Offmessage

Don’t get me wrong. I think that the Labour Goverment is the best Government we could have at the moment (despite my personal Liberal - and liberal - leanings and despite my opposition to the war in Iraq and many other policies). But oh my God have I hated David Blunkett ever since he got that job. He has proposed, supported and pushed through some of the most vile and illiberal legislation I can remember, things that even the Tories at their worst would not have dared even to suggest, let alone put in a Queen’s Speech. To see him brought down by his own stupidity in what should have been his finest hour is to me truly enjoyable - schadenfreude at it’s finest.

And if it turns out that on top of everything else Charles Clarke hasn’t the stomach for ID cards my year will be complete.

Edit: Apparently he has - ah well, it was to be expected.

Hmmm… Thanks to Adrian for pointing me in the direction of Privacy International’s analysis of the current state of play with ID cards (PDF). Well worth a quick scan. Nice to see that they will require 50 pieces of information about us stored on the card, including our drivers licence number and passport number as well as a whole host of other things.

Grrrr. See the link to Stand on the left? Click it.

Monkey portrait closes art show…

Hypocritical motherfuckers.

God created Americans, apparently. Gallup poll shows that only a third of Americans believe evolutionary theory to be correct, while another third are biblical literalists. I don’t know what to say. I really don’t.

Let’s have a liberal backlash.

President Bush was visiting a primary school and asked the children if they
knew the meaning of the word “tragedy”.

One small boy stood up and offered, “If my best friend, who lives on a farm,
is playing in the field and a tractor runs over him, that would be a
tragedy”.

“No”, said Bush, “That would be an accident”.

Little Suzie raised her hand: “If a school bus carrying 50 children went
over a cliff, killing everyone inside, that would be a tragedy”.

“I’m afraid not,” explained the president. “That’s what we would call a
great loss”.

The room fell silent until another little boy raised his hand and offered,
“If Air Force One carrying Mr.and Mrs. Bush was struck by a “friendly fire”
missile and blown to bits that would be a tragedy”

“Fantastic!” exclaimed Bush. “That’s right and can you tell me why that
would be a tragedy?”

“Well” came the reply, “It has to be a tragedy, because it wouldn’t be a
great loss and it probably wouldn’t be an accident either”.

For his “role” in Farenheit 9/11… How nice.

Three Medford school teachers were threatened with arrest and escorted from the event after they showed up wearing T-shirts with the slogan “Protect our civil liberties.” All three said they applied for and received valid tickets from Republican headquarters in Medford. “The women said they did not intend to protest. “I wanted to see if I would be able to make a statement that I feel is important, but not offensive, in a rally for my president,” said Janet Voorhies, 48, a teacher in training.

“We chose this phrase specifically because we didn’t think it would be offensive or degrading or obscene,” said Tania Tong, 34, a special education teacher. Thursday’s event in Oregon sets a new bar for a Bush/Cheney campaign that has taken extraordinary measures to screen the opinions of those who attend Bush and Cheney speeches. For months, the Bush/Cheney campaign has limited event access to those willing to volunteer in Bush/Cheney campaign offices. In recent weeks, the Bush/Cheney campaign has gone so far as to have those who voice dissenting viewpoints at their events arrested and charged as criminals.”

Full story here