Open Forum: August 11, 2012 at Catallaxy Files

Open Forum: August 11, 2012

847 comments

Written by Sinclair Davidson

August 11th, 2012 at 12:01 am

Posted in Open Forum

847 Responses to 'Open Forum: August 11, 2012'

Subscribe to comments with RSS or TrackBack to 'Open Forum: August 11, 2012'.

first!?

squawkbox

11 Aug 12 at 12:06 am
A few weeks old, but the founder of MegaUpload, Kim Dotcom, released an Anti-Obama music video,

Kim Dotcom – Mr President

Alex Pundit

11 Aug 12 at 12:08 am
Pretty catchy…

Alex Pundit

11 Aug 12 at 12:09 am
New photos of Khmer Rouge torture victims

PHOTOGRAPHS of more than 1,200 inmates of a Khmer Rouge torture centre are to made public for the first time, researchers say.

A collection of 1242 images from the S-21 prison in Phnom Penh were given to The Documentation Centre of Cambodia research institute on Thursday by a donor who wished to remain anonymous.
…
It was hoped the portraits could enable families to determine the fates of relatives lost during Khmer Rouge rule. The vast majority of images are accompanied by the names of the subjects.

“It contributes to the restoring of family and hope that were destroyed by the Khmer Rouge,” the centre’s Youk Chhang said on Friday.

S-21, also known at Tuol Sleng, was once a school in suburban Phnom Penh, but from 1975 to 1979 it became a centre for torture and execution.

FLASHBACK to lefty “hero” Whitlam:

In a paper delivered at the Australian National University in September, 1978, Whitlam said he doubted “all the stories that appear in the newspapers about the treatment of people in Cambodia”. In other words, three years after Pol Pot’s killing fields began operations, Whitlam remained unconvinced that the communist Khmer Rouge regime was into mass murder – in the face of all evidence.

Labor really hated the Vietnamese. Wonder if they still do?

Gab

11 Aug 12 at 12:15 am
Mmm. Interesting. Slater & Gordon are upset.

THE most powerful union in Australia, the Australian Workers Union, is being asked by its former law firm Slater & Gordon for permission to lift a legal lid on highly sensitive files on a union funds scandal that subsequently embroiled Julia Gillard.

The move will put pressure on AWU boss Paul Howes, who has pledged zero tolerance for union corruption, to grant public scrutiny of confidential files tied to an allegedly criminal scam that has dogged the Prime Minister throughout her political career.

Ms Gillard has denied any knowledge and involvement in the scam.

The Weekend Australian can reveal that Slater & Gordon is also contacting Ms Gillard’s former boyfriend and client Bruce Wilson – the allegedly corrupt leader of the scam, who was the AWU’s Victoria branch head – to ask him to waive his right to legal privilege…

Also, The Australian reports that it has been investigating the Gillard/Wilson scandal for weeks:

Since Mr McClelland spoke up The Australian has been examining newly-released material and interviewing key figures including Mr Blewitt, who has admitted for the first time there were “sham transactions”. Mr Blewitt is the former legal owner of a house in Melbourne’s inner-city suburb of Fitzroy that was used and legally controlled by Mr Wilson, and allegedly bought with misappropriated AWU funds in a transaction handled and part-financed by Slater & Gordon.

C.L.

11 Aug 12 at 12:38 am
Tony Abbott: Racist swine.

Infidel Tiger

11 Aug 12 at 12:44 am
That’s odd.

Nixola Roxon isn’t in that pic.

No Labor politicians joined the working bee?

C.L.

11 Aug 12 at 12:53 am
Body language expert picks Ryan as Romney’s VP

Alex Pundit

11 Aug 12 at 12:54 am
This one’s going straight to the pool room:

http://twitter.com/iowahawkblog/status/233933305739878400

sdog

11 Aug 12 at 1:00 am
I’d retire after that s_dog.

Infidel Tiger

11 Aug 12 at 1:01 am
When I listened again to that song recently I struck me that Springsteen could have been talking expressly about a few people that I’ve written about lately. Since my controversial essay was published in The Monthly in March I’ve been asked often whether I now regret having criticised some of Australia’s wealthiest and most outspoken mining tycoons. My answer is simple: no, I don’t regret a word of it. Not for a second. In fact, my only regret is not going in hard enough, because every criticism I made has been played out almost to the letter on our national stage.

You will recall my original charge: that the rising influence of vested interests is threatening Australia’s egalitarian social contract. I argued that a handful of powerful people not only think they have the right to a disproportionate share of the nation’s economic success, they think they have the right to manipulate our democracy and our national conversation to gain an even bigger slice of the pie.

– Wayne Swan.

Will Swan now criticise this billionaire for his “disproportionate share”? :

THE cash-strapped Tasmanian government has written off a $700,000 debt owed by billionaire Lang Walker’s corporation.

Attorney-General Brian Wightman has settled with Walker Corporation over money owed for a government assessment of a failed canal estate proposal east of Hobart.

Gab

11 Aug 12 at 1:01 am
Hope you’ll remember us little people who knew you before you were famous, Spot.

Gab

11 Aug 12 at 1:02 am
THE most powerful union in Australia, the Australian Workers Union, is being asked by its former law firm Slater & Gordon for permission to lift a legal lid on highly sensitive files on a union funds scandal that subsequently embroiled Julia Gillard.

The move will put pressure on AWU boss Paul Howes,…

Stevefrombrisbane could not be reached for comment.

Gab

11 Aug 12 at 1:04 am
Fme – Arthur Brooks and now Iowahawk who has been on fire shredding Stephanie Cutter.

Sinc, “Kneel before ~~Zod~~ sdog”

JamesK

11 Aug 12 at 1:13 am
Ta, IT & Gab

::insert Snoopy happydance here::

sdog

11 Aug 12 at 1:15 am
Huffington Post: Romney behind El Salvador Death Squads or something.

C.L.

11 Aug 12 at 1:26 am
WSJ:

The Postmodern President –
The challenge is finding anything his campaign says that is true.

President Obama spent his formative years in academia, so he’s no doubt familiar with postmodernism, the literary theory that rejects objective reality and insists instead that everything is a matter of interpretation and relative “truth.” At any rate he’s running the first postmodern Presidential campaign, now organized almost exclusively around allegations about his opponent that bear no relation to the observable universe.

RTWT. No, really. Do. Obama is an evil cur. It’s that simple.

C.L.

11 Aug 12 at 1:35 am
Well that seems to have worked.

lotocoti

11 Aug 12 at 4:55 pm
Paul Ryan is the VP nominee pick

JamesK

11 Aug 12 at 5:01 pm
Nessum Dorma

Nobody shall sleep!…
Nobody shall sleep!
Even you, o Princess,
in your cold room,
watch the stars,
that tremble with love and with hope.
But my secret is hidden within me,
my name no one shall know…
No!…No!…
On your mouth I will tell it when the light shines.
And my kiss will dissolve the silence that makes you mine!…
(No one will know his name and we must, alas, die.)
Vanish, o night!
Set, stars! Set, stars!
At dawn, I will win! I will win! I will win!

Splatacrobat

11 Aug 12 at 5:06 pm
NBC News: Sources indicate Romney will pick Ryan

Three different sources close to the Romney campaign indicate to NBC News that Mitt Romney will announce House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan as his vice-presidential running mate at tomorrow’s campaign event in Norfolk, VA.

The announcement will be in front of the U.S.S. Wisconsin — which just happens to be Ryan’s home state.

JamesK

11 Aug 12 at 5:11 pm
Holy cow, Batman, just how sordid…there’s a best seller and movie in there for sure…

Pickering’s Is The Prime Minister A Crook? Part III

It was a warm Sunday morning in Fitzroy in late 1992.

Bill Shorten and his lover Nicola Roxon had struggled out of bed late and were heading up Brunswick Street for breakfast when Bill noticed a couple they knew having coffee opposite.

They waved, crossed the road, and sat down with Julia Gillard and Bruce Wilson. The conversation concerned no more than the weather but Julia was overtly gesticulating with her left hand. It bore a sizable stone in a white gold ring. “You guys are engaged!” exclaimed Bill. Julia blushed. Nicola looked askance at Bruce.

Julia was excited, in love, and it showed. But Nicola was aware that Bruce was bedding a number of other women, and it showed too, as she lowered her head and glared at Wilson. Wilson was known in AWU circles as “Wilson the Rooter”.

To understand Julia Gillard we must first visit her history.

There’s more in the article, but Shorten & Roxon? Beeerk! Eeeewww.

Okay, back to reading the rest of it.

Gab

11 Aug 12 at 5:15 pm
In Part IV, the AWU divides into two camps: Kernohan and Cambridge want the fraud exposed. Shorten wants it covered up. Shorten wins, for now. And we find out where Paul Howes sits and if his “zero tolerance for union corruption” is mere bluster in the pursuit of self preservation. Regardless, with what is about to be exposed, Gillard’s tenure can now be measured in weeks.

Explosive stuff in terms of senior government MPs implicated in the fraud and the on-going cover-up.

Gab

11 Aug 12 at 5:24 pm
Man, they’re an incestuous lot.

Gab

11 Aug 12 at 5:25 pm
Ughh, Shorten was throwing the leg over Roxon.

I’m not sure who’s the creepier

JamesK

11 Aug 12 at 5:26 pm
@CL – but, but there’s no evidence, its’ all just baseless smears and rumors for dear Julia

I think if the law firm has decided to switch sides, things could get very interesting indeed.

Looks to me like there is a queue of people lining up to through the PM under the bus.

brc

11 Aug 12 at 5:27 pm
Honestly, the whole lot of them are like rutting goats.

Gab

11 Aug 12 at 5:27 pm
just how sordid…

A casting call for Underbelly IX: Labor Rules is scheduled for mid November.

lotocoti

11 Aug 12 at 5:29 pm
WTF, Shorted(ed) and Adolfia von Roxon were an item. I’m going out this evening to my second fav restaurant for my second fav dish. It won’t taste the same. It’s been ruined.

JC

11 Aug 12 at 5:29 pm
Malcolm Turbull backs Gillard. News at 11.

Gab

11 Aug 12 at 5:31 pm
Someone ought to market a new board game to raise funds for the election, “Labor – Who’s schtooping who?

Gab

11 Aug 12 at 5:35 pm
Pickering’s latest is sickening, especially Roxon and Shorten being an item. No wonder the ALP wants a national disability scheme, imagine the rate of deformity from the inbreeding amongst the ALP.

I can’t wait for instalment 4 especially if it takes down those 2 AWU smarmy grubs: Shorten and Howes.

John Comnenus

11 Aug 12 at 5:44 pm
WTF, Shorted(ed) and Adolfia von Roxon were an item.

Oh my god, they never cease to amaze or disgust, the Labor Party.

Fisky

11 Aug 12 at 5:45 pm
Conroy should be making an appearance soon in the Pickering files…

Gab

11 Aug 12 at 5:45 pm
The Labor Party have killed another 60 people.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/newshome/14522724/fears-for-loved-ones-lost-in-ocean-crossing/

Fisky

11 Aug 12 at 5:46 pm
The ALP sounds like it’s a demented mixture of a swingers group and a lonely hearts club for the intellectually impaired who think they are above the law because they are born to rule.

John Comnenus

11 Aug 12 at 5:49 pm
“Paul Ryan is the VP nominee pick”

http://www.ontheissues.org/House/Paul_Ryan.htm

Jarrah

11 Aug 12 at 5:58 pm
….they are above the law because they are born to rule.

It’s a cult, John C.

Growing up I was hanging out with a buddy .. a lawyer working for one of those labor firms and I used to get invited to drink binges and shit like that where there were a few of those sorts of people. They really thought they were something especially the political advisers in the ALP.

Scored a few times too as I recall.

The men were pretentious squishes- all of them, while the gals had the veneer of that sorta leftwing snobbery you see at times, but it was a pretty thin one you could always break through with only mild persistence and don’t give a shit who you are attitude.

Funnily enough I met wifey at one of those parties.

JC

11 Aug 12 at 5:59 pm
If politics is show business for ugly people, then the ALP must be where the ugly go to mate.

John Comnenus

11 Aug 12 at 5:59 pm
If politics is show business for ugly people, then the ALP must be where the ugly go to mate.

Not always

JC

11 Aug 12 at 6:00 pm
Funnily enough I met wifey at one of those parties.

Hero, JC. Saved a damsel from a fate worse than death.

Tom

11 Aug 12 at 6:03 pm
So Ryan is the pick. Good, that covers the GOP and independents focus on fixing the deficit. If Romnster begins to make noises about Ryan taking serious oversight of the budget process it could carry the team to real serious contention and a big win.

Ryan is great value especially for the libertarian wing and would stop the Ron Paul wing from wondering off.

He also holds up the Tea party.

http://reason.com/archives/2012/08/09/the-case-for-paul-ryan-for-vice-presiden

JC

11 Aug 12 at 6:07 pm
Hero, JC. Saved a damsel from a fate worse than death.

lol She doesn’t know how lucky she is, Tom. I guess she’ll only know in the afterlife.

JC

11 Aug 12 at 6:08 pm
JC, I once went to an ALP fundraiser with a mate after going to a very entertaining presentation on the history of the Martini at a nearby pub. I was in a suit because I had come straight from an interstate business meeting. I was sitting at a Left table. My mate went and got some beers and these guys and girls start quizzing me. Have you been to Nori’s preselection? are you from Sussex street? Are you from the Right? After answering no to all I told them I was a Liberal voter. That’s OK, they said. ‘We were worried that you were from Right!’ after that it was a fun trivia night hosted by Michael Lee. The table didn’t know much.

John Comnenus

11 Aug 12 at 6:08 pm
Some highlights from that link:

Rated 0% by NARAL, indicating a pro-life voting record. (Dec 2003)
Rated 100% by the NRLC, indicating a pro-life stance. (Dec 2006)
Rated 13% by the ACLU, indicating an anti-civil rights voting record. (Dec 2002)
Rated 0% by the HRC, indicating an anti-gay-rights stance. (Dec 2006)
Rated 36% by NAACP, indicating a mixed record on affirmative-action. (Dec 2006)
Rated 93% by the US COC, indicating a pro-business voting record. (Dec 2003)
Rated 14% by UFCW, indicating a pro-management voting record. (May 2012)
Rated 30% by CURE, indicating anti-rehabilitation crime votes. (Dec 2000)
Rated -10 by NORML, indicating a “hard-on-drugs” stance. (Dec 2006)
Rated 8% by the NEA, indicating anti-public education votes. (Dec 2003)
Rated 0% by the CAF, indicating opposition to energy independence. (Dec 2006)
Rated 10% by the LCV, indicating anti-environment votes. (Dec 2003)
Rated 13% by HSLF, indicating an anti-animal welfare voting record. (Jan 2012)
Rated 91% by the Christian Coalition: a pro-Family-Value voting record. (Dec 2003)
Rated -3 by AAI, indicating an anti-Arab anti-Palestine voting record. (May 2012)
Rated 67% by CATO, indicating a pro-free trade voting record. (Dec 2002)
Rated A by the NRA, indicating a pro-gun rights voting record. (Dec 2003)
Rated 11% by APHA, indicating an anti-public health voting record. (Dec 2003)
Rated 22% by SANE, indicating a pro-military voting record. (Dec 2003)
Rated 0% by FAIR, indicating a voting record loosening immigration. (Dec 2003)
Rated 83% by USBC, indicating a sealed-border stance. (Dec 2006)
Rated 7% by the AFL-CIO, indicating an anti-union voting record. (Dec 2003)
Rated 58% by CEI, indicating a mixed voting record on Big Labor. (May 2012)
Rated 0% by the AU, indicating opposition to church-state separation. (Dec 2006)
Rated 10% by the ARA, indicating an anti-senior voting record. (Dec 2003)
Rated 72% by NTU, indicating “Satisfactory” on tax votes. (Dec 2003)
Rated 0% by the CTJ, indicating opposition to progressive taxation. (Dec 2006)

Jarrah

11 Aug 12 at 6:09 pm
After answering no to all I told them I was a Liberal voter. That’s OK, they said. ‘We were worried that you were from Right!’ after that it was a fun trivia night hosted by Michael Lee. The table didn’t know much.

It’s funny you say that. My kid was involved in student politics at uni. His observation was that that the Labor Right crowd hated the left groupings more than they hated the liberal and conservative groups. The conservative groups used to actually get along with Labor Right at his uni during his time. Seriously. Labor despised one another to that extent. It’s really a party built on hate and loathing.

JC

11 Aug 12 at 6:14 pm
Okay…. now Dem VP stakes.

I think there’s at least a fair chance that Obummer will elbow Slow Joe out for Gov. Hickenlooper of Colorado.

JamesK

11 Aug 12 at 6:14 pm
I think there’s at least a fair chance that Obummer will elbow Slow Joe out for Gov. Hickenlooper of Colorado.

I think it’s too late. Changing over now would be a sign of real desperation and if the clown makes noise about being booted it would look absolutely awful for the Kenyan.

The Veep debates will be excellent for a roasting.

JC

11 Aug 12 at 6:19 pm
Pickering’s latest is beyond devastating, if true.

Is it true?

Well, he has not been sued for libel.

So it’s most likely to be true and that assessment strengthens every single day he is not sued.

Pickering has directly stated that Slater and Gordon actively aided and abetted fraud.

Astonishing, the scabs are being pulled off the ALP and the pus is pouring out.

If Pickering were libeling Juliar those others he accuses of criminal conduct and S&G, his arse would surely be grass.

No wonder Jarrah wants to talk about Romney’s VP pick and the usual leftards are all hiding under flat rocks.

Mk50 of Brisbane

11 Aug 12 at 6:23 pm
I think it’s too late.

Depends how much trouble he thinks he’s in.

JamesK

11 Aug 12 at 6:24 pm
I think we’re still only at the ‘tip of the iceberg’ stage, Mark.

Gab

11 Aug 12 at 6:26 pm
Depends how much trouble he thinks he’s in.

If Biden threatens to make big noise that he was pushed out and shit like that, the Kenyan would be fucked. I don’t think he can it although he’d like to.

JC

11 Aug 12 at 6:27 pm
This is just extraordinary:

The US Secretary of Homeland Security ran her department like a female “frat house” where men were routinely bullied and sexually humiliated, according to a lawsuit filed by a former official.

Well maybe the complainant has his own agenda – but it sure isn’t the money

Mr Hayes, who is seeking $335,000 in damages, said that Miss Napolitano allowed Miss Barr to “target” him because of his gender and held conference calls with his colleagues to “discuss possible excuses” for sacking him.

But it could be going all the way down the line instead of to a settlement

Mr Hayes requested that the matter be settled by a jury trial – raising the embarrassing possibility that Miss Napolitano could be forced to appear in court to testify about the allegations.

And remember – this is Homeland Security ffs. God knows what a sewer other departments must be ?

Myrddin Seren

11 Aug 12 at 6:29 pm
updates on Heiner
• by: PIERS AKERMAN
• From: The Australian
• August 11, 2012 12:00AM
• http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/features/two-decades-on-and-search-for-justice-in-the-heiner-affair-continues/story-e6frg6z6-1226447868515

AN extraordinary document has been lodged with Queensland’s Child Protection Commission of Inquiry and released to the public. In support of an application for the Commissioner to recuse himself, it includes unsubstantiated claims that there may be sufficient cause for the conduct of the Governor-General Quentin Bryce and six serving Queensland judicial officers to be investigated for possible breaches of Section 87 of the Queensland Criminal Code, relating to official corruption.

and a the very important posting that has gone out to the world via “The Heiner Affair” webpage as from 8 August 2012.

http://www.heineraffair.info/

Piers mentions in his article:

The Child Protection Commission has been deluged with requests for the Rofe Audit, Exhibit 5 (attachment 2) and has asked that callers use its website [email protected] when seeking a copy.

I can confirm the Rofe Audit is riviting

val majkus

11 Aug 12 at 6:31 pm
If it’s Biden how are the Dem-Media-complex msm gonna prevent Senile Slow Joe from looking the blustering boofhead in contrast to Ryan’s intelligence and vibrancy?

JamesK

11 Aug 12 at 6:31 pm
American like imagery and shit like that.

Put this picture together with this one when the Romster ends his acceptance speech at the convention and tjhe families take to the podium

It’s worth 3 or 4 points at least.

JC

11 Aug 12 at 6:32 pm
If it’s Biden how are the Dem-Media-complex msm gonna prevent Senile Slow Joe from looking the blustering boofhead in contrast to Ryan’s intelligence and vibrancy?

Stick him in the cupboard and hope the MSM don’t mention him and only let him come out at the convention reading a prepared speech. That’s it.

Notice you haven’t seen much of him of late?

It’s been mostly the Kenyan, as they know stupid Joe will fuck something up.

JC

11 Aug 12 at 6:35 pm
And remember – this is Homeland Security ffs. God knows what a sewer other departments must be ?

The Kenyan really has good control of the cabinet and executive branch, right?

JC

11 Aug 12 at 6:37 pm
That Paul Ryan video clip was impressive. There’s a man who honestly tackled the issues without a hint of sarcasm or ill-will toward Obama and knew what to say effectively. More of him, please.

Gab

11 Aug 12 at 6:39 pm
Catching up from previous Open Fred, response to DB’s reference below:

If you want to get a general sense of the Middle Ages, try a classic, Johan Huizinga’s The Waning of the Middle Ages.

Read it already, natch, DB. My point really was that if Manchester can make such a hash of one piece of history, how reliable can he be on other things, such as his interpretation of Churchill etc., things which were being argued by Sinc and others who were referencing Manchester.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

11 Aug 12 at 6:40 pm
This is just extraordinary:

So Janet Incompetano is really a neo Irma Grese?

What is with leftists and totalitarianism?

JamesK

11 Aug 12 at 6:40 pm
Here ya go, Spot…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dw3rPL0fOFM

kae

11 Aug 12 at 6:47 pm
Gab 5:25

Man, they’re an incestuous lot.

My thought exactly!

kae

11 Aug 12 at 6:49 pm
JamesK 5:26

Urrgh. Shorten & Roxon – eeeeuuuuwww.

What I thought, too.

kae

11 Aug 12 at 6:50 pm
It seems there have been a few mentions of the relationship in news items—here’s an article from 2005 noting Shorten and Roxon lived together.

And this from 2008: “Before meeting his wife, Mr Shorten dated and lived with current federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon.”

(The wife referred to there was first wife Deborah Beale, the one before Chloe Bryce.)

Musical chairs… “Rutting goats” isn’t bad, Gab, LOL.

Tabitha N

11 Aug 12 at 6:54 pm
Shortone and Poxon bumping uglies.

No. Just no.

Must go and soak brain in bleach now.

Mk50 of Brisbane

11 Aug 12 at 7:00 pm
Shorten was good buddies with Richard Pratt? Wonder if Woine Swan knew that at the time. I’m sure he would’ve been mighty upset given his much publicised hate towards da rich.

Gab

11 Aug 12 at 7:02 pm
Was there are ring?

If so, how was it paid for?

Did Gillard keep it?

Tabitha N

11 Aug 12 at 7:08 pm
But the cat came back the very next day,
The cat came back, we thought he was a goner,
The cat came back, he just wouldn’t stay awaaaaay.

Jumpnmcar

11 Aug 12 at 7:10 pm
One could be forgiven for thinking the union bossmen and their elite lackeys simply view, and use, union monies -paid for by union members- as their own private stash, Tabitha. A ring is a little thing compared to a house and clothing for the well-heeled Labor wymmin.

Gab

11 Aug 12 at 7:15 pm
Omen I full movie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkm2rMZXPyg

coz

11 Aug 12 at 7:16 pm
shortarse and roxoff?

Well, there goes any prospect of dinner.

Rabz

11 Aug 12 at 7:22 pm
A flow chart with the connections between, and the names of the players, would be illuminating.
It’s an explanation of why the wives keep their last names.

Winston Smith

11 Aug 12 at 7:26 pm
Rated 0% by NARAL, indicating a pro-life voting record. (Dec 2003)

Gold.

C.L.

11 Aug 12 at 7:28 pm
Just back form Blair’s after venting my fury on that disgusting, scabrous, aged (70+) nazi shithead barnaby fife.

Aaaarrrggghhhh!!!!!

Rabz

11 Aug 12 at 7:32 pm
My point really was that if Manchester can make such a hash of one piece of history, how reliable can he be on other things, such as his interpretation of Churchill etc.

Lizzie, no fear, youu made that point loud and clear so far as I was concerned.

dover_beach

11 Aug 12 at 7:32 pm
Rated 0% by NARAL, indicating a pro-life voting record. (Dec 2003)

Gold.

Absolutely.

dover_beach

11 Aug 12 at 7:40 pm
As one commenter put on the Pickering piece: “Days of our Lies”. lol. Their ugly bumping won’t put me off a nice restaurant meal tonight though. Nothing gets between me and my food.

I’ve never doubted Gillard had ungone the obligatory give-it-a-go lesbianism push that tends to be thrust (wrong verb?) on all the left wimmyn at uni, and still is according to the confessional longings written by an in-the-news recent journalism intern.

At one time, I was there, good little lefty, and a few of the old lags tried to kiss me quick, but I slid away. Some of them are actually nice, but they should keep to their own kind. Met a couple at the cocktail party last night, and they were, shall we say ‘appreciative’ of my charms, shook hands beautifully.

Those shiny boots she used to wear when she first became PM were a dead giveaway. Only worn by women who have been serious about the trial.

But she was enraptured by a ring? A true girlish heart was beating. Almost makes me feel sorry for her that he was such a rat.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

11 Aug 12 at 7:47 pm
Ryan has some pretty sensible views there. Great pick by Romney and bring on the debates!

Fisky

11 Aug 12 at 7:48 pm
I’ve never doubted dullard had ungone the obligatory give-it-a-go lesbianism push that tends to be thrust on all the left wimmyn at uni

LUGs, Lizzie, LUGs*…

* Lesbians Until Graduation.

Rabz

11 Aug 12 at 7:54 pm
Lizzie, here’s a thought I had last night that I just couldn’t shake. Could syphilis account for Craig Emerson’s bizarre behaviour? If so, who else has it? Behavioural symptoms:

irritable mood, restlessness, grandiose ideations, jocularity, disinhibition, decreased sleep, and demanding behavior in the initial 6 months followed by irritability, suspiciousness, and abusive, assaultive, and hallucinatory behavior (talking to self and smiling to self)

Tom

11 Aug 12 at 8:03 pm
Yep, LUG’s Rabz, but if they continue to wear the boots then they are probably swinging both ways, or at least keeping in good with the strap-on crowd. (isn’t Pickering so naughty and blush-making, such a public expression of things best not talked about? But LOL).

These wimmyn do like the femme though, viz last night, blondie me with the diamonds and big blue eyes and da Hairy Ape hovering beside me, and they with the friendlies and forthright smiles, and the big one saying ‘this is my partner, Maria (not her real name)’, and Maria coming forward to shake hands too, and an unspoken frission of assessment in their air, like when I meet a guy who is a little bit interesting and a lot hot, but not the same, ‘cos da Ape doesn’t assess guys in the same way I do, but these two chicks were definitely both on the same page.

Veal steak, coming up Rabz, gotta go, Ape getting very restless, pacing the cage, rattling bars etc. We will go to the place just down the road.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

11 Aug 12 at 8:15 pm
Some months ago the Oz ran a feature article on the labyrinthine connections and interrelationships(sexual, marital, post marital, economic, patronage-linked, and work related) of union and labor party members. Mindblowing stuff. Their tentacles are everywhere and they all adhere to the law of omerta – all except Kathy Jackson.

PS I read some time ago that Shorten and Roxon had been on together so I’m suprised it isn’t common knowledge.

Viva

11 Aug 12 at 8:16 pm
Just back form Blair’s after venting my fury on that disgusting, scabrous, aged (70+) nazi shithead barnaby fife.

I ran in to that guy on the Bolt blog. He’s also a Truther, right? Nasty piece of work.

Alex Pundit

11 Aug 12 at 8:22 pm
To understand Julia Gillard we must first visit her history.

Old sins cast long shadows

Splatacrobat

11 Aug 12 at 8:23 pm
Barnaby Fife a nasty piece of work? No, just another turd rolling down the endless slope of the troll amphitheatre. Like SfB.

blogstrop

11 Aug 12 at 8:30 pm
febro=febrile

blogstrop

11 Aug 12 at 8:31 pm
Enjoy the Veal, Lizzie!

Rabz

11 Aug 12 at 8:32 pm
barnaby fife is an unrepentant nazi.

The most gratifying take down of him I ever had the pleasure of reading was when a Blair commenter noted that (and I’m paraphrasing):

“anyone who is even aware of the barbaby fife character, let alone uses the name as their internet ID is obviously in the twilight of their pointless pathetic life”.

A great takedown.

Rabz

11 Aug 12 at 8:38 pm
Ughh, Shorten was throwing the leg over Roxon.

I’m not sure who’s the creepier

I first read this here as a joke by Pickering. Now I find it’s not.

I. Want. To. Be. Sick.

Some months ago the Oz ran a feature article on the labyrinthine connections and interrelationships

Viva – Google “Who’s in bed with Kristina Keneally?” to read some of this by Tom Dusevic in The Australian on March 24, 2011.

Roxon? Aaaaarghhh – I need to walk over to the Broadwater immediately and throw myself in fully clothed to wash it off.

Mick Gold Coast QLD

11 Aug 12 at 8:41 pm
Here’s hoping the Mighty Swannies dish out an almighty crunching to those loathsome, lobotomised, toothless, STD laden, welfare bludging, laybore voting, cretinous criminal scumbags.

P.S. Well done, dane, ‘woine’ goose!

Happy multiplying of the chippies while you’re parked on your big fat stupid arse, you moron!

Rabz

11 Aug 12 at 8:45 pm
febro is who? A Simpsons character?

Splatacrobat

11 Aug 12 at 8:50 pm
Potemkin’s Village

A good friend will come… here

Grigory Potemkin

11 Aug 12 at 8:56 pm
Doncha like the Magpies Rabz?

I suppose that’s fair enough if only because the illiterate drongos are responsible for thrusting on us Comrade Blokes Marrying Blokes in the Melbourne electorate.

Fox is on in the background – Collingwood 34-31 at half time.

Mick Gold Coast QLD

11 Aug 12 at 9:06 pm
Almost makes me feel sorry for her that he was such a rat.

Me too Lizzie. What a teflon turd Wilco was (is). Makes the ‘naive claim just a teensy bit believable. But not the unprofessionality of senior partner lawyer pulling shonks.

On another matter, I was thinking why it is that so many greenies have no babies. Vis Brownshirt, AA Milne (Crazy Christine), Hyphen Hyphen, Adam Ant etc., (please correct me if I am wrong about any of them – apologise unreservedly etc. etc.)and I wondered if the answer lies in The Lord of the Rings, with the Ents and the Orcs. Are they (Greenies) masquerading as Ents, but really Orcs? If so, it follows – do they eat their young (as in the Orcs were very keen to eat Frodo and friends?)

Helen Armstrong

11 Aug 12 at 9:10 pm
fab sex lives of the ALP

That’s like 10th rate porn on dirty sheets or old men in overcoats flashing their wrinklys at children.

Helen Armstrong

11 Aug 12 at 9:14 pm
I just read Who’s in bed with Kristina Keneally .
I don’t think even the most astute Danish porn film director could think up that many combinations of acts. And they say the British aristocracy is barking mad with incestuous hereditary. I don’t think the infighting with Labor is about left or right factional ideology, it’s more to do with who’s rooting who or who used to root who.

This article is like a scene from The Borgias.
The Borgias became prominent in ecclesiastical and political affairs in the 1400s and 1500s. They produced two popes during this period, Alfons de Borja who ruled as Pope Calixtus III during 1455–1458, and Rodrigo Lanzol Borgia, as Pope Alexander VI, during 1492–1503. Today they are remembered for their corrupt rule during the reign of Alexander VI. They have been accused of many different crimes, including adultery, simony, theft, rape, bribery, incest, and murder (especially murder by arsenic poisoning[1]). Because of their search for power, they made enemies of other powerful families such as the Medici and the Sforza

Splatacrobat

11 Aug 12 at 9:15 pm
Doncha like the Magpies Rabz?

Indeed, Mick, that allegation could be allegedly alleged…

Hate the *&$#ing @#%*s with an undying passion.

Swannies will trample them in the second stanza…

Rabz

11 Aug 12 at 9:18 pm
That’s like 10th rate porn on dirty sheets or old men in overcoats flashing their wrinklys at children.

In other words, it’s the stuff of our worst mightmares, or the place known as Hades.

Where hopefully every membah of teh ozdraylian lobodomy pardee is either residing in perpetuity or will end up residing in perpetuity.

Think of teh kiddies, people!

Rabz

11 Aug 12 at 9:23 pm
Swannies!

57-46

Rabz

11 Aug 12 at 9:31 pm
I am trying to think of any perverted/criminal act the ALP and greenfilth have not got covered.

Sexual perversions are all covered from pederasty to milton peddorkopolis the fiddler of kiddies, the ALP and union movement covers every crime from thuggery to murder. The greenfilth’s cataclysmic imbecility has got ecocide and every possible crime against nature covered (in more sense than one), and the ALp-greenfilth coalition is beavering away on crimes against humanity through their endless butchery of ‘little brown people’ via drowning them.

Even treason is covered by the only KGB member known to be an Australian Senator.

I can’t actually think of a perversion or many crimes they have not committed.

Can anyone else help me out here?

Perhaps they have not committed wildlife smuggling??

Surely there has to be at least one crime they have not committed.

Mk50 of Brisbane

11 Aug 12 at 9:42 pm
That’s like … old men in overcoats flashing their wrinklys at children.

Oh, so you’ve met febro, then?

Mk50 of Brisbane

11 Aug 12 at 9:43 pm
Marky – Can anyone else help me out here?

Buggering of dead whales?

Rabz

11 Aug 12 at 9:48 pm
I can’t actually think of a perversion or many crimes they have not committed.

Accountable government?

Splatacrobat

11 Aug 12 at 9:49 pm
opps I mean ” Surely there has to be at least one crime they have not committed.”

Accountable government

Splatacrobat

11 Aug 12 at 9:51 pm
This is one cable that slipped onto the net long before Wikileaks was ever heard of. Very witty

UK Ambassador in Moscow makes remarks about a Turkish Colleague.

Splatacrobat

11 Aug 12 at 9:58 pm
My deepest sympathies, Rabz. Can’t remember an AFL season so even. I do believe, however, it is not possible for Collingood to win the flag. They win one every 20 years; their turn was in 2010. They suffer from incurable hubris.

Tom

11 Aug 12 at 10:25 pm
Thanks Tommy.

Not happy.

How the Bloods let that hoodoo keep on keepin’ on is a mystery.

Premiers?

My mate who’s an ex Saints player is tipping da Hawks.

Cats, Swans, Beagles, Cows?

Rabz

11 Aug 12 at 10:30 pm
What a shame, Rabz.

Gab

11 Aug 12 at 10:38 pm
Malcolm Turnbull has once again demonstrated his credentials for leading the Liberal Party. Such an astute political mind. What a genius this man is. Support the governments position and undermine the Federal Party and the State Leaders position. Giving comfort to the enemy. That’s the way to win elections.

His judgement is only marginally better than the Liar’s judgement.

johno

11 Aug 12 at 11:03 pm
Or perhaps Turnbull just prefers substance to spin, and is sick of listening to Abbott’s blatant lies

SteveC

11 Aug 12 at 11:05 pm
What a shame…

Thank you, Reader Gab.

Not happy.

Rabz

11 Aug 12 at 11:06 pm
Or perhaps Turnbull just prefers substance to spin…

Is that why he banned light-bulbs on the pretext of encoolening the planet?

Because he prefers substance to spin?

C.L.

11 Aug 12 at 11:07 pm
Research finds women feel happy when their husband or partner is upset.

News at 11.

C.L.

11 Aug 12 at 11:08 pm
What a shame.

Gab

11 Aug 12 at 11:09 pm
If by “banning lightbulbs” you mean supporting replacement of inefficient incandescent bulbs with low power flourescent, then he’s on the sensible path.

SteveC

11 Aug 12 at 11:09 pm
Swanies went down unfortunately Rabz. But should toughen them up for the business end..

Lazlo

11 Aug 12 at 11:10 pm
If by “banning lightbulbs” you mean supporting replacement of inefficient incandescent bulbs with low power flourescent, then he’s on the sensible path.

More expensive and more harmful to da planet. Unless mercury is no longer deemed harmful in these enlightening (pun, ha!) times.

Gab

11 Aug 12 at 11:11 pm
If by “banning lightbulbs” you mean supporting replacement of inefficient incandescent bulbs with low power flourescent, then he’s on the sensible path.

And by how much will this encoolen the earth?

Go!

C.L.

11 Aug 12 at 11:13 pm
Or per’aps turnbull just prefers substance to spin, and is sick of listening to Yabbott’s blatant lies

FFS, who gives a rodent’s backsayeedah about your fat, stupid turnbull?

It’s over, in case you and his multitude of mediocrities hadn’t realised.

Dim bulbs, dogwin grech and an ets, anyone?

Rabz

11 Aug 12 at 11:13 pm
The Coalition has hit the op-ed pages of The Oz with a piece outlining their vision thing.

It mainly about restoring growth with a bit more personal responsitbility thrown in. It isn’t too bad until you get towards the end when they throw in a line about ‘a cleaner environment in which we actually reduce our emissions’

Seems like the Greens Party runs the Coalition’s policies as well as the Trade Union Party’s policies.

johno

11 Aug 12 at 11:16 pm
Forty-three years after Apollo 11, NASA bone heads have tested a new, environmentally friendly vehicle to land on the moon. Result: Video.

C.L.

11 Aug 12 at 11:18 pm
Oops. Got those italics mixed up.

I meant to highlight that the Coalition wants to promote growth AND reduce emissions. Can’t have it both ways, boys and girls.

johno

11 Aug 12 at 11:18 pm
they throw in a line about ‘a cleaner environment in which we actually reduce our emissions’

he needs to revisit this and put it on hold for now. Actually he needs to turf out this idea of reducing our measly emissions as it won’t make one iota of different to da planet or da climate.

Stick with conservation.

Gab

11 Aug 12 at 11:24 pm
Spacewise, other than James Hansen (lunatic) I thought NASA were focused on Mars right now.

FYI In case you didn’t know, the pictures coming from Red Rover are actually bounced to satellites orbiting Mars, and then to Earth satellites.

Apparently we have an inter-planetary satellite network all the way to Saturn now. But not yet one around Uranus..

Lazlo

11 Aug 12 at 11:28 pm
Can’t have it both ways, boys and girls.

Why not?

Lazlo

11 Aug 12 at 11:30 pm
Or perhaps Turnbull just prefers substance to spin, and is sick of listening to Abbott’s blatant lies

Tell us all about da “blatant lies” of Abbott, Steve.

Steve was probably spewing venom at Turnbull on some blog or other when Turnbull as leader was gaining momentum and reducing Rudd’s popularity and closing on Labor’s lead in da polls.

Having succeeded in nearly destroying Turnbull and having saved the seemingly definite end of Woine’s career the self-same leftists feign sincerity in saying if only Turnbull was leader they’d probably vote for da Coalition….

Leftists feign love for supposed centre-right political leaders who lose gracefully to leftist political parties.

But only after those leaders have lost.

Occasionally supposed centre-right leaders such as Baillieu actually scrape a win.

Get farked Steve

JamesK

11 Aug 12 at 11:30 pm
Laz…

Rabz

11 Aug 12 at 11:31 pm
Code Pink to Send Photos of Their Vaginas to RNC Convention.

C.L.

11 Aug 12 at 11:34 pm
I need a ciggie. So are you seeing anyone?

Very, very funny ending to Splatacrobat’s link (Kristina Kenealey etc on the incestuous ALP).

Been there, sat through that. Had the lezzie pick-up line put to me in a drunken pitch. What a turmoil of intrigue and hooking up it all was/is. And da Hairy Ape is more familiar with the ALP machine than I was and he was clearly contemptuous.

In Candy speak: you be a soulmate, I hinted to him when we first met at one of their lefty functions.

In Lizzie speak: can we both get the hell out of here? I don’t smoke, by the way. So are you seeing anyone?

Only you, he said. And he meant it.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

11 Aug 12 at 11:36 pm
Laz…

Hello!

Lazlo

11 Aug 12 at 11:37 pm
Forty-three years after Apollo 11, NASA bone heads have tested a new, environmentally friendly vehicle to land on the moon. Result:

Gold.

Rabz

11 Aug 12 at 11:37 pm
Hi Laz,

how is ya?

Rabz

11 Aug 12 at 11:38 pm
Code Pink to Send Photos of Their Vaginas to RNC Convention.

No.

DO NOT LOOK AT TEH LUNK

Rabz

11 Aug 12 at 11:40 pm
Stuck in a place where it’s as if Rugby League didn’t exist. How bad is that?

Lazlo

11 Aug 12 at 11:41 pm
Judging by the appearance of the codepinkers, a v-jayjay photo would be better.

Gab

11 Aug 12 at 11:43 pm
CL,

you’ll be glad to know the NASA’s latest mars rover (Curiosity) has gone back to good old thermo-electric nuclear power.. unlike the previous solar/battery rover (Opportunity).

duncan

11 Aug 12 at 11:45 pm
Stuck in a place where it’s as if Rugby League didn’t exist.

That is not necessarily a bad thing, Squire.

Channel the following characters:

Artie Meatson
Tommy Ridiculous
Dallas ‘dead’ Donnelly
Goose George
Tiberious O’Connor
Backdoor Benny
Teh Blanket (a schoolmate of mine)
Three knees

And you’ll wish you hadn’t…

Rabz

11 Aug 12 at 11:49 pm
Part 3 of Pickering’s continuing expose is online. Not as much substance in this instalment but more is promised.

Cold-Hands

11 Aug 12 at 11:50 pm
Eve Ensler famously said: “My vagina’s furious and it needs to talk.” Our vaginas need to talk, too.

A talking horse I can accept but a talking vagina? The left are usually talking out of their arse so I guess this would at least make a more visually appealing change.

Splatacrobat

11 Aug 12 at 11:58 pm
I remember Dallas and the Westie boys turning up at the Captain Cook Hotel on South Dowling Street, after an especialy brutal semi-final with Manly in ’78.

Lazlo

12 Aug 12 at 12:05 am
Half-a-game Artie. RIP..

Lazlo

12 Aug 12 at 12:06 am
Code Pink – you richly deserve Lizzie’s Bad Idea of the Year Award. You will merely turn what should be a silken purse into a veritable sow’s ear.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

12 Aug 12 at 12:20 am
60 minutes Artie,

Thanks Laz!

Rabz

12 Aug 12 at 12:46 am
“Cat Is Back Up”

NEED MOAR MUPPETS.

Rowlf the Dog – The Cat Came Back: http://youtu.be/ltlPINPn8UU

SDOG

12 Aug 12 at 5:05 am
Potemkin’s Village

Men occasionally stumble over the truth… here

Grigory Potemkin

12 Aug 12 at 6:58 am
Spot the bullshit:

The night before this interview his agent rings me up and, out of the blue, says: “The one thing you can’t ask him about is his sexuality.” I had no intention of doing so, but now that he’s made it an issue, I am intrigued.

Thorpe is not homosexual, I am assured, but this will not stop people on the internet speculating about his svelte looks, cultured interests and friendships.

“I tick all the boxes,” he admits. “There is no way I can answer this. It really has just got to the stage when I say ‘whatever’. It’s not a big deal for me. It doesn’t impact on my life what people think.

“What I don’t like about it is that people think I’m being dishonest. That’s what’s so hurtful in all of this. I don’t live my life as an open book, but what I do say, I don’t retract. That is me.”

According to Fairfax’s story summary, Ian Thorpe “insists” he is not gay. He said nothing of the sort.

Tom

12 Aug 12 at 7:43 am
Hey Spot, wouldn’t it be fun to have a big pool dog to play with?

Tom

12 Aug 12 at 8:20 am
meat pie Artie

Poor Old Rafe

12 Aug 12 at 8:25 am
No fool Artie, when the admin got all politically correct about racist sledging, he said what about claming down on all foul and abusive sledging, especially in the juniors.

Poor Old Rafe

12 Aug 12 at 8:27 am
oh me oh my. I have a new hero. Sir Archibald Clerk Kerr, Her Majesty’s Ambassador to Moscow, in the dark days of 1943.

Over breakfast while Ape snores on, I’m just idly checking back over last nite and came across another of Splat’s great links (thanks Splat). Hope it’s real and not an apocryphal mock-up. Looks real. It’s definitely one for late nites rather than in the cold light of morn tho’ but so what, don’t miss it.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

12 Aug 12 at 8:39 am
Hey Spot, wouldn’t it be fun to have a big pool dog to play with?

Dude’s gonna end up getting hisself et just like that Grizzly foo.

sdog

12 Aug 12 at 9:16 am
I hope the ALP are paying George Megamisleadingus big backhanders cos if he’d doing it for free, he’s a mug.

JamesK

12 Aug 12 at 9:39 am
Insiders – so self righteous this morning!!!!!!!

Who is playing the role of the token Right?

Mike

Mike of Marion

12 Aug 12 at 9:44 am
Who is playing the role of the token Right?

No, Mike. A terrible mistake was made a fortnight ago when conservatives were given equal numerical billing with the zombie left on Insiders.

The memo has come down from the top office that the people paying the ABC’s bill shouldn’t ever be lulled into a false assurance that their opinions are relevant in political commentary. They must simply be quiet and listen to their betters.

Tom

12 Aug 12 at 10:39 am
Hugh Rimmmmmington on Meet the Press this morning “interviewing” Scott Morrison. Hugh did a wonderful job on behalf of Labor. Anyone watching the ‘rail against the might of authority’ Hugh could be forgiven for thinking the Libs are in power.

Gab

12 Aug 12 at 10:48 am
Kyle Smith at National Review:

The Olympics are grotesque.

Snippet:

The Olympics committee is ham-fisted in sporting matters. But it excels at defending its fortress headquarters — the crown jewels, the palace vaults. When a writer for the London Spectator dubbed this summer’s activities “the censorship Olympics,” he took note of an alarming new British law that, in affording special trademark protection to Olympics sponsors only, ordered the courts to look warily on any usage by a business (or charity!) of a word or phrase from column A (such as “games” or “two thousand twelve”) with one from column B (such as “London”). Police were empowered to “enter land or premises” and “remove, destroy, conceal or erase any infringing article.” All previous speech-protection laws and policies were superseded for the temporary emergency.

So: A butcher in Weymouth, England, was forced to take down sausages arranged in rings. A village in Surrey was forbidden to hold an “Olympicnic” on its village green. Police ordered a newsdealer in East London to remove Union Jack bunting featuring the words “London 2012.”

RTWT. Disgusting all round.

C.L.

12 Aug 12 at 12:29 pm
One more snippet:

Teams of men engaged in athletic endeavor ought not to embrace one another except, as briefly and awkwardly as possible, after a championship victory, and should never shed tears owing to either victory or defeat, though patriotic emotion is acceptable. Instead the male volleyballers have a gang make-out session after each point. Even the swimmers have taken to hugging one another over their lane barriers. Everyone cries in contemplation of his or her own excellence. British gymnast Louis Smith cried after reaching the final round on the pommel horse. Giovanni Cernogoraz of Croatia cried just because he reached the final of trap shooting. If there’s any “sport” that would seem a natural stranger to emotion, it’s the discharging of firearms at clay pigeons.

C.L.

12 Aug 12 at 12:31 pm
The olympics are a professional/commercial undertaking.

They have nothing to do with sport or athletes.

kae

12 Aug 12 at 12:34 pm
Wow.

That’s the most powerful thing I have ever seen the Catholic Church in the USA ever produce.

Mk50 of Brisbane

12 Aug 12 at 1:09 pm
They have nothing to do with sport or athletes.

They have nothing to do with honour either kae

JamesK

12 Aug 12 at 1:12 pm
Wow.

That’s the most powerful thing I have ever seen the Catholic Church in the USA ever produce.

They’re almost unrecognisable as the lefty social justice activist pussies of the last 2 decades.

Great ad. with the implicit threat that your vote is recorded for Judgment Day.

They certainly ladled on thick to Obummer ladling it on thick.

Good.

JamesK

12 Aug 12 at 1:17 pm
Is it just me or is Karen Middleton morphing into Laurie Oakes over the years?

Paying the ultimate compliment to the doyen of Australian political reporting – you become him.

H B Bear

12 Aug 12 at 1:17 pm
James K
Yes, no honour.

kae

12 Aug 12 at 1:21 pm
Is it just me or is Karen Middleton morphing into Laurie Oakes over the years?

No, Humphrey, she’s just getting fat.

Oakes, on the other hand, has knowingly surrendered a principle enshrined in the journalists’ code of ethics, his impartiality — not just in commentary, but in news reporting — to barrack against an opposition.

I used to have first-hand input into the handling of his work on its way to publication. Professionally, he was a a towering landmark. What he’s doing today is unrecognisable.

Tom

12 Aug 12 at 1:49 pm
I saw that a few months back, Mk50; great ad.

dover_beach

12 Aug 12 at 2:00 pm
MK50 it’s a great ad until you see they’ve got a quote from the heretic Cardinal Tim Dolan at 2.09.

He’s the NYC Cardinal who has invited Obama of all people to dinner and has been rather accommodating of liturgical abuses. All in the name of keeping the peace, I guess.

nilk

12 Aug 12 at 2:04 pm
heh. More about the Al Smith dinner that Obama has been invited to, and how pissed off the lay catholics are.

nilk

12 Aug 12 at 2:24 pm
Do not blame them for being pissed off, Nilk.

In their shoes I’d be incandescent: it’s approaching real ‘reach for your rifle and start shooting the bastards’ stuff which we have seen before in Russia in 1919-22, Germany 1933 onwards, Cuba under Castro, Venezuela today.

If not opposed by every means to hand in its turn, these things end very badly if history is any guide.

Mk50 of Brisbane

12 Aug 12 at 2:46 pm
Hi Lizzie, I lifted that letter from Sir Archibald from a site called Letters of note. It has a lot of original letters from all sorts of celebrities, pollies, and such like.

Have a read of this one from Ronald Reagan to his son with some advice after he had just got married. The more I read about him the more I like.

Love Dad

Splatacrobat

12 Aug 12 at 2:58 pm
MK I’m rabidly pissed, and I’m not even in the same hemisphere, and on at least one of the catholic blogs I read they’re near incandescent! New York’s been a problem for a long time, with the gay marriage thing, and now this.

Splat, on Reagan have you seen In The Face of Evil yet? Essential viewing on the man.

nilk

12 Aug 12 at 3:07 pm
Splat, a beautiful letter. Reagan was all class.

dover_beach

12 Aug 12 at 3:24 pm
Nilk, this is more disturbing then the invitation to given to Obama back in 2009 to attend the commencement ceremony at Notre Dame, but not as disturbing as the invitation to Sebelius to attend a graduation ceremony at Georgetown this year. Although, given that this dinner traditionally involves both President and Challenger, I think the invitation may be justified. What really disturbs me is that Sebelius, Pelosi, and Biden who profess to be Catholics and yet publicly support moral positions contrary to the Church’s teachings still enjoy the benefits of communion. Basta!

dover_beach

12 Aug 12 at 3:40 pm
I’m going to look up and see if I can find that film nilk.
I watched the trailer and it looks good.

Splatacrobat

12 Aug 12 at 5:24 pm
Mk50,

It’s a great ad – almost powerful enough to bring me back to the faith.

We are living in ‘interesting’ times.

Rabz

12 Aug 12 at 5:55 pm
It probably comes as a surprise to many Australians just how good Reagan was, and it will equally come as a surprise to them how good GWB was when more sober histories are written. It’s a measure of the success of the leftists in our media (long term, and all too ready to regurgitate USA leftist memes) that both have been portrayed as idiots.

blogstrop

12 Aug 12 at 5:58 pm
Ronny “RayGun” gets elected and makes a simple speech:

Mr Gorbachov, “Tear Down This Wall“.

Instead of Armageddon, we witnessed the death of braindead soviet stalinism.

Funny how things turn out, ain’t it leftards?

Rabz

12 Aug 12 at 6:06 pm
“Ronny “RayGun” gets elected and makes a simple speech:”

There’s something very reassuring and genuine and likeable about R. Reagan’s voice, his demeanour really. no wonder he was loved in America.

candy

12 Aug 12 at 6:14 pm
Rabz, we must never lose sight of the fact that leftism is not only a terrible affliction, but a mental illness among would-be despots and the sycophants who elect them, like febrile and his band of tax-eaters in Tasmania. When Reagan spoke so simply about what was right and wrong, there was nowhere to hide — no shit cloud of doublespeak favoured by today communist underminers who know they will never be elected in any democratic election anywhere if they declare what they truly believe.

Tom

12 Aug 12 at 6:22 pm
At last a victory for freedom of ~~expression~~ tweet…
Chambers v DPP

We agree with the submission by Mr Robert Smith QC that the mental element of the offence is satisfied if the offender is proved to have intended that the message should be of a menacing character (the most serious form of the offence) or alternatively, if he is proved to have been aware of or to have recognised the risk at the time of sending the message that it may create fear or apprehension in any reasonable member of the public who reads or sees it. We would merely emphasise that even expressed in these terms, the mental element of the offence is directed exclusively to the state of the mind of the offender, and that if he may have intended the message as a joke, even if a poor joke in bad taste, it is unlikely that the mens rea required before conviction for the offence of sending a message of a menacing character will be established. The appeal against conviction will be allowed on the basis that this “tweet” did not constitute or include a message of a menacing character; we cannot usefully take this aspect of the appeal further.

(HT- cearta.ie)

Nanuestalker

12 Aug 12 at 6:26 pm
At last a victory for freedom of ~~expression~~ tweet…
Chambers v DPP

We agree with the submission by Mr Robert Smith QC that the mental element of the offence is satisfied if the offender is proved to have intended that the message should be of a menacing character (the most serious form of the offence) or alternatively, if he is proved to have been aware of or to have recognised the risk at the time of sending the message that it may create fear or apprehension in any reasonable member of the public who reads or sees it. We would merely emphasise that even expressed in these terms, the mental element of the offence is directed exclusively to the state of the mind of the offender, and that if he may have intended the message as a joke, even if a poor joke in bad taste, it is unlikely that the mens rea required before conviction for the offence of sending a message of a menacing character will be established. The appeal against conviction will be allowed on the basis that this “tweet” did not constitute or include a message of a menacing character; we cannot usefully take this aspect of the appeal further.

Nanuestalker

12 Aug 12 at 6:28 pm
(H/T- cearta.ie)

Nanuestalker

12 Aug 12 at 6:29 pm
H/T – cearta.ie
http://www.cearta.ie/2012/07/its-safe-to-make-jokes-on-twitter-again-pauljchambers-wins-twitterjoketrial-appeal/

Nanuestalker

12 Aug 12 at 6:31 pm
Thanks Tommy.

I was 15 when Ronnie was elected. We were “warned” (“warned, we tells ya!) about an impending ‘nookular ‘olocaust’ should the evil ol’ simpleton be elected.

leftists – spectacularly WRONG, as always.

Rabz

12 Aug 12 at 6:33 pm
http://www.cearta.ie/2012/07/its-safe-to-make-jokes-on-twitter-again-pauljchambers-wins-twitterjoketrial-appeal/

Nanuestalker

12 Aug 12 at 6:33 pm
Reagan was a first-rate intellect, a deep thinker and a gifted writer. There was a collection of his letters published a few years ago that opened the eyes of even die-hard Reagan-as-obscurantist critics.

He was a great man.

By contrast, there is no evidence as yet that Barry Soetoro ever wrote anything prior to the two – two! – error-caked ~~biographies~~ advertorials he, er, ‘wrote.’

C.L.

12 Aug 12 at 6:39 pm
Aaarrrggghhh!

One fact I’ve ignored in all of this Ronnie reminsicing – The Gorbachov was a Great Man.

He swallowed his (and the commie party’s) pride and did what was best for humanity.

For that he should be remembered fondly.

All the soviet ‘leaders’ I’d been aware of up until then were loathsome, murderous automatons.

Mind you, Gorby didn’t have a lot of choice. His people had been bankrupted trying to keep up with the Americans.

That he recognised that fact is reason to celebrate him.

Rabz

12 Aug 12 at 6:43 pm
Hey Nilk, thanks for that recommendation, found a trailer for it In the Face of Evil.

Gab

12 Aug 12 at 6:48 pm
Ronnie and Gorby

Rabz

12 Aug 12 at 6:48 pm
rabz: but he WAS a Kulak.

wreckage

12 Aug 12 at 6:52 pm
“Ronnie and Corby”

A lovely photo. They look like two mates happy and comfortable together. Amazing really.

candy

12 Aug 12 at 6:52 pm
he WAS a Kulak

More to his credit, Squire!

Rabz

12 Aug 12 at 6:55 pm
Nilk, you might like this clip of Pope John Paul II visiting Holocaust survivors at Yad Vashem. The meeting with the woman he personally saved as a girl always brings a tear to my eye. She is overwhelmed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CatGtrfqjJE

Wojtyla also experienced first-hand the communist scum barging into his episcopal residences, armed, making threats and demands. He never succumbed. He stomped on those assholes, big-time.

C.L.

12 Aug 12 at 6:57 pm
“Ronnie and Corby”

Did the heel of Gorbys shoe immediately jump out of that photo as strange?

Jumpnmcar

12 Aug 12 at 7:01 pm
Did the heel of Gorbys shoe immediately jump out of that photo as strange?

The shoes have just been re-heeled?

Or am I missing something, again?

Rabz

12 Aug 12 at 7:07 pm
Did the heel of Gorbys shoe immediately jump out of that photo as strange?

Shoe phone.

Tom

12 Aug 12 at 7:08 pm
A very moving clip CL

Obio

12 Aug 12 at 7:11 pm
Or am I missing something, again?

Nothing sinister Rabz, just things like that kinda smack me in the face.
Also Ronny didn’t have a cuppa and neither is wearing a wedding ring.
Just sayin is all.

Jumpnmcar

12 Aug 12 at 7:11 pm
You people know nothing of shoes. Barbarians! Gorby’s wearing the Lloyd brand which has it’s trademark red stripe in the heel.

Gab

12 Aug 12 at 7:12 pm
A lovely clip of John Paul II. The way he touches people instinctively and kindly with time for everyone, but he was full of arthritis by looks of it.

candy

12 Aug 12 at 7:14 pm
Did the heel of Gorbys shoe immediately jump out of that photo as strange?

I could get all analogistic here and say the red stripe on Gorby’s heel was symbolic of him crossing the communist line over to democracy……but I think in reality Raisa his wife had probably just bought the Burluti dancing pumps down on Rodeo Drive and he thought he’d show them off to Ronnie.

Splatacrobat

12 Aug 12 at 7:15 pm
“The last time I saw him, with Nancy at the Republican Convention in New Orleans ”

Febro you’re a happiness squasher aren’t you. Perhaps you make your living from hating people.

candy

12 Aug 12 at 7:26 pm
That sinister scumbag febrile wades in, attempting to sully the memories.

Fuck. Off. Dick. Head.

Rabz

12 Aug 12 at 7:27 pm
Well done, Candy.

Rabz

12 Aug 12 at 7:28 pm
Perhaps you make your living from hating people.

Cockburn, recently deceased certainly did.

Reagan’s farewell address was first-class.

My face would remain impassive with loathsome scum like febbie or Cockburn in front of me too

JamesK

12 Aug 12 at 7:35 pm
Alexander Cockburn

A passionate anti-semite and supporter of the Le Pen family in France.

C.L.

12 Aug 12 at 7:36 pm
I bet febro was a staunch supporter of the Warsaw Pact, and of Mao Tse-tung and Kim Il-Sung. The ones that yell about the contras usually were.

Fisky

12 Aug 12 at 7:44 pm
Don’t worry, febrile will be on the Dole Protest Convoy to Canberra in November 2013 with the aim of torching and trashing as many public buildings as possible to mark the return of adult government to Australia.

Tom

12 Aug 12 at 7:53 pm
Hey Dick Head – how about actual quotes from Ronnie himself, rather than the unhinged rantings of those who despised him?

Or that asking too much?

Oh wait…

Rabz

12 Aug 12 at 7:54 pm
“Any oppression of democracy was forgivable, any level of torture and destruction admirable, if done in the name of thwarting leftist bogeymen.””

It’s a long time ago and the world was so different. We were looking at photos and clips of great world leaders incluidng Gorby in informal moments, that was a nice and happy thing to think of and you just decided to saay something nasty to upset a pleasant mood. why.

candy

12 Aug 12 at 8:10 pm
Splat and Gab, if you’re in Melbournistan (I know you are, Gab) you can borrow my copy. It’s an excellent documentary.

nilk

12 Aug 12 at 8:14 pm
And CL, thanks for that clip. Brought a tear to my eye, too. Especially as I’ve been thinking of rewatching Shoah.

Or attempting to watch it again. It’s very painful, and I suspect the only reason I made it all the way through the first time is because I was so young at the time. The enormity of the evil just didn’t register completely, I think.

nilk

12 Aug 12 at 8:16 pm
Any oppression of democracy was forgivable, any level of torture and destruction admirable, if done in the name of thwarting leftist bogeymen.”

What?

Like the elections in the German Democratic Republic that saw Erich Honecker and his Stasi persecute right wing extremist, you piece of slime febbie?

JamesK

12 Aug 12 at 8:19 pm
Typical right wing “look over there” arguments in defence of US support for central american terrorists.

Well done.

sdfc

12 Aug 12 at 8:25 pm
He is a true story of my moment in the company of great men:

I was at the Brisbane Airport Qantas Club lounge one day when, as you do before leaving for the departure gate, I decided to visit the men’s room.

There were these very solid, very short haired men wearing serious dark suits on either side of the door. The looked at me very carefully, and I must admit a slight disappointment as they clearly decided I was not a threat, and let me pass between them. Obviously telepathic.

There was another clone inside, standing near the cubicles. He watched me as I went to the piss catcher ( I forget what they call them). Knowing this dude was watching me, I had a bit of trouble, but functions returned to normal soon enough. My watcher seemed to relax.

Behind me, a toilet flushed, a cubicle door opened, and as I peered sideways I recognised the big birthmark on his head… It was Gorby!

I would have turned immediately to shake his hand, but my hands were busy at the time, and besides, I didn’t want to do a “Bluto” Blutaski on him.

I briefly thought about mentioning my encounter with Malcolm Turnbull, but this is a story about great men, so, no.

entropy

12 Aug 12 at 8:40 pm
Fantastic story, Entropy!

JC also bumped into Gorby somewhere.

He gets around.

C.L.

12 Aug 12 at 8:41 pm
Typical right wing “look over there” arguments in defence of US support for central american terrorists.

Sean Penn campaigns for Hugo Chavez in Venezuela.

C.L.

12 Aug 12 at 8:43 pm
Picnic – full movie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSlq3O2W6rs

coz

12 Aug 12 at 8:43 pm
Oh, leave off, peddofebro’s nothing special. He’s just the usual howlingly racist, jew-hating, terrorist supporting mass-murder lover who drops to his knees and tugs salivatingly at the fly of every passing totalitarian. He’s never seen a pregnant woman he did not want to force an abortion on and loathes the very concept of free speech.

Probably has busts of his leftist heroic mass murderers in pride of place on the mantelpiece, Lenin lined up with Hitler, Pol Pot and Stalin, with a larger one of Mao.

In other words, just another a banal run-of-the-mill leftard and greenfilther. Quite yawnworthy and not a patch on the old trolls we used to have around here.

Can you gamboll and caper a bit more for us, peddofebro? I find your monkeyshines amusing.

Mk50 of Brisbane

12 Aug 12 at 8:51 pm
Typical right wing “look over there” arguments in defence of US support for central american terrorists.

Sometimes their is a choice between two evils.

The right choice is the lesser of the two.

Leftist twits like sdfc normally love living their pathetic make-believe lives between their ears where all things are shades of a fanciful subtlety and indeed they usually proudly proclaim the intelligence necessary to ‘balance the issues’ with finesse – something they tell us conservatives are quite incapable of.

Ironically when these leftist drones consider conservatives, then magically the subtlety disappears and the matter is clear-cut.

Fancy that?

JamesK

12 Aug 12 at 8:54 pm
there

JamesK

12 Aug 12 at 8:54 pm
Pissed up against a shared piece of aluminium with Mick Jagger in the 70′s. Too nervous to check it out, no sly glance, so can neither confirm nor deny..

Lazlo

12 Aug 12 at 9:00 pm
Hmm. ‘peddofebro’ is pretty boring. I mean, all leftards are perverts and deviants. Mao humped veal, Hitler humped family veal, Guavera went the tug while watching boys being tortured, Pol Pot buggered everything that moved, cripes, Lenin probably did hideous things with eels.

febbie’s just another lower-order leftardish hominind with the intellect of a screw-fly maggot and the personality of a stromatolite…

But perhaps he can caper and gambol better than he has been doing?

In which case, he might aspire to the nickname ‘monkeyshine’

Mk50 of Brisbane

12 Aug 12 at 9:10 pm
Re Ron & Gorby; my read is of two powerful men, one believing he has the measure of his opponent and the later knowing that he has the measure of the former.

Just Another bloody Lawyer

12 Aug 12 at 9:11 pm
Yeah sure James. The greater good argument is a convenient position favoured by murderous thugs and armchair pundits such as yourself when confronted with your own hypocricy.

sdfc

12 Aug 12 at 9:23 pm
hypocrisy of course.

sdfc

12 Aug 12 at 9:28 pm
It was in the trading room in NYC . The Gorb was on bank’s international board whatever that meant.

He made a beeline for the currency desk and asked me what i thought the Deutschmark was doing and heading. That fucker who looks like the bald monopoly man without the hat wad helping him.

JC

12 Aug 12 at 9:50 pm
Thank you for your kind offer, Nilk, however I ordered the dvd earlier this evening.

Gab

12 Aug 12 at 9:51 pm
oops… was helping him.

JC

12 Aug 12 at 9:52 pm
What a dumbfuck you truly are sdfc.

Among others, Margaret Thatcher, credited the Reagan Doctrine with aiding the end of the Cold War.

In December 1997, Thatcher said that the Reagan Doctrine “proclaimed that the truce with communism was over. The West would henceforth regard no area of the world as destined to forego its liberty simply because the Soviets claimed it to be within their sphere of influence. We would fight a battle of ideas against communism, and we would give material support to those who fought to recover their nations from tyranny.”

JamesK

12 Aug 12 at 10:54 pm
CL

I’ve been watching the 5th season of Madmen. Just got to tell you that the red head.. forgot her real name has go even bigger. I thought that would make you day or evening. She’s a couple of ax handles across the rear end now.

JC

12 Aug 12 at 10:55 pm
The dude that plays Don Draper… Women are supposed find him sexy or something. At least that’s what I’ve read. However he’s a rotten acto, as he always seems to have that supercilious grin on his face and he’s really annoying.

JC

12 Aug 12 at 10:57 pm
This is great.

World’s most amazing dog

I reckon he invented parkour. (jst jkg)

Gab

12 Aug 12 at 10:58 pm
eems to have that supercilious grin on his face and he’s really annoying.

He’s really really easy on the eyes so he gets a pass on the acting etc

Gab

12 Aug 12 at 11:00 pm
Just got to tell you that the red head.. forgot her real name has go even bigger.

Her name is Christina Hendricks, JC. What’s not to like?

dover_beach

12 Aug 12 at 11:24 pm
Gab, that vid was great. Stunning dog.

dover_beach

12 Aug 12 at 11:30 pm
Death Race 2000 full movie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-au-DUZyDU

coz

12 Aug 12 at 11:31 pm
Stunning dog – yes I agree, Dover and I get the feeling he knows it too. . That dog has attitude and knows he’s cool lol

Gab

12 Aug 12 at 11:33 pm
I think this is about right.

Romney has shown now he doesn’t plan to try and win by default. He has chosen the best person, likely the only person, who can convince an anxious electorate of the need to swallow some dreadful medicine. If Ryan can’t do it, then it’s likely nobody can. The answer may be, and cynics will expect, that nobody can.

No matter what, Republicans are now in the age of Ryan. if Romney wins, Ryan is the next vice president of the United States. If Romney loses, Ryan is the next leader of the Republican Party.

http://thehill.com/opinion/columnists/ab-stoddard/243209-picking-ryan

JC

12 Aug 12 at 11:33 pm
They say it’s unbreakable glass…and then they prove it.

Ain’t advances in technology grand?

Pity we’re going to be stuck with an outdated system by the time it’s completed, like the NBN.

Gab

12 Aug 12 at 11:45 pm
Just wondering if anyone else picked up on the underlining leftist definition of an offence in the ruling I made multipe attemps to post??? The undermining of reason is so subtle.

Nanuestalker

13 Aug 12 at 12:01 am
AAP yesterday:

THE third asylum-seeker boat to arrive this weekend has been intercepted by border protection authorities northwest of Western Australia.

A particular type of arrogance. ABC1′s Insiders yesterday:

BARRIE Cassidy: Well, so far this year more than 100 boats carrying 7000 asylum-seekers have made it to Australia. Can you guarantee that some time in the spring session you will have in place a policy to deal with that?

Chris Bowen: Well of course we’ve developed a policy . . . And it takes a particular type of arrogance (on the part of the opposition) to reject a report’s recommendations before you’ve even seen them . . . it takes a particular style of arrogance to reject the recommendations of three expert eminent Australians before you’ve even seen them.

What kind of arrogance? Press release issued by Julia Gillard and Mark Latham, April 23, 2003:

ANOTHER boat on the way, another policy failure. Reports today that yet another boat of Vietnamese asylum-seekers is on its way to Australia is a stark reminder that the Howard government’s policy is not working . . . Only Labor has a comprehensive policy to deal with asylum-seekers and refugees . . .

Cut&Paste

Gab

13 Aug 12 at 12:15 am
…the recommendations of three expert eminent Australians…

He means three Labor stooges.

C.L.

13 Aug 12 at 12:17 am
You mean this sublimely bottomed woman, JC?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v497/CurrencyLad/christina-hendricks.gif

Yum. Just yum.

That’s all.

C.L.

13 Aug 12 at 12:22 am
A refugee advocate, a former air force pilot and a former bureaucrat. Apparently all expertly eminent in border control.

Gab

13 Aug 12 at 12:23 am
The Australian reports that Labor may have a NEW SOLUTION!

Labor floats Nauru solution as Angus Houston hands down report.

SENIOR Labor figures are exploring a dramatic shift on asylum-seeker policy to reopen the Nauru processing centre as part of a two-stage proposal that could trigger the government’s Malaysia Solution if the first step does not stop boat arrivals.

And so the Gillard-serving crapola I predicted from Houston comes to pass. Under this government – precisely because it is the Gillard government – the reopening of Nauru won’t be enough to stop the boats. Houston knows this. But as a stage 1 stunt, it will serve to phonily undermine Abbott’s policy and greenlight Gillard’s.

C.L.

13 Aug 12 at 12:29 am
Labor floats Nauru solution as Angus Houston hands down report

Bearing in mind that we are still obliged to take the 4000 from Malaysia at a budgeted cost of $216 million (assuming no cost blowout, ha!)

Gab

13 Aug 12 at 12:55 am
All that spin for what?

TAXPAYERS are spending about $150 million a year on an army of spin doctors to sell the Gillard government’s policies to voters.
[They're not doing a good job by any means].

Figures obtained by The Australian reveal there are about 1600 staff employed by federal government departments and agencies in media, communications, marketing and public affairs roles.

The Australian Taxation Office, Defence and departments of Human Services, Immigration and Health employ more media and communications staff than any other departments or agencies.

A further 60 media advisers are dedicated to federal ministers and parliamentary secretaries.

The total number of public affairs staff in government is more than five times the estimated 300 journalists – including reporters, photographers, camera crew and support staff — in the Canberra press gallery.

Opposition Senate leader Eric Abetz seized on the figures to accuse Labor of focusing on spin over substance and vowed to cut the numbers if in government.

The figures do not include the media and communications staff in Infrastructure Minister Anthony Albanese’s department, which refused to reveal how many spin doctors it employed.

I would suggest the 300 Canberra stenographers should be included in the numbers. And what’s with Albo not disclosing how many spin doctors he has? For infrastructure portfolio? what the heck?

Gab

13 Aug 12 at 1:06 am
The prime minister of Canada’s cuts to climate-change research led to the Colorado movie massacre:

The Star: PM complicit in climate, shootings

Extremely hot weather has been allowed to escalate, because Mr. Harper pretends there is no such thing as climate change, having cut funding for many scientific studies, and having denied climate scientists access to media, without PMO approval, despite increasing evidence of species extinction (bats, frogs, bees, etc.), extreme heat (severe drought causing massive crop losses) and freakish weather (disastrous flooding and increase in tornadoes). Mr. Harper can take credit for blocking serious efforts by scientists who wanted the Canadian government to deal with this impending disaster.

JamesK

13 Aug 12 at 1:31 am
NBN boss: ‘Yeah, sorry ‘n that. We need another $1.5 billion for stuff.’

NBN Co chief Mike Quigley has confirmed that a key change to the way homes will be connected to the National Broadband Network will cost the company between $1 billion and $1.5bn.

Last week, NBN Co revealed that it had changed the connection method of the $37.4bn project so that premises would now be automatically linked with fibre unless owners opted out.

At the time, Mr Quigley said the cost of that change was not “billions, but it’s not a few hundred million either”.

But speaking to ABC 1′s Inside Business yesterday, the NBN Co chief executive confirmed that the change could cost as much as $1.5bn.

C.L.

13 Aug 12 at 1:46 am
yoohoo, Spot

Wonder if you could hep me out here, please?

Which is correct:

all right or alright? As in alright already, for example.

Thanks

Gab

13 Aug 12 at 1:52 am
Thankfully, JamesK, that appears to be only a letter to the editor in the Toronto Star, but fascist lunatic Barbara Falby, of Toronto, sounds just like one of the dangerous Green-voting totalitarian fruitcakes in Balmain or Fitzroy:

Mr. Harper’s singular lack of imagination in policies regarding the environment, and social policies, etc. show that he does not deserve his position of power. I pray that the justice system will quickly step in to remove illegitimate ministers, senators, and MPs by any logistical means possible, as quickly as possible. Injunctions, forbidding them from entering Parliament could be one such effective measure.

Tom

13 Aug 12 at 1:58 am
Jane Birkin, Serge Gainsbourg – Slogan (1969) Eng Subs….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIzfyI_8xYE&feature=related

Nanuestalker

13 Aug 12 at 2:11 am
This is great.

World’s most amazing dog

I reckon he invented parkour.

Barkour.

Awesome vid, Gab thanks!

sdog

13 Aug 12 at 2:21 am
Barkour

lol. Wish I’d thought of that! You’re so clever, Spot.

Gab

13 Aug 12 at 2:30 am
Which is correct:

all right or alright? As in alright already, for example.

Alright already, or all right all ready?

What am I, Grammar Girl? ;-P

Saturday Night’s Alright…

sdog

13 Aug 12 at 2:33 am
Are you on Twitter, Gab?

sdog

13 Aug 12 at 2:34 am
No, Spot but I check you and Sinclair out occasionally. Like tonight…hence my question to “Grammar Girl”.
I’m thinking of going back onto Twitter (set up an account but have forgotten it) as Gabstar.

Gab

13 Aug 12 at 2:38 am
Gabstar is a popular name
http://twitter.com/#!/search/users/gabstar

sdog

13 Aug 12 at 2:58 am
No fair! That’s MY nickname!

Gab

13 Aug 12 at 3:08 am
You should sue.

sdog

13 Aug 12 at 3:11 am
Is “tripod” taken?

Abu Chowdah

13 Aug 12 at 3:15 am
Words to live by: Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should. http://1x.com/photo/53002

sdog

13 Aug 12 at 4:26 am
Also, here’s a beagle stealing a head of cabbage. Be sure to watch to the end.

You’re welcome!

sdog

13 Aug 12 at 4:26 am
Oh no, no, no, no, no.

Just, no.

sdog

13 Aug 12 at 5:59 am
Watching the limpic closing ceremony and they’re doing a Churchill impression.

Oh dear.

the only thing I like that I’ve seen so far is Harry.

nilk

13 Aug 12 at 6:07 am
Is “tripod” taken?
Probably, since that’s what they used to call Joe Tripodi.

Blogstrop

13 Aug 12 at 6:23 am
Fran Kelly starts her segment on Illegal Immigration with noted spokesperson Tony Windsor saying it’s time for reason to triumph!
Then she tasks Morrison with “working together”. Do people like her have to pretend they don’t know what the solution is? She’s carrying on as if the latest panel has probably got answers.
She accuses the Libs of having a closed mind. But next she asks if they’d agree to TPVs and Nauru. Who had the closed mind?
Next she tries to say that sending back to Indonesia is bad. She’s making a case that really they’re asking for refuge from Indonesia!
This ABC tactic of resting everything on the tow-back aspect is really piss-poor.

blogstrop

13 Aug 12 at 7:44 am
Next she talks to Grattan, and waters down the compromise by saying that Nauru is the central point to get the Libs onboard, leaving out TPVs, which are the essential ingredient.
This duplicitousness must cease.

blogstrop

13 Aug 12 at 7:50 am
Moving right along to solar/thermal power, she’s now extolling the very technology that Spain has tried but which failed, costing them heaps. If is to work at all, it needs gas burner backup.
Fran moves straight into closing coal fired stations, then surmises that better regulation would avoid those nasty price rises!

blogstrop

13 Aug 12 at 7:56 am
Gab – the fibre being used for the NBN is the Rolls Royce of fixed line broadband. It can be improved by changes / upgrades to the boxes which send and receive signals through it. But the fibre itself is practically future proof (not rat proof!!) as it is capable of light speed transmission (hard to go faster!) and the boffins are finding ways to keep increasing the amount of data it is capable of sending through it (those boxes at each end of the cable).

It will also help wireless in the home.

BUT:

1. it will not be able to compete with mobile wireless – 4G etc networks. Most younguns will go for this, in the same way they now use mobiles and not landlines.

2. it will not get ANYWHERE near the takeup they predict – 80% lol. In Brunswick Vic they have passed 15,000 houses / sites for just on 3,000 cutomers. This will increase when the Telstra and Optus (and rest) get switched over, but still, many many people will not be able to afford it / not want it.

The main beneficiaries will be smart businesses, tech nuts and gamers. 5% of us.

3. Cost + time – it will cost $70 – $80 bil, then add in interest etc. They’ll never get to 95% of households.

pete m

13 Aug 12 at 8:08 am
You’re making yourself ill, listening to that shit at breakfast time, Strop. The ABC will never be anything other than an unsackable leftwing staff collective pushing politicial causes in defiance of its owners and its charter. It has to be broken up and sold.

Tom

13 Aug 12 at 8:10 am
AM is next on the job, reflexively confronting the opposition.
Sabra Lane puts it to Morrison that Nauru might not be legal. He parries this effectively.
She then tries to say that Zimbabwe and Iran are signatories! Cheap trick which he immediately shuts down, saying nobody is planning offshore processing there, are they Sabra?
She tries a diversion to Sri Lankans, he says they’re not refugees.
Back to “what if Nauru fails, will you accept Malaysia?” No.
On to tow-backs, the ABC’s well-chewed bone. No hits scored. Will the coalition rescue people in Indonesian waters? Parried by Morrison saying the Indons should do something too, and our government should make that plain.
Sabra Lane’s record of bashing the coalition whether in government or opposition remains intact.

blogstrop

13 Aug 12 at 8:27 am
phil ‘bonehead’ coorey:

dullard can see blue sky…

Dream on, you soon to be unemployed idiot.

Warning: Piece contains a photo of lardarse looking very smug.

Rabz

13 Aug 12 at 8:43 am
And for today’s dose of epic gerbil worming insanity and bedwetting:

Councils warned foreshore and esplanade areas may not escape rising sea levels

Rabz

13 Aug 12 at 8:46 am
Blogstrop, you missed another bit in your ABC highlights. I turned onto ABC News on the drive in this morning and was impressed with these “headlines”:

* A study in Nature magazine blames mutations in butterflies on Fukishima (I sh*t you not, strangely there was no alternate viewpoint presented)
* About NSW gov privatising electricity – NSW Opp leader (who brought down Iemma over elec priv) thinks its a bad idea
* NSW Elec priv Part 2: Greens leader says there is no need to build further base load power as due to the success of alternative energy.

…and it went on and on. That crap is being repeated every 1/2 hour.

Token

13 Aug 12 at 8:59 am
greenslime leader says there is no need to build further base load power due to the success of alternative energy.

Dangerous, evil, fascist morons.

Rabz

13 Aug 12 at 9:02 am
The figures reveal the ATO employs 271 staff in media and external communications roles — more than any other department or agency.

Sack the f*cking lot of them.

What an absolute, inexcusable disgrace.

Rabz

13 Aug 12 at 9:05 am
Dangerous, evil, fascist morons

…who according to the ABC get the last word on such articles.

Token

13 Aug 12 at 9:05 am
…who according to the ABC get the last word on such articles.

Yep the last word = moral high ground to lefties.
You can see how that works on just about any thread here, unless their dishonesty is comprehensively exposed, and even then they continue on, moving the goal posts, interjecting with irrelevancies, etc, etc, ad nauseum.

Keith

13 Aug 12 at 9:20 am
Dangerous, evil, fascist morons

You’ll find that all stories on all ABC networks are given top billing or prominence in news bulletins if they’re about the Greens. It’s not our imagination. The ABC is the unofficial Greens news service and, since there is never any criticism of the Greens let through in those bulletins, it is essentially a Greens propaganda service that we pay for. The ABC costs roughly $100 p.a. for each household in the country.

Tom

13 Aug 12 at 9:22 am
When I read this I instantly thought it was another case of a man thinking with his…well you know…

Trade official in spy sex scandal

Token

13 Aug 12 at 9:23 am
it is essentially a Greens propaganda service that we pay for

Not good for much, is it?

About bloody time it was shut down.

One less place for those unemployable fauxfacts morons to try and flee to as well.

Rabz

13 Aug 12 at 9:30 am
Speaking of fauxfacts…

Here’s hoping for a week of record lows.

The announcement of the $1 billion write down should be ‘well received’.

Rabz

13 Aug 12 at 9:34 am
* A study in Nature magazine blames mutations in butterflies on Fukishima (I sh*t you not, strangely there was no alternate viewpoint presented)

“Mutation Skeptics R Us” is a subsidiary of “Record Heatwave? – what Heatwave?” hey Token?

steve from brisbane

13 Aug 12 at 9:36 am
But the fibre itself is practically future proof (not rat proof!!) as it is capable of light speed transmission (hard to go faster!) and the boffins are finding ways to keep increasing the amount of data it is capable of sending through it (those boxes at each end of the cable).

All electro-magnetic radiation including light and radio waves have the same speed in a vacuum.

It’s the medium that slows it down.

A typical COAX cable has a velocity factor of about 65%.

JamesK

13 Aug 12 at 9:42 am
Gillard has killed more people than Fukishima, Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, Jeffrey Dahmer, Cyclone Tracy and Black Wednesday combined.

C.L.

13 Aug 12 at 9:46 am
Am beginning to think that if this issue with the AWU snowballs that we might be seeing an early election. When the corruption goes to the top… and is also evident at the edges…

The unions are going to get gutted with the support of a vindictive population. It will be like what happened to the live cattle export industry.

Driftforge

13 Aug 12 at 9:57 am
Evil, disgusting ol’ stalinist dirtbag bloviating on the dumb at your expense.

Guess what about?

Waaaaacism.

Rabz

13 Aug 12 at 9:57 am
Potemkin’s Village

When enough insane people scream… here

Grigory Potemkin

13 Aug 12 at 10:08 am
But the fibre itself is practically future proof (not rat proof!!) as it is capable of light speed transmission (hard to go faster!)

I’ve seen this pop up all over the place in the last little while. Is it an ALP talking point?

As JamesK says, all telecoms mediums speed near as possible to the speed of light. The speed of the medium isn’t really the issue, it’s the switching points at the ends.

The speed of the connection isn’t the problem to solve, it’s the bandwidth. The speed of a 56k connection (pingtime) is virtually identical over 56k model or 56 mbit cable. Speed for the user is just a function of data transmitted over time, which is where higher bandwidth comes in.

But the main issue, like anything else, is return on investment. One day Julia Gillard goes on and says that building electrical grids for 4 days a year is like adding 2 extra lanes on a freeway that get used once a year. Then she goes and spends (at least) $40 bn on a fibre optic scheme where people will be sending 100k emails over 100mbit connections – like building 4 lane freeways to everyones front doors.

brc

13 Aug 12 at 10:34 am
Gillard has killed more people than Fukishima, Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, Jeffrey Dahmer, Cyclone Tracy and Black Wednesday combined.

You make her sound like one of the Four Horseman.

dover_beach

13 Aug 12 at 10:40 am
You make her sound like one of the Four Horseman

.

Grim Gillard saddles up.

C.L.

13 Aug 12 at 11:30 am
You make her sound like one of the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse

Gab

13 Aug 12 at 11:34 am
Is that pic from the pink batts file, Gab?

C.L.

13 Aug 12 at 11:37 am
Plenty to choose from, not just the pink batts, CL. Which reminds me, there have been four house fires in the last two days in the same area, the Blue Mountains area, up in Sydney. Made me wonder if pink batts were involved.

Gab

13 Aug 12 at 11:39 am
News Limited business commentator Alan Kohler doesn’t like capitalism:

And the key problem of Planet Earth these days is that this is no longer confined to the non-democracies: the nations that are nominally democratic (United States, Europe, UK, Japan, India) as well as those that are fundamentally undemocratic (Russia, China) are all now ruled by wealthy oligarchies.

Capitalism has failed to deliver for the poor and the middle classes.

Following the triumph of democracy over socialism with the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, western free market economies have merely seen their elites become very rich, and since in politics “money doesn’t talk, it screams”, these elites have also become very powerful.

Tom

13 Aug 12 at 11:41 am
A brilliant suggestion from Tim Blair re Olympic funding.

C.L.

13 Aug 12 at 11:43 am
Libs need to turn up the heat on Piggy Howes on the Gillard-Wilson-AWU scandal. Slater-Gordon have clearly decided the stench from this particular union bucket of prawns in the sun is starting to cost them money and are looking to cut it loose.

H B Bear

13 Aug 12 at 11:44 am
Capitalism has failed to deliver for the poor and the middle classes.

What preposterous bloody rot.

Rabz

13 Aug 12 at 11:50 am
Capitalism has failed to deliver for the poor and the middle classes.

When I go to a shopping centre and see teenagers walking around with hand-held computers, sending messages to each other, I fail to see how capitalism has somehow failed the middle classes.

The fact is, a poor family on welfare in Australia, the UK or the USA is still better off than a working family in socialist Russia, Cuba or North Korea.

The only thing that has gotten worse in the last 20 years is the gradual erosion of freedoms, and the rise of the government paid fine-issuers. When you can order infinite goods around the world from infinite sellers for affordable prices, but you can’t cut down a tree in your own front yard, it’s clear to me that it’s governance , not capitalism that has failed in the last 20 years.

brc

13 Aug 12 at 12:20 pm
“Mutation Skeptics R Us” is a subsidiary of “Record Heatwave? – what Heatwave?” hey Token?

Hehe, I’m not suprised SOB believes our national broadcaster should continually repeat a 1 line sensationalised headline on a study (which strangely they do not note the sample size or geographic area covered) is big news!!!

Token

13 Aug 12 at 12:22 pm
Libs need to turn up the heat on Piggy Howes on the Gillard-Wilson-AWU scandal.

Disagree.

The opposition needs to let the people breaking and leaking the story break and leak the lot. When the feeding frenzy is in full swing, and the public groundswell is there for a full investigation, that’s when they step in and promise it. Hopefully another election will be in the works at that time, though this minority rabble seem to be able to cling together come what may. This may change in Shorten and Howes end up being in it up to their eyeballs.

Abbott and Co politically must not be seen as the ones calling for the head of the PM on a plate.

If they go in hard, the unions will use that as a fundraising opportunity to dock $50m or so from workers pay to fight the election.

The public need to be seen to wanting to treat the union boil. Then the opposition steps in with the lance.

brc

13 Aug 12 at 12:24 pm
Some Happy Music.
For my children. See Stephanie’s thread. No more of that.

And also for da longsuffering Hairy Ape.

And also because it’s lunchtime everyone!

And don’t let Alan Kohler get you down. Important to keep spirits high.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

13 Aug 12 at 12:28 pm
The fact is, a poor family on welfare in Australia, the UK or the USA is still better off than a working family in socialist Russia, Cuba or North Korea.

What a disgusting thing to say.

What’s next? Will you be saying those “poor and disadvantaged” youths who communicated with each other during the London riots by Blackberry are not really poor in comparison with children their own age in Ethiopia?

Token

13 Aug 12 at 12:31 pm
Abbott and Co politically must not be seen as the ones calling for the head of the PM on a plate.

If they go in hard, the unions will use that as a fundraising opportunity to dock $50m or so from workers pay to fight the election.

The public need to be seen to wanting to treat the union boil. Then the opposition steps in with the lance.

Agreed, the job of Abbott & Co is to set the terms of reference of the royal commission once the public has had enough.

Token

13 Aug 12 at 12:33 pm
The fact is, a poor family on welfare in Australia, the UK or the USA is still better off than a working family in socialist Russia, Cuba or North Korea.

Friends returned yesterday from East Timor. They were doing volunteer work aiding the poor – she’s a teacher so the focus was on that area. Apart from physically helping to build a library in the school, they assisted with other school-related needs. They now have a huge shopping list of things to send over plus they’re working on a project to set up scholarships for kids to go to uni. It costs about AUD 1,500 per year to send a kid to uni East Timor.

Now these friends have traveled a bit, as have their kids, to poor regions in places such as India and other parts of Asia, so they’re no strangers to seeing people in poverty. However, they were gobsmacked at the level of poverty in East Timor.

Speaking with them last night, their first comment:
“We don’t have poverty in Australia. It is unbelievable to see what poverty in ET looks like.”

However, one thing they do have over there, now, is electricity – courtesy of the Chinese government.

Gab

13 Aug 12 at 12:36 pm
However, one thing they do have over there, now, is electricity – courtesy of the Chinese government.

Gab

I for one am delighted to see something being done for the poor people of East Timor.

However – the Chinese building a sphere of influence there !?

Can someone remind me of the names of the two towering, self-proclaimed intellects that have been running Foreign Affairs in recent times ?

Myrrdin Seren

13 Aug 12 at 12:46 pm
And don’t let Alan Kohler get you down. Important to keep spirits high.

Yes. I think the best way to handle these things is to understand that the world is full of irony. It’s the normal way of things. There do exist business commentators who don’t understand capitalism. That is to be expected. If you take too much exception to each instance of irony that comes your way, you will get ironic overload and your brain will explode. That is what I tell myself.

Dangph

13 Aug 12 at 12:51 pm
Seems like one of Bolta’s readers (is this a Bolthead or Boltard Steve?) noted that Gillard seems to have made another mistake from her “young & naive” mid 30′s:

The six months that Gillard’s bio left out

I’ve already discussed Julia Gillard’s unexpected leaving of Slater & Gordon in October or November, 1995. She’d been a partner but left seemingly abruptly after her relationship – personal and professional – with a union con man become public.

It took at least six months before she got another job, in May 1996, with the Victorian Opposition.

Reader Peter notes that Gillard’s official biography has air-brushed that period of seeming unemployment:

Odd. The year of starting work for Brumby (after Slater and Gordon) in Gillard’s parliamentary bio is wrong.

Julia Gillard became Chief of Staff to Brumby in May 1996.

However, Julia Gillard’s current parliamentary bio states she was:

Solicitor 1987-95; Partner 1990-95.

Chief of Staff to the Victorian Leader of the Opposition, J Brumby, MLA 1995-98.

The wrong year of her starting work for Brumby seems to have been used for a long time, as the wrong year appears in the 2002 40th Parliament Handbook.

Same with the National Archives.

Token

13 Aug 12 at 12:59 pm
MS, I too was a bit taken aback by that, however they told me that a number of countries have their tentacles in ET, it’s just that China did something major in terms of their infrastructure. The Portuguese influence is strong there too, especially in government and pushing for Portugese to be taught and used in every school, rather than English. Weird

Gab

13 Aug 12 at 1:00 pm
Agree Dangph. We just need to tap dance back a bit too. Nothing like a good dance work out to dispell the ironic overload.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

13 Aug 12 at 1:03 pm
When Romney’s VP pick was announced, Obama was hosting Iftar (Ramadan dinner) after sundown at the White House. “Dozens of ambassadors ranging from Nigeria to Yemen were also on the guest list” as well as Muslim members of congress.

“Thomas Jefferson once held a sunset dinner here with an envoy from Tunisia — perhaps the first Iftar at the White House — more than 200 years ago,” Obama said.
President Clinton officially began the Iftar dinners, which were continued by George W. Bush.

“And some of you, as you arrived tonight, may have seen our special display, courtesy of our friends at the Library of Congress — the Koran that belonged to Thomas Jefferson. And that’s a reminder, along with the generations of patriotic Muslims in America, that Islam — like so many faiths — is part of our national story.”

Bit of history Obama wasn’t referring to, of which he is clueless, I imagine:

It began before Jefferson was president. He was then the American ambassador to France, and he was disturbed by what was happening in the Mediterranean. For centuries, the “Barbary Coast Pirates” had been raiding ships passing through the Mediterranean. These were not “pirates” in the sense that we usually think of them. They weren’t rogue agents acting independently. They worked for the governments of the North African countries. They would steal the ship and return to their countries, confiscating the booty aboard the ship, most of which added to the wealth of the Islamic state. They also took the ship’s crew members captive and ransomed the ones they could. Most of that money also went to the Islamic government. The crew who could not be ransomed were sold into slavery.

In addition, these “pirates” randomly raided towns on the coasts of Europe and captured people, bringing them back to North Africa to ransom or sell into slavery. They even came so far as the shores of America to capture settlers, to bring them back to Africa to ransom or sell. They especially prized young women and children who could be used as concubines or made into eunuchs. Over a million Europeans and Americans were sold into slavery during the 200-year reign of the Muslim “Barbary Coast” rulers.

Many European countries wanted this to stop, of course, to which the leaders of the North African countries replied, “All you have to do is pay us a certain amount of money annually, and we will not attack ships from your country.” Many European countries paid the tribute. It was cheaper than going to war. Of course, that was a short-term, self-defeating solution, since paying the tribute made the North African Muslim countries more powerful and more capable of terror, plunder, and mayhem.

The United States was paying this tribute also. This bothered Jefferson. It just so happened that while he was an ambassador in France, Jefferson met with John Adams (then the American ambassador to Britain) and together the two men met with the ambassador from Tripoli (one of the North African Muslim pirate countries). Jefferson and Adams sat down to talk with this man. They asked him why Tripoli attacked ships. Why attack the United States? They had no previous interactions. Why the hostility? Why did they choose America as an enemy?

The Tripoli Muslim ambassador was very straightforward. He said, basically, “That’s what we do. We are commanded to do so by Allah.” Jefferson later wrote that the Tripoli ambassador told him, “It was written in their Koran that all nations which had not acknowledged the Prophet were sinners, whom it was the right and duty of the faithful to plunder and enslave; and that every mussulman (Muslim) who was slain in this warfare was sure to go to Paradise.”

Completely taken aback by this revelation, Jefferson decided to look into the matter further, and did the one thing everyone should do: He read the Quran. He learned what Islam was about.

And when he became president, he formed the United States Navy, created the Marine Corps, sent them to the shores of Tripoli, and soundly defeated the Muslim warriors. This brought an end to the “Barbary Coast Pirates.”

But back to the Ifta, where the President talked about the values of Islam:

you know that the Koran teaches, ‘Be it man or woman, each of you is equal to the other.

Gab

13 Aug 12 at 1:07 pm
Stunning piece you just put up Gab. Someone should tell him. Or better still, tell the people. Slavery is not forbidden in the Koran.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

13 Aug 12 at 1:12 pm
And when he became president, he formed the United States Navy, created the Marine Corps, sent them to the shores of Tripoli, and soundly defeated the lobotomised mediaeval death cultists.

The ignorance of obongo is simply staggering.

What a turd.

Rabz

13 Aug 12 at 1:17 pm
Gab

I recognise that it would not be difficult to get into a costly ‘auction’ for influence in East Timor. ( nothing underhanded – just who will tip the most kit in ).

Just look at Timor’s position on a map, and think of shipping lanes and the undersea resources.

But I would be willing to make a small wager that the analysis on all this around the Minister’s office probably went along the lines of:

From the sustainability desk: “Well – for some reason the Timorese say they want a fossil-fueled power station ? We can’t possibly be seen to support that !”

From the Minister’s office: “What the f**k ! How many votes in this for UN Secretary General for Life ? – none !! Well f**k the ungrateful ratf**kers – after everything I did storming the beaches there on D-Day to liberate them !!!”

From the East Timor desk officer: “We’re screwed”.

Myrrdin Seren

13 Aug 12 at 1:19 pm
Barack Obama: The first Wiki president.

dover_beach

13 Aug 12 at 1:19 pm
Speaking with them last night, their first comment:
“We don’t have poverty in Australia. It is unbelievable to see what poverty in ET looks like.”

Damned straight.

However, one thing they do have over there, now, is electricity – courtesy of the Chinese government…

Much as I would have wanted Australia to do this, the East Timorese ought to be grateful Rudd and Gillard didn’t try to build an electricity grid in another country. The very idea is nightmarish.

C.L.

13 Aug 12 at 1:22 pm
Just look at Timor’s position on a map, and think of shipping lanes and the undersea resources.

My first thought too, along with refueling point. It doesn’t take a Sun Tzu to figure out the long term (potential) strategy.

Gab

13 Aug 12 at 1:23 pm
@gab – good link, history learned for the day. Now reading the wikipedia entry which expands that quite a bit:

First Barbary War

brc

13 Aug 12 at 1:24 pm
Further reading here, Dr Samuel L. Blumenfeld.

Gab

13 Aug 12 at 1:27 pm
Thanks for the educational Citizen Warrior article, Gab.

JamesK

13 Aug 12 at 1:28 pm
You know, I could comment on Obama, his early religion, another term in the White House, unfettered as he’d have nothing to lose this time, his cosy relationship with the MB and various nations…but then I’d sound like a conspiracy nutter.

Gab

13 Aug 12 at 1:33 pm
No conspiracy, Gab. There’s no evidence Obama ever became a Christian. None whatsoever.

C.L.

13 Aug 12 at 1:35 pm
Just for laughs: have a look at the competing versions of the Three Wise Monkeys report on illegal immigration: the professional version and the Greens version, which couldn’t hide disappointment in the second paragraph that “the panel did not recommend immediately sending refugees to Malaysia”.

Tom

13 Aug 12 at 1:39 pm
From the wiki link I posted:

All four Barbary Coast states demanded a sum of $660,000 compared to the limited allocated budget of $40,000 given to the envoys to achieve peace.[6] Diplomatic talks to achieve a reasonable sum for tribute or for the ransom of the captured sailors struggled to reach any headway. The crews of the Maria and Dauphin remained in captivity for over a decade, and soon were joined by other ships captured by the Barbary States.[7] In 1795, Algeria came to an agreement with the U.S. that resulted in the release of 115 sailors they held, at the cost of over $1 million. This amount totaled about 1⁄6 of the entire U.S. budget,[8] and this amount was demanded as tribute by the Barbary States to prevent further piracy. The continuing demand for tribute ultimately led to the formation of the United States Department of the Navy, founded in 1798[9] in order to prevent further piracy attacks upon American shipping as well as to end the extremely large demand for tribute from the Barbary States.

$1m back in 1798 – 1/6th of the entire Federal Budget. 10 years in a North African prison or in slavery in 1798 – I cannot even imagine how bad that would be. Remember this is a time when England was locking up it’s own citizens in prison hulks.

A lot of countries over the years have learnt that poking the Americans with a stick was a bad strategic move.

It’s also interesting that the role of a pirate in the public perception is of a swashbuckling anti-hero with a parrot and a west country accent, operating in the Caribbean, but no reference to these Mediterranean berber pirates.

I think the whole topic would make a grand summer blockbuster movie, complete with a Hollywood hero-sailor and locked-up damsel in distress.

brc

13 Aug 12 at 1:44 pm
Newman smacks Clive Palmer around the noggin.

C.L.

13 Aug 12 at 1:50 pm
The French went so far as to invade Algeria and colonize it with Europeans.

European colonialism of North African is wrapped up with the ending of this horrific trade the vulture states in North Africa lived off.

Token

13 Aug 12 at 1:55 pm
I think the whole topic would make a grand summer blockbuster movie.

Can’t be made while Hollywood and the American left are committed to supporting America’s enemies.

Tom

13 Aug 12 at 1:56 pm
They even came so far as the shores of America to capture settlers, to bring them back to Africa to ransom or sell. They especially prized young women and children who could be used as concubines or made into eunuchs. Over a million Europeans and Americans were sold into slavery during the 200-year reign of the Muslim “Barbary Coast” rulers.

Funny the lefties forget about that. I thought they would have celebtrated a bit of slavery going the other way. Karma for what was doen to the blacks etc.

papachango

13 Aug 12 at 2:01 pm
Can’t be made while Hollywood and the American left are committed to supporting America’s enemies.

Yes, I forgot about that. I forgot hollywood types like to make statements more than money these days.

In my mind I was kind of seeing pirates of the caribbean meets pearl harbour.

No doubt if it were made, the hero of the baddies would be a simple muslim sailor trying to fight corruption or something, and would be dismissed by trying to explain to the local sultan that they are a religion of peace.

It’s very rare that you get a binary good/bad story nowadays. The evil man has to have a reason for being bad. It’s always someone elses fault.

In short : They didn’t build their evil empires, someone else did that.

brc

13 Aug 12 at 2:02 pm
Rather later, but in a similar setting is the film The Wind And The Lion.

blogstrop

13 Aug 12 at 2:03 pm
Can’t be made while Hollywood and the American left are committed to supporting America’s enemies.

You never know, might be right up Christopher Nolan’s alley.

dover_beach

13 Aug 12 at 2:04 pm
Well, it seems Houston didn’t come through for Gillard.

Malaysia dumped.

Nauru backed.

Abbott wins.

Gillard humiliated.

C.L.

13 Aug 12 at 2:27 pm
From your link, blogstrop

As her captivity continues, Bergen learns that the real villain is not Connery, who is truly the ‘Chosen’ leader of his people, but those who imprisoned him

Huh. Like I said, the bad guy is only bad because someone made him so. The Arab pirates couldn’t possibly be murderous thugs.

I should be a scriptwriter. Or maybe I have just watched too many movies.

Still, I might check it out if I ever find it somewhere, Connery is always worth a look, even if he is playing an Arab Pirate with a Scottish accent.

brc

13 Aug 12 at 2:31 pm
@cl that was always going to be the outcome. The questions was : how do we agree with coalition policy without actually agreeing with them? Answer: get a third party to advise us to agree with them. Then it’s not a backflip.

The kicker is whether TPV’s are part of that. Labor wants Nauru to fail, so they’ll do it without TPVs (but with unionised contracts for the construction).

They might find themselves running out of time, though.

brc

13 Aug 12 at 2:33 pm
Connery is always worth a look, even if he is playing an Arab Pirate with a Scottish accent

He did a fair job as a Spansih Peacock in Highlander, especially since his co-stars were the ones with fake Scottish accents. But he’d be getting on a bit now, wouldn’t he?

papachango

13 Aug 12 at 2:37 pm
Well, it seems Houston didn’t come through for Gillard.

Malaysia dumped.

Nauru backed.

Abbott wins.

Gillard humiliated.

The panel did not recommend Coalition-style temporary protection visas. But asylum-seekers deemed particularly vulnerable should be allowed to come to Australia on a temporary basis.

Can someone please decipher this.

Keith

13 Aug 12 at 2:39 pm
Just having a skim read over the recommendations, and noted the increase intake from 13,000 to 20,000 refs. Funny as this was also offered by Morrison as an amendment to the obscure Oakeshott bill in late June of this year. Remember the drama that day, including Sarah H hyphen Y’s teary address in parliament?

The Morrison amendment was voted down. The next day the Greens put forth that the refugee intake be increased to 20,000.

And now the Houston docemnt recommeds the same.

This “government” is a mob of children playing politics with people’s lives, resulting in deaths. It has been thus since 2007.

Gab

13 Aug 12 at 2:40 pm
sorry, did not preview before submit.

Gab

13 Aug 12 at 2:41 pm
So is Gillard still a little bit in love with Angus?
This is the burning question.
Or, will we cop a nauseous rant about the relentless negativity of her own select committee?

Keith

13 Aug 12 at 2:49 pm
Oh, FFS.

Alzheimers afflicted unflushable ol’ hippy turd:

dullard is back Baby, BACK!

Rabz

13 Aug 12 at 2:49 pm
@cl that was always going to be the outcome. The questions was : how do we agree with coalition policy without actually agreeing with them? Answer: get a third party to advise us to agree with them. Then it’s not a backflip.

Indeed. The papers are actually trying to paint Nauru as a Labor proposition, as in: Labor setup the panel, the panel recommends Nauru, now will that negative nancy Tony Abbott finally relent and agree with Labor’s proposed solution of re-opening Nauru and turning back boats?

It’s utterly psychotic and surely damaging to the national psyche to have such lies and machinations being unleashed upon us by the ALP / media complex weekly as a matter of course.

twostix

13 Aug 12 at 2:51 pm
The comments of Mungo’s article are a little unappreciative. It’s a bit sad when the ABC choir won’t show up to protect him.

Abbott walked straight into Gillard’s fairly obvious trap.

He’s either delusional or drinking the bong water.

Keith

13 Aug 12 at 3:03 pm
THE Australian Greens have labelled a recommendation to reopen asylum seeker processing centres on Nauru and Manus Island in Papua New Guinea as a return to the “bad old days” of the Howard government.

Greens leader Christine Milne labelled most of the 22 recommendations from an expert panel as cruel and disappointing, and likened them to the so-called Pacific Solution of processing illegal boat arrivals offshore.

Except it’s not the Pacific Solution at all. But then I don’t expect Milne to know facts when emotive language will do a better job.

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/national/recommendations-a-return-to-howard-era/story-e6frfku9-1226449332879#ixzz23Os6YfzX

Gab

13 Aug 12 at 3:15 pm
Essential Poll:

First pref: 49%, 32% (-1).

2PP: 56%, 44%.

http://essentialvision.com.au/category/essentialreport

Gab

13 Aug 12 at 3:23 pm
No doubt they will ‘implement’ Nauru in the same way as Christmas island – any refugees will have full access to the refugee industry just like they would if they set foot on Australian soil.

Nauru only worked because it didn’t allow the refugee industry to get automatic access to its clients, and because, after all that, you’d only get temporary settlement with no family reunion.

They are going to try and setup Nauru as a fall guy – they’ll spend $500 million in unionised contracts to build the joint, pass laws making it soverieign Australian soil like an Embassy and then point and say ‘didn’t work’ when the boats don’t stop.

But like I said before, they’ll run out of time. Even if the next election is November next year, no way can they rebuild, staff and unionise the processing centre in Nauru. I guess anything to get it off the front pages.

brc

13 Aug 12 at 3:23 pm
Abbott walked straight into Gillard’s fairly obvious trap.

Let me understand this thesis:

* Its taken 5 years,
* 20,000 illegal immigrants are causing social pressures
* billions of dollars spent which are blowing the budget & ending a dream of a surplus
* morale in the navy is at a low and is close to breaking
* and nearly 1,000 dead people…

…and finally Gillard has Abbott where she wants him.

Wow, it sounds like Gillard is a monster when you look it from the ALPBC perspective. I need a shower.

Token

13 Aug 12 at 3:27 pm
Essential Poll

Interesting that the Newspoll 5% jump in ALP vote hasn’t been reflected in Essential polling

JamesK

13 Aug 12 at 3:31 pm
A compelling thesis, Token. Gillard is almost Baldrickean in her cunning.

dover_beach

13 Aug 12 at 3:41 pm
James, the Newspoll had underestimated Labor’s vote relative to the other polls (it was 27% or something).

All that happened was their primary vote came back to the 32-33% range the other polls are showing (mostly at the expense of Greens/Others)

MDMConnell

13 Aug 12 at 3:56 pm
@MDMConnell

I agree but I suspect two at-the-margin-of-error polls in succession.

One underestimating the vote and the latter overestimating.

The difference was ‘others’ as the Coalition and Greens vote primary remained steady as I recall.

JamesK

13 Aug 12 at 4:02 pm
Abbott still 12 points ahead.

C.L.

13 Aug 12 at 4:10 pm
Nah, James, the ALP and greens basically swapped a few percentage points in the last newspoll.

Entropy

13 Aug 12 at 4:26 pm
No statistically significant move in the polls for at least a year now. The ALP/Greens are down to their bedrock of white-collar public sector workers, union goons and long-term welfare recipients, while everyone else has lost so much trust in the ALP that they would look up to check if Gillard said the sky was blue.

squawkbox

13 Aug 12 at 4:40 pm
Good lord but Gillard is a hypocrite. She’s on ABC now telling us, through gritted teeth and pursed lips, that she will now compromise and follow the recommendations from the “expert panel”. After five years and hundreds killed and billions wasted, she’s essentially going to backtrack and do (almost) as Abbott has been telling her to do since Labor dismantled a policy that worked.

A despicable cur of a woman.

Gab

13 Aug 12 at 4:41 pm
brc,
Adoption of its policies is the risk the opposition runs. It has been my greatest fear of the so-called asylum seeker issue, that the opposition’s policies would be adopted in typical Liar’s party fashion – incompetently, or more typically with malice to weaken and corrupt the policy to such an extent that the voters will believe that no effective alternatives exist.

Keith

13 Aug 12 at 4:44 pm
She’s scum, Gab. 1000 dead and the only thing she cares about is engineering a piece of Yes, Minister theatre to avoid saying that Howard and Abbott were right all along. She wanted to save face – that was the most important thing to her.

C.L.

13 Aug 12 at 4:45 pm
Adoption of its policies is the risk the opposition runs. It has been my greatest fear of the so-called asylum seeker issue, that the opposition’s policies would be adopted in typical Liar’s party fashion – incompetently, or more typically with malice to weaken and corrupt the policy to such an extent that the voters will believe that no effective alternatives exist.

Yes. Exactly.

Because, ultimately, it’s not about paper policies but about credibly projected will. Labor will never project it – don’t even want to.

C.L.

13 Aug 12 at 4:47 pm
Gab,
If it weren’t for all her complicit rants about the pacific solution, Gillard could have hand-passed the whole thing back onto Rudd, and the whole “government has lost its way” meme. As it stands, she’s had two years and counting as PM (and a failed vote in Parliament), and it comes down to a reluctant following of recommendations from a friendly committee. So much for all that iron lady talk a couple of months back.

Keith

13 Aug 12 at 4:54 pm
Gillard is on Sky now and was asked about S&G releasing the relevant documents. She was pissed.

DavidJ

13 Aug 12 at 5:00 pm
Keith there’s actually so much with which to hit Gillard and Bowen with I scarcely know where to start.

Nauru – Bowen howled down the costs and said the Opposition was lying. Lying! Houston report backs the Opposition on that (and more).

Nauru – Gillard refused to go there as it wasn’t a signatory to the useless UN convention.

Nauru ratified that in June 2011. Why has she waited so long? (Rhetorical question).

Arrrgh! How much money has she flushed down the hole just to save face!!

Excellent reference to Yes, Minister</em!, btw CL. Nailed it.

Gab

13 Aug 12 at 5:01 pm
Gab,
Such a complete and comprehensive failure.

Keith

13 Aug 12 at 5:06 pm
She was pissed.

But Coorey said Gillard would have blue skies from now on. How could he be so wrong, pfffft. HAHAHAHA

Keith

13 Aug 12 at 5:09 pm
Clean air, Keith. Bald idiot, fabulous Phil Coorey said she needed or had clean air.

JC

13 Aug 12 at 5:40 pm
National Review’s Rich Lawry on Meet the press. Rips Rachel Maddow a new one.

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2012/08/12/national-reviews-rich-lowry-destroys-msnbcs-rachel-maddow-meet-press#ixzz23LfPVrnA

JC

13 Aug 12 at 5:42 pm
Actually Coorey should retrain as a weather girl. Beautiful cloudless day in Canberra today.

Keith

13 Aug 12 at 6:26 pm
Indonesia says ‘about time Gillard grew and brain and reinstates the Pacific Solution’.

Gab

13 Aug 12 at 6:57 pm
Just a suggestion for the Doomlord (and others with blogrolls &/or twitter accounts):

Walter Olson: Author & blogger, about law especially; @catoinstitute & @overlawyered.

I just started following him recently on Twitter via a suggestion from someone else from Cato. His feed is full of interesting law/liberty related links, and I think a lot of Cat readers here would find his own blog http://overlawyered.com/ good value.

He’s a Seppo (I know, right?!) but has done a few pieces concerning Australian issues of law & civil liberties lately so might be a good addition to the blogroll?

Just a thought, anyway.

sdog

13 Aug 12 at 7:15 pm
I says drop it on the bureaucrat’s desk.

Stool Sample Required to Open Business in Greece

http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite2_1_21/02/2012_429208

JC

13 Aug 12 at 7:24 pm
Pickering continues the excruciating slow drip.

Pickering to Howes :

Show us who you really act for, you bloated bastard?

Keith

13 Aug 12 at 7:26 pm
Stool samples from all shareholders.
Wow. Greek bureaucrats must get in a room to ‘brain storm’ the most ridiculous licencing requirement. Did they win a prize or something?

Question is why did these entrepreneurs stay in Greece. They could easily ship their goods to a warehouse in another country and sell online from there.

Keith

13 Aug 12 at 7:35 pm
Keith

I’d drop my pants and leave one there for them on the floor. Urine sample? Take out the old fella and piss right on their desk Fuck’em.

JC

13 Aug 12 at 7:40 pm
@jc – you can bet anything that there will be signs up saying ‘severe penalties for abusing our staff’. I imagine leaving a steamer on a desk would qualify as abuse.

It’s amazing that nobody in government ever came up with the idea of serving the public better, instead of putting up signs pleading with people not to abuse them. When clearly the easier option would just be to treat their customers better.

brc

13 Aug 12 at 7:54 pm
Good read at @TheCommentator on Australia’s & UK’s anti-tobacco lobby groups’ dishonesty on plain packaging.

The gold medal for dishonesty goes to the UK and Australian governments and their associated sock puppets for a grossly misleading operation. The Plain Packs Protect umbrella organisation, headed up by SmokeFree South West — an NHS funded offshoot that employs Dutch private detective agencies to the tune of £135,000, made the catastrophic error of including Andrew Lansley, the Health Secretary as one of its supporters. He is meant to be entirely neutral and his association casts doubt on the merit of the consultation.

Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), despite soliciting the help of every public sector worker, could only muster 203,000 signatures. In desperation, having lost the vox pop, they enlisted the help of Avaaz, an organisaton with “a simple democratic mission: [to] organize citizens of all nations to close the gap between the world we have and the world most people everywhere want.” Forty-eight hours before the consultation was to end members were urged to vote for plain packs.

Then you have the Mexican government which had the temerity to ask what evidence there was for claims that plain packaging would reduce youth smoking. The Australian Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon replied, “The sort of proof they are looking for doesn’t exist when this hasn’t been introduced around the world..”

As I have noted in the past, in Australia, plain packaged cannabis, heroin, cocaine, et al. are consumed by Australian youth three times more than tobacco.

Seriously, read the whole thing. Some excellent links there.

sdog

13 Aug 12 at 8:00 pm
Expanding Keiths’ quote:

Enter Paul (Piggy) Howes, current AWU National Secretary. “This is an isolated case”, he says. “We have zero tolerance for union corruption.” Ok Piggy, you have blatantly lied before. Let’s see if you are lying again now.

Hand over the files. Your “zero tolerance” will assist in recovering your members’ stolen funds… but it will destroy your friends and devastate your union. Your call, Piggy.

What’s it to be? Show us who you really act for, you bloated bastard?

Pickering is really poking at the AWU people with a sharp stick now. I’m guessing their complete lack of reaction will only embolden him further.

brc

13 Aug 12 at 8:07 pm
A despicable cur of a woman.

Stop being politically correct, Gab. She’s a whore. And I’m not speaking metaphorically.

Tom

13 Aug 12 at 8:09 pm
brc

They are sitting ducks because Pickering could get other big leaks as a result of rivalry and points scoring between them.

JC

13 Aug 12 at 8:10 pm
Fabulous Phil Coorey is Fairfax personified.

H B Bear

13 Aug 12 at 8:12 pm
cohenite has advised on another thread Pickering mark4 is up

JamesK

13 Aug 12 at 8:23 pm
Well, Pickering says Slater and Gordon ex-staff are leaking to him. Don’t know where he’s getting the sordid details like stories about weekends away, presumably Blewitt. No doubt Wilson sounds like the sort of bloke who loves to brag about his exploits so he probably told plenty of people what he was up to.

Must be a new one for the unions. Nobody to heavy – they can’t go on strike – nobody to threaten, and hush money wouldn’t work. They can’t bully or bargain their way out.

Just some guy hurling insults at them and lifting up their skirt on a daily basis, and presumably a very large audience hanging on each new instalment.

Shorten, Howes and Ludwig haven’t said zip publicly, but, oh, to be a fly on the wall. They must be going apoplectic about this. I can just imagine the language.

brc

13 Aug 12 at 8:27 pm
The pressure will get too much for them, and they’ll start leaking against each other as JC said earlier.
If the msm starts reporting on it, the major leaks will be done there. Then they all end up covered with the feces.

Keith

13 Aug 12 at 8:33 pm
Must be a new one for the unions. Nobody to heavy – they can’t go on strike – nobody to threaten, and hush money wouldn’t work. They can’t bully or bargain their way out.

They can’t break Pickering’s legs as it would be commented upon.

They’re only way out is blackmail or buy Pickering.
lol

JamesK

13 Aug 12 at 8:35 pm
If the msm starts reporting on it

Asked a reporter I couldn’t identify: would Gillard back Slater & Gordon’s request to the AWU to release it from the obligations of client confidentiality so it could defend its actions.

Gillard’s reply: that is a matter for Slater & Gordon.

Last year two journalists lost their jobs trying to cover this issue. It’s now going mainstream.

Via Bolt. It’s not mainstream yet, but there’s first sign…

Gab

13 Aug 12 at 8:41 pm
I notice the waves of ‘this is an old story that has been denied plenty of times’ defense has withered away.

The only thing that will be left will be a teary ‘leave Julia alone’ plea.

One thing is for certain : she has appalling taste in men.

brc

13 Aug 12 at 8:43 pm
RIP Michael Burks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Utk11I5b6Yg

coz

13 Aug 12 at 8:45 pm
I don’t expect we’ll be hearing from Angus Houston as an independent “expert” again.

He needs to spend a few days at the Helen Ridout School of Tame Consultants for some gentle re-education and an explanation of the Labor way.

H B Bear

13 Aug 12 at 8:58 pm
Tastefully offensive

http://www.tastefullyoffensive.com/2012/08/irish-olympic-sailing-commentary.html

Mike

Mike of Marion

13 Aug 12 at 9:06 pm
Tastefully offensive

LOL.If I could get “text to voice ” in Irish (Jimoin like) then Catallaxy would still be the funniest blog, only better.

Jumpnmcar

13 Aug 12 at 9:20 pm
You have fine taste in music, Coz. That fellah’s talent is a huge loss to modern blues.

Tom

13 Aug 12 at 9:21 pm
Heads up for all the Peter Singer fans on this blog. Mr Singer will be on Q&A at 9.35pm, ABC 1.

SteveC

13 Aug 12 at 9:30 pm
I’m tempted, but the third episode of American Visions calls.

dover_beach

13 Aug 12 at 9:39 pm
Da Hairy Ape is chortling. He gets around a bit, still occasionally hears from people he used to know before he crossed over from the dark side. Pickering is waterboarding them, he says.

Well, personally I’ve never believed the Town Mode ‘fashion’ front, not if you know anything about fashion. I always said to look for a laundry.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

13 Aug 12 at 9:47 pm
Heads up for all the Peter Singer fans on this blog. Mr Singer will be on Q&A at 9.35pm, ABC 1.

Of course he is. Pass.

Entropy

13 Aug 12 at 9:50 pm
re Q&A – at least Pru Goward is worth listening to – and so far, Singer makes sense to me. Then again, I’m biased, every time I talk to my 93 yr old Dad ( in pretty good shape except for depression about having no peers left alive) he wants to “not be here” – with tears. )

hzh

13 Aug 12 at 9:56 pm
I so need to get off facebook. On the Q&A page there are a remarkable amount of numpties and twits.

I’d like to see a cage match between Peter Singer and IT.

nilk

13 Aug 12 at 9:58 pm
Enjoying the Visions, Dover?

C.L.

13 Aug 12 at 10:02 pm
Good lord but Gillard is a hypocrite. She’s on ABC now telling us, through gritted teeth and pursed lips, that she will now compromise and follow the recommendations from the “expert panel”. After five years and hundreds killed and billions wasted, she’s essentially going to backtrack and do (almost) as Abbott has been telling her to do since Labor dismantled a policy that worked.

A despicable cur of a woman.

All true Gab. But Bowen’s inablity to hide his smile, both then and on 7.30, was good stuff..

Lazlo

13 Aug 12 at 10:03 pm
I am CL. Hughes has a great voice and a excellent way about him that is engaging. Watched the second episode last night and enjoyed it. I’ve had to postpone the third episode by an hour as I’ve by seduced by the philosophical train-wreck that is Peter Singer.

dover_beach

13 Aug 12 at 10:08 pm
Irish Olympic Sailing Commentary, a true classic. Like daily life around here. Never a dull commentary. Particularly late at night, assisting the TV.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

13 Aug 12 at 10:11 pm
Today is comparable to Rudd announcing the deferral of the ETS. All the grand principles out the window, betraying the heartland. The NSW Right never give up. It’s only a matter of time now…

Lazlo

13 Aug 12 at 10:16 pm
Irish Olympic Sailing Commentary

To de shore, to de shore.

C.L.

13 Aug 12 at 10:26 pm
Who woulda guessed “Town Mode’ was the mode to pay for Juliar’s town house reno?

JamesK

13 Aug 12 at 10:31 pm
So that’s where the infamous Earth First! clip comes from, episode 3 of America Visions.

dover_beach

13 Aug 12 at 10:32 pm
Calm yourself, Dover and no spoilers, please.

Gab

13 Aug 12 at 10:33 pm
Who woulda guessed “Town Mode’ was the mode to pay for Juliar’s town house reno?

If Pickering is right about Town Mode, the slapper is fucked.

JC

13 Aug 12 at 10:34 pm
So.. who in Labor is left after the shit finishes hitting the fan? To even stand for election?

Driftforge

13 Aug 12 at 10:41 pm
So Pickering is saying town mode money furnished which house? Wilson’s or Gillard’s?

Entropy

13 Aug 12 at 10:42 pm
JC, sweetie, she’s been that for a long time.

kae

13 Aug 12 at 10:47 pm
JC, sweetie, she’s been that for a long time.

Really?

Honestly if she stopped gorging herself we’d wouldn’t need a carbon tax at all.

JC

13 Aug 12 at 10:50 pm
So Pickering is saying town mode money furnished which house? Wilson’s or Gillard’s?

Her’s presumably.

JC

13 Aug 12 at 10:51 pm
There’s a dude who’s part of the refugee industry. I could you not, his name is Paris Aristotle. WTF?

He’s a real hammerhead too.

JC

13 Aug 12 at 10:55 pm
oops I kid you not.

He’s on Lateline.

JC

13 Aug 12 at 10:56 pm
Ah, here it is, buried on page 46 of the “expert panel” report:

3.40 The Panel recommends that at least $3 million each year (to be reviewed after two years) of new policy funding should be allocated to establish a significant, ongoing research program that will develop a more robust evidence base on irregular migration and asylum. The program should be developed in partnership with academic and other expertise in the field. It should managed by a board comprised of academics with expertise in migration matters, NGO s and senior government officials.

kerching!

Gab

13 Aug 12 at 10:57 pm
So.. who in Labor is left after the shit finishes hitting the fan? To even stand for election?

It will be (IMHO) a return to the right wing machine. This is centred in NSW and Victoria. Swan is the only possibility outside of that but, even given Big Bill, I can’t see that idiot given a chance.

So, it will come down to Shorten, if he survives the pickering, or Bowen. My guess is that they would rather take the reins now, lift the vote above current disaster levels, and go down valiantly at the election. They would then have a fighting chance at the next one.

The alternative is to let a tsunami happen and then be in the position of Robertson in NSW and whatsername in Qld. If I was Bill or Chris, I know which one I would prefer..

Lazlo

13 Aug 12 at 10:59 pm
Paris Aristotle. WTF?

He’s a real hammerhead too.

Yes, a refugee advocate and one of the three appointed to be on the “expert panel” for the asylum report handed down today.

Gab

13 Aug 12 at 11:00 pm
Gab at 2257

Oh the old pork barrelling of the University black holes

Mike of Marion

13 Aug 12 at 11:02 pm
BTW I wouldn’t put it past the NSW Right to be feeding Pickering. They led the attack on the Greens, which has culminated today, and which Richo was advocating months ago.

Lazlo

13 Aug 12 at 11:09 pm
Funny isn’t it, Mike. For six years Howard had the same polices to successfully dissuade illegal maritime arrivals. Six years and never had to spend a cent extra – let alone $3 million per year – just to have a panel of “experts” establish an “ongoing research programme”.

That’s because Howard relied on his staff in the defence force and border patrol.

Gab

13 Aug 12 at 11:10 pm
How come Gillard hasn’t sued Pickering, News Ltd, Andrew Bolt et alia?

C.L.

13 Aug 12 at 11:10 pm
Lol Lazlo…

Some of the stuff is really close to home. If true only an insider would know some of the stuff he’s coming out with.

JC

13 Aug 12 at 11:10 pm
This is beyond farce. Beyond tragedy. Beyond hitherto known limits of incredulity.

1000 people had to die because Rudd and Gillard hate Howard and Abbott.

Then they couldn’t admit they were wrong.

So they engineered a piece of capitulation theatre to protect their pride.

And tonight Gillard wants plaudits for her Leadership and Humility.

C.L.

13 Aug 12 at 11:16 pm
Stunning piece you just put up Gab. Someone should tell him. Or better still, tell the people. Slavery is not forbidden in the Koran.

That was an anecdote that Christopher Hitchens told well and often.

Merciful Allah, I miss Hitchens.

Abu Chowdah

14 Aug 12 at 2:29 am
This is beyond farce. Beyond tragedy. Beyond hitherto known limits of incredulity.

Why does she need legislation urgently?

She could open off-shore processing now by executive order.

There is no mad rush except to pretend that this needs parliamentary approval.

It doesn’t.

JamesK

14 Aug 12 at 2:32 am
National Review’s Rich Lawry on Meet the press. Rips Rachel Maddow a new one.

That. Was. Awesome.

Abu Chowdah

14 Aug 12 at 2:45 am
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Monday shows Mitt Romney attracting support from 47% of voters nationwide, while President Obama earns the vote from 44%. Four percent (4%) prefer some other candidate, and four percent (4%) are undecided.

JamesK

14 Aug 12 at 2:58 am
So now we have the first day of Gillard’s last days, with government suckholes like Michelle Grattan still determined to deflect criticism from Labor:

it has come right back to that Howard policy because of the dramatic and sad failure of humanitarianism.

The Oz’s analysis is more realistic and damning.

Note: neither story mentions the Greens, who are getting off scot-free. But the legend of Tony Abbott, government killer, grows.

Tom

14 Aug 12 at 6:26 am
The expert panel saidnthat people arriving by boat should get no advantage over those working their way through the camps and UNHCR processes overseas. But when Paris was asked on Lateline whether Ruddock’s term queue jumping was therefore correct he funked out. Of course it’s correct, and all the lefty sophistry in the third world cannot change that.

Blogstrop

14 Aug 12 at 6:37 am
Whatever the Coalition agrees to this week on illegal immigration becomes Coalition policy. Paul Kelly:

The panel, in effect, gave Tony Abbott a short-term victory on Nauru that helps to break the impasse. Yet its entire regional strategy rejects the Coalition policy of refusing offshoring processing to nations that have not endorsed the Refugee Convention.

With the panel insisting its report be treated as an integrated whole, this will become the ultimate sticking point. The risk is that Coalition dogmatism will destroy the Houston strategy.

Abbott should spell it out honestly: whatever is agreed on becomes Coalition policy; the Libs aren’t prepared to support something that will have to be changed again.

Tom

14 Aug 12 at 7:00 am
I remember Paris Aristotle from VAFA A-Grade football in the 1980s, a fullback, one tough hombre. He personally made plenty of half-forward flankers become refugees from the forward 50. With extreme prejudice.

James in Melbourne

14 Aug 12 at 7:50 am
Interesting that despite this being an outcome that Labor would not contemplate, within a day of the Houston Panel releasing its recommendations, the government has legislation on off-shore processing ready to be tabled in Parliament today.

Myrddin Seren

14 Aug 12 at 7:55 am
Potemkin’s Village

Creatures flock together… here

Grigory Potemkin

14 Aug 12 at 8:02 am
BTW I wouldn’t put it past the NSW Right to be feeding Pickering. They led the attack on the Greens, which has culminated today, and which Richo was advocating months ago.

Here, here. It is most likely people who had access to the storehouse of documents that the AWU is holding started this process.

The process in motion now would not have began if McClelland had not spoken up in parliament. All other attempts to get this process going (including by the Libs) died due to the Labor/Stenographers Guild alliance blocking it.

Token

14 Aug 12 at 8:28 am
Actually Coorey should retrain as a weather girl. Beautiful cloudless day in Canberra today.

LOL, it is appropriate, but I notice the morning shows want their empty headed men to be good looking and have charm.

Token

14 Aug 12 at 8:31 am
Gee, I wonder if the reason Australians are leery of American style gun laws, and the proposition that everyone is safer if everyone is harmed, is because you don’t often hear here of people going about their normal business (trying to sell door to door, or trying to serve an eviction notice) getting shot.

Most Australians probably also find the idea of carrying a sidearm to your place of worship a tad offensive too.

But sdog will turn up here with another grumble about media reporting of US shootings, as if that is the problem.

steve from brisbane

14 Aug 12 at 8:43 am
How come Gillard hasn’t sued Pickering, News Ltd, Andrew Bolt et alia?

Looks like the list of people who could sue if the information is defaming is growing.

You would think the Bernard Murphy has to act or his time on the Federal Court must come to an end.

Token

14 Aug 12 at 8:43 am
Keep on trolling Steve. I’m sure you’ll get someone to bite.

BTW, getting back to an important point, Steve, do you find yourself getting angry or uncomfortable when you are in a room with people with dark skin or catholics?

Token

14 Aug 12 at 8:46 am
Not at all, Token. Most Catholics (by a large majority) are sensible on contraception, just as Mormons are. About 90% of the argument against the Obama contraceptive mandate is ill conceived and based on flawed moral reasoning as well, and as such, I think it (the bishops’s arguments) should be opposed by reasonable Catholics.

Hence, I am happy to criticise politicians on those grounds.

steve from brisbane

14 Aug 12 at 8:55 am
should be opposed by reasonable Catholics.

You are neither reasonable nor a Catholic.

Fuck off.

Rabz

14 Aug 12 at 8:57 am
Linda Mottram on 702 had a caller who said we never should have moved away from the Howard era solution. She trotted out the old meme that most of the previous crop that went to Nauru ended up here anyway. Now, apart from the minor detail of where they actually ended up, which is arguable, this tactic totally ignores the fact that for a long time hardly anyone was turning up by boat.
The ABC’s star morning radio presenter is typically propagandist or, if she actually believes this crap, intellectually bankrupt. The so-called National Broadcaster needs a cleanout.

blogstrop

14 Aug 12 at 9:00 am
And good morning to you too Rabz. Are you going to wish me dead today as well?

steve from brisbane

14 Aug 12 at 9:02 am
The so-called National Broadcaster needs ~~a cleanout~~ selling.
FIFY.

Tom

14 Aug 12 at 9:05 am
The beauty of Houston’s report is that it allowed dullard to accept Nauru without the precondition that the Coalition accept Malaysia. laybore will introduce amendments today to begin offshore processing as soon as possible on Nauru and Papua New Guinea.

There is no reason why the Coalition should not pass such provisions. Such consent was signalled yesterday by opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison.

Sorry, but there are a whole host of reasons why the Coalition should not pass such provisions.

The first being that the stupid stinking greenslime are again being allowed to remain unaccountable.

The others are too numerous to list here, but include no TPVs, laybore taking forever to get Nauru back up and running, etc.

Oh and paul kelly is an embarrassing laybore numptie.

Rabz

14 Aug 12 at 9:08 am
Are you going to wish me dead today as well?

I don’t wish you dead, you pea-brained clown. Just go away and see if you can borrow someone’s intellect. Must be terrible being born without one.

Tom

14 Aug 12 at 9:08 am
sfb in the face of a Liar’s party mounting scandal and backflip on in illegal immigrants, shouts ‘look a unicorn, in America’ – twice.

Keith

14 Aug 12 at 9:08 am
The aforementioned kelly piece…

Rabz

14 Aug 12 at 9:09 am
My link to the kelly piece has been swallowed…

Probably for the best.

Rabz

14 Aug 12 at 9:11 am
and the proposition that everyone is safer if everyone is harmed

Freudian slip?

About 90% of the argument against the Obama contraceptive mandate is ill conceived and based on flawed moral reasoning

LOL, on the latter, but, no, the opposition to the ‘contraception mandate’ has nothing to do with the morality of contraception per se. Vegans are not obliged to prepare a beef vindaloo for me if I enter their establishment.

I think it (the bishops’s arguments) should be opposed by reasonable Catholics.

So you think that institutions should be legally obliged to act against their conscience?

dover_beach

14 Aug 12 at 9:15 am
She trotted out the old meme that most of the previous crop that went to Nauru ended up here anyway.

Debunked.

To justify this failure, the government has resorted to lying. Both the Prime Minister and the Treasurer, Wayne Swan, along with relevant ministers, have all parroted the line that under the Howard government, the ”Pacific solution” – the processing of asylum seekers in Nauru and Papua New Guinea – was no more than a very costly posture because nearly all these asylum seekers ended up getting residency in Australia.

This is simply not true. Nauru and Manus Island housed 1637 people, of which 1153 were found to be refugees. But only 705 were settled here, while 448 were resettled in other countries.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/green-light-for-boats-is-the-worst-of-both-worlds-20120701-21ary.html#ixzz23THBcnSx

Ivan Denisovich

14 Aug 12 at 9:20 am
It is a backdown; I think the Coalition should have gone with the Malayasian solution, but with some sort of promise for the government to withdraw if credible evidence of government connected harm to an Australian delivered assylum seeker was found.

The latest lost boatload may well have not happened if the Coalition had been prepared to allow the Malaysian deal to be implemented a month ago. The deal was expected to have an immediate effect – just the promise of it coming had an effect initially.

Of course, Labor traded on its idealism in this when criticising the Coalition before it took government; when it realises it can’t deal with it in this way after all, the Coalition then insists on getting its own way and ignoring the advice of the top public servant in the field (the same one who used to advise them.)

So I find plenty of blame to spread around on this, and the issue absolutely highlights the uselessness of the Greens in putting ideology over pragmatism no matter how many deaths are happening.

steve from brisbane

14 Aug 12 at 9:20 am
The ABC’s star morning radio presenter is typically propagandist or, if she actually believes this crap, intellectually bankrupt. The so-called National Broadcaster needs a cleanout.

The staff ABC is more invested in the Green/Left viewpoint of open borders than the ALP.

Token

14 Aug 12 at 9:21 am
The article in the USA Today on the issue was pretty convincing, for me, d-b.

steve from brisbane

14 Aug 12 at 9:23 am
She trotted out the old meme that most of the previous crop that went to Nauru ended up here anyway.

Debunked.

Thanks Ivan, I was going to look for that myself.

The fact is the “best & brightest” at the ABC will peddle what they know are lies.

Token

14 Aug 12 at 9:23 am
The Liar’s party handling of the Houston panel solution, has been calibrated to offend Nauruans.

First, on the day of the announcement, an official response from the Indons is warmed up and ready to go.
Obviously briefed prior to announcement. Official response from Nauru? Nowhere to be seen – clearly left out of the loop and getting the Timor Leste treatment from the Oz government.

Second, Aristotle spills the beans:

“There would have to be accommodation established for them,” he told ABC’s Lateline. ”They may have to return to that accommodation each evening, but it’s not intended that it would be a detention centre in any of the proposed transfer arrangements.”

I can just see Nauruans accepting these illegals wandering freely around their island causing trouble.

The mongrels want Nauru to back away from supporting the ersatz pacific solution.

Keith

14 Aug 12 at 9:24 am
In any event, the important thing is that the boats stop coming and people are not voting on it at the next election, which is important for Labor to win.

steve from brisbane

14 Aug 12 at 9:25 am
It is a backdown; I think the Coalition should have gone with the Malayasian solution,

…wouldn’t Stve and the Labor/Green Alliance loved blaming Abbott, Abbott, Abbott when the guardians of tradiation Malaysian values caned / detained people on probation.

An opportunity lost for the Left to gain political advantage by exploiting the suffering of people.

Token

14 Aug 12 at 9:27 am
“I can just see Nauruans accepting these illegals wandering freely around their island causing trouble.

Who’s going to police the illegals – Nauruans or Australians sent over there to work there?
Or will it become a holiday island and no-one cares and they still receive Centrelink payments.

candy

14 Aug 12 at 9:28 am
The latest lost boatload may well have not happened if the Coalition had been prepared to allow the Malaysian deal to be implemented a month ago.

None of the deaths would have happened if two of the worst people we’ve elected to public office didn’t think it was worth killing a few hundred country shoppers to save face.

Tom

14 Aug 12 at 9:30 am
…wouldn’t Stve and the Labor/Green Alliance loved blaming Abbott, Abbott, Abbott when the guardians of tradiation Malaysian values caned / detained people on probation.

You’re a nut, Token. How would Labor be able to plan the Liberals if that happened if the Liberals reluctantly let it be tried?

steve from brisbane

14 Aug 12 at 9:30 am
to blame the Liberals…

steve from brisbane

14 Aug 12 at 9:31 am
The article in the USA Today on the issue was pretty convincing, for me, d-b.

LOL

JamesK

14 Aug 12 at 9:31 am
In any event, the important thing is that the boats stop coming and people are not voting on it at the next election, which is important for Labor to win.

ShitFerBrains will vote for the mass killers party as a matter of principle, unless he has a change of heart and decides to vote for the Green mass killers party.

Tom

14 Aug 12 at 9:33 am
An rash of liar morning thread pebble dashing searching for enraged engagement.

JamesK

14 Aug 12 at 9:35 am
“In any event, the important thing is that the boats stop coming and people are not voting on it at the next election, which is important for Labor to win.”

Unfortunately for Labor in the end it won’t affect Ms Gillard’s popularity, most people dislike and distrust her. She’ll never bring it home for them.

candy

14 Aug 12 at 9:37 am
Funny, they just look to me like sincere and moderate positions put in reasonable language, JamesK.

I’m sorry if I’m not nutjob enough for you.

steve from brisbane

14 Aug 12 at 9:39 am
1000 people had to die because Rudd and Gillard hate Howard and Abbott.

Then they couldn’t admit they were wrong.

Yep.

Why has no one lost their job over such a catastrophic blunder, putting pride above lives?

ON Thursday October 13 last year, Julia Gillard presided over two emergency meetings of her cabinet.

With the government’s asylum policy paralysed by the High Court’s rejection of its Malaysia Solution six weeks earlier … Immigration Minister Chris Bowen … told colleagues Labor should offer to reopen the Howard government’s refugee processing centre on Nauru and lift the humanitarian refugee intake from 13,750 to 20,000 a year in return for the Coalition’s support for legislation to reinstate offshore processing.

It didn’t fly. Led by the Prime Minister and then foreign minister Kevin Rudd, cabinet split, rolling the Immigration Minister on the basis that Gillard’s weakened leadership could not stand the humiliation of capitulating to Tony Abbott by reviving the Howard-era Pacific Solution.…

Running defence:

Paul Kelly again fails to hold Julia Gillard to account, praising the report for giving her an excuse to do precisely what she should have done years ago – but failed to through stupidity and self-interest:

The beauty of Houston’s report is that it allowed Gillard to accept Nauru without the precondition that the Coalition accept Malaysia.

It “allowed” Gillard to do the right thing? Ask rather what despicable calculation prevented her from doing this many lives ago. Ask then whether such a person is fit to be Prime Minister.

http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/andrewbolt/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/blood_on_their_hands1/

Ivan Denisovich

14 Aug 12 at 9:44 am
Labor traded on its idealism

Not in the same sentence, Steve.

Makes it oxymoronic.

James in Melbourne

14 Aug 12 at 9:45 am
Interesting article, sfb, but it has problems at a number of points, the most important of them at beginning: the availability of universal health care is independent of contraceptives being compulsorily a part of insurance schemes, so “cooperation with evil” is unnecessary.

dover_beach

14 Aug 12 at 9:46 am
An rash of liar morning thread pebble dashing searching for enraged engagement.

You would think a crying ‘leave Julia alone’ would be more in order.

brc

14 Aug 12 at 9:46 am
In any event, the important thing is that the boats stop coming and people are not voting on it at the next election, which is important for laybore to win.

My goodness, you are one poor deluded fool.

Rabz

14 Aug 12 at 9:54 am
In any event, the important thing is that the boats stop coming and people are not voting on it at the next election, which is important for Labor to win.

For the rest of us the important thing is to stop the deaths at sea of men, women & CHILDREN.

I’m sorry to say that I’m not shocked that you show no care for the people who have lost their life as sea.

Paul Kelly’s thesis stands for you and your Green-slime mates Steve:

The beauty of Houston’s report is that it allowed Gillard to accept Nauru without the precondition that the Coalition accept Malaysia.

It “allowed” Gillard to do the right thing? Ask rather what despicable calculation prevented her from doing this many lives ago. Ask then whether such a person is fit to be Prime Minister.

Token

14 Aug 12 at 10:07 am
She trotted out the old meme that most of the previous crop that went to Nauru ended up here anyway.

30% were sent back, 43% were settled here and the balance were taken by other countries.

Gab

14 Aug 12 at 10:10 am
30% were sent back, 43% were settled here and the balance were taken by other countries.

Always with the facts, you people…

Rabz

14 Aug 12 at 10:12 am
I’m sorry if I’m not nutjob enough for you.

Sinc I vote liar’s latest should be a ‘Liberty Quote”

JamesK

14 Aug 12 at 10:13 am
Um, I thought it followed that if the boats stop coming, the drownings also stop, Token.

steve from brisbane

14 Aug 12 at 10:24 am
Black Steam Train rebukes:

What I did witness was an amazing display. I watched young, white identifiers roundly proclaim their connection to, and knowledge of, their ‘culture’, then turn around not five minutes later and abuse Aboriginal culture by speaking over an Elder. I don’t know what this mystical ‘culture’ is that these identifiers are on about, but if they were hoping to display an innate understanding of Aboriginal culture that night, then they missed the mark by a mile.

Once upon a time, the paler activists were an asset to the Aboriginal cause. Now, they have become a liability. Sprouting bullshit such as ‘our white skin is a result of the rape of the colonisers’, they are no longer laughable and tolerable in small doses – they are promoting a view of life that just continues to perpetuate the victim mentality and does their cause no favours.

via Bolt

Gab

14 Aug 12 at 10:25 am
When will our Prime Murderess resign?
That would be the least she could do, if there was any honour in her.
Meanwhile Gillard supporte sfb perceives a death threat and cries about it.

Keith

14 Aug 12 at 10:38 am
Um, I thought it followed that if the boats stop coming, the drownings also stop, Token.

Um. That is not what you said Steve.

I have not clipped or edited your text in any way.

In any event, the important thing is that the boats stop coming and people are not voting on it at the next election, which is important for Labor to win.

Token

14 Aug 12 at 10:38 am
Bolta links to an article in the UK Tele which underlines why ownership of assets by the Chinese government is not the same as ownership by companies from the US, UK or governments like Qatar.

Token

14 Aug 12 at 10:46 am
Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard killed 1000 people because they hate John Howard.

Both should be charged and, preferably, jailed for crimes against humanity.

C.L.

14 Aug 12 at 10:57 am
Incidentally, it looks like Gillard just got another 60 people killed.

C.L.

14 Aug 12 at 11:02 am
Tim Blair reminds:

Views on asylum seekers from late 2011, beginning with Prime Minister Julia Gillard:

“Nauru won’t work. It won’t have the deterrence effect of the Malaysia arrangement.”

Here’s trade minister Craig Emerson:

Government will ‘never’ embrace Nauru … “We will never embrace Tony Abbott’s callous, mean, horrible policies on asylum seekers, never,” he told ABC Radio.

And a Labor leftist:

One member of the Left said if the government opted for Nauru, ‘’the party will blow up’’.

http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/timblair/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/there_will_be_no_nauru_processing_under_the_government_i_lead/

Gab

14 Aug 12 at 11:16 am
In any event, the important thing is that the boats stop coming and people are not voting on it at the next election, which is important for Labor to win.

Steve, your approach mimic’s Gillard approach.

Remember in 2009 how Gillard addressed questions in parliament about people were dying at sea?

THE Rudd Government can’t be trusted to tell the truth about the boat people it’s lured when it refuses to admit even to the dead on its doorstep.

Last week I warned that at least 25 boat people had died this year in trying to sail here, after the Government weakened our laws on illegal arrivals.

How many were drawn to their deaths by the Government’s “compassion”?

On Friday Nationals leader Warren Truss repeated my point, goading the Government into a furious response.

Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard savaged Truss for his “vile slur”, which she said was one of the most “dangerous”, “irresponsible” and “despicable” she’d heard in politics.

She falsely claimed Truss had blamed the Government for “causing” these 25 deaths, and on Channel 9 added this: “There is no evidence to support this figure.”

Pardon? No evidence?

She could’ve acted in 2009 to stop the deaths but instead played games.

Gillard is one flint-hearted woman who has prospered why people have suffered or died.

Token

14 Aug 12 at 11:33 am
Labor insists the policy is not a return to the Howard Government’s Pacific Solution of offshore processing, which it once decried as “costly, unsustainable, and wrong.”

To concede as much would be to concede culpability and Labor has always prioritised deflecting blame for the drownings over and above prevention of the drownings. Whatever It Takes, its shameful epitome.

Ivan Denisovich

14 Aug 12 at 11:38 am
Listening to Bolta & Pricey’s program on 2GB last night.

At 8min they have Gillard on record from 2003 stating that Labor will end the Pacific Solution as it is:

“…costly, unsustainable economically and wrong as a matter of principle…”

Token

14 Aug 12 at 11:39 am
The tolerant left:

screaming hysterical hecklers at Ryan IA state fair speech rush stage, punch supporters, get arrested. I guess because Ryan’s an extremist.

via Iowahawk twitter.

Gab

14 Aug 12 at 11:44 am
Labor barracker Alan Kohler, a business commentator even though he dislikes capitalism (see this thread yesterday), believes Gillard can win the next election if she takes steps to improve her “authenticity” including reversing her opposition to gay marriage.

Tom

14 Aug 12 at 11:47 am
Footage here of the tolerant Left.

dover_beach

14 Aug 12 at 11:53 am
So it’s bring-on ‘authentic Julia’? How many versions of Julia is that now?

dover_beach

14 Aug 12 at 11:56 am
For the rest of us the important thing is to stop the deaths at sea of men, women & CHILDREN.

Very true. Its not that deaths occur, its where they occur. There’s no problem if they die in Indonesia or Malaysia or their home countries because then its out of sight, out of mind and not our problem. When they die on a boat trip to Australia then all of sudden people start considering it to be our responsibility. So as a country we come up with solutions to ensure that their deaths are not our responsibility.

Random observation – the childhood mortality rate in a lot of countries the refugees come from is higher than the risk of death travelling on a boat to Australia. Puts some of the risks that asylum seekers take into perspective.

Chris

14 Aug 12 at 12:02 pm
Random observation – the childhood mortality rate in a lot of countries the refugees come from is higher than the risk of death travelling on a boat to Australia.

What a nonsense comparison. You are comparing the probability of death over a 5 year period (ages 0-5) with the probability of getting killed on a single boat trip lasting days.

Fisky

14 Aug 12 at 12:07 pm
So it’s bring-on ‘authentic Julia’? How many versions of Julia is that now?

“Authentic” Julia is correctly identified by Kohler: Hard left, pro Gay Marriage, pro community based illegal immigrant processing, pro huge state, pro eco nuttery.

The chatterati want her to be herself because that’s what they all are too. And in their fevered imaginations, so is everyone else. The eternal problem that they have is that according to the current polls, as a class, Authentic Julia would impress about 10% of the electorate.

So unless they want the ALP to go to way of the Greens and Democrats, Gillard can never be openly “authentic”, she must always live a lie.

twostix

14 Aug 12 at 12:10 pm
Labor barracker Alan Kohler, a business commentator even though he dislikes capitalism (see this thread yesterday),

…does he still present that tired old business show pushing left weing values on the ABC in the same timeslot as Bolt?

Token

14 Aug 12 at 12:12 pm
Joe Biden makes fun of Ryan’s dead father:

Video.

C.L.

14 Aug 12 at 12:15 pm
Very true. Its not that deaths occur, its where they occur. There’s no problem if they die in Indonesia or Malaysia or their home countries because then its out of sight, out of mind and not our problem.

You wouldn’t be making an offensive slur by suggestion people at the Cat believe “…no problem if they die in Indonesia or Malaysia or their home countries”, would you Chris?

I would not assume the same of you without understanding more about your views and values.

Given that it is a good point Chris.

Considering the sheer # of children that die under totalitarian dictatorships, what is your suggestion to implement regime changes across most of Africa, the muslim dominated Middle East & Central Asia, and the Chinese puppet dictatorships in East Asia like North Korea & Burma?

Are you suggesting people in Australia are accountable and must accept any and all refugess to prevent the deaths of children in those countries?

Token

14 Aug 12 at 12:17 pm
Chris, you are being ridiculous. We cannot be held responsible for circumstances that may obtain in Indonesia or Malaysia because those circumstances are wholly out of our power or authority, not because they are “out of sight, out of mind”. You see, responsibility is related to power and/ or authority. But the circumstances that have obtained since 2007 have not been wholly out of our power or authority and so we are partly responsible for them. See how this works?

dover_beach

14 Aug 12 at 12:17 pm
Very true. Its not that deaths occur, its where they occur. There’s no problem if they die in Indonesia or Malaysia or their home countries because then its out of sight, out of mind and not our problem. When they die on a boat trip to Australia then all of sudden people start considering it to be our responsibility. So as a country we come up with solutions to ensure that their deaths are not our responsibility.

Are you saying we should consider Indonesia a failed state? That “we” are supposed to now take responsibility for the lives of foreign citizens in foreign countries?

If Indonesia is killing them and we’re ever so compassionate should we mount armed operations into Indonesia to protect these persecuted “refugees” who choose to fly to Indonesia rather than directly to Sydney or Darwin?

How does this (rather disgusting) logic work Chris?

twostix

14 Aug 12 at 12:18 pm
When they die on a boat trip to Australia then all of sudden people start considering it to be our responsibility.

Whereas anyone with a functioning brain would know it’s entirely the responsibility of the idiots who get on the boats.

No one holds a gun to their heads.

Rabz

14 Aug 12 at 12:19 pm
I can’t fathom Biden’s point. Not just on the vid link above, but in general. It’s like he perpetually misses the the important matters and instead goes for trivial but cheap shots as if they are of great import.

Gab

14 Aug 12 at 12:20 pm
A gleeful Sydney Morning Herald, 10 November 2010:

‘Nauru solution’ in doubt as leader quits.

The opposition’s so-called “Nauru solution” for asylum seekers is in doubt with the sudden resignation today of Nauru’s president Marcus Stephen and foreign minister Keiren Keke…

Mr Keke, in particular, had travelled to Australia during the 2010 election campaign to meet Mr Abbott and promote his slogan to “stop the boats” and “pick up the phone to Nauru.”

Today:

Gillard contacts Nauru with a formal request to resume asylum-seeker processing.

JULIA Gillard has made a formal request to Nauru to reopen an asylum-seeker processing centre on the Pacific island.

Nauruan government spokesman Rod Henshaw told The Australian Ms Gillard made the call about 9.30am (AEST) and spoke to Nauru’s president Sprent Dabwido.

C.L.

14 Aug 12 at 12:24 pm
Joe Biden makes fun of Ryan’s dead father:

Video.

Another Joe Biden clanger. Add that to the fact Biden has fallen for the Romney/Ryan rope-a-dope…

…Hey Joe, seeing you mentioned the budget, has it really been 3 full years since the the Democrat controlled Senate passed a budget?

Token

14 Aug 12 at 12:28 pm
Sprent Dabwido.

Heh. At least Gillard rang the correct person this time.

Gab

14 Aug 12 at 12:36 pm
Considering the sheer # of children that die under totalitarian dictatorships, what is your suggestion to implement regime changes across most of Africa, the muslim dominated Middle East & Central Asia, and the Chinese puppet dictatorships in East Asia like North Korea & Burma?

The best thing Token is how easily the pop-left have completely adopted Neo-Conservative rhetoric.

It’s apparently our job to act like some 20th century imperial force and as the great and good defenders of Tolerance and Compassion(TM) to start stomping around the world imposing our values and beliefs on the backwards, barbaric nations. In this case, we should be protecting a favoured class of people who chose to move to Indonesia, from the unenlightened Indonesians.

twostix

14 Aug 12 at 12:36 pm
The best thing Token is how easily the pop-left have completely adopted Neo-Conservative rhetoric.

Twostix, compare the attitudes of modern “Progressives” with the program of the progressives from the late 19th and early 20th century. There is so much symatry.

It’s apparently our job to act like some 20th century imperial force and as the great and good defenders of Tolerance and Compassion(TM) to start stomping around the world imposing our values and beliefs on the backwards, barbaric nations. In this case, we should be protecting a favoured class of people who chose to move to Indonesia, from the unenlightened Indonesians.

Keep in mind, so many only care about those with the resources to leave the 3rd world hell holes that is the post colonial world in those regions.

Of course, I would not be crass enough to generalise and suggest Chris is one of those progressives without hearing his views and values on the nuance in this topic.

Token

14 Aug 12 at 12:41 pm
Where’s David Marr when you need him?
He screeched for years about Naru

Tal

14 Aug 12 at 12:51 pm
Friends, Levin is must-listening today. He destroys the lies said about the Ryan plan. He also reminds us that Obama’s plan strips $700B from Medicare and transfers it to ObamaCare which should bring the collapse of Medicare forward to later this decade but, of course, those over 55 need not worry about this for some reason, but they need to worry about the Ryan plan even though Medicare remains and they will still be protected.

dover_beach

14 Aug 12 at 12:59 pm
“The American people are living this nightmare,” nationally syndicated radio talk show host Mark Levin said on Neil Cavuto’s FOX News show today.

Yeah. He sounds like a reliable source not prone to exaggeration, d-b.

steve from brisbane

14 Aug 12 at 1:18 pm
That’s our sfb, straight for the ad hom.

dover_beach

14 Aug 12 at 1:21 pm
Steve believes we must have a crabon dioxide tax to stop the earth from exploding.

C.L.

14 Aug 12 at 1:22 pm
QT should be entertaining today.

I hope Abbott asks Gillard if she’ll apologise.

Watching her spin her border humiliation will be worth the price of admission.

C.L.

14 Aug 12 at 1:23 pm
Mugabe promoter Malcolm Fraser: ‘You just know it would be different if these asylum seekers were white farmers from Zimbabwe.’

Epic.

C.L.

14 Aug 12 at 1:28 pm
Yeah. He sounds like a reliable source not prone to exaggeration, d-b

Yeah 35 million unemployed is a daydream for our resident lazy house husband.

Yeah a third of all mortgagees are underwater.

Happy days for the beta

JamesK

14 Aug 12 at 1:29 pm
“All I can say is this — if I ever see Obama coming at me with a pair of rubber gloves, I’m running, Mr. Producer,” Levin said. “Because now he is an expert on all these things. Is Obama a gynecologist now?

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/08/09/mark-levin-asks-why-obama-is-fixated-on-contraception-over-cancer-diabetes-and-heart-disease/#ixzz23UJfQNop

He’s a right wing radio blowhard.

I don’t trust them for serious analysis.

steve from brisbane

14 Aug 12 at 1:35 pm
He’s a right wing radio blowhard.

I don’t trust them for serious analysis.

He’s also a constitutional lawyer and scholar.

He held a senior position in Regan’s Justice Department.

But just say he’s a “right wing radio blowhard” and you won’t have to critically analyse let alone provide a rebuttal or counter-argument liar.

Which is just as well because you’re not within an ass’ roar of his intellectual ballpark

JamesK

14 Aug 12 at 1:45 pm
He’s a right wing radio blowhard.

Biography of a ‘blowhard’:

Mark Reed Levin was born to a Jewish family in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and grew up in Erdenheim and Elkins Park, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Cheltenham High School after three years in 1974.[2][3] After high school, Levin enrolled at Temple University Ambler including summer classes and graduated in 1977 at age 19, magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa.[4] Levin won election to the Cheltenham school board in 1977 on a platform of reducing property taxes.[3] In 1980, Levin earned a juris doctor from Temple University Beasley School of Law.[5] Levin worked for Texas Instruments in Sunnyvale, California after law school.[3][6]

Beginning in 1981, Levin served as advisor to several members of President Ronald Reagan’s cabinet, eventually becoming Associate Director of Presidential Personnel and ultimately Chief of Staff to Attorney General Edwin Meese; Levin also served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education at the U.S. Department of Education, and Deputy Solicitor of the U.S. Department of the Interior.

He practiced law in the private sector and is president of Landmark Legal Foundation, a public interest law firm founded in 1976 and based in Leesburg, Virginia.

Anyway, when I said “friends”, I wasn’t referring to you, sfb, surely that was clear.

dover_beach

14 Aug 12 at 1:45 pm
Yes:

Newman Government Minister Steve Dickson claims previous government should go to jail for state of Qld’s finances.

C.L.

14 Aug 12 at 2:08 pm
Love him or loathe him, Turnbull’s encomium for Robert Hughes – now being delivered in the House – is utterly brilliant.

C.L.

14 Aug 12 at 2:28 pm
OK, Turnbull is getting carried away. Turnbull is now preventing the Parliament from getting down to the day’s business. This is a longer speech than the remarks given for Sgt Diddums (KIA) and longer than any I’ve ever seen in the House.

C.L.

14 Aug 12 at 2:34 pm
So he’s a well educated right wing radio blowhard, d-b. Herman Cain did some maths

Maybe he doesn’t call women sluts, but otherwise he sounds like just a slightly less over the top Limbaugh.

steve from brisbane

14 Aug 12 at 2:36 pm
Excellent first question by Abbott to Gillard.

She won’t answer the question of course, but still a kicker of a question.

Gab

14 Aug 12 at 2:36 pm
Caught the last minute. Will try to catch a replay later today.

dover_beach

14 Aug 12 at 2:37 pm
What we do agree SoB is that we all agree that we couldn’t care less what your thoughts on Mark Levin are.

You didn’t know who he was until you went to that Left Wing site with a habit of smearing those it deems are its political enemies.

Token

14 Aug 12 at 2:40 pm
Excellent first question by Abbott to Gillard.

which was?

JC

14 Aug 12 at 2:43 pm
Asking why she hasn’t adopted the other two parts of the Pacific Solution.

Gab

14 Aug 12 at 2:45 pm
The Onion’s most accurate article ever:

Paul Ryan: “Admit It, I Scare The Ever-Loving Shit Out Of You, Don’t I?”

Fleeced

14 Aug 12 at 2:51 pm
And on that note fleeced. The toe sucker is absolutely effusive over Ryan., Thinks he as smart as Clinton and and warm as Reagan.

This really is the Ryan Era in the GOP movement. I have a hunch that if Romney wins which seems to be possible, he’s a one termer and Ryan will be going for it 16 and the next president after.

JC

14 Aug 12 at 2:56 pm
Here’s the toe sucker.

http://www.dickmorris.com/paul-ryan-help-or-hurt-dick-morris-tv-lunch-alert/

JC

14 Aug 12 at 2:57 pm
JC, don’t you just love the music at the beginning of his lunch alerts? I do.

dover_beach

14 Aug 12 at 3:07 pm
DB – where did you get hold of Robert Hughes’s American Visions series?

Infidel Tiger

14 Aug 12 at 3:10 pm
but otherwise he sounds like just a slightly less over the top Limbaugh

Neither Levin nor Limbaugh are over the top, liar.

Levin has been on air 15 hours a week, 50 weeks a year for 8 years and Limbaugh has been on air 25 years.

All recorded for posterity.

What’s deafeningly over-the-top is the silence from the msm other than en-passant sneering at their names.

JamesK

14 Aug 12 at 3:16 pm
JC, don’t you just love the music at the beginning of his lunch alerts? I do.

Lol

it’s so official, I stand to attention, DB.

JC

14 Aug 12 at 3:17 pm
IT, off torrent. The file is around 5Gb.

dover_beach

14 Aug 12 at 3:22 pm
Is this supposed to be satire? Good find Fleeced.

It’s okay to admit it. You’re frightened to death of me. It might actually be healthy for you to face your fears now rather than later, when Mitt and I are leading by a few points in the polls and it looks like this thing might end badly for you. Face it: I’m not some catastrophe waiting to happen, like a Sarah Palin or a Dan Quayle. On the contrary, you have the exact opposite fear. I’m a solid, competent, some might say exceptional, politician.

Did you get nervous when you read that last sentence? Is it because you know in your heart of hearts that it’s 100 percent true? Is it because, even if you strongly disagree with my beliefs on Medicare, Social Security, women’s rights, and marriage equality, you know my talent as a speaker and my well-thought-out approach to these issues—no matter how radical and convoluted you find them—might just be enough to win over independent voters?

Do you get chills just thinking about how strong my appeal actually is?

Token

14 Aug 12 at 3:25 pm
Paul Zanetti

Septimus

14 Aug 12 at 3:26 pm
IT, try here:

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDF4A4CCB9DB13FEF

tbh

14 Aug 12 at 3:32 pm
Abbott is wiping the floor with Labor in Parliament. Typically, most of them have left in shame.

H B Bear

14 Aug 12 at 3:40 pm
You illegal torrent downloaders. Don’t catch a virus now.

steve from brisbane

14 Aug 12 at 3:42 pm
After listening to Graham Perret talk with Bolt/Price on 2GB last night it is clear there is hope for Labor.

I suspect the man will lose his pre-selection like Gary Gray as the Labor machine doesn’t treat sane and decent people well.

Token

14 Aug 12 at 3:46 pm
Wombat Henry:

“Quality of public policy debate is at its worst in 25 years”

However, it has nothing to do with the plague of leftists this country is burdened with.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/ken-henry-says-quality-of-public-policy-debate-is-at-its-worst-in-25-years/story-fn59niix-1226450163153

Rabz

14 Aug 12 at 3:46 pm
I’ve never used Torrent as I’m a bit of technology rube. I acquire all my movies and TV shows from helpful Indonesians.

That way Hollywood misses out and I get to help an enterprising capitalist. It’s win/win.

Infidel Tiger

14 Aug 12 at 3:46 pm
What we do agree SoB is that we all agree that we couldn’t care less what your thoughts on Mark Levin are.

Or anything else. Why is he here at all, mods? He’s raw pollution – and misses both Les and Tilman!

blogstrop

14 Aug 12 at 3:48 pm
“…the Arctic Ocean could be nearly ice-free at the end of summer by 2012″

Only about one month to go.

Gab

14 Aug 12 at 3:52 pm
The first 54 spots in the Nauru centre are already filled:

Last night at 5pm AMSA received another distress call from an asylum boat just 46 nautical miles south of Indonesia.

AMSA also traced its location via its satellite phone signal and a merchant ship was sent to the aid of the 54 passengers on board.

Just 46 naturical miles off Indonesia? And the people on board are being brought to Australia?

Gab

14 Aug 12 at 3:55 pm
I loved Levin in the 90′s. He didn’t have a radio program at the time and used to do special guest stand ins at various cable channels.

He’s got that gritty Jewish cold hard cynical logic you see in dudes from Crooklyn, Queens or lower eastside.

JC

14 Aug 12 at 3:57 pm
The first hurdle appears:

A PROMINENT Papua New Guinea politician says he will take legal action to stop Manus Island detention centre being reopened to house asylum seekers.

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/world/png-mp-to-stop-manus-island-centre/story-e6frfkui-1226450114513#ixzz23UuZKkQX

Gab

14 Aug 12 at 4:01 pm
The more I think about it, the more I’m convinced Obama has already lost. Lefties were energised to vote for a black president last time, just because he was black – but they’ve done that now, and don’t really care any more.

Reminds me of 2002 Academy Awards, when they gave awards to Denzel Washington, Halle Berry – and an honorary one to Sidney Poitier for good measure…

Fleeced

14 Aug 12 at 4:04 pm
He’s gold, JC. The two or three programs right after the Roberts decision are 24 carat. He was livid following the decision; absolutely livid.

dover_beach

14 Aug 12 at 4:09 pm
Lefties were energised to vote for a black president last time, just because he was black – but they’ve done that now, and don’t really care any more.

Yep. I read somewhere a little while ago that this is panning out just like the election of Dinkins in New York who got tossed out after one term so that Giuliani could fix the mess.

Infidel Tiger

14 Aug 12 at 4:11 pm
Nauru. Very good, Pickering. lol

Gab

14 Aug 12 at 4:13 pm
He’s gold, JC.

No he’s not. He’s Morris.

Can you imagine the tubby thing wrestling on the floor with Bill Clinton. It’s true according to him. Clinton charged at him about some disagreement on political strategy and Hillary had to break it up.

Hilary apparently said to him that he only would do something like that if Bill liked someone. hahahahahahahhahahahahahaha He also stuck his hands on females he like too.

He’s got a really good Bio. He went to Bronx Science or a similar school which is for gifted kids and he then went to Columbia I think.

He’s no idiot.

JC

14 Aug 12 at 4:17 pm
Yep. I read somewhere a little while ago that this is panning out just like the election of Dinkins in New York who got tossed out after one term so that Giuliani could fix the mess.

I lived under the Dinkins mayoralty. He was one of natures to fucking morons. But even though he was full retard and the violence etc was out of control, it was better than the Potemkin village Benito Bloomberg is trying to create. Fuck I despise this prick.

All Dinkins wanted to do was play and watch tennis.

JC

14 Aug 12 at 4:20 pm
Yep. I read somewhere a little while ago that this is panning out just like the election of Dinkins in New York who got tossed out after one term so that Giuliani could fix the mess.

From what I read there was a real Bradley effect around the polling for Dinkins as the people who voted him in based upon that quality which is not experience, character or ability had a hard time admitting to pollsters they actually ignored those important characteristics when choosing a candidate the first time round.

It makes the polling this time extra hard to read.

Token

14 Aug 12 at 4:24 pm
Token

This is going back a long while… The polls were suggesting the Dinster was going to lose his re-election from what i recall. There was no surprise Giuliani won.

JC

14 Aug 12 at 4:26 pm
I meant Levin but, yes, Morris is Morris. What happened between him and the Dems or is it just an Obama-thing?

dover_beach

14 Aug 12 at 4:28 pm
All Dinkins wanted to do was play and watch tennis.

Obama has his golf.

Infidel Tiger

14 Aug 12 at 4:29 pm
Token

This is going back a long while… The polls were suggesting the Dinster was going to lose his re-election from what i recall. There was no surprise Giuliani won.

I’ll take your word for it as I’d have to work to find the link.

That said, the similarities between how effective Dinkins & Obama were once they got into office, and the remorse of the voters for voting mainly on race was the critical part of the story.

Token

14 Aug 12 at 4:33 pm
Dick Smith appears to have gone full crunchy nut retard.

Infidel Tiger

14 Aug 12 at 4:35 pm
Does Dick Smith see the contradiction here or not??

http://www.smh.com.au/business/media-and-marketing/dick-smith-flares-up-as-news-rejects-magazine-20120814-2464b.html

The magazine, called ”Dick Smith’s Magazine of Forbidden Ideas (that you won’t read about in the mainstream media)’’, has full-page ads for Dick Smith foods such as OzEmite on every second page, as well as articles criticising the promotion of continued growth and calling for more Australian ownership and more philanthropy.

jtfsoon

14 Aug 12 at 4:43 pm
Oh, looks like Labor is managing this as well as they did the BER, Pink Batts and every other scheme to date:

Boatpeople to begin asylum wait in tents, as permanent facilities are built in Nauru, PNG

ASYLUM-seekers will initially be housed in tents on Nauru and Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island until permanent facilities can be built, Julia Gillard says.

The Prime Minister has also confirmed asylum-seekers sent offshore for processing could face stays of up to five years in the new detention facilities.

When do they think the grandstamding like sowing up the lips will start?

Token

14 Aug 12 at 4:44 pm
PNG is already baulking at Manus Island detention centre.

Gab

14 Aug 12 at 4:47 pm
PNG is already baulking at Manus Island detention centre.

Sounds like negotiations to me. Everyone in the neighbourhood saw how many hundred millions Malaysia squeezed a year ago. You can bet Nauru will play hard to get too.

Token

14 Aug 12 at 4:55 pm
For sure, Token. Gillard has far too much at stake for Manus Is and Nauru to fail now. And they know it.

By the way, we are still obliged to take the 4000 reffos from Malaysia at a cost of $216,million.

Gab

14 Aug 12 at 4:59 pm
Does Dick Smith see the contradiction here or not??

Of course he doesn’t because zero growth should apply to everyone else but him. That’s how the bozo and other slimers think.

JC

14 Aug 12 at 5:04 pm
Respect for the dignity of the human being requires more than formally sound institutions; it requires a cultural ethos in which people act from conviction to treat each other as human beings should be treated: with respect, civility, justice, compassion. The best legal and political institutions ever devised are of little value where selfishness, contempt for others, dishonesty, injustice, and other types of immorality and irresponsibility flourish. Indeed, the effective working of governmental institutions themselves depends upon most people most of the time obeying the law out of a sense of moral obligation, and not merely out of fear of detection and punishment for law-breaking. And perhaps it goes without saying that the success of business and a market-based economic system depends on there being reasonably virtuous, trustworthy, law-abiding, promise-keeping people to serve as workers and managers, lenders, regulators, and payers of bills for goods and services.

The gravity of the culture wars, right there. And this:

Advocates of the market economy, and supporters of marriage and the family, have common opponents in hard-left socialism, the entitlement mentality, and the statist ideologies that provide their intellectual underpinnings. But the marriage of advocates of limited government and economic freedom, on the one hand, and the supporters of marriage and the family, on the other, is not, and must not be regarded as, a mere marriage of convenience. The reason they have common enemies is that they have common principles: namely, respect for the human person, which grounds our commitment to individual liberty and the right to economic freedom and other essential civil liberties; belief in personal responsibility, which is a pre-condition of the possibility and moral desirability of individual liberty in any domain; recognition of subsidiarity as the basis for effective but truly limited government and for the integrity of the institutions of civil society that mediate between the individual and the centralized power of the state; respect for the rule of law; and recognition of the vital role played by the family and by religious institutions that support the character-forming functions of the family in the flourishing of any decent and dynamic society.

The two greatest institutions ever devised for lifting people out of poverty and enabling them to live in dignity are the market economy and the institution of marriage. These institutions will, in the end, stand or fall together. Contemporary statist ideologues have contempt for both of these institutions, and they fully understand the connection between them. We who believe in the market and in the family should see the connection no less clearly.

Read it all:

http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/mirandadevine/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/preserving_the_family/

Ivan Denisovich

14 Aug 12 at 5:04 pm
Barry O’Farrell is a fucking cretin – eliminating the right to silence:

The caution police now give is: “You are not obliged to say or do anything unless you wish to do so, but whatever you say or do may be used in evidence. Do you understand?”

This will be changed to: “You are not obliged to say or do anything unless you wish to do so. But it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something you later rely on in court. Anything you do say and do may be given in evidence. Do you understand?”

Fleeced

14 Aug 12 at 5:15 pm
Do you understand?

“No”.

What happens next?

Gab

14 Aug 12 at 5:18 pm
Fatty is now dead as far as I’m concerned. Fuck him.

JC

14 Aug 12 at 5:18 pm
Ivan D, thanks for that. All of it is true. I didn’t know Robbie George was in town; he deserves the widest possible audience.

dover_beach

14 Aug 12 at 5:19 pm
There is a great cartoon that goes with this article comparing Ryan v Democrat budget plans:

Democrats have been quick to pounce on Paul Ryan’s budget, which was enacted by the House of Representatives and incorporates significant entitlement reform. The Democrats, of course, have no budget at all–astonishingly, they refuse to adopt one.

As I mentioned earlier, it was great of Joe Biden to put this topic in play.

Token

14 Aug 12 at 5:20 pm
Yes, great cartoon, Token. Worthy of a t-shirt.

dover_beach

14 Aug 12 at 5:30 pm
Fatty O’Barrell is a fucking cretin

Quite so.

Compare and contrast – Flaillieu, O’Barrell and Newman.

Rabz

14 Aug 12 at 5:36 pm
Another gaffe by the Sun King:

FAIL. Obama Slams Paul Ryan For Not Passing Farm Bill That He Passed 2 Weeks Ago (Video)

Of course the fact is the Senate Democrats have not passed the bill the House approved.

Token

14 Aug 12 at 5:36 pm
This report out today looks suspicious:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/mutant-butterflies-haunt-fukushima/story-fnb64oi6-1226450205095

I suspect these alleged ‘defects’ occur are actually typical of any population of butterflies.

2dogs

14 Aug 12 at 6:01 pm
Fatty is now dead as far as I’m concerned. Fuck him.

I supported that dumb c*nt. It really does make me think why even bother with the Libs. I don’t share any values with these pieces of sh*t and they certainly don’t believe in any aspects of liberal democracy.

John Mc

14 Aug 12 at 6:32 pm
Just think of what these areholes are up o John Mc. They’re now saying that silence could be used against you? WTF?

JC

14 Aug 12 at 6:36 pm
Which pretty much violates the fundamental principle of innocent until proven guilty as well, JC.

John Mc

14 Aug 12 at 6:38 pm
ASYLUM-seekers will initially be housed in tents on Nauru and Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island until permanent facilities can be built, Julia Gillard says.

Play it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MK6TXMsvgQg

C.L.

14 Aug 12 at 6:51 pm
Let everything else they’ve done in the last five years, they’re gonna stuff this up too. magnificently.

Gab

14 Aug 12 at 6:52 pm
Quality immigrants.

C.L.

14 Aug 12 at 6:53 pm
This weeks “top ten” so far:

An America in which prosperity is shared: 11 comments
Day 45 of a broken promise: 19 comments
A first class economics lesson (Qantas): 124 comments
Bring on the NBN Lottery: 28 comments
PM in another fine gold plated mess: 16 comments
Day 44 of a broken promise: 16 comments
Paul Ryan – the first 24 hours: 205 comments
Guest Post: Raising kids right : 116 comments
Does Tax evasion cost $40 billion: 69 comments

and the Winner is ! : The trouble escalates (in which posters hypothesise on the unsubstantiated romours and rantings of a slightly unhinged formerly well known cartoonist) : 206 comments.

SteveC

14 Aug 12 at 6:54 pm
But it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something you later rely on in court.

Why the fuck should it harm your defence?

You don’t have to say anything, period.

The behaviour of this fat buffoon O’Farrell is being driven by Ray Hadley, who raves on endlessly about Loran Orda. Hadley also drove the bikie moral panic. He has a son who became a copper, you see, and he virtually beatifies the Police Union on a weekly basis. I am so sick of this idiot – Hadley – and his colonisation of sport, especially rugby league. He started his commentary career at the Dapto dogs and that’s where he should have stayed.

C.L.

14 Aug 12 at 6:59 pm
Seriously, what could we have done to deserve this bunch of clowns? I’m dumbfounded.

dover_beach

14 Aug 12 at 6:59 pm
When did SteveC become chief counter?

Tal

14 Aug 12 at 7:07 pm
It’s extraordinarily good of you, SteveC, to keep a running tally on activity at the Cat. I’m sure we’re all very grateful in a bemused sort of way.

Nothing better to do?

Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

14 Aug 12 at 7:10 pm
London to New York in an hour – NASA scientists test 4,500mph hypersonic jet.

Doesn’t look fly-able. Where are the wings?

They’re testing the tech on the wings of the coolest ever aircraft (and the coolest-named): the B52 Stratofortress.

———————————————-

In other future news…

Builders could one day be out of business:

End of the builder? The giant 3D printer that could create a HOUSE in 24 hours.

C.L.

14 Aug 12 at 7:10 pm
That jet looks like a Dustbuster.

Gab

14 Aug 12 at 7:14 pm
Between LaRouche’s TV ratings and SteveC’s blog comment counter we’re really getting a full service from our resident lefty slapheads.

Infidel Tiger

14 Aug 12 at 7:16 pm
London to New York in an hour – NASA scientists test 4,500mph hypersonic jet.

The safety demonstration will take longer than the flight.

Infidel Tiger

14 Aug 12 at 7:18 pm
When did SteveC become chief counter?

It’s how he spends his time when not attending to Kimberly’s needs. (His plastic sex doll). He counts thread comments. He’d really be the life of the party, wouldn’t he?

JC

14 Aug 12 at 7:25 pm
Just think of what these areholes are up o John Mc. They’re now saying that silence could be used against you? WTF?

How can they force a jury to use your silence against you?

twostix

14 Aug 12 at 7:25 pm
Bit of a culture free zone this here blog.

Do any of you guys ever go to an art gallery, read a novel, paint a landscape or a loved one.

You mainly watch cable, right? As a leisure activity. Play golf?

Oh what the fuck is this shit.

twostix

14 Aug 12 at 7:27 pm
Bit of a culture free zone this here blog.

I dunno. You seem to have added a good dose of thrush to its comment section.

Infidel Tiger

14 Aug 12 at 7:27 pm
End of the builder? The giant 3D printer that could create a HOUSE in 24 hours.

Watch the attitude about 3D printers that will come from the turgid greenslimers once this technology begins to seriously kickarse in a decade or so. They are already thinking of ways to introduce nano tech materials to work with 3D printers.

The real benefit from this thing is that it will make products … almost all products dirt cheap to manufacture.

The slimers will go fucking ballistic… mark my words.

As I said before this is the genesis of the futuristic fabricator. Wait until 3D machines can replicate themselves.

eg: Cars will be dirt cheap. You could literally change your self driving car every few months because you got sick of the last personalized model.

JC

14 Aug 12 at 7:34 pm
I always wonder why the leftards who condemn this place so much keep turning up, night after night, month after month. Sometimes even for years.

Even the ones who retreat to their own lonely blogs seem to then end up blogging on Catallaxy articles.

Let me guess febro, you hang around art galleries on weekdays, trying to engage someone in an insightful but passing comment about your inner experience painting a landscape, or maybe your insight into Ulysses, in the hopes that someone may talk to you……even accept you?

John Mc

14 Aug 12 at 7:35 pm
Our culture.

Your culture.

dover_beach

14 Aug 12 at 7:38 pm
I always wonder why the leftards who condemn this place so much keep turning up,

Because people keep paying attention to them. A comment to them, even a nasty one, makes them feel important.

Gab

14 Aug 12 at 7:38 pm
What’s wrong with golf and cable?

Tal

14 Aug 12 at 7:39 pm
Do any of you guys ever go to an art gallery, read a novel, paint a landscape or a loved one.

Yes. I actually have a half way decent art collection in my home. And I do go to a public gallery when there is something worthwhile.

I went to the Picasso exhibition in Sydney and found wanting. I’ve never really like the later Picasso period as much as his earlier days.

What for instance would you like to know about the french impressionist influence on modern Vietnamese art? Do you know?

So fuck off Feebie and continue pretending that hovel you live (Tasmania) in is somehow cultured.

And by the way, you whined the other day about going for a vacation to the US. You fucking moron. The least attractive time to visit the US is August because the weather is shit awful (humid).

JC

14 Aug 12 at 7:41 pm
Does Dick Smith see the contradiction here or not??

http://www.smh.com.au/business/media-and-marketing/dick-smith-flares-up-as-news-rejects-magazine-20120814-2464b.html

The magazine, called ”Dick Smith’s Magazine of Forbidden Ideas (that you won’t read about in the mainstream media)’’, has full-page ads for Dick Smith foods such as OzEmite on every second page, as well as articles criticising the promotion of continued growth and calling for more Australian ownership and more philanthropy.

Don’t worry, there is a market for this kind of thing, and Dick is meeting it. Just because you aren’t in that market, doesn’t mean he hasn’t the right to maximise someone else’s utility, and perchance enrich his own along the way (short version: a fool and his money are easily parted).

it is just a parallel market to organic foods.

entropy

14 Aug 12 at 7:44 pm
….and continue pretending that hovel you live (Tasmania) in is somehow cultured.

that would be …..and continue pretending that mendicant hovel you live (Tasmania) in is somehow cultured.

entropy

14 Aug 12 at 7:47 pm
What’s wrong with golf and cable?

Nothing at all Tal.

Jumpnmcar

14 Aug 12 at 8:06 pm
Tasmania’s forests are just forests. Their farming land is nice, as are their many coastal outlooks. Their aboriginal citizens (few and far between, and many with somewhat dissipated and tenuous consanguinity with that ancient people) may as well be in the Hobart museum.

blogstrop

14 Aug 12 at 8:13 pm
For a perspective of a Scientist fleeing Syria after 12 years.
Click the 4 minute audio on the right.

Western media agenda he says.

Jumpnmcar

14 Aug 12 at 8:13 pm
O’Farrell ramped up the whistleblower legislation and penalties for reprisals against reporters of wrongdoing. It’s causing a lot of havoc for the corrupt set which can only be a good thing.

Culture? That’s about as cultural as a pub stoush.

blogstrop

14 Aug 12 at 8:17 pm
Never been to Tasmania. But from what I’ve read, it’s very existence makes me feel happy.

Culturally, I think first of its inimitable forests. And secondly, its Aboriginal citizens and the remnants of ancient associated cultures, the past in the present and vice versa.

God you’re out of touch. It’s a anglo-saxon stronghold. You’d have a good chance of travelling around the ‘local’ areas for days and not see a dark skinned person.

But, yes, it should make you feel happy. Politics aside it is naturally quite a beautiful place. I can see why the English went right down there to establish their first outposts.

John Mc

14 Aug 12 at 8:24 pm
“Do any of you guys ever go to an art gallery, read a novel, paint a landscape or a loved one.”

in my experience individuals who go on about their cultural activities as being superior have an inferiority complex, trying to seem “cultural, high brow, better than you” etc.

the music and art and books you enjoy are all personal tastes and only relevant to yourself and is no-one else’s business.

candy

14 Aug 12 at 8:28 pm
in my experience individuals who go on about their cultural activities as being superior have an inferiority complex, trying to seem “cultural, high brow, better than you” etc.

the music and art and books you enjoy are all personal tastes and only relevant to yourself and is no-one else’s business.

** BEST CANDY COMMENT EVER **

Jumpnmcar

14 Aug 12 at 8:36 pm
Never been to Tasmania. But from what I’ve read, it’s very existence makes me feel happy.

Beeping mainlander.

This very attitude is what has led to the place being borked over by successive federal governments.

We’ve got our own problems as it is. We don’t need to be providing warm fuzzies for you as well.

Yeah, we’ve got lots of bush. Unfortunately due to the need to provide warm fuzzies for mainlanders and a preponderance of greenslime, we can’t do much with it.

And yes, we’ve got a few professional aborigines. Not sure how or why, but there are still enough to whine, whinge and cause problems.

Driftforge

14 Aug 12 at 8:54 pm
The early Tasmanian convicts were armed which enabled them to escape and also to kill off a large proportion of the indigenous people. The reason the convicts were armed was because the early colony was starving and small and the convicts were needed to hunt game to feed the group.

You’d have been made to repeat Year 3 for this swill.

Infidel Tiger

14 Aug 12 at 9:00 pm
As Gab says, the Tasmanian fungus is just loving the attention. He’s one of the Martin Bryants of this world, who live in a fantasy landscape where they’re important, with a scrambled head full of anger and denunciation and emptiness and pointlessness.

Tom

14 Aug 12 at 9:10 pm
Culturally, I think first of its inimitable forests.

All forests are inimitable. You can’t imitate a forest. Don’t use words that are too big for you.

Dangph

14 Aug 12 at 9:16 pm
Between LaRouche’s TV ratings and SteveC’s blog comment counter we’re really getting a full service from our resident lefty slapheads.

At least other losers with no lives turn their obsessive need to fill literally hundreds if not thousands of otherwise-meaningless hours to more entertaining effect.

Like using clips from 295 different movies to recreate Sir Mix-A-Lot’s ‘Baby Got Back’. For instance.

This blog’s basement-dwelling window-lickers would do well to at least try to lift their game a bit.

sdog

14 Aug 12 at 9:22 pm
You have to laugh – it’s clever at least. “More Mitt” — A Bad Lip Reading Soundbite | youtu.be/d5i3F0YnkP0— sdog (@s_dog) August 14, 2012

sdog

14 Aug 12 at 9:24 pm
Like the thrush who chose to fling his soul upon the growing gloom?

No. Like a thrush who keeps hurling itself at the side of a building.

Dangph

14 Aug 12 at 9:25 pm
The ABC continues to report that the expert committee said that there should be no TPVs and that boats could not be turned back. This is misrepresentation yet again.

Blogstrop

14 Aug 12 at 9:36 pm
I do admit though that I’m having trouble seeing what they changed in the Bad Lip Reading version of Ron Paul: http://youtu.be/igQlbesF0zA

sdog

14 Aug 12 at 9:37 pm
Leigh Sales on the 7.30 Report taxed Morrison with the proposition that now that Nauru had been agreed to, the coalition was jointly responsible for the success or failure of “asylum seeker” policy. He rightly said no, not unless they adopt all the measures (including TPVs) that had made the Howard government policy succeed. She said this was “an easy out”.
Sales has nailed her ABC collective colours to the mast before, but never more blatantly than this time. She is a disgracefully partisan hack who should have no place in a national broadcaster of repute. But that’s not how we would describe our ABC.

blogstrop

14 Aug 12 at 9:58 pm
Abbott should really push the necessity of Gillard officially apologising for her border holocaust.

C.L.

14 Aug 12 at 9:59 pm
She [Leigh Sales] said this was “an easy out”.

That’s not even journalism nor is it good interviewing technique. It’s just snark. He squashed her allegations – for that’s what they were rather than inquiry to get the answers – so like a child she retorted insultingly. Jejune and pathetic. Clearly she despises the Liberals and lets her emotions cloud any rational thinking. Unprofessional.

Gab

14 Aug 12 at 10:05 pm
<blockquote>UPDATE

Another boat found, near Ashmore Reef with 71 on board. Which makes it now 125 places on Nauru already filled.

Gab

14 Aug 12 at 10:14 pm
Sounds like Abbott really did a good job today.

TONY Abbott has accused Julia Gillard of failing to prevent the deaths of hundreds of asylum-seekers through “stubbornness and pig-headedness”.

As the Coalition relentlessly attacked the government today over its offshore processing backflip, Mr Abbott said the surge in boat arrivals and deaths of asylum-seekers at sea was a problem of Labor’s own making.

Labor wants legislation passed today to allow for offshore processing on Nauru and on Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island.

The Opposition Leader said Ms Gillard should have embraced the Coalition’s Pacific Solution sooner, and had an opportunity to do so in October last year when Immigration Minister Chris Bowen urged the cabinet to drop its objections to processing asylum-seekers on Nauru.

Now, following the advice of an expert panel led by former defence chief Angus Houston, Ms Gillard has done so.

“All that has stopped the government (changing policy) from that day to this – 10,000 illegal boat arrivals and some 338 deaths at sea later – has been the stubbornness and the pig-headedness of this Prime Minister,” Mr Abbott told parliament.

“Why didn’t the Prime Minister have the decency to come to the obvious conclusion a long, long time ago.”

In question time, the Opposition Leader asked Ms Gillard whether she now took some responsibility for the boat arrivals and deaths at sea that had resulted from Labor’s abolition of the Pacific Solution.

Gab

14 Aug 12 at 10:18 pm
Coming soon: compulsory flagmen walking ahead of your cars.

More 40km/h speed zones will be introduced across Victoria.

Australia: the childish, stupid country.

C.L.

14 Aug 12 at 10:26 pm
40 km/hr. They’ve got this in the area I’m living. It’s almost impossible to drive at this speed even in residential streets. It feels unnatural. In the space of 500m speed limits can change from 40 to 50 to 60km/hr. Completely absurd.

dover_beach

14 Aug 12 at 10:37 pm
More 40km/h speed zones will be introduced across Victoria.

Yea I head that today. Keep in mind this is a “liberal” government.

You know, I just Labor back this pretend labor game is just too painful to watch.

JC

14 Aug 12 at 10:37 pm
oops… want labor back

JC

14 Aug 12 at 10:40 pm
I think our febrobot asploded.

sdog

14 Aug 12 at 10:55 pm
I think our febrobot asploded.

Dude, so far the female loons are beating the males loons we’ve had visit here hands down.

Birdie’s Trannie… Phil

Coz

Alice

Feebie

and a couple of others whose name I’ve forgetten.

JC

14 Aug 12 at 11:02 pm
dover_beach – if you find it almost impossible to drive at 40km/h for the safety of other road users I suggest you hand in your drivers licence. There’s plenty of poorly designed narrow suburban streets especially in the new estates where 40km/h is the appropriate speed limit. Can thank the developers for that.

But for what its worth, they’re moving some 50 zones to 60 and others to 40 to reduce the number of speed changes (primarily 40, 60, 80, 100 – dropping nearly all the 70 and 90 but keeping 50 as the default). I think that’s an improvement.

Chris

14 Aug 12 at 11:03 pm
Politics aside it is naturally quite a beautiful place. I can see why the English went right down there to establish their first outposts.

The primary reason was that the French had been lurking around – Bruni D’Entrecasteaux, looking for La Perouse. It would not have been a good look to have the French establish a colony at that time.

Lazlo

14 Aug 12 at 11:03 pm
We seemed to cope with 60 and 50 limits quite well before the move to 40km/h, Chris. And whenever a person was on the road or another car sensible people, like myself, slowed down. But if it is only a rationalization as you say, I’m prepared to wait and see.

dover_beach

14 Aug 12 at 11:20 pm
Just checked in on Bunyip and he’s still not back. I miss him. Hope all is going well with him and his family.

Gab

14 Aug 12 at 11:26 pm
Abbott should really push the necessity of Gillard officially apologising for her border holocaust.

Yep, and we’d like it in copperplate caligraphy and up on the walls of Parliament House please.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

14 Aug 12 at 11:27 pm
if you find it almost impossible to drive at 40km/h for the safety of other road users I suggest you hand in your drivers licence.

You brain clot, we have 40K limits of major thoroughfares like St Kilda and Dandenong Roads. Get the fuck out of here. DB is right, it’s almost impossible to drive at 40K speeds on major roads.

JC

14 Aug 12 at 11:29 pm
Ditto Gab re Bunyip.

All the best to you and yours Prof if your Bunyip ear to the ground is listening around here tonight.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

14 Aug 12 at 11:34 pm
I’m a much safer driver now that I have to continuously check for speed limit changes ever few hundred meters…oh wait…

Nanuestalker

14 Aug 12 at 11:39 pm
While musing on Tasmania, some quotes (h/t wiki).

When French explorer Bruni D’Entrecasteaux first saw this island in 1792 it was the forests that impressed him. He wrote of…

“…trees of an immense height and proportionate diametre, their branchless trunks covered with evergreen foliage, some looking as old as the world;

“closely interlacing in an almost impenetrable forest, they served to support others which, crumbling with age, fertilised the soil with their debris;

“nature in all her vigour, and yet in a state of decay, seems to offer to the imagination something more picturesque and more imposing than the sight of this same nature bedecked by the hand of civilised man.

“Wishing only to preserve her beauties we destroy her charm, we rob her of that power which is hers alone, the secret of preserving in eternal age eternal youth.”

Lazlo

14 Aug 12 at 11:41 pm
febro – today’s OT at 8.05pm

Never been to Tasmania.

febro – ast Thursday’s OT at 9.55pm

What a gas to kiss the tarmac back at coolish Hobart.

Septimus

14 Aug 12 at 11:44 pm
I missed the denial Sept. It was only about a week ago when feebie told us she’d been on a horrible vacation to the US and was happy to kiss the Tasmanian ground. Now it says it’s never been to tassie.

You know what I also have my doubts it had gone to the US too, because who the fuck goes on vacation to the US to visit secondary malls in the mid west or some shit.

Leftwingers are just fucking liars.

JC

14 Aug 12 at 11:50 pm
Ken Henry says quality of public policy debate is at its worst in 25 years.

FORMER Treasury secretary Ken Henry has delivered a scathing assessment of the quality of public policy debate in Australia, declaring it at its lowest ebb in a quarter of a century…

“There is a role for deeper analysis, there’s a role for deeper thinking, and there’s a role for a much higher quality of public policy debate and all of this needs to happen before governments make and announce decisions.”

Dr Henry says governments are in the habit of making policy decisions on the fly to score political points, often leaving voters and experts scratching their heads.

This from a man who cited his mum’s opinion of how big the ‘stimulus’ should be.

C.L.

14 Aug 12 at 11:53 pm
“secondary malls”

What are they?

Nanuestalker

14 Aug 12 at 11:54 pm
Newt Gingrich destroys Piers Morgan: Video.

C.L.

14 Aug 12 at 11:58 pm
The Wombat Whisperer and a few others might be starting to feel their time in the sun is draining away.

Today felt like the turning point of this hopeless Labor nadir.

H B Bear

15 Aug 12 at 12:10 am
Actual headline in the Courier Mail:

PM’s readiness to follow advice piles pressure on Abbott

C.L.

15 Aug 12 at 12:11 am
Newt Gingrich destroys Piers Morgan: Video.

Sadly it was on CNN so no one would have actually watched the demolition

JamesK

15 Aug 12 at 12:16 am
Actual headline in the Courier Mail:

PM’s readiness to follow advice piles pressure on Abbott

Don’t worry CL, once the Finklestein Chamber is implemented we’ll be able to force them to write more balanced headlines and articles towards the new Abbott Government.

twostix

15 Aug 12 at 12:26 am
Egypt: There Goes the Army; There Goes the Free Media; There Goes Egypt

Muslim Brotherhood President al-Mursi has just removed the two commanding generals of the Egyptian military. Does he have a right to do this? Who knows?There’s no constitution. That means all we were told about not having to worry because the generals would restrain the Brotherhood was false. Moreover, the idea that the army, and hence the government, may fear to act lest they lose U.S. aid will also be false. There is no parliament at present He is now the democratically elected dictator of Egypt. True, he picked another career officer but he has now put forward the principle: he decides who runs the army. The generals can still advise Mursi. He can choose to listen to them or not. But there is no more dual power in Egypt but only one leader. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces which has run Egypt since February 2011 is gone. Only Mursi remains and Egypt is now at his mercy.

RTWT

JamesK

15 Aug 12 at 12:32 am
CNN calls this an interview.

C.L.

15 Aug 12 at 12:42 am
Erskine Bowles was Clinton White House chief of staff and Democratic Co-Chair, Obama Commission on Fiscal Responsibility. His opinion of Paul Ryan?

DRUDGE video: “This guy is amazing.”

“Have any of you all met Paul Ryan? We should get him to come to the university. I’m telling you this guy is amazing. … He is honest, he is straightforward, he is sincere. And the budget that he came forward with is just like Paul Ryan. It is a sensible, straightforward, serious budget and it cut the budget deficit just like we did, by $4 trillion. … The president as you remember, came out with a budget and I don’t think anybody took that budget very seriously. The Senate voted against it 97 to nothing.”

GOLD!

C.L.

15 Aug 12 at 12:50 am
Our culture.

Your culture.

Both are pieces of shit, quite frankly.

Fleeced

15 Aug 12 at 12:55 am
Sarah Hanson-Young ‏@sarahinthesen8

It’s one thing for Julia Gillard to oppose #marriageequality, quite another to back the homophobes http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/atheist-pm-to-woo-christian-lobby/story-fn59niix-1226450182545

Sarah Dumb-Dumber and Debbie Washerwoman-Clutz are clones. I’m sure of it.

Gab

15 Aug 12 at 1:07 am
“…some roly-poly little BAT-faced girl…”

I always thought the lyrics were “fat-faced”. My world has changed… It’s all so meaningless now!

Fleeced

15 Aug 12 at 1:19 am
Obama ad says Romney running dirty campaign

“Mitt Romney says he wants to run a clean campaign, but yesterday his campaign released yet another false attack ad,” reads a press release from Obama’s campaign. “Mitt Romney may think his only path to victory is through running false ads like this one, but the American people deserve better.”

JamesK

15 Aug 12 at 1:42 am
Michelle Obama: Romney will kill women.

C.L.

15 Aug 12 at 1:50 am
Stunning hypocrisy.

AP couldn’t let Mitt Romney and Marco Rubio hand out juice at a campaign event in Miami without connecting them to cocaine. What? David Fischer’s story was headlined “Host for Romney event is a convicted drug dealer.” It began: “Mitt Romney held a campaign event Monday evening at a Miami juice shop owned by a convicted cocaine trafficker.”

In 1995, cocaine trafficker Jorge Cabrera gained access to Al Gore and Hillary Clinton at separate fundraisers after giving $20,000 to the DNC. When that story broke a year later, CNN tried to describe him as a “commercial fisherman.”

RTWT.

Gab

15 Aug 12 at 2:07 am
Breitbart:

Former Cocaine User Obama Attacks Romney Over Event Hosted by Ex-Dealer.

No, wait — seriously? Did the Obama campaign just tweet an Associated Press article about how a guy who owns a juice store that Mitt Romney visited in Miami was once convicted of dealing cocaine, 13 years ago? Does Barack Obama, who admitted he once had a cocaine habit (has any journalist asked if he still does?), really want to go there? Does he really want us to revisit his history of close association with criminals?

Excellent.

Read on…

C.L.

15 Aug 12 at 2:46 am
Egypt: there goes the army … Now at the mercy of Mursi. (really hard to do bquote on ipad)
Turkey’s islamist-lite government did the same thing, and you have to be suspicious about the motives. They were the model for secularisation, but that has been rolled back, although not to an extreme degree yet. It always starts with the hejab. The army has always been the guardian of Turkey’s constitution in the post-Attaturk era, but may no longer be an impediment to creeping islamisation.
For a while they wanted to be part of the EU so badly that it was another brake on such things, but now that may be a broken dream in more ways than one. Egypt has been fairly secular, even regarded as a place to go for some wild night life compared to some of the stricter ME countries.
With the MB closer to the AQ end of the spectrum than the ” moderate” turks, just how much trouble Egypt ends up causing, aiding and abetting, will be an observer’s sweepstake.

Blogstrop

15 Aug 12 at 6:56 am
MB now has the Egyptian army. I’m sure Israel is just soooo comfortable with that.

Keith

15 Aug 12 at 7:02 am
Meanwhile back at the national broadcaster, I notice they continue to regularly get talking heads Windsor and Oakshott on about just about anything. Why these two would be consulted about any subject apart from the date when they are to cease stuffing up our parliamentary processes is beyond me. But the ABC must be so grateful to them it keeps asking them back.

Blogstrop

15 Aug 12 at 7:14 am
Strop, you’re listening to the Activist Central breakfast program on Their ABC again. Surely they have a transcript service you can use so you don’t have to risk the brain damage of actually listening to it?

Tom

15 Aug 12 at 7:27 am
No, fleeced, one is actually a work of art, the other simply a picture of a toilet.

dover_beach

15 Aug 12 at 7:40 am
Defiant left ~~Afghans~~: you can’t stop the boats.

Tom

15 Aug 12 at 7:42 am
At Occupy Fairfax, every story about the Ten Network is now really about the devil incarnate Rupert Murdoch and his family.

Tom

15 Aug 12 at 7:48 am
really hard to do bquote on ipad

Blogs – embiggen the text and the b-quote button becomes easily accessible.

Rabz

15 Aug 12 at 8:33 am
At Occupy Fairfax, every story about the Ten Network is now really about the devil incarnate Rupert Murdoch and his family.

When all else is lost, the Left clings to hate and delusions. To paraphase an extremely mediocre man:

You go into some of these small [minds] in [Fauxfacts], and like a lot of small [minds] in the [ABC], the [ideological dreams of socialism] have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s [they like] replaced them, …each successive [Conservative] administration has said that somehow these [intellectual quagmires] are gonna regenerate and they have not. And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to [hate] or [sneering] or [condescencion] to people who aren’t like them or anti-[Free Market] sentiment or anti-[Free Speech] sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”

Token

15 Aug 12 at 8:37 am
they continue to regularly get talking heads windsbore and oakeshitt on about just about anything.

Great. Possibly the most stupid, self serving, utterly discredited and widely hated dickheads in this country.

Way to go, ALPBC.

Rabz

15 Aug 12 at 8:41 am
Ooooh. CL’s inspired by Brietbart. How’s their “vetting” of Obama going?

steve from brisbane

15 Aug 12 at 8:51 am
It starts……

JamesK

15 Aug 12 at 8:55 am
Utterly disgraceful and quite frankly unbelievable.

Your rates at work, albansleazeyville council residents.

Don’t disappear into those potholes, ya’ll…

Rabz

15 Aug 12 at 8:59 am
Ooooh. CL’s inspired by Brietbart. How’s their “vetting” of Obama going?

LOL, is that how you are going to start your thread wrecking troling, is that a put down?

You idiot.

Token

15 Aug 12 at 9:07 am
Good stuff at Jo Nova on defective climate models. Watts News sent an email to say her site is down due to server changes but it looks ok.

Poor Old Rafe

15 Aug 12 at 9:51 am
“Dog” Costello:

One should give a lot of leeway to a person who goes by the nickname of ‘’Wacka’’ in public life.

C.L.

15 Aug 12 at 10:24 am
Ooooh. CL’s inspired by Brietbart. How’s their “vetting” of Obama going?

For those joining us late, Steve is a life-long Liberal voter, devout ‘Catholic’ and war veteran.

Very reluctantly, he endorses Barack Obama because Mrs Santorum climate penis.

C.L.

15 Aug 12 at 10:28 am
Looks like the High Court has legalised government theft of intellectual property.

Infidel Tiger

15 Aug 12 at 10:28 am
Looks like the High Court has legalised government theft of intellectual property.

Didn’t see that coming from our country’s mediocre judicial bed-wetters.

C.L.

15 Aug 12 at 10:32 am
Don’t worry Tony Abbott will restore property rights and fight for freedom… bwahahahaha!

Infidel Tiger

15 Aug 12 at 10:36 am
Secret Jewish commando pigs …

‘Moderate’ Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas:

‘Jews training wild boars to upturn our trees.’

C.L.

15 Aug 12 at 10:40 am
Yes IT, Big Tobacco swung for the fences with a ridiculous claim that the Australian government wanted to use the Marlboro Man and Joe Camel on their ATO tax packs, or put them on stamps, or use them as spokesthings for climate change, or something. A ludicrous challenge that was rightfully struck out.

m0nty

15 Aug 12 at 10:42 am
Yes IT, Big Tobacco swung for the fences with a ridiculous claim that the Australian government wanted to use the Marlboro Man and Joe Camel on their ATO tax packs, or put them on stamps, or use them as spokesthings for climate change, or something.

No they didn’t.

But look, I’m not opposed to these things being nutted out. I mean, what about scavengers using a product like AFL to make a living online?

Doesn’t the AFL have rights?

C.L.

15 Aug 12 at 10:47 am
Full text of the High Court decision against Big Tobacco.

m0nty

15 Aug 12 at 10:48 am
Thank goodness maridji-you-ana, heroin and cocaine don’t come in pretty boxes. People might use them.

blogstrop

15 Aug 12 at 10:49 am
Well now that the Puritans in Government have won that battle there’ll be no stopping them.

Next up, plain paper packaging on all alcohol products.

Gab

15 Aug 12 at 10:50 am
Well now that the Puritans in Government have won that battle there’ll be no stopping them.

Next up, plain paper packaging on all alcohol products

Now Bloomberg has solved the problem created by Big Soda in New York, Nanny Roxon will be copying that template.

Token

15 Aug 12 at 10:57 am
m0nster, just out of interest, if BIG tobacco lost their case, who the fuck are small tobacco?

Huckleberry Chunkwot

15 Aug 12 at 11:07 am
leader of anti-semitic party discovers he’s Jewish

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/1241752–leader-of-anti-semitic-party-in-hungary-discovers-he-is-jewish

jtfsoon

15 Aug 12 at 11:09 am
Gosh the trolls are very upset this morning, very aggressive and frantic in their comments. Wonder why?

Gab

15 Aug 12 at 11:14 am
The most amusing political phenomenon of our time – and there are many contenders – is the Roxon left’s conversion to the worldview of morals campaigners like Flo Bjelke-Petersen and Fred Nile. In fact, that’s unfair to Flo Bjelke-Petersen. I don’t recall her making much, if any, noise about smoking, drinking or gambling – regardless of her private views.

C.L.

15 Aug 12 at 11:18 am
m0nster, just out of interest, if BIG tobacco lost their case, who the fuck are small tobacco?

I guess the people who make chop chop?

m0nty

15 Aug 12 at 11:19 am
Why don’t the tobacco companies withdraw their products from Australia? The resulting riots, collapse of the Australian health system and Federal Budget and rapid expansion of gangsterism would be hilarious.

We are such a small market for them anyway. They need man up and stop cowering in the face of fascism.

Infidel Tiger

15 Aug 12 at 11:34 am
Gosh the trolls are very upset this morning, very aggressive and frantic in their comments. Wonder why?

Something to do with fires burning on many fronts, I guess.

That, and having to look at a myriad of plates in front of you, each having being handed to you with your own behind on it.

I suspect ALP central isn’t getting the talking points out much anymore, what with all the internal factional flare-ups and infighting. They just had to eat 5 years of policy and admit they were completely, 100% wrong on illegal immigrants. The PM is under a large cloud. The polling is as crap as ever. Tubbsie Milne can’t even get her gob on TV anymore now that Bobby Brown has left.

Leftie central must be a bundle of laughs these days.

brc

15 Aug 12 at 11:35 am
Why don’t the tobacco companies withdraw their products from Australia?

Because the world is not an Ayn Rand novel, you idiot.

m0nty

15 Aug 12 at 11:39 am
Gender-variant children – another self indulgent middle class dilemma

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/12/magazine/whats-so-bad-about-a-boy-who-wants-to-wear-a-dress.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1

jtfsoon

15 Aug 12 at 11:39 am
Fine explanation, brc. Also, as SFb explains:

Intense stupidity can drive one to be more aggressive,

As if to underscore SFB’s point:

Because the world is not an Ayn Rand novel, you idiot.

Gab

15 Aug 12 at 11:42 am
Actual headline (Peter Hartcher, Fairfax):

Gillard deserves credit for putting the saving of lives ahead of politics.

C.L.

15 Aug 12 at 11:43 am
Where’s Hartcher been for the last five years? Or is he just another Canberra Stenographer?

Gab

15 Aug 12 at 11:44 am
“The claim of the tobacco industry was that the gubberment was acquiring its property and if it does that, the Australian gubberment has to pay compensation for that property.

“Clearly, the kangaroo Court has decided that there hasn’t been an acquisition of property and so the claims by the tobacco industry that gubberments are seizing its property are simply untrue.”

And he said there was no right of appeal to today’s decision.

Absolutely extraordinary.

What after alcohol, will be next?

These monstrous fuckwits have got to go.

It is beyond overdue.

Rabz

15 Aug 12 at 11:54 am
Why don’t the tobacco companies withdraw their products from Australia? The resulting riots, collapse of the Australian health system and Federal Budget and rapid expansion of gangsterism would be hilarious.

There was a book featuring exactly that plotline, with exactly those results except set in the States. Smoke Screen, by Kyle Mills.

“America’s tobacco companies react by doing the unthinkable-they close their plants and recall their products from retailers’ shelves. The message is clear: Not another cigarette will be manufactured or sold until the industry is given ironclad protection from the courts.

“As the economy falters and chaos takes hold, Trevor finds himself the target of enraged smokers, gun-toting cigarette smugglers, and a government that has been cut off from one of its largest sources of revenue.”

A good read – light, quick, pretty fun.

God, I’d love for them to try that.

sdog

15 Aug 12 at 12:04 pm
Another added benefit is that with no “Big Tobacco”, there’s no “Big Anti-Tobacco” … an entire massively-funded NGO sector crashes overnight, with all its staff, advertising agencies, highly-paid executives, entire sections of government health departments, etc with it.

Beautiful stuff.

sdog

15 Aug 12 at 12:10 pm
If it’s a book recommending mode people want, I can suggest this one:

Trust your Enemies

While a pretty lightweight airport-thriller style book indulging in some obvious cliches, it does explore a lot of libertarian themes in the context of Australia. The plot lines cover corrupt government figures, leadership challenges, drug prohibition and more. It’s interesting enough just to be set in Australia for a change.

For $1.77 on Kindle you can hardly go wrong.

brc

15 Aug 12 at 12:17 pm
As an ex-smoker, I hope the tobacco companies fight this to the end. An attempt by any government to force any company to use government-mandated camouflaging of its product, thereby subverting its entire marketing effort, is outrageous. This is yet another signal that international corporations should not invest in Australia because the government is run by anti-business leftwing hot heads. If the government wants us to accept that tobacco is deadly, then ban it. Of course, they won’t because they’re addicted to the revenue. This is totalitarianism out of control.

Tom

15 Aug 12 at 12:18 pm
Morals campaigner Tanya Plibersek: no child will ever take up smoking again.

“This is good news for every Australian parent who worries about their child picking up an addictive and deadly habit,” she told a Canberra news conference.

“I want to say that we are proud as a Government for the action that we’ve taken. We are very pleased that the highest court in Australia has said that the Australian Constitution allows this measure to be introduced.”

Ms Roxon’s successor as Health Minister, Tanya Plibersek, said the decision deprived tobacco companies of their “mobile billboards” in smokers’ pockets.

“This is a victory for all of those families who have lost someone to tobacco-related illness,” she said. “For anyone who has lost someone to smoking, this one is for you.”

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-08-15/high-court-rules-in-favour-of–plain-packaging-laws/4199768

C.L.

15 Aug 12 at 12:35 pm
And yet the budget forecasts are for increased revenue from tobacco sales???

Something does not compute.

Infidel Tiger

15 Aug 12 at 12:40 pm
“This is good news for every Australian parent who worries about their child picking up an addictive and deadly habit,” she told a Canberra news conference.

Now if they’d just enforce plain packaging on heroin, meth, coke, etc…

sdog

15 Aug 12 at 12:45 pm
” “For anyone who has lost someone to smoking, this one is for you.”

It sounds like a bit of patter and she was about to sing a special song for a special audience.

candy

15 Aug 12 at 12:52 pm
It sounds like a bit of patter and she was about to sing a special song for a special audience.

Smoke Gets In Your Eyes.

Infidel Tiger

15 Aug 12 at 12:57 pm
Tony L. Putman could have been Obama’s son.

Jamie WF also asks: “If Obama had a son, would he look like Shawn Tyson?”

C.L.

15 Aug 12 at 1:10 pm
“The PM is under a large cloud. The polling is as crap as ever. Tubbsie Milne can’t even get her gob on TV anymore now that Bobby Brown has left.Leftie central must be a bundle of laughs these days.”

Actually i sense Labor feels they’re on a roll at the moment, with compo money, asylum seeker policy half fixed and NDIS policy. It has an aura of purpose about it.

It should reflect in the polls soon though but it’s hard to tell because people don’t generally like julia gillard much at all. I can’t stand her myself.

candy

15 Aug 12 at 1:16 pm
A nice feed from Jules, hard hitting anti-Gillard film on the border security issue.

Poor Old Rafe

15 Aug 12 at 1:24 pm
From Roxon I’d be expecting Give Me A Pig Foot, And A Bottle Of Beer.

blogstrop

15 Aug 12 at 1:30 pm
Thank goodness we live in a society that has solved all gun crime by banning citizens from owning automatic weapons…

Assistant Commissioner Frank Mennilli … expressed frustration at the behaviour by small sections of the community that has led to more than 90 shootings since January this year….

He said Monday’s stoush between two men who had a disagreement about Syria was about saving face – not an ongoing argument about the political situation in the Middle East….

Initially, he said two older men were having a discussion about the situation in Syria in a Punchbowl barber’s shop, and they disagreed – one was slapped in the face.

“He got a slap in the face, and he lost face over it,” Mr Mennilli said.

Later, in a nearby cafe, the man who allegedly did the slapping was assaulted, and shots were fired outside the restaurant in warning…

Then the home of the man who was allegedly assaulted was sprayed with bullets on Monday night.

[H/t Bolta]

We all know that if they were sold in olive packaging with warnings this wouldn’t have happened.

Token

15 Aug 12 at 1:37 pm
He said Monday’s stoush between two men who had a disagreement about Syria was about saving face – not an ongoing argument about the political situation in the Middle East….

Initially, he said two older men were having a discussion about the situation in Syria in a Punchbowl barber’s shop, and they disagreed – one was slapped in the face.

“He got a slap in the face, and he lost face over it,” Mr Mennilli said

I love kebabs and clitoredectomies as much as the next man, but for me the real gift of Middle Eastern immigration has been celebratory gunfire.

Infidel Tiger

15 Aug 12 at 1:49 pm
How can governments conspire to rob companies of their property ie. their brands?

The only people who smoke in Australia are people who have chosen to do so in the full knowledge of the harmful effects. They can’t be stopped. It is no excuse for Roxon to sabotage the companies’ business – particularly when the government skims a double-taxation take off that business.

Two words not in the Labor dictionary: ‘individual’ and ‘volition.’

James in Melbourne

15 Aug 12 at 2:10 pm
So a ship that’s not Australian and on its way to Singapore picks up some people [67 illigal immigrants] 46 nautifcal miles off the coast of Indonesia, inside Indonesian waters, and turns around and takes them to Christmas Island? Why didn’t it take them to Indonesia?

Perhaps someone at the Cat may have an informed answer.

Gab

15 Aug 12 at 2:56 pm
Yep Agreed

Mitt Romney used a tough new campaign speech to personally blast the Obama campaign on Tuesday, saying comments earlier in the day from Vice President Biden are “what an angry and desperate Presidency looks like.”

“Mr. President, take your campaign of division and anger and hate back to Chicago,” Romney said while campaigning in Ohio.

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/243697-romney-comes-out-swinging-against-obama-in-tough-new-speech

JC

15 Aug 12 at 3:12 pm
Lol… Biden.

‘THEY GONNA PUT Y’ALL BACK IN CHAINS’…
Team Obama confident Biden can take on Ryan…
VIDEO: Biden Imitates Sign Language Lady…
‘We can win North Carolina’ — campaigning in Virginia…
Giuliani Wonders Whether VP Has ‘Mental Capacity’ for Presidency…

JC

15 Aug 12 at 3:13 pm
Actual headline (Peter Hartcher, Fairfax):

Gillard deserves credit for putting the saving of lives ahead of politics.

It takes a certain type of person to work at Fuckedfax.

H B Bear

15 Aug 12 at 3:13 pm
It takes a certain type of person to work at Fuckedfax

The rod up the Pinstriped Poonce’s arse has a rod up its arse.

Infidel Tiger

15 Aug 12 at 3:19 pm
Actual headline (Peter Hartcher, Fairfax):

Gillard deserves credit for putting the saving of lives ahead of politics.

It takes a certain type of person to work at Fuckedfax

I just can’t understand why Gillard and co are not being widely condemned, and its not just Fairfax – I have not seen one article holding her to account for this fuck-up anywhere.

Steve Price and Bolt on 2GB last night are the only two who have come out and rightly condemned this pathetic rabble for their handling of this disaster.

Finkelstein is hardly required at all – the media is already well and truly complicit.

Old Fridgie

15 Aug 12 at 3:23 pm
~~complicit.~~ compliant

Old Fridgie

15 Aug 12 at 3:25 pm
Alene Composta must be subbing at Fuckedfax now.

H B Bear

15 Aug 12 at 3:27 pm
The rod up the Pinstriped Poonce’s arse has a rod up its arse.

Who is he kidding with the English looking pinstripe. All we need now is for bald idiot, Fabulous Phil Coorey to come out with the same sort of column.

JC

15 Aug 12 at 3:36 pm
I predicted to someone offline yesterday that Turnbull’s colourful encomium of Robert Hughes – so witily and engagingly delivered – would cause some love media knuckle head to deploy it as a ‘showing Abbott up’ moment.

Gabrielle Chan delivers: Turnbull’s eloquence shows up the pitbull.

But first she has an attack of the sour sooky wookies because Abbott won on border policy. FUCKING WON. And oh yeah – 1000 human beings are dead. But Chan seems cool with that because the school children and retirees in the parliamentary gallery are “bored.”

I’ve bolded the predicted Turnbull as leader-in-exile swill.

NO, non, nyet. At least, not yet.

How many different ways can Tony Abbott say no? This bloke will have to get a little more constructive if he wants to be the prime minister.

Yes – the opposition got its way on Nauru and Papua New Guinea.

Yes – it was a win for the Coalition and a backdown for Labor.

Julia Gillard’s government has stuffed up asylum-seeker policy.

This week she committed to correct the policy. And the opposition committed to pass the changes to allow Houston’s recommendations. So let’s get on with it. Right?

Wrong.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a certain Opposition Leader in possession of a good policy win must draw it out. Stretch the rack. Insert the bamboo a little deeper under the fingernails…

It was a lacklustre debate because everyone was over it, including the public in the gallery.

The public mood is to move on, resolve the thing.

And in stalling, the Opposition Leader is in danger of becoming a caricature.

Unfortunately for Abbott, a contrast was provided just before question time when his predecessor Malcolm Turnbull spoke on a condolence motion for writer Robert Hughes, who was an uncle of his wife, Lucy.

Turnbull’s eloquent speech was a timely reminder of the difference in leadership styles between the vanquisher and the vanquished.

This year, Turnbull has rarely been allowed to speak. He has had one question in question time. Condolences are his only chance. His speech for Margaret Whitlam was a show-stopper.

Again, the whole parliament hushed yesterday when Turnbull mentioned Hughes’ metaphorical “swing” at Abbott during the republican debate.

Looking straight at Abbott, Turnbull countered: “What a loss it would have been for the nation if he connected.”

What catty boilerplate maestro Chan doesn’t mention is that the condolences yesterday began with those afforded to SAS Sergeant Blaine Diddams, killed in action in Afghanistan – only a seven tour veteran of that theatre and a veteran of the Somalia, East Timor and Solomon Islands campaigns.

After a certain point (five minutes) Turnbull’s rambling, self-indulgent, vain, pretentious, We Are The Kennedys oration – with which he essentially lionised himself for marrying well – became tellingly and embarrassingly over the top. Almost 25 minutes into Question Time, Turnbull was still going. The speech – honouring an ex-patriot – swamped the sentiment evoked for Sgt. Diddams and his family.

It wasn’t Turnbull at his best. It surprised me how slow-mo train-wreckingly it transmogrified into another example of Turnbull at his arrogant worst.

C.L.

15 Aug 12 at 3:41 pm
Gillard deserves credit for putting the saving of lives ahead of politics.

You couldn’t make this up.

What’s happening to the Fairfacked share price? Where’s Gina? I can’t wait any longer …

Dandy Warhol

15 Aug 12 at 3:41 pm
Turnbull at his arrogant worst.

and the Left love him for it.

Gab

15 Aug 12 at 3:44 pm
Turnbull’s eloquence shows up the pitbull.

Tell you what, Tone the Bone can lead the country and Turnbull can deliver all the eulogies for the leftists who die of heart attacks once he’s elected.

Infidel Tiger

15 Aug 12 at 3:50 pm
and the Left love him for it.

Only because he’s the safely on-the-outer other, Gab.

If he was the leader, they’d hate his guts again.

C.L.

15 Aug 12 at 3:53 pm
He seems to be the Coalition’s only hope for rehabilitation to the sensible Right. And he is likeable, witty and urbane.

steve from brisbane

15 Aug 12 at 3:56 pm
Watching self-anointed born-to-rule duds Rudd and Turnbull stewing away is one of the few pleasures in current politics.

H B Bear

15 Aug 12 at 3:58 pm
Turnbull is much more suited to be leader of the ALP. He’s more simpatico and in sync with the left. I’m certain if Turnbull officially swapped to Labor at the next election he’d get in easily. In fact, with all this Trouble with Gillard and who should replace her before the election, they ought to consider Turnbull. Labor would be a shoe-in at the election in that case.

Gab

15 Aug 12 at 4:02 pm
He seems to be the Coalition’s only hope for rehabilitation to the sensible Right.

I agree that the Coalition needs rehabilitating but I don’t think putting a lefty in charge will do it. As I’ve said previously, I’m really looking forward to spewing hatred and vitriol at the pretend right wingers in the LNP once Jools is safely behind bars.

Infidel Tiger

15 Aug 12 at 4:02 pm
He seems to be the Coalition’s only hope for rehabilitation to the sensible Right. And he is likeable, witty and urbane.

Steve, he was played like a fiddle by the Ruddster, who had Turnbull out stumping for the government’s main policy, more fervently and forcefully than the government was prepared to do. It was cringeworthy and embarrassing amateurism. He may well be

likeable, witty and urbane

but he is not dedicated to the Coalition’s agenda as decided by the party room. The causes of which he is enamoured – that whole incoherent grab-bag of softy-lefty doctors’ wives I’m-stinking-rich-but-I’m-a-wannabe-lefty crapola – are not the causes of Middle Australia; they mean nothing to anyone who is not a financial markets gazillionnaire like he is or a passenger on the public-purse gravy train. He was and is a disaster for the Liberal Party, which saw through him and elected someone as leader who could fulfil the primary task demanded of that role, ie. to win government.

Sorry for treading on your fantasies, of an Opposition Leader you can admire all the way to the concession speech, but the Coalition will not play ball.

James in Melbourne

15 Aug 12 at 4:06 pm
He was and is a disaster for the Liberal Party, which saw through him and elected someone as leader who could fulfil the primary task demanded of that role, ie. to win government.

James, he lost the leadership by a vote, did he not? That’s not exactly “disaster” material in my books.

steve from brisbane

15 Aug 12 at 4:11 pm
He seems to be the Coalition’s only hope for rehabilitation to the sensible Right.

Dickhead,

He banned fucking bulbs! Turnball would possibly make a decent treasurer if he could be trusted not to conspire which i very much doubt he can.

And he is likeable, witty and urbane.

No he’s not. He’s actually kind of boring as a speaker.

You just like him because he supports carbonic taxes, that’s all.

I’m more urbane, wittier and more likeable and I’m hardly someone who needs the adoration of the Left like Turbull does.. If I had my way, I’d institute the Fisk Doctrine as payback for even threatening to finkelstein people. I would too….. and sleep well at night.

JC

15 Aug 12 at 4:12 pm
It amuses me how the left rages against that “rich bitch” Gina and yet fawn all over Turnbull. Ironic.

Gab

15 Aug 12 at 4:13 pm
Lefties want Turnbull to lead the LNP and righties want Turnbull to lead the ALP, both safe in the knowledge he’d never be elected.

Infidel Tiger

15 Aug 12 at 4:16 pm
James, he lost the leadership by a vote, did he not? That’s not exactly “disaster” material in my books.

He was on a 13% approval rating you fucking idiot.

The only reason he scores well in polls is because he’s the humungously favoured Libs leader by asshats that support the Alliance. That’s what skews the approval rating. Abbott is by far the higher approved leader by Lib voters.

Seriously, who gives a crock of shit who the Left want as the Libs leader? I wouldn’t in a million fucking years. In fact it’s a turn off.

JC

15 Aug 12 at 4:16 pm
that whole incoherent grab-bag of softy-lefty doctors’ wives I’m-stinking-rich-but-I’m-a-wannabe-lefty crapola

Enviably well put, James, enviably. The whole thing actually, not just the above, although the above is particularly delightful. High Distinction from me.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

15 Aug 12 at 4:21 pm
James, he lost the leadership by a vote, did he not? That’s not exactly “disaster” material in my books.

I don’t think the Coalition partyroom decides elections, and at that time, the Coalition was doing pathetically in the polls, 43/57 to Labor. Turnbull appeals to those looking for an eternal Opposition Leader that will pass the Lefty social agenda without any resistance and will attempt but fail to keep Labor honest economically speaking. In other words, he is the preferred Opposition Leader for Leftists and Hey Alanists.

dover_beach

15 Aug 12 at 4:22 pm
He seems to be the Coalition’s only hope for rehabilitation to the sensible Right. And he is likeable, witty and urbane.

You two-faced lying turd. You’ve never voted conservative in your life. Yet you continue to defecate at the Cat. You’re too stupid to assimilate the fact that every single person who regularly posts here can’t stand you because you’re full of juvenile hate and childish ego and you’re as dumb as dogshit.

Go and do what betas do and service someone.

Tom

15 Aug 12 at 4:27 pm
He seems to be the Coalition’s only hope for rehabilitation to the sensible Right.

http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/how_turnbull_lost_his_party/

Turnbull appeals to those looking for an eternal Opposition Leader that will pass the Lefty social agenda without any resistance and will attempt but fail to keep Labor honest economically speaking. In other words, he is the preferred Opposition Leader for Leftists and Hey Alanists.

Spot on.

Ivan Denisovich

15 Aug 12 at 4:28 pm
He’s really really good. He’s really articulate in a way that explains his position to the punters.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2012/08/14/brit_hume_interviews_paul_ryan_on_budget_medicare_and_tax_cuts.html

JC

15 Aug 12 at 4:29 pm
James, he lost the leadership by a vote, did he not? That’s not exactly “disaster” material in my books.

And after Abbott despatched Rudd, who Turnbull couldn’t lay a glove on, and then took an unwinnable election to within a couple hundred votes of winning, the Liberals re-elected him unopposed, and have been unanimous behind their leader ever since.

It’s coming up 3 years since Abbott took the leadership, and he has reversed the 2PP in that time, destroyed 2 PMs and forced them to adopt the policies that he has pushed all along. From Nauru to rebates for Nannies, they eventually adopt Abbotts policies, after initially complaining about them.

His only failure was being unable to block the carbon tax, which he will fix as soon as he is elected.

Turnbulls crowning achievement as leader was the Gordon Grech affair and utegate. Since becoming communications minister he hasn’t been able to get Conroy disgraced or even on the back foot despite the NBN debacle, the Finkelstein mess, the Australia network tender debacle, and the even-the-lefties-hate-it Internet filter.

Turnbull is useless.

brc

15 Aug 12 at 4:32 pm
And after Abbott despatched Rudd

Err, Labor did that. Because he was unbearable to work for.

steve from brisbane

15 Aug 12 at 4:36 pm
Here’s Kevin Lindeberg sharing with Greg Carey his passion about justice being served and the way forward.

http://www.4bc.com.au/blogs/4bc-blog/whistleblower-kevin-lindeberg/20120815-24863.html

Please take the time to listen

val majkus

15 Aug 12 at 4:37 pm
If Turnbull was still opposition leader, Rudd would still be PM and looking comfortable to be re-elected for a third term next year.

That is why the Press Gallery and associated hangers-on are so anti-Abbott.

Matt

15 Aug 12 at 4:38 pm
Tom, you’re not very bright and routinely offensive to boot. There is a blog, you know, that indicates my views since 2005. I hardly ever post naked drawings of Tony Abbott there, so it’s safe for you to read.

steve from brisbane

15 Aug 12 at 4:40 pm
Because the criminal lobotomised imbeciles saw the writing on the wall and suddenly decided he was unbearable to work for.

Fixed.

Rabz

15 Aug 12 at 4:41 pm
Thousands of Indian farmers ruined in emu scam in Tamil Nadu (paywall unless google words in blue.)

2,600 pounds for 12 chicks in 2010 on the advice of bollywood actors – must be a bit like carbon cate. It is mind boggling – but even Aussies got caught in the emu pyramid scheme back herfe, years ago. Fashion just gets recycled.

Helen Armstrong

15 Aug 12 at 4:42 pm
Err, Labor did that. Because he was unbearable to work for.

If the ALP was still 12 points up in the polls like they were with Turnbull as Opposition Leader, the ALP caucus would have grinned and borne Rudd’s attitude. Nothing beats winning for a marginal seat holder.

By making the Coalition competitive again, Abbott forced the ALP’s internal tensions to the surface.

Matt

15 Aug 12 at 4:42 pm
Stepford… It’s safe to say that not many people like you.

JC

15 Aug 12 at 4:43 pm
Surely Abbott’s win on boat-people is the most comprehensive trashing of a government policy from Opposition?

If Gillard had any sense of personal dignity she should have resigned.

H B Bear

15 Aug 12 at 4:46 pm
It should be noted that for all Turnbull’s supposed electability, he’s been shown up twice now by Tony Abbott. First on the Republic referendum, and now in party politics. Turnbull’s problem has always been the same: Witty and urbane he may be, but he’s a terrible politician. His instincts are completely wrong, and he seems to have no ability to lead a party. He seems to think its something like being CEO, rather than a first-among-equals.

Quentin George

15 Aug 12 at 4:52 pm
Rasmussen Tracking 44 47
Gallup Tracking 45 47
Politico/GWU/Battleground 48 47

Romney on the right.
Interesting. Rommey is firming up. If he breaks 50 it will be great news.

JC

15 Aug 12 at 4:52 pm
It amuses me how the left rages against that “rich bitch” Gina and yet fawn all over Turnbull. Ironic.

Turnbull isn’t as rich as Gina. If the positions were reversed, Turnbull would cop much more condemnation, while Gina would be relegated to second order hate and be just another vironmental vandal.
Also Turnbull’s interests though fully listed are much more opaque to the average lefty that Gina’s.

Keith

15 Aug 12 at 4:52 pm
than Gina’s

Keith

15 Aug 12 at 4:53 pm
They’re both rich. The left hate and despise the rich. Except for when it suits them not to. That was my point.

Gab

15 Aug 12 at 4:56 pm
” Because he was unbearable to work for.”

But people like Kevin Rudd, Steve. He could pop into the Mall in the city tomorrow and there would hundreds of people flocking round him.
He would have would have won the last election outright for Labor. Few people like Julia Gillard. Really, it’s a crying shame for your beloved party.

candy

15 Aug 12 at 4:56 pm
Err, Labor did that. Because he was unbearable to work for.

“err” no.

We’ve been through this Steve you simpleton.

Abbott’s “Great big new tax” theme saw Rudd shatter like a piece of glass and Labor’s approval ratings plummet.

The mining tax was turning into an absolute debacle and Rudd publicly becoming unhinged under the pressure of Abbott had the “men” in the ALP right sprinting once again to the “only use in in an emergency” ‘novel’ female leader ploy like the cowards they are in order to save themselves.

Fuck off with your stupid revisionist bullshit.

twostix

15 Aug 12 at 4:59 pm
If the ALP was still 12 points up in the polls like they were with Turnbull as Opposition Leader, the ALP caucus would have grinned and borne Rudd’s attitude. Nothing beats winning for a marginal seat holder.

Not to mention that Rudd’s personality was always there – Latham pretty much says so in his memoirs. So they didn’t suddenly realise Rudd was difficult to work with and ditch him. He was always that way, and it was only after he lost his popularity that they felt safe to do so. Which was after Turnbull lost the leadership.

And had Hockey been the opponent rather than Abbott, Turnbull would have lost his leadership by a landslide. There was some fear within the party that all the people telling them Abbott was unelectable were right, but when reality started to improve, well, I think anyone being serious now knows that Turnbull will never again be leader of the party. It’s merely wishful thinking by his fans. I predict a bit of bobbing about in prominent ministries in an Abbott government, then a throwing in of the towel and a by-election in Wentworth. (Note this almost happened – John Howard of all people had to convince him to stay).

Quentin George

15 Aug 12 at 5:00 pm
Keith, as Opposition Leader, lefties often referred to him as the Member for Goldman Sachs.

dover_beach

15 Aug 12 at 5:02 pm
If Gillard had any sense of personal dignity she should have resigned.

I love how Gillard said she takes “full responsibility” for her decisions. Yeah, but no. This is the old Beattie stunt. Take full responsibility but accept no consequences.

Ivan Denisovich

15 Aug 12 at 5:03 pm
Err, Labor did that. Because he was unbearable to work for.

Which leader pushed back against the ‘great big new tax’ and the mining tax?

Which two issues destroyed Rudds polling from an all-time-high to the point where the AWU faction thought there was enough of an excuse to topple him?

The excuse given at the time was ‘a good government lost it’s way’, reflected in poor polling.

The ‘terrible to work for’ revisionist theory didn’t come until February this year, when Gillards dire polling meant the polling excuse could no longer work.

I will grant that Gillard and Swan assisted in Rudd’s demise by giving bad policy advice, which they then disowned as soon as he was despatched. Rudds greatest mistakes were thinking the Unions would put up with a non-factional leader for a moment longer than they could, and to trust his deputy and treasurer.

brc

15 Aug 12 at 5:09 pm
The left hate and despise the rich. Except for when it suits them not to.

http://www.vexnews.com/2011/07/how-greens-govern-1-6m-party-donor-makes-6m-thanks-to-greens-political-pressure-tactics/

Ivan Denisovich

15 Aug 12 at 5:13 pm
Polling on 20 June 2010:

Labor’s 52-48 lead is a slight improvement on 51-49 from three weeks ago, and under the circumstances will come as an enormous relief for the Prime Minister. One sting in the tail is that Labor’s primary vote remains steady on a parlous 35 per cent. The Coalition is down one point to 40 per cent and the Greens are on 15 per cent, one point off their record-breaking effort from three weeks ago. The two-point slack has been taken up by “others” on 10 per cent.

The Gillard leadership challenge was on 23 June.

He was dumped because he was impossible to work with.

This was not the reason given at the time, because it is kind of an embarrassing reason to have to dump a leader.

It was confirmed earlier this year, in spades.

steve from brisbane

15 Aug 12 at 5:15 pm
He was dumped because he was impossible to work with.

Steve, he was ALWAYS impossible to deal with. That was nothing knew. He was dumped because the faction leaders, including Howes, were getting nervous about 2PP.

Quentin George

15 Aug 12 at 5:16 pm
*nothing new.

Quentin George

15 Aug 12 at 5:17 pm
Labor’s 52-48 lead is a slight improvement on 51-49 from three weeks ago

And haven’t the polls been stellar for then since! Good move, Labor.

Gab

15 Aug 12 at 5:18 pm
Quentin: Gillard has not been dumped when the polling is much worse.

Therefore, in assessing the primary reason why Rudd was dumped – because he was impossible to work for. (And it’s true, Labor polling had dropped, but not to an actual election losing extent. That is why his dumping came as a surprise.)

steve from brisbane

15 Aug 12 at 5:21 pm
One sting in the tail is that Labor’s primary vote remains steady on a parlous 35 per cent.

They won the election in 2007 with a primary of 42%

35% was bad polling. That’s why they (said they) dumped him.

Gillard would backflip on asylum seeker policy to have 35% again. Oh that’s right, she already has.

Nobody mentioned at the time being difficult to work with. That was all yet to come out when he looked like trying to reclaim the top job again.

Gillard has only barely touched Rudds worst poll number once or twice. She has never gone near his high polling numbers.

She is a complete disaster for the Labor party, especially with a messy demise coming towards her.

brc

15 Aug 12 at 5:23 pm
Anyway, to sum up:
- Abbott replaced Turnbull because Turnbull was hopeless with voters and within the party
- Abbott destroyed Rudd as a leader by pushing back against his stupid ETS and stupid Mining Tax
- Abbott has destroyed Gillard by pushing back against all of her stupid policies (too many to list) She will either fall before the election or at it.

Abbott is not an unelectable buffoon prone to gaffes that the media tried to paint him as. He also has solid support from his party.

brc

15 Aug 12 at 5:26 pm
That is why his dumping came as a surprise.)

Liar.

He was dumped for several reasons. One of them was that he was hated inside the party. The other of course was a falling polls.

The Liars Party is too frightened to dump the lying slapper because they’re worried about the appearance of instability in the leadership after Rudd. And instability also refers to mental instability too.

JC

15 Aug 12 at 5:26 pm
Quentin: Gillard has not been dumped when the polling is much worse.

There’s a reasonable explanation for that, especially for anyone from NSW. Kristina Keneally was not dumped either, because it was too late, the damage was already done.

Rudd was not dumped because he was “impossible to work with”. If that was the sole reason, he would have never been leader, or he would have been dumped in 2007. He was already hated when he was Opposition Leader. Heck, as Latham knew, he was unpopular in his party as shadow Foreign Minister.

He was dumped as PM because he lost his popularity with the public. Gillard is supported by the machine men (since it was their doing that she is PM), and remains because there is no longer any alternative. Going back to Rudd would not work for a variety of reasons, only one of which is his own personality. You seem hell-bent on the idea Abbott had nothing to do with Rudd’s removal which, in light of events, is delusional.

Quentin George

15 Aug 12 at 5:29 pm
He also has solid support from his party.

Not to mention he has solid support from his coalition partners, which Turnbull never managed.

Quentin George

15 Aug 12 at 5:30 pm
JC, you should stay aware from JamesK. You’ve caught “Liar!” Disease.

steve from brisbane

15 Aug 12 at 5:36 pm
Abbott had something to do it with it, in the sense that rejection of the ETS led to Rudd’s face losing retreat on the matter (and defection of Labor primary vote to the Greens,) but using a “but for” test in the chain of causation, the current polling (and that which existed at the time) makes a powerful case for saying “but for his impossibility to work with, he would not have been dumped.”

To put Abbott as the primary cause would, quite frankly, only make sense if Labor’s polling was election losing at the time he was dumped. It wasn’t.

steve from brisbane

15 Aug 12 at 5:42 pm
It amuses me how the left rages against that “rich bitch” Gina and yet fawn all over Turnbull. Ironic.

And yet we hear very little hate spittle from the left on Ivan Glasenberg. He’s a perfect target.
He’s wealthy ( Australian number 2),Heavily into mining and white South African.
What gives?

Jumpnmcar

15 Aug 12 at 5:46 pm
This SfB character is unusually thick.

Infidel Tiger

15 Aug 12 at 5:47 pm
This SfB character is unusually thick.

No more than usual.

Gab

15 Aug 12 at 5:50 pm
Good Cory Bernardi article;

Our Prime Minister’s consistent adherence to principle even extends to turning back the boats.

In 2002 she thought it was a good idea, claiming at a press conference:

“The Navy has turned back four boats to Indonesia. They were in sea-worthy shape and arrived in Indonesia. It has made a very big difference to people-smuggling that that happened…And we think turning boats around that are seaworthy, that can make the return journey, and are in international waters, fits in with that.”

Jumpnmcar

15 Aug 12 at 5:54 pm
This SfB character is unusually thick.

…and agressive…

Intense stupidity can drive one to be more aggressive, Token.

Token

15 Aug 12 at 5:56 pm
Yes, Jump. She also said “stop the boats” and “another boat, another policy failure” back then, also she and Labor gave bipartisan support to the Pacific Solution.

Roll up, roll up! Have a look at the fat hypocritical red-headed lady, you’ve never seen anything like it.

Gab

15 Aug 12 at 5:58 pm
The ferals have won, aided and abetted by fat fascist fuckwits like O’Farrell:

Glass ban for Kings Cross.

Mr O’Farrell also said no more than four drinks would be able to be purchased at any one time after midnight and that the glass ban would apply every day of the week.

Infidel Tiger

15 Aug 12 at 6:02 pm
The American Left.. all class. Just look at that fat porker getting arrested. FFS.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4bNAUORtwo&feature=player_embedded

JC

15 Aug 12 at 6:05 pm
Abbott had something to do it with it, in the sense that rejection of the ETS led to Rudd’s face losing retreat on the matter

Golf clap, correct.

To put Abbott as the primary cause would, quite frankly, only make sense if Labor’s polling was election losing at the time he was dumped. It wasn’t.

Tell that to the AWU faction, they’re the ones who thought the polling was bad. You might like to direct it to Paul Howes, who was instrumental in the rolling.

Paul Howes – Lateline – 23 Jun 2010

TONY JONES: What do you make of Kevin Rudd’s statement, a short time ago, that he was elected by the people of Australia, stressed that, the people of Australia. That he was, up until a very short time ago, perhaps the most popular prime minister in Australia’s history? How could you desert a Labor leader under those circumstances because of a couple of months of bad polls?

PAUL HOWES: The Australian people elected the Labor Party to the Government of this country with Kevin Rudd as its leader. It is not unusual for governments to change leaders within the term of a parliament and, and, and…

TONY JONES: Well you just said this is unprecedented.

PAUL HOWES: … for their first term, but it is important to recognise that there is going to be an election soon. There is going to be an election soon and if Julia Gillard is elected as the leader of the Labor Party tomorrow and as our next prime minister the electorate will be able to test that in months to come at the general election.

TONY JONES: Are you aware of the internal party polling that suggests that’s exactly what will happen if there’s an election?

PAUL HOWES: Well, you can see Newspoll, you can see AC Neilsen, you can see Essential Research and you can see some internal research and research that the unions have done that clearly says at the moment if we had an election today it’s more likely than not that Tony Abbott would become the next prime minister and that’s why, you know, it is not with any particular joy, it’s not with any particular happiness that our union changed our position because we want to ensure that Labor continues to govern in the interests of all Australians and that working people get a fair go and we can only do that if Labor’s re-elected at the next election.

Try and find anything in that interview about being a difficult leader. Anything at all.

brc

15 Aug 12 at 6:08 pm
he American Left.. all class.

It’s Left’s “civility”. And they’re escalating. Hope Romney and Ryan have bodyguards and bullet-proof vests.

Gab

15 Aug 12 at 6:12 pm
On the same day that the Government is walking around sporting a proud erection because they stole the tobacco companies property rights, we have the AMA calling for a needle exchange program in the nation’s prisons.

We can’t keep illegal drugs out of high security prisons, but plain packaging will stop people smoking??? Fuck me this is a toilet of a country.

Infidel Tiger

15 Aug 12 at 6:14 pm
BTW, the AMA is happy to have a needle exchange program in prisons but has called for all smoking in prisons to be banned.

Infidel Tiger

15 Aug 12 at 6:16 pm
plain packaging will stop people smoking???

“This decision is a relief for every parent who worries about their child picking up this deadly and addictive habit.” sayeth nanny Roxon.
Apparently kiddies will no longer be tempted to buy tobacco products they couldn’t legally buy.

lotocoti

15 Aug 12 at 6:27 pm
Dems’ big ‘battle of ideas’ is off to a lying start

http://www.jammiewf.com/2012/dems-big-battle-of-ideas-is-off-to-a-lying-start/

JC

15 Aug 12 at 6:54 pm
Barry O’Farrell to Kings Cross: No shots allowed after midnight… and drink from plastic cups.

Fleeced

15 Aug 12 at 6:55 pm
Try and find anything in that interview about being a difficult leader. Anything at all.

brc: and politicians and trade unionists are always honest when they swear “so and so will lead us to the next election”?

Look, at least Quentin has it part right – Rudd was well know to be a bastard boss when he worked for Goss in Queensland. He got the leadership on the back of a (for public consumption) “milky bar kid” image on Sunrise.

There was, however, enough in the media that people like yours truly were predicting he would be very unpopular in his own party. I wrote this in November 2007:

It’s true that the Coalition has had trouble finding the overarching, pithy, punchy theme for its campaign: “Don’t vote for a twerp” mustn’t have passed muster at the focus groups. …

If a vote 55% TPP happens, it’ll be two terms of the Rudd at least, unless he’s knifed in the back by a member of his own Cabinet. Are the betting agencies taking money on that yet?

In October 2007 I had written:

It’s becoming clear that the biggest danger to Kevin Rudd, as soon as he gets IR legislation through the Senate, will be assassination by someone on the Left of his own party. Well OK, maybe not assassination, but a convenient accidental fall from some high point around Parliament House.

My assessment of him was thoroughly endorsed earlier this year by people lining up to tell us that he was terrible to work for.

But of course it is embarrassing to give that as a reason when he’s first deposed. It would make them look stupid for choosing him as leader in the first place.

steve from brisbane

15 Aug 12 at 7:00 pm
They don’t make pollies like they used to:

VICTORIA’S newest state MP, Jennifer Kanis, wept throughout an emotional maiden speech to parliament in which she vowed to fight for social justice.

Instead of gravitas, we’re saddled with sook. Pathetic.

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/national/new-vic-mp-kanis-weeps-in-maiden-speech/story-e6frfku9-1226451097975#ixzz23bUovZCP

Gab

15 Aug 12 at 7:04 pm
Boyne Smelter job losses

Boyne Smelters Limited announced plans today to reduce approximately 90 leader and support roles across the site.

The plans to restructure to its operations are being made to ensure the business can compete globally in the long-term as it faces difficult market conditions.

Federal Member for Flynn, Ken O’Dowd MP
“I am absolutely outraged that the Government has simply chosen to turn a blind eye to the plight of the industry in Queensland. The Government knows exactly what the challenges are and how real the situation is and yet they still proceeded to apply a carbon tax that has added huge pressure to their economic viability,” said Mr O’Dowd.

Carbon tax blamed for Qld smelter job cuts

Seems like only opposition pollies are game to mention the CO2 tax.

Rudiau

15 Aug 12 at 7:10 pm
Authoritative blogger predicts Australia’s first political assassination:

It’s becoming clear that the biggest danger to Kevin Rudd, as soon as he gets IR legislation through the Senate, will be assassination by someone on the Left of his own party. Well OK, maybe not assassination, but a convenient accidental fall from some high point around Parliament House.

Hahahahahaha!!!

Tom

15 Aug 12 at 7:15 pm
Your point, Tom?

steve from brisbane

15 Aug 12 at 7:25 pm
“But of course it is embarrassing to give that as a reason when he’s first deposed. It would make them look stupid for choosing him as leader in the first place.”

Still, people miss him, Steve, even those who would never vote Labor like myself. He has dignity and is respectable family man, and very smart, all nice things for a party leader of any side.

candy

15 Aug 12 at 7:25 pm
Yes, I am aware that he is popular with the public, candy. Crook politicians sometimes are.

steve from brisbane

15 Aug 12 at 7:29 pm
but would Madam like a foot massage before or after I prepare your flat white and choccies on the side?

You know that sounds lovely, but why is it the ones a girl doesn’t want anywhere near them are the ones that offer?

Gab

15 Aug 12 at 7:34 pm
Leigh Sales looks like Shrek’s sister tonight. In green and with those big ears!

blogstrop

15 Aug 12 at 7:38 pm
And SfB looks like a puzzled Max Headroom.

blogstrop

15 Aug 12 at 7:41 pm
sfb : I would have agreed with your analysis at the time. In hindsight it was perfectly clear that Rudd was a trojan horse to get the AWU faction back in power.

The point is that the reason given, publicly, for Rudds demise, was low poll numbers. Not because he was a bad boss. As others (and you) have stated, everyone already knew he was an asshole boss, so they could have gotten rid of him at any time because of this. As candy has already noted, after he won them another election would have been a good idea.

The justification for his dispatch was polling numbers. His bad polling was because of Abbott opposing his stupid policies. Abbott destroyed Rudd. End of story.

brc

15 Aug 12 at 7:48 pm
brc: there was no certainty that Rudd would fold on the ETS. Abbott got lucky (and yes, Gillard is partly to blame for this. Good thing she redeemed herself, though.)

This comes down to a quasi philosophical argument about causation. Apparently, because Abbott took the populist line of Andrew Bolt, Scientist in Chief for the Coalition, the chain of events that followed means he “destroyed” Rudd. Maybe it was Andrew Bolt who “destroyed” Rudd, then?

For the reasons I have outlined, I say the ultimate reason he was removed when still in a poll leading position was that he was a shocking bloke to work for/with.

steve from brisbane

15 Aug 12 at 8:03 pm
Your point, Tom?

You’ve never been to Canberra, have you? You have no experience of politics or police matters? In fact, are you sure you actually live in Australia?

You’re a laughing stock.

Tom

15 Aug 12 at 8:06 pm
Tom: Brave but futile attempt at a save for claiming I’m some sort of deep undercover Labor operative. The problem was, your theory also meant I had spent 5 years writing a blog supporting John Howard so that the brilliant minds of Catallaxy wouldn’t find me out.

steve from brisbane

15 Aug 12 at 8:13 pm
Richo just ” gave it ” to Paul Ryan in a big way.
Didn’t mention Ryans policies though, just personal ( Hunts deer and catfish)

Jumpnmcar

15 Aug 12 at 8:14 pm
What do you mean by “gave it”?

JC

15 Aug 12 at 8:16 pm
Richo just ” gave it ” to Paul Ryan in a big way.

Has Ryan been involved in any printing businesses that are extraordinarily highly insured that mysteriously burn down?

Has he been friends with any men who throw their girlfriends of the Gap?

Infidel Tiger

15 Aug 12 at 8:17 pm
Hey Feebie.

You told us you lived in Tasmania and subsequently told us you didn’t. Lol

Bird brain.

JC

15 Aug 12 at 8:18 pm
He hasn’t been in Tasmania either, Tom. Oh wait, yes he has.

febro – today’s OT at 8.05pm

Never been to Tasmania.

febro – ast Thursday’s OT at 9.55pm

What a gas to kiss the tarmac back at coolish Hobart.

Via Septimus.

Gab

15 Aug 12 at 8:20 pm
Richo’s rant on Ryan was ridiculous – starting with describing him as a “Senator.” The accuracy quotient diminished from there. Look, I’ve got no desire at all to shoot a deer with a bow and arrow while dressed in camouflage fatigues, but this guy is running for an office that has JOE FREAKIN’ BIDEN as the incumbent! And Richo reckons Ryan is a nutter?

Also, there was the obligatory reference to Mitt Romney’s alleged failure to release his tax returns. Hmmmm – someone help me out here – aren’t there a few pieces of documentation, pesky paperwork, on which Barrry Obama has been a tad shy?

James in Melbourne

15 Aug 12 at 8:20 pm
Richo’s rant on Ryan was ridiculous

Was this on 2GB this evening or yesterday?

Also, there was the obligatory reference to Mitt Romney’s alleged failure to release his tax returns.

I wouldn’t mind seeing Richo’s tax returns from 1980 to the present. Would be interesting reading.

dover_beach

15 Aug 12 at 8:28 pm
Never been to Tasmania. Hobart is the name of a place I fly into on a light plane. Adjacent to a homestead and business. Can’t say more.

I’m calling bulls*it on this.

Gab

15 Aug 12 at 8:33 pm
That Tim Wilson clown from the Institute of Corporate Affairs was whinging on the ABC tonight.

Has he ever been happy about anything, miserable looking guy.

LaRouchite

15 Aug 12 at 8:37 pm
If you seriously postulated that someone in politics would have Rudd assassinated because he didn’t like him or his politics, you are a complete fuckwit with no idea what you’re talking about.

That sort of idiocy has never been written by anyone with even the vaguest understanding of Australian politics. You were one out; no-one else in and around politics ever uttered such rubbish. You are/were a fruitloop who has no idea of how Australian politics works or how its police forces work. There is and was never any evidence that there has ever been an attempt on the life of any leader in Australian politics, apart from that state MP, John Newman, killed by a Vietnamese drug dealer in Sydney in 1994 or that nutcase who tried to kill Arthur Caldwell in 1966.

Tom

15 Aug 12 at 8:38 pm
Yes, he should be more sweetness and light. Just like you, laRougeite.

Gab

15 Aug 12 at 8:39 pm
This comes down to a quasi philosophical argument about causation. Apparently, because Abbott took the populist line of Andrew Bolt, Scientist in Chief for the Coalition, the chain of events that followed means he “destroyed” Rudd. Maybe it was Andrew Bolt who “destroyed” Rudd, then?

Oh my god.

So because Abbott took the “populist line” AKA represented the publics wishes, a line which shortly forced Gillard to categorically deny that she would take any action on what just months before was “the greatest moral challenge of our time” and is now going to demolish Gillard at the next election because she lied about that, after technically beating her in the last election anyway…

That’s all because he just “got lucky”.

I suppose he also “got lucky” with his principled and heroic refusal to agree with Gillard’s plan to send boat people to Malaysian sex slave distribution centres too.

You’re an absolute joker.

twostix

15 Aug 12 at 8:43 pm
febro is Phil. That should be clear.

dover_beach

15 Aug 12 at 8:45 pm
…likeable, witty and urbane.

Steve, what would you possibly know about any of these three things?

C.L.

15 Aug 12 at 8:47 pm
Barry O’Farrell to Kings Cross: No shots allowed after midnight… and drink from plastic cups.

Cry me a river.
As someone said here a couple of years back on this topic, alcohol is not a normal goods. It has peculiar properties that necessitate some regulation.

dd

15 Aug 12 at 8:49 pm
The hours were opened up too far, and now, as with open borders, there’s no painless solution.

blogstrop

15 Aug 12 at 8:51 pm
Richo just ” gave it ” to Paul Ryan in a big way.
Didn’t mention Ryans policies though, just personal ( Hunts deer and catfish)

Well, it makes sense.

Honestly, can you see that fat lesbian Richardson out in the bush hunting?

C.L.

15 Aug 12 at 8:52 pm
Cry me a river.
As someone said here a couple of years back on this topic, alcohol is not a normal goods. It has peculiar properties that necessitate some regulation.

Fascist. We already have laws dealing with public drunkenness and affray.

Why should the 99% of people who have no problem with alacohol suffer because of the feral 1%? This is a complete cop out.

A righteous country would combine extreme freedom with roving death squads.

Infidel Tiger

15 Aug 12 at 8:53 pm
febro is Phil. That should be clear.

No, it’s not clear at all. As I said recently, it’s likely that Phil hasn’t visited this site for years, but has psychically scarred long-term Cat readers into jumping at shadows, every time a snarky left-wing troll turns up. The thing is, snarky left-wing trolls are actually quite common.

Anyway, Phil didn’t have this level of self-control; after a short period of relative calm she would lose it and start going batshit crazy on everyone.

dd

15 Aug 12 at 8:54 pm
… your theory also meant I had spent 5 years writing a blog supporting John Howard so that the brilliant minds of Catallaxy wouldn’t find me out.

Flip-flopper pleads intelligence.

blogstrop

15 Aug 12 at 8:54 pm
Not only are you a pathological liar, Fungus, you can’t read:

It’s becoming clear that the biggest danger to Kevin Rudd, as soon as he gets IR legislation through the Senate, will be assassination by someone on the Left of his own party. Well OK, maybe not assassination, but a convenient accidental fall from some high point around Parliament House.

Tom

15 Aug 12 at 8:54 pm
…alcohol is not a normal goods. It has peculiar properties that necessitate some regulation.

“Hear hear,” says this man.

C.L.

15 Aug 12 at 8:56 pm
Cry me a river.
As someone said here a couple of years back on this topic, alcohol is not a normal goods. It has peculiar properties that necessitate some regulation.

No.

Cry ME a bigger river.

If you cannot handle alcohol, it is not an excuse, tough sentences for violent criminals are warranted.

It’s a bloody normal good to me. I might be an idiot but I’m not a violent idiot – nor am I violent when I drink.

Did the dude who king hit and killed the young honours student go on a drinking binge beforehand or was he a dickhead looking for trouble?

.

15 Aug 12 at 8:56 pm
Fascist. We already have laws dealing with public drunkenness and affray.

These aren’t enforced, and that’s possibly because they’re unenforceable.

dd

15 Aug 12 at 8:59 pm
Regulation and alcohol have a marvellous synergy.

febro’s agreeing with me, so now I know I’m wrong. I recant.

dd

15 Aug 12 at 9:01 pm
dd, its the occasionally turn of phrase and similar references that point in that direction.

dover_beach

15 Aug 12 at 9:07 pm
JC, re the Wilson thing:

Just the usual Liberal Party smear. Ancient history, long since declared a non-story, unrelated to anything except the bitterness of those not in power who will do anything to get it.

m0nty

15 Aug 12 at 9:09 pm
These aren’t enforced, and that’s possibly because they’re unenforceable.

More laws on top of this…what did Cicero say? “More law, less justice”?

I tend to agree.

.

15 Aug 12 at 9:09 pm
JC, re the Wilson thing:

Just the usual Liberal Party smear. Ancient history, long since declared a non-story, unrelated to anything except the bitterness of those not in power who will do anything to get it.

You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.

.

15 Aug 12 at 9:09 pm
JC, re the Wilson thing:

Just the usual Liberal Party smear.

Amazing the heights of delusion monty can achieve.

Gab

15 Aug 12 at 9:11 pm
Tom, literalism is antithetical to understanding.

Yogurt sprout farming moonbeam.

.

15 Aug 12 at 9:17 pm
Ancient history, long since declared a non-story, unrelated to anything except the bitterness of those not in power who will do anything to get it.

monty: a passion for justice.

dover_beach

15 Aug 12 at 9:20 pm
Not just some of them, but every last one of these trolls who are here for no reason but to oppose everything that the Cat community is interested in is a pathological liar. Febro, ShitFer, SteveC, hammy, LaRouchite and the rest come here using lying as their primary weapon; everything that’s bad about human nature is on display. I couldn’t do it; it’d make me physically ill.

Tom

15 Aug 12 at 9:21 pm
Amazing the heights of delusion monty can achieve.

Now now, he’s been working on that little spiel for two days now. It took him so long that the wilson / gillard post is dead so he had to post it here so that all of his hard work wouldn’t go to waste.

twostix

15 Aug 12 at 9:23 pm
hammy is a performance artist.

dover_beach

15 Aug 12 at 9:25 pm
I’m fascinated and repulsed by people like you whose first instinct when they open their mouth is to lie.

Tom

15 Aug 12 at 9:35 pm
long since declared a non-story,

By Gillard, by the hollow spin men, by the msm threatened with jail, by the Liebor PR lackeys in the ABC and Fairfax who are products of 3rd rate journalism degrees, oh, and of course by the totalitarian monty.

Nothing to see here. What brain dead fuckwits.

Lazlo

15 Aug 12 at 9:36 pm
As someone said here a couple of years back on this topic, alcohol is not a normal goods. It has peculiar properties that necessitate some regulation.

It is a bloody difficult issue. Years ago when the first reports of late night violence and drinking became more common it occurred to me that the effects of alcohol, plus the increasing tendency to use amphetamines to keep going, made it inevitable that we would see increasing numbers of people losing impulse and control and doing stupid things. My younger brother told me some months ago how his copper friends remarked that you can now forget about the happy drunk idea, a seemingly happy and intoxicated person right next to you can turn and slug you.

I’m not sure about this but initially alcohol consumption boosts GABA, hence the relaxing feeling, but if you keep drinking and drinking it also depletes serotonin and low serotonin is associated with violence(which admittedly isn’t saying much). If you are going to get smashed for several hours and assume you are going to be alright you may be correct but if in the past that hasn’t be true you might well be an idiot who doesn’t learn from experience.

You don’t need more laws, if it gets down to that and you rely on the available neurobiological evidence then you will need to start passing laws against sugar consumption and falling in love. It is not enough to just say “No”, there is enough information to educate people about how to manage their drinking so as to not incur scenarios where they have so fucked up their CNS function that they just might go out and do any stupid thing.

Instead they go down the moralising line the stupid pricks. They don’t understand that it is near pointless to try and stop people becoming intoxicated. It is fun damn it. What they won’t do is bother to teach people how to know when they are intoxicated enough.

Dead Soul

15 Aug 12 at 9:37 pm
OIC. Tom took “assassination” literally.

Dear poor, angry, not-very-bright-so-I’ll-call everyone-who-dissents-a-liar Tom. I also drew a low quality cartoon once featuring a topless Gillard with her bra on Rudd’s head. Here’s a secret: I did not mean that literally either.

steve from brisbane

15 Aug 12 at 9:45 pm
Law can only ever do so much. It comes down to personal values, which can only be promoted by the society in which the person resides. After getting shit faced the first X number of weekends, or even getting hurt in the first X number of fights, or even feeling guilty for belting someone up in the first X number of fights who probably didn’t deserve it, you need that person to think ‘this is not how I want to live my life’.

That doesn’t mean they’re never going to want to enjoy over-indulging in alcohol ever again, or are able to afford paying exorbitant levels of tax on it. So excessive law is still going to hurt them as well.

Sure, there are people who will never obtain values to enable them to behave in a socially acceptable way, but that’s why we have prisons. They’ll always be around no matter what the law says or what values society cultivates in its members.

John Mc

15 Aug 12 at 9:45 pm
Took you 18 minutes to come up with 12 words, Fungus. Must do better.

Tom

15 Aug 12 at 9:57 pm
John Taylor eviscerates that little weasel Krugman.

http://johnbtaylorsblog.blogspot.com.au/2012/08/paul-krugman-is-wrong.html

What a smackdown.

JC

15 Aug 12 at 10:01 pm
It’s Phil the Tranny.

John Mc

15 Aug 12 at 10:01 pm
Just watched Lateline do a hatchet piece on Ryan followed by Craig McMurtrie interviewed by Tony Jones.

Unfortunately for them they then got an expert Professor from the Kennedy Business School at Harvard to complete the hatchet job but apparently nobody told him his role.

He subsequently rejected every assertion in the preceding hatchet piece and McMurtrie as well as the long leftist premised questions of Jones.

I mean every single one.

Prof. Roger Porter whoever you are, you will never be invited onto the ABC for commentary ever again.

It was glorious.

A Lateline ABC producer will have to be put into the naughty corner for a few years.

I encourage every one to catch it on-line when it’s available.

Jones and the ABC were made to look the lying partisan ignorant hacks they are.

JamesK

15 Aug 12 at 11:26 pm

Catallaxy Files

Open Forum: August 11, 2012

847 Responses to 'Open Forum: August 11, 2012'

Leave a Reply

Liberty Quotes

Ongoing Debates

Catallaxy Surveys

Recent Comments

Recent Posts

Archives

Pages

Blogroll

Meta

Catallaxy Files

Open Forum: August 11, 2012

Share this:

847 Responses to 'Open Forum: August 11, 2012'

Leave a Reply

Liberty Quotes

Ongoing Debates

Catallaxy Surveys

Recent Comments

Recent Posts

Archives

Pages

Blogroll

Meta