Bloody rent-a-mobbers

Watch Labour’s rent-a-mob in Sedgefield disrupting press events for the Lib Dems (via) and the Tories (via).

I’ve personally witnessed similar behaviour from the Tories and I’ll happily link to any current/historical footage of the same from the Lib Dems* if anyone has some to hand.

Now, really, who wins when it spirals down to this level?

[*Note – I’ve also witnessed Tory activists posing as rude/disruptive Lib Dems in the street (my camera failed me, or I would bring you footage) and posing as Labour activists online (allowing them to lay into the Lib Dems in unseemly ways, thereby compromising both opposing parties). By the time crap like that happens… well, the shouting match you were previously left with becomes even more meaningless.]








Posted in The Political Weblog Movement | Comments Off on Bloody rent-a-mobbers

People we know and trust

Alastair Campbell: Why, suddenly, are so many people prepared to believe a man who lies and spins for a living… especially when his immediate livelihood depends on us giving a damn about his book? Won’t be buying, won’t be reading… won’t be linking, sorry (but if you do find your way to his website, check the ‘about’ page for a pathetic attempt at blogging cred). I will, however, be paraphrasing a fairly recent and most-excellent letter to Viz on the subject of Max Clifford; “If he’s such an expert in public relations, why does everyone think he’s a cunt?”

[Psst! Wanna buy a book? Try this one.]

Rebekah Wade: The new tabloid-based drama Dirt premieres this evening on FiveUS at 9pm and, quite frankly, I’m already disappointed. Given who and what one has to deal with on a regular basis when contributing to a tabloid, I would think that ‘Shit’ would be a far more suitable title… and perfectly suitable for the post-watershed audience. No? OK, how about ‘Never-Ending Fields of Glory Gak’…? Really? Potential libel, you say? Very well… instead, we’ll focus on Wade having a rare encounter with Cox. After this meeting, the lovely Courteney was heard to say of Rebekah; “She’s a fascinating woman… she is a very powerful, strong woman.” Please note that the word ‘pleasant’ does not appear anywhere in that assessment (and please also check that article for a downright creepy moment that follows this assessment).

Chain-Lettering Meme Vandals and Their Gutless/Witless Victims: Take a look at the latest crap (screengrab below) that’s started popping up under most of my YouTube videos. There are already 71,000 references to basic variations of “copy and paste this to 10 videos or your mum will die within the next 4 hours” and 221,000 references to a similar and only slightly less offensive one that promises to help you with your love life (after you have spammed 5 videos). I’d like to issue a slow handclap to the genius what thunk this up.

(Oh, and don’t read too much into the ‘Mother’s Life Vs. Sex Life’ thing… I’m sure the difference in performance stems primarily from the entry threshold; 10 spams versus 5.)








Posted in Humanity | 2 Comments

I’m, like, *so* mainstream darling…

Tonight from 7pm to 8pm I’ll be appearing on the panel (in a primarily audible sense) for Fighting Talk: AOB on Radio Five Live.

Wish me luck… I’ll be operating without nicotine.

UPDATE (10PM) – Gah! Wimbledon was running over, so we recorded ‘as live’ in two parts ready to broadcast in a quicksnippy version from 8pm… then Wimbledon ran past 8pm. The current plan involves a later broadcast but topical material ages pretty damn fast, so I guess we’ll see hear what happens.

PS – Johnny Vaughan is a quality host. Not being totally live took the edge off, but I would have felt at ease regardless. It was fun.








Posted in Updates | 2 Comments

Murdoch-related reads of the week

Obsolete – Scum-watch: The dead flag blues

5cc – More soaraway propaganda

(Psst! I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that Wade’s days are numbered… the old mongrel is far too reliant on her old tricks.)

Slate – Who had a critical profile of Rupert’s wife, Wendi Deng, spiked?

Danwei – Aussie newspaper kills story about Rupert Murdoch’s wife








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Gotcha!

Remember the recent adventure with Emap? (The update on this has been delayed, BTW…hang in there.)

Now it’s the Sun’s turn.








Posted in Photoshopping | Comments Off on Gotcha!

EXCLUSIVE OPINION: Amateur Histrionics

Why do by-elections seem particularly unpleasant? Well, for starters, there are more politicians and activists available.

Of course, lately we also have the Tories ‘dominating’ the blogosphere (in much the same way that a diarrheic dog dominates a croquet lawn) and – without mentioning specifics for obvious reasons – I think it’s entirely fair to say that certain Tory bloggers are rather selective in their use of moral outrage.

Take for example a wide selection of Tory bloggers, many of whom have no problem knowingly making false claims about the relationship between myself and Tom Watson suddenly objecting very loudly to Tom ‘publishing false statements’, while being somewhat less taken aback about people proclaiming it to be Christmas when an unexpected death prompts a by-election.

Still, at least in this Iain Dale has been consistent… and he didn’t even launch a fresh sentence for his gut reaction; “The Labour MP Piara Khabra has died thus causing a by election.”

Here’s a link for those who don’t want to get involved.

Here’s a link for those who do.

UPDATE – Oh, and if you’re in the mood… click here to gaze in wonder at Iain Dale’s awesome rebuttal.








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Amateur dramatics

“The greatest danger of bombs is in the explosion of stupidity that they provoke.” – Octave Mirbeau

Yeah, I know I keep wheeling that quote out, but – to paraphrase almost everyone in the Bush administration – I don’t think anyone could have predicted pre-emptive stupidity…

The Register – Beavis and Butthead in London jihad: “We’ll heat up these propane cylinders with burning petrol, and they’ll go off like bombs”, boys the world over have remarked with glee. They don’t realise that air is a poor oxidiser, and the only “explosion” they will get is when gas pressure inside the cylinders is great enough to burst them. Then the propane will ignite, and a nice fireball will blossom. A fireball, not an explosion. Oh, the Piccadilly fireball would have blown the car’s windows out, and popped its doors open, and sent various bits like mirrors and so forth into the air at velocities possibly fatal to people nearby. It would have looked really cool, that’s for sure. But an explosive event…a detonation? Not in a million years. (via)

Yes, this new method of pursuing casualties over spectacle should cause some concern… not least because the tactic has reached our shores after years of development in the terrorists’ playground we created in Iraq.

(DING! Blair Legacy #1)

There’s also something worrying about the level of determination shown at Glasgow but if you just take a moment to picture that moment…

SFX: Sound of impact. Fire engulfs vehicle. There is a pregnant pause.

BARRY: “Where’s the kaboom? There was supposed to be an earth-shattering kaboom!”

PAUL: “No worries, Barry… we appear to have plenty of fire. I’ll just carry some indoors, shall I?”

Gordon Brown and his crew earn some credit for not going Chicken Little on us, but they not only have to keep a cool head themselves… they also have to contend with tabloids that have fear-mongering down to a fine art (again, after years of development).

(DING! Blair Legacy #2)

Guardian – We are offering the terrorist a megaphone for his cause: “Doctor Evil”, cries the Sun, demanding we “Rip up the hated human rights act”. “Docs of War”, chimes the Mirror, discarding “innocent until proved guilty”. “Terror cell in the NHS”, shrieks the Express. Nor is the rest of the media much better. Fed by anonymous security officials eager to boast of their successes, almost all reports have contrived to link the bombs with al-Qaida, 9/11, the NHS, mayhem and martyrdom. (via)

And yet, meanwhile, other people with bombs and/or a desire to use them receive very little attention… nobody is even bothering to report what they’re up to, much less blow out of all proportion their explosives, dreams and abortions.

(Psst! To begin to understand why this is important, you simply need to meet Rage Boy.)








Posted in The War on Stupid | 1 Comment

8 random facts meme stab kill die

Justin has tagged me, and he is one of the few people I would forgive for this.

Here are the rules (as I understand them):

– You must post these rules before posting your facts… or not.

– Each player starts with 8 random facts/habits about themselves…. after the rules, if they bother.

– People who are tagged need to write their own blog (about their eight things) and post these rules… even though these rules are rather confused and repetitive.

– At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names… or you may choose to put this at the end of your ‘random facts’ post (rather than waiting for the closure of your blog).

– Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog… or you could simply link to them as you tag them, allowing them to pick it up in Technorati if they don’t happen to be a reader. Oh, what the hell… why don’t you pop over and comment spam them anyway? I’m sure they won’t mind.

Here are my facts:

1. I was a DJ for 10 years before coming to your beautiful country and sleeping with your beautiful women woman.

2. I once appeared on Home and Away… as a DJ.

3. One of my first jobs was stacking shelves at DJs.

4. My favourite Monkee is Mickey Dolenz, but I prefer the music of Mike Nesmith.

5. I’m a sucker for books, but prefer graphic novels or comics if I’m reading in bed. This habit is primarily a result of my learning to speed-read. I have to slow down if I want to sleep, but if I want to slow down while reading, I have to concentrate… which makes it hard to sleep.

6. I sometimes like to follow memes to (or toward) their point of origin… often, just to enjoy people bitching about the misery they are about to inflict upon others. Be warned that this is not as easy as it looks, as most people don’t credit tag origins properly, and some* people don’t do it at all;

dingding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding*, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding*, ding*, ding, ding*, ding, ding*, ding*… and here the trail appears to end… unless you believe in time-travel.

7. I personally regard the majority of MySpace users to be a bunch of ignorant, witless, needy, image-leeching amateurs… but on most days I’m capable of keeping quiet and playing nice about that.

8. I’m on my 6th day without nicotine, and I’m doing well… despite all the drug pushers they have on TV insisting that I simply can’t get by without it in gum, patch or suppository form. I have no problem with the ban, as the one thing that has kept me a slave to the bastard substance all these years has been the continual exposure to social situations where it is expected, accepted, or offered. I could say something about certain types of memes and pester technology like MySpace and Facebook here, but instead, I’ll do this….

Here are my tags:

No. Shan’t.








Posted in Inneresting | 5 Comments

I plan to blame society (and nicotine withdrawal)

Good morning, and here is the news:

Alan Johnston has been freed… and here is your replacement button:

alan johnston

The missing protestor has been foundor has he?

Nick Boles is to receive treatment for cancerit feels like Christmas has come early.

Blogger with social/communicative difficulties experiences difficulty with already-awkward social situation shock.

Those already holding sticks, please form an orderly line on the left.








Posted in Humanity | 2 Comments

Emap: an itty-bitty update

Here’s an article about the recent Emap kerfuffle that is of added interest once you delve into comments (some readers would appear to think that Mr Nash’s response fails the scrutiny test).

(Psst! I’m not waiting until my cheque arrives before I comment… I’m timing how long it takes to arrive before I comment.)








Posted in Photoshopping | 5 Comments