Shire Network News is the podcast of Silent Running , an Anglospheric group blog. You can contact the presenter, “Tom Paine”, here.

The feature interview this week is a continuation of last week’s discussion with right-leaning editorial cartoonists Cox & Forkum who have kindly provided the rather spiffing cartoon of me at the bottom of this post. On a seperate and absolutely unrelated matter, can anyone tell me which is more effective, Jenny Craig or Weight Watchers?

Andrew Ian Dodge in London has the latest on the leadership battle in the Liberal Democrat party, and why Gorgeous George Galloway's political career has been sunk, not because he sucks up to Arab mass murderers and panders to Islamists, but because he's appearing on a reality TV show in the UK. Oh well, they finally nailed Capone for tax evasion so I suppose this will have to do. Laurence Simon has a Full of Crap Report in which he announces a fun new competition - how many European Union monitors are going to be killed during the Palestinian election? Answers in the comments section please.

In Blog News, the controversy over the Danish newspaper Jylands Post publishing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed spills over into Norway, as Danish Muslims take the cartoons on a tour of the Muslim world, along with a few extra-nasty ones thrown in for maxmum impact. Attempts to discover where the addidional cartoons came from meet with no success.

Walter Cronkite declares the US should withdraw from the war, as all hope has been lost. No word yet from President Johnson about whether he intends to respond by picking Cronkite up by his ears.

Ray Nagin, Pat Robertson and Robert C Byrd – triplets seperated at birth or what? The Mayor of New Orleans celebrates Martin Luther King Day by going against everything the civil rights leaders stood for; declaring he wants his city to be dominated by a single race. Oh, and God is sending natural disasters because he is angry. We are currently standing by for a shit-rain of Pat Robertson proportions to descend on him from outraged secular leftists….....very soon now….......any minute…....hmmm…....tell you what, just read a book while we wait, this seems to be taking longer that expected. Dr Chaos has a pithy comment on the issue.

We continue to rely on the New York Times for fake but accurate news, this time in the form of a fake photograph. Apparently no one at the Times has the educational background to be able to tell the difference between a missile and an artillery shell. But despite their obvious cluelessness in military affairs, they can still tell us we’re losing.

Speaking of losing, how ‘bout them Grits up in Canada eh? In only a few days, the Great White North is expected to finally shake off the chains of politically correct Trudeaupian Liberal Party rule and elect Stephen Harper and his Conservative Party. I must say it’s been an absolute hoot watching Prime Minister Paul Martin steer his campaign unerringly onto every single rock available. In some cases he had to go miles out of his way to find ever more creative ways to sabotage his own party, but he did it every single time. Whatever the Conservatives are paying him, they’re getting their money’s worth.

And this has been the election where Canada’s blogosphere has finally come into its own, as David Warren notes. Especially in the lucrative and ever-expanding field of brutal mockery of Liberal campaign ads. Blogs are getting so good at getting people to laugh at the Liberals, that attempts are now being made to have Elections Canada investigate the Blogging Tories for (sit down, this may come as a shock) openly and blatantly supporting Stephen Harper!

I guess the Liberals, like the Borg, just don’t believe in the concept of people not doing what they’re told. Remember, vote Liberal – resistance isn’t just futile, it’s un-Canadian!

Please go to these blog over the next few days to enjoy the fun and laughter as the the Grits are hurled into the Lake of Fire – Small Dead Animals, Andrew Coyne, Angry in the Great White North, Damiannation and Relapsed Catholic. (Hi Damian, hi Kathy!)