and so, it begins

We have all (who are interested in politics, the US and our own general welfare) watched and waited for the results. John McCain came through early,in relation to the Democrats, in the primary race seeing off my original favourite Rudolph Giuliani with ease, then Mitt Romney and finally without much fan-fayre Mike Huckerbee. The Democratic party has however made us wait for their choice , I wanted to wait a bit longer but hey, and now it is here; the golden boy, the Junior Senator from Illinois, the man who launched his campaign in the same town Abe Lincoln did, Sen. Barack Obama.

We therefore have a contest between a war veteran of indisputable bravery, a Washington veteran who is willing to work with whomever he needs to achieve his goals against a young charismatic lawyer with a genuinely incredible gift with rhetoric on the podium.

I have some friends in the States, some are hardened Republicans, one or two are not overly happy with McCain as their candidate but all of them determined to prevent the Democrats retaking the White House, in this aim John McCain has a united party. I also have many friends who are of the Democrat leanings; most of them are pro-Obama, citing his youth, his charisma, his outside view of Washington and his perceived lack of culpability over the Iraq War, he wants to get out of there and so do my friends. Something that one of these friends, a wonderful lady oringally from Illinois herself, said to me earlier today was that she wanted a black man to be in the White House and that she couldn’t bear the thought of another stupid white man taking up the post. As much as I love her, this saddens me. Surely it should be about who is best for the job, if I believed Obama was then I would extol the virtues of Senator Barack Obama, however I do not. I believe that Sen. John McCain is the best choice for America and indeed the world in November, let’s not fool ourselves the result affects us too. Let’s hope he can put his case forward well enough and that he has enough cash to be able to do so. A real danger for McCain is that he will be massively outspent by Obama and will lose out on valuable coverage as a result.

Daniel’s dream seems to be coming undone

Barack Obama is, according to almost every news source going, this evening on the verge of claiming the Democratic Party’s nomination for President. I was, as has been said here previously, really hoping that the Dem fight would go to the convention. The race has been long (Clinton and Obama starting in early 2007), and messy; the question is now whether the Democrats can unite for November to prevent 12 years of a Republican White House. If Hilary rallies round and supports Obama, perhaps they can, but this depends on what Obama is willing to give in order to ensure this and also what Clinton is willing to take. I doubt she would want the VP slot, perhaps the promise of the position of Secretary of State if Obama wins the General Election. There is also the issue of Clinton’s campaign debts, which she will become liable for if/when she drops out of the race (according to C4 news, I am no expert on American election law).

In a McCain vs Obama race I will of course still be supporting (as a non-voting Brit) John McCain. Why, you ask? His Foreign Policy and Pro-Free Trade stances appeal to me and I honestly believe he is the better man for the job. Obama could do a lot worse than come second in the coming General Election and then run again in eight years time, by which time perhaps he will, hopefully, see Foreign policy issues slightly differently and crucially with more experience.

Uber-tired

Having worked 11 hours behind the bar today (Saturday) and as I am scheduled for another 9 tomorrow (Sunday) I am going to have a shower and get some good sleep. Last night I had around four hours so hopefully I should get a good few hours of shut eye before I return to the bar.

The French are… in this case very dim

A friend on mine from Uni who is French, but shall remain nameless, has just text messaged me saying that he has just been to see the new Indy film and that it was “f***ing fantastic”… Those who read my post on having said film will know my opinion on this monstrosity of a film. If there were an equation it would look something like this:

B + M x P = I

Values:

Barbwire = B

Mission to Mars = M

Police academy 9 = P

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull = I

My brother is the family mathematician not me, so I don’t know if that makes any sense, but needless to say I hold the latest Indiana Jones film in utter contempt and hatred.

Elect a Dem, or else…. Susan Sarandon will up sticks

Shock news from the lair of uber-Dem Susan Sarandon; if John McCain gets elected in November she’s going to quit the US to to take up residence in either Italy or Canada. Does anyone care, past her fellow Democrat husband Tim Robbins (whom she presumably consulted before telling everyone), enough for it to be a viable threat? I’m going to risk the wrath of the Holiday Liberal elite and say no. Considering the story came at the foot of a piece in the New York Post on the late Sydney Pollack I don’t think anyone cares and if they do the threat will likely as not result in a cross within McCain’s box come November.

The choices Italy and Canada are interesting, Italy have just re-elected the great Conservative showman Silvio, and the Canadians are increasing their oil exports neither of which are exactly in line with the ideals of messyrs Sarandon, Robbins and Gore.

Excusing a persons French… or not

I don’t use the English language very well; I often misspell, my sentence structuring is bad and my grammar has made people cry. Also when I talk, I have a habit of using slightly blue language. The level of this (blue language) depends on who I am with. For instance, I would never (well mostly never) use any bad language around any of my Grandparents, I would never use the F or C words in front of my mother and varying degrees of these rules apply to all of my friends. It depends on how we speak to each other in the privacy of our own homes and cars. Granted I don’t have my own home, yet, and I don’t own a car, but you see my point?

Today I checked my stats again and followed some links through, one of the links went to a bulletin board which featured on this blog a week or so ago after I had a bit of a go at Bob Crow. I was astounded by the amount of times people used the C word on a public site.

Not to sound too prudish (really, I’m just not) or Stalinist (ditto), but this is really inappropriate on a Liverpool Football Fan site which children can, and I’m sure do, visit. The vitriol was directed at the Mayor of London and for some reason the naming of his children. You may not like what people call their kids, but it’s usually for a reason and I don’t believe a man, or woman, giving their child a certain name should result in that person being called a C word. It’s just plain rude and disrespectful. How would the people using this language like it if the tables were turned? They would probably cry elitism and/or class discrimination.

Yes, before you say it, I have used bad language on here and this perhaps makes me somewhat of a hypocrite but there are limits, or at least I thought there were. Why do people, including myself, feel the need to use such language? Surely there are better words which articulate our actual meanings which we could use instead of such grotesque language.

Indiana Jones and the pile of sh*te

I was unsure whether to go see this film or not. I loved the originals and I didn’t want the new addition to the set to spoil the others for me. It thankfully won’t, because it is so unbelievably bad it is in a totally different category. The overriding feeling I had as I left the cinema was that of having been offended, conned, duped, fed a turkey. This film is quite simply TERRIBLE.

*Spoiler warning*

My issue with the film began with the credits, the words “Story by George Lucas” are in my book never a good sign. Then there was the introduction of a wannabe Marlon Brando from “On the Waterfront” who later turns out to be Indy’s son by… yes you guessed it, Maryanne from Indianna Jones numero uno.

Following the entrance on Henry Jones III, it just gets worse. Aliens, that is all I will say… ALIENS. This is the basis of the film. It has nothing to do with, as Harrison Ford stated in an interview the other day, the Cold War, it brought none of the ideological spirit of the originals back (the originals were pro American, Anti-Nazi features which were highly enjoyable), the film is just about Aliens. At the end of the whole sad saga, Indiana Jones ends up getting married to Maryanne in a totally unnecessary ridiculous scene which only served to set up for Indy’s son to take on the saga. This created a similar emotion to the one I had following my reading the last Harry Potter book and witnessing J.K. Rowling’s craven attempts to create a future series for Harry Potter’s son.

The best parts of this cinema trip were the adverts and the end credits. That I think says it all.

I sincerely hope that this film tanks at the box office and on DVD, it deserves no more and no less. The script is… not good. The story… don’t get me started on the story. The cast, mediocre and the special effects resembled something out of the late 80’s early 90’s CGI efforts.

Please, save yourself £5.00 and do not waste two hours of your life going to see this film, and please don’t bother buying it on DVD, you will end up either trying to take it back, or being so offended you are unable to utter another word.

Victory is Timpson’s

As you will probably know Edward Timpson, the Conservative Party Candidate for Crewe and Nantwich, has been elected Member of Parliament for Crewe and Nantwich. I sat in Nantwich Conservative Club watching the results come in and the mood was electric. Labour came out with around 12,000 votes and the LibDems around 6,000. Mr Timpson received over 20,000 votes!

A hearty and well deserved congratulations must go to Edward Timpson, his team, the CCO people and EVERYONE who went to help. I have never seen anything like the election machine in Crewe, it was a brilliantly organized force which was highly effective.

I should mention that this by-election has also been very positive for CF, the CF campaign on the ground, organized by Patrick Sullivan, was brilliant.

A short trip to Crewe and Nantwich

This evening, after much planning, I will, along with three friends, be setting off for Crewe to assist in the fight to elect, the Conservative party candidate, Edward Timpson in this Thursday’s by-election. I will be interested to see the tactics of Labour at first hand and will be trying to find out what the Lib Dem’s are doing.

It goes without saying that all four of us have wanted to go down before but as exams and essays have only just been handed in it is only now possible to do so. We will be there until either Thursday or Friday depending on various factors.

There will not be a great deal of blogging going on this week as I will be out on the doorstep for the best part of it.

Dunwoody’s action plan

What does Tamsin Dunwoody, the Labour Candidate for Crewe and Nantwich, mean when she says

I’m going to get tough on the yobs, bullies and underage drinking on our streets. I will push forward on regeneration and restore pride in our town.

I will fight to get well paid, skilled jobs for local people and I will listen and respond to people’s concerns about immigration.

Is she insinuating that her mother, god rest her soul, neglected her constituents and that she is the one to restore the pride of Crewe (what about Nantwich?). On the second issue, what does the good lady mean when she talks about responding to peoples concerns over immigration? Is Tamsin thinking about setting up her own outpost of the minute-men?

All of this is interesting, but what is most telling about Tamsin’s. and Labour’s, panic in Crewe and Nantwich is the anti-toff campaign they are running against the Conservative candidate. I agree with Mike Smithson when he says

expect it to get tough out there and some hard things will be said and written

this is true, however the level of the campaign is quite interesting and quite disturbing, it seems as though Labour are pursuing a scorched earth in an attempt to stop the haemorrhaging to the Conservatives. The policy does however depend on a) Labour getting their vote 100% ourt for Labour, and b) the Conservatives not getting their vote out in suffiecient numbers.

I can not see the first happening, if the Labour supporters don’t go for the Conservatives, many will go LibDem. As for the second issue, the LibDems are in a distant third, therefore those wanting to switch will most likely go for the Conservative Candidate and it they don’t I wouldn’t be at all surprised if they just stayed at home.

I am going down to help campaign for the Conservative Candidate, Edward Timpson, on Wednesday and do my best to help out on Thursday in whatever way I can, it will certainly be interesting to see the reaction on the doorstep.