Another very useful website

Here's another in my very occasional series of links to Extremely Useful websites. In this case, one which allows you to convert any hideous .pub (evil Microsoft) files that annoying people might send you into nice easily-opened PDFs. A big hand for www.pdfonline.com!
I should of course be saying something about the fact that we now have an effing BNP MEP for the North-West - despite, actually, the BNP getting fewer votes than last time.
It's hard to actually work out what to say though, partly because I'm so angry and disgusted that the BNP have got in, and partly because I'm so furious with ego-driven cretins like No2EU, who unfortunately normally sensible people like Attila the Stockbroker were bigging up at the otherwise excellent Billy Bragg/David Rovics/ Attila/Alun Parry gig at the Picket in Liverpool a few weeks back.
23,000 people voted for No2EU. 5,000 votes was the gap in the NW between the Green Party and the BNP. Even Respect had the sense and decency to stand aside, recognising that the Greens were the best chance of keeping the BNP out. But no, a bunch of idiots had to split the Left vote. Half of them don't even seem to know what they were campaigning for - Marc found a bunch of them flypostering in Moss Side a couple of days before the election and tried to engage them on this, and just got a mouthful. Well, No2EU, I hope your little ego project was worth the hundreds of thousands of pounds Nick Griffin is going to be getting in funding over the next few years. Nice one lads.

Waiting for the results...

Well, the European election results come out this evening, which means we'll finally know if the North-West has subjected itself to the shame of electing a BNP MEP.
Whilst the Tories have been the biggest beneficiaries of disillusionment with New Labour (not sure quite why that sweep has been so comprehensive; it was Conservatives who had perpetrated some of the most laughable expenses gaffs, like duck islands and that prick Steen from Totnes chastising the proles because apparently we're all just jealous of his mansion), the BNP has picked up a few new county council seats in the likes of Lancashire and Leicestershire.
My dad, standing for the Lib Dems and subjecting himself to an even greater-then-usual kicking from the Tories in leafy Herts, also got an enhanced level of punishment from the Greens (good!) and the BNP (bad!).
My mum's comment on much of this, made while arguing with a Telegraph-reading uncle while on one her escapes from the depths of Croydon, was that anyone who is a grandparent (and I guess also a parent, aunt, uncle, brother or sister) should first and foremost be choosing their votes on the grounds of climate change policy. Which was hideously pertinent in the week that the Carteret Islands became the first to be systematically evacuated because of the effects of climate change. Something that remained barely commented on in the general media.
Meanwhile another contact, a fan of Friend Sharyn's Gaza blog, observed that she'd written to her UKIP MEP (now sacked) about the issue of Palestine/Israel/settler produce labelling and received a letter back from his assistant saying that she was clearly a terrorist sympathiser and that the correspondence was now closed. Now that's constituency relations for you!
And by way of an update to the last post I did here, the billboard agency which hosted the Israeli Tourist Agency ads which obliterate the West Bank and Gaza into a big glowing yellow Israel outline have bowed under the weight of letters to the ASA, themselves and the Underground and are taking them down. One small victory...
In the West Bank itself another young man has been shot dead in the peaceful protests against the Wall at Ni'lin, while the liberal media creams itself over Obama's Cairo speech. Here is an account of the young man's funeral, from Ma'an News Agency:

Clashes erupted as the funeral procession for the Ni’in man killed by Israeli forces Friday were prevented from reaching the burial grounds in the village on Saturday morning.
Hundreds of mourners including several Palestinian leaders, clergy and political activists, left the Ramallah hospital with Yosef A’qel Srur’s body and took to the streets to accompany the man, shot in the chest with a live bullet by Israeli soldiers, to his grave.
The procession chanted slogans affirming their belief in non-violent resistance and dedication to the struggle against the wall.
The slain man was a 37-year-old father of three young children. Three others were injured by live bullets at the event, and were taken to hospital for treatment.
When the funeral procession arrived to the entrance to the village, four Israeli military checkpoints were set up. Mourners were forced out of their vehicles and walked the rest of the way to the village, said Salah Al-Khawaja, coordinator of the Popular Committee Against the Wall in Ni’lin.
According to Al-Khawaja, Srur spent four years in an Israeli prison for his participation in the non-violent protests, and had been arrested several times and charged fines totaling over 1000 Israeli shekels (250 US dollars). During one home invasion, Israeli forces broke into Srur’s apartment and shot his brother in the eye. Though he was rushed to the hospital he lost the eye and is partially blind.
Srur participated in the rallies each week for years.

Chomsky delivers a more realistic analysis of Obama's speech here, while the irascible but excellent Robert Fisk comments on what exactly the POTUS got to see of the Middle East. I wonder where Fisk will be off to if, as seems horribly likely, the Independent becomes the first national casualty of the crisis of the newspapers busy killing off our local press. Friend Ruth bumped into an old colleague from Ethical Consumer the other day who now works on a Manchester local paper. She still has her job, but other people don't and she has to do their work too - with no extra pay.
I guess that's the market for you.