Spalpeen

I support Obama for President (the opponent would be a disaster for America and the world), but this video the campaign aired recently is essentially propagandist drivel. Who would in their right mind sit through a 30 minute commercial?! I expect that it’ll come off cheesy for uncertain voters, and probably patronising for most supporters of Obama. The only group I can see actually sitting through it are hardcore fanatics of Obama, but they would have watched this if it had been published solely online. Seems like a waste of money to broadcast this on the networks. Then again, most of this $1 Billion “race” to the White House comes off as a waste sitting from all the way over in the U.K.

“Mr Blair says he has not kept a diary of his time in Downing Street, but hints that once he leaves he will try to understand the world of the iPod and text messaging which, he acknowledges, is also changing the medium of political debate.”

Wow, just wow. Is there really hope for any kind of integration of a democracy that utilises the web when dinosaurs like these are still in power? If he can’t grasp the concept of text messaging or iPods (this quote is from the middle of a podcast, no less) then the prospect of concepts like blogging becoming integrated into the political process don’t look too great!

Read - The Guardian

I’m loving this blog, and that’s my fave entry on Beau’s homepage at the moment. The Guardian seems to link there, so maybe I’ll do some myself and see if I can pull some readers my way.

I’ve always hated it when politicians refer to “evil”. It sends shivers up my spine when the people that have/could potentially have a degree of influence over the actions of the state use the word evil to justify their beliefs or actions. The reason for my trepediation whenever a politician brings up evil can be traced back to when I attended a lecture by the shadow home secretary, David Davis. He referred to the detainees at Guantanamo as “evil” individuals. David Davis certainly isn’t the first person to say this: Blair has said it, and Bush has said it repeatedly. In fact, I blame Bush entirely for the increase in popularity of this simplistic word. Search any of his speeches, and you’ll find multiple mentions of “evil” this, “axis of evil” that. Frankly, I think it’s probably one of the most worrying linguistic trends in politics for a while. Rejecting the concept of right to a fair trial and using some arbitrary idea of “evil” to justify your stance is dead wrong.

Anyway, this rant was inspired by Randall.