Tag Archives: Barack Obama

Exclusive: More prizes ahead for Obama

October 12, 2009 – 5:45 pm

Barack Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize, decided by an eminent panel of brown nosing illuminati in February 2009, less than a month after his inauguration, has been unfairly criticised by spoilsports and racists, determined to diss the US and generally keep a good man down. What will they say when it is revealed that has [...]

By John Kelly | Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Obama opts to continue with 'Preventive Detention'

May 24, 2009 – 9:28 pm

This article, originally published on ProPublica, deals with the Obama volte-face on holding prisoners without charge in Guantanamo Bay. It’s a long piece, but not as long as the sentences already served and, by all accounts, about to be extended, to several people who have been denied the right to a fair trial and held in [...]

By John Kelly | Posted in Afghanistan, Barack Obama, George W Bush, Global security, Insurgency, Policy, Totalitarian drift, US Politics, War on Terror, human rights abuse | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Hurrah! BBC licence fee increase preserves a bourgeois Pravda

May 22, 2009 – 3:06 pm

But for how long? On 19 May, the Tory motion to freeze any increase in the BBC licence fee was defeated by 334 to 150 votes in the House of Commons. The compulsory tax of £11.62 per month on every household with a TV or radio, enforced by highly democratic ‘we know where you live’ [...]

By John Kelly | Posted in British identity, Culture, Media, Political spin, Politics, consumers | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Hyena men and Ethiopian young entrepreneurs

April 2, 2009 – 3:29 pm

A couple of months ago I went to Eastern Ethiopia with my friend Simon Biltcliffe. It was mind-altering in many ways, not least because we travelled from London to the eastern region, near(ish) to the Somalian border and back to London in four days. Economy all the way, I might add.
We landed in the middle [...]

By John Kelly | Posted in Africa, Barack Obama, Development, Ethiopia, Human rights, Somalia, food | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

The Man from Del Monte, he talk bollocks!

March 30, 2009 – 12:37 pm

   Lula da Silva says this problem was caused by white men with blue eyes. That lets both of us off the hook

 
Several Latin American leaders have reported the same disturbing hallucination. A rumpled fat man with a very large head, dressed in a cheap suit and badly-knotted tie turns up unannounced and tries to get [...]

By John Kelly | Posted in Banking, Barack Obama, Development, Economics, International Affairs, Latin America, Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

An intelligent call to action on climate change from the UK Environment Agency

March 24, 2009 – 9:21 pm

At a recent Royal Society of the Arts (RSA) lecture on Feb 19, 2009, Environment Agency Chairman (Lord) Chris Smith delivered a measured analysis of ‘the seriousness of the economic and environmental challenges that we currently face - and the recognition that the economic turmoil we are going through is an opportunity to change as well [...]

By John Kelly | Posted in Development, Environment, Green issues, climate change, energy policy | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Is Twitter the new Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep?

March 5, 2009 – 10:17 am

Twitter has soared like the mercury on an Australian thermometer to become one of the world’s most-visited websites. Facebook, its older cousin, the 5th most-used social networking utility, has become so alarmed that it is redesigning. Neither make money (nor does Thus, to be fair). The Twitter logo is a Disney birdie twittering on a [...]

By John Kelly | Posted in Culture, Technology, consumerism | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (10)

Sorry I was nice about The Economist earlier

November 28, 2008 – 1:03 pm

 
I was cloyingly complimentary about The Economist a few posts back, but need to put the record straight by sneering at the article by ‘editor-in-chief’ John Micklethwait in ‘The World in 2009.’ His sententious advice to Barack Obama uncharacteristically reeks of transatlantic cant. He observes that Obama will find it difficult to please the left [...]

By John Kelly | Posted in Business, Economics, Politics, Reviews | Also tagged , , , , , | Comments (1)