is about new EU logo for organic produce, and very nice it is too: chosen after the European Commission assessed 3,500 competition entries.

"It's a nice elegant design and I look forward to buying products carrying this logo"

...no, seriously, someone actually said that: the EU commissioner for agriculture Mariann Fischer Boel! From news in The Express (hat-tip Subrosa)

Needless to say, as pointed out this will increase the cost and it needs asking just how organic are products that have been transported all across Europe...and from where? Could this be a design fault or an EU assumption that if they say it's organic then who cares what country it's from? And as one of the comments in the Express helpfully and correctly points out, bullshit is organic!

Obvious obstipation II...

"Gordon Brown really can be very annoying."...and so say all most all of us.

"He basically lies about the policies of other parties, then attacks the lie. He hopes that no one will be bothered to pick him up on the detail.... ...It's is a very dangerous political technique, this, because it robs political debate of any truth or objective content. It needs to be challenged relentlessly."

So says Daniel Finkelstein in The Times Comment Central yesterday (my emphasis). Brown's constant lying is what we've known about for years and the attitude came across clearly in the Labour Party campaign poster (left) Shane Greer shows why it's so wrong. So, just as well that the Conservatives can produce their own (below; possibly equally short on truth...but so much better!)

'Brownite politics at its worst' says Peter Hoskin (click on image). Only a couple of months left before the election! Should be fun...NOT.