The Grim Hamster lord

1) Give me a year before I offer an opinion. 2) I like most of it; the High Speed Rail Corridors is a particularly nice idea, but I'm always amazed that the US has never attempted to create a single transcontinental railway (I believe the current system is that you have to do a ridiculous number of changes between rail companies to get from one coast to another, as opposed to getting on a train in New York and getting off the same train in Los Angeles?). Likewise for projects such as the fibre optic broadband drive and other infrastructure projects, however I question some of the vagueness about a "smart grid" for energy generation and renewable energy. It rather begs the question of what specific projects are going to get funded. I especially liked some of the environmental restoration work, which I believe effects California and the Gulf Coast the most (this is where the Republicans get to scream about $ millions going to Pelosi's mice). I am inclined to agree with Krugman though; more could have been done. And it strikes me as undemocratic to have a system where Maine controls the rest of the nation (Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins being the "dealmakers" for the Stimulus in the Senate). All in all, seems pretty good. Regrettably, the High Court is up in arms about the US DoD issuing a threat to the Court that if they published information about torture of a Gitmo detainee and British citizen, the would cut off intelligence to the United Kingdom or to put it in official language "re-evaluate our intelligence relationship with the United Kingdom." Effectively, a court of law in this country was stopped from publishing evidence of torture based on a threat from the DoD.

Dean for Secretary of State for HHS?

please tell me that actually exists. (On a similar note, one of NJ's districts has a party called the All Day Breakfast Party. Marius voted for the guy running under said party. ) Yes, The Monster Raving Looney Party exists, but sadly it is over in Great Britain. Haha epic. XD I think the US democrats and republicans should join forces and call themselves the Monster Raving Looney Party. Interesting facts about the MRLP: They came up with the idea for pet passports years before the EU and USA implemented them A £2 coin was one of their policy proposals before Labour picked it up and introduced it I forget the rest, but some of their ideas have been put in place. One of their more recent ideas is for a "Democrabus" which would take Parliament around the country, to the people. It has the horrible kind of realistic humour which might mean it comes true.

please tell me that actually exists. (On a similar note, one of NJ's districts has a party called the All Day Breakfast Party. Marius voted for the guy running under said party. ) It does exist as a political party in the UK, no idea about the United States. I support no party incidentally and if I had to give a party affiliation it would be "anti-Tory" for reasons I may go into. 1) You can't claim what will happen in 2010 today, 1 1/2 years is a long time in politics. 2) He didn't get a single thing right? Introduction of Oyster cards, reduction in fuel poverty and poverty poverty rates, a mass transit system which actually works, reduction of crime... the list goes on for what Livingstone did right. I'm not saying he was the super best candidate for Mayor ever, but his record on getting things done was undeniable. (For US readers, a comparative figure to Livingstone is Chichago Mayor Daley, although less corrupt by some margin.) 3) Boris has been making positive changes? His scrapping of the Venezuela oil deal cost London £20,000,000 which could have gone on new transport systems (like the Cross River Tram which Bozzer just scrapped), he's had one advisor sacked after telling the black community to "go home" (Africa/The Caribbean) if they didn't like Boris and another one after it emerged he'd been banned from preaching after defrauding a mentally ill, elderly parishoner, he continues his bizarre war on bendy buses and insists on spending £100,000,000 on pointless Routemaster replacements and then there is his crowing glory; a giant floating airport in the middle of the Thames Estuary to replace Heathrow. Interesting facts about this airport; it is next to a sunken ship from WWII which has an exclusion zone around it because of the explosives (and rumoured chemical) weapons on board, the takeoff path goes through an SSI (Site of Scientific Interest) full of birds which will be great for decimating the local wildlife population and in order to connect it to London with a full motorway and High Speed Rail Link would cost... more than a 500mph maglev between London and Edinburgh. 4) Hair adorability should not be a factor in politics - if it was we would have elected Paddington Bear long ago. Brum's a massive conurbation, so it may be big but the only interesting stuff is in the centre. East London's awesome, but I live near Queensway so I'm more a Westminster/North Kensington person during the day.

Yeah, no way was Livingstone getting back into office! Boris was the best candidate out of the bunch. That election was a one horse race. Really? What are you doing there? I'm studying in Brum and missing London quite a bit. Oh dear, I can see where this might be going. Why, perchance, were you for Boris and against Livingstone? Studying in London as it happens. I can see why you're missing London, I love it. Especially Shoreditch for some reason.

I sincerely hope you were not planning on voting for Bozzer... Incidentally, I'm in Westminster now. Oy vay! is surely more appropriate in the circumstances?

How is the eyrie in the West Country?

On account of the previous topic being mysteriously locked, this is the new topic for all our fun political nonsense. It is also quite appropriate to have a new topic because we now have a new US government, a new administration and we can all look forward to a global utopia. Barack Obama has no pressure on him what so ever. Keeping you in suspense? I was sleeping, on account of the East Coast of the USA being 5 hours behind GMT and I stayed up until 3AM to watch the results come in on the BBC. Regrettably, the BBC had John Bolton on and I hated every second that the camera was trained on him. I knew Obama had won when Pennsylvania was called for him, but I stuck around to see Minnesota and some of the others come in. Florida really pulled ahead for Obama early on, I thought it would have been closer. But! And it is a significant but, now that the Presidential election is over all I care about are the Senate results and they are amazing-ly painful. Take Alaska for example, where the fivethirtyeight website tells me: Apparently the "questionable" ballots could make up a huge number of those voting for Mark Begich (D) and Ted Stevens (R-AK) is only ahead because of this. So, it appears that Alaska has taken Florida's crown for "the state which ruins all the fun." In Georgia, the senate seat is heading for a run off, because while incumbent Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) has more of the vote, neither candidate has a plurality. I expect monies to be flowing to Georgia out of the Democratic coffers around about... been happening since Tuesday. And of course Minnesota, where Norm Coleman has decided to play the "I won by 500 votes card, let's pretend there aren't any voting irregularities in heavily Democratic areas, WHY HAVE YOU NOT CONCEDED DEFEAT AL FRANKEN?" Norm Coleman is an ####, in the donkey sense of the word. A small note on the House front; the loathed Michael Bachmann has regrettably been re-elected. On the upside, apparently New England has an all-Democratic House delegation.

It isn't quite halloween yet, but I can imagine that sight will greet my eyes at the concession speech of John McCain. Just as he's about to close up with his final remarks, Palin jumps him like a zombie. Hopefully John McCain is the person making the concession speech. There are lots of rumour that Palin has ruined his career. I blame the people behind him who forced him to adopt traditional Republican positions at the expense of his own views. As well as Palin, because she really deserves a lot of blame. Ahhhh Palin... she is already planning her run for the 2012 Presidency. She has not given any thought to what the Republican party might want. "Mitt Romney: The Governor Strikes Back" is one of my theories for the Republican primaries in 2012. "You betcha" it could end up being between the psychopathy of the Palin camp versus Romney's fixed grimace (or "smile" as I've heard it called), both of whom will seek to blame the other for McCain's failed Presidential campaign this year (aren't I being presumptive?). After all; Palin alienated about 60% of the country and a lot of Romney's advisers transferred from his campaign to McCain's when Romney packed it in. So that'll be fun. Quite whether the Republican Party will be in a fit state to contest an election in 2012 is a different matter; it all depends how quick they stop shooting at each other and blaming people over this year. I hope it goes on for a long time, because it gives satirists so much material.

It isn't quite halloween yet, but I can imagine that sight will greet my eyes at the concession speech of John McCain. Just as he's about to close up with his final remarks, Palin jumps him like a zombie. Hopefully John McCain is the person making the concession speech. There are lots of rumour that Palin has ruined his career. I blame the people behind him who forced him to adopt traditional Republican positions at the expense of his own views. As well as Palin, because she really deserves a lot of blame.

It isn't quite halloween yet, but I can imagine that sight will greet my eyes at the concession speech of John McCain. Just as he's about to close up with his final remarks, Palin jumps him like a zombie.

As a matter of fact I was wondering where you got your information. I was flying when the interview was on, so unfortunately I missed it. What did you think about the interview and Biden? What is your opinion of the group of young men arrested for the conspiracy to murder several African-American people, including Obama? It offers me better coverage than any UK media outlet and perhaps more unique and interesting stories than a major news organ like the NYT or CNN. Wouldn't touch Fox News with a barge pole, for obvious reasons. Why hello Hannity & Colmes. What's that Colmes? You're not really liberal and you let Hannity walk all over you as to make the Conservative side of the item more convincing? Why, I would never have guessed. I do actually watch The Daily Show too. I did watch the interview and I found it laughable. The quoting Marx thing was, for me at least, demonstrative of the bias inherent within it. Take Barack Obama's statement of "Spread the wealth around," now it is an ambiguous phrase for a start and a very stupid error on Obama's part, as the coverage shows. However, if it was an impartial and objective interviewer you should recognise that fact; that there are two sides to it. You can take it from the Marxist perspective or you can take it from the view of ensuring that everyone benefits from national growth rather than the very top end of Wall Street; which is legitimate given that the bottom half of the USA has seen its income decline in real terms since 1980, the middle half has seen its income increase slightly in real terms since 1980 while the top 5% has seen a, arguably unfair, exponential increase in their wealth. In a fair interview, the interviewer, in their questioning, would recognise both sides of this. Or not comment on it at all. Instead, West (or the editorial staff) made their decision that it was Marxist before the interview and would approach it from that angle. That's equivalent to push polling. So I don't buy into the "hard hitting questions" malarkey that the WFTV people have put out. The neo-Nazis? Disgusting, disgraceful, an insult to humanity. I believe they have links to some of the neo-Nazi groups operating in Europe, one of which is known as Combat 18 and operates out of the UK. I've come across them before, very nasty. They're essentially thugs though; this plot against Obama shows that. The plot wasn't very well planned and wasn't a professional or well thought out attack on him. However, imagine if they had someone with brains to organise them. Then I would be very, very scared. The defining feature about that plot was Obama's response, which I have to give him exceptional kudos for. We are in agreement. Neither CNN nor Fox do I watch. Hannity and Colmes... now that is a joke. My favorites are Jim Lehrer, BBC and NPR (National Public Radio). As for the wealth in this country, you are exact in your statement. And I do not believe that we have seen the worst of it. When the credit card mess finally rears it's ugly head, then there will be another major drop in the stock market and perhaps people will wake up and spend money in a fiscally responsible manner. Now most people think they are 'entitled' to lifestyles of the rich and famous whether or not they actually have the money for it. As long as there is space on the card... charge, charge, charge. As for the Neo-Nazis, I am at a loss for words. If Osama Bin Laden, who is brilliant, got his hands on this group, the world would be in trouble. Obama has raised himself above the rest with his response. What I find incredibly interesting is that back when Clinton and Obama were fighting for the nomination, many of the African-Americans here in Memphis had the sentiment that if Obama won the nomination, he would be assassinated. It is a bit unnerving to see this come out on the news. Especially since they are right here in Memphis. NPR? I'm impressed. I did see a Pew Research study which showed that PBS and NPR viewers/listeners were some of the most informed about geopolitics and didn't suffer from some of the illusions about US foreign policy (Saddam being linked to 9/11, for example, was believed by only 5% of NPR listeners surveyed). That explains quite a bit anyway. I think you're right too, what we've seen is the banks' own credit undermining the system with bad debt picked up from the mortgage market and the second shock is going to be from personal debt, primarily in the form of credit cards, which will bite into the retail and consumer sections of the economy. Given that the entire Western economy post-Regan and Thatcher has been built on consumerism, that doesn't bode well. I think we're going to see a severe global recession, with economies shrinking by up to 5% per annum for about 3 years. That's my ultra-gloomy estimate of course, my lighter one which relies on several crises not rearing their head would be a recession of 1-3% in 2009, with minor growth appearing in 2010. I can see Detroit being hit really hard; particularly in the form of the car companies who were hit first by the banks' credit crunch and will next be hit by a drop in consumer spending as they have to cope with their personal debt. General Motor's is the weakest of the two; Ford is in a marginally better position and Chrysler is a non-entity by this stage - I'm surprised they can afford to open their doors in the morning. I think you're overestimating Bin Laden, but I think if someone like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed or any other serious terrorist planner had their hands on a group of violent, disillusioned and ideologically blind young men such as these then things would become very bad. Of course, that is what drives the majority of terrorism round the world; disillusioned young men who turn their disillusionment into anger and then that anger is shaped and directed by terrorist handlers; that's why Lebanon is in such a mess. But it is a very sorry state of affairs where you have to take such a negative, depressed attitude about a presidential candidate. I think the cumulative effect of JFK and RFK hangs heavy on the USA. What do you think of the new Israeli Premier, Tzipi Livni, and her plans for Palestine?

As a matter of fact I was wondering where you got your information. I was flying when the interview was on, so unfortunately I missed it. What did you think about the interview and Biden? What is your opinion of the group of young men arrested for the conspiracy to murder several African-American people, including Obama? It offers me better coverage than any UK media outlet and perhaps more unique and interesting stories than a major news organ like the NYT or CNN. Wouldn't touch Fox News with a barge pole, for obvious reasons. Why hello Hannity & Colmes. What's that Colmes? You're not really liberal and you let Hannity walk all over you as to make the Conservative side of the item more convincing? Why, I would never have guessed. I do actually watch The Daily Show too. I did watch the interview and I found it laughable. The quoting Marx thing was, for me at least, demonstrative of the bias inherent within it. Take Barack Obama's statement of "Spread the wealth around," now it is an ambiguous phrase for a start and a very stupid error on Obama's part, as the coverage shows. However, if it was an impartial and objective interviewer you should recognise that fact; that there are two sides to it. You can take it from the Marxist perspective or you can take it from the view of ensuring that everyone benefits from national growth rather than the very top end of Wall Street; which is legitimate given that the bottom half of the USA has seen its income decline in real terms since 1980, the middle half has seen its income increase slightly in real terms since 1980 while the top 5% has seen a, arguably unfair, exponential increase in their wealth. In a fair interview, the interviewer, in their questioning, would recognise both sides of this. Or not comment on it at all. Instead, West (or the editorial staff) made their decision that it was Marxist before the interview and would approach it from that angle. That's equivalent to push polling. So I don't buy into the "hard hitting questions" malarkey that the WFTV people have put out. The neo-Nazis? Disgusting, disgraceful, an insult to humanity. I believe they have links to some of the neo-Nazi groups operating in Europe, one of which is known as Combat 18 and operates out of the UK. I've come across them before, very nasty. They're essentially thugs though; this plot against Obama shows that. The plot wasn't very well planned and wasn't a professional or well thought out attack on him. However, imagine if they had someone with brains to organise them. Then I would be very, very scared. The defining feature about that plot was Obama's response, which I have to give him exceptional kudos for.

Horatio, did you see Barbara West interview Joe Biden on WFTV? (If you're wondering how I manage to get all this information from the UK, I use the delightful HuffPo - which though biased, offers me more interesting information than I could get elsewhere)

Joe the Plumber... I'm sure he didn't think he would be famous. At least both the parties recognized him. Why Joe the would-benefit-under-Obama's-tax-plan, hasn't-paid-part-of-his-income-tax, not-a-liscensed plumber though? Probably because McCain wants to accuse Obama of socialism. By the way, Horatio, did you watch the Simon Schama programme? The BBC version was not available for. Viewing in the USA. Darn. Just like I can't watch the Daily Show on the Comedy Central website... By the way; Colin Powell has endorsed Barack Obama. Thoughts?