Yeah well I'm back now....

So, I admit that was a long sabbatical, but after all the excitement of the election I felt I needed a rest, but I tell you 18 months of keeping schtum is plenty long enough, and it’s time to get that great big gob of mine yabbin' agin'.

Of course a lot has changed over the last 18 months or so...

and I’ll get into the meat and two veg of it over the coming weeks, and months. But, I thought I'd briefly touch on a couple of things I’ve found pretty dissapointing.

First, is the ‘win at all costs’ culture that's poisoned the Democratic Party, and what’s left of its base. Democrats seem to think that getting elected is what's important, and have forgotten what it is we’re supposed to do once that happens. Honestly, I feel like I was duped into helping elect fucking George 'H' Bush Mark II become president.

There’s a Pant’s diary I wrote a couple of days after BO’s election, which just about said it all for me. I’d become concerned over (then) Senator Obama’s vote on HR6304 (FISA) and I was reminded of the let down I felt after the Blair election 12 years earlier, the diary was to serve as a gentle warning that if something looked, smelt, and tasted like republican policy in all likelihood it was republican policy. The rah-rah-O-ba-ma brigade over at The Daily Kos took great umbrage at someone daring to suggest there may be similarities between the two, but I wonder how they feel today?

Second, is fucking Twitter, did we really need more stupid invading our consciousness? Don't we get enough of the inane ramblings of our fellow man? I mean do we really need to know what the fuck some idiot says they were doing five minutes before?

Twitter appeals to our very worst traits, and has given birth to a whole army of people who believe the rest of humanity will be better off for knowing what they’re doing. It appeals to the over inflated egos of everyone from frustrated housewives to their soap star politicians, all doing their best to fill that endless void of virtual space with snippets of themselves and their pointless existence.

I guess the launch of Myspace did something similar when it inspired anything with a heartbeat to form rock bands. It was as if users were in a fierce competition to form the most meaningless rock band in history. Now, Twitter is doing the same for….I really don’t know.

Perhaps the single most unpalatable moment for the burgeoning Twitter was during the very real, and now very forgotten Iranian people’s opposition to their election results. The world was forced to bear witness to a nation's dream of freedom being snuffed out 140 characters at a time.

Twitter acted as virtually the only media outlet for the opposition. But, within hours any genuine information from the ground was being drowned out by a chorus of disinformation perpetuated by Iranian government and advice on organizing urban revolts offered up by US based TWATs (I hope I have the correct term for Twitter users!) sat in their comfortable armchairs and reading from their copies of the Chuck Norris Xmas '92 Survival Handbook.