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… I’d still vote for Obama.

All very clever though – these posters cropped up yesterday and have become collectors items already. The tagline in the middle is “Let the issues be the issue”… which is a bloody good point.

[More from The Guardian]

(BTW: A classmate of mine thinks Obama looks like Ryan “Tubbers” Tubridy… anyone agree? )

Here’s a more “newsy” blog post than normal…

I’ve made it no secret that if I were an American, I’d vote for Barack Obama in the upcoming presidential election. The main reasons for this are that America needs a change of administration, and John McCain looks like bringing just more of the same. Plus, while McCain may have a young and vibrant running mate in Sarah Palin – she doesn’t appear to have proven herself capable or deserving of the role of Vice President (or President for that matter), and McCain is old and seemingly out of touch, while Barack seems a lot more down-to-earth, street wise and ’savvy’ than his opposition.

As I’ve said to an American friend of mine on I-don’t-know-how-many occasions, while America has learned and adapted a lot of things from us Europeans over the decades, it’s a pity that those things don’t include the single transferable vote system of proportional representation in a multi-party democracy, and that the political landscape in the US seems destined to be forever dominated by the two goliaths that exist there.

Anyway – back to Obama, and after vocally praising him on numerous occasions recently and being rumoured to be planning to appear at the Democratic National Conference in support of Obama, the man who can’t pronounce his own name – former US Secretary of State for the current (Bush/Cheney) administration, Colin Powell finally crossed parties today and came on national television to publicly endorse the Democratic candidate and promise him his vote in November.

“He has both style and substance. He has met the standard of being a successful president – being an exceptional president. I think he is a transformational figure. He is a new generation, coming onto the world [and] American stage, and for that reason I’ll be voting for Senator Barack Obama”

This is definitely a big bonus for the Democrats, a very strong voice in Obama’s favour, and just one more positive step on Obama and Biden’s way to the White House.

Howdy America… what’s the craic? Doing well? Good stuff… Okay, first off… this is your day… Happy Independence Day! You’ve been free from British rule for 232 years… go you! Don’t get TOO drunk now… (of course, for most of you, that means four beers)… Secondly… Forget Obama, Forget McCain… here’s the guy you want to vote for to replace George W. Bush with! Yeah… it’s Zaphod Beeblebrox! He’s a real switched-on hoopy frood who knows where his towel is… AND… he has an inspirational and uplifting campaing song…

… and yes, that’s good old Neil Hannon of the Divine Comedy on the vocals!

(This is a Hitch-hikers Guide to the Galaxy joke. If you’ve read/seen/heard it, you’ll get it. If you haven’t read/seen/heard it, go read, see and hear it now!)

Despite the competition for the Democratic Presidential candidacy nomination in the United States effectively going down to the wire, the outcome still fails to completely surprise most observers. According to the Associated Press, Barack Obama is about to secure the Democratic Party’s nomination after a marathon competition with Hillary Clinton.

That might not mean the end of Clinton’s bid for the White House though, as – even after the considerable mud-slinging which went on in their own individual campaigns so far – she now says she’s open to the idea of being Vice-President while the son of a Kenyan goat-herder (and great great GREAT grandson of an Irishman) takes the top spot.

Although, then again, there’s always this fellah on the other side… Either way, it’ll make for interesting watching for the independent observer!

By all means, draw your own conclusions, – but it would seem to me that Jim Corr, guitarist with Dundalk based band “The Corrs”, has far too much time, money and Internet access on his hands.

In a radio interview on Today FM’s “The Last Word” yesterday, he went on a well rehearsed rant about the Lisbon Treaty and the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Apparently, he got on the air thanks to his buddy Tony Fenton (pictured with him here).

During his rant, he claimed that:

The Bush administration, with the help of the intelligence community – the CIA, etc., carried out the atrocities in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania

Explosives were planted in the WTC towers in order to ensure that they “collapsed neatly into their own footprint”

Rudolph Guiliani, then mayor of New York, covered it up by shipping evidence (including steel from the towers) abroad

None of the hi-jackers were actually on the airline passenger manifests and at least eight are still alive and free today

We are headed towards a “new world order” culminating in a single world government which he said would be a “scientific dictatorship” – starting with Mexico, Canada and the US merging (and using one currency, the “Amero“) – and those later merging with Europe and Asia.

It all smacks quite clearly of some very well known conspiracy theories which have been circulating on the Internet for the past 6 years (including one in a Google Video which he referenced) – most of which a lot of us have heard (and laughed at, in fairness) before and most if not all of which have been comprehensively debunked.

Oh!- and he also claimed, in a roundabout way, that the Lisbon Treaty will mean the eventual introduction of the death penalty in the E.U.

They’re also talking about this on boards.ie and Damien blogged about this earlier today (but the YouTube video he referenced doesn’t have the full interview)…

So here’s the full interview now:

Oh and Jim’s not alone either…! Won’t we all be kicking ourselves if 10 or 20 years down the line, he’s found out to have been correct all along? Ray D’Arcy said on air today that if that does happen, he’ll publicly apologise to Jim Corr for not believing him but added that he didn’t think at that stage anyone would care about the Louth man’s opinion.

Do we care now? Whatever about Jim’s “sensational” outburst – everyone should get themselves properly informed – there’s only two weeks left before the country goes to the polls in the Lisbon Treaty Referendum.