governmental revolving door

US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, embroiled in a row over the sacking of eight US attorneys, has formally announced his resignation.

And so President GWB delivers his daily tribute to another departing ally. If the White House gets any emptier the Youth Hostel Association would be advised to see if they can't make use of some of the space.

President Bush said he had accepted the resignation reluctantly. He praised his old friend as “a man of integrity, decency and principle” and complained of the “months of unfair treatment” that preceded the resignation. It’s sad,” Mr. Bush said, asserting that Mr. Gonzales’s name had been “dragged through the mud for political reasons.”

Mr Gonzales left under a little bit of a cloud - rumour has it that he tended to sack federal prosecutors for political reasons - who doesn't? oh, and rumour goes that he lied under oathe - I often oathe under my lies. Then rumour has it he authorised secret phone tapping - but then all phone tapping should be secret, it's more effective that way. Then there's that other rumour that he wrote a memo to GWB suggesting that the war on terror was a special one that didn't need to pay too much attention to something as old fashioned as the Geneva Convention - oh, and theres the rumour about how he adjusted the rules governing prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. I have to admit I don't think Mr Gonzales is someone I could have made polite conversation with over a pint.

Having said that, as someone who also finds himself out of work, I can highly recommend a wide range of daytime TV. Perhaps Donald Rumsfeld, Karl Rove, Paul Wolfowitz and the rest of the guys can drop by and form a daytime poker group. Just one thing though, would the last one out of the Bush administration please turn off the lights.

vote mr c in 2008

I did a quick internet test to see who I should vote for in the 2008 American Presidential elections... Well who I should vote for if I was actually elligible to vote in the American Presidential Elections... If I was actually even American. Anyway, I thought it would be interesting.

Your Results:

1. Barack Obama (79%)
2. Dennis Kucinich (72%)
3. Christopher Dodd (71%)
4. Al Gore (67%)
5. Alan Augustson (66%)
6. Wesley Clark (65%)
7. John Edwards (65%)
8. Joseph Biden (64%)
9. Hillary Clinton (62%)
10.Bill Richardson (52%)
11.Mike Gravel (52%)
12.Ron Paul (45%)
13.Elaine Brown (36%)
14.Mike Huckabee (35%)
15.Rudolph Giuliani (33%)
16.John McCain (32%)
17.Kent McManigal (32%)
18.Tommy Thompson (30%)
19.Chuck Hagel (27%)
20.Mitt Romney (26%)
21.Fred Thompson (25%)
22.Newt Gingrich (24%)
23.Jim Gilmore (22%)
24.Sam Brownback (21%)
25.Duncan Hunter (21%)
26.Tom Tancredo (18%)

I'm actually surprised. Honestly. I would have believed that Obama would have been a bit on the popular side for me. I'm also shocked that 9 of my top 10 are Democrats (the other 5th placed candidate being a member of the Green Party. I may consider myself liberal but I would have thought there'd be at least one republican out there who shared some of my views.
And does the fact that Duncan Hunter and Barak Obama combined represent 100% mean that a Obama/Hunter team would be my perfect choice for President/Vice President. I suppose it only works if what constitutes Hunter's 21% is different from that of Obama's 79% - which is actually quite likely. Imagine having a Presidential team that is 100% in line with your opinions. It would be like being President myself. Vote Mr C!

Anyway, just to let you know I'll be making up a Barack Obama float to drive through the streets of Ballymoney in the run up to the election. All help would be appreciated and if anyone has a contact address for a marching band...

You can try the test for yourselves by clicking here if you want.

what do midterms mean to you?

What does the word midterm mean to you? For me midterms are great - they mean a few days off at the heart of the school term, they mean staff development days, they mean a welcome break for the quickest of all recharges, they mean Portrush and Portstewart are bunged with families praying for good weather.

They used to mean something much more sinister. In my short stint at UW they meant exams - and major lack of preparation. We didn't have midterms at UUC, just coursework and little tests. UW loved their midterms. Walking into the Canadian Literature exam knowing that my revision consisted of listening to a Leonard Cohen album on my way to the hall will abide as one of my most stressful memories.

What do midterms mean for the Republican Party? I bet they wish it meant holidays and exams.

who's side was Lincoln on anyway?

It's come to something when you have to hold up a copy of the day's newspaper and be photographed to prove that you are still alive. Certainly things are not looking good for Cuba's leader Fidel Castro. On his 80th birthday on Sunday he was pictured holding up a copy of Saturday's Granma (The Communist Party newspaper.) These pictures were the first to be taken of him since his stomach surgery and despite his defiance even he seems resigned to the fact that he will never again lead his country.

Have you ever seen the death of someone so eagerly awaited by another country? Both George Bush and Condoleezza Rice have held press conferences on the future of Cuba and the american government has adjusted policy to make it easier for Cubans to defect to the US. Why are they getting so excited by the prospect of someone dying?

I am no Castro apologist. I occasionally see myself as an almost socialist when it suits me, and every so often I am taken in by the romance of Che and Fidel leading their socialist paradises in America's back yard. I am a great admirer of the Cuban health care system and, indeed, their education system; we have a lot to learn from this regime. However, I know I disagree with the vast majority of his policies, his views on religion don't greatly appeal to me, I dislike the fact that there is no free press or free elections, and I find the way his friends live lavish lifestyles while most of his people live in poverty hard to justify (although a suffocating forty five year US trade embargo may have played a small part in those levels of poverty as well.)

I can't help thinking that the US - or should I say a tiny, but noisy lobby in the US, believe that Cuba is their rightful property - it is the state that got away. In fairness Cuba has never been US property, the British briefly controlled the Island (rather unsuccessfully) but the United States of America has never occupied their little neighbours. Its relationship with Cuba, while never comfortable, wasn't always so acrimonious. The top photo shows Fidel Castro on a state visit to the US visiting, and laying a wreath at, the memorial to Abe Lincoln, the great emanicipator, in 1959 before the US embargo. The second photo was taken only two years later and shows a line of Anti-Castro Cuban exiles marching in support of President Kennedy's hardline policy on Cuba. What a difference 700 odd days make. But times have changed and, despite the fact that those same exiles continue to rant against Castro (I'm not blaming them - but would you really expect someone who ran away from a country to promote it) the larger part of the US administration and population have little appetite for a fight.

So, no matter how loud the ex-pat Miami inhabitants shout it is surely unlikely that America will launch any kind of military bid for regime change. After hundreds of CIA assassination plots and attempts it looks like that is about to happen all by itself. And the powers that be in Washington still imagine that when Castro goes the people will demand what they really want - a US style democratic regime with close trade links with America. It may happen or they may be disappointed. Maybe by then all the Cubans who favour that course of action will have already defected to Florida. Still we all know hoe important Florida is in presidential elections - better keep them happy.