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Hillary And Bill Clinton’s Lies, Cries And Ties

HILLARY Clinton’s “misspoke” mistake that she dodged sniper fire on a trip to Bosnia 12 years ago will enters the American political lexicon.

While Bill Clinton is remembered for fingering his tie (the one Monica Lewinsky bought him) and arguing the toss over the meaning of “sexual relations”, and the Bush administration is known for its “known unknowns”, Hillary will forever be linked to her tears and her misspake.

Of course, Hillary’s mistook pales into insignificance when allied to the contributions of Tony Blair who went one better than twisting words when he actually managed to bend time to his will and turn 45 minutes into so much more…

More at Hillary Clinton Fails The Pinocchio Test In The Balkans

Posted: 26th, March 2008 | In: Politicians | Comments (2)


EU To Decide If It Can Make A Lake From Mead

mead.jpgJERRY Schooler is an award-winning English fruit wine maker, purveyor of silver birch wine, bramble liqueur and mead.

The Telegraph says Mr Schooler’s customers include “royal palaces and the National Trust”.

The paper also notes that Mr Schooler has been presented with a bill for £30,000 after the European Union ruled that he was using the wrong sized bottles.

Mr Schooler uses traditional 37.5cl bottles. The EU states that the bottles must measure 35cl.

But perhaps the most interesting thing is that officials are not sure whether to classify mead as wine or spirit. Anorak suggest classifying mead as “revolting”. But rules are rules.

We urge Mr Schooler to force the EU to rule on what mead is. And then solicit the support of cultural arbiter Jonathan Meades to carry the fight, and also create  slogan for mead, such as “I Feel The Need For Mead”, “Mead Is Murder For Thirst” and a cocktail called “Mead And Mild”, for your honey…

Posted: 25th, March 2008 | In: Broadsheets, Money, Politicians | Comments (2)


Tory Councillor On Shannon Matthews And Sterilising People On Benefits

john.jpegTORY councillor John Ward has been musing on his blog about Shannon Matthews and social engineering.

Mr Ward, a 58-year- old bachelor, wrote:

“This is yet another example of ‘Breakdown Britain’… “Children become just a means toward that end, and are of themselves of little if any further significance in this new society.

“I think there is an increasingly strong case for compulsory sterilisation of all those who have had a second (or third, or whatever) child while living off state handouts…
“With over-population being the root cause of so much that negatively impacts Planet Earth, the very last thing the world needs is to encourage excessive breeding.”

Mr Ward has backtracked a little. He says: “I’m half-blind and missed out a word, I should have written ‘consideration’. I’m sorry if it has caused any problems.”

And in any case, as the Mail notes, the whole idea was to get people to think about issues.

Mr Ward is not voicing an opinion, rather joining the debate. He may be saying something unpalatable, but his rhetoric owes more to New Labour than the Nazis.

Oh, yes, the Nazis.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted: 25th, March 2008 | In: Politicians, Tabloids | Comments (23)


Heather Mills Is Tony Blair’s Black Rod

heather-mills-black-rod.jpgMORE McCartney news in the Sun as the paper hears it emerge that “deluded Heather Mills lied that Tony Blair had offered her a peerage”.

No small shock to read that at the apogee of Cool Britannia, Tony Blair didn’t offer Lady Mills a knighthood, a job as Minister For All The Disabilities or the chance to use her spare leg as celebrity Black Rod as the state opening of Parliament.

Anorak cannot recall any offer being made, having spent the duration of Tony’s Cool Period with its hand over it eyes, fingers in ears singing the first verse to Cliff Richard’s seminal paean to youth, The Young Ones.

The Sun, though, was listening in wrapt awe, and hears how then plain Heather Mills was, as she claims, offered a “people’s peer” gong.

The claim forms a pivotal moment in ITV’s McCartney vs McCartney: The Ex Files.

On the show, Sunday Times writer Jasper Gerard, to whom she made the claim, says: “I was pretty gobsmacked that somebody who was essentially just a model and a bit of a part-time campaigner best known for being Paul McCartney’s girlfriend should be offered a peerage.”

The Sun says it’s all a lie.

But we can only say by way of defence that Tony was young and meant everything he said at the time…

Posted: 25th, March 2008 | In: Celebrities, Politicians, Tabloids | Comments (5)


Clinton Morphing Into Obama

hillary-obama.jpgHILLARY Clinton or Barack Oabma?

When Democrats contemplate the apocalypse these days, they have visions of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton slugging it out à la Ted Kennedy and Jimmy Carter at the 1980 convention.

Or Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama…

Or vote McCain:

Posted: 24th, March 2008 | In: Politicians | Comment


Eliots Spitzer Can Blame It On Stephen Byers’ Black Socks

eliots-spitzer.jpg“IT is also my client’s understanding from the same source that Gov Spitzer did not remove his mid-calf-length black socks during the sex act.”

Words attributed to one Roger Stone, billed in the Times as “a controversial Republican operative”, who alerted authorities four months before the Democratic governor was forced to step down in a sex scandal.

Says the paper: “He told the Miami Herald that he learnt about the governor’s behaviour from a high-end call girl at an adults-only club called Miami Velvet who confided in him that she was disappointed to have missed a chance to entertain Mr Spitzer. Instead, her friend met Mr Spitzer and noted that he kept his socks on, Mr Stone said.”

Readers should recall the name Stephen Byers, the married former transport secretary, who was revealed by one Barbara Cornish to have worn his black socks while in the act of a private consultation.

Can it be that before Mr Byers was exposed in a tabloid shag ‘n’ tell, Mr Spitzer was just a normal office guy in his novelty socks? On reading of Mt Byers’ sexual prowess, and considering the middle-aged man’s anodyne exterior, did Mr Spitzer place too much stock on those black socks, seeing them as the source of the Blarite’s sexual vigour; Samson’s hair in a nylon and viscose blend?

We can only wonder.

And recall to mind the old public school adage that you can always trust a man who tucks his vest into his Y-fronts – and leaves it tucked in until he returns home from chambers…

Posted: 24th, March 2008 | In: Broadsheets, Politicians | Comment (1)


When Barry Became Barack Obama

mandela.jpgBARACK Obama used to answer to the name Barry. If the UK, he’d have been Bazza, or Baz.

But why did he start to call himself Barack?

When Sen. Barack Obama moved from using the name Barry to Barack, his formal name, it was part of his almost lifelong quest for identity and belonging—to figure out who he is, and how he fits into the larger American tapestry.

Part black, part white, raised in Hawaii and Indonesia, with family of different religious and spiritual backgrounds—seen by others in ways he didn’t see himself—the young Barry was looking for solid ground. At Occidental College, he was feeling like he was at a ‘dead end’… ‘that somehow I needed to connect with something bigger than myself.'”

For similar reasons, Tony Blair will know be known as Anthony, Bill Clinton as William, Teddy Roosevelt as Theodore, Joe Salin as Joseph, Nelson Madela as Rolihlahla and Nick Clegg as…

Posted: 23rd, March 2008 | In: Politicians | Comment


China Cooks Tibet On An Olympic Torch

chinesemark.jpgALL eyes are on China thanks to the Beijing Olympics. The BBC’s obession with Israel has been repalced by the realisation of other battles.

“Groups sympathetic to anti-Chinese protesters in Tibet are under assault by cyber attackers who are embedding malware in email that appears to come from trusted colleagues.”

John McCain tells a Chinese reporter: “The people there are being subjected to mistreatment that is not acceptable with the conduct of a world power, which China is.”

And: “His Holiness [Dalii Lama] says we have to be realistic,” says Tenzin Taklha, a senior aide to the 72-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner… “From the exiled Tibetan leaders, there were no calls for sanctions, like those imposed when Myanmar suppressed pro-democracy protests last year, or even a boycott of this summer’s Beijing Olympics.

“It’s an approach that reflects the pragmatism of the Dalai Lama, who has long sought an accommodation based on his “Middle Way” dialogue with Beijing aimed at autonomy for Tibetans under Chinese rule.”

THE BBC: “A week after the initial riots, estimates of how many people were killed and accounts of who was to blame differed wildly. China says 18 civilians and a policeman were killed and hundreds injured. But the Tibetan government-in-exile says at least 99 people have died in the crackdown by Chinese troops.

“During the clampdown, troops have sealed off towns in the surrounding areas where unrest has taken place, according to witnesses. Authorities are not allowing foreign journalists into Tibet.

“Other witnesses have reported seeing hundreds of troop carriers heading for Tibetan areas in recent days. In Gansu, public notices and police broadcasts told protesters to surrender by midnight on 25 March or face arrest and punishment.”

China is eating Tibet alive.

The picture is from a Chinese food market. What is it? And can the Olympic torch arrive in time to cook it?

Posted: 22nd, March 2008 | In: Photojournalism, Politicians | Comments (6)


The Obama Cult: Your Own Personal Jesus Wept

The Obama Cult: You’re Own Personal Jesus…

“We are the ones we’ve been waiting for,” says Obama.

Obama has joked about his meesianic qualities, as spotted by that political BibleMen’s Vogue:

“When Morgan Freeman comes over to greet Obama, the senator begins bowing down both hands in worship. ‘This guy was president before I was,’ says Obama, referring to Freeman’s turn in Deep Impact and, clearly, getting a little ahead of his own bio. Next, a nod to Bruce Almighty: ‘This guy was God before I was.’”

And behold, Obama met them and greeted them. And they came up and took hold of His feet and worshiped Him.

As Jack Tapper puts it: Obama Wept…

Posted: 22nd, March 2008 | In: Politicians | Comment (1)


Passport Gate: US State Department Employee Looks For Real Clinton, McCain And Obama

clinton-obama-mccain.jpgPASSPORT files on the three leading US presidential candidates have been spied on.

A US state department employee looked at the files of Republican candidate John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama.

Says US State department spokesman Sean McCormack: “In the case of Senator McCain, we detected earlier this year… one of the same people who accessed Senator Obama’s passport file also accessed Senator McCain’s passport file.”

McCormack said a trainee accessed Hillary Clinton’s file last year.

It’s awfully fair that all three candidates have been snooped on. Perhaps the game is to see who takes the most offence?

And what price one of the candidates being an impostor? Old Mr Anorak thinks John McCain resembles a young Bobby Chartlon, Barack Obama looks like the Messiah and Hillary Clinton looks like the kind of woman who plays a lot of golf because she likes the shoes.

THE GUARDIAN:

Howard Berman, the Democratic chairman of the foreign affairs panel, compared the passport spying flap to a similar 1992 breach committed against then-presidential candidate Bill Clinton.

“[I]t is worth noting that that earlier situation also was characterised as isolated and non-political when the news initially emerged,” Berman said. But a subsequent inquiry found that government employees were hunting for information that would help embarrass Clinton during his campaign.

THE TIMES:

Joseph DeGenova, a lawyer involved in the 1992 Clinton investigation, said of the Obama breaches: ‘It’s really remarkable that something like this could have gone unreported. What’s disturbing about it is there are three separate breaches. It strains the imagination that somehow they were not linked.”

SFGATE:

Two State Department employees were fired and a third has been disciplined for improperly accessing Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s passport file, the State Department announced Thursday night.

Senior Department officials said they learned of the incidents only when a reporter made an inquiry Thursday afternoon. They said an initial investigation indicated the employees – all of whom worked on contract – were motivated by “imprudent curiosity.”

More:

Michelle Malkin

Right Voices » Blog Archive » Poor Obama: All 3 Candidates Passport Info Accessed

State Department Passport Party » The American Mind

The Thomas Chronicles » State Department: Peek-a-boo!

Hot Air » Blog Archive » Passportgate: A bipartisan mess

A Blog For All

Departure Gate… 

    Posted: 21st, March 2008 | In: Politicians | Comment


    Hillary Clinton Fails The Pinocchio Test In The Balkans

    hillary-bill-clinton.jpgHAVING brought peace to Northern Ireland, Hillary Clinton, who would have saved Rwanda had only she been listened to, starred in porn, cried and cried, and was named after Sir Edmund Hillary, is in the Balkans.

    SAYS Hillary: “I remember landing under sniper fire. There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base.”
    –Hillary Clinton, speech at George Washington University, March 17, 2008.The Washington Post keeps its head up and journalist John Pomfret notices:

    Far from running to an airport building with their heads down, Clinton and her party were greeted on the tarmac by smiling U.S. and Bosnian officials. An eight-year-old Moslem girl, Emina Bicakcic, read a poem in English. An Associated Press photograph of the greeting ceremony, above, shows a smiling Clinton bending down to receive a kiss.

    “There is peace now,” Emina told Clinton, according to Pomfret’s report in the Washington Post the following day, “because Mr. Clinton signed it. All this peace. I love it.”

    But it was hell:

    According to Sinbad, who provided entertainment on the trip along with the singer Sheryl Crow, the “scariest” part was deciding where to eat. As he told Mary Ann Akers of The Post, “I think the only ‘red-phone’ moment was: ‘Do we eat here or at the next place.'” Sinbad questioned the premise behind the Clinton version of events. “What kind of president would say ‘Hey man, I can’t go ’cause I might get shot so I’m going to send my wife. Oh, and take a guitar player and a comedian with you.”

    One like Bill Clinton, apparently…

    Posted: 21st, March 2008 | In: Politicians | Comment (1)


    John McCain Calls Up Prince William To Iraq

    prince-harry-mccain.pngSAYS John McCain: “I regret that Harry’s service was short-circuited by the unnecessary publication of his presence in Afghanistan.”

    John McCain is talking about Prince Harry, leader of the Ronald McDonald Army.

    “His willingness and his eagerness to serve provides an inspiration to other young men and women to serve the cause of freedom in Afghanistan.

    “All of us Americans and British are proud of him. Americans admire the Royal Family. I respect and admire the Royal Family and I think those two young princes are very good role models.

    “I would like to see Prince William serve if it is possible.”

    Just as soon as Wills gets back from Baghdad, we’ll pass on the message from his would-be commander in chief…

    D’oh!

    Picture: via Jay

    Posted: 21st, March 2008 | In: Politicians, Royal Family | Comment


    Caption Contest: Sarkozy And Gordon Brown

    sarkozy-gordon.jpgCaption Contest: Sarkozy And Gordon Brown.

    A new Anorak site is coming. And with it new competitions.

    In the meantime…

    Picture via. 

    Posted: 20th, March 2008 | In: Caption Competition, Photojournalism, Politicians | Comments (33)


    No-One Give Dana Perino A Pretzel

    dana-perino-bush.jpg DANA Perino is the White House Press Secretary. She is blonde. Her presence means George Bush is made to look smarter.

    This is Dana Perino who on the subject of the Cuban Missile Crisis offered:

    I was panicked a bit because I really don’t know about . . . the Cuban Missile Crisis,” said Perino. “It had to do with Cuba and missiles, I’m pretty sure…I came home and I asked my husband,” she recalled. “I said, ‘Wasn’t that like the Bay of Pigs thing?’ And he said, ‘Oh, Dana.'” Seriously, no, the point was that it wasn’t like, oh man, Jesus Christ. Anyone out there read 13 Days? It’s seriously, like, the least complex, most Cosmo-simple foreign policy book ever written, and I remember thinking, when I read it, “Man, this book is so idiotically simple, a true, like, idiot could read it.”

    That’s Cuban missiles. What about other kinds of weapons? Perino is on Fox News:

    “Some of the terms I just don’t know,” she explained. “I haven’t grown up knowing. The type of missiles that are out there: patriots and scuds and cruise missiles and tomahawk missiles. And I think that men just by osmosis understand all of these things, and they’re things that I really have to work at — to know the difference between a carrier and a destroyer, and what it means when one of those is being launched to a certain area.”

    Can you launch a destroyer with anything other than a bottle of champagne and Her Majesty’s best wishes? Or do you need a really big gun?

    Posted: 20th, March 2008 | In: Politicians | Comment (1)


    Non-PC PC With Kelvin MacKenzie, Hardeep Singh Kohli And Lembit Opik

    hardeep.gifIT’S political correctness gone mad. IT’S the Non-PC PC story. It’s a literary genre in its own right.

    Today Kelvin MacKenzie plays the game by listening to comedian Hardeep Singh Kohli calling LibDem MP Lembit Opik “Lemsip”.

    Says MacKenizie in the Sun: “Lembit has an Estonian background and is therefore going to have an Anglo-Saxon name, in exactly the same way as Hardeep.”

    Well, not exactly the same way. We are no experts on Estonian names, but Hardeep does sound more Asian in origin than Baltic.

    Says MacFrenzie, who met both Hardeep and Lembit on the celebrity version of The Apprentice: “Supposing Lembit has referred to him as Hardup, then almost certainly there would have been a massive ‘race row’.”

    Or not. MacKenzie says the unsayabale, Toothpik gives a watery smile and Hardeep gets a call to play Baron Hardup in Cinderella…

    Posted: 20th, March 2008 | In: Celebrities, Politicians, Tabloids, TV & Radio | Comment


    The Poem Of Tony Blair By The Bard Of Downing Street

    tony-blair-poem.jpgWHO wrote Ode To Tony Blair? Ahem:

    “At Downing Street upon the stair,

    I met a man who wasn’t Blair,

    He wasn’t Blair again today,

    Oh how I wish he’d go away.”

    Tory Shadow Business Secretary Alan Duancan says its Business Secretary John Hutton.

    Not so, says Hutton: “I would write better poetry than that.”

    This is John Hutton who can rhyme entreprenewer with sewer. So, perhaps, yes. Or no.

    So who wrote the poem? And can you do better?

    Picture: Poldraw

    Posted: 19th, March 2008 | In: Money, Politicians | Comments (4)


    Barack Obama On Why Race In The Race Doesn’t Matter

    obama-home.jpg“RACE doesn’t matter,” chant the crowd after Sen. Barack Obama’s victory in the South Carolina Democratic primary.

    Of course it doesn’t. That’s why the Obamites are chanting it.

    As AP’s Charles Babington writes:

    But in the seven weeks since, race has mattered more and more in his presidential struggle against Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, threatening to dent his lead. On Tuesday, Obama addressed it head-on in a speech that bluntly described a history of injustice to blacks, acknowledged the resentments of whites, and ended with the hope that his campaign can help heal racial divisions.”

    Race doesn’t matter. Did you hear it? Race DOES NOT MATTER!

    Barack Obama’s speech is front-page news on the Daily Telegraph. A speech given by an agonist in the Race to The Whitehouse, a man not yet his party’s nominee, is front-page news on a UK paper. Because race doesn’t matter?

    Says Mickey Kaus on Obama’s Speech on race – “Can’t We Ignore Race? Please?” Well, No.

    We can listen, and like Kaus look at segments of the speech we like best:

    Obama: “I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother – a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street...”

    Says Kaus:

    The most disastrous sentence in the speech. If Obama’s saying that those who fear young black men on the street are racists, the equivalents of Rev. Wright in offensiveness, then he’s just insulted a whole lof ot people. If he loses the votes of everyone who fears young black men, he loses the election. People fear black men on the street–as even Jesse Jackson once momentarily admitted–because they cause a wildly disproportionate share of street crime. Does Obama want to be the candidate who says that thought is verboten?

    Read the rest of this entry »

    Posted: 19th, March 2008 | In: Politicians | Comment (1)


    Bridget Prentice Finds Her Police In Queues

    police1.jpgJUSTICE Minister Bridget Prentice is stood in the queue for a bus.

    Her bag is agape.

    Kenneth Cooper approaches. He is a pickpocket. He sees the bag.

    Says Prentice: “I was just turning round to ask him to stand back when he got off the bus. I knew straight away that something was wrong and looked into my bag to discover my purse had gone.”

    “He’s nicked my purse,” exclaims Ms Prentice.

    As we have heard from Ms Prentice’s colleague Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary and customer of “KATIES kebabs and burgers” in Lewisham, the streets of South London are dangerous places full of dragons and many-headed beasts in checked caps and brandless white trainers.

    MS Prentice is in danger. Luckily, reports the Times, an “off-duty” detective sergeant is stood in the queue behind Ms Prentice. He gives chase.

    Read the rest of this entry »

    Posted: 19th, March 2008 | In: Broadsheets, Politicians | Comments (2)


    Gordon Brown Is Victor Kiam Channelling Gerald Ratner

    courage-gordon-brown.jpg“GORDON Brown today gives Britain his personal guarantee he will save the nation from financial meltdown.”

    The guarantee is not for all time, and a glance at the small print, and a look at the opinion polls, shows that it will be voided at the next general election. There is also no money back guarantee and if the economy breaks you cannot have a new one. 

    This is Gordon Brown’s “special vow”. This Gordon Brown doing his impression of Victor Kiam when everyone else is sounding like Gerald Ratner.

    He “urges the nation to put its faith in him”. If we all believe enough, we can make it. You just have to believe.

    Read the rest of this entry »

    Posted: 19th, March 2008 | In: Money, Politicians, Tabloids | Comments (5)


    God Damn The New York Times On Barack Obama And Jeremiah Wright

    barack-obama.jpgTHE New York Times is All The News That’s Fit To Print. So it says.

    Byron York looks at the NYT and tries to spot any mention of Barack Obama’s spirutal guide Jeremiah Wright’s conspiracy issues

    Speaking of “God damn America,” if you read only the New York Times — if that were your only source of news — you might not even know that Wright had uttered those words. A Nexis search shows that the only place Rev. Wright’s “God damn America” proclamation has been reported in the Times was in Bill Kristol’s column yesterday. That column was noticed mostly for a factual error — Kristol repeated a claim from an inaccurate NewsMax report — but as serious as that was, it seems that Times readers should at least thank Bill for telling them what the news pages would not.

    A conspiracy? Anyone told Mr Wright?

    Posted: 18th, March 2008 | In: Politicians | Comment (1)


    Eliot Spitzer’s Free Sex Pass

    ELIOT Spitzer, the disgraced New York governor, has been given a free-sex-for-life pass by Nevada brothel, The Moonlite Bunny Ranch…

    Posted: 18th, March 2008 | In: Politicians | Comment (1)


    We Will Be Offended In The Race For The White House

    IN the Washington post, Michael Kinsley writes:

    There is no room for sexism in a modern political campaign. There is no room for racism either. There is no room for remarks that could reasonably be interpreted as sexist or racist. In fact, given the history of sexism and racism in this country, there is no room for remarks that could even be willfully misinterpreted as sexist or racist… There is no room for comments of any sort by anybody a candidate might have met under any circumstances in the course of his or her life, unless they have been vetted for sexism, racism, rudeness, or the appearance of these qualities by the campaign’s senior staff. There is no room for unfair accusations that the opposition candidate has engaged in sexist, racist or rude remarks, or that anyone he or she has ever met has engaged in such remarks. And of course there is also no room for perfectly fair accusations of this sort, which can be misinterpreted, and usually are.

    Posted: 17th, March 2008 | In: Politicians | Comment


    Barack Obama And Hillary Clinton: We’re All Irish Now

    barack-obama.jpgWILL Barack Obama be celebrating St Patrick’s Day?

    On this day we are all Irish on the inside. It’s fashionable to be Irish. Anyone can be Irish.

    According to the Clare Heritage Centre in south-west Ireland, Muhammad Ali is Irish. His great-grandad was allegedly one Abe Grady from the Irish town of Ennis, who emigrated to America in the 1860s, settled in Kentucky and married a black woman. If only Ali was aware of his ‘Irish soul’, things could have been so different. I can just hear him now: ‘No Vietcong ever called me a nigger or a bogtrotter….’

    Yesterday parade in Birmingham – location of the “world’s third largest St Patrick’s Day Parade” (and there is much competition) – featured such Irish notables as local group the Dhol Blasters, adding what the BBC calls “a Punjabi twist”.

    A picture on the Ireland.com website is captioned: “Samba dancers in Dublin’s St Patrick’s Day parade.”

    Says the Montreal Gazette:

    Leslie Lopez calls herself a Mexican-Canadian, but yesterday she was all decked out in green at the 184th St. Patrick’s Parade. There’s nothing Irish about me, zero per cent, but I’ve been to Ireland and I like Irish culture,” she said, sporting a kicky green tinsel wig, Irish-themed buttons, a shamrock lei and green beads.

    So can Barack O’Bama be Irish. Barack Sean O’Bama?. The man supported by O’Prah Winfrey? Hillary Clinton’s is at a St Patrick’s day parade in Pittsburgh. And this the Hillary who brought peace to Northern Ireland.

    But which is the more Irish?

    As we know:

    US Presidential hopeful Barack Obama can now count himself as one of the millions of Americans with Irish heritage. Research by the genealogy website ancestry.co.uk reveals that Mr Obama’s great great great grandfather was born in Ireland, although it is not yet known where. Falmouth Kearney sailed from Ireland to New York in 1850 at the age of 19 on the S.S. Marmion arriving on the 20th of March.

    Says O’Bama:

    I noticed over the last several weeks that the forces of division have started to raise their ugly heads again. And I’m not here to cast blame or point fingers because everybody, you know, senses that there’s been this shift. It reminds me: We’ve got a tragic history when it comes to race in this country. We’ve got a lot of pent-up anger and bitterness and misunderstanding. …This country wants to move beyond these kinds of things.

    He is, of course, talking about 800 long years of English oppression, the overbearing priests, the drunken father, the beatings and the miserable wretch of a mother.

    Meanwhile in Dublin, the locals are wondering if the Guinness is organic…

    Luck of the Irish to one you – most like the loser…

    Posted: 17th, March 2008 | In: Politicians | Comments (11)


    Tony Blair’s Secret Talks To The IRA

    ira.JPG“REVEALED: Blair’s offer to meet masked IRA leaders,” begins the Guardian.

    “Tony Blair offered to take the unprecedented step of holding secret masked meetings with the IRA as he fought to save the Northern Ireland peace process from collapse,” continues the piece.

    It is one claim made by former No. 10 chief of staff Jonathan Powell, whose book is, coincidentally, serialised in the Guardian all this week. It also forms the basis of the paper’s lead leader piece. Book reviews are rarely so newsworthy.

    But what of the story and news that Blair wanted to sit down for a face to balaclava chat with, well, who knows?

    It could be anyone beneath the mask. Tony could be talking with the man who used to do the BBC voice for Gerry Adams, Coronation Street’s ‘Big’ Jim McDonald or just about any Northern Irishman looking for work.

    Read the rest of this entry »

    Posted: 17th, March 2008 | In: Broadsheets, Politicians | Comments (2)


    The UN Resolution In Azerbaijan

    THE Croydonian notes:Azerbaijan has persuaded the UN to pass a resolutionreaffirm[ing] Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity, expressing support for that country’s internationally recognized borders and demanding the immediate withdrawal of all Armenian forces from all occupied territories there“.

    Given recent events in Serbia / Kosovo, it is intriguing to note that some countries are quite happy to dismember Serbia in pursuit of self-determination for Albanians but will not extend the same principle to the Armenians of Artsakh. So, here are the states which have recognised Kosova but have also signed the Azeri motion:

    Afghanistan
    Bangladesh
    Kuwait
    Malaysia
    Morocco
    Pakistan
    Saudi Arabia
    Senegal
    Serbia
    Turkey

    Meanwhile, all credit to the unlikely list of refuseniks: Angola, Armenia, France, India, Russian Federation, United States, Vanuatu. Our man in NY abstained.

    Source 

    Posted: 17th, March 2008 | In: Politicians | Comments (3)