They may have been an hour behind me, but the American networks have now called the election in favour of Barack Obama.

That’s right, I beat everyone else.

This is a historic moment. I never thought in my life time I would ever see a black man elected president of the United States.

It’s an amazing achievement for Mr. Obama, and an amazing achievement for the American people.

No matter who you are, or where you are in the world, you can’t deny the significance of this moment in time.

Or as Bob Dylan said a long time ago, “The times they are a changing”.

the northlondonhippy
0410gmt - 5th November 2008

I can’t wait for the networks to call the winner of this election, so I am doing it myself.

It’s 10pm eastern time, 0300gmt here in north London and I hearby declare Barack Hussein Obama the winner of the 2008 presidential election.

Based on everything I’ve absorbed in the last half hour, there’s no way McCain could reach the magic 270 electoral votes.

Remember, you read it here first, fuckers!

the northlondonhippy
0301gmt - 5th November 2008

Something I noticed today, there were no pictures of Bush or Cheney voting.

Usually, the incumbent is seen casting his ballot. Usually, the incumbent also speaks after voting, offering a strong endorsement of his party’s candidate.

This year is not usual in this regard as the incumbent is so wildly unpopular.

It’s no wonder we haven’t seen much of him recently, and though he may not be currently in anyone’s field of vision, he’s certainly on their minds.

If anyone is responsible for the abysmal performance of the Republican party this year, its George W. (for What were they thinking when they elected him twice?) Bush.

When people look back at the historic election of 2008, Bush will take a large slice of the blame. And that brainless bimbo, Sarah Palin, who kept the independent voters away from the Republicans in droves, will also shoulder a healthy portion of blame.

the northlondonhippy
02:28gmt - 5th November 2008

Pennsylvania has gone to Obama.

Apparently that’s a good indication of where the race is going.

Also, it is looking good in Florida, which as you may recall has been a problematic state for the Democrats in previous elections…especially 2000 for poor ol’ Al Gore.

Even this close to a result, I am still nervous and unsure.

I’m still alternating between CNN and FoxNews, though I definitely prefer CNN. CNN has been highlighting viewer reports of various voting irregularities across America, with a really cool graphic map. The more orange an area is, the more they are screwing with people’s right to a free and fair vote.

And don’t forget the holograms!

It’s just gone 9pm on the east coast of America (0200gmt here in north London) and according to CNN, Obama is now leading leading McCain with about 3 electoral votes to one. That’s a pretty good margin, let’s hope it holds!

the northlondonhippy
02:02gmt - 5th November 2008

It’s all too slow, they are being too conservative and cautious in their predictions.

Tell me who’s winning!

As of now, Obama is up, up, up!

All you need to do is look at the people at the two candidates “victory” rallies. In Chicago, where as many as one million people are expected, it already looks like one hell of a party, while in Phoenix, the gathering appears to be more like a wake.

At this point, does anyone really think McCain can pull this off? Even McCain himself looked glum as he arrived in Phoenix a short while ago.

My tv viewing is settling into a routine, switching mainly between CNN (who I think have the edge) and FoxNews, with the occasional stop on the BBC. SKY seems a bit slow and looks a bit cheap and the BBC is actually doing a pretty good job, but the American networks have the resources and speed to do the story justice.

And what a story its going to turn out to be!

the northlondonhippy
01:25gmt - 5th November 2008

It might be closer than the pre-polling suggests, but I am already getting the feeling that its going to be a good night for Obama and his party.

I’ve been flipping between:

- FoxNews
- CNN
- MS-NBC
- SKY
- BBC

They all have giant sets and really whizzy graphics, especially the American networks. They’re all being cautious in their projections, which is sensible, but not very exciting.

CNN win on the technology front, Wolf Blitzer is talking to actual, life-like holograms of people in other parts of the country. Spooky!

The key states at this hour remain too close to call, but that in itself could be telling us something, as the key states in previous elections were firmly in the Republican column.

The internet may be my personal medium of choice for doing my own thing, but at heart I am a television viewer. I’m splitting my time between my desktop computer and my tv, though as this thing heats up, I’ll probably switch to surfing on my iPhone while I remain on the sofa. Like you needed to know that.

- the northlondonhippy
- 00:25gmt - 5th November 2008

Its around 11pm here in north London, and the election TV specials are about to kick off on just about every channel I receive, except for Playboy and QVC. I’ll be up all night, monitoring the coverage, because I am sad.

I’m also obsessed with this election and I want to remain awake until Obama delivers what I hope will be his victory speech.

I’m aiming to blog throughout the night, with occasional updates so I can share my observations with you.

At this point, its looking good for Obama, but I am still being very cautious. The scumbags on the right will do whatever they can to try to steal this one and I can’t let go of that feeling. After 2000 & 2004, its a reasonable fear.

To me, the real story already will be the massive voter turn-out. I am guessing it will be a record for a presidential election.

And if there really is a landslide, blow-out for Barack, the story to watch will be the direction congress takes. Please let it be be broadly Democratic!

All I can say for sure is that its going to be a long and interesting night.

- the northlondonhippy
23:00gmt - Tuesday 4th November 2008

I don’t think anyone is going to be surprised that I’m hoping (and wishing and praying) that Barack Hussein Obama will be elected as the next President of the United States.

If the New York Times can endorse somebody, why can’t I? Here on the internet, we’re all equal, though I don’t make you register to get to the good content.

If you’re surprised by my endorsement, then you don’t really know me very well. I’m extremely liberal and not ashamed of it.

Being liberal is a good thing, it means you are open to progressive ideas and new ways of looking at things. Being liberal means I’m more interested in the happiness of people, then maintaining the status quo for the sake of it.

Many liberals have become afraid of the word and now call themselves progressives. You say tomato…

If gays can take back ownership of the word “queer”, then why can’t we reclaim the word “liberal”? Like gays, liberals have nothing to fear or be ashamed of and we should all come out of the brainy closet.

I’m liberal because I am smart. Smart people are liberal.

All you need to do is spend 10 minutes watching FoxNews and you will see what I mean. They don’t allow many people with liberal views on-air, they stick to their conservative agenda all the time. The overwhelming amount of stupidity that spews from the mouths of their presenters, guests and pundits will be more than enough to prove my point.

I watch FoxNews strictly for comedy value and if you added some canned laughter, you’d think you were watching a bad sitcom for dimwits.

Being liberal means not fearing change. “Change” can be a good thing and if America needs one good thing right now, it would be change. “Change we can believe in”, if you will.

Obama offers that change. As one of the most liberal members of the US senate, which is demonstrated by his voting record, Obama is offering America the chance to right the myriad of wrongs from the last 8 years.

Yes, I am talking to you George W. (for Whatever happens next week, he’s still history come January) Bush.

Obama has the ideas, intelligence and charisma to be a real game-changer. He can help restore America back to its former glory.

Maybe you’re not old enough to remember way back when, but people actually used to like America and I don’t just mean the shopping and the enormous portions in restaurants.

It’s kind of amazing if you consider how much real damage Georgie Bush junior has done to America’s reputation and standing in the world. Compared to Bush the lesser, even Richard M. Nixon seem like a decent guy.

Think back to 8 years ago, when Big Bill Clinton was running the show. The economy was in great shape, the federal government was debt free and had a huge surplus of cash, America was at war with nearly no one and Americans abroad didn’t have to pretend to be Canadian. These are all good things.

Eight years of the Republicans not only undid all the good that came from Clinton, they thought of loads of bad shit of their own to do, to drag America down even further.

Before you start thinking, “what does some twat in London know about America?”, I should, in the interest of full disclosure let you know that I spent around half of my life living in America, so I am in a position to justifiably comment on all things American. I continue to consume a lot of American media and I am always across everything in the news - it’s an occupational hazard/bonus (delete as appropriate).

I also get loads of American visitors to my site, obviously far more than from any other country, including the UK. On the internet, Americans outnumber everyone!

I like Americans and I actually like America too. At its heart America is good, kind and just country, populated by good, kind and just people. They can’t help it that their elected leaders are masters at manipulating the media by spoonfeeding them crap that the media is too stooopid to question.

In the aftermath of 9/11, your media failed you. Your government wrapped every press release in the stars and stripes and questioned the patriotism of any journalist who dared to question the official version of events. That’s especially true about the “war” in Iraq.

I’ve got some news for you, it was never really a war. It was an illegal invasion of a sovereign nation, justified with bold-faced lies. We were lied to, over and over, for no good reason.

The invasion was brief, the occupation seems endless. The geniuses in charge had no concrete plans on what to do once they arrived in Iraq. It was an unmitigated disaster and continues to be one.

I don’t know how many people died in Iraq, I’ve lost count. And for what?

Nothing at all. No good reason. No reason at all.

But what about the “surge”?

The surge is meaningless, extra troops haven’t calmed things down, cold hard cash is what’s done it. Again, your liars, I mean leaders are not only negotiating with “terrorists”, they are bribing them with large sums of cash not to stage attacks any more.

It’s a bit like giving the school bully your milk money in return for him not beating you up that day. It doesn’t make you tough, it makes you a wimp and a wuss.

Since when does America pay its enemies and groups labelled as terrorists not to attack?

Since a couple of years ago.

Can you imagine them writing a cheque to Osama Bin Laden in return for a promise not to plan another attack on America? To me, it sounds like it would be the next logical step from their unofficial “bribing the enemy policy” in Iraq.

The point is that the Republicans have fucked America over every which way from here to xmas and back again. Every day, in every way, they have done something to screw you all over and you’ve had to just lie there take it like a bitch.

Not any more. This time, you actually have a genuine choice to make between to polar opposites. That doesn’t happen very often, maybe once in a lifetime.

Like 1960, when the choice was between Nixon and JFK and probably not since.

You can choose between four more years of the same bullshit, or you can elect a man who will set America back on its true course.

Here’s another word you shouldn’t fear: Socialism.

In America, you’re taught, or rather indoctrinated into the capitalist system and told that socialism is just another word for communism and that’s just plain wrong.

The state should not exist to suppress and exploit you, it should act in such a way as to benefit all of the people, all of the time.

The state, your government should be there to protect you, and not just from imaginary enemies.

The state should be there to help you, as an individual as well as for the greater good of society. You don’t pay your taxes to be kept in your place, yet that’s what the state does, rather than encouraging you to flourish and realise your potential.

I’ll go with the classic example and its something I can comment on with authority because I’ve lived under both systems, private and nationalised health care.

You have excellent doctors and hospitals in America, some of the best in the world, yet your life expectancy is in decline. There’s a simple reason for that, some people are denied access to your fine doctors and hospitals purely on economic grounds. If you can’t pay the extortionate fees charged, then you have only one choice, to get sicker and die.

That’s wrong.

That is so wrong.

Healthcare should be a basic human right provided equally by the state. You shouldn’t be penalised for not having the dosh to stump up for treatment, if that lack of treatment results in your death or incapacity.

Here in the UK, where I’ve also spent around half of my life, I’ve been a patient of the NHS. The standard of the healthcare I’ve received has been first rate, though I’m not going to deny there have been some waiting times that have been longer than I’ve liked and to be fair that has improved dramatically of late.

I can ring my GP’s surgery, any weekday morning and get an appointment to see my GP that same day. My current GP, who I’ve seen for over a decade is excellent, I never feel rushed, he always takes the time to listen to me and he doesn’t hesitate to prescribe an expensive drug or test, if he thinks it is necessary. The flipside to this is that he is often running behind on his appointments and I usually have to wait to see him. A little bit of my time is a small (and only) price to pay for access to excellent health care.

This is what I don’t get about people who oppose any form of socialism; what’s wrong with helping others? Why should anyone resent anyone else receiving assistance from anyone, whether its a relative or a complete stranger or the government? Isn’t it a good thing to help others?

Isn’t that what Jesus would do?

When someone else is in pain, do you not have sympathy for them? Do you not have the empathy to even feel their pain? Does it not touch you, even slightly?

If you could feed all the hungry children in the world, would you? Regardless of the cost?

If you could cure all the sick people in the world, would you? Regardless of the cost?

I would.

Ninety percent of the wealth in this world is in the hands of 1% of the people.

That’s just fucked. You can’t justify that, no matter how hard you might try. It’s 100% fucked. Pardon my fucking French.

The redistribution of the wealth doesn’t mean the luxury police are going to come to your house and nick your flatscreen telly and give it to some random poor person.

The redistribution of wealth doesn’t mean we’ll have to dress like Chairman Mao, even if you think his uniform was fashionable.

All it means is poor people pay less tax, rich people who can afford it, pay more. That doesn’t sound so bad, does it?

Rich people spend any way, because they are rich and a slightly higher tax burden isn’t going to effect them very much.

Poor people paying less tax, means poor people (remember the 99% of the rest of us) will have more money to spend. Spending money fuels the economy, a fuelled economy can create jobs, new jobs means more people working, with more money in their pockets to spend, which further fuels the economy….

You get the idea.

Someone has to redress this horrible economic imbalance and that’s Barack Obama. He wants to do it, don’t you want him to do it?

As I sit here in my north London lair, exactly one week before election day, Obama is way ahead in the polls, but his victory is not assured. Every registered voter out there in internetland has to vote to insure he wins and wins big. Bill Clinton is right, Obama needs a huge mandate to affect the kind of change he has in mind and he needs to have the Democrats sweep the house and the senate too.

I’m also concerned that the bad guys will steal it from Obama, as they did to Al Gore in 2000 and probably Kerry in 2004 as well, at least in Ohio. Those electronic voting machines sound dodgy and I’ve read unconfirmed reports in the early electronic voting of ballots being “flipped” from Obama to that old guy with the forced smile and ident-i-kit wife.

If they steal it from the Democrats again this time, burn the place to the fucking ground! Let’s hope they don’t, as I don’t want to see any country in flames, but if they fuck around with this election, they deserve it. SWAT teams are allegedly already on standby for possible unrest, so this scenario is possible

Barack Hussein Obama is America’s best hope. Don’t let yourselves down, don’t let the world down. Please vote for him.

And for those of you that still might have reservations over Mr. Obama because of his race, shame on you. Obama is a remarkably intelligent and educated man and his race should not be a factor.

If you’re afraid to vote for him, because his skin colour differs from yours, please look deep into your heart and soul and finally see the truth about race - like most things in this world, it’s meaningless. We’re all the same on the inside, our hearts all beat, our lungs all breath the same air.

But if you really can’t look past his race, perhaps this little campaign jingle I wrote on Obama’s behalf might help.

(sung to the tune of Santogold’s “You’ll Find A Way”)

You know you wanna
You know you wanna
vote for Barack Obama
You know you wanna
You know you wanna
‘cause a white woman was his momma

It’s catchy, ain’t it?

Look, all joking aside, if you are registered to vote in the United States of America, I don’t just urge you to get out and vote, I implore you to vote for Obama.

If I’ve managed to sway just one undecided voter with this post, then I’ll feel like I’ve done my part, but I’d like to sway even more. If you know someone who’s wavering and you think I might be able to have a positive effect on their decision, please feel free to email this to them or send them a link to my site.

It’s not just Obama who’s counting on you, and not just your nation, but the entire world.

Please don’t let us down.

If you didn’t watch last night’s final presidential debate, here’s what you missed:

At least that’s how it looked when I was watching it…

After all the whinging and complaining over the last week about my problems getting my new iPhone 3G from O2, I thought I would share some of my initial impressions of it.

Yes, that’s right…I’ve got my brand new, shiny, lickable, 16gb black iPhone 3G. I exclusively revealed this exciting bit of news on FaceBook last Thursday when it was delivered to my north London lair.

And again, yes, you read that right, I posted it on my FaceBook profile, as a status update.

Status updates on FaceBook are a lot like Twitter posts. It’s another reason why you should be my FaceBook friend!

Even though it was 6 days later than expected, I was still very pleased to be receiving iPhone 3G and couldn’t wait to unbox it and fire it up.

I didn’t buy the original iPhone, as it was only released officially here in the UK around 8 months ago. My reasoning was sound, or so I thought. As I expected a 2nd generation of iPhone to come out around now, I didn’t want to be in a position of wanting to buy it so soon after getting the 1st gen.

How was I to know that O2 were going to be handing out cheap (or free) upgrades to existing customers? Doh!

I was bit disappointed that Apple left out a couple of goodies that shipped with the original iPhone - the dock and the microfibre cloth to wipe the screen. The lack of the microfibre cloth is a real silly miss, they can’t cost that much when you’re buying a million of them.

The touchscreen does pick up a lot of fingerprints, though they are only really noticeable when the the screen is off. When the screen is illuminated, its very bright and you really don’t see any.

The screen is actually gloriously bright, extremely crisp and pin sharp. I could easily watch a full length film or television programme on it and probably will. The multi-touch control of the device is nothing short of astounding. It’s extremely intuitive and very accurate.

The iPod functions are also impressive and it blows away my old 60gb 5th gen iPod with video.

I’ve also set up several email accounts on my iPhone. If you want to reach me when I am on the go, you can contact northlondonhippy@gmail.com or northlondonhippy@yahoo.co.uk and I’ll receive them pretty goddamn quickly! You might even get a mobile reply…

I’ve also got the FaceBook mobile application, AIM for instant messaging and I’ve been playing around on Twitter with that cool app called Twinkle. I’m northlondonhippy on all of those services too, though Twitter registered my username as n_londonhippy because they don’t give you enough characters for my full online name.

Surfing the web on the iPhone is something else I’ve spent a good deal of time doing and its the first hand-held device that gives you any sort of useful internet experience. I’ve accessed the net from various mobile phones and an old Palm Pilot of mine and I’ve always found it sorely lacking. Spend ten minutes doing the same on the iPhone 3G and you will wonder how you lived without it. I’ve used both wi-fi and the 3G network and pages load very quickly too.

I read that the new iPhone 3G has about as much computing power as a laptop made in 2003; similar processing power and storage is what I took that to mean. Think about it - I’m now carrying something as powerful as a five-year-old laptop in my pocket now. It blows my mind!

There really are only 2 major differences between the new iPhone 3G and the original iPhone (and yes, I know there are plenty of minor changes, just humour me, please). The inclusion of 3G network access and GPS.

The GPS is nothing short of amazing. Even sitting here , deep inside my north London lair, not near any windows and it still knows where I am with frightening accuracy. The map software lets you know how certain it is of your location, by using variously sized circles to indicate your approximate location, until it is certain and then places a push-pin like marker where you are. Outside with no obstructions, when the iPhone can see the sky, you get a remarkably accurate reading of your location, so much so that if you walk a bit, the blue dot adjusts to your new position.

The location data isn’t only utilised by the map application, but any app can grab it. This includes geo-tagging of your photos and with some Twitter apps, can include your location so you can track people nearby. Spooky!

Can someone please release some turn-by-turn, good enough to work in my car, navigation software? I’ve read that TomTom have already written the app, so why can’t I buy it already? My old TomTom is massive, compared to my tiny, slim little iPhone, if I didn’t have to carry the TomTom with me, it would be a real bonus and my pockets would thank you.

And while I’m at it with a wishlist, could someone please design, manufacture and sell the following:

A powered dock for use in my car, that has a suction-cup windscreen mount, so I can position the iPhone like a SatNav, plus a built-in, sophisticated FM transmitter that scans to find the best frequency and then beams audio to my in-car stereo, in high quality.

My super-dooper in-car dock/transmitter/mount is not actually such a big ask and it would sell like proverbial hotcakes. Bundle it with a code to get a navigation app and you would probably sell 500,000 of them in the first year alone. I’m giving you a multimillion pound idea here, for free, so if one of you do this, at least cut me in for a slice of the pie. Or just send me one of these cool in-car suction-cup, FM-transmitter thingies for free. It’s the least you could do!

There is a third thing that separates the new iPhone 3G from its predecessor, though you can upgrade the original to the new 2.0 software and enjoy it as well. I’m talking about third party applications which you can access via iTunes or on the iPhone itself. Some apps are free, others cost. So far, I’ve only installed the freebies.

I’m not being cheap, its just none of the pay apps have really appealed to me and the best ones seem to be games and I’m not that bothered. When I see one I like the look of (navigation software!!!!!), I’ll happily part with my readies.

There are so many applications available already that I’m not going to actually talk about any of the specific ones now, but I’d rather come back at another time to give them proper attention.

What can’t be denied is that this is the real game changer with the iPhone 3G, the ability to do so many cool things with it. And that’s just today, who knows what tomorrow’s killer application for the iPhone might be…perhaps one of you out there in internetland is already working on the next HUGE thing! Just whisper it in my ear, before your start-up has its IPO, so I can get in on the ground floor and make a little dirty lucre too…!

The one thing no-one seems to ever mention when they write about the iPhone is the phone itself. I think that shows you how far we come with personal technology and gadgets, that the voice-communication function of something with the word “phone” in its name, is taken for granted and doesn’t matter that much.

It does to me and one of my concerns about the iPhone was how it performed as a basic mobile telephone.

It turns out I had nothing to fear, the iPhone is a very robust cellphone. Calls over my network on 3G are clear and the connection seems strong. The speakerphone function really works too, dialling a contact or a phone number is also very simple and works very well.

What’s interesting about the iPhone is the many standard mobile phone functions it DOESN’T do. There’s no MMS messaging, so no sending photos as text messages. There’s no way to forward a text message either. The iPhone has BlueTooth, but the only thing it uses it for is to connect a wireless headset. You can’t send a photo to your computer, or to another phone, you can’t exchange contacts with another phone, you can’t even Bluejack strangers!

I don’t really understand why Apple has locked these functions out. At the very least, let us send photos over bluetooth. And synching notes from my Mac would be useful too!

Something else I don’t understand is the lack of cut & paste. It couldn’t be that hard to get a clipboard like functionality running on it. It’s supposed to be the same software that runs on Macs, so what’s the problem? I know some Apple big-wig mentioned that it was on their list of things to do and they just didn’t have time to get to it, but that comes off sounding lame. There’s got to be some marketing reason for withholding this function, I just haven’t a clue what it could be!

All of these cool things do come at a cost and I don’t mean your monthly bill, though they might sting a bit too. I mean battery life, or the lack of it. Surfing the net, checking emails, playing with apps, all drain the battery far faster than you would like and its very easy to see it drop 50% in a couple of hours.

I could see carrying a spare dock cable and attaching it to the nearest PC at every opportunity. It’s another reason why I want a powered dock for the car. I don’t see how I would get through a full day of serious usage without topping up the battery a couple of times.

So am I happy with my new iPhone?

What do you think? It’s easily the coolest, most powerful device I’ve ever had the pleasure of owning. I’m looking forward to 18 months of delirious joy as I find new and fun things to do with it.

And at the end of 18 months, I can only imagine what sort of iPhone I will be upgrading to then! It will probably transport me to a virtual new reality where I’m the king of the universe and everyone worships me as a living god. Now, that’s a app I’d buy!