Motley Moose – Archive

In an unexpected move, the Nobel Committee have awarded President Obama the Peace Prize for “his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and co-operation between peoples”.

Once again, American politics continues to dominate UK politics, especially over the misrepresentations of our National Health Service. Today’s news is dominated by far right wing Tory, Daniel Hannan, who keeps appearing on Fox decrying the NHS, much to the chagrin of most the population of the UK, and his Party leader.

Meanwhile, I thought Obama’s defence of his plan was urgent, angry and completely on the money. I hope that lots of Americans saw this:

The LA Times is confirming the sad news that Michael Jackson has died of a massive heart attack.

For someone of my age, Michael defined a generation. From early days as a child singer he went through several amazing metamorphoses, some increasingly bizarre. But he was gifted. And he was always there.

Thoughts, tributes, regrets. Anything welcome in this open thread

You can’t forget the eyes.

For all the horror of the blood, and consternation and panic in the crowd at the gruesome murder of this young woman, what draws us are those beautiful big eyes, dimmed and then extinguished, forever.

You can’t forget the eyes.

For all the horror of the blood, and consternation and panic in the crowd at the gruesome murder of this young woman, what draws us are those beautiful big eyes, dimmed and then extinguished, forever.

By bizarre coincidence, CG’s timely and provocative diary about Holocaust denial and Facebook, has raised issues of free speech which are a hot button issue today in the UK.

BNP leader Nick Griffin has been pelted with eggs and forced to abandon a press conference outside Parliament.

Dozens of protesters disrupted the event, which follows the British National Party winning its first two seats in the European Parliament.

Chanting anti-Nazi slogans and holding placards they surrounded Mr Griffin as he was bundled into a car.

Mr Griffin was elected for the North West region – a result condemned by parties across the political spectrum.

Mr Griffin and Andrew Brons, who was elected in the Yorkshire and Humber region, staged a press conference on College Green, opposite the Houses of Parliament.

The BNP leader began the event by holding up copies of national newspapers and talking about what he said were media lies about him and his party.

BBC video here. Guardian video here

In a stunning speech, greeted with cries of “I Love You” from the students of Cairo University, President Obama called for…

A new beginning between the United States and Muslims

This is seen as a pivotal moment this side of the Atlantic, and of course throughout the Middle East and the broader Muslim world, and President Obama breaks with the theocon extremities of the Bush era, to appeal to the peace loving instincts of Islam.

The full text of the speech can be found here.

There’s plenty to digest, so consider this an open thread on the Cairo speech and foreign policy.  

 

Maybe it’s just me. Maybe it’s debilitating trickle down of the credit crunch, or just the sudden retraction of Spring here in the UK, but tonight I’m depressed. Or maybe it’s just this…

“I want to emphasize that these photos that were requested in this case are not particularly sensational, especially when compared to the images we remember from Abu Ghraib,” the president said on the South Lawn of the White House. “But they do represent conduct that didn’t conform with the Army manual.”

As in so many things (a Bill of Rights, Rock and Roll, IPods and Krispy Kremes), the UK lags behind the US in so many respects, but when it comes to the progressive blogosphere, we’ve screwed things up royally in the past few weeks.

In one of the biggest scandals to hit the Gordon Brown government, his senior strategy advisor Damian McBride (above) has had to resign (and there could be more resignations to come) all because of a badly-conceived plan to emulate the energy and activism of US blogs…

It’s no secret that the financial meltdown has hurt London and the UK economy more than most. Our banks have shrunk in value by more than 50 per cent. The City, once rivalling Wall Street, is haemorrhaging jobs and revenue. Our financial sector comprises a much larger part of economy, and as a result, the UK’s recession and indebtedness looks set to continue for longer than the US, and our prospects for recovery seem more remote.



But in the last few days, there does seem to be a genuine scent of warmier sunnier times – and that’s not just this spell of lovely spring weather. It also came from the vast conference centre in London’s docklands which was the base for the G20 summit of developed and emerging economies.

Forget the images of  vandalism from the demonstrations yesterday. I was in the West End last night, and the crowds coming back from the City were peaceful, young, good humoured, singing and laughing, as if they’d just returned from a pop festival. And that’s what most of yesterday was, a political carnival of popular discontent. They begged a question, and begged it loudly, but you’d have to look hard to find a practical answer to the problem.

The solutions were likely to come from further afield….

Even as I write, I can hear the deep throb of more navy helicopters overhead as Obama returns to the American Embassy residence on the edge of Regents Park a couple of miles away.  It’s far too early to get euphoric about the summit, or conclude that the plans will be enough, but listening to the mood music coming from the G20 summit there’s no doubt that the international outlook of President Obama and his new team brought positivity and freshened pace.