IS IT COLD OUTSIDE?

I don't really join in the Climate Change debate that much here, being a bit more War on terr-r based over the years but I do try and take an open minded interest in all sides and try to get my head round it all. I used to argue against climate change "Deniers" over on Sparkles blog. I felt quite justified just cos the US is a major polluter in anyone's book. I have never held a fully formed belief about the validity of the science, though I must admit I am wavering a bit. My point has always been a simple one- there are no pro pollution arguments. Its a good idea to reduce pollution.

I like going to Climate Camp, I like to experiment with ways of using less energy. I try not to drive if I can cycle or take public transport. If I get a van next year I will try to run it on waste vegetable oil. I am fairly anti-consumerism, I'm not really pro Capitalism in its current form.

Anyway do read Patrick James Henningsen's blog from Copenhagen: Copenhagen’s Climate Change Titanic Heading for An Iceberg which has become an item of debate over at Sparkles place here.

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HIP HOP REPUBLICANS

This is a Republican attempt to recruit Black voters
via Rightwingsparkle here

MY REPUBLICAN BUDDY

(I should say one of them cos I have a couple)

Is on a mission to recruit blacks and hispanics into the Republican party.

I got to e-know Rightwingsparkle during the run up to what turned out to be George Bush's reelection. It goes without saying that we disagree on most thinks politically, but you just can't argue with anyone online for too long without developing some sort of friendship, or realising that you are communicating because you have something in common. These days the only thing I get angry about discussing with "them over there" is dead Iraqis. Things like that, and I have been able to rely on Sparkle as a friend with good christian wisdom through a couple of "reality quakes" over the years.

Anyway, I might be offended by some of the principles and practices but like Islamic Fundamentalism, I find the world of US Republicanism just too damn interesting. Blogs are a great window into the mind near and far. Sparkle's blog has been my window on the world of grass roots Bush fans and what makes them tick for a long while now.

It is a strange thing these days relating to "Them over there", now on the back foot as the party of opposition with George Bush's looming presence in world conciousness suddenly switched off. Obviously I'd love to believe Obama is going to make a better world. In world terms his communication is a world away from Bush's isn't it but in real terms? I couldn't really say I was an Obama fan for more than a week after the elections.

It is obvious that the Democrat party machine got its shit together to capitalise on "The Obama effect" and obvious to Sparkle, taking on some of her own fans in this, that without appealing to blacks and hispanics the Republican party is in dire straits. Now Sparkle is anything if not pragmatic. She is totally motivated by bare and basic pro life principles, but realises that pushing too far would just alienate any chance of achieving these principles as a result in the world America is now. She applies the same realism to where the Republican party is percieved to be now in terms of race issues in the States, and wants to use her influence and experience to do something about it. Its interesting to watch, particularly due to her personal experiences growing up.

anyway, read for yourself in a post entitled Black History, My History, And arms open wide

I have got used to her claims that Regan was a nice person but Nixon? Seriously? Surely not...
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UNCLE Js MESSAGE

Haven't had much Uncle Jimbo for a while here he is with a message for Obama

My Republican Buddies..

Don't think Obama's new bill will stimulate the economy. Lets see. If it doesn't there is a fair chance they will be back in four years. With Sarah Palin at the helm?

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CAN WE YES?

Bush's inauguration 4 years ago? 50 million dollars.

Obama's? 150 million.


One of my evil Republican buddies pointed this out to me

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GRANDAD IS OK

...McCain was asked if he would back Palin in 2012. His terse reply was that he “can’t say something like that,” adding that the GOP has a stable of great governors poised to play a greater leadership role in the party, according to a report in The Hill.

“I have the greatest appreciation for Gov. Palin and her family, and it was a great joy to know them,” he conceded. “She invigorated our campaign.”

McCain used the forum to voice support for President-elect Barack Obama and for some of Obama’s Cabinet choices. He said that the national security team picks could be his own. He also praised the tapping of Timothy Geithner as Treasury Secretary, according to the report.

McCain, however, was quick to condemn the tactic of the Republican National Committee seeking to take political advantage of the arrest of Democratic Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich - by attempting to link the incoming Obama administration to the controversy.

“In all due respect to the Republican National Committee and anybody - right now, I think we should try to be working constructively together, not only on an issue such as this, but on the economy stimulus package, reforms that are necessary,”
McCain said...

cheers to Kev here

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Speculation or Change?

Transition news from The States:

CHICAGO - PRESIDENT-ELECT Barack Obama plans to tape a weekly address to the country not just for radio listeners, as US presidents have done so for years, but for YouTube viewers as well.

It is the first visible result of a major transition-team effort to make Mr Obama's conversations with the electorate more direct, reported the Miami Herald.

In addition, members and supporters of the White House media upgrade want more input opportunities for the public.

Many of the changes, if adopted, would curb the power of a traditional but often unpopular middleman between presidents and the populace: the mainstream media.

Connecting the White House hearth to the American home, the late president Franklin D. Roosevelt talked to people through the radio in the 1930s, with crackling broadcasts delivered near a crackling fire. John F. Kennedy in the 1960s and Ronald Reagan in the 1980s mastered television.

For President-elect Obama, who built a big part of his campaign on the Internet, it is YouTube.

also

Barack Obama is to pursue an ambitious peace plan in the Middle East involving the recognition of Israel by the Arab world in exchange for its withdrawal to pre-1967 borders, according to sources close to America’s president-elect.

and from the Republicans, getting in on the act too:

" 'Drill, baby, drill,' is not, by itself, an energy policy," Pawlenty said.

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HA HA CHECK THIS OUT

FIRST AND SECOND

via Rightwingsparkle. Its hotting up over there!

NO ONE IS ALLOWED TO VOTE

Steal Back Your Vote! from Greg Palast on Vimeo.

Burning Fuel is the Sound of America

Rev your engines for John McCain.

PERSONAL SHIT

I've not blogged any personal shit for a while so I thought maybe I'd catch up with myself. The band have been doing some great gigs in a local very hairy squatted pub which have been great fun. We usually get to come on about 1AM which is a really nice time to start. There is not really a stage, we play in a corner and people are dancing round us. At one of them I had chicks literally sitting at my feet. I had to maneuver some girls butt to get to my wah pedal. That's the rock star life no? Its been good fun using my loop box as well cos I can stick a loop in then go and open a beer and come back, or just have a jump about. Half way through the performance I invariably totally loose what the fuck I am playing but no one seems to notice.

On saturday we got invaded mid gig by three guitarists and a keyboard player. The venue is know for its jam sessions and we are a jam band so I think they just assumed. Three guitars is a bit excessive, but everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves so fuck it. The keyboard player was shit hot. I was too fucked afterwards to find him and get his number, he was playing a fuckin bitchin synth called a Nord lead. I think with this guy on keys we could do the whole festival circuit and maybe the apres ski stuff in France too.

I can't really go into detail about the other squatted venue we played, suffice to say that it was huge, and was once connected to the running of churches, and we were fucking worshiping man. So yeah, been having a great time steering totally clear of the London toilet circuit gravy train nonsense, playing where our heart is. I've been filming, I haven't seen any of my 'mentalist buddies for a while but I heard Atilla is OK doing his time. Mr fastfingers has done an interview for a little radio show connected to a studio he is part of. Its online here and he says some very nice things about me. they've got the name of the band wrong, hopefully we wont get sued by Warner Brothers.

What else have I been doing? Arguing with Republicans of course! This time about Mojo and Sea Water. I might not be able to spell but I think I've got em on the run this time no? I've just got to find a way of dying sea water black, making it thicker and burying it in the ground.

Last night I caught up with the excellent two parter Car Bomb on 4oD. An amazing doco presented by an ex CIA agent who was working in Beruit during the civil war. He took us from the first ever cart bomb (An Italian Anarchist bombing Wall st) through to the first Israeli car bombers, an American anti war bomber, "the troubles" in Ireland and on. He interviewed people from all sides who made them and drove them. There was a clear link in the train of thought between all of them. Do watch this doc if you can it is invaluable.

I've been fairly much off of anything serious drugwise, I've had the slowest dawning epiphany over the last few years. I am getting much more of a high from doing things than performing extreme feeling feats of fuckedness. It is a much more subtle high but it feels much more important to me at the moment. I am happier going with a crew to perform as best we can than I am heading out to "be entertained and consume", not that I think that isn't OK. I just remember the mid nineties feeling like those mice who have the wires attatched to their heads and keep pressing the buttons. The idea of raving feels that processional to me at the moment.

Jimbo

Not had any Jimbo for a while. Controversial views on the whereabouts of Bin Laden, even more controversial views about Mackintosh computers!

THE SECOND COMING...

Bloody hell- Its Obama!

In a symbolic move, Obama spoke in the same hall where McCain will accept the Republican nomination at his party's convention in September. Campaign officials, citing the local fire marshal, put the crowd at 17,000 inside the eXcel Energy Center, plus another 15,000 outside.

McCain addressed a smaller crowd by design, an estimated 600 in his audience and another 600 outside.

One campaign began as another was ending.

Well that was a surprise. I've been watching this from afar with my pals in Sparkleland. She is not usually wrong about these things, I'm glad she was this time. Not that I'm expecting Obama to do anything. If he is the lesser of evils, I suppose that is OK. Obviously I hope for a "surge". A reaction around the world to a black president which might push him into doing something. I hope for him to speak in a language which will out date the mindset of my republican friends. Will he? We'll see. Anyway the Pakistanis are happy:

A former senior Pakistani diplomat, who was briefly ambassador to the United States, Tariq Fatemi, said that Mr. Obama’s “idealism” struck a chord with Pakistanis.

“Barack Obama would do very well in improving the image of the United States. He would position the United States more as a force for moral values rather than for brute force,” he said.

RED STATE UPDATE

via Rightwingsparkle

UNCLE J JOINS HIS TRIBE

We've not had any Uncle J for a bit eh.

DRUDGE NEEDS HILLARY

Democrats said they noticed an occasional Clinton-friendly tone from Mr. Drudge, whom New York magazine quoted as saying on his program: “I need Hillary Clinton. You don’t get it. I need to be part of her world. That’s my bank.”

REPUBLICAN BLOGGERS ARE ALL BASTARDS

I would say that for the most part the critiques I’ve seen did not provide evidence of reasoned aesthetic judgments. What they were really were ad hominem attacks against the detainees, made by right-wing bloggers who were outraged that a University Press was publishing poems by Guantánamo detainees, and who responded with bullying tactics, resorting to mockery and ridicule. You may have seen some of the sites on which bloggers invited readers to write “Gitmo poetry,” along the lines of: “Roses are red/ Violets are blue/ I’m stuck in Guantánamo/ And when I get out I’ll behead you.”