cloudsoup

Spent a few moments fixing a paragraph from The Independent‘s editorial on the BBC’s Russell Brand/Jonathan Ross/Andrew Sachs affair:

Now there can be little no doubt that the routine was coarse, juvenile and vindictive, and the language used in respect of the grand-daughter was obscene. But it is precisely this edginess, this pushing of boundaries coarse, vindictive obscenity, that draws listeners to Russell Brand’s shows. This broadcast might have pushed the boundaries somewhat further than others been illegal. But of those who tuned in – an estimated two million – only two apparently felt strongly enough to complain the BBC would take any notice. There is an unfortunate element of “Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells” >Such parochialism dahling in the subsequent flood of apoplexy agreement. The truth is that regular listeners seemed to take the offensiveness in their stride so the BBC is justified in spending a fortune of your money to promulgate obscene and possibly illegal material.

There you go. Fixed.

Sarah Palin, on disposal of tax revenue to fund research:

Where does a lot of that earmark money end up anyway? […] You’ve heard about some of these pet projects they really don’t make a whole lot of sense and sometimes these dollars go to projects that have little or nothing to do with the public good. Things like fruit fly research in Paris, France. I kid you not

She is so dim she has never heard of fruit flies being used in research? And the reasons why they’re used? And the successes?

Well that’s it for me. Obama it is.

The BBC just reported, on the News at 10, that Barack Obama was giving an unscripted speech while it ran some video of Obama standing at a podium with a teleprompter screens either side of him. Perhaps they simply confused their VT. Or their script.

This morning, at work, a couple of colleagues scoffed at the McCain camp’s efforts to drag up the William Ayers connection. They didn’t know much about the story and they had accepted the MSM’s spin on Palin’s attack as a near-racist smear (AP story).

Perhaps it is worth remembering a few facts.

• William Ayers was a terrorist.
• The terrorist group of which he and his wife, Bernadine Dohrne, were national leaders, The Weathermen, made and planted bombs intended to kill American citizens
• Obama launched his bid for the US Senate at a fundraiser at Ayers’s house

For those of us in the UK, here’s an analogy. Imagine you’re the SDLP leader John Hume. Through gritted teeth you agree to serve on the same committee as Martin McGuinness – the erstwhile Head of the IRA’s Northern Command, personally responsible for numerous terrorist atrocities in the UK. You do this because you wish to help the progress of the peace process in Northern Ireland.

Then a general election is called. You decide to kick-off your re-election campaign at a fundraiser held at the house of … Martin McGuinness.

That’s a pretty near enough analogy. That’s the next US President.