Less than 50 years since segregation…

… can Americans really vote in a black President? Of course the right person for the job should be elected, and both candidates are certainly a way forward. It is amazing to think that within the lifetimes of those that remember the situation of black Americans in the 60s, things can have changed enough for Obama to be really on the brink of the White House.

Woohoo! The Express gets screwed

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7303801.stm

Regardless of anyone’s opinion of the parents, 100+ headline stories in that shitrag that are defamatory is an impressive list. Regardless of how the first sentence of the story qualifies the headline (usually will be along the lines of “it is alleged”), the headlines themselves are just horrible, making the average prole think you’re guilty.

Their headline writers, while they are at it, probably ought to apologise to everyone else they have screwed in a similar fashion. That is practically every single front page headline they have ever done.

Does Nader want the Republicans to win?

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/02/24/nader.politics/index.html

Ralph Nader must know he doesn’t have a hope in hell of winning. Why draw potential Democrat voters away, much like in 2000? I suppose it says a lot about the people who do vote for him instead of the Democrats.

McCain must be laughing at his luck.

Democrat choice for 2008

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7230301.stm

While it’s a huge step forward for the Democrats to put forward a woman and a black candidate to run for President, is it wise to have both at the same time? One would hope that the Democrats have a great chance of getting the White House after eight years of Bush, and appealing to huge numbers of voters who are looking for real change (whatever that means), who may not have otherwise registered to vote or be swing voters.

It remains to be seen how galvanised is the conservative element though, who “don’t want a woman or a nigger running our country”, as one right wing website has on it’s front page? The only thing worse than another Republican President would be a Republican who beats either Obama or Clinton on the basis that Americans don’t want either an afro-caribbean or a woman as President.

Democracy in Pakistan?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7253280.stm

In a third world country were the concept of democracy isn’t really something that has affected many of the population, despite it’s intermittent presence since the country came into being, the elections today pose a number of interesting questions.

What is better for the nation: a democratically elected president that is likely to be as corrupt as he has allegedly been in the past, or a former military dictator who has actually effected some positive change to the country, but has jailed opposition party members and high court judges who oppose him, along with shutting down the free press and ISPs?

I guess we’ll find out.

Patsy’s Gone!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6246680.stm

She’s not left the building yet, but she’s already packing her bags!

It doesn’t seem clear yet whether she jumped, was pushed, or jumped before she was pushed. I hope she was fired like Beckett was (I am not surprised Beckett was going to be replaced, but sacked? Surely a little harsh? She didn’t do a whole lot wrong, then again, she didn’t do very much at all…)

Anyway, time to party!

Is this woman serious?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6757325.stm

Clearly she is, as she remains the Secretary of State for Health.

It’s a fairly simple equation. Extend the opening hours, have 24 hour GP access, people will have a better standard of care when they get sick.

The current band of GPs opted out of their out “out of hours” commitments because it was just utterly miserable. It felt pretty good to go home at the end of the day and then not be called out in the evening or in the middle of the night, and then work the next day. Do you want to be treated by a GP who has been up all night (or a surgeon or physician for that matter)? They were given the option so they took it. They also took a pay cut, as they have less commitment.

So now Ms Hewitt thinks the fact that there is an inadequate out of hours service is entirely the fault of lazy GPs who don’t want to work, and this plays well with the public, and neatly deflects attention from herself. Witness the hostile (at best) reaction on the BBC “Have Your Say” section when the inquiry into the death of that poor woman due to an inadequate GP out of hours service came through a few weeks ago.

But surely if you want a better service, you’d want more doctors providing the cover? Huh? Huh? Increasing the capacity of the NHS is a long term goal, and one that would outlive the lifetime of the party that instituted such change. That’s why it isn’t going to happen. Shoehorn in targets that will hopefully impress the electorate and keep yourselves in power. Some may benefit in the short term, but the long term outcome isn’t really considered as it isn’t a priority.

The same goes for junior doctors providing night time cover in hospitals. The DoH’s “Hospital at Night” scheme is possibly the most brain dead, moronic idea that has been defecated onto the unsuspecting public that have the misfortune to be sick enough to be in hospital. “Let’s have a small group of doctors covering every speciality, even ones that they have not been trained in, instead of one specialist doctor per speciality, so that we need less of them overall”. Wile E. Coyote. Genius.

Roll on PM Gordon Brown, as I am sure even he knows that Patsy is a liability.

Going live in 5… 4… 3… 2… 1… and ……

Liftoff! Or something.

Crikey. Work to do.