Can You Help?

This website is in imminent danger of being shut down. It has been online since 1995, but the personal circumstances of the owner, Malcolm Farnsworth, are such that economies have to be made. Server costs and suchlike have become prohibitive. At the urging of people online, I have agreed to see if Patreon provides a solution. More information is available at the Patreon website. If you are able to contribute even $1.00/month to keep the site running, please click the Patreon button below.


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McCain Concedes Defeat; Magnificent, Gracious Speech Marred By Jeers From Republican Crowd

3.35pm AEDT – 11.35pm US Eastern – John McCain has conceded defeat in the US presidential election.

In a magnificently gracious speech, the Arizona senator reached heights of compelling emotion not seen in his ragged campaign performances.

The speech was marred by frequent jeers from the Republican crowd at the mention of Obama’s name. McCain rose beyond this bigotry and boorishness in one of the great concession speeches. [Read more…]


Obama On Track To Win Presidency

12.55pm AEST / 8.55pm US Eastern

Senator Barack Obama is within sight of becoming the next President of the United States.

Obama is well ahead in Pennsylvania, the state regarded as the key to a McCain win. He is also leading in Florida, 51-48%, with 41% counted. Without these states, McCain cannot win.

Obama has won the traditional clutch of Democratic states in the north-east: Vermont, Connecticut, Delaware, Washington DC, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

McCain has won Kentucky, South Carolina, Alabama, Tennessee and Oklahoma, all traditional Republican states.

Obama is holding his own in North Carolina but is well behind in Virginia, the state where he has been predicted to win for some weeks.

The Democrats have picked up extra Senate seats in Virginia and North Carolina.


London Observer Endorses Obama

The Observer, the Sunday companion of London’s Guardian newspaper, has endorsed Barack Obama in this week’s presidential election.

This is the text of The Observer’s editorial.

Barack Obama is a President for modern times

The 21st century began late for America, on 11 September 2001. Before that day, the US still defined its role in the world with reference to ideological triumph in the Cold War that had dominated the century just passed. It was the planet’s only superpower and saw itself as a popular champion of global democracy. Few expected the nation to come under attack, least of all the man who had been installed in the White House a year earlier. In 2000, George W Bush was uninterested in foreign affairs. He was ill-equipped to be the first US President of the new millennium. [Read more…]


New York Times Endorses Obama For President

New York Times Endorses Barack Obama for PresidentThe New York Times has given its 2008 presidential election endorsement to Senator Barack Obama.

The Times described Obama as a candidate who “has met challenge after challenge, growing as a leader and putting real flesh on his early promises of hope and change”, in contrast to Senator John McCain who “has retreated farther and farther to the fringe of American politics, running a campaig on partisan division, class warfare and even hints of racism”.

This is the text of the New York Times editorial.

Barack Obama for President

Hyperbole is the currency of presidential campaigns, but this year the nation’s future truly hangs in the balance.

The United States is battered and drifting after eight years of President Bush’s failed leadership. He is saddling his successor with two wars, a scarred global image and a government systematically stripped of its ability to protect and help its citizens — whether they are fleeing a hurricane’s floodwaters, searching for affordable health care or struggling to hold on to their homes, jobs, savings and pensions in the midst of a financial crisis that was foretold and preventable.

[Read more…]