Oh Obama...

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Poor old Obama: things aren't going so well, in fact the future looks decidedly black bleak. The Republicans are making gains to such an extent that if Gallup's astonishing numbers are anywhere near accurate, "we could be looking at a GOP victory in the House of Representatives of absolutely historic proportions, a scenario frightening enough to give even the most seasoned Obama White House adviser nightmares" says Nile Gardiner at the DT. I guess Obama could live with that, even with the fact that the 'Senate now hangs in the balance' and, as we know, the 'economic figures are grim'. BUT....what he won't be able to accept is that "nearly 25 percent of Democrats now believe 'a return to Bush's policies would be good" and that Bush, almost invisble since the presidential election, is now almost level-pegging with Obama in terms of who is/was the better president. LOL! More bad news HERE as on the White House staff exodus, which "exposes Obama to charges of disarray".

P.S. Enjoyable Yank vs. Yank hoohah going on in the comments of Nile's article.

P.P.S. Maybe this is why. (hehe)

P.P.P.S.How? Eleven foreign countries have joined the US Justice Department's lawsuit against Arizona over the state's recent immigration law. WTF?!!!

Oh O2...

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Today, at 10:10 on 10/10/10 I was breakfasting in Quito. I'm late to 'splattergate', being in several countries on the other side of the world for the last few weeks means I haven't really been reducing my carbon footprint much...hopefully with all my recycling and lack of footprint at home I can avoid being killed by eco-fascists and terrorists.

Richard Curtis is the man behind the 10:10 "No Pressure" mini-movie that has caused outrage in many circles. Credit to Grumpy Old Twat for the image (left) and for the link to Curtis giving his insight into the making of the splattergate final solution. FFS!

Officially over 000,000,000,000...

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The recently published ONS info shows that after Q1 "2010 general government debt was £1000.4 billion, equivalent to 71.3 per cent of GDP." So, that's the good news; unfortunately official figures understate the UK government's real debts:

"By the time you've added in unfunded public sector pensions, accrued unfunded state pension liabilities, PFI, Network Rail, etc etc, the real National Debt stands at over £5 trillion. And that's without counting the liabilities of our bailed out nationalised banks, which currently stand at around £2.5 trillion."

So, around SEVEN TRILLION, give or take a few bob. BOM: "How can we ever escape?"

Overshadowing overshadowing...

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Thought I'd catch up on the week's politicking, I'm a bit behind what's been going on but not enough to not notice a marked difference in the BBC [online] news coverage of the Conservative conference compared to their coverage of the Labour one but - apart from that - I wanted to see "the enemy": the new UK Shadow Cabinet: all served under Brown, nearly half were privately educated and the only non-white (at first glance) seems to be this fucking disgrace who IMHO shouldn't be allowed anywhere near power, priviledge or other people's money.**

That bad taste-in-the-mouth aside, I am enjoying the brewing storm (at least in the blog's I read!) re the teacher who spoke at Tory conference and has since been "sent home". Well worth reading Cranmer and the multiple comments there:

"How does a deputy headteacher who has blown the whistle on a sclerotic culture of excuses, criticised low standards, derided arbitrary targets and league tables, disparaged political correctness and poured scorn over the pervasive 'leftist ideology' in state education ever again command the respect of a staffroom populated with pathological Socialists?"

His Grace adds, speaking of the Headteacher whom has suspended the 'outed' Tory Conference speaking teacher, that the '(Executive) Headteacher you can perhaps forgive: she too is a victim' but imagine my surprise [not!] to discover that Dizzy has found out...

"...[that] her fate is in the hand of Dr Irene Bishop, the "executive head teacher" of St Michael and All Angels Academy.

Might this be the same Dr Irene Bishop who was head teacher at St Saviour's and St Olave's in 2001, when the school was used as the launchpad of the Labour 2001 general election campaign?" [some teachers are more equal than others?]

**I'm not bothered at all where they were eduacted, if it was public or private, what colour their skin is, what gender or what sexual preferences they have; I just thought they might try to at least be a little bit different. Seems there are at least 4 or 5 sticks they could have tried to beat the government with but now can't.

Hat-tip Iain Dale (with a video of the speech, which I think is good except that Katharine uses one of my pet hates, "kids" instead of children: "our kids" "my kids"...grrrrr)

Update 3am: that's the trouble with playing catch-up with the news! Good news: Katharine Birbalsingh has "been told that she would be allowed to return to the classroom on Monday after parents voiced their support." [DT]

Overtaking oficial 'oligopoly'...

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Another step towards the inevitable...continuing the downward Destructive Spiral: earlier this week Crusty confirmed what he had told the public on Sunday, that the government has made official the seizure of the omnipresent farming supply company Agroisleña. Crusty told us that "One of the short-term impacts of the measure is the immediate reduction of production costs, because we are going to eliminate the chain of speculative middlemen" when in reality it will put thousands of small-holders and farmers out of business and exacerbate the food shortages.

One wonders if it has anything to do with the fact that Chavez probably has 100% of farmers/small-holders/producers against him and that Agroisleña supplied 70% of the sector's agricultural chemicals...(see comments last night on that Devil's Excrement blogpost); more interesting insight on the same Veneconomy editorial from Daniel, whose earlier post mentioned that Chavez had "made his first real communist "economic" move" and "that the Agroisleña take over could actually wreck the banking system of Venezuela."

Obstructing obtrusive opening...

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You may have seen this before or maybe not:

"I am truly perplexed that so many of my friends are against a mosque being built near Ground Zero. I think it should be the goal of every American to be tolerant. The mosque should be allowed, in an effort to promote tolerance.

That is why I also propose that two nightclubs be opened next door to the mosque thereby promoting tolerance within the mosque. We could call one of the clubs (which would be gay) "The Turban Cowboy" and the other being a topless bar "You Mecca Me Hot".

Next door should be a butcher shop that specializes in pork and adjacent to that have an open barbeque pork rib restaurant, called something like " Iraq o' Ribs".

Across the street there could be a very daring lingerie store called Victoria Keeps Nothing Secret with sexy mannequins in the window modeling the goods.

Next door to the lingerie shop, there would be room for an Adult Toy Shop (Koranal Knowledge), its name in flashing neon lights, and on the other side a liquor store, maybe call it "Morehammered"?

Then the Muslims could be allowed to show their tolerance. Problem solved.

If you agree in promoting tolerance and you think this is a good plan, pass this on."

I do so I did. Nice names for the proposed bars and restaurants too!

[Related link]

Oddities II...

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Following on from the juicy fruit and veg I posted yesterday, I received this (image, left) last night; it could be one of those e-mail hoaxes but apparently it was in a San Francisco newspaper. The accompanying message I received was thought-provoking:

"Folks, just remember as you read this, this person probably drives and votes. AND, may have already reproduced..."

Appropriate that today is the Farm Animal Rights Movement's (FARM) World Farm Animals Day. The date was chosen as it is the International Day of Non-Violence observed today because 2nd October is the birth date of Mohandas Gandhi. Whatever, do you know what I like to get stuck into..?

Oddities?...

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Today, October 1st, is World Vegetarian Day: get your hands and mouth around some healthy fruit and veg: you know it's good for you and you know you really should just do it!

Update, nearly 2 hours later: I've just enjoyed 3 glasses of a very smooth Merlot whilst eating a salad including grated carrots, three types of lettuce and red onion, with a simple vinegarette dressing. Next a delicious plate of 'squashed' potatoes (cooked in their skin and mashed) with a roasted garlic sauce plus a plate of exquisitely roasted vegetables: red, green and yellow peppers, squash, onion and green zucchini...hhhmmmmmm...

...all garnishing a 16oz ribeye steak, cooked to perfection (running bloody inside)...hey, it's still only 9pm on the 30th September where I am!