tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-78760372009-11-10T12:13:06.299Z"....a long and bitter quarrel with the news world!"Johanneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08794569620237564767noreply@blogger.comBlogger196125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7876037.post-10812951142312509502008-09-16T10:27:00.004+01:002008-09-16T11:07:36.725+01:002008-09-16T11:07:36.725+01:00

Came across this fantastic graph on the Environmental Defense Fund blog:It just makes the case for what I was saying in my post last week about McCain's energy plans (Pale-in to gather oil like a stamp for rotten food).

Johanneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08794569620237564767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7876037.post-74227778996654439852008-09-05T10:14:00.014+01:002008-09-05T13:25:42.895+01:002008-09-05T13:25:42.895+01:00

I would really seize on the opportunity to paint the McCain camp as rash in its decision making and that the executive power of the presidential candidate is outshined by those of his advisor's (much like Rove was for Bush), who are quite obviously making the decisions for him. You don't honestly think selecting Pail was as his running mate was his idea? McCain's lack of knowledge regarding

Johanneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08794569620237564767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7876037.post-37917605859938447172008-07-04T09:47:00.008+01:002008-07-09T10:34:23.551+01:002008-07-09T10:34:23.551+01:00

{also to be found at Kenya Imagine - 09/07/2008} Duncan Bannatyne, famous in the UK for his dour attitude and sarcasm as one of the Dragons in the UK television show Dragon's Den recently put out ‘Bannatyne takes on Big Tobacco' on the BBC. In Dragon's Den Bannatyne is one of a bench of investor judges at whom entrepreneurs pitch business ideas with the aim of securing investment and

Johanneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08794569620237564767noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7876037.post-87532662656011983442008-06-30T18:18:00.004+01:002008-06-30T18:28:08.286+01:002008-06-30T18:28:08.286+01:00

Seriously, I haven't been back in a while to write something but this piece of news aggravated me slightly...With a about 40 news alerts coming in about who might be the vice presidential candidates of choice for Barack and McCain, some of the stories are just too incredulous to mention. But this interview with Lieberman is worthy of consideration because after all, if Lieberman gets the No.2

Johanneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08794569620237564767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7876037.post-71201597745540843272008-01-14T11:47:00.000Z2008-01-14T18:27:59.602Z2008-01-14T18:27:59.602Z

Mr Hodgkinson's article 'With friend's like these...' is more a hodgepodge of corporate relationships and how they might pertain to the philosophical discourse of Facebook rather than a genuine discussion of what detrimental impact Facebook has on societal behaviour. His exploration of who's pulling the strings of our privacy is like pulling a good tooth from a decaying mouth.I received an email

Johanneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08794569620237564767noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7876037.post-83537171706320194202007-11-14T15:07:00.000Z2007-11-14T15:09:47.079Z2007-11-14T15:09:47.079Z

64% - Bill Clinton's Possible ReturnNovember 14, 2007Pew Research CenterThe public has a mixed reaction to the prospect of Bill Clinton’s return to the White House, should Hillary Clinton win the 2008 election; nonetheless, most Americans (64%) believe that Bill Clinton would have a positive influence on the way his wife would do her job if she becomes president. Fewer than half of Americans (45%

Johanneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08794569620237564767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7876037.post-20443003119088393572007-11-04T22:30:00.000Z2007-11-04T22:36:50.656Z2007-11-04T22:36:50.656Z

An engineering professor’s article should have appeared last month discrediting a conspiracy theory surrounding the collapse of the World Trade Centre - but it didn’t. Due to reason’s unexplained, even the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), according to some media ‘blogdogs’ (media-blogger-watchdogs), changed its report to reflect a decision possibly made by the Journal of Engineering

Johanneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08794569620237564767noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7876037.post-6116560180189068502007-09-18T18:20:00.000+01:002007-09-18T18:26:15.254+01:002007-09-18T18:26:15.254+01:00

Oh, this is great news! So, my last post was a rant about not having access to Times-Select specific columns and today the New York Times announced that it would be cancelling this subscription option!NY Times to drop charges for websiteNow, I'm not saying that I'm responsible for this but I seem to have gotten the timing right with my rant :)

Johanneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08794569620237564767noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7876037.post-6249037853552997642007-09-10T01:57:00.000+01:002007-09-10T03:00:12.424+01:002007-09-10T03:00:12.424+01:00

I've been here a couple of days and was looking forward to picking up a copy of the New York Times and reading it from cover to cover but was shocked by the five dollar price tag and decided to stick to reading it online instead. Unfortunately the one Op-Ed I wanted to read was restricted to TimesSelect readers. I blog-searched the article and found what I wanted to read anyway, so, bollocks to

Johanneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08794569620237564767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7876037.post-1833543501629301042007-09-08T14:07:00.000+01:002007-09-08T14:19:25.483+01:002007-09-08T14:19:25.483+01:00

Welcome NYC! I've taken up an internship at the Clinton Foundation for a couple of months. I'll be bringing you the usual uncouth attack on the news but also, I hope, some fresh insights into the high politics of the Foundation and other shenanigans...

Johanneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08794569620237564767noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7876037.post-11650658421952662192007-08-30T23:55:00.001+01:002007-08-31T01:04:47.371+01:002007-08-31T01:04:47.371+01:00

The Swiss People's Party (SVP) is embroiled in yet another tarnishing report. Switzerland's public broadcaster (SF - Schweizer Fernsehn) decided to run a story yesterday about a group of youths who were used for a SVP campaign-video of which they had no knowledge. The SVP has since been forced to remove the campaign video because local authorities believe the youths were used for political

Johanneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08794569620237564767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7876037.post-43178114496449042192007-08-30T16:48:00.002+01:002007-09-09T16:57:33.247+01:002007-09-09T16:57:33.247+01:00

Since Facebook seems to be making the news again this week - with some companies having banned the site for their employees - I thought it was time to follow up on a poll I conducted a couple of weeks ago. After a sleuthing attack in the international herald tribune's pages on Facebook's credibility as a 'clean' social network (read here) I decided to ask some of my friends whether or not

Johanneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08794569620237564767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7876037.post-52949348439854353272007-08-30T16:28:00.000+01:002007-08-30T16:33:50.247+01:002007-08-30T16:33:50.247+01:00

This is an all-round juicy story - it has love, hate, greed, death and an array of colorful characters.Helmsley leaves $12 million for her dog

Johanneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08794569620237564767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7876037.post-18801761978831930482007-08-27T17:20:00.000+01:002007-08-27T17:42:03.588+01:002007-08-27T17:42:03.588+01:00

WOW. Thanks to Anthony Barnett at openDemocracy.net for pointing me to this:

Johanneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08794569620237564767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7876037.post-27158347002134266642007-08-27T11:10:00.000+01:002007-08-27T17:44:11.566+01:002007-08-27T17:44:11.566+01:00

'China's environmental problems are mounting.' I don't think anyone is going to dispute that. The effects that this pollution will have on the Chinese economy, social development and the behavior of the People's Party is generating a lot of lateral thinking.Elizabeth C. Economy, director for Asia Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations writes in a recent IHT adapted Op-Ed that the costs of

Johanneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08794569620237564767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7876037.post-87173735371849317592007-08-25T13:22:00.000+01:002007-08-25T14:32:31.018+01:002007-08-25T14:32:31.018+01:00

The British-Swiss Chamber of Commerce (BSCC) has spoken out against the Swiss National Party's (SVP) poster-campaingn calling it 'clearly racist, xenophobic and having the objective of spreading hate' ("klar rassistisch, fremdenfeidlich und darauf aus, Hass zu schueren," BAZ, 25 August 2007)The overhead criticism of the poster campaign is much wider: rough politics is bad for business. Its

Johanneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08794569620237564767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7876037.post-76483596117294187812007-08-25T11:54:00.002+01:002007-09-03T10:22:44.434+01:002007-09-03T10:22:44.434+01:00

Reflecting on the nature of bias in journalism is every journalist's and reporter's affair and it should cause some personal, internal hemorrhaging for everyone in the field at some point.Whilst doing a regular run of some of the liberally-minded blogs and the so called 'mainstream' press online I came across a rather poignant comment to Matthew Yglesias post "When Journalists Donate", an entry

Johanneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08794569620237564767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7876037.post-72706323183851930802007-08-23T10:16:00.000+01:002007-08-24T09:59:32.097+01:002007-08-24T09:59:32.097+01:00

Yesterday I was annoyed when Matthew Sheffield, writing for Newsbusters, decided that "Democrats have begun to shift their political strategy in light of the success of the surge." To him, Hillary Clinton was changing her whole attitude towards Iraq because, she said: "We've begun to change tactics in Iraq, and in some areas, particularly in Anbar province, it's working". Its a fallacy to think

Johanneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08794569620237564767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7876037.post-65373912748443720012007-08-22T16:30:00.000+01:002007-08-23T11:22:46.788+01:002007-08-23T11:22:46.788+01:00

Just listened to President Bush give his speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars. He compares the struggles of achieving democracy in Japan and Vietnam to the struggles that need to be achieved in Iraq.He said: "In the aftermath of Japan's surrender, many thought it naive to help the Japanese transform themselves into a democracy. Then, as now, the critics argued that some people were simply not

Johanneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08794569620237564767noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7876037.post-71998483902484481522007-08-20T18:00:00.001+01:002008-01-29T14:05:45.448Z2008-01-29T14:05:45.448Z

The Economist asked the other week "Is American turning left?" - I think Weltwoche, the Swiss weekly news magazine, should ask "Is Switzerland becoming a national-socialist state with hints of fascism?". It certainly seems so and the main-stream press is letting this happen, firing up the profile of a nationalist party and misrepresenting information which is steeped in spin, 1930s style

Johanneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08794569620237564767noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7876037.post-47364338682893497392007-08-19T19:33:00.001+01:002007-08-23T10:43:47.828+01:002007-08-23T10:43:47.828+01:00

Some of you might remember the oil-for-food scandal which plagued the image of the United Nations for quite some time.Let me piece this together quickly. Essentially the oil-for-food programme was designed to help alleviate a humanitarian crisis that had befallen Iraq during 1990s as a heavy internationally coordinated sanctions regime was squeezing Saddam's regime to comply with the terms

Johanneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08794569620237564767noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7876037.post-30799180722951697872007-08-18T10:36:00.000+01:002007-08-23T10:44:20.464+01:002007-08-23T10:44:20.464+01:00

Let's get this straight once and for all... Patraeus' Iraq report, for which some of us are waiting in anticipation, will fall short of the media's expectations.1. The public won't buy it: "According to a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll released on Friday, 53 percent of people polled said they suspect that the military assessment of the situation will try to make it sound better than it

Johanneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08794569620237564767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7876037.post-61524424964635709282007-08-14T21:11:00.001+01:002007-08-18T14:35:43.739+01:002007-08-18T14:35:43.739+01:00

Is seems that US surveillance technology is finding great places to be tested: Mexico and China - not only is the idea is being exported but also the hardware."Big Brother jumps onto world scene from Shenzhen, China""US plans to give billions in drug fight", International Herald Tribune, 14 August 2007:"Mexico and the United States are holding talks to develop plan for the United States to give

Johanneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08794569620237564767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7876037.post-90550766090183251102007-08-08T13:27:00.000+01:002007-08-09T15:09:08.044+01:002007-08-09T15:09:08.044+01:00

"Its easy for soldiers to score heroin in Afghanistan" but also, its easy easy for Irish (or former Irish or now fully American or just people with coincidental Irish names) sponsored by The Nation Institute Investigative Fund to score heroin in Afghanistan. I'd like to know what Shaun McCanna did with all the heroin he bought to prove his point...In all seriousness though, his point is a good

Johanneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08794569620237564767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7876037.post-2367995097012347422007-08-03T09:06:00.001+01:002007-08-03T09:06:29.003+01:002007-08-03T09:06:29.003+01:00

Remember Eddie Izzard's standup routine where the settlers land in the New World and claim the territory by placing a flag on the 'new' lands? The Native Indians lament:"but this is our land!" The flag-placing-fanatics respond: "ahh, but do you have a flag?". Of course the Indian's didn't and so the New World was free for the settlers to claim.Russia has recently used this age old adage, much

Johanneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08794569620237564767noreply@blogger.com0