Shire Network News is back after a two-week hiatus, raring to go and firing on all cylinders. "Tom Paine" in Melbourne sits in for Brian of London at the anchor desk, due to a family bereavement. Brian should be back next week.

The feature interview this week is with filmmaker Evan Coyne Maloney, whose documentary, "Indoctrinate U" , examines the extent of political bias in American higher education.

We have a commentary from Laurence Simon on the death of Jerry Falwell (he's not a big fan), Doug Payton tells us which Palestinian mouse is the leader of the gang that slays for you and me, and controversial commentator Tomer Israeli congratulates Serbia and utterly ruins a minutes silence for the Nakba. Splendid.

In Blog News, Senator Hillary Clinton, she of the changing political positions, hairstyles and even accents, appeals to visitors to he website to vote on what her campaign song should be. The temptation proves too overwhelming for Tom.

Senator Fred Thompson takes on Michael Moore. You need to guess at the result? Tom's brother in New Zealand sums it up.

The Palestinian civil war continues in the Gaza Strip. Meh.

The World Wide Fund for Nature says the planet has five years left to avert climate change catastrophe. Once again, meh.

John Bolton is interviewed about Iraq on the BBC. The results are...as you might expect. They may have the blood hosed off the walls by the end of the weekend, but those carpets are going to have to be replaced entirely.

A Gitmo detainee alleges "mental torture" by evil AkeriKKKan guards due to...er... unscented soap and balls that are not fully inflated. Oh the humanity!

If you enjoy this podcast, why not share it with your friends? Send a link to Shire Network News to anyone you know who might also get a kick out of robustly-expressed free opinion. And e-mail the big bloggers about us, get them to link to us, we've been ignored for long enough!

Laurence Simon is currently brandishing his spear and shield on this very topic at his blog...

There's been an absence of support from conservative/right-wing bloggers and podcasters out there for Shire Network News, with most of them engaging in the usual mutual-admiration society circle-jerk around a certain falling star of a hub site named after bedwear.

It's time to fight for survival.

Y'all know how much to promote stuff, but I'm ready to flood the zone of IMs, emails, Twitter, Jaiku, Digg, and other networks to get this son of a bitch out there in the open.

And y'all need to be a part of that, or this thing is going to be the best damn podcast nobody's ever heard, and it's going to ultimately podfade from lack of support.

We will recruit Reynolds. We will recruit Malkin. We will recruit Hawkins. We will recruit Althouse. We will recruit Graham. We will recruit Moxie. (Howard Dean scream)

We will recruit them all and take the hill with mightiness unseen since the rise of the Mighty Mighty Bosstones!

Survival is at stake. Greatness and glory, or an untimely and unjust demise.

ARE YOU WITH ME, SPARTA?????????????????????

Er...well, quite. So go and do what he says, okay? You don't want Lair coming after you, trust me. SNN is the premier center-right political podcast in the English speaking world, we've been around for two years now, but the big bloggers seem to to realise we exist. Help us change their minds, okay?

Shire Network News is, of course absolutely free. Unfortunately, explaining that to the local phone company, the electronics store and all the others is not so easy. This is where you, the grateful listener can play a vital role, by hitting the tip jar button which you can find on the right of your screen

You can subscribe to SNN on Apple iTunes using the iTunes 1-click button at the top of this post, or download it directly from the Blogmatrix site.

If you don't have iTunes, I can recommend Podcastready.com a link to which is also in the sidebar to the right.