Thread of US election discussion for Britishes

http://conservativehome.blogs.com/torydiary/images/2007/05/07/sany0081.gif

Most misguided sense of optimism and excitement ever.

man, I don't remember that video being so bad.

LOL, Dr. Brian Cox, LOL LOL LOL.

Brian Cox from Dixville Notch amirite

http://twigg4westderby.com/uploads/361e3df3-12f5-a6d4-25f3-9c831a5a9b55.jpg

Okay, I recognise Stephen Twigg but I can't quite place the guy on the right. Is it his boyfriend?

Madame Tussauds did a really good job there

^^^ Saw that shit live. Took me 3 weeks to uncurl my toes from embarrassment.

really thing the Illinois Democratmasters are gonna sock it to the Panama Canal Zone, Panama Republicaneers at this year's Electionbowl

think

Marcus Hahnemann is apparently voting McCain, while Maurice Adu is for Obama. That's all I know.

Would be nice to learn how Clint Dempsey is planning on changing the direction of America.

http://www.independent.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00001/jay130407_1341t.jpg

Good luck Usa

with his next rap album xp

I also saw it live. You'd think that it'd be difficult to pick a standout moment of Jeremy Vine Election Night Horror, but even when put up against Ming's Bling and that thing whereby Gordon Brown was Mr Bean if he was a failure and Stalin if he was a success, Cleggy Boyee really is an entirely different level of wrong.

I am kind of hoping for more of the same tonight, really. Frank Lutz's Virtual 3D Ohio Monster Truck Derby, perhaps.

you don't hear that much about Sarah Palin anymore.

I hate Frank Lutz so much.

Is that a wig?

He's no Jeremy Vine in a cowboy hat.

... polling suggest it is

http://www.washingtonlife.com/directories/photos/watermark.php?path=issues/march-2007//atlantic-media/images/atlantic-media01.jpg

Good luck Usa

Current is offering a user-contributed party. Instead talking heads blabbing away, it will instead a provide a pulsating map set to a live DJ set by Diplo. Contributions will pop up from users on Digg, Twitter and 12seconds.tv.

^^^well that's my viewing for the evening sorted out.

going to all-night election party, taking bottle of moet in ANTICIPATION

figure this is a safe place to post...

why the fuck did those dumb fucks pick red for right-wing and blue for left-wing?

THE EAST IS RED!

^^^^question that needs answering

Dimbleby looks bored as fuck

Why is every American pronouncing "pundit" as "pundent"?

Murdoch airing his views was pretty skin-crawling.

yup, horrid old rubber faced throwback decrying "protectionism"

While declaring that he "likes Obama personally" yeah right

8 American soccerball goals to 3 already. Go USA!

Weirdly enough Obama's team, the Hawaiborough Ampersands beat East Utah Barrelmen 8-3 in the Soccerbarn Carter Cup earlier this year. An omen?

I cannot believe the beauty of Maureen Dowd !!

Oh my - Ricky Greavsie is on BBC

These are truly exciting times

Gervais can fuck off x-post

Looking a little like the world's fattest Don Draper

BREAKING NEWS DAVID BRENT WOULD VOTE FOR OBAMA

omg Hitchens alert!

cut off mid flow, sadly.

Dude could do with some cardio

GOOD LUCK USA

he's drunker than usual

Who the fuck is this corpse they've dragged on now?

Is this thing any more exciting on Five Live?

Hitchens was very good

better than Brent

he sounds like Peter Hitchens

Hitchens playin' chess not checkers tonight

Oh, Hitchens.

hitchens on palin, "she believes in witches"

mad lols plus truth bombs right there

If only dowd here was Maureen Dowd

Is it just me or was this on instead of Champions League highlights on ITV?

criminal

Maureen Dowd is awful

Does Jeremy Vine need a pee or something? He sure does fidget a lot.

I love the fact that Hitchens keeps muttering in the background. (No, not Maureen, thank God)

This is like when Alan Partridge dressed as a zombie

And what's with mini-McCain in the background?

biq question: where are Americans to laugh at us?

'bloggers' = people with laptops in front of them, slowly looking for something to read out

OH SHIT MCCAIN HAS WON SOUTH CAROLINA

BOOYACKA

Get those backwards face B's ready, McCainsters.

Oh, it's an English ruggerball score awready.

chad says the game is up!

BREAKING NEWS: In Virginia, "ain't shit to do but cook" claims local musician

"We can almost start discussing politics now" says Hitch

Have your say is fucking hellish tonight

Hitch is so wise. Well done to the beeb for getting Larry Sabato.

That shirt! I expect Vine to start doing the Hustle at any moment.

Vine is like The Cruiser in Minority Report with this screen of his.

He needs to do the hand jiving more.

Will Obama be making a statement on Manuelgate?

Was... was Hitch just quietly removed?

is "quietly removed" a euphemism for drunk that I hadn't heard yet?

Dimbleby just said "where is he" off-mic so... quite possibly.

That suggests he just vanished into the night, possibly in search of more booze.

Republican boys' choir!

BBC's North America correspondent appears to be Mike Flowers?

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/45169000/jpg/_45169481_justin_webb.jpg

Nice to see Dr Who turn up on this historic occasion.

ted koppel wtf?

"we'll be hearing from john bolton", oh joy

Can the Brits be less dickish please?

\i'm sorry, I'm nervous and I don't feel entitled to express it on the other thread.

looking very good for Obama from this side of the Atlantic, if that's any consolation

is anyone watching itv over here?

lol itv

While Obama's in the lead I can enjoy the Republican fatboy whining about Obama being too rich.

yes boo fucking hoo

I don't know if I can handle watching Jon Culshaw on ITV.

lol itv

otm.

bbc interviewing whoever they can get hold of but jesse jackson ain't bad.

Ted Koppel has a wonderfully relaxing voice. Does he have a meditation tape out?

how awful is Dimbleby tho.

Come off it JOHN CULSHAW

Someone tell Dimbleby it's New Hampshire.

That's about 3 times now.

Jeremy Vine bringing another report from inside Cerebro.

Dimbelby is very very awful. As is Jeremy Vine. But Matt Frei is gr8.

They should have got Jeff Stelling to lead the BBC panel.

^real talk.

"Liddy Dole will be OFF to the JOB centre on Monday morning"

Vine is losing control of the machine! Nooo!

need to phone ofcom abuot these fools

Frei is not great.

No state has actually changed hands yet, has it? Obama still needs to win something from the GOP to win this election ... what's it going to be? I don't yet see what his projected route to victory is.

Dimbleby now moaning about American electoral system.

"Here in, um, wherever we are"

Is Rajesh Mirchindani a little... light on his feet?

Is Rajesh the Newsround correspondent?

Fox called Ohio for Obama, which means we can probably go to bed now.

Rajesh the ex-Radio 1 breakfast show co-host with Sara Cox.

Jay McInerney

That guy's face is twenty years older than his hair

Oh fuck John Bolton.

Jay M was poor

Laura K looks good in that pink dress

haha john bolton is such a piece of shit.

yes he is

Schama is a good fellow though

Some of the coverage is hilarious.

eg Dimbleby on Times Square "ressembles downtown Tokyo". yeah erm.....or TIMES SQUARE. "ah a can of campbells tomato soup, ressembles van gogh's sunflowers!"

"why it's a flag with some stripes and stars on it. ressembles a ketchup stained tea towel I once owned."

Simon Schama should be better than he is.

I agree with that, Garda - but DD is playing up to the amiable pondering persona he nowadays has

schama did a good job calling bolton on his obama=radical [dog whistle for communist] bullshit

"Let's go over to the bloggers, who are at computers. Explain the internet and its effect on this very instance in the 15 seconds we've allotted. Sorry we're out of time."

x-post I like DD tho he does seem to be floundering a bit. A friend reckons Jeff Stelling should have got the job.

John Bolton picking on pretty reporter.

further proof that Bolton is indeed a piece of shit,

ooh shit bolton called katty kay 'fundamentally ignorant of the republican party' which is bullshit as suzy/gabnebb have told us

especially as she was talking about independents

I can't decide if it's a plus or a minus that Bolton is an increasingly marginal figure. It's good that he has no power, but we always get stuck with him on BBC coverage since they shunted him to ambassador.

Obama for Ohio, f'realz

BAM

OHio called. We're done. Loving this.

It was Devo what won it.

NOTHING IS INEVITABLE HERE

lol

jesse jackson definitely said "artifical woofs"

artificial, rather

Those are some TASTY VOTES Ohio, MORE PLEASE

NOM NOM NOM

Ugh, Rupert Murdoch - it's like an ass-parade.

Oprah "in full vibrational mode".

I can't believe they're running that Murdoch piece.

I like this disco caricature pollster they've got in.

Some waffle about Morgan Freeman so dignified in Driving Miss Daisy somehow = no Bradley Effect on ITV

Lousiana: "Thank you Sir, may I have another"

http://i34.tinypic.com/2hnyfwm.jpg
propotional map from the bbc

I turned on ITV a few hours back and they started blaring triumphant Hollywood music under their reporter's spiel. Haven't watched since.

I am so happy for Ohio and Pennsylvania

"it has eight pigs for every resident". Dimbleby's finest moment of the night.

this thread has been much better than aus news websites btw thankig u ^__^

i is gay

oops meant that for the other thread ^__^

"it has eight pigs for every resident".

which state was this?

Iowa

Switching to Daily Show

how??

i thought that guy looked like eddie izzard. turns out, it's eddie izzard.

Izzard seeming a bit coked up...

Erica Jong's pissed as a fart

"this is the end of slavery"-eddie izzard.

x-post coked up, that's exactly what I thought but wasn't going to say it as felt maybe I'd be on my own in that.

now speaking: a jubbly old puffin.

John Bolton is an utter cock.

LOL. Rajesh: You still think McCain can win?
GOP Stooge: ...The presidency?

Kick Bolton off the show already!

Bolton is a disgusting cunt

bolton is a gush of effluent

Yeah Bolton is so bitter, they just can't handle losing can they? The amount of evasiveness and denial on the Republican side is beyond belief

Schama can't sit up straight

he's pure history teacher to his core. all my best history teachers have been funny little blokes whose spines and general physical frames have been elastic and moved according to their
enthusiasm for what they're talking about.

I'm presuming Bolton is the Ned Flanders chap who has now left. What an obnoxious fucker. The Fat farmer character was a nasty piece of work too.

Friends in NY are going to celebration party as I write this. I am so jealous.

Schama=Martin O'Neill's lost dad.

I like that! The accent's very different, but they are both intelligent.

i love mccian

Schama was invading Bolton's space like one senses no-one has done in many, many years. He also seems to have serious difficulty with chairs. I approve.

I wish I could envision how Stelling would have dealt with Bolton. I wonder if anyone round here could help?

(obv answer: undermine all statements by cutting to Phil Thompson's perpetually shaking head)

Chris Kamara unpicking the complex outcome in Florida.

ITV's coverage is stilted, dull and wierd. Lots of technical difficulties but Alistair Stewart is clearly excited for an O! victory.

i should not leave the room and remain logged in to ilx whilst in the company of other people. katty kay can naff off.

Dimbleby just managed to turn Dennis Kucinich into a single syllable.

Kucinich - you gotta love him.

Here comes your man.

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s236/mezxspectrum/340x.jpg

here's tracy chapman!

McCain's concession, as Hillary's was, the most respactable moment of his campaign.

completely marred by the cunt-filled crowd.

hate this overpraise for mccain on the beeb just cos we don't have to ever set eyes on him again. of course he gave a gracious concession speech, it's part of keeping some kind of legacy.

so when does he meet the queen

woo, I think I'm going to bed now, first election of any sort since 1997 that I've been particularly excited about (lol, hopefully Obama won't be as awful as new labour).

of course he gave a gracious concession speech, it's part of keeping some kind of legacy.

fair enough, but let's be gracious in victory. obama's speech is going to be something.

Vidal sounds...slightly unhinged.

gore vidal ranting on the beeb right now

Olly Reed-level unhinged.

no I agree, but I felt BBC overegged it completely.

wtf@vidal?

that was top

Seriously... the hell?

WBS otm

shame

ALVIN HALL!

SHUT UP SCOTTISH LADY! TALK TO ALVIN HALL!

ALVIN HALL!

jeez this nyc reporter is woeful, "POPULAR CULTURE", "THE INTERNET", "BLOGGING". everything crap about your average bbc journalist.

Alistair Stewart: "there's the White house. we burnt it down once. I fear it was a dreadful mistake. We're good friends now".

Here's O!...

Hey Britishers from ILX's #1 anglophile. I know most of you are asleep, but it's a very happy day today. Please don't hate Americans. Thanks.

obama's speech was a masterpiece

so sorry about proposition 8 California. You deserved better.

I lived there for over 15 years, can't I just a little bit of hate?

No seriously, you done good. What a thing to wake up to. I'm glad fell asleep because it's made getting up so much nicer. I'm still gonna be late for work, but for a good reason.

It almost makes sense second time.

Dimbleby looks likes he's about to fall asleep.

Stoked for the Melanie Phillips column.

hip hip hooray for barack on his magical election day!

Chips can retire peacefully now.

everyone must have gone to bed now, oh well, I'm off to my guitar lesson, laters.

I wish I'd stayed up to watch it now. What's the dilly with Vidal and his ranting?

I stayed up but listened to Naughtie on the radio instead, much more interesting as he has a real love and knowledge of politics.

Seriously fuck The Sun for linking this to the X Factor.

Seriously fuck The Sun for linking this to the X Factor.

Fixed.

lol at Vidal treating Dimbers like some wet behind the ears whippersnapper

MDC WTF?

Vidal's about a billion years old so was having a senior moment, very MES on Newsnight post-Peel. But queenier, there was almost an unsaid 'girlfriend' on the end of I DON'T KNOW WHO YOU ARE.

Woke up, called a former ILXor who has been lurking all election threads and wondering why the OMG ROFL ZING was prevalent and my answer, ALCOHOL AND DRUGS, had not even occurred to him. So it all makes sense now.

so what was vidal actually saying, then?

Talking about his upbringing in the eye of the storm and how his grandfather was a great senator who was a not-racist in a racist place. I think that youtube plays it out.

I don't understand Suzy's post about alcohol and drugs.

Yes Laura K was an airhead but I still think she looked good in that dress.

Vidal was extraordinary - he cannot have been as unhinged when Amis and everyone else interviewed him in the 1980s. He wanted to see superior but none of it came across well or added up; possibly he underestimated DD's experience and steady rationality, from decades of managing Prescott, Tebbit, Galloway et al.

Gore Vidal was awesome.

I think that youtube plays it out

ach, life's too short for youtube.

^ tl;dr

Jel wins

Stoked for the Melanie Phillips column.
― Peter "One Dart" Manley (The stickman from the hilarious 'xkcd' comics), Wednesday, 5 November 2008 09:22

"the enemies of America, freedom and the west will certainly be rejoicing today."
http://www.spectator.co.uk/melaniephillips/2576106/freedom-now-stands-alone.thtml

oh i only just got that xp

Millions of Americans remain lion-hearted, decent, rational and sturdy. They find themselves today abandoned, horrified, deeply apprehensive for the future of their country and the free world. No longer the land of the free and the home of the brave; they must now look elsewhere.

die

I hope someone builds a mosque in her fucking garden

phillips: "western civilisation is losing out to a far-left agenda which has become mainstream"

if only that were actually true!

hahah Spectator 2008 turns into Living Marxism 1983

(if only!)

The Gore Vidal bit was probably the sort of thing that could ONLY be understood at half four in the morning; for a second I thought Chris Morris had started a new series of Jam unannounced.

But it didn't really matter and the whole thing was lovely and coming out into grey and drookit London this morning the world still felt different, brighter and better.

Those of us who have looked on appalled during this most frightening of presidential elections – at the suspension of reason and its replacement by thuggery

I think she got the US Presidential election mixed up with Roy Keane making the Sunderland squad stand on the roof of the team coach all the way home from Stamford Bridge on Saturday.

Gordon Brown just totally PWNED Cameron in the midst of all the congratulations.

http://www.recessmonkey.com/wp-content/uploads/mccameronbrunovincentgetty.jpg

What the fuck is she talking about?

Islam, or more specifically her view on Obama's links to the Nation of Islam and his links to other "radicals".

Very, very strange. I know Phillips likes to go off like a firework and gets excited, and I know roughly the terrain of her views. But this is pretty much incomprehensible even for her.

What did Brown do? I saw a minute of PMQ

Gordon Brown just totally PWNED Cameron in the midst of all the congratulations.

― Drinking Points Memo (suzy), Wednesday, 5 November 2008 13:20 (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Blimey, he did!

'Rejection'

After Mr Obama's victory, which he said had restored America's status as a "beacon of hope", Mr Cameron said British voters were now entitled to know "how much longer they have to put up with more of the same from this government that's failed".

But Mr Brown said the Conservatives had opposed all the policies to support the troubled US economy that Mr Obama had endorsed.

"The truth is that Conservative policy has been rejected in America and in Britain."

Attacking the Conservatives, he added that the "only change they represent is that they change their minds every week".

He then went on to say "I don't know WHO you are, girlfriend!"

Grout, there's even more of it. R4 were jazzing on the retort to Cameron consisting of a giant STFU over age/experience which went basically 'do not presume to compare yourself to my fellow lefty, OK Captain Hooray?'

Something about McCain makes him look like an animated Julian Opie portrait.

MELANIE PHILLIPS YOU SUCK.

Pinefox, obviously people were posting in that other language, drunkenese, for HOURS last night.

All my colleagues have been asking me if I went to any parties last night. (I had to tell them, unfortunately I didn't - becuase I am WAY too dedicated to my job to go out drinking until 4 in the morning or whenever the results were announced.)

Suddenly it feels like it's not quite so embarrassing having an American(ish) accent in London any more.

(Though before, when they used to complain about Bush, I used to loudly proclaim "DON'T BLAME ME, I WAS NEVER A CITIZEN, I CANNOT VOTE!!!" today I just smile proudly and just say nothing, ha ha. Of all days that one doesn't mind being mistaken for an American...)

"Did you stay up for Vidal?" is the new "did you stay up for Portillo?"

Is anyone interested in a post-election FAP of some kind?

I think the London-based Merkins are probably all too hungover to FAP.

i would be, pinefox. you don't fancy coming up to glasgow and doing it, then?

in pajamas
drinking tea
proud proud proud

Suddenly it feels like it's not quite so embarrassing having an American(ish) accent in London any more.

Haha cue Kate's accent becoming 2746356x more Merkin. And cue Kate in blackface. Possibly :-)

Fuck off, Chuck.

And I mean that in the nicest possible way.

But Mr Brown said the Conservatives had opposed all the policies to support the troubled US economy that Mr Obama had endorsed.

"The truth is that Conservative policy has been rejected in America and in Britain."

boom. cameron's love of obama, manifest in trying to buy his affection with cds, is so embarrassingly willfully ignorant of the policies involved.

2 good friends of mine, both ardent Conservative supporters, have been all up in Facebook demanding that Americans vote for Obama the last week or so. I don't get it.

why not? he'd already been endorsed by Cameron, Johnson etc. who all knew to back a winning donkey

All Cameron seemed to show Obama in their meeting was what a Fifty Quid Man was.

They like to be on the winning side. Policies don't come into it.

They like to be on the winning side. Policies don't come into it.

― fat penne (Ned Trifle II), Wednesday, 5 November 2008 16:19 (7 minutes ago) Permalink

oh, if only policies came into it.

Not Glasgow tonight.

FAP some other night, anyone?

here's the vidal clip btw. awesome.

They like to be on the winning side. Policies don't come into it.

And it's no skin off the Tories' nose which President gets in. It's not like they're electing revolutionary socialists or anything.

But if there was ever a "Republican" party in the UK, they would be.

Yes but there's no point pretending that one party neatly maps onto the other because they don't.

2 good friends of mine, both ardent Conservative supporters, have been all up in Facebook demanding that Americans vote for Obama the last week or so. I don't get it.

why don't you get it?? sometimes i really think UK ilxors just don't understand UK conservatives. every tory voter i've ever met has leant democrat, and all the tories i know now were heavily pro-obama this time. none of this is a surprise!!

I don't get it because they are the type of Conservative who rants about paying taxes and spending money on things. I guess they are both more libertarians than conservatives though.

sometimes i really think UK ilxors just don't understand UK conservatives

Lex - I think they understand UK conservatives, its the relationship between them and the Republicans/Democrats that is maybe fuzzy. Not that "UK conservatives" are exactly a hive mind either - cf the Tories are a vague ragbag of pro-small community social authoritarians and individualistic free market liberals with conflicting interests a lot of the time.

The point is that Cameron doesn't have any reason whatsoever to be threatened by Obama, and having to work with a McCain administration may have been damaging to him in the long run. The Democrats are at heart still a pro-capitalist party through and through (yeah I know New Labour are too) and they are closer to Nu-Tories than Old Tories on social issues.

And considering Blair spent years being Bush's best friend this is all kind of moot anyway.

- obama is only a tax-and-spend socialist by american standards, not at all by european ones
- and in any case he won't be taxing UK conservatives so it doesn't make a whit of material difference to them
- there are elements to the republican party which non-americans of most political stripes find terrifying enough to outweigh whatever fiscal fears they have

these are kind of obvious points i think

xps

2 good friends of mine, both ardent Conservative supporters, have been all up in Facebook demanding that Americans vote for Obama the last week or so. I don't get it.

TIME FOR A CHANGE. CHANGE. CHANGE. CHANGE. CHANGE. CHANGE. CHANGE. CHANGE. CHANGE. CHANGE. CHANGE. CHANGE. CHANGE. CHANGE. CHANGE. CHANGE. CHANGE. CHANGE. CHANGE. CHANGE. CHANGE. CHANGE. CHANGE. CHANGE. CHANGE. CHANGE. CHANGE. CHANGE. CHANGE. CHANGE. CHANGE. CHANGE. CHANGE. CHANGE. CHANGE. CHANGE. CHANGE.

The Tories will probably be ra-ra-ing for Palin in 2012.

Well, the Tories pretty much did everything short of openly endorsing McCain over the past few months, especially when he drew level for a minute about six weeks back. Cameron's pro-Obamaness seems to be drawn at the point of thinking that Lily Allen is the British Ludacris.

The Tories will probably be ra-ra-ing for Palin in 2012.

When Jonathan R*** can ask Prime Minister Cameron if he has a wank over her

Nah Cameron totally tried to hijack the Obama bandwagon when it rolled through Britain earlier this year. I'm not really buying any of this "but look at the policies!" nonsense seeing as both Cameron and Brown would have been totally down with McCain if he'd won as well, because they have to be.

I think "TORIES" as a unified whole were clearly more in McCain's camp, but Cameron still tries to push his "young way of thinking" ish against Brown so Obama made more sense to back then.

“Every generation has to fight and win the argument for free trade and open markets. Just look at the presidential election in the US. On both sides of the political divide, there are candidates advocating protectionist policies. There is one clear exception - and I admire him a great deal for his stance.
Senator John McCain did my party the great honour of addressing our annual conference two years ago, and we saw then the courage and conviction that saw him go to Michigan and tell the voters directly that the old jobs weren’t coming back and that protectionism was no answer to today’s economic problems.
He didn’t win the primary, but he certainly won a lot of respect.”

I think "TORIES" as a unified whole were clearly more in McCain's camp, but Cameron still tries to push his "young way of thinking" ish against Brown so Obama made more sense to back then.

Yeah I'd go with that. There's also the issue that in the intervening time, jumping up and going "Free trade! Open markets!" has become whatever lies on the other side of electoral suicide.

So they'll lie about what they really believe in in the interim

I just had a dream that McCain had won after all.

So did most of the news bulletins, especially the BBC: "oh shit Obama won now we have to do some work instead of sitting about and moaning"

Nobody actually thought McCain would win surely?

The BBC bulletins were very careful, some might say painstakingly careful, not to spell out an Obama win; lots of IF McCain wins he WILL do this etc.

with the subtext that we(we = BBC)'d actually prefer McCain to have won because (a) it makes our lives easier; (b) we're all closet green racists; (c) oh noes change in history something we've never done before 'snot fair.

Erm what?

On the contrary, I get the impression that the BBC were wetting themselves along with everyone else in the media

Cue hours of pompous portentous drivelling ... and expense accounts

Perhaps they'd have preferred it if there hadn't been a presidential election at all and they could have tossed out another 10min slot about house prices and then all gone down the pub?

(xpost - exactly, it's MUCH easier to cover something this obviously media-friendly especially given they know full well that everyone is going to be watching the news)

Did no-one see Paxman interviewing Dizzee Rascal about Obama and race on Newsnight yesterday?

And they're all going to be in the USA for a couple of weeks covering it (xp)

Enough padding in the first two hours of the BBC's election coverage to furnish 24 branches of Land of Leather.

But at least Seal will get his first number one single out of it.

The UK will have an Indian/Pakistani PM long before it has a black one.

No doubt, there's more of them after all

Meet Priti Patel

while it is right for the ilx americans to celebrate, i feel they are laying themselves vulnerable to cold hard comedown

maybe everything will be ok now though

as ned put it eloquently on his blog:

It is noteworthy to watch so many on the right assume that they think those who voted for Obama did so assuming he would fix everything with a wave of the hand, when so many on the left speak clearly about how they assume nothing of the sort. It is noteworthy too that in his acceptance speech Obama stressed challenges and not only the possibilities of mistakes but the inevitability of them. I’ll take that level-headedness and awareness, thanks, and here’s to it being put in place to the full.

I've been considering putting money now on the first non-white PM being a Tory.

Hey, thanks Grimly. Just trying to sum it up.

Why not, they had the first Jewish, the first woman and the first gay PM after all (xp)

yeh, i was very taken with that, ned. check my facebook/tumblr, too.

Sorry about that, Ned puts it far better than I. Just don't want ppl to be carried away with euphoria and then see things fuck up out of nowhere, although that is probably in itself a heat-of-the-moment sentiment.

http://thisfuckingelection.com

It would be quite difficult for Obama to fuck up more than the Bush administration has managed, frankly.

Yes, what I think we can reasonably expect is a return to competence and legality--too things that would be a HUGE improvement over the past administration. All else, well, who knows? You can't predict much about any new president; there are just too many factors.

THE ELOQUENCE OF NED RAGGETT

Well, I'll only be overjoyed and euphoric if the changes for good Obama is clearly capable of are implemented and new attitudes are ingrained. As for now, I am not overjoyed at the election result, because it was the only conscionable decision the U.S. could have come to. McCain was never going to win, and this was a necessary, almost processional precursor to the possibility of change.

Collect yer wet blankets on the way out

NEW ATTITUDES INGRAINED - P.A., 16:32 EST

You've missed the best bit of the Dizzee/Paxman Communication Challenge. Paxman rendered speechless by a well-deployed 'innit'.

I've been considering putting money now on the first non-white PM being a Tory.

I always thought this would be the way it would happen in the US, too - i.e. via the back door. RONG.

Me too, Hand. I feel good that it wasn't that way. Well, I want a Democrat in the White House!

"Yeah cos he could be a black man, a purple man, a martian man doesn't matter innit?"

Systems thinking will win the next general election.

Well, I'll only be overjoyed and euphoric if the changes for good Obama is clearly capable of are implemented and new attitudes are ingrained. As for now, I am not overjoyed at the election result, because it was the only conscionable decision the U.S. could have come to. McCain was never going to win, and this was a necessary, almost processional precursor to the possibility of change

you might be interested in what my libertarian friend kevin has to say in response to the ned quotation on my blog, here. i'd say more if i didn't have to dash off to a lecture; i think it suffices for now to say that it's all about hope. especially after that fucker and his fucking fucker pals for the last eight years.

Bringing up the bogeymen of Ayers and Wright = not worth engaging in argument.

Nothing wrong Kevin Ayers and Rick Wright

And what are we to make of the fact that he's spent all his adult life hanging out with people who hate America - like Ayers and Wright - and crooks like Tony Rezko?

This is factually wrong in many many ways.

KMcC sure likes his GOP talking points.

At least he said "hanging out" instead of "palling around" so we wouldn't think he lifted it verbatim from Palin's Politics 101.

Hey grimly, can you pass on this old post of mine to your friend? And please let him know I mean it from the bottom of my heart.

dude's too wilfully misanthropic and joy hating even for ilxors

he used to work at our place. and now he works at stacey's old place. what do you expect? ;)

also, in fairness to him: he says he views his libertarianism as something that transcends party politics, and seems to hold pretty much every party in equal disrespect. trouble is, of course, that the argument (small government good; individual freedom good) does tend to look a little, well, right-wing written down.

libertarianism can fuck off with anarchism

yeah these people: all for small government until they need to use the courts or find the NIMBY cause of their choice or be equal to anyone else under the law. I think they're just kind of 'small' people who can't handle 'big' ideas.

libertarianism can fuck off with anarchism

dude, i agree. i'm just pointing it out, that's all.

anyway. i've posted my own reply, too. thanks, tracer and den (not sure who den is, actually), for commenting.

i think i might start using capital letters in my posts here, too. it's the last place i've stuck to my rigid old no-caps-on-the-internet bollocks (i think i tried to explain the feeble reasoning behind it here once). Hmm. This feels odd.

not sure who den is, actually

ho, gnah no. which one, though?

(sey, i ma a kcid.)

Your friend may be a fine fellow but if he doesn't realize how easily he got played into being a relay for buzzwords and complaints, then it's time for him to step back and think a bit.

Thanks, Ned, you've just hatched the one-sentence rebuttal line that might SHUT MY MOM UP. She will probably accuse me of being patronizing when she recovers at which point I'll be all 'aww, booboo, how clever of you to notice..."

xps
haha - i just typed up a long screed of stuff that i was going to post on your blog but i rejected it because it had TOO MUCH STUFF IN CAPITALS.

Ha, I read that first as "it rejected it" and I thought, what? How the fuck does that work?

Anyway, fuck rejecting it. GET IT POSTED.

(This use of the shift key feels really bloody weird round these parts.)

Suzy: it's along the lines of what Mackro noticed the other day when family and friends were all bombarding him with that "Obama's going to destroy coal!" nonsense -- as either Mackro or someone else said, they were looking for an excuse to register their opposition, something to hang their hat on. For Grimly's friend it's the Ayers-Wright-Rezko OMG scary troika in part -- and if it hadn't've been them, other names would have been circulated and he would have parroted them as well.

It's very dull, it's very dumb, and I'm not impressed by dullardry.

Everything I've ever read from said dude has been straightforward contrarianism, so am not unsurprised.

xp
Well, you've pretty much said it in your reply (and what Ned just said) but I was going to offer a modicum of support in that he's right that when politicians talk off "change" and "hope" that CAN be meaningless crap, ffs Dave Cameron's thing is all that at the moment, but BO isn't the same as these fuckers and anyone who has actually read his book (for instance) will know that.

AHAHA 10 minutes in to Question Time and PC Gone Mad invoked by a guy in a naval blazer. Surely a record?

Question Time is RAWK tonight! Also an acquaintance is one of the panelists, DOUBLE RAWK.

I haven't read the link but my mom is not THAT 'out there'. She rooted for Obama in the primary because of what it would mean for the US at home and abroad but that went by the by when the Wright thing broke. For her, Ayers is a rich kid with good lawyers, Wright is a corrupt preacherman (tell her a minister is on TV and has a 1-800 for donations and she pretty much hates them regardless of what they say in their sermons), and Rezko is a non-issue because politicians are forever being courted by people like that in an intense groupie kind of way and can't be discouraged or accepted either way; that's all a Tony Rezko ever was. Her big issue in the closing days, replacing ACORN, was that anyone in Dem party in Chicago is part of The Machine and it comes to light eventually, dead voters, Chrismas turkeys, yada yada. What she didn't understand is that, like every other time Obama has had to work with an establishment (or against it) he's basically put judo moves on it to accomplish his goal.

ARGH David Cameron *is* a fucking undistinguished lightweight novice compared to Obama. Brown was right to put him in his place and I'm sure Dave 'please be my friend, supercool black guy' Cameron knows it.

n acquaintance is one of the panelists

Not Nigel Farage?

Wrong skin tone...

Also OH GOD net dyslexia made that into NIGEL FLANGE briefly.

it's the one dimbleby just called germaine, isn't it?

Haha, he's still tired from Tuesday. As am I.

LOL. And she called him Jonathan to get him back. He's done it before.

Wrong skin tone... Complete waste of space.

fixed.

Ned, this isn't personal, but whenever someone that I know to be accomplished is called a 'complete waste of space' I think their critic might be a 'complete waste of time'. Let me know when you get your invite to appear on Question Time, gangsta.

If it's any comfort.

Regarding my "Obama is out to bankrupt coal!" friends from Monday. (God, Monday was THAT LONG AGO. JESUS!)

* Two of them admitted to being duped, ultimately felt last-hour Palin fear which ultimately directed their votes to Obama
* Another two didn't like all four of the Prez/VPrez candidates AT ALL. They were just really hoping Hillary would win the nomination, and they never got over it. Neither of them voted.

Granted, the above friends are my age, roughly. The others are older. I never heard back from them.

I don't know about the rest, but it looks like, overall, if the election were ONLY decided by these anxious friends who contacted me Monday, Obama would STILL have won.

So good vibes, PLUR, and all that || ^_^ ||