Tim Blair

" Place your bets, readers; LA, New York, Boston, or another tranquil Democrat stronghold?"

"The lucky four, who will be notified today, will have the chance to spend election night in Washington, DC." - G2, page 5

Consider this (longshot) scenario - Clark Co goes for Bush because of the Grauniad, swinging Ohio, which then gives Bush the election.

If that were to happen, Ringleader Tim would in fact be responsible, with the Grauniad his unknowing dupes, thus scoring the coup of .... well ... all time.

the ringleader of whom is fittingly published on a site called "spleenville" - and much of it was eye-wateringly unpleasant.

WOW! Tim is now officially a "SuperBlogger" (an analogy to supermodel).

British rag starts an email campaign targeting US voters, and is duly and righteously bitch-slapped by an email onslaught coordinated by an Australian blogger. Is the internet cool, or what?

Tim,

So you and your coalition of readers unilaterally launched a pre-emptive attack, designed not just to play defence, but more importantly to fight back hard and stamp out the scourge completely? And the Gardian disapproves?

Not very original :)

The Guardian is now in frantic retreat:

Its now known as le Guardian.

Never mind spamming their email. I want *home addresses* for Katz, Freedland, Fraser (or Mrs. Pinter), Le Carre and the rest of them so we can write to them directly. Any intrepid reporters out there who know how to track these down?

Goose, meet gander. Hope you like the sauce.

Tim, if any of your readers want to find an appropriate Democratic strongold, here's a tip:

Look for the places that have the highest crime-rates.

For some reason the more crime-ridden a place is, the more likely they are to vote Democrat. Places like south Bronx or Bed-Stuy in NYC, or north Philadelphia, or the east-side of Detroit, or Compton/Watts in LA, all turn out nearly 100% for the Democrats.

Me, I can't figure out why. Is it a kind of "battered wife syndrome". The victim votes for the party that cares more about the victimizer than the victim. Or is it just plain stupidity. After all, any grown person with half-a-brain would've figured out long ago how to escape from those hell-holes. (Simple way number one: Join the Army).

Tim, you slay me! I spit up the water I was drinking when I read your piece. Classic.

The Guardian is the worst paper in Britain, has been for years. Full of self-righteous lefty blather, and quite boring to boot.

Annalucia,

I agree with you. Lets publish their home addresses and sign them up for every mailing list (snail mail) we can find.

If they can't take it, they shouldn't dish it out.

You're my hero Tim.

Glen,
What about The Indepedant?

I'm with Annalucia and Jonny. And CHAPEAU to Tim. Their clumsiness, arrogance, and total lack of awareness and respect for the culture of the locality is astonishing.

In the mean time, check out this little stroll in the park taken Erik the Mad, a few brave french citizens, and me:

http://no-pasaran.blogspot.com/2004/10/operation-rooster-crow-infiltrating.html

More influential than that so-called superblogger, Glenn Reynolds.

Rob:

I can't really classify the Indepedant as a "newspaper" since the crayon fades in the post :)

You are right, though, it is quite awful. I used to like their sports page, but that's not enough.

"eye-wateringly unpleasant"

Tim, you done us proud!! I was so choked when I read that.

I'm an Australian-Canadian expat working in Vietnam, So I come here with a truly global vision. But I think you have just passed Matty Lloyd as my Oz Hero of the Year.

This becomes even more impressive if you know that young Matthew has won the award 6 years running.

A triumph!

This must be The Year of the Blog. Poor Olden Days media.

I almost feel...naaah!

Please post the Guardian staff e-mail addresses again. Let's give them another round! Kick'em when they're down, I say!

This can only mean one thing: the Guardian is the victim of another Karl Rove set-up. First he humiliated Dan Rather with fake National Guard memos, now he's brought low the Guardian (via Tim Blair), and shored up the Republican base in Ohio. I bet if you look closely, those purported Antonia Fraser and John le Carre letters are on White House stationery. I mean, such cartoonish anti-Americanism can't come from the real British intelligentsia, right?

It must be our evil American mind-control ray...

Samizdata has this letter (via damian penny ) which we could change slightly and send to the Guardian staff.

Now, exactly who is the tone-deaf, culturally insensitive, clueless bufffoon?

1. Your average American.

OR

2. Your average Guardianista.

I want to thank you Tim for adding to the weirdness and hilarity that we're going through this year in the US!! To think that a paper would actually be stupid enough to pull a stunt like this is incredible.

I have had a great laugh reading some of the 'heartfelt' letters to the poor folks in Clark County!! I can't imagine what I'd think if I got a letter from someone in Uruguay urging me to vote for Kerry!! Uruguay?!?

What I want to know is:

Did the people at The Guardian *really* think they could influence US voters to support Kerry

-or-

did they just want the publicity they should have known would come with this sort of stunt?

It would never occur to me that I could persuade people in the next town who to vote for as their mayor, let alone influence people in another country who to vote for as their president.

I am rather unimpressed that Groniad hacks are whingeing about the email bomb they got.

"...individuals receiving letters from foreigners is enough to give politicians the collywobbles"

I'd settle for giving Katz and his associates at the Grauniad a nice case of the inflamed, purulent, weeping collywobbles. There's a little restaurant in Tijuana that might do the trick, if we can lure the Grauniad staff over here.

The patronizing creep still doesn't get it. I can't say I approve of some of the more rude letters the Guardian received, since they only serve to reinforce their own bigotted stereotypes of Americans as dumb rubes. However, I'm not inclined to feel too terrible about it, considering their commentary pages have been filled with hateful rants and sweeping, ignorant generalizations about the US and Americans for years now, minus the "colorful metaphors." What comes around goes around, Buster. Learn to deal or give up the racket.

idea dreamed up last month in a north London pub

Congratulations, Tim, on your takeover of the WORLD!

(When do we get our cut? :-D)

I hate to say it, but the British have underestimated us again.

And it's very sweet.

Elizabeth
Imperial Keeper
In Mourning for Magic, 1996-October 21, 2004

I get a kick when I think of the time that was wasted by the likes of le Carre and Fraser, penning these useless letters. It's even funnier to think of some Grauniad reader thinking this was some grand mission.. "ahh.. the chance to enlighten some slack-jawed yokel"...

One of the things we like the least is arrogance, which is why I don't think sKerry will get elected. He's not a commoner, no matter how hard he tries to paint himself as such.

Four more years!!

If it was possible to get hold of the Guardian's subscription list then right thinking people could email its readers about the wide variety of alternative newspapers available in the UK.

I tried to explain to a couple of Guardian worthies that calling a foreign policy "Tony Martin" style is mystifying to Americans. Clearly, something negative is meant, but beyond that, it's all a blur.
The Brits don't understand that in America Tony Martin wouldn't be charged with a crime. He wouldn't be charged for drinks, either.
Whether (I said) this is considered appalling or merely an economical way to keep our home invasion rates at a fraction of the UK's is beside the point. If you're going to write to Americans, it helps to do a little homework, before stepping on necktie.

Elizabeth, don't you mean *misunderestimate* us again? Yes, it is sweet.

What an awsome counter-offensive Tim! Congratulations. I will say one thing for the Guardianazi's though, they know when they've got themselves in a quagmire.

P.S. Is it OK to shoot them in the back while they're running away?

Sorta, kinda on thread (it's about Ohio).....

Kerry chases geese, new image in Ohio

So, the question is.....

Is Senator Kerry on a wild goose chase?

Personally, I think the Guardian ought to do it again! And again, picking out various counties as they go! How bout some counties in Florida!? I bet there are some Cubans there who might like to write back to the Brits. LOL!

Americans fought the Revolutionary War so would not have to listen to those jerks in the UK.

If there is one thing that the British do not lack, it is hypocracy.

Too bad "Le Monde" didn't organize this kerfluffle, I would have really enjoyed the emails that outraged Ohioans would have sent in that case.

All hail the great ringleader!

Thanks, Tim, for the best laugh I've had all day. Your sense of humor is rapier sharp.

It's not as if I didn't consider the possibility that the ACME Heat-Seeking Missile might start chasing me instead of the Roadrunner.

As a recovering Anglophile, all the tattered jokes about the Sceptred Isle are beginning to make sense to me. With a Scot Canadian background, contempt for these people was dinner table talk at my home fifty years ago. I resisted, but began to break a little in Vietnam. Jobless, greasy-faced Redbrick poofs in Beau Brummel costumes spitting on the American flag wore me down a little.

I still liked the Guardian in the 70's, and travelled in the UK until it was no longer U, and the G in GB became just B, and later, England. but now I know Malcolm Muggeridge was right about so many things, particularly the decayed and shabby pretensions of the inhabitants of that dirty little pile of coal and chalk washing into the North Atlantic. I like their troops a lot, but nothing else.

When will the "blame America" crowd apologize for the crappy world they have create.

"Fox viewing America" LOL. See, we still don't get it. If only we knew the "truth" like they do.

Barf.

Polly: No, not really. They underestimated our sense of outrage. They have underestimated our pride of independence, and our reluctance to tell others how to live.

At least that's me. I could care less who the English elect, if that's what they want. It's their right. But extend to me the same courtesy, and don't condescend to "graciously" inform me of who to vote for. It tends to set my back up.

Elizabeth
Imperial Keeper
In Mourning for Magic, 1996-October 21, 2004

Any nation responsible for the triple calamities of the Austin Marina, Lucas Ltd and Glenda Jackson should never be taken seriously again.

Bloody whinging Pom's.

al-Guardian puts the whinge in whinging pom.

Does this mean the Guardian endorses the annexation of England as the 51st state. Then they can quit sniveling about not being able to vote with the adults in world affairs.

Rhod, your comment about England puts me in mind of somebody who commented on what it must be like for an historian watching the transformation of the Romans into the Italians.

...the ringleader of whom is fittingly published on a site called "spleenville"...

Tim, I wonder if al-Gardhiyan realizes you are an Aussie rather than another one of us benighted Fox-watching Americans.

The whole thing is hilarious. Now that its pretty obvious it won't have the intended effect, the Grauniad is getting all huffy and defensive, "Hey, I was just joking around, okay?"

Richard Aubrey:

I wish I'd said that. Before long, I probably will. Thanks over and over again.

"much of it was eye-wateringly unpleasant".....we can but hope.
SMH next anyone?

My dream ticket -

Tim Blair / Cthulhu

Genius and Ultimate Evil on the same ballot.

Mmmmmmmm.

Let's see. Stupid leftie rag with a tiny circulation tries to spread it's arrogance to the 'unenlightened' of the US midwest, and suddenly it's open season on all of us living off the top end of France? Let's invoke 1776 (and, shhh!! nobody mention the decisive Froggy contribution), shall we? Or accuse a whole country of hypocrisy (that's how it's spelt, Jonny, not 'hypocracy') just because we too have our liberal idiots liberated by the web to spread their ideological manure worldwide.

Jeez, I know the damned chip-paper lives & (sorta) breathes here, but there's not a whole lot us local righties can do about that aside from not shelling out our hard-earned shekels to prop up the thing's failing fortunes, and mocking it's target audience at every opportunity. No true Guardianista would thank you for labelling them 'British' or (much, much worse) 'English' in any event, since lefty Brit demands 'European' or 'World citizen' as a mark of his/her/it's non-attachment to [sinister music] nationalism (nasty) or history (shameful). Left-wingery is the worldwide church of the self-righteous, after all.

BTW, the friend in the Catherine Seipp article, seems either wilfully ignorant or pretty stupid. Most of us Anglos don't have "something of an inferiority complex when it comes to America" (though her use of the tell-tale phrase "upstart bunch of colonials" to descibe a nation with five times our population suggests she'd like us to have),just because it's currently your turn to be world top-dog, anymore than the Italian descendants of the Roman Empire resented us when the globe was coloured a fetching shade of red: nothing lasts forever. Good luck to you, thanks for taking up the responsibility, and please be gracious when it's your turn to hand over to Switzerland, Mexico, Heligoland or whoever gets the next turn on the merry-go-round once you're done.

Apologies for the rant, but you'd feel much the same under the circumstances, what with being subjected to cod-psychology, national character assasination, AND lumped in with the weirdy-beardies and all....ugh!!

Anyway, kudos to all the fine folk in Clark county, and to you Tim. The re-education squads are probably already on their way, though.....

Rhod: it's generally known that Scots-Canadians come genetically equipped with two chips on each shoulder and one on their arse. Thanks for resisting your inheritance for so long, and I'm glad you like our troops.

So, America is now 3 for 4.

Saratoga

Yorktown

The Beatles, oops

Operation Clark County

al-gaurdian is not exactly a low-circulation newspaper and neither is the independant. The BBC is not a media outlet with a tiny circulation either. Jack Straw is not a fringe politician.

All of the above are united by one thing. They can't open their 'mouths' without blaming something on the jews.

I cant believe it - the Guardian is in full retreat! How much do they pay those peanuts to come up with junk like this and they cannot even take an email bomb or two?

Talk about cut and run!

I tend to agree with Paul, above. Rove must have a mole at the Gaurdian.

There are another half-dozen close states remaining that they could pull this stunt in, now that they've given Ohio to W.
Please write to my fellow citizens of Minnesota next, were so close.

What a perfect example of how living with the 'everyone is stupid but me' attitude, allows one to become intellectually vapid themself.

Here is a treat - for the elites, the world over.
Yes, your so right, all 300,000,000 Americans are stupid and you are smart.

mmmm.....now, wasn't that good?

I know how you like it.

Now, back to my whittlin'

WEll timmy boyo, jealosy is a wonderful thing!
How many are now reading your website instead of wasting their shillings and pence on the ridicilised GroinGroan ??
And plagiarism ? well we know what that is too ?
But beware of, in a spate of enthuisiastic flurry, revealing to the enemy, important "Creative" thoughts that have perculated through your grey cells , like the beginnings of a cafe latte!
This comes from one wo was guilty of educating Rita or rather the malinfluential margo kingston in the use of reversed out type.

Nice, I learned a new word today: "whinging".

Tim - you can access the UK electoral roll via the link below. Perhaps it might be of use for Operation Guardian Mk II.

http://www.tracesmart.co.uk/

Dreamed up in a pub in North London eh? Is it the same pub where King George decided to launch his Stamp Act and Tea Act taxes on the colonies?

Those really turned out well didn't they?

So Tim, Le Guardienne names you a "ringleader" in this circus do they? How many times do you need to poke 'em in the eye before you're a "kingpin"?

Fox has been frothing. Rush Limbaugh has been raving.

Ian Katz watches Fox and listens to Rush? Huh.

What in the hell are collywobbles, are they akin to heeby-jeebys or more like willies?

Jonny,
The Guardian has a circulation of 400,000 in a country with 60 million people. You do the math.

Vulturedave:

No one knows better than I do. Why do you think there's a stupid "H" in Rhoderick? Affectation, of course. I can't stand any of them, which is to say not only the Scots Candadians, who STILL rant about The Clearances, but any of them above the border. Mark Steyn said it all. Canada is Puerto Rico with pine trees.

But you were nevertheless gentle with me and gracious in the old "British" way to an upstart colonial. I like and admire many things about the English. BTW, Hadrianizing the three tribal whingers on the land borders was a good thing, especially Scotland. Beat it, Angus. Take off the dress, shave and shut up.

Maybe the SAS could do something about the Guardian, and how come they dropped the "Manchester"? Some class thing?

The Guardian also prints a weekly rag in Australia which is a summary of their most rabid anti-american bs.

Emmily,

al-guardian is ranked as the 608th most visited site on the internet - http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?q=&url=guardian.co.uk

There are over one billion internet sites - you do the math.

Jonny: who gives a shit?

Besides you, that is.

Vulturedave,

You said, "Please be gracious when it's your turn to hand over to Switzerland, Mexico, Heligoland, or whoever gets the next turn on the merry-go-round once you're done."

Well, if it's a country that does what America does except even better, and understands the true meaning of "independence" (which judging from comments a lot of blogs I've read over the past week leaves out most of the world)--you betcha. I'll hand over with a smile :-)

But if it's a communist state, an Islamofascist state, or a socialist nanny-state that does nothing but whinge and criticize and blame--nope. I'm going out fighting.

suellen

al-guardian is ranked as the 608th most visited site on the internet -

Well that's not surprising after tim blair's decullotage of the fascist left rag. But as they say any publicity is good publicity.
Still, the financial flouderers they can always move back to manchester, closer to the centre of their universe

Aww. We made their eyes water. Poor, fluttery old dears.

This is almost as good for laughs as that Rathergate debacle.

le Carre' has a website with a guestbook in which to leave your comments. There is also a contact page with many email addresses listed for him.

http://www.johnlecarre.com/

Hmmmm... looks like Lady Antonio Fraser's son-in-law (Peter Soros, married to Flora Fraser) is the son of George Soros. Just a thought...

We in Oz say "whingeing" (I think it must have an 'e' or how else are you going to get a soft 'g'? huh?) but I have come to appreciate "whining" because (any maybe this is only in my own mind) it has different connotations. "Whingeing" is peevish complaint but "whining" is pathetically manipulative.

And "collywobbles" I think are "heebyjeebies" but in a maiden-auntish flap doodle manner.

Anyone?

Vulturedave, I don't think it wasn't Cathy Seipp who said that. I believe she was quoting a woman who's lived in England since childhood.

Anyway, love the Guardian reaction. Couldn't be more hilarious. "We knew that was going to happen. We planned for it to happen. We were only joking anyway, geez." What are they, fourteen?

"By the beginning of this week, a quixotic idea dreamed up last month in a north London pub"

Oh those windmills blowing in the windswept hills of Mill. how fitting they should inspire the pen of Mr Katz. perhaps he might have used BALGO Hills and given Tim a little TLC. But no!

'Fox-viewing America was never going to embrace our modest sortie into US politics '

Well Rupert you are now truly an American, worthy of all the frenchoids and Groangroin wroters can fling at you. What do they serve in those millhill pubs?

'called "spleenville" - and much of it was eye-wateringly unpleasant'
Obviously a visit to the local balti house in mill hill after the creative pub session.
What else would make a leftoid journo's eyes water? Steaming unpleaseant curries?

Just in case you wanted to know, this entire thing is backfiring like crazy here in the Buckeye state. Even the mod-Dems are pissed off around here. Much of the Democratic support in this part of the state is union-based - the same kind of people who voted for Reagan because of how he handled the USSR. Having some foreigner patronize them doesn't exactly sit well.

Off topic.

Another one bites the dust. al-Ghoul is dead. Just before Halloween too... damned Israelis.

love the twice repeated link on the SMH praise to john le square page.
-Convalescing Clinton joins the fray !
perhaps hoping for a double dose of the Clinton cavalry!

The SMH are obviously Jealous of the Guardian and the fact that they failed to pilfer Tim's ideas.
Surprising perhaps blog secret police investigator Margo was on Holiday ?

Arty
thought you were refering to a stephen king movie there !
Good riddance. may 72 virgins reduce him to a heap of non performing jelly!
well done IDF boys.

arty
great story on same website about terrorist fighting MUM!
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,136220,00.html

"THE GREATEST BULLY ON EARTH"

F*CK YEAH!! WE'RE THE GREATEST!! Hang on to your f*cking lunch money, you warmed-over Marxist dorks!

If anyone entertains any ideas that under George Bush terrorism has increased or will worsen tou better save this link and read at leisure and mail it to all you know and decide if you want more years of Democrat' security'
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/printer-friendly.asp?ARTICLE_ID=40990

If anyone entertains any ideas, that under George Bush terrorism has increased or will worsen you had better save this link and read at leisure and then mail it to all you know. YOU decide if you want more years of Democrat' security'
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/printer-friendly.asp?ARTICLE_ID=40990

There's still time to do it again, fellas...

And "collywobbles" I think are "heebyjeebies" but in a maiden-auntish flap doodle manner.

Well, that clears that up, thanks Janice.

The definition for collywobbles.

So first the Guardian insults Clark County's intelligence by sending them letters from Guardian readers, then it insults their civic pride by dissing their hometown.

Screw it. Send the "winners" to Compton.

Joe Bagadonuts --Cthulhu's not that smart...

To quote a great man 'they don't like it up 'em'.

Thank you Tim.

An Australian ally, indeed!

After more than 3 weeks of pure and sincere addiction to your website, there is so much I want to say.
Let me focus on this 'OPERATION CLARK COUNTY'.

Mr. Tim Blair, you are a writer and a reporter, and have been working for many famous magazines and newspapers, right ? What / Who gave you the salary at the end of the month ?
The happiness of your readers ? The subscription from your readers ? The advertisement fees collected ? Other suggestions ?

I bet it is the third option (if the second option is good). Now, look at your actual position. You manage a website, the purest and cheapest form of expression right now. You say it's for fun. Cool, I love it. And you hit anywhere you can. All right, I love it too.

Please keep in mind that newspapers and magazines are running business and are made of people who work for their living. Obviously, you don't. You are not running a business and are not working for your living, are you ?

Before you criticize and try to murder me, let me finish.

The keypoint is: It is INSANE for a newspaper or a magazine to write articles encouraging going to war, fighting and/or dying for your country, religion or any other ideology. It is called patriotism and propaganda. And nobody wants to buy or to read it, because it can be about your son/daughter, your brother/sister, your father/mother, your friend, yourself.

By the way, here is a good definition of patriotism: "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel". "El patriotismo es el último refugio del canalla" - Dr. Samuel Johnson. More details here: http://www.thenausea.com/patriots.html

If nobody buys, then no advertisement fees collected, then it's bankrupt. Not good, right ?

From far away, this 'OPERATION CLARK COUNTY' looks to be a joke, but how many copies does The Guardian sell in the USA ? in the UK ? What / Who is their target?
I don't know and I don't care, but it shows The Guardian knows its readers, and does things, silly things to keep them. Any publicity is publicity.

It's marketing, and no more any form of journalism. It's selling, and no more reporting.
We are supposed to have some education, some knowledge and distinguish between these 2 extremes.
However, when ALL the medias follow the same path, you included, tell me what is left ?

Regards.

Sorry for my poor English. And now, I am running for my life... LOL

richard mcenroe

Screw it. Send the "winners" to Compton.

Although most of my neighbors were Samoans, as I recall.

The keypoint is: It is INSANE for a newspaper or a magazine to write articles encouraging going to war, fighting and/or dying for your country, religion or any other ideology. It is called patriotism and propaganda. And nobody wants to buy or to read it, because it can be about your son/daughter, your brother/sister, your father/mother, your friend, yourself.

Yeah, the Wall Street Journal, National Review etc. have practically seen their circulation drop to zero, I tells ya! Not to mention Fox News, which nobody watches anymore!

Well, I guess you were only talking about the European media landscape.

Please keep in mind that newspapers and magazines are running business and are made of people who work for their living. Obviously, you don't. You are not running a business and are not working for your living, are you ?

What gave you that idea? Freelance journalism doesn't count as "working" these days? Not that Tim really needs to anymore, I guess, what with those blogads bringing in gazillions of revenue...so in effect, I suppose this blog is his "business" now. Thanks for your patronage!

The photo of Terry Brown is a classic. He looks like one of the Cape buffaloes Kim du Toit posted a few months ago, by way of explanation of the line between valor and foolhardiness (the estimable Mr. du Toit does not hunt the Cape buffalo.)

Nor should Euroweenies, of either the British or Continental persuasions, bait Americans.

Chris,
"Did the people at The Guardian *really* think .."
No, they don't think. Period

JeffS -- Thanks for clearing that up. I fully expected to see the definition of "collywobbles" here.

Oliver is totally right about the following. In the short term, Stupid Newspaper Tricks gin up business, and in the long term, Republican presidents are good for the Guardian's circulation. Tim's often commented on the personal windfall conservative commenters get during liberal (in the American sense) governments.

So, the Guardian has readers write letters to America. Basically, LeCarre and Guardian readers get to fap in print, while anyone with shit for brains over at The G knows that it is counterproductive to their American Election cause. Crass? Absolutely. So what? I personally like the Sun's Page Three approach to reader outreach, but the Guardian does know who it's selling to. And then - with the inevitable shitstorm that follows, they act persecuted and contrite, for which they are rewarded by more loyal readership. It's fucking brilliant.

Real JeffS -- Ah HA! I knew it! The collywobbles are really the symptoms of the Aztec two-step.

Kevin Dunn —

jonathan.freedland@guardian.co.uk,clare.dyer@guardian.co.uk,polly.toynbee@guardian.co.uk,dan.glaister@guardian.co.uk,ian.katz@guardian.co.uk,isabel.hilton@guardian.co.uk,james.fenton@guardian.co.uk,stephen.brook@guardian.co.uk,simon.tisdall@guardian.co.uk,mail@monbiot.com,jackie.ashley@guardian.co.uk,malcolm.dean@guardian.co.uk,steve.bell@guardian.co.uk,eric.allison@guardian.co.uk,matt.wells@guardian.co.uk,dan.milmo@guardian.co.uk,richard.norton-taylor@guardian.co.uk,alan.travis@guardian.co.uk,conal.urquhart@guardian.co.uk,mberlins@aol.com,mike.hough@guardian.co.uk,audrey.gillan@guardian.co.uk,ewen.macaskill@guardian.co.uk,lee.glendinning@guardian.co.uk,jason.burke@observer.co.uk,michael.billington@guardian.co.uk,david.brindle@guardian.co.uk,lyn.gardner@guardian.co.uk,adrian.searle@guardian.co.uk,owen.gibson@guardian.co.uk,jonathan.jones@guardian.co.uk,claire.cozens@guardian.co.uk,judith.mackrell@guardian.co.uk,jason.deans@guardian.co.uk,dominic.timms@guardian.co.uk,jonathan.glancey@guardian.co.uk,john.fordham@guardian.co.uk,andrew.clements@guardian.co.uk,tim.ashley@guardian.co.uk,nancy.banks-smith@guardian.co.uk,editor@guardianunlimited.co.uk,books.editor@guardianunlimited.co.uk,politics.editor@guardianunlimited.co.uk,editor@mediaguardian.co.uk,football.editor@guardianunlimited.co.uk,film.editor@guardianunlimited.co.uk,jobs.editor@guardianunlimited.co.uk,work.editor@guardianunlimited.co.uk,education.editor@guardianunlimited.co.uk,money.editor@guardianunlimited.co.uk,shopping.editor@guardianunlimited.co.uk,travel.editor@guardianunlimited.co.uk,arts.editor@guardianunlimited.co.uk,editor@societyguardian.co.uk

Tim,
Since coming here I no longer read leftish bullshit and groan at the bias or stupidity and don't act on it.I write and vent my personal spleenism.Local newspapers ,journalists etc etc.Exporting spleenville,yes please.

"Fox-viewing America was never going to embrace our modest sortie into US politics"

Oh, groan.

Have any of you ever gotten into an argument with a leftie and NOT had them say something about you watching Fox News? As soon as they say it, I mime drinking a shot. Then I explain to them it's my new drinking game.

Clark County Backlash.
Hmmmm, there's a country song there.

On 22, Oct 2004 `Jonny' blathered;
Quote:

Emmily,

al-guardian is ranked as the 608th most visited site on the internet - http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?q=&url=guardian.co.uk

There are over one billion internet sites - you do the math.

End of quote:

While I'd probably first reply in the same vein as Emmily it would just be redundantly redundant. (As in brought to you by the Department of Redundancy Department.) The most likely actual `reason?' for "al-guardian's" ranking is that there are probably quite a few people out on the World Wide Wait who find it to be an outstanding example of unintentional humor and drop by to see just how many feet, and how far, they can orally insert each day. (Which can be considered to be an amazing feat in as much as the people at "al-guardian" seem to always have their heads so far up their bums that they are looking out their navels and think that they are watching the latest `reality? show' of the month.)

---
Doleo ergo sum,
Fred

Old Adage:
"If someONE calls you a jackass you ignore him. If six people
call you a jackass it is time to look for a saddle."

From Update IV: "Somewhere along the line, though, the good-humoured spirit of the enterprise got lost in translation,"

They should have typed slower, because I have problems reading. Boo-hoo!

A gentle administrative note from the Management:

If one more fucking idiot puts up one more fucking non-breaking fifty-thousand character long line of text (email addresses, urls, whatever-the-fucking-fuck) in the comments on this or any other site I run I swear that I will delete the comment, ban the IP of the offending person, and then hunt said offender down like a dog and personally rip out their own personal liver with my own personal bare hands.

So please try to be careful with the formatting.

This is the cream on the jam on the butter on the bread. Froim ABC and Biffer, to Rathergate, now, BlackGuards Ate Their Own Dirt Affair. At this rate, olden leftoid medja will be a footnote in the history books by sometime next year, early next year.

There are over one billion internet sites

No there aren't.

you do the math.

You first, Jonny.

This was my favorite part of the Telegraph story (emphasis mine):

"One senior local politician, speaking off the record to avoid offending his neighbours, said: 'They picked the wrong county for many reasons. One is, we're very parochial. When people talk about The Guardian of London, they think you mean London, Ohio, which is in the next-door county. Another is, we have some issues with literacy round here.'"

Do they really want us to believe anybody would be stupid enough to say this AFTER the stupid thing has already backfired? Rove plant! Rove plant!

The argument that this is good publicity for The Guardian would seem to assume that Guardian readers and lefties in general think well of a paper that pulls an idiotic stunt that is likely to be counterproductive to the purposes for which they began it, in this case getting Americans to vote against Bush and having an input into the US election despite being foreigners and not being able to vote in that election. Well they are leftists. Perhaps they think, to paraphrase how Jeff MacNelly put it in one of his cartoons, that if Zionism has been declared to be a form of racism then stupidity should be declared to be a form of intellect.

As for patriotism being the last refuge of scoundrels, that bon mot was seriously overused by about 1800, at the latest. In particular, the great evils of the twentieth century were defeated only because of the patriotism of the people of Britain, the USA, and their supporteing allies. It was their patriotism that defeated militarisms gone mad, the vicious and evil Nazis, and the near equally evil Communists. It will be their patriotism that will defeat the evils of the twenty-first century, some already visible to the eye, or they will not be defeated. If they are not defeated, you can kiss your civilization goodbye Oliver. T. R. Fehrenbach made a good point in his history of the Korean War, "This Kind of War". He wrote that if it had not been for its tough spearmen Greek civilization would have had nothing to give the world. It would not have lasted long enough. Go watch one of those satanic snuff videos the jihadis like to produce before you try to assert that the stakes are not that high now.

Andrea — Apologies. In my defense, I acquired it from an earlier thread here.

Apparently, Elvis Costello did not get the Guardian memo.

I just saw him on a late night American talk show ("Jimmy Kimmel Live") flogging an appearance at LA's Viper Room for a benefit show called "Come Back Ohio", "Come Home Ohio", or some such.

L.A. hipsters are attempting to persuade Ohioans to vote for Kerry by consuming drugs, watered down, overpriced drinks, and listening to old punk rock in a room where they're not even allowed to smoke cigarettes.

It just might work if Ohioans are impressed by that sort of stuff.

Forget collywobbles. "Chucklefest" is a great word. Worth the price of admission.

David Crawford opines:
"For some reason the more crime-ridden a place is, the more likely they are to vote Democrat."
----------
Yeah, like Washington, DC. The Republicans are there in force and it a very crime-ridden place.

Places like south Bronx or Bed-Stuy in NYC, or north Philadelphia, or the east-side of Detroit, or Compton/Watts in LA, all turn out nearly 100% for the Democrats.
-----------
Ever wonder why that is, you bigot? Think about what drives someone who has grown up without hope and lives without in a land of plenty would vote for someone. The someone they vote for holds out hope. People need more than hope to survive, though - they require real tools, like a good education to help them climb out of poverty. What has George Bush done for education lately - and please don't bother me with No Child Left Behind, the dembest education program to come along since I've been alive (and underfunded too - more Bush hypocrisy).

Me, I can't figure out why. Is it a kind of "battered wife syndrome". The victim votes for the party that cares more about the victimizer than the victim. Or is it just plain stupidity. After all, any grown person with half-a-brain wuld've figured out long ago how to escape from those hell-holes. (Simple way number one: Join the Army)
---------
That's right, coward neocons have always preferred to have what they consider to be the rabble of society fighting their lusty battles for them. It's more fun that way; hell, they can eat creampuffs while watching the body count on Fox.

Tell you what, how about you get your ass enlisted tomorrow for a tour of Iraq? Let's have you spend about a month there directing traffic in Baghdad (one of the easy jobs) with a bullseye on your back and see what you have to say then.

Next, put yourself in a time machine and be born poor, other-than-white-skinned, fatherless, in Bed-Stuy. Let's have you go to school in the winter in a room that's so cold you can't take your mittens off to write.

Get real Crawford! and get off your neocon horse by living yourideals - enlist in Iraq, the Army needs you.

So, if I understand well, there are 2 groups of thinking.

Everyone -sane- agrees that democracy is the best known form of society, and that murderers should be defeated.

The division is on how to achieve this goal. Right ?

Let me summarize.

On one hand, some think we have to tame the bad and evil men and women, and to use force to teach them the right way.
In case of we can not tame them, then we will all die and kiss our civilization goodbye. (Copyright Michael Lonie.)
The recent examples are having defeated the Nazis in Europe (true), the Communists in Vietnam (true) and Korea (true).
The common insults are: "You are a criminal, a Bushist, a killer, a republican, a ... and so on."

On the other hand, some think we have to let these countries and people grow up and mature by themselves.
It's a long term effort, slow, terribly slow and who knows? Is it really happening nowadays ?
The most recent (not very recent, right ?) examples are the creation of our own democracies in America (true) and Europe (true).
The common insults are: "You are a leftist, a stupid, a communist, a dwarf, a ... and so on."

Erm, how about to play 'paper, scissors, stone' to choose a common approach to help ourselves and other countries to grow up ?

Why 'paper, scissors, stone' ?
Because it will be more effective than a democratic vote that names a winner with 50.1 % of the votes ? -Whoever he is-

Charlemagne

they require real tools, like a good education to help them climb out of poverty. What has George Bush done for education lately - and please don't bother me with No Child Left Behind, the dembest education program to come along since I've been alive (and underfunded too - more Bush hypocrisy).

No Child Left Behind, is dumb, I agree. The federal govt. should not be funding education in the U.S. in any capacity.

Education in a true republic is the responsibility of the countys and maybe the states.

The poorest performing schools in the U.S. are typically the ones who receive the most funding.

It's not the teachers fault and not even the evil George Bush's fault. Its the fault of the parents or parent of the student, if that kid is unprepared.

BTW...most enlistees are Republicans, based on who they support for president this year (Bush 75% to Kerrys 25%) and that is saying something given their inherent youth.

Notice I did not call you any names, bigot/racist etc...

Welching Guardian Poms...

bottom of
UK Telegraph Story

The end of the scheme comes as a relief to Linda Rosicka, the director
of the Clark County board of elections, who has been fielding dozens
of interview requests from the world's media.

Yet there is one last Guardian letter Mrs Rosicka would still like to
see - one containing a cheque for $25 (about £13), which the newspaper
still owes her for its purchase of the county's electoral roll.

"I was nice and made the file available, because their reporter said
he was right on deadline," she said. "They said the cheque is in the
mail. As of this morning, it still hasn't arrived, and it's been more
than a week."

I continue,

Why 'paper, scissors, stone' ?
Because it will be more effective than a democratic vote that names a winner with 50.1 % of the votes ? -Whoever he is-

Who can honestly believe in the future of our actual democracies, which change the cap every 4, 5, 6 or 7 years ? One time, right, one time, left, one time democrat, one time, republican...
Who is willing to fight for democracy which, sure, gives freedom of speech to everyone and lots of other advantages, but is completely stuck and slowed by continuous internal fights ?

Not to mention the idiot and useless abuses of the freedom of speech... Lies during elections campaigns, Tim Blair's blog (this is not freelance journalism) and This comment.
Not to mention we (people) are consulted only during the few weeks before each election, and then totally ignored until the next one. Who cares about demonstrations any more ?
Not to mention every political party considers its point of view to be the only one that matters (see the insults everywhere on this website), and considers the opposition as an enemy to be destroyed, and not to work with.

So, after every single country is a democracy, we all sit down together and have a beer ? Sounds peacenik, no ?

Please stop me and tell me where I turn bad.

Oooh! Charlemagne is back!

Stupidity awaits us!

There are over one billion internet sites

Yeh, and 999,999,000 of those have 10 visitors a year

Hi Thomas,

David Crawford deserved the characterizations I gave him - as he was making applied assertions that were both untrue, and leaning toward slamming certain people who are poor, especially those in poor black and latino communities.

As for your argument that parents are ressponsible for their children's education - I agree. Might I suggest that you visit a school in the South Bronx one day (be sure to take a bodyguard or two, something the kids who go to those schools don't have).

The point I'm trying to make is that schools in many of our poorest communities are broken, so no matter what a patent's goos intentions, there is simply no way for a child to get a quality education.

This is a national scandal. The answer to that scandal is more money AND better administration of schoools in those communities. Federal programs like NCLB just don't do the trick.

btw, Bush has expanded the role of the Feds in places like education way more than preceding Dems like Clinton did. He's trying to have it both ways.

Oliver

Not to mention we (people) are consulted only during the few weeks before each election, and then totally ignored until the next one.

I think a responsible citizen should be expected to pay attention, even when his ass isn't bieng kissed, as during election season.

In days of old, you and I would sit quietly as the political pimps like, Cronkite in the U.S. and Oz's equivalent told us what to think with not even this thin vein of relief.

btw, Bush has expanded the role of the Feds in places like education way more than preceding Dems like Clinton did.

I know, and its dreadful. COUNTY and STATES

Some conservatives call for vouchers, others for magnet and charter schools, some for tuition tax-credits. Take your pick, for a parent who needs to remove a child, that wants to learn, from a school that is in anarchy, any one of those options is preferable.

>The Guardian has a circulation of 400,000 in a country with 60 million people.

The only reason al-Guardian have that many is because they have job advertisements. I wonder how many actually *reads* that rag?

"Well that's not surprising after tim blair's decullotage of the fascist left rag."

I still can't work out what the typo was originally intended to be; but the first time I read this sentence, an unsolicited image lept into my mind of Tim in a scandalously low cut blouse with his voluptuous bosom thrust into the faces of The Guardian's editorial staff. LOL!

By the way, for all the people "doing the math", consider that The Guardian claims its website gets 10 million unique visitors per month. How many of them are British idiotarians I can't say, but there are no shortage of rabidly anti-American socialists on that lovely isle.

Is that a very young fellow there Oliver?
Democracies are slow, messy, inefficient, wasteful, inexact and exist tenuously in a fog of conflict between state and individual.
A very frustrating condition to budding fascists.
And here's a tip; don't let those who think they know best scare you.

This election continues to entertain, memogate, bergergate, and now the guardian who managed to condescend both to their readers, by creating letters to send as if none of them would be capable of creating a letter to express their feelings all by themselves, and then condescending to US citizens to think the collection of twits they got to pen a letter even had something intelligent or original to say, that might influence the election.

I laughed heartily at the response, and then more so at their attempt to wriggle out of it..

And tim, your campaign was a scream too. keep it up.

"For some reason the more crime-ridden a place is, the more likely they are to vote Democrat." ---------- [Charlemagne:] Yeah, like Washington, DC. The Republicans are there in force and it a very crime-ridden place.

The Republicans in Washington, D.C. were elected to the White House and Congress by the voters in the states, not by the voters of Washington, D.C. The District of Columbia has voted for the Democratic presidential candidate every time since they got the right to vote for president, and has given the Democrat over 74% of the vote every time (in 2000, Gore won D.C. with 85%). So D.C. is indeed an example of a crime-ridden place that votes Democratic.

eliza decullotage
the exposing of the groaniad bare posterior for all to see.

deblousonnage would imply the removal of bras to expose a female groaniad's twin mounts of pleasure.
however there is nothing feminine about the pub, in my view!
perhaps a little might improve it vastly?

Charlemagne,

You wrote to me, so I feel I owe you a response.

"Next, put yourself in a time machine and be born poor, other-than-white-skinned, fatherless, in Bed-Stuy."

Born poor: No, does being lower working class count?

Born other-than-white-skinned: Does having a father who is 3/4 American Indian count? (Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux, Lake Traverse Indian Reservation, South Dakota.)

Born fatherless: Does not having a father from the age of nine on count? (Said father removing himself back to the previously noted Lake Traverse Indian Reservation.)

Born in Bed-Stuy: No, just raised in a tough-ass white-trash neighborhood in Washington state. Funny thing is, nearly everybody I grew up with escaped that shit-hole.

For most of us, it was either through the U.S. Navy or the U.S. Marine Corps. (Which is ironic as their are both a huge U.S. Army base in our town and a smaller U.S. Air Force base.)

"Tell you what, how about you get your ass enlisted tomorrow for a tour of Iraq?"

I'm probably too old at 47 to join the U.S. Army. However, I did enlist in the U.S Navy when I was 17. Spent 3 1/2 years onboard the USS Fulton (AS-11) in New London, Connecticut. My job was as an Interior Communications Electrician. (And, thanks to Smilin' Jimmah Carter, I was earning less than minimum wage. Now that's the kind of respect the Democratic Party gives to those in the U.S. military.) Of course, you probably don't think that counts for anything.

And one last point, use your real name you punk-ass bitch. "Charlemagne" is the kind of nickname only a dick-head poser would use.

This election marks the first time that the established print and TV media have been usurped by people power. Shit hot!
People will not be told and manipulated any more - Green/Left liberalism has had its day...just watch the lefties demand that voting be made compulsory....

Tim,

By having the Guardian credit you with responsibility for the backlash, do you realize that YOU have interfered with the election!

There is a chance you may have indirectly counter-influenced (I just made that word up) the results of Clark County.
There is also a slight chance you may be responsible for the outcome of our election.

How dare you!...
THIS American thanks you for your meddling. :)

SOTG

PS: I don't know what sentiment you guys catch from U.S. media in Australia, but believe me, you are overwhelmingly appreciated. You guys rock.

PPS: Poster "Charlemagne" is a douche.

pwned!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

U rule Tim.

Charlemagne, it's never a good idea to make assumptions about the people you are insulting on the internet, as David Crawford's entry shows. For instance, I would never accuse you of being a lily-white, upper-middle-class poseur who lives off his parents and has changed his college major fourteen times because he's trying to "find himself." See, that would be wrong, because I can neither tell what you look like nor do I even know you. Why, for all we know you might be a Homeless Person of Color™ typing your barely literate screeds courtesy of the public library.

......and it was so edifying to have The Guardian readership petitioning every day citizens in the American Mid-West. They just naturally knew their place in the scheme of things......

The significance of The Guardian:

The Guardian is the 9th most popular daily paper in Britain. All the major press in Britain is national, so everywhere the Guardian is sold there are 8 more popular papers alongside it. For every copy of the Guardian, there are 5 of The Daily Mirror and 9 of The Sun. Even against the other "quality" papers, it comes 3rd with about 12% of the market. The Times sells it getting on for 2-to-1 and the Telegraph nearer 3-to-1.

In a US context , The Guardian has the same circulation as The Columbus Dispatch (there's irony).

Source of statistics: the Newspaper Marketing Agency

The Guardian has significance because it is the paper of left-wing intellectuals, and most of all of public-sector professionals. Newspapers in Britain make no pretence of political neutrality (well, the Independent used to).

So wait...the enterprise was neutral, but they had an intended effect, but either way it doesn't matter because it was all humor?

Sounds like "Smell The Glove" by Spinal Tap. Well she should smell it...just not over and over again, of course.

I see Chuckie The Great is back, insisting that someone he disagrees with enlist in the service. Does anyone know what Chuck's military credentials are? All I can gather is that he seems to be a member of the Gymnasium Republicans Task Force.

More statistics: Another thing to bear in mind with the crack at "Fox-watching Americans" is that News Corporation (of which Fox is part) publishes two daily newspapers in Britain, which between them outsell The Guardian by more than ten to one.

Dave Crawford:

My kind of guy. I too originated at the lower ethnic end in the factory towns of Connecticut. I worked my way through college with an interruption for Vietnam in 1966 and 1967, where I spent combat time with the benighted stereotypes beloved of the "Charlemagnes" of the world. (On that, this dope is probably among the whiners who claim that Vietnam was a war fought by the exploited classes).

I have three well-educated and decent sons in the military now, not because I ever emphasized my war or service. On the contrary. I'm as surprised as most parents in the Northeast whose kids enlisted.

Staying silent on another thread where this vile, posturing dork abused his opponents was the best thing at the time. Too angry. He has a facile and smooth command of facts, a set of "degrees" he informed us about, a phony claim to be a conservative Republican (maybe a paleo, if he knows the differences in the species), and he can be stupid in more than one language. Holy fucking wow.

Reading through his multiple idiocies means that he's stepped into the slipstream of the 60's. Well he can slam his pieties and spurious humanitarianism up his ass. I wouldn't trust this poseur with a firecracker or a nickel. He'd hurt himself with the first and steal the second.

Actually the most crime-ridden places in the US are the ones that have gun control. All showed a rise in gun crime after their bans on registered handguns.

He then acknowledged that no more addresses were being distributed, blaming attacks on The Guardian website by Right-wing hackers.

And we all know that the right-wing hackers are mere puppets of the Jews. Good gracious! Can't these "intellects" take responsibility for their own actions?

I don't see how an email "attack" could stop a snail-mail letter campaign anyway. Maybe the dummies at the Groaning Wad never learned how to lick stamps.

Rhod: The Guardian dropped the "Manchester" in 1959. It has been mainly London-based since 1964, and entirely so since 1976. It is only Americans, being (understandably) relatively unfamiliar with the concept of national newspapers, that think of it as the "Manchester Guardian". This is unfortunate, as it gives the false impression it is the major news source for some region, rather than merely the ninth-biggest national newspaper in Britain.

Andrew:

Thank you. I used to receive an overseas edition about thirty years ago that combined extracts from Le Monde and some other rag.

I believe at that time the masthead still contained a small print "Manchester". I'm a former fan of the Guardian, but dumped it along with The Spectator because, as Gielgud put it in some TV drama, they were as "red as a baboon's bottom". Enough is enough.

The first time you made me laugh, Davo. Now you're just making me sick!

A bare-chested Polly Toynbee? I'm having my lunch! Tim's decolletage is one thing, but that is quite another!

Yup, DC is overwhelmingly Democratic, with quite comprehensive laws forbidding handgun ownership that the Guardian's readership oughta like. The Second Amendment was recently and thoroughly trashed when the ban was upheld, to the approving cheers of the city's political establishment and the major daily liberal newspaper "of record." One wonders which other constitutional provisions they find dispensible.

I wonder if the writers at the Guardian see the irony of a newspaper from a country that Americans kicked out for not letting us having a say in government claiming they now deserve a say in ours?

Is this not the definition of irony? Unintended consequences.

Oliver:
"..but is completely stuck and slowed by continuous internal fights ?"

What you see as a bug, many think of as a feature.

Annalucia,

Here is a site that gives you addresses of people who are registared to vote in the UK. I think you can do a couple of searches for free.

http://www.192.com/electoralroll.cfm

Ann

"Fox-watching Americans"

Of course the governments trying to ban that in the UK as well.

anyway nice to see a suceesgul campeign completed.

Next week, letter writing to Kim Il-Jong to ask him not to vote for himself in the next North Korean Elections. Bound to prove more reasonable than those timid guardian readers!

Great sport.

A question to my Aussie and Brit friends: would it be acceptable for me, as an American/Yank, to use whinging and wanker in the same sentence? There's something about the alliteration of whinging wanker...

Tim, if you ever decide to go for dual citizenship in the US, I'd be happy to speak on your behalf.

oldtom
All whingers are wankers. Most wankers are whingers. There is a case for the existence of the silent wanker, but then how would you know? WW is not tautology for a tiny subset but that need only concern a purist.
Mix and match I say.

...with a bullseye on your back and see what you have to say then.

I've got to be honest Charlemagne, I don't think the army distributes uniforms with bullseye's on them anymore, they switched over to smiley faces back in '76 and have been fading out the bullseye ever since.

Love the name - Is that to prove you've read a book? Or caught a Discovery channel Doc. I wouldn't know, I only watch Fox...

Nah just shittin ya... I watch the Spice channel too, though some would say there's not much difference.

Tony Martin fought for his life against 2 intruders.

So a burglar had his back to him?
And the Belgrano was steaming the other way. So what.

A wolve will turn it's back on a baby deer to get a better angle.

Now consider the fate of the teacher Robert Symons, who was murdered when he discovered a burglar.

The Guardian and the Labour Looney Left are on the side of the murdering burglars.

Dear US folk,

The reaction to the Looney Left Guardian was hillarious. I particularly enjoyed the reference to Yellow Teeth.

Rest assured that most brits love the US and dispise the Guardian, Looney Left and Biased BBC.

For many years I had thought the American War of Independence an Act of Treason (stirred by slimey French).

Now, following Operation Clark County, I realise what you guys were fighting for.

Sorry, to be slow.

Now could you liberate us from Europe?

burntpig

Now could you liberate us from Europe?

Great Britain, I think, is another entity altogether, seperate from Europe.

This as an American Mid-Westerner, has been the impression I have been raised with.

Burntpig:

A lot of what happened on this continent in the period you mentioned was effected by the slimey French. It was wall-to-wall pencil moustaches and sweatstains around here in those days. Zarqawi learned a thing or two from the snailheads.

Robw25:

Be careful Rob. Charlie will come back and taunt you as a "pea brain", and then sign off with "ciao" as he pirouettes away in his ruffles and embroidered cloak.

Thomas:

The Eurovirus has jumped The Channel.

Oliver, I agree with TT: The LESS government does, the better off the People are.

and re: "So, after every single country is a democracy, we all sit down together and have a beer ? Sounds peacenik, no ?"

That's pretty much what happened with Japan after WWII, now that you mention it ;).

I am an American who is working in London. I have doing some research on 'Operation Clark County'. I feel that the Guardian may have violated the Data Protection Act of 1998. This law was passed in the United Kingdom to protect an individual's privacy by placing restrictions on how the government (and companies) manage and disclose data. Even though it was legal in the United States to obtain the names and addresses on the voting register, it seems that it was illegal in the United Kingdom to release this information in the manner as the Guardian did. It would be interesting to give them a dose of their own medicine and take them to court in the United Kingdom for violating thier own laws. If any of you know someone in a 527 who would like to pursue this, please pass this information along to them. Imagine all the bad press the Guardian will get ;-)