pods.swedesforobama.com

- - 2006-09-15 2 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"Eeeehm.... don't know"

It has been a while, but it's time to revisit one of our favorite clueless neocons.

"Why Was Wolfowitz So Clueless On The Morning of 9/11?" Eric Boehlert

- - 2006-09-15 1 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Only country to win the Olympics and the World Championships the same year. Take that CCCP!

During a season that have seen more Swedes in the NHL than ever, Peter Forsberg is named captain of the Philadelphia Flyers.

PhiladelphiaFlyers.com

Current Swedish captains in the NHL

Daniel Alfredsson - Ottawa
Mats Sundin - Toronto
Mattias Norstrom - Los Angeles
Markus Naslund - Vancouver
Peter Forsberg - Philadelphia
Nicklas Lidstrom - Detroit (not yet official)

- - 2006-09-14 2 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Bill Maher meets Tweety and, as always, the really good videos are found at OneGoodMove

"Bush should have gone to where he was on 9/11. Florida, Louisiana and Nebraska"

- - 2006-09-14 1 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Who will it be?

On sunday night we should have a clue about who will be the Swedish PM for the next 4 years.

Will it be the challenger Fredrik Reinfeldt (on the left, not politically) or the current big guy Goran Persson (right).

Reinfeldt, the former "libertarian", now head of the biggest conservative party, who wants to lower taxes but keep the welfare state. He also likes Clinton over Bush, since Bush isn't so much a conservative and "Clinton cared about people"

Persson, the head of the Social Democrats who sees himself as a FDR-ish Blair, but with a mansion. Have been PM for a long time, but most polls indicate he won't be for much longer.

Who will it be and will it matter in Sweden-US relations? Probably not. The current "socialist" actually supports Bush in more than you would think and the new "rightie" wouldn't make any changes when it comes to military support and he'll most likely turn over prisoners to the CIA at the same rate as the current guy.

- - 2006-09-13 6 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

For all our Euro-brothers

We love it when (some) Americans confuse movies and TV for the real deal. Like when tough agents beat the info out of the terrorist on 24, the sneaky jews sell out Jesus in the Passion of the Christ and the cowardly German wants to leave the terrorists alone in United 93.
The last example is something that was talked about when the movie came out over here. We didn't see anything about it elsewhere, until now.

"United 93: A slanderous movie!" SuperFrenchie

There is some evidence from the audio tapes that at least one passenger tried to dissuade the others from storming the cockpit and trying to take over the plane.
There is no evidence whatsoever that it was Christian Adams (the german). There is also no evidence that Adams acted in any sort of cowardly way. Absolutely none. Even the director admitted it.
Yet, out of the 45 passengers and crew, guess who got assigned the role of the coward? You got it, the European guy.

- - 2006-09-13 5 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Tucker just wants to dance

- - 2006-09-13 4 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Let's check the scorecard to find out how much money has been given this week to fight Malaria and HIV in Africa.

George Soros: $50000000
Bill O'Reilly: $0

- - 2006-09-13 3 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

What happens in Canada....

condi getting it done in the north

"Dance of Diplomacy Is Grist for the Gossip Mill" AOL (NYT)

MacKay is single, sophisticated and considered the closest thing to eye candy on the diplomatic circuit.

- - 2006-09-13 2 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

20+ degrees in Stockholm
in mid-september!!

"I keep telling you bitches, but you won't listen"

- - 2006-09-13 1 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Kick Ass Lib Song Of The Day

Bruce Springsteen "Born to run"

Any artist that can get 100 right wing pundits to use the original phrase "You might be born in the USA, but that doesn't mean I have to agree with you" deserve this pod.

- - 2006-09-12 3 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Dealing with being a Swede

The Economist, who have been predicting the fall of the "Swedish model" since the 50's actually write about something that is a bit hard for a Swede to deal with. The fact that we kick ass.
It's very easy for a leftie Swede to get dragged into the usual Swede-bashing when talking to non-Swedes, especially the ones from across the pond. It's easier to bond with you fellow westerner with the negative "reality" that Sweden have to high taxes and is going down the drain. The niceness and the "naiveness" that is the Swedish mentality makes it hard for you to question the greatness that is the US. That plus the fact that Americans can become very aggressive if flaws in their system is even hinted.

"Admire the best, forget the rest"
The Economist

In recent years defenders of the European social model—capitalism tempered by a generous and interventionist welfare state—have taken to praising Scandinavia to the skies. The Nordic region, to go a bit wider, has the world’s highest taxes and most generous welfare benefits. And yet Sweden, Finland and Denmark (Norway’s oil sets it apart) have delivered strong growth and low unemployment, and rank among the world’s most competitive economies. Nordic companies are strong in technology and research and development. Their health-care and educational systems are much admired. And, unlike other European countries, most Nordic states run healthy budget and current-account surpluses.

Sweden, whose 9m people make it by some way the biggest Nordic country, is a particular favourite. A year ago the Guardian, a British newspaper, said it was the most successful society the world had ever known. As if to bear this out, the Swedish economy grew at a sizzling annual rate of 5.6% in the second quarter of 2006, enough to trigger a spate of interest-rate rises by the central bank. Sweden’s big companies, such as Ericsson, SKF, Telia and Volvo, are breaking export records.

- - 2006-09-12 2 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

When Detainees Attack

f**king brilliant!!

"Artist Banksy targets Disneyland" BBC

A life-size replica of a Guantanamo Bay detainee has been placed in Disneyland by "guerrilla artist" Banksy.

More Banksy

- - 2006-09-12 1 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

NATO-SMATO

When it comes to the UN, the amount of troops sent to the different missions are reported and ridiculed faster than you can say "Kofi". We'll see if NATOs request for more troops for Afghanistan and the promise of.... 20 more soldiers gets the same treatment.

"Nato rejects appeal to boost Afghan troops" The Times

- - 2006-09-11 2 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

MPAA took my baby away

It appears that the Swedish government isn't revealing everything they knew, and what they did, when they were contacted by the American lobby group MPAA, who was trying to push the government to shut down file sharing site the Pirate Bay. A few e-mails sent from, amongst others, the US embassy and the MPAA's representatives are not included in the material released to the public.

Meanwhile the first case against a person who have downloaded a movie from the site now goes to "Hovratten"

SVT.se (in Swedish)

Earlier pod. about this.

- - 2006-09-11 1 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"They've shut down 10 Downing Street, something has happened. A plane flew into the World Trade Center"

- - 2006-09-10 4 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

ABC - What's on tonight?

- - 2006-09-10 3 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Santorum bring out the heavy artillery

The Republican't Party is up against the wall. Time to go über-negative.

"In a Pivotal Year, GOP Plans to Get Personal" Washington Post

- - 2006-09-10 2 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

American sportzZzZzZz

We kinda have to agree with the Frenchman on this one. But still, go Redskins!!

"Football is boring!" SuperFrenchie

According to a popular urban legend, the Super Bowl is watched in more than 200 countries by 1 billion people. Except that there are only 192 countries in the world, and that while the game is available to a potential audience of approximately one billion, it is watched by only about 93 million viewers, of which 98% are in North America.

However. We do remember when Sven prepared for his Super Bowl party. He wouldn't stop talking about it.

- - 2006-09-10 1 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Sunday Fun Pod.

Blog of the week in the Times

Swedesplease

Mp3's from Swedish bands. Mostly singing in English and mostly better than what you hear on the radio in the US. Free and legal links to mp3's from multiple music genres (including Americana, indie rock, hip-hop, electronica etc).

Sweden is the new indie-black and all the preppy-grunge kids claps their hands and says yeah.

- - 2006-09-09 2 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Five years ago today Ahmed Shah Massoud was killed by al-Qaeda. He fought both them and the Taliban back in the day when the only ones who cared about either were Amnesty International, Bill Clinton and Jay Leno's wife (damn Hollywood liberals and their quest for freedom for all).

A tribute to "the Lion of Panjshir"

He spent his entire adult life in service to his country and her people. Massoud was a man of peace forced into war. He was assassinated on September 9, 2001 by al-Qaeda suicide bombers who feared him more than any other man in the country.

- - 2006-09-09 1 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

No More Patriotic Correctness

New Rule: If your president is a stupid-manorexic-liar that only hurts your country, it is your patriot duty to make fun of him.

OneGoodMove has all the new rules.

- - 2006-09-08 3 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Nazi vs Nazi

Leave 1,5 million to die = nazi
Question Israel's methods = nazi

"Gaza is a jail. Nobody is allowed to leave. We are all starving now" The Independent

"Blair told he is not welcome in Ramallah" The Independent

- - 2006-09-08 2 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Stupid Americans

this picture has nothing to do with the story,
we just want you to think that

We obviously love you guys, with the flag in our logo and the supporting of candidates and hanging out in Alexandria, but sometimes you make it so hard for us.

"September 11 -- what year? 30 percent of Americans don't know" Yahoo (AFP)

Note that 5% couldn't tell which month and day 9/11 happened...

- - 2006-09-08 1 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

With 990 African refugees arriving in the Canary Islands in one day, maybe Jeremy Rifkin's thoughts about the European dream isn't so far off.

"The European Dream - The new Europe has its own cultural vision -- and it may be better than ours" UTNE

But to be a great country, it is necessary to be a good country. It is true that people everywhere enjoy American cultural forms and consumer goods. America is even envied, but it is no longer admired as it once was. The American Dream, once so coveted, has increasingly become an object of derision.

Oooh, he must have gotten angry letters about that.

- - 2006-09-07 1 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Al Gore hangs
out in Sweden
...and kisses our
environmentally
friendly asses

Watch the former VP meet the Swedish PM.

DN.se (.wmv)

DN also have an interview with Gore, but it's to long to translate back into english.

His movie An Inconvenient Truth (ever heard of it?) got a 5 out of 5 on SVTs morning show.
(only review we could find so far)

UPDATE: The movie got a 4 out of 5 in the biggest paper Aftonbladet.
Unlike dan quayle, Gore actually have a pen when he writes autographs...

- - 2006-09-06 2 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Sweden is still not the US

The general election in Sweden is closing in (17 sept) and things are heating up.

The Liberal Party, the second biggest conservative party, are in trouble for having had access to the Social Democrats internal network and used their schedule and their "political playbook". The head of the party, Lars Leijonborg, knew about it a bit earlier than he first admitted.

head of the Liberal Party acting.... badly

"Leijonborg faces questions over scandal" The Local

In the Liberals defense. The local Social Democrat's username and password they found out and used to log on with was; username "sigge" and password "sigge", the politicians first name is Sigge (idiot!).

Also, and this is kinda ugly, the biggest conservative party, the Moderates, who normally use the classic conservative color of blue, have used orange during their campaign. They have it on their website, in ads, on shirts and banners when they speak.
Now, orange is the revolutionary color of the former eastern block. The orange revolution in the Ukraine, the student revolutions in Yugoslavia and the failed revolution in Azerbaijan (natural resources kinda made the west more interested in keeping it the way it was). Guess the Moderates wanna give the impression that they are about to change the rule of the current left-wing government. "The winds of change are blowing", or whatever.
Think about it. Conservatives use revolutionary colors?? Conservatives use the colors of a George Soros sponsored revolution?? Only in Sweden...

- - 2006-09-06 1 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

This pod. is now over here

- - 2006-09-05 3 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Good Night and Good Luck

Swedish TV-channel TV8 no longer airs FOX News. The era of miss-information is over. The channel now airs Deutsche Welle (and Bloomberg) during the night and when they're not showing their own produced shows. Ironically they've also started showing documentaries such as Ryan for Congress, Weapons of Mass Deception and Making the Message.
TV8 never had any commercials on while showing this "cheap news channel" (since there were no commercials on it had to be cheap and news... well, 10 minutes of stuff you found on the internet hardly qualifies you as a news channel).

- - 2006-09-05 2 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

In these times this documentary is worth checking out (if possible).

Ali Hassan Salameh

Dining with the Devil
Swedish documentary about the PLO and "the Red Prince" and his connection to the CIA up til the Mossad assassinated him and his family in 1979.
Features some interesting interviews and amazing photos of Salameh at Disneyworld and PLO members training in the US.

It also deals with US connections to Hamas and Hezbollah and the BS that is "we don't negotiate with terrorists".
Something the release of the two FOX News employees reminded us of.

- - 2006-09-05 1 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Kick Ass Libs Songs Of The Day

Daft Punk "One more time"

French right-winger Jacques Chirac (ever heard of him?) wanted to use this Daft Punk song in his re-election campaign. His opponent PM Lionel Jospin also wanted to use the song, but the band didn't want the song to be used by used for any political purpose (especially not by the righties).
Like a Reagan weasel, Chirac used the song anyway. A lawsuit started to take shape and Jacques stopped playing the song.
Chirac had by this point already used another Daft Punk project, Stardust's "Music sounds better with you", and been sued. Daft Punk won and got a symbolic 1 Franc.

"...that at the same time as French dance music was achieving global acclaim, French politicians were damning their indigenous dance scene and armed riot police - the fearsome CRS - were busting raves, particularly in the conservative South. After the recent replacement of the right-wing Chirac government with the centre-left Jospin administration, Thomas (of Daft Punk) hopes that those days are passing."
- Daft Punk in an interview in 1997 (Jospin become PM in 1997)

BONUS: Depeche Mode "John the Revelator"

- - 2006-09-04 2 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

For Steve

Heggle

- - 2006-09-04 1 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Dear diary, today was a good day. Some dude from the UN said we shouldn't have competitions for the best jew-smearing cartoon. But I just said the Holocaust is "junk science", and that was the end of that.

The World: 0
Prez "Big Ahma": 1
(in you face zionist conspiracy)

- - 2006-09-03 2 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Culture Warrior Review

New book, same sad little man

In fact, not since the late Howard Cosell has an American broadcaster been so roundly vilified in print as I have been over the past decade.

SJIHBO

- - 2006-09-03 1 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Swedish Space Program

"Swedish probe crashes on moon" The Local

Astronomers around the world had urged to try to observe the spectacular conclusion to the probe, which was developed by the Swedish Space Corporation in Solna (built by SAAB Ericsson Space) at the request of the European Space Agency.

The Swedish/EU space program is nothing compared to NASA, who has a whole department dedicated just to make fun of this section.

The probe approached the moon at a very shallow angle and at a speed of around 2 kilometres per second.

Now just sit back and await Absolut Moonboots and ironic hipster astronauts.

- - 2006-09-02 2 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

He was for staying the course before he was against it

ThinkProgress (with hilarious video)

Many Democrats accuse the president of advocating “stay the course” in Iraq, but the White House rejects the phrase and regularly emphasizes that it is adapting tactics to changing circumstances, such as moving more U.S. troops into Baghdad recently after a previous security strategy appeared to fail.

- - 2006-09-02 1 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Jebus Camp

Oh, the shit we force our kids to do.

JesusCampTheMovie.com

ALSO: On the same theme (sorta)
Al Franken: God Spoke

"God spoke, and he told me to write this book"

- - 2006-09-01 2 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Ted Stevens son in trouble
(=we're all in trouble)

"FBI searches offices of Alaska lawmakers" MSNBC

Damn you FBI, you don't know what you've started. Cause we won't like it when Ted Stevens is angry.

tubes, tubes!!!

- - 2006-09-01 1 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The Worst Person in the World:
And 202 Strong Contenders
- Keith Olbermann

do we dare to guess bin Reilly is among them

Pre-order at Amazon

Jane posted about it at 1:pm yesterday. It was at #19,000 at the time and then started to move onward and upward. At 2:25PM I posted it as well. Keith’s was listed # 38 at 10:00PM PST on Thursday. He deserves it. I just checked and it’s up to # 18. Let’s keep it moving! (C&L)