Viewpoint Extra: John McNulty & The Seanad

In a post on Monday, I referenced a scandal that had been breaking for a while over a prospective candidate for the Seanad, the upper house of Ireland’s parliament, called John McNulty, who was standing for the Fine Gael party. 

Well yesterday, John McNulty, withdrew his candidacy for the Seanad.  There’s one problem though, the ballot papers have already been printed, so his name can’t actually be removed from the ballot.

Fair enough, there is a situation where he could be elected, but if that ends up happening, all he’d have to do is announce a resignation, and there would be a new ballot held for that seat, simple enough.

The whole situation was a mess.  But I fully expect that Fianna Fail’s Micheal Martin will try to milk this for everything it’s worth, but as it has no worth at all, and as I said on Monday, political points are worthless and meaningless, I don’t see this causing Enda Kenny any further problems.  

Viewpoint Extra: Woolwich murder

As a follow up to my post, I am glad to see that at least one politician agrees with me about not allowing fear to win, and even quotes the Koran verse 32 chapter 5 in showing how Islam is not a violent religion...

"If anyone kills a human being it shall be as though he killed all mankind whereas if anyone saves a life it shall be as though he saved the whole of mankind."

The full story is here.

Thank you, Nick Clegg, for being a voice of sanity within the madness.

Viewpoint Extra - NY 23: Republican backs Democrat not Conservative

There has been a further fascinating development in the story of Congressional District NY-23's special election.  Ian Beaumont examines these and looks at the possibilities for US right wing politics in the future.

Viewpoint Extra – from City Media Productions - 1d

Video Blogging Week on Viewpoint - Day 6 of 7

It's day 6 of Video Blogging Week here on Viewpoint, and we somehow manage to go from Doctor Who and Michelle Ryan in a catsuit, to the conservative press.



Tomorrow, we round up the week long experiment and look back over what the experiment has shown me so far.

Viewpoint Extra: Is it time for Hillary to step aside?

In a follow up to my previous post about Hillary Clinton's presdiential campaign, two stories to bring you. The first comes from NBC's Today show where Andrea Mitchell reports on the differences between the campaigns of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.



Whilst Huffington Post reports that Hillary's husband, former President Bill Clinton, has switched his allegence from his wife to Barack Obama.

I'm afraid I hear The Dead March being played at Hillary Clinton's campaign headquarters.

Viewpoint Extra: Chanelle Hayes Sex Tape - Real or Viral Advertising?

Well, now we know the truth, and whilst I was partialy right in terms of the intent behind the video, the actual thing it was promoting was quite different to what I imagined it to be. Who would have imagined that Chanelle's partner in the video, was a furry puppet!



Incidentally, this is being reported by the Daily Star and other newspapers as showing that Chanelle is game for a laugh and happy to poke fun at the celebrity lifestyle, including her own.

My take on that is much more cynical, I'm afraid. It proves to me that Chanelle and her team knew all to well, that the timing would make great promotional capital for her reality TV show and her first single, the video I posted previously. I feel that Chanelle is much more saavy than other so called D-listers, and perhaps, just perhaps, she might just make the C-list yet. It'll take time, but she seems to be putting the work in. We'll see if she fades from view when the new housemates come into view, or whether she has more staying power than some others.

Viewpoint Extra: Heath Ledger 1979-2008

As a follow up to the obituary I wrote, I notice that the Dark Knight website, the one for the new movie to be released this summer in which Heath plays The Joker, has been replaced by a simple page. A touching and fitting tribute to a real actor, who worked for the joy of acting, rather than for any twisted notion of fame. He will be greatly missed by us all.

Viewpoint Extra: NBC Universal to begin CNBC life?

To follow up on a recent post of mine here, it would seem that CNBC Life is NOT a new channel, at least not yet.

By checking around various forums, I have discovered that CNBC Life is a new programming block coming up in February on CNBC Europe. I have to thank Digital Spy forum member Epsom for discovering the information. Unfortunately at the moment, no further information seems to be available. I'll let you know as soon as there is more info.