Welcome Shads71

Shads71 · 07-17-2008, 06:19 AM

Hi everyone,
Thanks for the welcome. I came accross this site by chance and I am looking forward to some good political discussion. I am based in London England and everyone over here is taking a particular interest in the US election this time around. The whole contest has fired imaginations this side of the pond just as much as much as it has done over there.

We are pretty much fed up and bored with, our own politics and politicians so it's nice to get excited over someone else's. There was a piece by Mark Steel, a comedian and satirist who has a column in the Independent newspaper, yesterday. He wrote that he had been in Chicago a couple of weeks ago and while he was in a newspaper store, he says a skinny little old black lady came up to him and thrust a paper under his nose. On the front there was a picture of Barack Obama. "He's in town today" she said "Barack Obama, in town today" 'her eyes gleamed and danced with excitement' he wrote. He then went on to ask if anyone could, in their wildest imaginings, ever conceive of anybody in this country waltzing up to a complete stranger and saying "Hazel Blears, in town today". I should explain that Hazel Blears is an ever smiling British politician with a cabinet post, she is Minister for Communities who may well have ambitions for greater heights but Mark Steel is right, we have no politicians about whom we can get excited.

Personally I am completely caught up in what's going on...anyone would think I had a vote but as a British citizen I don't of course. However, every night 11pm my time, I tune in to CNN to watch 'The Situation Room' and catch up on events over the last 24 hours and have endless discussion with friends over the latest speeches made by the candidates. I think it would be fair to say that we can't wait to see the end of the Bush administration.

JaJae · 07-17-2008, 07:04 AM

I broke this off into your own thread. It's always great to have new users from overseas sign up and give a different perspective. You have some company on the board.

Also, the Situation Room is a good show. I like Blitzer and CNN is a good station to get American news from. The three major cable news stations here are FoxNews, MSNBC and CNN. FoxNews is heavily biased to the right. MSNBC is heavily biased to the left and CNN is somewhere in the middle, but still slants a bit left. In any event, it's probably the best station and I'm glad if you have access to any of them it would be CNN. And Blitzer tends to put on a good show.

I'm also glad to see you found your way over here and hope you feel comfortable to jump right in.

Rouger2 · 07-17-2008, 12:17 PM

I'm not excited I am just hopeful, but as corrupt as Washington is can anyone make a difference.

Angus_Aboot · 07-17-2008, 04:30 PM

Welcome Shads!

Up here in the Great White North people are get excited about Obama too, stupid doesn't stop at the border. *Depressing*

motivez · 07-17-2008, 10:27 PM

hey

Welcome aboard, glad to have ya here

Shads71 · 07-18-2008, 08:47 AM

Hi all,

Many thanks for such welcoming responses.

I am still not sure how to use this site properly. I want to post regarding the midweek politics show. I saw there is a thread on that so I am going to try and find it and have a go.

Shads71 · 07-18-2008, 09:38 AM

Well I couldn't find the tthread I was looking for but I would like to comment here, if that's ok on the last Midweek politics radio show which I listened to yesterday. It was the one where there was some discussion about Obama and the New Yorker cartoon and also Jesse Jacksons unfortunate comments -which actually did not air, at least no voice could be heard but of course, I had heard the whole thing previously on CNN and on our own TV in London.

The New Yorker editorial stqaff claimed they were just satirising Obama, which would have been all very well except for the fact that even living in England I know that immediately after Obama and his wife did their little fist bump, Fox news was proclaiming her a terrorist and because the New Yorker is read by only a very small and probably intellectual and academically elite circle, who may have 'got' the joke, the satire, the rest of the US media would pick up only on the cover picture. It would be widely circulated and in the present climate, really would not be seen as satire by the public at large so while some people criticised Obama's compalints about this cover picture, I think he was probably right to make a fuss about it.

The BBC has done some recent polling of it's own and I was shocked to hear that, according to their poll, 12% of Americans think Obama is a Muslim, 2% think he is a Jew!! With figures like that, he is right to compalain as the picture only adds to the misleading information put out there about him.

I am sorry for Jesse Jackson, but you know, his time has past. He should recognise this and be more supportive. I know that he is publicly supportive of Obama, but if those are his private thoughts, then the support is not genuine. I am sure he is angry that Obama has not given more space to the struggle of black americans to get to where they are now, to the whole civil rights movement, but this is not the way to win a big election.

Obama recognises that while the entire black community is still engaged in struggle of every description, white America thinks, in the main, that it is over, that there is pretty mcuh equality. This is wrong. Black and white people in America do not live life from the same perspective and white 'folks' don't either see or experience life, any part of life, in the same way that black people do.

The BBC did another poll, and I saw similar figures on the CNN Situation Room show, that 57% of white Americans thought life was pretty equal for balck and white while only 29% of black people saw things that way. This is a big disparity and I know that the black people are right. Even from 3,000 miles away here in London, we are aware of the huge disparity in life expectations, life ambitions and life reality for black people as opposed to whites. It troubles me, but I think that things will continue to improve and I hope that with Obama in the driving seat, one who KNOWS, what life can be like if you are black, things will improve further.

avsp · 07-19-2008, 07:26 AM

Wotcha!
So where in London are you?

I reckon the midweek pol show thread in question is
Midweek Politics with David Pakman - 07.16.2008

each new show is trailed in a 'sticky' thread at the top of the 'the floor' & then is transfered to its own little archive

Shads71 · 07-26-2008, 12:40 PM

Sorry to take so long to get back. Yes, I too am pleased I found my way to this site. I can get CNN at any time of day, but as I said, I tend to watch 'The Situation Room' and maybe I will watch a late night broadcast of CNN's 'World News' just to get a different perspective. BBC also broadcasts a one hour news programme, very late, from, I think ABC, is that one of yours or maybe it's CBS?? anyway, something else other than CNN, so I sometimes watch that as well, particularly if something 'BIG' has happened on the world stage. I try to get as many view points from dfferent media perspectives as I can. I don't believe the news media always (sometimes never) reflects the opinions of the polulace but one gets an idea of where that particular government is coming from. I am an admitted new junkie! I have seen, hearsd about and read of Fox News. Dreadful It's owned by Rupert Murdoch, what do you expect? He owns a number of newspapers in the UK which show the same right wing, homophobic, evangelistcal, conservative bias and various TV stations although I believe his son James, is now the Chairman of BSkyB (a major satellite broadcaster over here).

FOX News is SO terrible, I wonder how any thinking person can actually watch this channel and believe anything that comes off it? As I said, Rupert Murdoch - Tony Blair's great friend - what can you expect?

Shads71 · 07-26-2008, 12:55 PM

Thanks for the ino. I am in North London, Palmers Green, Enfield. I see you are a Brummie. But are you a Brit or an American hiding in Birmingham? And if you are a Brit what would you say in response to 'Our Gordon's' now forgotten call to come up with a catch phrase to show our 'Britishness?' remember that? and that most unfortunate rallying cry he voiced of 'British jobs for British workers?. Poor old Gordon, now that the SNP have wiped the floor with him in Glasgow East I wonder what he does next? Not a lot I shouldn't think. I don't want to see a Conservative Party in government nor David Cameron's over pluffed up cheeks as the face of my Prime Minister but Tony Blair ruined the Labour Party and Gordon is far too feeble to reignite the spark that once was the Labour Movement. It's gone for good and we must hope that something else rises in its place. But that will be for the future. For now, we will have to put up with 'Ministers rally round Grodon' and 'Cameron increases poll lead'. And whoever wins the next election will not make a blind bit of difference to present policies.

The British need a new messiah and there is absolutley no-one on the horizon. No wonder, I get excited about someone else's politician. Who knows, he may yet prove to be a disappointment but there are possibilities in Oboma, and if he even manages to take 5 meaningful steps away from the Bush doctrines of the last 8 years it will a step in the right direction for America and will open the opportunities for further steps to be taken by subsequent presidencies.

avsp · 07-28-2008, 07:13 AM

I'm afraid i'm a poncy brit southener hiding in brum

As for gordon & his idiocies, ..., to me Britishness is best defined by not worring about such crap, lurid patriotism is for 'johnny foreginer', ..., tho' i suspect that a true brit current ralling cry might be 'watch yew looking at? yew wan sum?' , ..., & that just the cops, ..., especially the cop-lite PCSOs & amatuer cops, the specials. Otherwise it might be a case of 'you arent allowed to do that'.

I find the laminated plastic yellow map posters totally repellant & I'm fairly angry that the poulace allows such ill-liberal crap.
In the 'chavier' parts of Brum the new 'no drinking in the street' regs are stokeing up a lot of resentment. As times get harder & riots loom the cops just dont seem to realise this. They're becoming increasingly cut off from people despite patrolling more. The idiocy of the ASBO just destroys their productivity & makes the order itself a badge of merit for cheeky kids

As for Blair & the Labour party, ..., the fact that they didnt throw the f*cker out for knowlingly & deliberately misrepresenting the nature, depth & quality of the WMD evidence means that they've lost any hope of getting my vote at all ever. Most local labour party street activists run & hide from me as they've no stomach at all to address this publically, ..., w*nkers.

Given Blair's overuse of spin & supposedly media friendly hand gestures etc I'm amazed that Brown or Cameron use them, ..., its not only old hat but is both 'seen thru' & seen as suspect by most people. Armando Iannucci's 'Changes' vid sums this up best for me

Brown could've played up to his dour & serious image & seemed a safe pair of hands, ..., but he now seems so craven that he has blown it big time.

I find Obama over-relies on his charisma, but then given that he has it in abundance its not that surprising perhaps

The US news show incoperated into the late night BBC news channel is ABC's World News Tonight with Charlie Gibson & I find it oddly very scanty

Enfield eh?, ..., never mind etc

Shads71 · 07-29-2008, 11:07 AM

Yeah Enfield...well, can't have everything!

I think we are much in tune over hte Labour Party. I was on the streets of Manchester during the TIME TO GO demonstration at the time of the Labour Party conference that saw Blair out.

Aside from 'Watch lookin at?' and 'Do you want sum?' signs of modern day Britishness, along with an ASBO of course, I think the best I saw was a cartoon - around the time Gordon Brown was looking for a slogan for Britishness - it showed an old feller shuffling along, laden with utility bills, bogged down by Council Tax and contemplating not being able to have a fag with his pint at the end of the day "How're you doing mate?" a cheeky chappie says to him "Musn't grumble" was the reply. That should have been Gordon's rallying cry - Musn't grumble!

I have to totally agree about Gordon. I think he could have used his dourness, I mean that was his natural demeanour, and his initial urge to get the troops out of Iraq. ven his first meeting with Bush - at that press call, he gave every indication of not toeing the Blair line but then he just collapsed and became totally craven to the point of - I don't know, I'm generally a wordsmith - I can't find anything in my vocabulary to describe the way he has behaved. I mean, he must hate himself, aside from the politics.

I heard Polly Toynbee, not always my favourite columnist, but she said on Newsnight last night I think, that she felt it was safe to say that Labout could easily disappear as a party, for a generation and come back as something else, re-invented.

Thanks for letting me know that it is ABC that the BBC incorporates into it's late night programming. I don't actively try to watch it, as I find it bland and very resistable, but sometimes I switchover channels and just started, so I will occasionally watch it.

I think Obama does rely on his charisma, but he has it, use it, as long as it doesn't become 'the only thing'. I have great hopes for him - but one has been so badly let down by politicians over the years, I am watchful nowadays. With age comes caution.

I am pretty sure that the majority of 'hard working Americans' (why do they always use that phrase?) are not terribly happy to see one of their Presidential candidates hailed as a rock star, but it's not Obama's fault that he is popular overseas. I mean, we are all, the world over, gasping for the end of the Bush era. I think we can be forgiven, or least, those that hailed Obama as a hero, for acting the way they did/do, towards him.

I will be very interested to see what he does about healthcare if he gets to be president. I think the lack of it in a universally provided sense is one of the most shaming aspects of American life.

Joe Castro · 08-12-2008, 08:22 PM

A belated welcome SHads. I get the impression that despite the "independent" label you are traditional Labour, would i be right ? That is the only way i can see Labour making a comeback, certainly up in these parts. If Labour don't become Labour again soon, there will be no UK. ALthough i don't know quite how much good it would do them in England to return to Labour values.

And i would say we have one incredible and inspirational politician, of course i mean George Galloway. The tragedy is of course he can never become PM.

avsp · 08-18-2008, 07:34 AM

I'll not forgive Galloway for his snivelling apologetics for Saddam in the run up to the Kuwaiti war.
His populist tendancies get my goat too, I'm not a fan of demagoguery.

Joe Castro · 08-18-2008, 10:22 AM

Originally Posted by avsp

I'll not forgive Galloway for his snivelling apologetics for Saddam in the run up to the Kuwaiti war.
His populist tendancies get my goat too, I'm not a fan of demagoguery.

I blame the media for the bad press he got on that front. Galloway was actually protesting agaist Saddam when our government were snuggling up to him and selling him weapons. The whole indefagitabiliy comment happened as he was there to persuade Saddam to make the moves required to get the sanctions dropped. In such a scenario diplomacy requires you to be nice to the person, going in with all guns blazing and showing anger would never work.