Tracy Bonham: Mother Mother

The Darling Buds: Big Head

Neil Young: Rockin' in the Free World

Shocking Blue: Venus

That ole' Satanic classic (Pat Robertson reference)...

Françoise Hardy: La maison où j'ai grandi

History Repeating

Hmm, this from the Guardian piece on Thatcher's deal with Rupert Murdoch back in the eighties seems familiar.

Times Newspapers had long cherished their independence. In 1966, when the Times was in financial difficulty, the new owner who came to the rescue, Lord Roy Thomson of Fleet, promised to sustain it as an independent non-partisan newspaper – precisely how he had conducted the profitable Sunday Times. Murdoch was able to acquire both publications in 1981 only because he began making solemn pledges that he would maintain the tradition of independence. He broke every one of those promises in the first years.

Almost feels as if there were something in much more recent history along...oh, yeah...

Most readers just write a letter to the editor. Murdoch made a $5 billion offer to buy the Journal's parent company, Dow Jones. To do that, he must first win over the Bancroft family, which has controlled Dow Jones for the last 92 years and has so far resisted all of his overtures, in part because of concerns about what he might do to the Journal.

He insists he will not meddle in the journalism or slash-and-burn the staff. "We're not coming in with a bunch of cost-cutters," he said, but added: "I'm not saying it's going to be a holiday camp for everybody."

Of course he wouldn't.  On the one hand, you've got his entire history, and his use of just about every property he ever owned for partisan political purposes, and then you've got the word of...Rupert Murdoch.

Now if only someone could encourage Rupert to put Fox News behind a paywall too...

Lilac: Secrets

Feel like maybe this video should come with some sort of trigger-warning.  But it's worth it for the song.

That Mysterious 'Milibrand' Meeting

That super-secret meeting between Ed Miliband, and Russell Brand that the UK media have been hyperventilating over ?  Turns out, it was...an interview.  Ed Miliband gave an interview to a celebrity known for his outspoken political views, who happens to have over a million subscribers on YouTube.  Shock horror !  And thanks to all the breathless media coverage, the number of people watching is probably about to go up even more.  Thanks, news-media...

Update: Well, that was a whole bunch of nothing.  Here's a summary to save you sixteen minutes of your life:

Brand: Asks questions, tries to get Ed to say anything concrete.
Ed: Blah, blah, blah, blah.  Change is hard.  Blah, blah, blah.

But yeah.  He showed up.  So there's that.


Update: So turns out Brand did endorse Labour after all, which helps precisely no-one.  Sigh.

The JE Stands for José Emilio

Worried Jeb Bush is leaving it too late to declare his run for the presidency ?  That he might be outshone by up-and-coming younger members of his party like fellow Floridian Marco Rubio (or G-d forbid, Tom Cotton) ?  Worried all the Koch-style billionaire money will go to the likes of Scott Walker ?  Well, don't.  'Cause Jeb is on it.  I mean, right now, he's busy campaigning in the all-important battleground state of...Puerto Rico.

Wait, what ?  Jeb, Jeb, psst...you do know they can't vote for you, right ?  Oh what, it's part of a shameless effort to shore up the Hispanic vote back in the non-disenfranchised mainland, and convince them that the Republicans are totally not racist assholes ?  Well that's all right then.  Carry on campaignin' Señor Jeb.  Téjas next ?

RIP, Keith Harris

Mountaineers: Apart from This

Amongst the Many Benefits of Brain-Washing...

'Fer the kids...

Helium: The Revolution of Hearts, Parts 1 & 2

Must have some music...and apparently I haven't posted anything from Helium before.  This may not be the best intro. to the uninitiated, but...fuck it.  Was looking to post a live version, but it was kinda...meh.

This'll Sway the Election for Sure

And we needed to know this now...why ?  FFS, first the SNP fearmongering from the Tories, then Ed cynically manipulating the deaths of migrants for political gain, and now suddenly days before the election, after all these years of letting himself be characterised as an atheist, Nick feels the need to set the record straight.

Nick, those who might actually care mostly can't tell the difference between atheist and agnostic, and wouldn't vote for you anyway.  Those who don't care and those who could tell the difference, well they wouldn't vote for you either.

Well, I guess if that Lab/Con. 'grand coalition' thing were to come off, Ed Miliband, while hardly the 'first Jewish Prime Minister', and looking rather less likely to be PM at all as the days wind down, could at least, Clegg having removed himself from contention, be the first Atheist Deputy Prime Minister.

Breitbart haz a Brilliant Idea

(Headline courtesy Breitbart & UKIP, stupid captions courtesy MS Paint)

Well, if you're looking to convince that percentage of the electorate that isn't already convinced that LibLabCon are all the same, and further strengthen UKIP & the SNP into the bargain, then yeah, go for it !  And take care to make the most of what may be your last government for a good long while.

Hang the DJ, Hang the DJ, Hang the DJ

Be Afraid !

Very Afraid !

They're coming to take your jobswelfare ! (Cough)Bullshit(Cough)

Bomb.  Bomb.  Bomb !  Your City !  BOMB !

'Vengeance !' Your 'worst nightmare' !  Behold, the terrifying wee Scots warrior-queen practising her deadly martial arts in preparation to wiping out the Sassenach scourge !

Well, it was always really only a matter of time, wasn't it ?

No en mi patio trasero

Well, it would be...

...irresponsible...

...not to speculate.

So many layers of stupid here, I'm not going to even bother.  Not.  Gonna.  Happen.  But it did give me an excuse to play with a blast simulator, so thanks Express !

The Beatles: Please Please Me

We need I think an effective fade, and...

Def Leppard: Too Late for Love

Portishead: To Kill a Dead Man

That Clinton Economic Legacy

For all the progressives & Hillary-fans out there talking up the economic legacy of Bill Clinton, a president who inherited an economic recovery from his predecessor, George Herbert Walker Bush, and whose presidency happened to coincide with the tech. bubble, how about a reminder of some of Bill's economic accomplishments while in office ?*  I've divided them into two groups, one subjectively 'good', one subjectively 'bad'.  Your guess which is which.

NAFTA (North American Free Tree Agreement)
'Welfare-Reform'
The DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act)
Telecommunications Act of 1996
Permanent Most Favoured Nation status for the People's Republic of China
GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade)
Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999 (i.e. partial reform of Glass-Steagall)

Balanced the budget (Repubs. would probably dispute credit for this one)*
FMLA (Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993)
Increased the Minimum Wage
Expanded EITC (Earned Income Tax Credit)
Expansion of Head-Start programme
Attempted (and failed miserably) to bring about universal healthcare-reform.

So, a record on balance to celebrate ?  Consider for one, what was/is the impact of these changes, short-term...and long...


*I am talking here about things Clinton actually did while in office, or was significantly involved in getting through Congress.  One of the things at least on my list (the one starred) is very debatable, and things like employment-figures and stock-market numbers are impossible to separate out between the multitudinous number of potential causal factors, most of which are probably outside of the control of any sitting president.

** Although I provided Wiki links for most of this stuff, I'm assuming a certain level of familiarity with this history and the politics thereof, which Wikipedia alone probably won't provide.

The Verve Pipe: Villains

The Independent Informs...

So apparently, 

• Guinea pigs jump for joy (at getting food usually).
• Cats don't actually give a shit about those stupid circle things you're posting on the internet, and just sit in them because it gets your attention.
• Turning your rabbit over to calm them is actually deeply traumatising.
• Dogs humping your leg is an entirely non-sexually motivated behaviour.  Yeah, right.
• And goldfish can tell the difference between Bach and Stravinsky.

Aren't you glad you know all that now ?

...And the Telegraph Entertains

7 leaders answer 7 questions

6. Setting aside your differences, which one of your political rivals has impressed you most and why?

Natalie Bennett: It took some guts for Ed Miliband to stand up to Murdoch - most leaders wouldn’t have done that...

So looking for a seat (singular probably) in a Labour coalition are we Nat. ?

..., and David Cameron stood up to many in his own party on gay marriage.

Hedging yer bets much ?

Leanne Wood: Nicola Sturgeon. She is tenacious and determined and an advocate for her country.

Uh...

Nicola Sturgeon: Leanne Wood, the leader of Plaid Cymru – she was fantastic in the debates, quite rightly putting Nigel Farage in his place.

...huh.

7. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

David Cameron: I wish I’d worked harder at speaking another language.

Sure, Dave.

Ed Miliband: I would always like to spend more time with my wife, Justine, and our children Daniel and Sam.

Uh, then why the hell are you campaigning to be PM ?

Nigel Farage: I'm too tolerant, sometimes. When it comes to loyalty, I often offer too much, even to people who have let me down repeatedly. Maybe I need to be more cutthroat.

And there's the headline...

Nick Clegg: I’d be Prime Minister.

No comment.

Siouxsie & the Banshees: Night Shift

I Was Only Nineteen (The Lancer Band/Redgum)

The Lancer Band:

And the original:

Morcheeba: Shoulder Holster

Press-release on TPP Fast-track Deal

Via Gaius Publius, more information on the fast-track deal for TPP (and other trade-deals ?) currently being rushed through Congress, from individuals far better informed and less sweary than myself: https://www.citizen.org/documents/press-release-fast-track-introduced-april-2015.pdf.

I skimmed it myself, but it does amongst other things seems to indicate that this abdication of responsibility by the US Congress on trade-deals could continue at least through the next presidency if not into the one after that, as indicated on her show recently by Rachel Maddow.  Hillary still seems oddly quiet on the whole thing, huh ?

Persepolis

Couple clips from the film-version of Marjane Satrapi's brilliant graphic novels about her life growing up in Iran through the revolution and the war with Iraq.  Strange how ones willingness to just bomb a people consistently portrayed as two-dimensional cartoon villains can change when one gets a sense of the actual flesh-and-blood humans behind the propaganda.

Apparently, the film is available to watch for a fee on YouTube, if one wanted.  I don't know what the form-factor or quality would be like, or whether one would have a choice in English-speaking regions between the subtitled French soundtrack (watch that one unless you really really hate subtitles) or the 'celebrity' American soundtrack.  I'm assuming it's still available to buy on DVD or Blu-ray, and the original graphic novels are cool as well.

Wonder What (the Non-Ginger) Charles Johnson Thinks of the Latest Criticism of Obama from the Left

Uh huh.

I'm shocked.  Shocked, I say.  CJ in defence of the Obama admin. when a threat suddenly emerges from the left or on civil liberties.  When does that ever happen ?  Serendipitous posting I guess.

+1 for use of the word 'suddenly.'

The Pretty Things: £.S.D

Chantal Goya: Mon ange gardien

Feckin' Radiohead

A certain show is having an anniversary apparently.  Can't possibly beat 'My Lovely Horse', but...

Pink Floyd: Sheep

Featured the lyrics of this here before, but not the actual song, how can that be ?

Yes, I Clicked on Stupid Fucking Clickbait from Politico...

I don't even like Hillary, but WTF is this ?  Is it her fault that her party (well, the one she ended up with, via Bill) is so complacent and flaccid ?  That they haven't the imagination to come up with an alternative to the last election's choice between Barry & Hill ? That they have failed so utterly in encouraging young talent to rise up through the ranks and become established in the media and in the public imagination ?  That they, like the Republicans with McCain & Romney, are so willing to accept the idea that a name-brand politician should be somehow entitled to the nomination, because it's 'their turn' ?

What exactly should Hillary do, instead of 'un-running' for President ?  (I'm assuming here I guess that not running at all, and contributing to society in a way more fitting her talents is not an option...)  And as for 'the press must now cover the Clinton 2016 slow lane the best they can', well fuck them.  The press doesn't have to do shit.  How about having their anchor (if such a position still exists) going on camera during prime-time (again, if such a thing truly still exists), and reminding the public that it is still more than eighteen fucking months till the election, and trying to find actual meaningful non-horserace news to cover in the interval ?  What other country runs or covers elections this way ?  But then, what would the likes of Politico do ?  How would they survive ?

And fuck whatever editor chose the picture of Hillary above.  a) For the bleeding fucking obvious, and b) for the criminal waste of blank space.

Evils: Theme from Juliet Bravo

I just can't not...

The Chemical Brothers: The Devil is in the Beats (Soundtrack, Hanna)

Spoilt for choice with this soundtrack.  Gonna go for the obvious.

Rush: Jacob's Ladder

Posted without Comment

What Family of Nations ?

Is it really just over half a year since the referendum for Scottish independence ?  Hard to believe perhaps with the Tories and the national UK media tripping over one another in England to come up with ever more outlandish scaremongering claims about Nicola Sturgeon & the SNP.  All the promises, all the pandering, all the out-right bribery...  And with the referendum so soon forgotten, and a general election underway in which the SNP could decide the balance of power, it's throw Scotland under the bus time.  If it weren't for Trident, I'd almost be rooting for the SNP myself at this point.

Dave Edmunds: Sabre Dance

Kate Nash: I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance

Cos.

The Arrow

Speaking of the CBC, and the fiction that Canada can these days defend itself without being entirely dependent upon the protection of its pimpthe United States, got me thinking of this maybe not totally authentically historical but still awesome piece about the Avro Arrow...and what could have been.  And yay, it's on YouTube.

The Delgados: Akumulator

Uploaded on Sep 14, 2007

Can't remember why a video was even filmed for this album track from The Delgados' debut album 'Domestiques' but we filmed it back to back, Lord Of The Rings style, with the Under Canvas Under Wraps video.

Also, It's a Lie...

Strong. Proud. Free. And a state secret.

The genesis of the Harper government's "Strong Proud Free" slogan that is currently bombarding Canadian television viewers is considered a cabinet confidence and will be sealed from public scrutiny for 20 years.

...

A spokesman for the Privy Council Office, the bureaucracy that supports the Prime Minister's Office, would only say that the slogan is "drawn from the thematics" of the government's 2013 throne speech.

Opposition critics point out the language is also drawn from the 2011 Conservative party platform and mirrors the themes promoted as Conservative values on the party website and in fundraising pitches.

...

The Conservatives have come under repeated criticism for spending tens of millions of dollars annually on government advertising that is often indistinguishable from the partisan branding of the party. The marketing exercise extends to departmental web design (now a uniform Tory blue, with cross-pollinating links to popular Conservative initiatives such as family tax cuts) and even departmental press releases, often heralding local "Harper government" expenditures.

"There have been some ambiguous government ads where a plausible defence could be made that they are not partisan or that they provide some modicum of information, but the 'Strong Proud Free' tagline makes no such pretence," said Jonathan Rose, a specialist in political communication at Queen's University in Kingston, Ont.

"It's almost verbatim from the Conservative party website."

Economic Action Plan (those were just straight up blatant partisan ideological propaganda), War of 1812, 150th Birthday of Canada...  My prediction is, if Stephen Harper & Co. are still in power after 2017, no matter what, they'll still find...something...requiring a constant taxpayer-funded barrage of 'A Message from the Toriesthe Government of Canada' ads.  Why not just drop the pretense already ?  Assholes.

Peter Gabriel: Games without Frontiers

Tom Cotton's Four Day War against Iran

So, if I'm understanding this right, when our new Ronald ReaganSenator Tom Cotton talks about the military alternative to Obama's treacherous deal with Iran as involving 'several days of air and naval bombing' and Ted Cruz says that 'a military action to take out the nuclear facilities would be a couple of days or...a week', the argument is that we are talking here not about ending Iran's nuclear programme or preventing Iran from developing a bomb, but about 'degrading' Iran's ability to make a bomb, and delaying it by maybe a year or two.

While, meanwhile, a primary criticism of the evil no-good deal that Obama cooked up with Iran, is that it would only delay Iran's breakout time to make a bomb by a mere thirteen years.

So, to gain a negative-eleven year delay in Iran acquiring nuclear weapons, the United States should bomb the shit out of them, causing massive destruction, and probably killing many innocent civilians, inviting a much greater military retaliation than Iraq could muster in 1998, further inflaming the region, while expending insanely expensive military resources, destroying any possibility for the foreseeable future of rapprochement with Iran, and most likely causing the Iranian citizens to unite against the United States and rally in favour of acquiring a nuclear deterrent, and spurring the 'regime' to hasten its development of a nuclear weapon as quickly as possible.

Well, then of course.  We should BOMB THEM NOW !

Orphan Black's Back

Very very glad of the same, but don't have anything particular to say on the subject, so hey, go read one of the Guardian's seemingly infinite number of writers on the subject.  And since we have to have a cool picture (below), please check out Collider's Interview with Tatiana whence the picture is borrowed.

I'll refrain for this post at least in saying what I think of so-called 'BBC America' and their backers.  It's a cool show.  Watch it.

Crosby, Stills & Nash: Dark Star

Needed a palate-cleanser, and this song's been rattling 'round my brain, so...

themarketbusiness.com: I Can Haz Fake News-Organisation?

Maybe I should have gone with the story about the cat-hunting vet...

Okay, what happened is, I clicked on a story because I just couldn't make head nor tail of the headline.  And still couldn't understand a fucking word of what I was reading.  And thought for a second or two, that it was just the science-y stuff going over my head, but no...it's just utter fucking gibberish.

Analysts of the School of Manchester have discovered a new study that light shadow dramatically affects how animals only report what time of day it is, like the shadow exchange comes from within the biological clock of the brain itself. The physiology of animals and pets habits modification according to what time of day it is, why there is the threat of arrest or time to go hunting.

The research study was published Friday in the journal PLoS Biology, and also shows how the researchers examined the changing light at dusk and dawn to see what tone represents a particular time of day. And, while it has been recognized that there are changes in the intensity of light as the sun rises and sets, the study group research found that golden light is bluer compared to the one on the day. Electric task of brain clocks computer mice were also analyzed, since subjects are shown various aesthetic stimuli and found that their nerve cells were much more aware of color from blue to yellow adjustments in contrast adjustments to brightness .

The next step was to develop a model that simulates daily sky shade and light settings. When computer mice were placed in the sky substitute for several days, your body temperature were higher just after sunset, as the sky a dark blue lit. If the sky brightness is altered, but the actual shade, computer mice were much stronger before sunset, verification that her biological clock was not in sync with the regular cycle of day and night.

To ensure that this change in the temperature level was undoubtedly due to a change in the clock, scientists analyzed SCN slices from mice associated with heaven synthetic experiment. “One of the surprising aspects of the clock,” Brown says, is that “when you take it out of a pet and put it in a meal, the cells remain to shoot.” By measuring the distance of throw in some sliced, the scientists could bring if the clock running fast or reduced. The cells of mice that do not see variant delayed shadow behind those who did, a confirmation that the change in the level of peak physical body temperature was due to the clock, the group reports today in PLoS Biology.

Visits brownish human potential applications in this work. “What this opens the possibility of improving existing alreadying ways to deal with jet lag or things like seasonal depression disorder,” he says. A technique for dealing with jet lag is a light box that immerses a traveler to intense light to deceive his / her watch. Including shade for light could provide much better results, says Brown. The new finding may even change our understanding of why the vision shadow developed. Analysts suggest that it could have been a much better means for pets to set their clocks in a world where clouds could minimize glare from light yet still allow colors radiate through.

And no, it's not just this one story; there's page after page of this crap, on every news-story imaginable, all written in the same unintelligible style that looks like someone ran this garbage through a sub-standard auto-translate and back a couple of times.  Lack of apostrophes and misuse of pronouns are dead giveaways.

Although I am sorta liking the sound of 'heaven synthetic experiment', and 'brownish human potential applications'.

Here's some more clippets from the headlines on themarketbusiness.com:

Good Ship Miliband on the Grauniad

Just ponder for a moment this image of Ed Miliband on the front page of the Guardian:

Feeling seasick yet ?  Worried you might be about to slide out of your chair ?

What might the Guardian be trying to tell us ?  Think this wasn't a considered editorial decision ?  This ain't the Telegraph.  They don't just pick photos at random.  Maybe there weren't any other pictures to choose from ?  This particular photographer only got the one photo from this particular event ?  Sound likely to you ?

Thankfully, Getty Images is publicly searchable, and...

So, yeah.  But, it's not just the tilt.  That extreme cropping has a lot to do with it as well, especially the way the Labour logo gets cut off at the bottom.  Of course, the Getty version of the photo was already a tight crop, and the ratios of the Guardian image and Getty's are different, not that that problem couldn't have been avoided by simply choosing one of the other photos on offer.

In fact, let's do...just...that.

And...

Well, minus the watermark, obviously...

Blatant Media Bias

The murder of the Russian liberal politician Boris Nemtsov in Moscow on 27th February 2015 was an international media sensation.

The story of his murder was extensively covered by all mainstream Western media. Few held back from speculations about who was responsible. Though evidence was completely lacking, the Western media had no hesitation pointing the finger at the Russian government.

The murders in Ukraine of the Ukrainian opposition politician Oleh Kalashnikov and of the Ukrainian opposition journalist Oles Buzina have attracted no such attention.

Read more: http://sputniknews.com/columnists/20150417/1021016897.html#ixzz3XcApMjnu

Well thanks for calling that to our attention, Kremlin media.  And yes the coverage in the western media is absolutely biased. (not snark)  Completely unlike that fine example of totally not wall-to-wall anti-Western propaganda set by RT & RIA NovostiSputnik. (blatant snark)  And if I were to search Google News for 'Kalashnikov murder', I bet I wouldn't find any major western media outlets reporting on the stories at all...

...except the BBC, the Guardian, Reuters, CNN, the New York Times, The Telegraph, Newsweek, the Finanical Times, the Daily Mail, Radio Free Europe, the Washington Post, RTÉ, Voice of America, and the Sydney Morning Herald.  Shit, what happened to the International Business Times ?  How'd I leave them out ?

Tyranny !

So...how is the Republican-led 114th Congress currently fighting back against the evil tyranny of the Muslim Marxist Kenyan Dictator-in-chief, that libtard Demoncrat Barack Hussein Obama ?  Oh that's right, by not doing their job.

Never mind the usual bullshit of obstructing or holding up Obama's executive nominees, such as with current nominee to be Attorney General, Loretta Lynch whose confirmation has been held up for five months now as Republicans try to tie the confirmation into a variety of completely unrelated issues.

No, I'm talking about things like exercising their constitutionally established powers 'to regulate Commerce with foreign Nations' or 'to declare War.'  With the former, we have TPP, an agreement that would (probably unconstitutionally) restrict the government's ability to regulate international trade and commerce, and for which Barack Obama requested 'fast-track authorization' in which Congress would have no ability to make any changes or amendments to said deal.  And for the latter, we have the ongoing war against ISIS, one of many undeclared and likely illegal wars in which the United States is currently engaged.  A war for which Barack Obama has previously claimed he doesn't need any new authorisation, and yet for which he was eventually cowed into requesting authorisation from Congress.  So, how are we doing ?

What say you Congress on preventing the evil dictator from wresting trade-making decisions away from you ?

Why, no problem at all Mister Obama.  Please take that onerous burden from our hands.

WASHINGTON — Key congressional leaders agreed on Thursday on legislation to give President Obama special authority to finish negotiating one of the world’s largest trade accords, opening a rare battle that aligns the president with Republicans against a broad coalition of Democrats.

In what is sure to be one of the toughest fights of Mr. Obama’s last 19 months in office, the “fast track” bill allowing the White House to pursue its planned Pacific trade deal also heralds a divisive fight within the Democratic Party, one that could spill into the 2016 presidential campaign.

... 

It would give Congress the power to vote on the more encompassing 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership once it is completed, but would deny lawmakers the chance to amend what would be the largest trade deal since the North American Free Trade Agreement of 1994, which President Bill Clinton pushed through Congress despite opposition from labor and other Democratic constituencies.

What about war then ?  After all the stink the Republicans in Congress made about the proposed deal with Iran, you'd think there's no chance at all they wouldn't take advantage of Obama handing them on a silver platter a chance to have their say officially on the war with ISIS.

Ah, who gives a shit ?  What's one more undeclared war ?

But remember, Obama is a TYRANT !  And it is imperative that you vote Republican in the next elections so that we can TAKE OUR COUNTRY BACK !

What a fucking joke.

Belle and Sebastian: Legal Man

Apropos of nothing, seems it is just going on a month now since the BBC News site's redesign.  And...still ugly, still way too much whitespace, and still even more click-bait than previously (and the previous amount was shameful for a national broadcaster funded by the licence-fee).  Fuck it, I'd rather read the tabloids at this point.

Update: Hadn't even noticed that was Gareth Thomas in this video.  That's a unexpected cameo.

Just...Really ?

Wasn't intending to post anything else re: the debates, but just WTF is this from the Independent ?  I thought maybe someone would be harping on about the lack of handshakes for Farage (which did seem petty to me), but this ?  On the front page ?

So, the three female leaders on stage hugged apparently, not that I noticed.  If you want to read something into that as in say the three female leaders celebrating the historicity of the event, then sure, great.  It is cool to see more women coming to the fore in British politics.  But what, somehow Ed was crushed by not being invited to join the hug ?  And this is somehow symbolic of a crushing defeat for Ed in a debate in which the consensus seems to be that he at least met if not exceeded expectations ?  While the other contender to actually be prime minister didn't show up ?

Hey Matt Dathan, would you have hugged Ed on that stage ?  Didn't think so.  Think Nicola et al. would have hugged you in Ed's place ?  Didn't think so.  Is this significant of anything what-so-the-fuck-ever ?  Didn't think so.

Were you desperate to come up with some unique angle on the debate so you could get paid by the Independent and couldn't manage any better than this ?  Ah...thought so.

Debate !

Is it just me, or is there not something really weird about seeing Ed on stage, debating the leaders of the nationalist parties (& Greens), while Nick & Dave are nowhere in sight ?  Not sure if the optics are good or bad for Labour, just strange and oddly unbalanced.


Update: And the Telegraph phones in their pre-scripted responses to the debate.

Uh, no.

Marvin Gaye: Ain't That Peculiar

Came up in the shuffle, and took me a few seconds to realise why it seemed like I heard this just recently.  Oh right, that Pharrell bullshit.  I'd forgotten for a moment.  Wasn't reminded of this track when I first heard Happy, and I still don't hear Pharrell listening to Marvin again now.  Great song regardless.

Sia: Academia

Sia, back before the fringe took over.  Seems to be from the same performance as this.

Behold, the latest triumph of the 'free market'...

Chinese vehicle maker Ninebot has bought iconic US rival Segway, the company announced on Wednesday.

The Beijing-based firm did not disclose the amount of the acquisition, but did say that it received $80m (£54m) in funding from smartphone maker Xiaomi and investment firm Sequoia Capital.

Ninebot also makes two-wheeled electric vehicles, designed for standing riders, that resemble Segways.

Segway had sought an import ban against Ninebot in the US in September.

The Chinese company was one of several that Segway had accused of infringing on its patents.

Part of me just lives in hope of seeing the eventual downfall of companies like Apple & GM.

A Message From Harry & Louise

Imagine an alternate universe in which the Clintons went into acting.  Yes this is via the Chris Hayes' bit, via Digby.

Ty Segall: Feel

Nick Clegg's 'Coalition of Grievance'

Fuck you, Nick.

Pretty Things: Havana Bound

Just have to...

Vivian Girls: No

It's Just a Fucking Programme and Life is Fucking Short

Wait, what, Sue Perkins is now receiving death-threats over stupid speculation that she could be chosen to host Top Gear ?  What insane jihad will Mel soon invite ?  What fucking asshole could have anything against Sue ?  Other than...THE GAY thing...obviously.  She's the loveliest of ladies, what the hell is this hate ?  Is there somewhere I can sign up to resign from the human fucking race ?  I despair of this shit...

The Delgados: Under Canvas Under Wraps

Huh, I would never have known any of that.  So awesome to still have bands/labels not run by coke-snorting hedge-fund managers.

Uploaded on Sep 12, 2007
As rare as hen's teeth, this is the first video The Delgados ever filmed, for the Evening Session favourite "Under Canvas Under Wraps". Cobbled together with ridiculously little money, the idea was to recreate a Lynchian dystopia and although we tried our best, it came out as us dressing up in a hotel and acting like tits. 

Nothing wrong with that though, and trivia fans may want to know that the room Alun and Emma are in was the same room used for the 'London drug deal' location in Trainspotting...

¡Marco!

So, now we have two Cuban wackos running to be US President.  Raúl Castro sends his congratulations.

Apollo 440: Tears of the Gods

Another song crying out for an official video.  In the absence of which, anyone creating an unofficial tribute will have their asses sued off...because...Freedom ?  Shiiiiiittttt....

In Defence of Dumbfuckery

Er, Digby...just why exactly would you assume the young lady in question is confusing  her 'pseudo-scandals' ?  And wait, is Watergate a 'pseudo-scandal' now or 'the greatest political scandal in American history' ?

Really, there's three questions to ask here:

1. Was Hillary involved in the Watergate hearings ?
2. Did Hillary lie at the Watergate hearings ?
3. Is a self-confessed fan of Ted Cruz likely to care about the actual facts regarding 1 or 2 if they support a current right-wing meme ?

We could answer our first question with a quick trip to Wikipedia, but hey, 'anyone can edit Wikipedia' right ?  (Well, sorta...)  So how about a reference to oh, I don't know...The William J. Clinton Presidential Library say ?

After graduating from Wellesley College in 1969, Hillary entered Yale Law School where she met Bill Clinton. In 1974, at the height of the Watergate scandal, Hillary worked on the staff assisting the House Judiciary Committee with its investigation of the Nixon administration.

So, yeah.

Hillary Rodham (center), a lawyer for the Rodino Committee and John Doar (left), chief counsel for the committee, bring impeachment charges against President Richard Nixon in the Judiciary Committee hearing room at the U.S. Capitol in 1974 in Washington.

Short answer to our second question is that no-one knows for sure except perhaps Hillary.  But it does seem to be quite the right-wing meme that Hillary was fired from the Watergate hearings by Jerry Zeifman for lying, based on an article by one Dan Calabrese.  Snopes calls it False, and says that in fact Mister Zeifman had no authority to fire her (...but would if he could...), but it does sound like his recollections on the subject over the years have been changeable.

And again in 1998, Zeifman was undeniably quoted in a Scripps Howard News Service article as confirming that not only did he not "fire" Hillary, but that it was not even within his power to do so:

Jerome Zeifman, chief Democratic counsel on the House Judiciary Committee in 1974 ... does not have flattering memories of Rodham's work on the committee. "If I had the power to fire her, I would have fired her," he said.

So, she wasn't actually fired, and we certainly can't prove she lied, but that's not really important, because one guy said she's a liar...and...we get to link Hillary's name in a negative way to another famous political scandal.  Which leads us to...

Pregunta número tres.  Well, who are you going to believe ?  Snopes ?  'The Liberal Media' ?
Or Daily Kos...sorry, Fox News, Hot Air, Breitbart, and Rush Limbaugh ?

I think you already know the answer to that.  And you know what, Amber *Liberty Girl* is free to believe what she wants, even if that's that Vince Foster was murdered to prevent him talking about a secret deal with the UN to take away everyone's guns and/or a secret lesbian tryst between Hillary and Janet Reno.  And she's young, so she may yet one day evolve out of the right-wing media bubble.

Give her a chance maybe ?  After all, I'm making an awful lot of assumptions about her political background (as is Digby) based on a quick perusal of her Twitter feed.  It may be that she just genuinely doesn't trust Auntie Hill.  I don't blame her for that if that's the score.  I don't either.