Open Forum: October 13, 2012 at Catallaxy Files

Open Forum: October 13, 2012

959 comments

Written by Sinclair Davidson

October 13th, 2012 at 12:01 am

Posted in Open Forum

959 Responses to 'Open Forum: October 13, 2012'

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Helllooo!!!

Rabz

13 Oct 12 at 12:01 am
Greg Sheridan calls it:

Second round to Paul Ryan.

PAUL Ryan had a clear win over Joe Biden in yesterday’s vice-presidential debate. That’s amazing. In fact, I don’t think it’s ever happened before that a vice-presidential challenger has clearly beaten an incumbent vice-president in the election debate.

This has all sorts of serious consequences for the Obama-Romney contest and even for the future of American politics.

C.L.

13 Oct 12 at 12:03 am
There will never be a better time…

Ooooohhhaaaahhh, there will never be a greater time…

Rabz

13 Oct 12 at 12:05 am
Sheridan has become quite the wrongologist of late so take care with him.

Fisky

13 Oct 12 at 12:08 am
They open at midnight Queensland time, huh

DaveF

13 Oct 12 at 12:09 am
That’s amazing. In fact, I don’t think it’s ever happened before that a vice-presidential challenger has clearly beaten an incumbent vice-president in the election debate.

I didn’t think Ryan had won the debate until it was all over and the recall was kicking in.

During – was a different story.

Except for this classic line:

“If they agree with you, why do they keep suing you?”

Mittens marches onwards –

to Victory…

Rabz

13 Oct 12 at 12:10 am
I like Mittens chance Rabz. It’s only 4 states to win.

DaveF

13 Oct 12 at 12:14 am
Dover I started to watch it on Jump’s recommendation but honestly, I just couldn’t take it. I’ve had a gutfull of this faux misogynist crap.

A fourteen year old girl gets shot in the head because she dared to speak up against the Taliban and promoting education for girls.

That’s misogyny, not this trumped up disgusting campaign being run by a despicable and disreputable poor excuse for a female posing as the prime minister. I cannot even bring myself to use capital letters for ‘prime minister’.

How will history remember gillard? The first female prime minister who couldn’t take the heat of politics and played the victim card in a failed attempt to cover up her miserable policies and many many failures in office.

A little girl who got promoted well beyond her incompetencies and excused her failures in sooky fashion by saying ‘he was mean’. I’m ashamed that she belongs to my gender. What a massive disappointment she is as a female and as a female role model for young women and girls. Pfft.

She’s a lying mussel.

Gab

13 Oct 12 at 12:22 am
Dover Beach,

Sorry about the jibes a few days back. You don’t deserve that. I have forward the Nagel reference to a few friends and someone I know doing a Ph. D. in Transpersonal Psychology, she might find it useful. Keep that stuff coming.

Dead Soul

13 Oct 12 at 12:25 am
Scientists believe we have a better chance of tackling the disease by knowing what tumour cells are saying to one another and then cutting off communications.

A fascinating approach.

Dead Soul

13 Oct 12 at 12:29 am
True, Dead Soul, but I prefer superimposing the message that says “Die screaming, you fucking bastard cells.”

Gab – full agreement. As to Afghanistan and all the other Talibanistans, swamp the place with female soldiers, turn it into a free-fire zone, kill every armed male, and strip the place of every potential weapon more powerful than kitchen cutlery. If they make trouble again, carpet-bomb them into oblivion and spray the ruins with pig blood.

As for Gillard – she can go to Hell, and I will eat a plate of mussels the day she is defeated.

perturbed

13 Oct 12 at 2:11 am
So it seems that half of Australia and 99% of Catallaxy are fascists.

Hey its just the WSJ sez it.

Romney and Gillard two peas in a pod

The Obama campaign’s resurrection of “liar” as a political tool is odious because it has such a repellent pedigree. It dates to the sleazy world of fascist and totalitarian propaganda in the 1930s. It was part of the milieu of stooges, show trials and dupes. These were people willing to say anything to defeat their opposition. Denouncing people as liars was at the center of it. The idea was never to elevate political debate but to debauch it.

Lord Rexington

13 Oct 12 at 3:10 am
Romney and Gillard? Just what the hell are you smoking?

perturbed

13 Oct 12 at 4:45 am
So some fuckwit Australian zombie troll thinks Mitt Romney is a liar on the say-so of fuckwit American zombie Paul Krugman, of the Obama-for-President New York Times? Especially amusing considering compulsive lying is part of the leftist mental illness.

Tom

13 Oct 12 at 5:03 am
As Twostix points out on the old OT, Laurie Oakes is now Labor’s bitch:

…it was clear within days the PM’s gender-based declaration of war had made quite an impact with many Australian women.

The way it went viral via the internet was a significant factor in ensuring it registered as a powerful moment.

The Slipper affair is likely to fade fairly quickly, but indications are that the Gillard speech will be remembered for a long time. Whether she wins or loses next year’s election, it will be seen as a pivotal point in her prime ministership.

Blind Fucking Freddy could have told Lozza that Gillard’s rant was the moment it became clear to the Labor backbench that Gillard was irretrievably damaged goods and that Labor wasn’t heading for defeat, but annihilation.

But how it will all play with voters is unclear.

Gillard’s bitch, fat man.

Tom

13 Oct 12 at 6:07 am
Oakes.

Tom

13 Oct 12 at 6:09 am
It is pretty clear that Biden ‘lied through his teeth’ in the debate about the contraception issue, Benghazi and his own votes. Then again, the chuckling bufoon might just be suffering a bad case of dementia and be hallucinating about a past he wished he had lived.

As for Laurie Oakes….what the hell is the point of his latest rambling opinion piece? I think he is joinining the Biden dementia bus.

John Comnenus

13 Oct 12 at 7:27 am
The funny thing about Abbott’s ‘woman problem’ is that the Coalition out performs the ALP on the female vote. According to Newspoll’s quarterly breakdowns 31% of men and 34% of women support the ALP, whereas 48% of men and 43% of women support the Coalition.

So let me get this right, Abbott has a ‘woman problem’ because he is only winning that demographic by 9 points?

A more accurate portrayal of the situation is that Gillard has a human problem – she isn’t respected, trusted or liked by males or females.

John Comnenus

13 Oct 12 at 7:38 am
Heartache for phony Catholic Joe Biden…

Entire United States Conference of Catholic Bishops: Biden lied.

Note for the record that Steve from Brisbane – also a fake Catholic and a liar – argued otherwise yesterday.

C.L.

13 Oct 12 at 8:08 am
Dennis Shanahan has been noticing something interesting:

PM’s speech goes from bad-ass to bad.

JULIA Gillard’s viral success of more than 100,000 internet hits on the video of her parliamentary attack on Tony Abbott has soured as people argue over the substance of her speech.

After positive comments on websites from New York to London, the Prime Minister’s defence on Tuesday of ex-Speaker Peter Slipper has attracted criticism for double standards, not protecting an alleged victim of sexual harassment and undermining feminist principles.

People have started to ask “Why are we celebrating this?” and complaining Labor has cut support to single mothers.

As the tone of the commentary changed, Jezebel started a debate on double standards.

“Gypsydoe” asked “Why is Gillard defending a person who may have sexually harassed a man? Why are we celebrating this? I’m confused.”

An angry male said that: “A woman unhinged, losing the plot and throwing an irrelevant hissy fit in parliament is not ‘an impassioned speech’.”

A female commentator said: “No, Julia, nobody should be lecturing your government on sexism. Nobody at all. It just seems odd that, no matter who’s in power, it always seems to be poor and working class women hit first and hardest when the ‘austerity’ cosh gets pulled out.”

On the Daily Telegraph’s website, Brendan O’Neill, editor of online magazine Spiked, sparked a run of critical remarks from Australians living in London. O’Neill said the speech was “essentially a gratuitously ostentatious display of Gillard’s own emotional sensitivity to certain words and ideas”.

“The speech was basically a big, massive offence-fest, a public display of Gillard’s ability and willingness to take offence, both personal offence and proxy offence on behalf of the women of Australia, at every slight or slur that she overhears,” he said.

C.L.

13 Oct 12 at 8:13 am
So Tom, anyone who may disagree with you is a troll and a fuckwit? So does that mean anyone who says the first sentence is always somebody’s troll and fuckwit? I’m struggling to see how many of you here are any different from what you accuse the “Left” of being. I see just as much partisan thinking, personal abuse and ill-thought out tribal ranting (complete with use of borrowed talking points) as on any Leftist rambling website. I’ll probably be called a troll for this, because in the end, everybody is somebody’s troll.

Paul

13 Oct 12 at 8:27 am
Latest revelations about the Gillard – Wilson – AWU scandal are getting worse and worse, and harder to dimiss. At the risk of sounding like a misogynist, Gillard seems to have three enduring character flaws:
1. She has a serious problem with the truth,
2. She is extremely egotistical – everything is about her – even when it’s not, and
3. She seems to have no empathy with the various victims of her self centered lying over the years.

We all know about problem 1. But has anyone ever heard Gillard reflect on the impact of her behavior at S&G. Has she ever once thought of the others damaged along the way by her behaviour? She seems to me to fit the definition of a sociopath. She has no empathy with those she has hurt, and uses any excuse to defend herself against all comers.

I can’t recall a senior Australian politician with such self evident and terrible character flaws. Gillard truly is a ‘piece of work’.

John Comnenus

13 Oct 12 at 8:34 am
What I found breathtaking about Gillard’s now infamous dismissal meeting at Slater & Gordon was her casual reference to Bruce Wilson’s wife (their mortgage etc).

That would be the wife whose husband she was sleeping with.

Lovely human being.

But then, all married women are prostitutes so I guess Mrs Wilson was asking for it.

C.L.

13 Oct 12 at 8:38 am
Evilbloggerlady Smacks down Bill Maher.

Well since you asked Bill Maher, because he could!

Bill Maher

@billmaher 12 Oct 12

Ryan’s is winning who knows to hydrate more. That’s a big tell when you keep going to the water. But flopsweat don’t replace itself!

Evi L. Bloggerlady @MsEBL

@billmaher @rsmccain. Ryan drank water because his prostate still works, unlike Biden who would have had to call a bathroom break.

Lol.

Rudiau

13 Oct 12 at 8:49 am
@John Comnenus 8:34

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcissistic_personality_disorder

Reacting to criticism with anger, shame, or humiliation
Taking advantage of others to reach their own goals
Exaggerating their own importance, achievements, and talents
Imagining unrealistic fantasies of success, beauty, power, intelligence, or romance
Requiring constant attention and positive reinforcement from others
Becoming jealous easily
Lacking empathy and disregarding the feelings of others
Being obsessed with oneself
Pursuing mainly selfish goals
Trouble keeping healthy relationships
Becoming easily hurt and rejected
Setting goals that are unrealistic
Wanting “the best” of everything
Appearing unemotional

Biota

13 Oct 12 at 9:01 am
Swan now admits the ‘joke’ was “out of order”. At some point the ‘joke’ referred to the words budget surplus and the room erupted in laughter.

In other Swan news – Swan warns slowdown can’t be dodged.
This is disgraceful. Our Treasurer talking down the Australian economy like that. This relentless negativity must stop, I tell you. What a wrecker Swan is.

Keith

13 Oct 12 at 9:12 am
Well it’s taken a while but Mother Russia, the patron saint of Emilys List and incompetent left wing women promoted beyond their capacity has finally spoken up to support Gillard on your ALPBC. Yep the woman who with John Cain allowed Victorian unions to destroy the State’s manufacturing base, pile on public debt and run the economy into the ground agrees Gillard is being criticised for being a woman.

Thanks Joan.

H B Bear

13 Oct 12 at 9:21 am
You’re a leftist troll and a fuckwit, Paul. Any other reason you’re here besides trolling those attracted to a centre-right blog? You are the government. We are the dissidents. Apart from being a troll, you’re an arrogant piece of shit. Fuck off. I will have great pleasure lobbying the new government to remove all your tax-funded propaganda channels.

Tom

13 Oct 12 at 9:32 am
The Legover Man receives a

…. vulgar reference to my personal life…

Oops. Sorry Dr Emerson.

H B Bear

13 Oct 12 at 9:45 am
Regardless of what Abbott says to Gillard in parliament or anywhere else, he will be labelled a misogynist, a sexist.

It’s now the new “racist” ploy of shutting down debate.

Transparent and disgusting.

Gab

13 Oct 12 at 9:48 am
Talking of trolls, I take it that Stevieliar QC will never return here after hissing off this morning on the old open forum thread. He must have gone to bed all worked up last night, got up this morning and couldn’t get over it and vented again. Still laughing.

Oakes is a piece of works. That manufactured start to the article is too stupid for words. It’s about the only place that picked it up and from my brief view of the site it’s porn or satire.

Tiny Dancer

13 Oct 12 at 9:55 am
The religion of peace.

Can we please stop hearing that the terrorists have “perverted” the peaceful religion of Islam? It’s a popular and politically correct myth. The fact is that Islam is a violent, murderous religion. Terrorists are not perverting it. They’re following it to the letter.

Mohammed was a mass-murderer of unbelievers and yes, he slept with nine year old girls. Muslims are compelled to live in Mohamed’s image.

You can riot all you want because of what I’ve just said, but it’s the truth. Check the Koran.

The ones who have “perverted” Islam are the ones who don’t want to kill non-believers. The ones who have realised it’s the 21st Century, not the 7th.

We need more perversion of Islam. It’s called reform and every other major religion has achieved this. Jews aren’t smiting anyone. Christians aren’t boiling anyone alive. Buddhists? Well. Yet Islam has not woken up and checked the calendar and our leaders refuse to call it for what it is. Nevermind Islamic leaders.

We will not forget.

RWDB

Rudiau

13 Oct 12 at 9:55 am
Great article by Judith in the Aus picking up from a discussion earlier this week.

She touches on all the key concepts and themes we were taught in Tax & Public Policy, but does it in a way that the reader does not feel they are being preached to.

If I had teachers/lecturers as talented as Judith when I was doing my undergrad I might have done more study of economics at that time.

Instead I had morons who explained arbitrage as being bad as it exploited poor ignorant victims in the third world…

Token

13 Oct 12 at 10:00 am
” …dismissal meeting at Slater & Gordon was her casual reference to Bruce Wilson’s wife (their mortgage etc).That would be the wife whose husband she was sleeping with.”

Slater and Gordon seem to have been a bit of a sleezy outfit in those days, going by that, or they just accepted that kind of relationship of a partner with a married client as normal. Somehow it seems quite degrading to them all.

candy

13 Oct 12 at 10:03 am
What I found breathtaking about Gillard’s now infamous dismissal meeting at Slater & Gordon was her casual reference to Bruce Wilson’s wife (their mortgage etc). That would be the wife whose husband she was sleeping with.

To be fair to the Lying Slapper, those references in the transcript of her exit interview ($) from S&G were to Ralph Blewitt’s wife, a hairdresser. The pathological liar made no mention of the fact that Wilson was married or that he had kids.

Cold-Hands

13 Oct 12 at 10:04 am
Oakes is a piece of works. That manufactured start to the article is too stupid for words. It’s about the only place that picked it up and from my brief view of the site it’s porn or satire.

Oakes has taken the lead from the FauxFacts morons who are working hard to narrow the reader base of their paper in a hope it gets nationalised by Il Duce Conroy before this incompetent government falls.

Oakes is part of the plan to treat the readers as morons.

I guess unlike the rest of Australia, the people in the Canberra bubble are not received endless emails detailing the offensive texts that Gillard got all Labor, Greens & Independent members of the alliance to vote to endorse.

Token

13 Oct 12 at 10:05 am
Have the comedian, CFMEU, Emerson, Swan, Ellis etc formally apologised to Peta Credlin and Tony Abbott yet? Silly question I suppose…

Cold-Hands

13 Oct 12 at 10:09 am
And has “the joke” or the video of it surfaced yet?

Cold-Hands

13 Oct 12 at 10:10 am
Hey, did the CFMEU crowd get to laugh about their members punching police horses as well?

Token

13 Oct 12 at 10:17 am
Is it a surprised that Burke would say her comments were misconstrued after a full day where it could be the headline in the media?

THE federal opposition has complained to the new Speaker, Anna Burke, that she has displayed bias after she sided with Julia Gillard’s comments about sexism and misogyny.

The manager of opposition business, Christopher Pyne, told the Herald yesterday that ‘’the Speaker must not only be impartial but be seen to be impartial’’.

‘’I have conveyed that view to her on behalf of the opposition today. The role of Speaker does not allow a member to give overtly political interviews,” he said…

Ms Burke raised the opposition’s ire yesterday morning when she told ABC radio that Julia Gillard’s speech to Parliament in which she excoriated Tony Abbott as sexist and misogynist was ‘’spot on’’…

Mr Pyne rang Ms Burke and left a message expressing his concerns.

She later rang him back and apologised, saying her comments were misconstrued.

This is going to be a long year.

[H/t Bolta]

Token

13 Oct 12 at 10:21 am
Jabba is just more of the dead wood that needs to be cleared out of Channel 9.

H B Bear

13 Oct 12 at 10:21 am
“Ms Burke excoriated Tony Abbott as sexist and misogynist was ‘’spot on’

So Ms Burke believes Tony Abbott hates his wife and children too. It’s gobsmacking what these people can say in public and get away with.

candy

13 Oct 12 at 10:32 am
DS, don’t sweat it.

dover_beach

13 Oct 12 at 10:37 am
At last he is doing something right.
Obama is credited for bounce in consumer sentiment

Cause and effect?

With economists scratching their heads for an economic explanation, the rise of Romney is just as plausible. People are feeling more confident, spending more, engaging in more economic activity, and planning more.

Obama is being given credit for an unexpected bounce in consumer sentiment which may be driven by the possibility that Obama will be defeated.

lol

Rudiau

13 Oct 12 at 11:03 am
That’s priceless, Rudiau.

dover_beach

13 Oct 12 at 11:10 am
The real Julia?

Reader Simon writes:

Gillard cried when she addressed congress, was it congress? Talking about what she remembered as a little girl of the moon landing; very moving and emotional memories.

Today at the Bali memorial when Gillard spoke there did not seem to be the level of emotion in her voice as there was recalling the heyday of the American space program.

If the situation were reversed it would make sense.

Therefore I don’t ask why she didn’t cry today but why she cried in Washington.

Rudiau

13 Oct 12 at 11:20 am
Good old JUMP recommended watching Kelly O’Dwyerdo battle on The Nation. Gerard Henderson concurs:

What a stunning debate on The Nation With David Speers on Sky News last night. Except that David Speers was not there – so it was more like “The Nation Without David Speers”. The Nation is often a somewhat blokey affair. However, last night it was an all-sheilas event with Helen Dalley in the chair. At issue was the blight of misogyny and sexism which, we are told, pervades the land. Never before, in the annals of Australian history, has so much of womanhood been hated by so many men for so long a time. Or something like that.

The Nation is usually a balanced debate. Not last night. Liberal MP Kelly O’Dwyer defended her leader Tony Abbott and criticised Prime Minister Julia Gillard. For most of the program, O’Dwyer was opposed by Federal Minister Julie Collins, journalist Julia Baird and advertising creative director Dee Madigan – with occasional help from Helen Dalley. In other words, it was more like an ABC debate where everybody – or nearly everybody – agrees with everyone else. Fittingly, Ms Baird joined The Nation at Chatswood as a panellist at 8 pm – having presented The Drum on ABC 24 at 6 pm at Ultimo where the same issue (among others) was discussed.

O’Dwyer put in a feisty performance (in the 3 to 1 tag match). But she was occasionally hailed down by the weight of numbers. Had it been an all-male occasion, the likes of Eva Cox would have complained about an over-dose of testosterone in the room. [I know you cannot say this in these anti-misogyny and anti-sexism times. But the famous Nancy reckons The Nation last night sounded like an old-fashioned cat-fight. Apologies to all – Ed].

There were many highlights of the debate. Including:

▪ Dee Madigan said that it took Tony Abbott “four or five days” to fully criticise Alan Jones’ indefensible remarks about Julia Gillard’s late father. In fact it took, at most, one day. [Is this the same Ms Madigan who said on Paul Murray Live last Monday that “Tony Abbott is only the Opposition leader by one vote” – forgetting that he was re-elected unopposed as Liberal Party leader after the 2010 election? – Ed].

▪ Dr Julia Baird on one occasion referred to Julia Gillard as “she” – despite the fact that Dr Anne Summers has declared that “she” is a sexist word when used with reference to the Prime Minister (See MWD Issue 157).

▪ Ms Collins argued that Tony Abbott is a misogynist but, when challenged by O’Dwyer about what the term means, said that she was “not going to get into a debate about the meaning of words”.

▪ Ms O’Dwyer objected to the use of the word misogynist – meaning woman-hater – with respect to Tony Abbott. She maintained that the 14 year old Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai – who was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman for advocating that girls be educated – was a victim of real misogyny. Whereupon Dee Madigan engaged in a dismissive artificial laugh. Madigan declared that O’Dwyer should know there are degrees of misogyny.

So according to the Thought of Dee Madigan, the attempted murder of a teenage girl by the Taliban is one kind of misogyny. And referring to Julia Gillard on any occasion as “she” is another kind of misogyny. Really.

▪ At the end of the debate, the issue of the leadership of both Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott was raised. Ms Dalley responded “We’re going back to where we started”. Not so. The debate never left where it started.

All up, a great occasion. There should be more of them. What about a bit of gender balance? Why not try a dog-fight with Bob Katter, Wilson Tuckey and the late Al Grasby on the panel – with Alan Jones in the chair? Who knows? Such a debate might even out-do last night’s for the number of interruptions.

Gab

13 Oct 12 at 11:31 am
A more accurate portrayal of the situation is that Gillard has a human problem – she isn’t respected, trusted or liked by males or females.

And that is the truth of the matter.

She’s a lying mussel.

Onya Gab. Tough but fair.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

13 Oct 12 at 11:35 am
John Hewson on Skynews AM Agenda being asked about the “brilliant speech by Gillard that went viral”?

Hewson’s reply:

I believe the orchestra on the Titanic was playing beautifully as it sank

Gab

13 Oct 12 at 11:42 am
the “brilliant speech by Gillard that went viral”

It got maybe a hundred thousand hits. That fat “starwars” kid has over twenty-six million hits, and Keyboard Cat is coming up on thirty million.

Lift your game, McTernan. STRETCH GOALS. Go!

sdog

13 Oct 12 at 11:48 am
Yeh Gab, what Hendo said.
And a little gift for you for helping me out all the time.
(Stolen from NZ blog ” Whale Oil Beef Hooked ” whom I believe deserves a place on the allready too long blog roll at the Cat )

jumpnmcar

13 Oct 12 at 11:54 am
Are you saying I’m aggressive, Jump?! You sexist pig.

Gab

13 Oct 12 at 11:59 am
Maru the cat gets close to 2 million views – for just one video.

Gab

13 Oct 12 at 12:03 pm
Actual quote:

“The entire reason that this has become the political topic it is, is because of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan.”

Thus, Stephanie Cutter, President Obama’s deputy campaign manager, speaking on CNN about an armed attack on the 9/11 anniversary that left a U.S. consulate a smoking ruin and killed four diplomatic staff, including the first American ambassador to be murdered in a third of a century. To discuss this event is apparently to “politicize” it and to distract from the real issues the American people are concerned about. For example, Obama spokesperson Jen Psaki, speaking on board Air Force One on Thursday:

“There’s only one candidate in this race who is going to continue to fight for Big Bird and Elmo, and he is riding on this plane.”

Mark Steyn’s latest:

http://www.ocregister.com/opinion/obama-374398-four-security.html

C.L.

13 Oct 12 at 12:03 pm
OK. One more snippet:

She’s right! The United States is the first nation in history whose democracy has evolved to the point where its leader is provided with a wide-body transatlantic jet in order to campaign on the vital issue of public funding for sock puppets. Sure, Caligula put his horse in the Senate, but it was a real horse. At Ohio State University, the rapper will.i.am introduced the President by playing the Sesame Street theme tune, which, oddly enough, seems more apt presidential walk-on music for the Obama era than “Hail To The Chief.”

C.L.

13 Oct 12 at 12:04 pm
Maru the cat gets more than 2.7 million views on another video.

Gillard has a long way to go to beat a cat.

Gab

13 Oct 12 at 12:06 pm
Media Watch Dog is a cracker this week.

dover_beach

13 Oct 12 at 12:08 pm
Gillard has a long way to go to beat a cat.

Memo McTernan: Buy the shrieking harpy a cat; stage photo-ops.

sdog

13 Oct 12 at 12:09 pm
Steyn’s colum a must read.

C.L.

13 Oct 12 at 12:09 pm
n

C.L.

13 Oct 12 at 12:09 pm
Bishop strikes:

Bishop demands PM apologise.

Australia’s most senior female Liberal has accused Julia Gillard of using her gender as a shield against criticism and demanded the Prime Minister apologise “to the women in Tony Abbott’s life who love him”…

“Apparently Julia Gillard’s ‘angry speech’ went viral. Would women around the world be applauding if they knew her speech was in defense of the indefensible? That she was defending a man who had made infinitely worse remarks… than anything she could drag up against Tony Abbott?”

“(Her attack against the opposition leader) was a vile slur. She should apologize to the women in Tony Abbott’s life who love him, and she should withdraw it.”

But if Gillard won’t apologise a slush fund, for the Christmas Island disaster or for organising a race riot, there’s not much chance she’ll do the decent thing on this.

C.L.

13 Oct 12 at 12:15 pm
Buy the shrieking harpy a cat; stage photo-ops.

She has a dog but I hear he doesn’t like her much either.

Gab

13 Oct 12 at 12:16 pm
Hamish McSporran has already reduced parliament to a Punch and Judy show in an attempt to get Judy re-elected.

I don’t think he should be encouraged any further.

H B Bear

13 Oct 12 at 12:21 pm
Labor frontbenchers Bill Shorten and Tanya Plibersek follow the Twitter account of the CFMEU-commissioned comedian who told the truly foul “joke” about Tony Abbott’s female chief of staff at a union dinner they attended this week.

As you see at the link, the comedian has sent several abusive and vile sexist tweets against women. These tweets would have been sent on to Shorten and Plibersek.

So did these ministers tell the CFMEU not to have their comedian perform for their dinner? How can the CFMEU now claim it had no idea he’d be that gross?

What the tweets reveal is that sexist abuse of (conservative) women is actually part of this comedian’s act, and sponsored by the union.

Gab

13 Oct 12 at 12:26 pm
Gab

You sexist pig.

I resemble that remark.
But what ever the male equivalent of ” feminist ” is, I’m not that.

jumpnmcar

13 Oct 12 at 12:37 pm
“What the tweets reveal is that sexist abuse of (conservative) women is actually part of this comedian’s act, and sponsored by the union. ”

that’s why he gets the gig, he delivers what the audience wants.

candy

13 Oct 12 at 12:39 pm
Heh.

The NY Daily News:

” Fashion editor Kate Waterhouse found out the hard way when her interview with the red-hot “Mad Men” actress for Sydney’s Sun-Herald recently went awry.

[Christina] Hendricks, 37, repeatedly refused to answer a question in which Waterhouse referred to her as a “full-figured woman.”

“You have been an inspiration as a full-figured woman. What is the most inspiring story that you can remember where you’ve inspired someone?” Waterhouse asked the actress.”

Who subsequently walked out. What an inspiration.

RWDB.

Gab

13 Oct 12 at 12:50 pm
I resemble that remark.

No you don’t.

Gab

13 Oct 12 at 12:52 pm
She has a dog but I hear he doesn’t like her much either.

Kevin’s dog hated him, too. Remember when he tried to stage a photo op and the dog ran in the opposite direction?

Perspicacity! The average dog is a better judge of character than the average human. I will not trust a man – or a woman – whom a dog doesn’t trust. Ever.

sdog

13 Oct 12 at 12:55 pm
Hedley Thomas reports:

A SENSITIVE file at the heart of a union fraud scandal that caused top partners in the legal firm of Slater & Gordon to lose trust and confidence in their colleague, Julia Gillard, is the subject of a new tug-of-war over whether its contents can ever be disclosed — if they can even be found.

The file’s documents would relate to the legal advice, notes and correspondence produced by Ms Gillard in her role, as a solicitor at the firm, in the 1992 establishment of the controversial Australian Workers Union Workplace Reform Association.
…
The Weekend Australian can reveal that Mr Blewitt, who was Ms Gillard’s client at the time and the person authorised to apply to incorporate the association in Western Australia, has been unable to inspect or obtain the file from Slater & Gordon. The firm has released to Mr Blewitt a separate file for the conveyancing in the Fitzroy property purchase.

Mr Blewitt’s lawyers have made several requests to the firm seeking the controversial file. Slater & Gordon has asked one of Australia’s most prestigious law firms, Arnold Bloch Leibler, to manage the matter.

That firm’s senior partner, Leon Zwier, said last month: “Our client can only provide documents which are the property of Mr Blewett (sic). It is not sufficient to claim that any documents we hold concerning (the association) belong to your client simply because he was at some point an office holder of the association.”

But last night Slater & Gordon head Andrew Grech told The Weekend Australian: “We have undertaken a thorough search through our archives and failed to locate a ‘file’ in relation to the AWU Workplace Reform Association. In the event that Mr Blewitt or his lawyers are able to provide us with information which enables us to establish that there are in fact such a file or documentary records to which he is entitled, we will of course, use our best endeavours to assist him in obtaining those documents from third parties, if they exist . . . Any suggestion that we are withholding information from former clients to protect the Office of the Prime Minister is both highly defamatory and demonstrably wrong.” He said the firm had provided what information and documents it could “directly to the former clients who have requested it and we will continue to do so”.

Mr Blewitt has told The Australian he was involved in fraud and now wants immunity from prosecution before he talks to the authorities. However, Mr Wilson has declined to discuss the matters and is understood to be concerned about being prosecuted.

A retired Melbourne lawyer and union historian who is helping Mr Blewitt piece together the history, Harry Nowicki, said yesterday that as the slush fund was used to perpetrate allegedly criminal conduct, “the legal file underpinning it is important evidence and must be produced”.

“This file is very important to establish the purpose and bona fides of the association and whether it was legitimate about workplace reform,” he said.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/tussle-over-mystery-file-on-awu-slush-fund/story-fn59niix-1226494765899

Gab

13 Oct 12 at 12:57 pm
Mr Blewitt’s lawyers have made several requests to the firm seeking the controversial file. Slater & Gordon has asked one of Australia’s most prestigious law firms, Arnold Bloch Leibler, to manage the matter.

That firm’s senior partner, Leon Zwier, said last month: “Our client can only provide documents which are the property of Mr Blewett (sic). It is not sufficient to claim that any documents we hold concerning (the association) belong to your client simply because he was at some point an office holder of the association.”

But last night Slater & Gordon head Andrew Grech told The Weekend Australian: “We have undertaken a thorough search through our archives and failed to locate a ‘file’ in relation to the AWU Workplace Reform Association.

Gab

13 Oct 12 at 12:59 pm
“Prime Minister, at the time you were handed Ralph Blewitt’s pre-signed power of attorney, your lover Wilson was a married man with children and in the process of leaving his family in order to take up residence in Melbourne, where for several years he shared his life with you. Would it be fair to say that one obvious advantage of listing Blewitt as Kerr Street’s buyer of record was that it shielded Wilson’s wealth from his soon-to-be ex-wife and her divorce lawyers?”

BOOM.

sdog

13 Oct 12 at 1:03 pm
Gillard must be sunk on this by now.

The (un)witnessed PoA must surely be enough if none of the other stuff sticks.

I’m glad I convinced my bro to put a few bucks on Crean as the leader coming into the next election – 17-1 – nice return.

DaveF

13 Oct 12 at 1:03 pm
From the Yes, Really department:

Obama supporters organising “Million Muppet March.”

http://pjmedia.com/instapundit/153845/

C.L.

13 Oct 12 at 1:09 pm
Perspicacity! The average dog is a better judge of character than the average human. I will not trust a man – or a woman – whom a dog doesn’t trust. Ever.

There could be some wisdom in that. ….

During play, dogs are capable of deliberately trying to deceive other dogs and people in order to get rewards, said Coren. “And they are nearly as successful in deceiving humans as humans are in deceiving dogs.”

Dead Soul

13 Oct 12 at 1:10 pm
“We have undertaken a thorough search through our archives and failed to locate a ‘file’ in relation to the AWU Workplace Reform Association…”

LOL.

C.L.

13 Oct 12 at 1:13 pm
My reasoning is that if Gillard is forced out Rudd won’t have the numbers. The factions will get together and find a fall guy for the election and save their ‘talent’ to be the new leader after the drubbing.

Crean fits the bill. He’s an adult among children, the public are familiar with him and sort of like him and he’s 65 next year so thinking about retiring anyway I reckon. He’s also a loyal party man who apparently keeps his word (well stays bought) so will agree to move on after the apocalyptic polling day.

Then they’ll scratch around and promote a young bloke as ALP women are saved up for collapsing governments, not rebuilding the party.

Thats my thinking anyway.

DaveF

13 Oct 12 at 1:16 pm
Maru the cat gets close to 2 million views – for just one video.

If you add up all the views of the Julie Bishop death stare videos, she easily out-scores the red dalek.

Keith

13 Oct 12 at 1:20 pm
Then they’ll scratch around and promote a young bloke as ALP women are saved up for collapsing governments, not rebuilding the party.

Those Emilys Listers are pretty useful to have around at that time.

H B Bear

13 Oct 12 at 1:30 pm
I clicked through to the Twitter comments made by union commedian Allan Billison after Bolta mentioned how many senior Labor men and women have been ‘followers’ of his in this medium for some time, obviously finding his many completely sexist comments extremely amusing. Like Queen Victoria however, I am not amused.

Below is a sample, and I offer it with reluctance because I consider it completely vile, but I think a wider audience having knowledge of this is important given the current ‘sexism’ tag Labor is trying to pin on Tony Abbott:

Allan Billison (in mock mode of corporate mining capitalist): “Uh oh … Gina’s watching her DVD of Tony in his Speedos. I’ll be taking a blue pill in half an hour. Actually she’s nude – I better take two.”

This is in the public domain.

I believe that Viagra is a well-known ‘blue pill’.

I do wonder if this Allan may be the Troll who was barred by Sinc from Catallaxy for suggesting I should be ‘gang-banged’. The mind is certainly in the same sexist gutter, a gutter mind that apparently is also offensively suggesting that the very capable Peta Credlin ‘slept’ her way to the top.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

13 Oct 12 at 1:42 pm
I don’t know if it’s just me, and it’s a word I think is over-used, but I find politics, at the moment, surreal.

dover_beach

13 Oct 12 at 1:47 pm
Come come, Dover.

What’s surreal about a President responding to the murder of an ambassador by campaigning for Big Bird and an anti-misogyny war being waged by a government that wanted Peter Slipper as Speaker and a prime minister who said Craig Thomson does a “very very good job”?

C.L.

13 Oct 12 at 1:51 pm
While his management company has proffered an apology to Ms Credlin and Mr Abbott, the comedian himself apparently has not done so. This Allan Billison is apparently a protege of one of the Chaser team.

Cold-Hands

13 Oct 12 at 1:52 pm
I don’t know if it’s just me, and it’s a word I think is over-used, but I find politics, at the moment, surreal.

It is over-used. Personal gripe. ‘Surreal’ has until now referred to something being dream-like, but now it just it’s just a way to say “amazing”.

dd

13 Oct 12 at 1:56 pm
your lover Wilson was a married man with children and in the process of leaving his family in order to take up residence in Melbourne, where for several years he shared his life with you

I believe Craig Emmerson also left his wife to spend more time with the Liar.

Has any other PM been directly involved in more family breakups than this PM?

Johno

13 Oct 12 at 1:57 pm
While his management company has proffered an apology to Ms Credlin and Mr Abbott, the comedian himself apparently has not done so.

What’s the management company apologised for, exactly? Nobody will say. It’s an unspecified apology for (*mumble mumble*).

I can understand there being a code of honor among the press to ‘not go there’ when it comes to personal attacks and private life, but this joke is officially a news story. It’s just ridiculous that all these journalists, who know what the joke is, can keep filing stories about it without saying what it is.

dd

13 Oct 12 at 2:00 pm
Anyone other than Rudd harboring a lust to be PM should move against Gillard in time to allow them,if successful,to occupy the position for a full 12 months.They then would qualify for all the additional perks,travel,office,lackeys and car that become available.Not much use knocking her off,say 6 months before the election,only to endure the ignominy of being the leader at the time of the ALP armageddon without the sweeteners.

Lew

13 Oct 12 at 2:02 pm
When you put it that way, CL, may be it’s just the fact that I’m not a native of Chicago or the Labor movement.

dover_beach

13 Oct 12 at 2:04 pm
Completely agree with Dover beach- politics has become nakedly media driven and so appears very disturbed.
JG is surely rattled by the waves of disclosure re the AWU scandals and alarmingly negative reviews of her actions by ex/colleagues.
The fracturing of the traditional support base of the ALP has left a group in charge who are only process driven- much to our collective detriment.But they see no logic in debates or policies for they are just tools to be employed as needed. Like the minority groups they support until not needed and use to maintain power.

murph the surf

13 Oct 12 at 2:05 pm
Woah – easy there Johno! I think you’ll find that is a

…. vulgar reference to my personal life…

I’ve already apologised at 9.45 this morning. I didn’t leave the room though.

H B Bear

13 Oct 12 at 2:08 pm
Lew – 12 months is it?

Well the election must be about this time next year, early November I think, so time to sharpen the knives.

DaveF

13 Oct 12 at 2:26 pm
Unfortunately Lew, they’re all hopelessly compromised by this stage. Not only would they need to oust Gillard, but Rudd (who thinks the position is his by right) would also start leaking against them. They really are stuck with Gillard. How else to explain the total party support of the mock triumphal feminazi speech and the willingness to participate in the disastrous support of Slipper. Surely some of them had doubts about the tactic – but apparently nobody even questioned it in caucus.

Keith

13 Oct 12 at 2:31 pm
I can understand there being a code of honor among the press to ‘not go there’ when it comes to personal attacks and private life, but this joke is officially a news story.

Its the Barbara Ramjan/Australia Day riot code.

Token

13 Oct 12 at 2:47 pm
What’s surreal about a President responding to the murder of an ambassador by campaigning for Big Bird and an anti-misogyny war being waged by a government that wanted Peter Slipper as Speaker and a prime minister who said Craig Thomson does a “very very good job”?

There will be a number of good books written to explain what we are living through to future generations. You couldn’t make this stuff up!

Token

13 Oct 12 at 2:49 pm
Unfortunately Lew, they’re all hopelessly compromised by this stage.

That vote to endorse Slipper’s vile texts really does seem like a trap that cults are supposed to do to trap their members in a common crime.

Token

13 Oct 12 at 2:51 pm
Is Victoria & WA checking to see how many more ~~trust~~ slush funds have been set up for trade unions in violation with this act?

The newly confirmed correspondence contradicts claims by Ms Gillard that she did no more than provide limited professional advice about establishing the association at the centre of the corruption scandal involving her former boyfriend, Bruce Wilson, a senior AWU official.

Slater & Gordon is now being accused of resisting pressure to open its file on the incorporation of the association. The file is believed to contain a copy of the letter Ms Gillard sent to the Corporate Affairs Commission affirming the association would be devoted to workplace safety.

Token

13 Oct 12 at 2:57 pm
Token,
Even in a flock of sheep, there are usually a few that are uncooperative, and a few that continually test the fences. Caucus shows no signs of this, it’s total capitulation and a mute acceptance of their electoral fate.

Keith

13 Oct 12 at 2:58 pm
That vote to endorse Slipper’s vile texts really does seem like a trap that cults are supposed to do to trap their members in a common crime.

Beautiful and so, so true.

DaveF

13 Oct 12 at 3:00 pm
LOL

Members of cabinet must be wondering if they were wise in appointing judicial activists to the High Court in light of the court’s two landmark decisions on asylum-seekers’ rights.

I know we are stuck with this activist High Court for now, but it is good to see it reported that the activists are burning the people who put them into place.

Token

13 Oct 12 at 3:02 pm
Caucus shows no signs of this, it’s total capitulation and a mute acceptance of their electoral fate.

Sad but true Keith.

I can’t wait to read Darryl Melham’s biography as once he’s free of politics I’m sure he’ll have a few good stories.

Token

13 Oct 12 at 3:04 pm
When you put it that way, CL, may be it’s just the fact that I’m not a native of Chicago or the Labor movement.

I suggest you watch Boss.

Tom Kane may not have campaigned for Grover but he did imprison his daughter to elicit public sympathy.

Infidel Tiger

13 Oct 12 at 3:07 pm
I have been thinking about all of this sexism stuff and don’t want to seem like a prude who can’t take a joke, especially given that I found the Pickering cartoons of Gillard quite funny, even if a bit ‘out there’. However, Pickering’s cartoons were firstly, about a politician not a private person, and secondly, they used a crude image to create a metaphor about that politician’s policies and their effects, whereas Allan’s jokes are just gratuitous sleaze against the personal lives of private individuals, similar to Troll Allan’s deeply personal jibe at me. I do think there is an important difference here. Sinc, btw, was kind enough to personally email me about Troll Allan’s comment and apologise that I should have been subject to such a thing on the Cat, which I appreciated as a signal of the general decency of the site.

Mostly I am ‘live and let live’ on jokes and insults, but would point out that it is Labor who have raised the stakes on all of this with their ‘holier than thou’ sexism claims against non-supporters in general and Abbott in particular.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

13 Oct 12 at 3:22 pm
Somebody linked to a suit of cards and assigned a weighting based upon race, gender, sexuality, etc.

I’d like to check where Angela McCaskill ranks v a gay activist.

The New Blacklist

Angela McCaskill was the first African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., a school for the deaf and hard of hearing. She has now worked at Gallaudet for over 20 years, and in January 2011 she was named its chief diversity officer. Last year, she helped open a resource center for sexual minorities on campus. But she has now been placed on leave because of pressure from some students and faculty. Her job is on the line.

McCaskill’s sin? She was one of 200,000 people to sign a petition demanding a referendum on a law recognizing gay marriage, which was signed by Maryland’s Democratic governor, Martin O’Malley, in March. The referendum will be on the ballot next month, and the vote is expected to be close.

Token

13 Oct 12 at 3:31 pm
Sorry to hear the Troll Allan’s vicious statements hurt you Lizzie.

Token

13 Oct 12 at 3:32 pm
…but would point out that it is Labor who have raised the stakes on all of this with their ‘holier than thou’ sexism claims

#4 in Alinsky’s ‘Rules for Radicals’ –
Make the enemy live up to their own book of rules.

If they’re going to demand ultra-high standards of “civility”, a “new tone”, what have you; if they’re declaring that that’s the new rule, make them live up to it.

Too often we conservatives have sat back and let Lefties get away with declaring all these new “rules” which apparently apply only to us… But when it comes to their own behavior and standards?

“It’s different when we do it, because shut up.”

No more.

#WAR

sdog

13 Oct 12 at 3:51 pm
The Left are totalitarian thugs.

So the first black American woman Gallaudet graduate and for 20+ years in its employ presently as chief diversity officer(and college students wonder why college fees are so high) has the cheek to believe marriage should be between one man and one woman.

Straight to re-education camp where she can shamefully learn the error of her ways.

Gallaudet’s chief diversity officer was way way too diversified!

JamesK

13 Oct 12 at 3:54 pm
Thanks Token, they were not nice comments, but I am unscarred. Still enjoying life at the Cat whenever I can manage to drop in.

Like Dover, I am finding the current political situation genuinely surreal.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

13 Oct 12 at 3:57 pm
IT – I’m kind of giving up on Boss.

The last 2 eps in Series 2 have been kind of cruel for cruelty sake. The drug dealer guy looking in the window of ep I considered too rugged.

DaveF

13 Oct 12 at 3:59 pm
IT – I’m kind of giving up on Boss.

I only watched 2 eps… bit too gritty for me. I might try watching again, but you have to be in the right headspace to enjoy those sorts of shows, and I’m not at the moment.

Fleeced

13 Oct 12 at 4:21 pm
…looking in the window at the end of ep8….

DaveF

13 Oct 12 at 4:25 pm
I only watched 2 eps… bit too gritty for me.

I found the 1st series good but yes very gritty. The 2nd one goes off the rails for a bit but later it gets very harsh.

DaveF

13 Oct 12 at 4:30 pm
[From today's Aged. I have no idea who Anson Cameron is, nor do I usually read the Aged. This is interesting though, because it's in the luvvies' paper of note. Shall we open a book on how long before the cries of "Waaaaaaycist!" begin?]

Behind the veil Anson Cameron

How the burqa is wiping the smiles off our faces.

I was sitting in a bayside park in Melbourne on a sunny spring day recently, silently manufacturing vitamin D and dialogue, when a woman in a black burqa walked past me pussing a pram. Astride her nose, a pair of sunglasses fronted a grilled eye-slit. I could see not one atom of her. A wholly invisible person.

I must have been staring rudely, maybe my mouth was hanging open, because she said “Hello” to me in a bright voice that told me she was a young Australian woman. I would have preferred she was some backwoods Egyptian who had never seen a schoolroom, nor opened a book. It would have made her garb more palatable.

I snapped out of my astonishment and said “Hello” and smiled as she pushed her child onwards. But I watched her go with a creeping feeling that I’d just suffered an injustice. There were only two of us in the park. At the moment we met, I was the only male in her world.

So, as I understand it, her face was covered to prevent an eruption of lustful thought in me. It was disquieting to realise she was hiding her face on the assumption that I couldn’t be trusted.

I wondered if she wore the burqa by choice, or was coerced. She would say by choice, I’m sure. Who wouldn’t? So I’ll go ahead and assume it was she who thought the covering necessary protection against my prying eyes.

I hope it gives her comfort to think of herself as an extraordinary jewel that warrants a portable sanctuary. To believe her allure is as potent as Helen of Troy’s, and that her face might launch a thousand lusts and must therefore be covered. That in the park her beauty is too great, and my lust too fervent, for a simple act of trust, a face-to-face greeting.

But in covering her face, she made me an accomplice in an act that hadn’t happened. Accompanying her presumption that her face would unleash evil thoughts in me is the insulting presumption I am some sort of incorrigible fiend.

The face is an orchestra and the mouth its virtuoso soloist. A smile speaks a language older than any other and makes you marvel at the world playing out in the mind behind. One answers a smile with a smile. A smile is a gift I granted the woman in the park. A gift she could not grant me. How sad for her. For both of us. Or, perhaps, behind the veil, she did smile. If so, that smile was a poet shut away in a tower.

And the eyes, it is said, are windows on the mind. I was taught as a child to look people in the eye when talking to them, because the locking of a gaze was not only a path along which honesty flowed, it was an affirmation of equality.

Both these possibilities were negated. I might have found her interesting, beautiful, dignified. I might have been momentarily uplifted by her smile. Instead, I found her faceless. She would say her facelessness was self-effacing. I would call it a sly pride. You hide your face because of its power.

And if, park lady, juggling motherhood, belief and career, you become a famous scientist and an artist wants to paint you for posterity, would you have that artist paint you with or without your burqa? Is posterity also a lustful brute? Alas, woman is born free, and is everywhere in burqas.

I’m saddened a woman has chosen to walk through a park with her head in a sack because of my perceived wickedness. A little angry, too. For it seems she has judged me without meeting me. Perhaps upon meeting me she would have put her head in a sack anyway. But I would have liked the benefit of the doubt. I was always told it was right to give people that.

Islam asks not to be judged by the acts of vile extremists. So it seems a little hypocritical to meet a woman in a park in Melbourne who has her head bagged just on spec that, as a man, I am a foul-minded hound.

It feels like I have been judged and found guilty because of my sex. And because I consider it my right to look into (into, not onto) the face of a fellow citizen as they look into mine, it feels like discrimination, too.

nilk

13 Oct 12 at 4:31 pm
That’s very special of Anson to realise. How long did he take to glean that insight? Or, to put it crudely, no sh*t, Sherlock.

Gab

13 Oct 12 at 4:36 pm
From The Age website:

The Sun-Herald’s Ed Gibbs spoke with Benicio Del Toro about his latest movie, Savages and who will win the American election.

This is what’s wrong with Fairfax. Who could possibly care less what Benicio Del Toro thinks about the US election? He is a line-repeater, fufuxake. Of course he wants Obama to win. Of course it’s for the most shallow and vapid reasons – Obama is a lefty, therefore he cares. It’s one celebrity giving a shout-out to another celebrity. It’s one impossibly rich bubble-dweller endorsing another impossibly rich bubble-dweller. In any case WHO GIVES A FAT RAT’S!

James in Melbourne

13 Oct 12 at 4:36 pm
JiM

fufuxake

lol. Love it.

This should cheer you up.

Rudiau

13 Oct 12 at 4:54 pm
Gab, thanks for that panel video link. I found it amazing Dee Madigan could bare-facedly declare thatbshe didn’t find Slipper’s mussels in a jar messgaes offensive. Just imagine what her view would be if Abbott had sent those SMS messages. What a bunch of opportunistic weasels….

Abu Chowdah

13 Oct 12 at 5:01 pm
Nilk, Anson Cameron is a talented creative writer, but totally in the thrall of the left, which means he has an open door at Fairfax. He has challenged the muslim-friendly zombie narrative and must now be silenced. So there will be a stream of rebuttals and disavowels of his heresy bordering on fatwas by the fascist left and muslims in the next week. Watch.

Tom

13 Oct 12 at 5:02 pm
So there will be a stream of rebuttals and disavowels of his heresy bordering on fatwas by the fascist left and muslims in the next week. Watch.

Yawn.

Same as it ever was.

BTW, what ever happened to this heretic?

Rabz

13 Oct 12 at 5:15 pm
Thanks for that Nilk. Very interesting example of cognitive dissonance dissolving into deserved disrespect for the ol’ axiomatic statement about not treating all moslems the same!

blogstrop

13 Oct 12 at 5:22 pm
Abu, did you see some of the face shots of Dee Madigan while Kelly O’Dwyer was talking? They were amazing.

dover_beach

13 Oct 12 at 5:28 pm
After listening to this discussion between James Dellingpole & Christopher Horner I have a better understanding of who James “it puts the lotion on the skin” Messina is all about.

We talk about FOI – an invention of the statist left which has backfired horribly because it’s now being used by the libertarian right to expose ugly truths the political class would rather keep hidden from us. We also talk about how much of the climate change scam can be traced back to Horner’s former employer Enron. Horner has the dirt. He was there. Oh – and Lord “Beyond Petroleum” Browne – doesn’t emerge from this story exactly smelling of violets either…

This is the guy who was reporting on Enron for years before the whole house crashed in the early 2000′s.

A very interesting discussion where he notes a WaPo reporter was not interested in pushing the story as it may undermine the AGW story if it was known BP & Enron were directly lobbying the president to back the Koyoto Protocol.

Token

13 Oct 12 at 5:29 pm
Thanks for that Nilk. Very interesting example of cognitive dissonance…

What struck me is how he is writing about how he was blind to the verbal clues which would tell him what was the appropriate way to respond to the women.

His confusion is natural considering all the usual signals had been removed, similar to the way clowns and other actors create situations which confront and confuse our natural senses.

The stupid left turd thought he was being rude.

I must have been staring rudely, maybe my mouth was hanging open, because she said “Hello” to me in a bright voice that told me she was a young Australian woman.

Token

13 Oct 12 at 5:33 pm
For Token: Victimhood Poker.

I suspect that the gay activist wins.

nilk

13 Oct 12 at 5:46 pm
So, as I understand it, her face was covered to prevent an eruption of lustful thought in me. It was disquieting to realise she was hiding her face on the assumption that I couldn’t be trusted.

This is one of the key paragraphs here. Since he is not ‘mahram’ to her – like her husband, or brother or other male guardian, or else another female – then he absolutely can’t be trusted.

These coverings are an insult to both men and women because of the assumption that women are temptresses who shamelessly try to ensnare men who are as rutting animals.

I find them quite offensive for the same reasons that Cameron does, but because I’m quite the avowed anti-jihadi already I’m a racist and just shut up.

I wonder if he realises that as a kuffar he’s actually filth on the same level as fecal matter, carrion and dogs? He doesn’t have the right to view one of the Best People and so should just suck it up.

nilk

13 Oct 12 at 5:53 pm
For Token: Victimhood Poker.

I suspect that the gay activist wins.

That had me LOLing. Ta for that.

DaveF

13 Oct 12 at 6:03 pm
I wonder if he realises that as a kuffar he’s actually filth on the same level as fecal matter, carrion and dogs?

Being braindead hinders the realisation skills.

Rabz

13 Oct 12 at 6:06 pm
Sydney FC getting crunched.

Disgraceful.

Rabz

13 Oct 12 at 6:10 pm
Having spent a week attacking the messenger (Abbott), attention will now return to The Monthly Crisis schedule designed by the government to ensure there is no chance that it can ever be accused of competence.

While everyone has been distracted, we didn’t notice that the Nauru Solution, which Labor was dragged back to screaming, is now a complete disaster because it was sabotaged by lack of TPVs, etc:

A MASSIVE backlog of asylum-seekers has built up inside detention centres because processing has stopped since the Pacific Solution was reinstated and almost none of the new arrivals have been transferred to Nauru or Papua New Guinea, which are not yet ready to receive them.

The people smugglers are laughing and the boats keep coming.

Tom

13 Oct 12 at 6:20 pm
Potemkins’s Village

I apologise for my extended absence but these Taliban won’t kill themselves…

BOOOM!

Hold up a minute, yes they do.
——————————————–
Now back to the Village

Sorry Joolya but a pair of ovaries is not enough to qualify… here

Grigory Potemkin

13 Oct 12 at 6:23 pm
Never mind, Grigory, you’re back safe and sound.

Gab

13 Oct 12 at 6:26 pm
Thank you for your kindness, Gab

Grigory Potemkin

13 Oct 12 at 6:33 pm
Being braindead hinders the realisation skills.

Good point, Rabz. Will be interesting to see how he feels about being on the receiving end of the PC hounds.

nilk

13 Oct 12 at 6:33 pm
Is it that time already? The date of the next annual general meeting of publicly listed Slater and Gordon looms and Bunyip plans to be there to ask some questions.

Tom

13 Oct 12 at 6:34 pm
but these Taliban won’t kill themselves…

BOOOM!

Hold up a minute, yes they do.

Hehehe. I recognise that humour. It’s the same type as the ambos use.

Gab

13 Oct 12 at 6:37 pm
Paul Kelly writes: Misogyny tactic will backfire.
I can almost see the tear stains on the original draft.

The answer is that the misogynist card is just another tactic. Gillard’s support for Slipper and condemnation of Abbott proves the point. The joke here is on the social media activists who think the political reporters missed the story. They’re wrong. The reporters got it right because the real story is that Labor exploits misogyny as a tactic for its own self-interest. The real story was Gillard’s hypocrisy. It was on brilliant display.

Keith

13 Oct 12 at 6:53 pm
So according to the Thought of Dee Madigan, the attempted murder of a teenage girl by the Taliban is one kind of misogyny. And referring to Julia Gillard on any occasion as “she” is another kind of misogyny. Really.

Dee Madigan has form. She opined on Sky News Contarians that the Islamist riot in Sydney had nothing to do with culture and everything to do with high spirited young men.

Viva

13 Oct 12 at 7:11 pm
The people smugglers are laughing and the boats keep coming.

Not one Muslim has been sent to Nauru. Not one person has been sent to Manus.

How come the Howard goverment could send over 400 asylum shoppers to Nauru withing two weeks and the current bunch of clowns holding office have only sent 150 Sri Lankans to Nauru in over six weeks?

Before their election, I could not believe that anyone could be this incompetent. Seriously.

jupes

13 Oct 12 at 7:12 pm
As I previously forecast, labor is sabotaging the Pacific Solution. The were made to do it and they’ve responded like a truculent child.

Keith

13 Oct 12 at 7:15 pm
They were

Keith

13 Oct 12 at 7:16 pm
For Paul Kelly, La Tingle, Jabba, Mrs Magoo, Le Snore – every stuff up sees the emergence of the Real Julia ready to take up the challenge of leading Labor to the next election… until the following week when it is replaced by something else. So many false dawns.

Gradually, one by one, after five and a half years of KRudd and Gillard incompetence they are giving up the charade.

H B Bear

13 Oct 12 at 7:27 pm
Hey James, you around? Need to ask you a question.

JC

13 Oct 12 at 7:35 pm
This last one was OK.

wreckage

13 Oct 12 at 7:48 pm
Been wondering where the hell you had got to.

You been playing in the rockpile?

Mk50 of Brisbane

13 Oct 12 at 7:50 pm
Rowan Dean in the AFR.

Wonderful little variant on AbbottAbbottAbbott.

Driftforge

13 Oct 12 at 8:03 pm
Anyone else notice a new rash of trolls here? They’re barely coherent and as for the spelling, just atrocious.

Gab

13 Oct 12 at 8:04 pm
Good to see you back Gregory.

Token

13 Oct 12 at 8:17 pm
Rowan Dean in the AFR.

In a Fairfax paper, no less.

Fleeced

13 Oct 12 at 8:23 pm
Welcome back, Grigory.

dover_beach

13 Oct 12 at 8:40 pm
Sorry Joolya but a pair of ovaries is not enough to qualify…

Seriously? You put Helen Clarke in that montage? On the same page as Thatcher? Seriously?

The Hunted Mind

13 Oct 12 at 8:43 pm
Oh, Hulun Clurk was a nasty and odious git. Formidable politician and almost entirely driven by hate and spite. One had to admire the depth of her hatred and bile.

The reason she got rid of the RNZAF’s fast movers, for example, was because she was humped and dumped by a RNZAF fast mover pilot when she was but a young and naive socialist tart.

Hulun’s obviously not in Indira’s league, but bloody hell, we were warned. She was a Kiwi Juliar FFS, only a capable politician (whereas Juliar is incompetent in everything she does, except maybe in Tim-pegging….)

And no-one here took Juliar out the back and beat her senseless with a tyre-iron every time she opened her pie-hole, did they?

Mk50 of Brisbane

13 Oct 12 at 8:58 pm
Did Clark moan and complain that all criticisms of her were due to her being a female? Did she accuse her male opponents of being sexist?

Gab

13 Oct 12 at 9:00 pm
She has really bad teeth

Tal

13 Oct 12 at 9:06 pm
Mark, after The Bird all these trolls are half baked

Tal

13 Oct 12 at 9:10 pm
Lizzie B
Look up Blue Pill Red Pill.

kae

13 Oct 12 at 9:20 pm
Did you go to the game Rabz?

Lazlo

13 Oct 12 at 9:29 pm
Anson Cameron.

Well, that’s only a man’s point of view.

I’ve seen niqab’d women on campus and I’ve felt that they look at me, old and dressed in the western fashion, as a loose woman because I don’t cover up. I am offended that they feel they have to wear the sack and be hidden away because western, no make that Australian, men can’t be trusted to not attack them because of their uncontrollable lust, and to show their own that they are not women of loose morals.

That’s what they’re taught, why they’re so happy to wear their fredom sacks.

But they’re not free.

kae

13 Oct 12 at 9:37 pm
Oh, Hulun Clurk was a nasty and odious git. Formidable politician and almost entirely driven by hate and spite. One had to admire the depth of her hatred and bile.

Exactly! She should be on another montage. Epic feminine failure on the world stage. Just her and Gillard. Maybe Rudd too.

The Hunted Mind

13 Oct 12 at 9:39 pm
You ignorant slut Kae

Tal

13 Oct 12 at 9:41 pm
The Prof has a nice take on the Power of Attorney that the slapper forged for Wilson.

It meant that his ill gotten gains could be hidden from divorce proceedings, instigated by Wilson’s affair with… the slapper.

Lazlo

13 Oct 12 at 9:47 pm
Jupes, you’d have more credibility if you learn to spell.

Potemkin your cartoons are crap. Fuck off.

SINC

Lobotmised Leichhardt Lezzo stormfr@nt is back.

Rabz

13 Oct 12 at 9:50 pm
Lobotomised Leichhardt Lezzo stormfr@nt is back.

Rabz

13 Oct 12 at 9:51 pm
The Prof has a nice take on the Power of Attorney that the slapper forged for Wilson.

Context is everything. True or not, it ‘clicks’ everything into place.

Motive.

Driftforge

13 Oct 12 at 10:29 pm
Lizzie B
Look up Blue Pill Red Pill.

Yep, I have heard of this pop-culture usage Kae, in fact JamesK in a slightly late-night moment on the Cat a while back did use this very dyad in a little goodnight reverie to me, which made me smile before bedtime.

It is clear though that Union Comedian Allan had no such refinement in his pharmacology. He was being much more crude. His focus was not on a state of mind. His intended reference was to a state of male anatomical arousal greatly assisted in older gentlemen (so I am told) by Viagra, the ‘little blue pill’ of male porn stars seeking ‘wood’ with which to earn their keep. The ‘joke’ was supposed to be that the female partner (in this case Ms. Reinhart) was so lacking in allure that a double dose would be required. This is grubby smirking toilet humour.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

13 Oct 12 at 10:33 pm
Anyone able to help me? The cat comes up on firefox but when I come in via explorer I keep getting a page saying Ozblogistan is broken?
I’v cleaned cookies but the cat won’t come up?

Splatacrobat

13 Oct 12 at 10:44 pm
Cancel that, Explorer has now decided to work.

Splatacrobat

13 Oct 12 at 10:46 pm
So we have openly sexist and misogynystic comments being made about Gina, on the ABC, with approval of the left.

We have a strong outback aboriginal community leader, Bess Price, being scumbagged by a suburban left wing UTS academic, supported by a UTS journalism academic.

We have almost the whole cabinet sitting there chuckling about Peta Credlin fucking her way to the top.

And the Minister for the Status of Wimmin says nothing..

What filth.

Lazlo

13 Oct 12 at 11:06 pm
For all the hotties I’ve ever bleeped…

Rabz

13 Oct 12 at 11:08 pm
You’ve heard the best, now here’s the original…

Rabz

13 Oct 12 at 11:13 pm
What filth.

Good summary Lazlo. What do you expect from the ~~pro~~regressives?

Token

13 Oct 12 at 11:30 pm
WTF?

Gab

13 Oct 12 at 11:31 pm
Meniscus/Tears

Tarantula

Some of the most beautiful music you will ever hear…

Rabz

13 Oct 12 at 11:46 pm
That’d be ignorant kufar slut, Tal.

kae

13 Oct 12 at 11:56 pm
yeah a kinda odd photo Gab. I imagine it’s some Dad who lost a child in Bali 10 years ago.

Dunno if I’m going to knock it.

DaveF

14 Oct 12 at 12:14 am
Lady calls radio station for help getting the government to move deer crossing signs to lower traffic areas, for safety reasons.

Welp.

Why does this call to mind James Morrow’s anti drink-walking campaigner buddy?

I’m pretty sure there’s a similar pathology going on in each of their minds.

sdog

14 Oct 12 at 1:02 am
That drink walking guy has gotta be Harold Scruby’s (Pedestrian Council NSW) brother. A sorry ban at all costs statist.

BTW Scruby lives near me and last time i noticed he drives a huge SUV type thing, generally parked sticked out on the nature strip so we pedestrians have to hit tarmac to get around it. Hypocrites, all of them.

DaveF

14 Oct 12 at 1:13 am
Well given the different surnames brother in spirit anyway.

Looks like Obama messed with the wrong people when he lied repeatedly about the murder of the Ambassador in Benghazi and as it unravelled decided to blame Hillary. I thought everyone in the Dems knew you couldn’t cross the Clintons?

“Bill is working on a number of strategies about what Hillary ought to do. He’s even gone so far as to play with various doomsday scenarios including up to the idea that Hillary would consider resigning over the issue if the Obama team tries to use her as a scapegoat,” Klein told TheDC in an interview.

….

This bit made me laugh, I’d have figured that legal team would have been more experienced with *ahem* different types of damage control.

Klein said Bill Clinton’s informal legal team is made up of people he’s used in the past in legal situations. He asked them by phone to tell him how Hillary Clinton should handle this situation and what to do if she is subpoenaed to testify to the House Oversight Committee and provide them with memos regarding Benghazi.

DaveF

14 Oct 12 at 1:32 am
A group of real feminists put out powerful new ad regarding pro infanticide extremist, Barack Obama.

The ad.

C.L.

14 Oct 12 at 1:38 am
He asked them by phone to tell him how Hillary Clinton should handle this situation and what to do if she is subpoenaed to testify to the House Oversight Committee and provide them with memos regarding Benghazi.

She should ask them what their definition of “is”, is.

Fleeced

14 Oct 12 at 1:45 am
No CL I find that whole concept hard to stomach.

DaveF

14 Oct 12 at 1:48 am
The Benghazi thing has brewed for weeks but they kept digging themselves deeper.

It’s either Hill or The Chocolate Jesus taking the fall. After all it’s the coverup not the crime.

And maybe Hillary has the support.

DaveF

14 Oct 12 at 1:58 am
A group of real feminists put out powerful new ad regarding pro infanticide extremist, Barack Obama. The ad.

Excellent. Thanks for the link, CL

Grigory Potemkin

14 Oct 12 at 2:36 am
Thanks Token and dover_beach

Grigory Potemkin

14 Oct 12 at 2:55 am
Rabz @ 1146

Perhaps one of the most endearing vocalists alive today

Sissel of Norway and an example of one of her many songs available visually on the Ether.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOvTL6uZt3k

Mike of Marion

14 Oct 12 at 5:55 am
Bolt in today’s section

http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/rudd_comforts_slipper_who_one_day/

If it follows and the legal cost to Slipper leads to Bankruptcy, then Slipper cannot remain in Parliament

Mike of Marion

14 Oct 12 at 6:25 am
Slipper could’ve avoided those costs by acting with integrity & probity.

The cost wouldn’t exist if he didn’t harass his staff.

Slipper has be rotting public funds for years & living high off the hog (remember his wardrobe costs when he became speaker?)

it is obscene he is crying poor now.

Token

14 Oct 12 at 6:46 am
Gerard Henderson’s Media Watch Dog this week had a couple of goes at the ABC for using invited talking heads who they know they can rely on to say the right thing. This discolours their coverage of US politics all the time, but during the presidantial race they have gone a step further, finding one professor who thought Obama won the first debate.
The fairly partisan MSNBC slipped up badly on this front recently when they had Niall Ferguson on. The blonde bimbo and Obama fancier compering the segment must have been asking who invited this guy, as he carefully and deliberately shredded the administration over its misreading of the Egyptian revolution. I give them points though for not interrupting him, which would have been the ABC’s ad hoc response to anyone not following the PC line.
You can see this clip attached to a very interesting piece at Belmont Club on Syria’s chemical and biological WMD. Yes, just like Iraq’s, which supposedly didn’t exist. These two cooperated on such technologies with assistance from Russia, and Syria’s remain in play, so be afraid for those in close proximity. It takes very little botulinin to wipe out a city of a million or so.

Blogstrop

14 Oct 12 at 6:55 am
FORMER Speaker Peter Slipper and his wife Inge-Jane Hall are desperately trying to offload two investment properties as the MP faces a mounting legal bill estimated at $450,000.

perhaps he could cash a few taxivouchers

Will

14 Oct 12 at 7:22 am
Rabz @11.46
That was just beautiful! Thanks for the link

Daisy

14 Oct 12 at 7:26 am
Oh God, whatever did we do to deserve this??

A Lurker

14 Oct 12 at 7:43 am
I believe the NSW Right of the Labor Party is the preferred funder of disgraced parliamentarians with legal bill problems. Is there anybody on the cross benches Slipper can speak to?

H B Bear

14 Oct 12 at 7:47 am
Whatever you think of his politics, Bolt deserves praise for consistently beating the zombie media to the real issues that ring bells in voterland.

Bolt yesterday: Is the real problem misandrists in government?

Grattan today: Gillard’s man problem

When you turn a newspaper organisation into a branch of a political party, it has to run second because of the time it takes the politburo to approve each talking point for publication. I’m not actually joking: the internal self-censorhip inside Fairfax is suffocating because these zombies actually think they are fighting for a cause.

Tom

14 Oct 12 at 7:57 am
An excellent critique on the mindset of todays news media.

Alfred Hitchcock’s most successful film was a huge box office success. Hitchcock made movie theaters agree not to let people enter the movie late. It drove buzz and demand. He would not even allow film critics a pre-screening. They had to see it with the audience. Early critics’ reviews panned the film. But the audience loved it. Long lines grew longer. Eventually, many news outlets re-reviewed the film and, no one will be surprised to learn, the critics loved it.

……

A media that is right now seeing Barack Obama’s Administration try to spin its way out of what happened in Libya is incredulous that any Americans could doubt a household survey on jobs that seemingly conflicts with a corporate survey on jobs that is more widely accepted by economists.

This is an administration whose Internal Revenue Service “accidentally” leaked confidential tax information about a number of conservative groups and the press buys the accident. This is an administration whose HHS Secretary was found guilty of a Hatch Act violation and the press said it was no big deal. This is an administration that put political cronies in Inspectors General positions, if it bothered to fill them at all, then saw the Inspectors General report away Fast & Furious, the New Black Panthers litigation, etc. and the press yawned.

This is an administration that said Osama Bin Laden was dead and Al Qaeda was on the run when we now see Al Qaeda alive and our assassinated ambassador dragged through the streets of Benghazi.

Still, most of the political press yawns. After all, there’s a non-scandal about Mitt Romney and abortion to focus on and his remarks on the 47% and . . .

……

The press never covered Barack Obama telling a black audience that the Bush Administration somehow considered blacks in New Orleans as not part of the “American Community.” Had a Republican said that to a white crowd about Barack Obama’s administration there would be hell to pay across every network. But the media chose to pooh-pooh it away saying it had been covered already. Some went so far as to deny the clear implications of what the President had said. None reported that the President had voted against the very waivers he accused George Bush of denying New Orleans.

Now they won’t revisit it because it is old, not new, despite not truly being covered at the time.
[Shades of AWU/Gillard scandal]

In the same way, Barack Obama’s autobiography was a huge seller in 2007 as the press “vetted” Obama. But this year conservatives kept trotting out portions of the book and the media reacted with incredulous surprise. “What’s your source on that,” the media demanded collectively. It was the freaking book all you people bought in 2007 and clearly never read.
……

Much more By: Erick Erickson

Rudiau

14 Oct 12 at 8:00 am
Buoyed by the success of the climate fascists in the era of leftwing emasculation of individual rights, the health fascists are massing for an assault on cheap booze:

CHEAP wine will be banned under a federal health agency’s plan to make drinkers pay at least $8-$10 for a bottle of booze.

The Federal Government’s Australian National Preventative Health Agency will advise this week that a “floor price” and new taxes be calculated as a way to make alcohol dearer.

The prohibition plan to stop cheap drunks binging on discount drinks – including cask wine and cleanskins – has delighted health groups but sparked an alcohol industry revolt.

Consumers who drink cheap wine are not all drunks, industry groups have told the agency, and not everyone can afford an expensive tipple.

But the agency found pricing is “recognised as one of the most effective measures to reducing alcohol-related harm”.

Tom

14 Oct 12 at 8:13 am
I do like my Evil Lady and rule 5.

Rudiau

14 Oct 12 at 8:15 am
Today’s ABC Insiders political doctrinologists are: Ultrazombie Andrew Probyn, of the West Australian, Mick Stutchbury, the excellent editor of the AFR, and Julia’s special kindergarten teacher, Little Lenore. And our special government doctrine segment is presented by Dear Climate Leader Greg Combet.

Tom

14 Oct 12 at 8:19 am
Alcoholics will drink anything, not just cheap wine.

Increasing the price of cheap wine just affect people doing normal social stuff, parties and barbeques whatever.
Really this is just too much interference by the government in people’s lives, like saying we have no control over ourselves.

candy

14 Oct 12 at 8:25 am
The labor insiders segment with the Parliament House vandal is really good time to make a coffee.

Rob

14 Oct 12 at 8:28 am
Tom. The kids have commandeered the TV and we watch Big Babies and Horrible Histories on ABC 3 at this time. Heaps more fun.

Pickles

14 Oct 12 at 8:29 am
Bawwie desperately trying to stop Stutchbury describing Gillard’s “lack of legitimacy”. Not even subtle.

Tom

14 Oct 12 at 8:32 am
Oh no! Little Lenore is distraught that the “impact of a strong woman calling out sexism” was misintepreted by some commentators.

Tom

14 Oct 12 at 8:40 am
Tom
You have a very strong stomach and self control (or do you put spare bricks etc out of arms length?).

Rudiau

14 Oct 12 at 8:41 am
Probyn: the Gillard speech “is going to be remembered as one of those amazing moments” – not Slipper’s resignation. These press gallery idiots actually live in a sealed tank.

Tom

14 Oct 12 at 8:42 am
Rudi, there’s just no other sport on TV on Sunday morning since the footy season finished.

Tom

14 Oct 12 at 8:46 am
Cassidy talking over Stutchbury – any method to cut him out

Mike of Marion

14 Oct 12 at 8:49 am
Ol’ Leathery’s program would really damage the credibility of an unbiased public broadcaster. Fortunately this is not an issue at your ALPBC.

H B Bear

14 Oct 12 at 8:52 am
Onya Tom,

Someone has to monitor these morons and I’m not up for it.

Rabz

14 Oct 12 at 8:52 am
Tom.
Am enjoying the running commentary immensely.

Rudiau

14 Oct 12 at 8:53 am
I wish Insiders would stop playing clips of the PM,God that women’s voice can open cans

Tal

14 Oct 12 at 8:55 am
“Bolt in today’s section

http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/rudd_comforts_slipper_who_one_day/

If it follows and the legal cost to Slipper leads to Bankruptcy, then Slipper cannot remain in Parliament”

and

FORMER Speaker Peter Slipper and his wife Inge-Jane Hall are desperately trying to offload two investment properties as the MP faces a mounting legal bill estimated at $450,000.

perhaps he could cash a few taxivouchers

It is ever so satisfying to find that one of the comrades, the prince of decadence, is experiencing destructive personal financial loss as a consequence of his life of sleaze on my dollar.

I read a while back that Comrade Jim Cairns was reduced, eventually, to flogging his books for a pittance at a shabby card table outside some uni building to make ends meet. He earned that fate.

Comrade Sleazy Albanese expressed concern that ditching Comrade Slippery Pete may tip his delicate psychological state into the abyss – on that one occassion I prayed he was right and hoped he never ever recovers. You will recall he expressed similar “compassion” for Comrade Craig Pantsdown.

I couldn’t care less for their families – they could have departed in shame years ago but the hollow status and the dollar kept them there.

Mick Gold Coast QLD

14 Oct 12 at 8:56 am
Talking Pictures: Mike Bowers, now pix editor (?) of the Global Mail, interview’s Crikey cartoonist First Dog on the Moon. Insiders chips in to give the fruitloop left MSM cred.

Tom

14 Oct 12 at 8:58 am
Now we turn over to 10 for Andrew’s counter-propaganda. This is how we do media in the Antipodes.

Tom

14 Oct 12 at 8:59 am
From a reference this morning on Insiders –

“Mike Tyson rooting for Julia”!!!!!

(I just can’t help myself when typing those words!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Mike of Marion

14 Oct 12 at 9:03 am
Wonderful news about the musselman’s financial difficulties.

Well said, Mick.

Rabz

14 Oct 12 at 9:06 am
“Onya Tom,

Someone has to monitor these morons and I’m not up for it.”

Tom, you are courting insanity. Stop, stop it now – the “off” switch, over to the left there – use it!

Mick Gold Coast QLD

14 Oct 12 at 9:06 am
CHEAP wine will be banned under a federal health agency’s plan to make drinkers pay at least $8-$10 for a bottle of booze.

That is the stupidest idea to ever come out of a government department.

dd

14 Oct 12 at 9:08 am
Someone has to monitor these morons and I’m not up for it.”

I’ve stopped watching Insiders. I used to enjoy it but I can’t stand it any more. It’s literally unwatchable.

dd

14 Oct 12 at 9:08 am
Mick, My TV on-off switch is on the right and I’m sure there’s something in that for all of us.

Tom

14 Oct 12 at 9:11 am
CHEAP wine will be banned under a federal health agency’s plan to make drinkers pay at least $8-$10 for a bottle of booze.

The Federal Government’s Australian National Preventative Health Agency will advise this week that a “floor price” and new taxes be calculated as a way to make alcohol dearer.

I hate this fascist country more than crotch rot and light beer. Australia is an unflushed toilet at a curry festival.

Infidel tiger

14 Oct 12 at 9:16 am
“CHEAP wine will be banned under a federal health agency’s plan to make drinkers pay at least $8-$10 for a bottle of booze.

The Federal Government’s Australian National Preventative Health Agency will advise this week that a “floor price” and new taxes be calculated as a way to make alcohol dearer.”

A Mick Young (from the port), Charlie Ferguson (from Granville) or Bob Hawke (from pretty bloody smart) would have called “Oi, leave the smokes and the grog out of it, ya bloody dills. How many votes do you reckon we have to waste? Fools!”

I know it’s a characteristic from another century, pre-1995 and therefore irrelevant. I can assure you though that there are a lot of labourers and tradies here who acquainted themselves with the dole office in recent weeks, when the only local major project moved into a more specialised-lower workforce phase.

When all you can look forward to is a durry and a cheap wine with the missus and someone bungs up the price you can get very unforgiving. I’ve seen it before several times over.

Labor no longer has anyone with a brain like Mick Young though.

Mick Gold Coast QLD

14 Oct 12 at 9:20 am
“Mick, My TV on-off switch is on the right and I’m sure there’s something in that for all of us.”

There’d better be Tom, there’ll wanna be or I’m gunna have to … ummm … ummm … leave the country!

Mick Gold Coast QLD

14 Oct 12 at 9:24 am
Well said, Mick.

Seconded.

I hope he loses every dollar.

It’s the only thing he really care about

JamesK

14 Oct 12 at 9:27 am
I’ve stopped watching Insiders. I used to enjoy it but I can’t stand it any more. It’s literally unwatchable.

Too right

JamesK

14 Oct 12 at 9:28 am
So after a couple of weeks of Labor’s sexism hysterics, have they found a way to fund the NDIS, dental scheme, the imaginary surplus etc?

Gab

14 Oct 12 at 9:28 am
floor price and new taxes on alcohol is enuf to bring an Australian government down.

candy

14 Oct 12 at 9:37 am
Onya Tom,

Someone has to monitor these morons and I’m not up for it.

Tom, just how many bullets can you take for the cats? Are you willing to watch meet the press or any of the shit on sky?

Rob

14 Oct 12 at 9:40 am
yeah a kinda odd photo

DaveF, it startling to me. There’s a man, a stranger to Gillard, who looks to be in deep thought, in grief, and along bobs gillard to plant a kiss. A nice photo-op for gillard to be sure but rather intrusive.

She’s a real piece of work.

Gab

14 Oct 12 at 9:41 am
Too right

Too left.

H B Bear

14 Oct 12 at 9:43 am
“She’s a real piece of work.”

To me it looks like the cheery kiss you’d give an older male relative or uncle on his birthday.

candy

14 Oct 12 at 9:44 am
Oh God, whatever did we do to deserve this??

Its called our welfare system

Token

14 Oct 12 at 9:46 am
To me it looks like the cheery kiss you’d give an older male relative or uncle on his birthday.

Yes except it wasn’t her uncle and it wasn’t his birthday party.

Gab

14 Oct 12 at 9:47 am
CHEAP wine will be banned under a federal health agency’s plan to make drinkers pay at least $8-$10 for a bottle of booze.

Time to invest in homebrew/home-still businesses guys.

Token

14 Oct 12 at 9:48 am
Tom, just how many bullets can you take for the cats?

I don’t have enough mental health in the tank to withstand Q&A, which sends me into a rage because it was designed as communist propaganda. I rely on JC for that; he’s prepared to take a bullet for the Cats on Monday nights.

Tom

14 Oct 12 at 9:49 am
If it follows and the legal cost to Slipper leads to Bankruptcy, then Slipper cannot remain in Parliament”

This is sickening, they pulled the same crap with Shagger.

Anyone have a link to the amount Slipper will get from his pension for life? It is over $100k per year if I remember correctly.

Garnish that and if he can’t make the payments, garnish Gillard’s pension as she put him & kept him in a position where he could abuse his power.

Token

14 Oct 12 at 9:53 am
Hard times for the Shell-Less Mussellman.The poor old perv has to sell two of the eight investment properties owned by himself and his wife to pay his legal bills..Well boo fucking hoo!

Lew

14 Oct 12 at 9:54 am
I hope he loses every dollar.

I don’t agree, actually. That’s a lefty principle. ‘Oh noes, I was harrassed so now I’m going to send somebody broke.’

And this ‘victim’ is a bloke, ffs.

I hope Ashby ends up broke.

C.L.

14 Oct 12 at 9:59 am
And here’s dd telling me only a week ago I was wrong to call people here “living in an echo chamber”.

When it comes to media consumption, you most certainly are.

Gab, the purity and childishness of your hatred towards Gillard is everything that any nutty Left wing person’s was towards Howard.

I see Tom’s in charge of the playground today.

That ends my stream of consciousness for now…

steve from brisbane

14 Oct 12 at 10:01 am
That ends my stream of ~~consciousness~~ vitriol for now…

Fixed to reflect the truth.

Gab

14 Oct 12 at 10:02 am
I’ve stopped watching Insiders. I used to enjoy it but I can’t stand it any more. It’s literally unwatchable.

I used love watching the show but now it like the rest of the ABC, as fragrant as a pool of water at a sewer farm.

I noticed the show lost it about the time when Bolta left. Its like the ABC decided it gave them permission to go full retard.

Token

14 Oct 12 at 10:03 am
Probyn: the Gillard speech “is going to be remembered as one of those amazing moments” – not Slipper’s resignation.

Sounds like the second coming of perennial couch fuckwit George Imamegagenius

JamesK

14 Oct 12 at 10:03 am
Did anyone else get Dogshit on their boots just now?

Tom

14 Oct 12 at 10:03 am
Gets back to Dover’s point about the “surreal” stuff going on right now. The love media are praising a “speech” (rant) from Julia Gillard on misogyny whose very purpose was to maintain in the most prestigious and powerful parliamentary office a man who self-evidently hates women.

C.L.

14 Oct 12 at 10:04 am
Steve, we enjoy having Tom here whereas your twin Lars will not be missed.

Token

14 Oct 12 at 10:06 am
A real woman celebrates her 87th birthday.

C.L.

14 Oct 12 at 10:06 am
Mike Tyson

‘Your PM is totally bad-ass‘

Yep. That’s gonna change my vote.

Gab

14 Oct 12 at 10:06 am
he’s prepared to take a bullet for the Cats on Monday nights.

We should make a roster. Share the pain.

Shut up, Stevie. Go back to bed.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

14 Oct 12 at 10:06 am
That would be the same Tyson who,in 1992,was convicted of the rape of Miss Black Rhode Island,Desiree Washington.The same Tyson who was last month was refused a visa to enter New Zealand because of his rape conviction.And the very same Tyson who will be appearing at the Sydney Convention Centre next month.I expect the Handbag Hit Squad will be in attendance in force,he sounds like their kind of PC-guy especially as he has now embraced Islam.

Lew

14 Oct 12 at 10:19 am
CL, I notice that video has been removed. Here is the Iron Lady at the height of her powers taking the British Labor socialists to the cleaners. Marvellous entertainment.

Tom

14 Oct 12 at 10:21 am
It’s odd how people like Mike Tyson feel they need to tell us their opinions about the Australian Parliament.

I’m guessing it’s to get more bookings for his speaking tour to make more money.

candy

14 Oct 12 at 10:22 am
BoltA links to this one from Fauxfacts.

Gotcha bit:

THE wife of the Deputy Premier, Andrew Stoner, posted a series of anti-Muslim messages on social media during the September race riot in Sydney.

Race riot ? Did I miss something ?

I thought a group of people got out of control because of some crap Youtube video ?

When – other than inside the Fauxfacts echo chamber – did this become a ‘race riot’ ?

Myrddin Seren

14 Oct 12 at 10:25 am
Race riot ? Did I miss something ?

I thought a group of people got out of control because of some crap Youtube video ?

And wasn’t Big Bird implicated?

C.L.

14 Oct 12 at 10:25 am
Yes, it’s rather transparent of the convicted rapist, Candy.

Gab

14 Oct 12 at 10:26 am
That would be the same Tyson who,in 1992,was convicted of the rape of Miss Black Rhode Island,Desiree Washington.

You got to this before I did Lew, I thought getting an endorsement from Mike Tyson fits well for a women who has endorsed a union dues rorting brother crawler Shagger and got her party to vote to keep the sleazy texting misogynist Slipper as Speaker.

Token

14 Oct 12 at 10:26 am
the September race riot in Sydney.

When did muslims become a race again?

Token

14 Oct 12 at 10:28 am
Reminds me of another little reported aspect of the Credlin smear dinner. Also present that night was well known feminist John Setka – who has more than 60 convictions on his criminal record.

C.L.

14 Oct 12 at 10:30 am
I would have thought that Stevieliar QC would be far too embarrassed to show his face around here again after his disintegration on Friday.

Tiny Dancer

14 Oct 12 at 10:30 am
Tyson is my favourite boxer, but he also sports tattoos of Mao and Che. His political judgement is a little off.

Infidel Tiger

14 Oct 12 at 10:33 am
Finally, some irrefutable proof that Obama was born in Hawaii.

Can the birthers let it go now?

Token

14 Oct 12 at 10:33 am
Link found here – https://twitter.com/ItGirlBrit/status/257147158145400833/photo/1

Token

14 Oct 12 at 10:36 am
Your link no work, Token….or is that the point

Gab

14 Oct 12 at 10:36 am
That’s the 2nd time that the Cat has screwed up a twitter link. Is there a way to stop it doing that?

Token

14 Oct 12 at 10:38 am
Try the tinyurldotcom site, Token. I had to use “dot” instead of the usual “.” due to the Cat’s filter.

Gab

14 Oct 12 at 10:43 am
That’s the 2nd time that the Cat has screwed up a twitter link. Is there a way to stop it doing that?

Try manually deleting the letter “s” from “https” when you paste it in.

Otherwise you’re asking those who aren’t logged in to Twitter via https to connect securely to it, which of course they can’t do if they’re not logged in to the https server.

http://twitter.com/ItGirlBrit/status/257147158145400833/photo/1

sdog

14 Oct 12 at 10:51 am
Finally, some irrefutable proof that Obama was born in Hawaii.

Can the birthers let it go now?

That was coffee in lap hilarious, f^ckya.

Rudiau

14 Oct 12 at 10:52 am
“I don’t care what someone does in their private life, just so long as they’re good at their job.”
How many times have I heard this.

One day Australia needs to have a mature conversation about how the private character of a person comes through into their working lives, and vice versa. Time to stop pretending that it’s compartmentalised and that someone’s total lack of morals in one area is irrelevant to other contexts. Just a thought.

Keith

14 Oct 12 at 10:52 am
Pickering’s post today is interesting suggesting the blunders Gillard made this week is having consequences.

Token

14 Oct 12 at 10:53 am
Or did you mean the way the Cat inserted its own URL into your link, in your first attempt?

sdog

14 Oct 12 at 10:54 am
Yes, that’s what I mean spot.

I’m guessing it was inserted is due to the fact the link I posted did not have a http or https at the beginning.

pic.twitter.com/thl3eBYn

I noted I had a similar problem when I posted something on Friday.

Token

14 Oct 12 at 11:01 am
Yeah, that’s happened to me before as well. I think you’re right.

sdog

14 Oct 12 at 11:03 am
As protesters dressed as Nazis riot in an Athens ruled by Brussels stooges, giving the Nobel Peace Prize to the EU is beyond satire

Quite so.

Token

14 Oct 12 at 11:06 am
Pickering’s reading of Labor’s predicament is close to spot-on, I think:

Gillard’s lack of political judgment is equalled only by those who put her there. Her sexist diversion has run its course, her incompetent advisers have shown their worth and the public is fed up to the back teeth with her incompetent handbag brigade. A look of resignation has swept the front bench as the Gillard experiment is about to be confined to history books.

An Abbott Government will need a strong and effective Opposition. For that to happen Gillard needs to go but Caucus is caught between a rock and a hard place. The choice is agonising. Retain a defiant Gillard and suffer electoral obliteration, which no sane person wants, or flick her and suffer an early election.

With the accident-prone Gillard gone, an early election is almost certain but at least Labor would be able to hit the hustings without her.

That’s a critical plus for Labor and it’s one it must embrace quickly.

We won’t know what’s really going down in Canberra ’til tomorrow’s Oz because the zombies (including the Sunday Tele’s Sam Maiden) refuse to write anything that might damage the government. This country’s media is officially a disgrace.

Tom

14 Oct 12 at 11:12 am
An interesting bit of perspective:

Europe gives itself ‘World’s #1 Dad’ award

Imagine a deadbeat stepdad, refusing to work, living in the house his stepson built, throwing constant temper tantrums and squandering the fortune the kid’s real dad, who died in the war, had amassed.

Now imagine that guy wearing a “World’s #1 Dad” t-shirt.

Now imagine that guy is Europe, that t-shirt is the Noble Peace Prize, that hardworking kid is the U.S.A., and that t-shirt is a present he bought himself for not burning down the house when he passed out on the sofa with a lit cigarette last night.

Token

14 Oct 12 at 11:15 am
CHEAP wine will be banned under a federal health agency’s plan to make drinkers pay at least $8-$10 for a bottle of booze.

That is the stupidest idea to ever come out of a government department.

Get %$#^ed you jumped up, petty, narcissistic, self appointed, authoritarian shits.

This is just a tax on the indigent. This is outrageously inequitable. If the ALP really cared about the poor and not their hatred of anyone who can become something on their own in the private sector, they wouldn’t come up with these absolutely ridiculous ideas.

The ALP represent arrogant, insular white privilege. Their “educations” are shams. They have no life experience outside of a party office.

They will take my still out of my cold, dead hands.

I’d grow my own tobacco if not for the severe penalty of 2 years imprisonment and a fine of $55 000 (see s 28 of the excise act).

I am pretty sure through a wholesaler I’ve seen wine as cheap as sub $3 per bottle. That is with excise. (Some shit called Fruitwood – it is what it is, gets the job done etc. If you want something nice pay $50+ for good Barossa wines).

So basically something that costs $3 with high taxes is going to cost up to and over triple that.

This could be the biggest tax hike in Australia in % terms. The Greens and independents show no sign of questioning any of Gillard’s policies so this is good as future law.

.

14 Oct 12 at 11:16 am
Stacy McCain points out why this dude is obviously a false-flag troll.

Seriously, Lefties. Lift your game.

sdog

14 Oct 12 at 11:18 am
giving the Nobel Peace Prize to the EU is beyond satire

I like this sign.

sdog

14 Oct 12 at 11:22 am
“Free Nobel Peace Prize with an order of shrimp tacos”

I’m tipping the sign is in Texas, Dawg.

Tom

14 Oct 12 at 11:42 am
“Free Nobel Peace Prize with an order of shrimp tacos”

I’m tipping the sign is in Texas, Dawg.

Tom

14 Oct 12 at 11:42 am
Or did you mean the way the Cat inserted its own URL into your link, in your first attempt?

The Cat doesn’t insert anything. All web browsers assume it is a relative link to a local file if it doesn’t have http at the front. That’s how the web works, dudes.

Fleeced

14 Oct 12 at 11:57 am
Quadrant Online has an excellent analysis of the factors that shaped the young Tony Abbott and make him a sitting duck for the whatever-means-necessary crowd. It is a pick-up and expansion of the blog post Bunyip linked to yesterday and well worth reading.

http://www.quadrant.org.au/blogs/qed/2012/10/the-honourable-tony-abbott

areff

14 Oct 12 at 11:58 am
The Plebeserk takes time out from waging the misogynist war on Abbott to attend to matters of little importance that will Save The Budget.

HEALTH Minister Tanya Plibersek has warned there will be cuts to her portfolio as the government razor gang looks to engineer a $45bn turnaround to achieve the planned 2012-13 budget surplus of $1.5bn.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/health/plibersek-flags-health-cuts-for-surplus/story-fn59nokw-1226495532710

Gab

14 Oct 12 at 11:59 am
Try manually deleting the letter “s” from “https” when you paste it in.

Otherwise you’re asking those who aren’t logged in to Twitter via https to connect securely to it, which of course they can’t do if they’re not logged in to the https server.

Simply not true, sdog. I can load https twitter pages fine, without logging in.

Fleeced

14 Oct 12 at 11:59 am
Weekend AFR has an interesting article($) on the weakest link in the Gillard government, Nanny Roxon, with some interesting observations from people with a much stronger understanding of the Attorney-General’s role than Nanny herself:

On June 8 Slipper – through his lawyers – filed an interlocutory process in the court accusing Ashby of abusing the court process and conspiring with others to damage the Speaker and bring down the government.

The Commonwealth was initially hesitant to do the same, with some of its top legal advisers suggesting that to file an abuse of process claim would be improper.

But only five days later they followed suit, filing a similar application which relied on the same substantive text exchanges. In order to make such aggressive claims against a private litigant the government needed to be sure of its case. A senior Commonwealth figure – most likely to be first law officer Roxon – had a duty to review the evidence of the alleged abuse before making such serious claims.

It also considers the government role as a model litigant, the AG role as defender of the courts, whether information was withheld from the public for political advantage and Roxon’s claims for privilege.

Once Hamish McSporran’s confected gender war dies down I would expect to hear much more on this.

H B Bear

14 Oct 12 at 12:07 pm
There’s a man, a stranger to Gillard, who looks to be in deep thought, in grief, and along bobs gillard to plant a kiss.

You should get a job with ASIO Gab, your powers of investigation and making profound conclusions from basically no information are astounding.

SteveC

14 Oct 12 at 12:13 pm
Here you go Gab, maybe you missed this in your detailed investigation:
http://www.zimbio.com/photos/Ray+Briggs/Julia+Gillard+Visits+Bali+Bombing+Memorial/pLwHqBRhrxZ

SteveC

14 Oct 12 at 12:15 pm
So what you’re saying is I’m not entitled to an opinion; not entitled to express my reaction to a picture. Ah yes, stevec from the totalitarian left.

Gab

14 Oct 12 at 12:16 pm
Yeah, you’re jumping to conclusions, Gab. Maybe the dude is just married with kids?

Fleeced

14 Oct 12 at 12:18 pm
It’s rather sweet how the steves jump up to defend what’s left of gillard’s honour.

Gab

14 Oct 12 at 12:22 pm
Great piece in Quadrant. Thanks for posting, areff.

C.L.

14 Oct 12 at 12:23 pm
From areff’s links:

Abbott has an old-fashioned code of personal conduct that treats women with consideration and respect.

Well, certainly can’t say that about gillard’s code.

Gab

14 Oct 12 at 12:30 pm
his [Abbott's] scruples inhibit the full-on responses that their provocations deserve.

Does gillar have scruples? What are they exactly?

Gab

14 Oct 12 at 12:31 pm
Abbott happily surrounds himself with charismatic and intelligent women well beyond his family circle.

gillard most certainly cannot say the same about her lot.

Gab

14 Oct 12 at 12:32 pm
Abbott happily surrounds himself with charismatic and intelligent women …

gillard most certainly cannot say the same about her lot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VJVw32EkIM

C.L.

14 Oct 12 at 12:34 pm
yes, thanks to areff.

While Gillard’s feminist and media fan club insists that any criticism of her as a politician and policymaker is, as one female academic wrote in The Sunday Age, a “gendered attack” by the great conspiracy of nutjobs and misogynists. While insisting that asking legitimate questions of her past and present conduct therefore is tainted and out-of-bounds, these same aggrieved and angry ants are happily traducing Abbott for political advantage. Courtesies demanded for Ms Gillard aren’t being extended to him, and Abbott’s forbearance against these onslaughts is typical of him. Labor’s political goals from this assault are to bring Abbott down, and to quarantine Gillard from criticism on the ludicrous grounds that to question her performance as a politician is picking on her as a woman.

Gab

14 Oct 12 at 12:36 pm
This is ginormous.

Went to the bicentennial at Richmond airbase to see the AN124

Standing in the crowd I said to Mrs Rudi “Makes you wonder how on earth they get off the ground”.

To which a guy in front turned and replied “Brute force”.

Rudiau

14 Oct 12 at 12:40 pm
Next thing they will ban is a 3 day growth. That’s me stuffed.

Dead Soul

14 Oct 12 at 12:49 pm
I hope Mr Briggs had his tetanus and rabies shots, as well as ensuring his pockets were zipped.

kae

14 Oct 12 at 12:57 pm
CHEAP wine will be banned under a federal health agency’s plan to make drinkers pay at least $8-$10 for a bottle of booze.

Please excuse my ingnorance of things economic but if I was making cheap wine “maker a”, and the gubbmint introduced a floor price for cheap wines, wouldn’t I just increase the price of my cheap wine to just above the floor price so I was making the money not the Gubbmint??

And if I was a wine maker who made slightly better wine than “maker a” wouldn’t I also increase my price because my wine is better than the other blokes stuff so should sell for a premium above the crap and so on and on.

Therefore if the floor price was a tax based on wholesale price and all makers lifted the wholesale price above the floor then there wouldn’t be any tax to collect, am I right?

So this will make ALL wine more expensive yeah? or I am wrong altogether?

Old Fridgie

14 Oct 12 at 1:01 pm
Hi Rudi

My first Airshow was at Schofields, out that way. Way back in about 1981 or 1982. (So very long ago I don’t remember!) I’ve been addicted ever since, but don’t go to many airshows these days.

In 1990 or thereabouts I went to the airshow at Avalon in Melbourne. That’s where I saw the Antonov, and I must agree, it is enormous. The Galaxy was at Avalon, too, that’s the big US one isn’t it, and the Antonov won the biggest plane prize!

kae

14 Oct 12 at 1:03 pm
I can assure you though that there are a lot of labourers and tradies here who acquainted themselves with the dole office in recent weeks, when the only local major project moved into a more specialised-lower workforce phase.

Yep, keep hearing those stories myself. The problem is being compounded now because the mining employment may have peaked. My brother told me the other week that he knows many friends who have applied for mining jobs and been knocked back. The tradies began leaving the Gold Coast a few years back, now they will be returning to a very flat economy here with no real hope of improvement. The unemployment rate on the GC is double the national average. The national unemployment rate is trending up and nothing is going to stop that.

This govt came into power ranting about looking after the down and out and has consistently introduced policies that punish those same people.

Dead Soul

14 Oct 12 at 1:16 pm
The Prime Minister has an issue: how to gather the vote of older men.

Well she should make more appearances at “The Shed”. Whoops, no females allowed. It’s misogynist I tell you. Tear Down Those Sheds!

Dead Soul

14 Oct 12 at 1:21 pm
Kae,
You would have attended the first airshow at Avalon in 1992 and as such would have been memorable.
I hope to get down there myself in the next couple of years.
The Galaxy c5 is awesome.

Rudiau

14 Oct 12 at 1:26 pm
see http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2217286/Global-warming-stopped-16-years-ago-reveals-Met-Office-report-quietly-released–chart-prove-it.html

a Met Office spokesman correctly said that

‘Choosing a starting or end point on short-term scales can be very misleading. Climate change can only be detected from multi-decadal timescales due to the inherent variability in the climate system.’

I wish that standard applied on the way up as well as on the way down.

the pause in global warming has lasted for about the same time as the previous period when temperatures rose, 1980 to 1996. Before that, temperatures had been stable or declining for 40 years.

Jim Rose

14 Oct 12 at 1:38 pm
Few presidents have had so many challenges…

LOL.

Fleeced

14 Oct 12 at 1:55 pm
Rudi
I did hear some interesting stories of how the Russian Airforce fly – lots of vodka.

kae

14 Oct 12 at 1:58 pm
Something to remember next time a tax-eating green carpet bagger starts complaining about fossil fuel subsidies:

Fossil fuels in the UK pay tax of some £40 billion a year. Renewables do not pay such taxes. Do we say that renewables are subsidised by £40 billion a year because they are not taxed so highly?

No, we don’t: and the greens certainly don’t. Therefore, a tax regime for shale gas that is less extortionate than the tax system for other minerals is not a subsidy, is it?

Screw it – I reckon we start proclaiming that solar and wind are doubly-subsidised because they aren’t subject to royalties and excise like coal and oil. That should send the Greens into a head exploding mind warp.

boy on a bike

14 Oct 12 at 2:02 pm
How appropriate that Gillard should get an endorsement from an ear-munching rapist.

Feral Abacus

14 Oct 12 at 2:12 pm
For fans of <a href="“>Russian heavies and Aussie men.

Steve of Ferny Hills

14 Oct 12 at 2:17 pm
@BoyOnABike

When I first came across the whole subsidy thingy for roof top panels I looked at it and told my, then, wife that it was theft and I wanted nothing to do with it…..

hahahahaha…we are now divorced.

As far as I am concerned anyone that is gaining a benefit at the expense of ordinary people is stealing money….

And that is a fact no matter which way the Alinskyites cut it.

It used to be a feature of The Common Law.

Just because some government in power enables this crap does not mitigate the theft that is occurring.

Did I tell you that I am seeking funding for my perpetual motion machine.

I’ll get Timmy ‘low water’ to endorse my crackpot scheme and I’ll list it on the ASX.

NoFixedAddress

14 Oct 12 at 2:32 pm
This govt came into power ranting about looking after the down and out and has consistently introduced policies that punish those same people.

Hmmm, so Joe Punter thinks the end of the mining boom and bringing down the size of a bloated public service is the fault of Newman?

CN is going to have to live Jeff Kennett’s life. The endless lies and hate (JK still gets it even though it has been over 12 years since he left office. and he saved Victoria’s bacon).

Token

14 Oct 12 at 2:38 pm
VP Debate Highlights Songified
One for Rabz ipod.

jumpnmcar

14 Oct 12 at 2:39 pm
Bolt has this funny little clip.

Joe Biden v Joe Biden.

A little look at some of Uncle Joe’s memorable gaffs.

Gab

14 Oct 12 at 2:48 pm
Kae
Ahh…Wodka AKA Instant Amnesia’s or Needles staight.
A well known r&r singer and I shared two needles at a bar on the NC of NSW back around ’85, big night, baaad drink but I like it.

Rudiau

14 Oct 12 at 2:54 pm
That doesn’t read right: shouted each other needles.
Hmph, bit better.

Rudiau

14 Oct 12 at 2:57 pm
Another of Clint’s statements in his famous speech was proven true on Friday:

Clint Eastwood at RNC – Biden a “grin with a body behind it”

Token

14 Oct 12 at 3:02 pm
Rudi, I know what you mean. Back in the day, when I was young & naive like a certain ‘she’, I had occasion to celebrate and help drink the establishment dry of real vodka. The afternoon after the night before, saw me completely incapable of reversing the car out of a very short driveway, the driveway being the same driveway for a good eight years since I moved into the house, mind. (No female driver jokes, please, lest you be labelled an Abbott). Haven’t touched the demon liquid since. Well, not that I can recall.

Gab

14 Oct 12 at 3:05 pm
Weekend AFR has an interesting article($) on the weakest link in the Gillard government, Nanny Roxon

A big call Mr Bear, have you forgotten Ludwig, Bowen, plibersek, swan, Wong, garrett et al? Or Gillard herself?

Rob

14 Oct 12 at 3:12 pm
Oh nos! It’s the jooze!

boy on a bike

14 Oct 12 at 3:12 pm
Screw it – I reckon we start proclaiming that solar and wind are doubly-subsidised because they aren’t subject to royalties and excise like coal and oil.

Forgotten about the $4 billion in subsidies to the miners, BOAB?

1735099

14 Oct 12 at 3:15 pm
I’m surprised Obama could drag himself away from the golf course to attend to matters of national importance.

Earlier today, President Obama called into Y100s Michael YO! Show, where he weighed in on a very serious topic plaguing the pop world – the American Idol fight between judges Mariah Carey and Nicki Minaj. What better person to give their opinion on the American Idol spat, other than the top American himself.

The president told Y100 that he believes that the two can work out their differences. When asked how Obama thinks he would do on the reality show, he confessed that he thinks he’ll stick to his dayjob.

Gab

14 Oct 12 at 3:17 pm
So my tax return is in fact a government subsidy according to numbers?

Harrys on the Boat

14 Oct 12 at 3:21 pm
Forgotten about the $4 billion in subsidies to the miners, BOAB?

Numbers, not only are you a homophobe who has note apologised, you are special the type of moron.

I say special as no normal moron would show up to an econ blog and prove how little you know.

A tax deduction is a subsidy.

PS: your link does not work.

Token

14 Oct 12 at 3:24 pm
Dot

The below is a fable, completely without foundation, and I know of no such person:

Once upon a time there was a smoker in Australia who got pissed off with tobacco prices, for the regressive wowsers ruled the land and wanted no competition (the bastards). But he was afraid to grow his own because of the terrible penalties the purse-lipped loose-sphinctered ones had arranged.

Then on a holiday in NZ (where growing yer own is legal), he happened upon a wise old Australian.

Forsooth, said the wise old Australian, buy a bunch of seeds from yon sheep-bothering types.

Take it hence to your dwelling and germinate may of the plants, yea and verily some hundreds or better yet thousands. But plant ye none of these in your garden, oh no. Plant these in some nearby places, parks, embankment and whatever, scattered as wild plants are in wild corners not frequented by any, and scattered as wild things be, over leagues of land. And never in rows.

For, he said, the peasants know not what a tobacco plant looks like. And for your first season, quietly harvest leaves when no-one can see, and cure them where no-one can see. And tell no-one at all.

While this is all going on, find a wall of thy dwelling which needeth shade from the fierceness of the summer sun. Dig or build there a garden bed of great fertility, and fill it with eggplant bushes of the type that groweth tall, and train them up to the very eaves of thy dwelling.

And ensure that all the neighbours get sick of eggplant unto hiding their dials in fear and trembling when you approach bearing purple orbs.

And say, Why, I do like eggplants but this is too much! I shall find another shade-plant to keep the fierceness of the sun from my walls. ANd watch thy neighbours say ‘thank f*ck for that’.

And so next season, into the garden bed of great fertility goeth, why, more eggplants to put the fear of the LORD into the neighbours, but not many, and also some strange leafy plants found growing wild about your district, mere weeds from the bush, and also a castor-oil plant from along the iron road where the great steam-engines pass. And in some secret place like the roof-space, or below the porch, or behind a store of ye green fire-wood a seasoning, there is a fermenting and curing box, all secret and hidden. Yet, on the compost-heap lieth some yellowed leaves of the strange weed from the bush (but not all, for those harvested at night vanish away most mysteriously).

So should ever the Plod or revenuer come with officious brow a-furrowed, why, ’tis but a shade-plant found commonly wild hereabouts, replacing ye eggplant vines that so vexed my neighbours with their prolificness of purple orbs. And in checking they shall find many shade-plants on the land of the Council, State and Fed, so it weren’t me guv, I’ve got the buggers there for shade and I pulled them from the ground over yonder.

And there is no way you can prove it was me.

For (and here is the most important part)
I. Never. Told. Another . Soul.

No, I am not and never have been a smoker. This is merely a fable, picked up as an amusing tale, years ago.

Mk50 of Brisbane

14 Oct 12 at 3:24 pm
Bolt Report :
Ironic to see and hear della lecturing on sexism and “respect for women”. I guess della thinks his previous infidelities go under the heading of respect for women. Yeah della, real respectful. Fair enough if he has put that sort of behaviour behind him, but really the old irony meter is taking a battering.

Keith

14 Oct 12 at 3:26 pm
Gab,

Well, not that I can recall.

Well, that’s the problem. Many times the next morning two friends and I would “argue” about who paid for meals and who paid for taxi, after a belly full of beer and then three rounds of Harvey Wallbanging night caps.
We never reached any agreements, just a lot of head scratching and bewilderment.

Rudiau

14 Oct 12 at 3:54 pm
Sure Gab, you’re entitled your your uninformed opinion.
There’s a man, a stranger to Gillard, (wrong) who looks to be in deep thought (wrong), in grief (probably wrong, based on the other photos, but hard to tell), and along bobs gillard to plant a kiss. (Given that’s the photo he was already holding, seem likely he was happy to re-enact the previous photo).
Don’t forget to change feet when you open your gab, Gab.
Ay yes, Gab from the lunar right.

SteveC

14 Oct 12 at 4:03 pm
So should ever the Plod or revenuer come with officious brow a-furrowed, why, ’tis but a shade-plant found commonly wild hereabouts, replacing ye eggplant vines that so vexed my neighbours with their prolificness of purple orbs.

I don’t think they’d care – they’d fine you anyway.

I like the idea of a Johnny Tobacco-seed though. If I was a smoker…

Fleeced

14 Oct 12 at 4:04 pm
Hmmm, so Joe Punter thinks the end of the mining boom and bringing down the size of a bloated public service is the fault of Newman?

I was referring to the Federal govt. Remember Rudd’s rants 2007?

The tabacco issue:

It will end up like marijuana – go indoors. Much better product, much better control, too easy to do.

Easy to get seeds.

Dead Soul

14 Oct 12 at 4:15 pm
umm SteveC didn’t you boast that Slipper would return to the speakers chair? You know a bit about being wrong.

Tiny Dancer

14 Oct 12 at 4:17 pm
umm SteveC didn’t you boast that Slipper would return to the speakers chair? You know a bit about being wrong.

Well technically he did, though only to resign. He was also the best speaker that we have had so far this year, but roxon is the best AG we have so far this month.

Rob

14 Oct 12 at 4:22 pm
I was referring to the Federal govt. Remember Rudd’s rants 2007?

Thanks DS, I understand.

I’ve seen some of the postings on Twitter of late that reminded me of those days and it fits the them of what I posted above.

Token

14 Oct 12 at 4:26 pm
…it fits ~~the them of~~ with what I posted above

Token

14 Oct 12 at 4:27 pm
He was also the best speaker that we have had so far this year

He’s a dishonest grub

Tiny Dancer

14 Oct 12 at 4:28 pm
The minimum pricing of booze has come from Scotland as a lot of bad thing sdo. The government up there were the first with the pub smoking bans etc etc. They are in thrall to nanny state lobbyists bg time.

The bill failed couple of years ago in part because the Labor Party didn’t want the bottle-os to make more money.

But Jackie Baillie, Scottish Labour health spokesman, claimed the policy was untried, possibly illegal and would put £140 million into the pockets of supermarkets.

The difference is that here we have a runaway train of a government with very totalitarian tendencies who will seize on a terrible idea like this and ram it through.

DaveF

14 Oct 12 at 4:41 pm
He’s a dishonest grub

No doubt (on a good day, the rest of the time he was worse), but he could at least pretend to be impartial.

Rob

14 Oct 12 at 4:45 pm
The Pacific Highway is still a goat track but some town in outer Blackfellasville has a shed with a wheelchair ramp. Now all the town needs is some cripples.

Infidel Tiger

14 Oct 12 at 4:50 pm
Biden vs Biden.
But I always say what I mean.
Lol.

Rudiau

14 Oct 12 at 4:51 pm
I see stevec still overly excited about defending gillard. lol

Gab

14 Oct 12 at 4:57 pm
Incorrect Gab,
I’m happy to correct you any time you make illogical conclusions. Though I don’t have any near enough time to correct them all.

SteveC

14 Oct 12 at 5:04 pm
You’re being very high and mighty in your delusions, stevec, Mr Wrongologist II, but then me expressing an opinion scares you, angers you when it involves your precious gillard. Hilarious

Gab

14 Oct 12 at 5:08 pm
SteveC, you’re still a tiresome twat and mere thread pollution personified. Gillard has difficulty mustering anything resembling real concern for anybody. She just doesn’t sound as if she’s genuine about anything, except her desire to retain power. There’s no real empathy, no real national interest in her demeanour or her oft repeated “getting it done” speeches.
You are an empty vessel defending an empty suit.

blogstrop

14 Oct 12 at 5:20 pm
Gillard has difficulty mustering anything resembling real concern for anybody.

Wrong by just one person blogstrop.

Dead Soul

14 Oct 12 at 5:24 pm
You only come here to pick fights, Dogshit’s Best Friend. You’re a smartarse lying troll. Not happy enough with you’re poleaxing of Australia through the Greenfilth? We pay millions of dollars to support Green propaganda, but you’ve got to come and troll here with your insufferable arrogance like some fucking Dark Ages missionary pushing the one true god. Fuck off. You’re despised and not welcome here.

Tom

14 Oct 12 at 5:25 pm
“So today’s little furor is some ass at a Romney rally who worked his way around, right in front of the press, and showed off a pretty obviously racist shirt. Now, as Stacy McCain has pointed out, there’s good reason to think the was a troll, a false-flag operation. We’ve been seeing them, organized and disorganized, since the first Tea Party demonstrations — remember “Crash the Tea Party“?

But you know what? Forget that. I’m tired of idiots trying to make one asshole in the back row of a Romney rally the issue.

You want to talk racism? Well, let’s talk about this:

It was Nathan Bedford Forrest, a Democrat, who founded the Ku Klux Klan.

Woodrow Wilson segregated Federal Buildings and jobs after 50 years of integration under largely Republican administrations.

It was the Democrat Party in the South that instituted Jim Crow Laws.

It was the Democrat Party in the South that instituted “separate but equal”.

It was the Democrat Party in the South that supported the Ku Klux Klan.

It was George Wallace and the Democrat Party in the South that said “Segregation Forever”.

It was Orval Faubus and the Democrat Party that wanted the Arkansas National Guard to enforce segregation, and Dwight Eisenhower, a Republican President, that sent the 101st Airborne to integrate the schools.

It was Bull Connor, a member of the Democrat National Committee, who turned the hoses on the marchers in Birmingham, and it was the Republicans who made up the majority that passed the 1964 Civil Rights Act, over the filibuster of such Democrat paragons as William Fulbright and Al Gore Sr. — and Grand Kleagle Byrd.
(And no, the Dixiecrats didn’t join the Republican Party – most of them remained Democrats.)

It was the Democrats who kept Grand Kleagle Byrd in the party.

It was Democrats who called General Colin Powell a “house nigger”.

It was Democrats who called Condi Rice — who grew up with and knew the little girls in Birmingham who were blown up, by Democrats — an “Aunt Jemima” and ran cartoons of her with fat lips doing Hattie McDaniel riffs.

It was Democrats, or at least Obama supporters, who called Stacy Dash a hundred different racist names for daring to leave the Democrat plantaion.

It’s the Democrats who hold annual dinners honoring Andrew Jackson, who owned slaves and who orchestrated the Removal, the Trail of Tears, the near genocide of several of the Indian Nations.

So when the Democrats stop having Andrew Jackson dinners, and take Wilson’s name off the bridge in DC, and start taking Grand Kleagle Byrd’s name off of the hundred things named after him, then we can talk about one asshole in the back row of a Romney rally.”

Today’s ;ittle rant brought to by big Bird and the letter H.

Gab

14 Oct 12 at 5:40 pm
Speaking of Greenfilth, isn’t it heartening to know that the next time the Senate faces an election the arrogant, ignorant overgrown teenager who destroyed Australia’s national borders regime is going to be arseholed onto the political scrapheap?:

TWO suspected asylum seeker boats with more than 150 people on board have been intercepted by Australian authorities.

On Saturday, ACV Hervey Bay intercepted a vessel with 49 people northwest of Cocos (Keeling) Islands, while HMAS Bundaberg intercepted another boat with 104 passengers off Christmas Island.

Authorities will transfer the 153 passengers to Christmas Island for security, health and identity checks.

Greens immigration spokeswoman Sarah Hanson-Young said the latest arrivals showed the Nauru solution was not working.

“Locking people up on Nauru, being as mean and as cruel to them as possible, has not stopped the boats from coming,” the senator told reporters at a refugee rally in Sydney.

“This empty promise of the government’s that this inhumane policy would stop the boats has failed and it will continue to fail.”

You irresponsible murdering shit. Of course, she’ll get a job at Greens HQ, which will tell people exactly what the Greens stand for.

Tom

14 Oct 12 at 5:45 pm
Gillard has difficulty mustering anything resembling real concern for anybody.

In Western democracies, leaders of both left and right are groomed in special schools and universities. Each country has a system that, over the years, ensures that we end up with presidents and prime ministers that are pretty much purpose-made.

Mark my words: In Australia and the US, Gillard and Obama will be remembered as symbols of the breakdown of the system, when we got leaders of poor moral character and little leadership ability who should have been weeded out. Gillard will be lucky to stay out of gaol.

Tom

14 Oct 12 at 5:56 pm
gab

That false-flag operation is screamingly obvious. Suspect they will have to have people around the rallies spotting the left-wing racists as they infiltrate, just like the Tea party does.

They have been dealing with them for ages now.

Mk50 of Brisbane

14 Oct 12 at 6:14 pm
see http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/gillards-man-problem-20121013-27jul.html

women used to 9% vote more for the libs in the 1960s. Now the other way around

72 per cent always voted for the same party in 1967, this was true of only 52 per cent in 2010.

Jim Rose

14 Oct 12 at 7:31 pm
Hey JC, I didn’t want you to miss this tour de force by the Iron Lady in the House of Commons, a classic beclowning of British socialism in four hilarious minutes, on the occasion of Thatcher’s 87th birthday. Thanks, CL.

Tom

14 Oct 12 at 7:37 pm
Thanks Tom. It was great.

JC

14 Oct 12 at 7:38 pm
see stevec still overly excited about defending gillard. lol

Too many Steves. I stumbled on this movie and believe we should rename him Lars.

Hey, SteveC is with Kimberley, but I’m sure he won’t mind if we refer to her as Bianca as well.

Token

14 Oct 12 at 7:44 pm
Thatcher on credit cards was excellent.

Starts 30seconds in.

She really did have class, unlike this country’s harpy-in-chief.

Gab

14 Oct 12 at 7:44 pm
You want to talk racism? Well, let’s talk about this:

Tom, if you want to get more on that story invest 45min and listen to these interviews with Ann Coulter. She is the only woman I know going around with the intellect and toughness of Maggy Thatcher.

The way she took on and despatched the pack of harpies on the View (US) is legen-[wait for it]-dary

Token

14 Oct 12 at 7:51 pm
You want to talk racism? Well, let’s talk about this:

Check out what modern day democrats do to women in mixed race marriages.

Chelsea Tavares
@ChelseaTavares

@adamhousley @TameraMowryTwo eff The haters!I’m black and my boyfriend is white as well. Were In 2012 not the 1900′s. #teaminterracialcouple

Token

14 Oct 12 at 7:56 pm
Rob @3.12pm

Nope – Swan, Ludwig, Plibersek and Lurch are probably slower.

Nanny Roxon is both out of her depth as Attorney-General and making the sorts of mistakes that open her up to attack in a way that the others aren’t.

H B Bear

14 Oct 12 at 7:56 pm
That false-flag operation is screamingly obvious. Suspect they will have to have people around the rallies spotting the left-wing racists as they infiltrate, just like the Tea party does.

It is no different to the trolls we get who link to sites like Shopfront or launch into homophobic/racist diatribes and then get sooky when we tell them to f**k off.

Token

14 Oct 12 at 7:59 pm
Yeah, Token, the left is inherently racist, and they hate to be called on it.

Which gets back to the point about treating them to their own standards when dealing with them.

Mk50 of Brisbane

14 Oct 12 at 8:51 pm
She’s awesome!

“We haven’t really had a hot president, since like, Kennedy, but we all know how that ended.”

That’s all the endorsement Mitt needs rofl. Young people and why they vote.

Love it.

nilk

14 Oct 12 at 8:57 pm
Mitt rocks twentysomething bimbos. Hilarious, Nilk.

Tom

14 Oct 12 at 9:09 pm
She’s very much a product of her era, Tom, and if you listen there are little nuggets of sense just begging to see the light of day.

It’s painful to watch, but even this “twentysomething bimbo” knows that there’s something not right with the world.

nilk

14 Oct 12 at 9:19 pm
It’s painful to watch

But far more painful to listen to – at least she had ample boozies…

Rabz

14 Oct 12 at 9:28 pm
Florida Board of Education Thinks Blacks are Dumber than Whites.

Really, they do.

Gab

14 Oct 12 at 10:03 pm
Hezbollah’s CFO has fled to Israel taking with him large sum of stolen money, classified documents and maps, local news media reported on Friday.

The news website, Now Lebanon, cited Hezbollah officials saying that the 29-year old telecommunication engineer, Hussein Fahs, has crossed to Israel carrying with him $5 million in embezzled money from the group. Fahs is also head of Hezbollah’s operational communications network.

He’s had enough of the mindless kill the Jews! schtick.

Gab

14 Oct 12 at 10:06 pm
Well well well.

Gillard Labor hates women, loathes the poor:

More than two million Australians in poverty.

The federal government is being urged to increase Newstart payments after a damning new report revealed more than 2.26 million people are living in poverty.

That’s an increase on the poverty rates recorded in 2003 – evidence that successive mining booms and sustained economic growth have done nothing to improve the lives of the nation’s poorest.

The figures show that 575,000 children are living in poverty, and women are more likely to suffer poverty than men.

The Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) released the findings on Sunday in its Poverty Australia report, said to be the most comprehensive snapshot of the nation’s poor since 2006.

C.L.

14 Oct 12 at 10:14 pm
One for Tal:

Chinese scientist says prehistoric man ate pandas.

C.L.

14 Oct 12 at 10:20 pm
Chinese scientist says prehistoric man ate pandas.

Someone has to. Is there a more useless animal?

Fleeced

14 Oct 12 at 10:24 pm
I really hate poverty stats. They are specifically designed to never improve, based as they are on a percentile.

entropy

14 Oct 12 at 10:24 pm
What a truly disgusting hypocritical piece of work.

CHRISTINE Milne has criticised Julia Gillard’s firebrand speech attacking Tony Abbott for perceived sexism, saying it was diminished by Labor’s decision to protect Peter Slipper.

JC

14 Oct 12 at 10:24 pm
“In primitive times, people wouldn’t kill animals that were useless to them” and therefore the pandas must have been used as food.

In primitive times men had their women cover up from head to toe, stoned them to death if they were raped, whacked them in the heat with a projectile if they spoke out against the menfolk, mutilated their genitals…but that was back in primitive times.

Gab

14 Oct 12 at 10:26 pm
I really hate poverty stats. They are specifically designed to never improve, based as they are on a percentile.

They are a crock of shit.

There are plenty of possible objective measures of poverty that could be used.

.

14 Oct 12 at 10:27 pm
Actually, I am wrong. poverty stats can improve. If everyone else stops earning anything.

entropy

14 Oct 12 at 10:29 pm
There are plenty of possible objective measures of poverty that could be used.

Absolute poverty. That’s all that counts.

JC

14 Oct 12 at 10:36 pm
I think Sinc should consider something similar to this for liar-steve® and sundry other leftists

JamesK

14 Oct 12 at 10:47 pm
New Obama ad.

Gab

14 Oct 12 at 11:01 pm
See Paul Sheehan’s latest before Fairfax takes it down:

Abbott suffering a Labor Party stoning.

Tony Abbott is a hack. A dog. An aggressive, carping, bitter, mindless, deceptive, dodgy, mendacious, rancid, negative, nasty, muck-raking, untruthful, obstructionist, opportunistic, sexist, political Neanderthal. He is unfit for high office. He cannot control his temper. No trick is too low for him. No stunt is too wild. He is a bully. A thug. A snake oil salesman. A poster child for vile bully-boy values. He has repulsive double standards. He hates women. He stands for nothing. He has unhealthy obsessions. He is nuts.

Abbott behaves like Jack the Ripper.

He is Gina Rinehart’s butler.

He is Nancy Reagan without the astrology. He is a douchebag.

I’m quoting here, mostly from Hansard. These are not comments from media figures, or feral demonstrators, or dredged up from 10 or even 30 years ago. These are insults delivered this year, by federal Labor MPs, directed at one person, and orchestrated by Julia Gillard. The level of personal insult has been on an industrial scale.

Sheehan goes on to deal with Julia Gillard’s morally criminal behaviour on Australia Day – when her office deliberately organised a race riot.

C.L.

14 Oct 12 at 11:24 pm
Very good CL

Sheehan unleashed – a cv for a post Fauxfacts world.

JamesK

14 Oct 12 at 11:33 pm
And the ugly-on-the-inside gillard throws a hissy fit and demands Abbott withdraw his “piece of work” comment. What a deadset rancid slug she is.

Gab

14 Oct 12 at 11:34 pm
Absolute poverty. That’s all that counts.

They did use that. $358 per week for a single person is the poverty line. Before criticizing something, try reading it. Helps.

Dead Soul

14 Oct 12 at 11:35 pm
Iran scoffs at Israel air defences after drone flight

From: AFP
October 15, 2012 12:21AM

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IRAN has scoffed at Israel’s air defences as it confirmed Tehran had provided Lebanon’s militant group Hezbollah with the sophisticated drone which overflew the Jewish state earlier this month.

Iran’s “capabilities are very high and are at the disposal and service of Islamic nations,” Defence Minister General Ahmad Vahidi said, quoted by state television when questioned on the origins of the unmanned aerial vehicle.

“It is natural to use whatever we have at our disposal at the necessary time to defend the lands of the Islamic world,” the general said. “This move shows that Hezbollah is fully prepared … and will respond to the Zionist regime.”

He said the drone which overflew Israel “shattered everything that was said about the Iron Dome system (Israel’s air defence shield) and it became clear that the Zionist regime can not escape Muslim anger”.

No need to worry, we’ve been assured here that Iranians are “rational”.

Gab

14 Oct 12 at 11:42 pm
Alan Jones should offer a 200k reward for video footage of the CFMEU dinner & joke that that shows any frontbench Labor MP laughing at it.

twostix

14 Oct 12 at 11:55 pm
Someone has to. Is there a more useless animal?

There was a great comical but short lived website touching on that, probably taken down because of protest. “Panda To Go”, promoting take away Panda meat. Panda’s are a dead end, they can barely obtain enough nutrients from the plants they eat.

“In primitive times, people wouldn’t kill animals that were useless to them” and therefore the pandas must have been used as food.

How do we know that?

Dead Soul

15 Oct 12 at 12:12 am
Potemkin’s Village

A system of morality which is based on relative emotional values is… here

Inspired by Keith

Grigory Potemkin

15 Oct 12 at 12:18 am
Given that the IDF had no trouble shooting down the drone, you have to laugh at Iran trying to spin their failed incursion as some sort of victory. A bit like the doctored videos of their missile test.

Cold-Hands

15 Oct 12 at 12:30 am
Revisiting the genius of Clint Eastwood…

Clint Eastwood at RNC – Biden a “grin with a body behind it”.

Nailed.

Video at link.

C.L.

15 Oct 12 at 1:36 am
Pushing stereotype of women in burqas

ANSON Cameron (”How the burqa is wiping the smiles off our faces”, Life & Style, 13/10) felt discriminated against because he saw a woman wearing a burqa in a park. Australia is a democracy, and that means women are free to wear what they like. Cameron’s article says more about him than the young woman who did nothing more than return his rude stare with a bright hello. Cameron makes assumptions about why she wears the burqa, questions her intelligence and freedom, and accuses her of slyness and pride.

He reaches fever pitch when he addresses her as ”park lady” and says she had ”her head in a sack”. What a shame he chose to return her friendliness by publicly stereotyping and vilifying her (and others who choose to wear the burqa), instead of uttering a single word to her in the park. It makes his claim that ”she has judged me without meeting me” laughable.

Susie Latham, Preston

Well, seeing as she’s from Preston, she’s probably used to seeing women in burquas. That’s Sheikh Fehmi’s stomping ground.

nilk

15 Oct 12 at 6:00 am
Nilk, I was astounded that The Age this morning didn’t wheel out the left’s doctrinairians to admonish the wayward Cameron for his insider attack on muslim separatism, which is a key component of the left’s long-term war to destroy Western civilisation by undermining its cultural traditions. However, all that means is that it will come tomorrow or later this week. In the meantime, the Age will “spike” all letters to the editor that agree with him and give headline prominence to those who value muslim separatism’s role in fighting Tony Abbott and why are we victimising those poor Taliban, etc etc etc. Preston, of course, is a new left stronghold that is just up the road from brain-damaged shriekers like Catherine Deveny in Northcote and Brunswick; many a rigged union vote, ALP branch-stacking or Greenpeace campaign was planned over coffee at the Preston Market.

Tom

15 Oct 12 at 6:52 am
Someone at the NYT gets the message that kneepadding for Obama is destroying their brand.

Note: I found this on RealClearPolitics, so many eyeballs will be on this story.

Token

15 Oct 12 at 7:12 am
Remember how Joe Biden claimed during the US VP debate it didn’t matter if Iran got nuclear weapons coz they don’t have the missile techonology to launch the weapons on Israel?

IRAN has scoffed at Israel’s air defences as it confirmed Tehran had provided Lebanon’s militant group Hezbollah with the sophisticated drone which overflew the Jewish state earlier this month.

Token

15 Oct 12 at 7:18 am
MENTAL HEALTH WARNING: If you click on this morning’s Fairfax story about Gillard in Afghanistan, you will find a possibly stomach-turning image of the Australian national government figurehead that will not be easily forgotten.

Tom

15 Oct 12 at 7:20 am
Australia is a democracy, and that means women are free to wear what they like.

Any ‘woman’ encased in that vile symbol of mediaeval bigotry and oppression is not free – I feel affronted even having to make that statement of the bleeding obvious.

That death cult is an absolute f*cking scourge. Everything about it sucks and its adherents are vile, violent brainwashed morons.

Enough.

Rabz

15 Oct 12 at 7:22 am
… you will find a possibly stomach-turning image of the Australian national government figurehead that will not be easily forgotten.

Thanks for the warning, Squire, I won’t be bothering.

Now, about that li’l show on the ALPBC tonight at 9:35 – are you sure you wouldn’t like to have a looksee and report back?

Rabz

15 Oct 12 at 7:26 am
@sdog
You’re absolutely correct about dogs being great judges of character.
Just ask Campbell Newman.

1735099

15 Oct 12 at 7:26 am
A RECOVERY in the iron ore price and signs that China’s economy may be stabilising are giving the Dullard gubberment some respite as it brings together its midyear budget update.

WTF? More magic Yetis on the horizon.

Lookin’ forward to that MYEFO, goose.

Rabz

15 Oct 12 at 7:29 am
Fuck off, spudpeeler!

Rabz

15 Oct 12 at 7:30 am
Alan Jones should offer a 200k reward for video footage of the CFMEU dinner & joke that that shows any frontbench Labor MP laughing at it.

It is about time the Breitbart approach to Lefty lies is put into place in Aus.

Token

15 Oct 12 at 7:30 am
Just ask Campbell Newman.

So the unrepentent Homophobe Numbers went out of his way to prove how small and petty he is.

Bravo, thanks for underline what a ugly sack of hate you are.

How many kids minds did you poison when you were principal? Is that useless bag of hate, inadequacy and idiocy Swan one of students?

Token

15 Oct 12 at 7:37 am
Yep, the strategy has been so successful, it’s now “time to move on”…

Climate Change Monster Dreg Zombet says it’s now time to “move on”. Finance Monster Wendy Pong says she wants to “focus on things that are important to Australians” and Laybore senator David Feeble is busy rewriting history, saying that it was the opposition (and Alan Jones) who “started it”.

This humiliating backdown brought to you by the worst government in Australia’s history.

Keep yabbering, dickheads.

Rabz

15 Oct 12 at 7:57 am
Now, about that li’l show on the ALPBC tonight at 9:35 – are you sure you wouldn’t like to have a looksee and report back?

Yes, Rabz, I’m sure you’d wish that on me just for sport! It’s time someone exposed how Q&A rigs its audience to turn it into Communism Today. Warrior Princess Gab can’t stomach it, either. However, JC quite likes commentating on the way the Fat Green Idiot uses our tax dollars to demonise Gina, TA, employers, etc. I expect he’ll be there tonight with bells on.

Tom

15 Oct 12 at 7:58 am
I expect he’ll be there tonight with bells on.

Yep, good ol’ JC – revelling in the utter communist absurdity.

That’s what I call taking one for the team.

Rabz

15 Oct 12 at 8:07 am
Great news people!

The semenblogger seems to have sodded off.

Here’s hoping…

Rabz

15 Oct 12 at 8:10 am
Looks like the Sun King is going to have a tough time in the coming debate:

After David Axelrod’s repeated assurances this morning on Fox News Sunday that “there isn’t anybody on this planet” who feels a greater sense of responsibility for our diplomats than this President, Chris Wallace asked how soon after the Benghazi attacks the President actually met with his national security team.

Wallace followed up on Axelrod’s non-answer by asking whether the President managed to squeeze in a meeting with the National Security Council before jetting off to Las Vegas for a campaign rally. Given Axelrod’s inability to produce a straightforward answer to the questions, it’s pretty clear the answer is “no.”

Token

15 Oct 12 at 8:10 am
Rabz, I just donated a page view to Dogshit Today to find out:

“I need to take a couple of weeks off from blogging, and start reading of an evening instead.”

In other words, the human turd plans to return.

Tom

15 Oct 12 at 8:18 am
I just donated a page view to Dogshit Today

Aha! More selfless heroism on your part.

Anyway, at least we’ll get a couple of weeks respite – but I don’t think he’ll be able to last that long.

As noted, he suffers from a bizarre sociopathic illness.

Rabz

15 Oct 12 at 8:21 am
Something that seems to be being missed in the Benghazi issue is the intent of the video diversion.

That wasn’t about providing a distraction, although it had that effect to some extent.

I can’t even credit the idea that it was designed to deflect attention from a failure of policy, so bluntly, so blatantly.

No, the administration wanted that video out there, in the consciousness of its own and other western societies.

And it got the reaction – even in Australia – that it set out to achieve, in the violent protests that followed.

Even if the whole thing is shown to be a set up, the impulsive reaction to that video and its promotion is now written into the experience of our communities. It will have effects on into the future, few of them good.

Driftforge

15 Oct 12 at 8:23 am
Hmmm, with the Minister for Taking Offence on Q&A, it’s going to be tough for the “comedian”. I guess he’ll be limited to doing TA jokes.

Keith

15 Oct 12 at 8:26 am
The ever readable Brendan O’Neill on the hysteria surrounding revelations relating to a deceased BBC dinosaur.

Seems O’Neill has a problem with feminayzees as well.

Rabz

15 Oct 12 at 8:33 am
No, the administration wanted that video out there, in the consciousness of its own and other western societies.

And it got the reaction – even in Australia – that it set out to achieve, in the violent protests that followed

If you dig into the details of Fast & the Furious, the officers involved note there is a similar intent underlying that failed project.

Think about it.

Eric Holder & senior US admin staff initiated a project where gun dealers were ordered/threatened to facilitate organised criminals to get guns in Mexico, which resulted in 1 US Marshall & up to 200 Mexicans being killed.

Similarly, how many US embassies across the Mid East were invaded as a reaction to the US admin’s actions to facilitate the video being circulated.

Token

15 Oct 12 at 8:45 am
I guess he’ll be limited to doing TA jokes.

Lucky for him that is his whole repotoir.

Charlie Pickering is repeating Mikey Robins career. Funny guys who get lazy getting easy laughs from lefties by bashing conservatives.

Token

15 Oct 12 at 8:48 am
A New York Times campaign correspondent has said that Romney’s crowds are bigger than Obama’s in 2008. Romney leads among independents, leads in key swing states and is ahead nationally according to Rasmussen and Gallop.

Odd that the love media have ceased referring to his “flagging campaign,” huh?

C.L.

15 Oct 12 at 8:49 am
Ignoring the great success of the Chicago Cap and Trade, the Chicago Climate Exchange, the Democratic Republic of Communist California will outdo their Chicago counterparts. The mantra being “yeah, they failed but we can do corruption better”.

A Grand Experiment to Rein In Climate Change

Bought to you, without a word of the Chicago Climate Exchange success, by the ~~New York~~ Fairfax Times.

Rudiau

15 Oct 12 at 8:50 am
Fauxfacts Deathwatch

FFS, would someone, anyone, please bring this utter farce to a long overdue end?

Gina?

Rabz

15 Oct 12 at 8:57 am
Breaker Morant – the sequel:

ABC Online: British Marines charged with murdering terrorist.

Five British Royal Marines have been charged with murdering ~~an insurgent~~ a terrorist in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province last year.

Video footage found on a serviceman’s laptop shows members of 3 Commando Brigade standing around a Taliban fighter as he lay injured on the ground.

They reportedly discuss what to do with him, then the video is said to cut out.

An expert suggests they must receive life sentences to placate the Taliban:

“We know that the Taliban monitor our media all the time, and so they will clearly make the most of this, as will some of the warlord networks like the Haqqani network in the north,” he said.

What rule did they shoot him under?

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

C.L.

15 Oct 12 at 8:57 am
Arrrggghhh – apologies, Rudi…

Rabz

15 Oct 12 at 8:57 am
FFS, don’t let it happen again.

Rudiau

15 Oct 12 at 9:04 am
I’m not sure I want to fly again in the US until they get this out of control agency sorted.

Dana Loesch
@DLoesch

I was denied a public screening by the TSA. They forced me into a private room and what they did would be molestation anywhere else.

Dana Loesch
@DLoesch

I was not allowed an additional witness and TSA refused me a public screening. I recited the rules as per their website and still refused.

Read this and find out what she meant by molestation.

Token

15 Oct 12 at 9:11 am
How’s his form?

And how long did Combet’s resolution to stop name-calling last? Ooh, about 30 seconds:

Asked whether he thought Mr Abbott was a misogynist, Mr Combet said: ‘He’s a very aggressive, arrogant sort of fellow and he likes to lead a lynch mob.’

Gab

15 Oct 12 at 9:16 am
The Republicans have learned from hard experience to put pressure on the MSM/Obama shills who are debate moderators.

Last week Martha Raddadz’s history was put out to the world. This week they are putting on record the Candy Crawley’s track record:

This is the same woman who eulogized Kennedy by dismissing Mary Jo Kopechne like this:

It’s an imperfect story of an often reckless young man who lived hard and as a U.S. senator drove a car off a bridge after a party, killing a young campaign aide.

Imperfect story? And he didn’t just kill her by driving off a bridge; Kennedy left her to suffocate to death.

In the Senate was redemption. In the Senate, the dream came alive.

Whose dream? Kopechne’s?

Eventually, someone will fill the Senate seat of Edward Moore Kennedy, but there’s pretty much universal agreement that nobody — family or friend — can take his place.

And how do we know she’s on Obama’s side? Try this: in June of this year, defending Obama’s national security leaks, Crowley actually said, “Usually you kind of give the President a pass on leaking confidential stuff.”

No one should give Crowley a pass on anything.

We need to do the same in the lead up to the debates at the next Aus election.

Token

15 Oct 12 at 9:25 am
Bolta has gone biblical in his metaphors.

Good work.

Token

15 Oct 12 at 9:28 am
From Bolt.

Amanda Vanstone:

Julia Gillard has also, for a long time, been doing one thing and expecting a different standard from others. Is there a day that goes by when she fails to accuse Tony Abbott of being negative? She is allowed to be relentlessly negative about him, but we are not to see her as being negative. It is an old ruse.

She seeks to portray Abbott as sexist and misogynistic. These are offensive allegations. She gets away with it because she portrays herself as the defender of all women. In fact, she is simply seeking to denigrate her male opponent in a way that can only be done by a woman to a man. It is a clever tactic. Tell women you are their defender and he is the enemy.

Gillard is doing to Abbott precisely what sexist men to do women – she is using his gender (and in this case his religious views) to put him down.

So when gillard gets praise (from her acolytes in the meeja) it’s not because she’s female. But when she receives criticism, it’s because she’s female. No, no double standard there, no hypocrisy at all.

Gab

15 Oct 12 at 9:37 am
As I said before, there was something wrong with the earlier polling data for Pennsylvania. The data were far too Obama-friendly. Now RealClearPolitics has the state in the “toss-up” group:

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2012/president/2012_elections_electoral_college_map.html

Julian O'Dea

15 Oct 12 at 9:49 am
Julian, if Romney takes the lead in Pennsylvania it’s curtains for Obama. I’m really surprised Penn is in-play.

dover_beach

15 Oct 12 at 9:54 am
dover beach

One headline I glanced at said the election might be decided in Colorado, which only has 9 electoral votes. This seems to imply a very close election.

As for the bimbo in the above video, I guess you could say that she is rooting for Romney.

Julian O'Dea

15 Oct 12 at 10:01 am
Julian, the Republicans are not going to win Pennsylvania where people return from the grave to vote Democrat in large #:

Last month, City Commissioner Al Schmidt, a Republican, issued a 27-page report on irregularities he found in a sample of Philadelphia precincts during this year’s primary. The report, which looked at only 1 percent of the city’s 1,687 districts, found cases of double voting, voter impersonation, and voting by non-citizens, as well as 23 people who were not registered to vote but nonetheless voted. Schmidt also found reports of people who were counted as voting in the wrong party’s primary.

“We did not set out to quantify the magnitude of voting irregularities that occurred, but rather to analyze them in detail,” his report stated. “Nevertheless, we identified hundreds of cases of voting irregularities [in select precincts] that warrant further investigation.”

Just in case you have heard the canard that voter ID laws are put in place to stop blacks voting, here is a high profile case disputing this:

But it turns out the state machinery for helping such exceptional cases is not, as Democrats claimed, devoted to suppressing the vote. Last week, Ms. Applewhite, accompanied by a reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer showed up at Department of Motor Vehicles office in the city and asked for a photo ID. She got one with no fuss and without any evidence that the clerks there had any idea who she was (perhaps civil service employees are too busy there to read the Times or other newspapers). Ms. Applewhite was delighted and said it showed that all you need to succeed is “to just keep trying.” She’s right but her erstwhile sponsors were not so pleased as community activists challenging the law reacted with cynicism and disappointment to learn that their claim that the law was intended to arbitrarily prevent honest citizens from voting was effectively debunked. But that hasn’t stopped Democrats from continuing to cast aspersions on the law as racist and to pretend that there is no such thing as voter fraud, even in Philadelphia.

Token

15 Oct 12 at 10:02 am
I’m not sure I want to fly again in the US until they get this out of control agency sorted.

TonyMontana3 • 5 hours ago

This is what happens when you vote GOP.

Jack Deth • 4 hours ago • parent

Tony, you are obviously too stupid to breathe and hopefully, breed.

Bush managed to keep TSA non-union, With Federal background checks and within Federal standards and guidelines. Until the Dems took over the House and Senate and made opening TSA up to unions their third or fourth order of business. Later, Obama relaxed those standards even more to include felons and parolees.

It’s no wonder you get so seriously down voted.

Fmd.

Rudiau

15 Oct 12 at 10:05 am
FFS, would someone, anyone, please bring this utter farce to a long overdue end?
Gina?

Rabz, Gina is too busy trying to contribute to Ten’s downfall.

SteveC

15 Oct 12 at 10:06 am
So McTernan ordered Gillard to Afghanistan to look ‘prime ministerial.’

She hates most of the men there, of course.

C.L.

15 Oct 12 at 10:20 am
whoah

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444032404578010552215377098.html

Chinese officials no longer treat Mr. Zhang as a pariah. He reports that Ministry of Agriculture officials tell him they enjoy reading his articles. Other ministries and local governments, including in Henan and Liaoning provinces, invite him to speak. He says that when he recently wrote an article praising the late Austrian economist Murray Rothbard, the Communist Party secretary of Shanghai—a fairly high-level apparatchik—told him he liked it.

jtfsoon

15 Oct 12 at 10:20 am
Steve, I don’t think you quite appreciate the seriousness of the fauxfacts situation.

The end days are very near.

Rabz

15 Oct 12 at 10:21 am
Henry Ergas succintly summarises the effects of Labor’s plan to ramp up tax on super:

But that outcome was entirely predictable: for the magic of compound interest cuts both ways. Steal from retirement savings today and by the time retirement comes, the income shortfall will have been multiplied many times over.

Yet that is exactly what our redistribution lobby now demands. Far from fixing the serious deficiencies in our retirement incomes system, they would plunder it to continue the wasteful public spending of the recent past. That their manifestly erroneous claims have gone virtually unchallenged shows the depths to which policy-making in this country has sunk.

Token

15 Oct 12 at 10:21 am
As for the bimbo in the above video…

Zeeeeexist!

Rabz

15 Oct 12 at 10:22 am
Julia the bikers mole.
Michael Smith puts the AWU scandal in layman’s language.

Rudiau

15 Oct 12 at 10:23 am
He says that when he recently wrote an article praising the late Austrian economist Murray Rothbard, the Communist Party secretary of Shanghai—a fairly high-level apparatchik—told him he liked it.

With a population of 1.5 Billion which economic model is more realistic?

The Western welfare state or the Austrian model?

Token

15 Oct 12 at 10:23 am
From the WSJ article Jason linked to:

Ultimately, Beijing’s stimulus fed a false investment boom that stoked asset bubbles—then the morphine wore off while the government tightened. Officials claim the economy grew at 7.6% year-on-year between April and June this year. Skeptics think the real number is closer to 4%. (One London research house says 1%.) Meanwhile, industries dominated or favored by the state, such as steel or solar power, are idling from overcapacity. Countless sheets of copper are reportedly stacked in warehouses, blocking doorways and exemplifying Hayek’s notion of “malinvestment.”

In other words, the stimulus was a poster child for Mr. Zhang’s Austrian theories. And the sheer size of the failure suddenly has people paying attention. “The Keynesian policy didn’t deliver what it promised,” he says, so “more and more people realize that . . . when the government makes investment [in] something that’s useless, recession will come.”

I remember thinking as read Rothbart’s view on imperialism & 20th century history that his rejection of the worst of the progressive agenda of the late 19th & 20th century would be an advantage in east Asians societies looking for a post-Marxist solution.

Token

15 Oct 12 at 10:28 am
east Asian societies looking for a post-Marxist solution.

We’ll need a “post-marxist solution” to be implemented here once these indescribable imbeciles are turfed…

Rabz

15 Oct 12 at 10:33 am
When you’ve got a problem – get into khaki.

Mission accomplished.

H B Bear

15 Oct 12 at 10:37 am
Let’s hope Snow Cone Tone has the thermostat on the Q&A pie warmer adjusted right. Otherwise things could get ugly.

H B Bear

15 Oct 12 at 10:42 am
We’ll need a “post-marxist solution” to be implemented here once these indescribable imbeciles are turfed…

We need the majority of our society to reject the regressive reactionary politics of the “Progressive” movement first.

China/Taiwan/Korea have the advantage of not having their economies crippled by entrenched welfare state policies.

Token

15 Oct 12 at 10:43 am
An interesting solution to one of my media pet-peeves, the post-publication stealth-editing of news articles online:

NewsDiffs | Tracking Online News Over Time

“NewsDiffs, which was born out of the Knight Mozilla MIT hackathon in June 2012, is trying to solve the problem of archiving news in the constantly evolving world of online journalism.”

Currently they only track a handful of sites, but I’d love to see them expand that, especially to Australia where the issue of articles being stealth-edited or even outright disappeared, all with no explanation or acknowledgement, seems endemic.

sdog

15 Oct 12 at 10:56 am
So McTernan ordered Gillard to Afghanistan to look ‘prime ministerial.’

Lol

Rudiau

15 Oct 12 at 10:56 am
Gillard tells troops in Afghanistan the defence budget has been slashed to 1938 budget levels.

Gab

15 Oct 12 at 11:00 am
“So, you married with kids?”

Gab

15 Oct 12 at 11:03 am
Yesterday, I thought Greg Dumbet was merely hypcritical, now Bolt highlights the stupid on SkyNews :

People outside politics would ‘prefer politicians to get off name-calling and get on with the business of government’, he (Dumbet) said.

Asked whether he thought Mr Abbott was a misogynist, Mr Combet said: ‘He’s a very aggressive, arrogant sort of fellow and he likes to lead a lynch mob.’

Note to the slow learners and leftards (but I repeat myself) – I don’t mean to be insulting of Greg, but he’s simply not sentient. My earlier judgement (hypocrite) was based on a false assumption. You might think my new conclusion is adhom, but I can only go by the evidence.

Keith

15 Oct 12 at 11:04 am
The change in ownership from the Crikey empire doesn’t seem to have changed the worldview at Business Spectator:

Neoclassical economists are fuelling neo-Nazism

I will leave the obvious quips alone, in the interests of good taste.

Myrrdin Seren

15 Oct 12 at 11:11 am
That’s a funny picture, I think Ms Gillard wants to hug the hunky fellow, not the girls, she’s batting her eyelashes at him even.

For heaven’s sake, she’s more than old enough to be his mother!

candy

15 Oct 12 at 11:11 am
sdog,

I’d be happy just to see some standards for webpage meta data, particularly – date created, and date modified. Standards do exist, but they’re almost universally not followed. Diffing is a good solution but doesn’t tell you exactly when it happened, which is usually an important part of the ~~cover-up~~ story.

Keith

15 Oct 12 at 11:11 am
Inspired by Keith

Awww shucks, Thanks Grigory

Keith

15 Oct 12 at 11:15 am
I notice there was no bipartisan invitation by Gillard/McTernan extended to Abbott to join her on this trip to Afganistan.

Last trip in 2010:
“I extended the invitation to Tony Abbott to accompany me to Afghanistan,” the Prime Minister said at the time. “I thought that was a good way to indicate bipartisanship.”

Rudiau

15 Oct 12 at 11:39 am
“I extended the invitation to Tony Abbott to accompany me to Afghanistan,” the Prime Minister said at the time. “I thought that was a good way to indicate bipartisanship.”

She did so knowing that he was already going over, that he was forbidden from saying so and then used that to fabricate her first thugocratic political attack on him.

“Bitter evil Tony Abbott hates the troops won’t fly with Gillard prefers to go to the UK” was the thrust of it.

The first of her many disgusting abuses of power and gutter politics as PM.

All fully endorsed by the Press Gallery and much of the media and trolls here.

twostix

15 Oct 12 at 11:51 am
Gillard’s ‘surprise’ visit to Afghanistan. Another McTernan damage-control moment. Orders: Get in there with the troops and show you can cut it with some tough burly hairy guys. Got to get rid of all this girly sexism stuff pronto.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

15 Oct 12 at 12:02 pm
She did so knowing that he was already going over, that he was forbidden from saying so and then used that to fabricate her first thugocratic political attack on him.

When Abbott is PM watch the Liars Party & Stenographers wail as they lament the loss of bi-partisanship in Australian politics.

Oh for the civility of the Gillard government they’ll say as they shake their fists at the nasty conservatives.

Token

15 Oct 12 at 12:03 pm
Gillard’s ‘surprise’ visit to Afghanistan. Another McTernan damage-control moment.

Its simpler than that Lizzie, after her blunders last week they had to get her out of the country ASAP.

The ALP goes up in the polls when Gillard shuts up and gets out of the country.

The ALP plummets back down once Gillard returns and puts on another shrill performance to the cheers of the Stenographers.

Token

15 Oct 12 at 12:05 pm
Noted ALPBC taxeating twit eric shambles beclowns himself.

Courtesy of good ol’ twatter…

Rabz

15 Oct 12 at 12:07 pm
She did so knowing that he was already going over, that he was forbidden from saying so and then used that to fabricate her first thugocratic political attack on him.

http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/column_gillard_may_mock_but_abbott_now_in_danger

Ivan Denisovich

15 Oct 12 at 12:08 pm
Keith, this one at least shows some time ranges of changes, it looks like. For instance, this NYT piece was changed several times – difference between 4:48pm and 5:49pm; difference between 5:49pm and 7:20pm. It’s something, anyway. Maybe if news orgs know they’re being watched, they’ll be more honest about their edits in future?

As it is now, you see it happen so often that someone calls attention (via Twitter or a blog) to a ridiculously biased headline or sentence, then a few hour later it’s been stealth-edited and everyone’s like – “what are you talking about, they do not say what you said they said!!!” Or of course, sometimes a whole article just goes down the memory-hole *and* wiped from Google’s cache, so unless someone’s thought to take a screen shot it’s like it never happened.

But then, I’m Gen-X and still remember the pre-iPad days when the words you read in the morning paper over breakfast were still there, unchanged, that afternoon or evening. Maybe Gen-Y and beyond are/will be more comfortable with “the new dynamism” of news as it is today, where words can be unsaid and history undone or completely changed without notice.

sdog

15 Oct 12 at 12:10 pm
One must ask, who created the environment that allows the Gillard Government and Labor to operate such a disgusting campaign that has reached the low, low level that we’ve seen last week?

How was it allowed to get so bad? Where was the media?

It helps to realise that when Gillard pulled her first disgraceful stunt lying about Abbott going to Afghanistan that she was cheered on for her cleverness and the media gleefully ran cover for their fresh wonderful newly “elected” female PM – shoveling damnation upon Abbott. Once the reality came out was there a retraction or apology? No.

They did help to cover up then not follow up on the race riot that her office intentionally started by cynically manipulating a group of Aboriginals into violently protesting against Abbott on Australia Day for the optics it would provide. What about those SMS’s Mcturnan sent to the Press Gallery on the day?

They did spend twelve months refusing to not publish anything about her seedy past – simply because she told them not to, then killed the story – simply because she said there was nothing to answer for.

Surely it is they, just as much as anyone who must take responsibility for Gillard falling to the levels she has? And as an extension when the ALP are wiped out at the next election.

They have spent two years egging her on in her destruction of the party. The question is do they, as Gillard spent much of her life advocating for, dislike the ALP and wish it would die so a true far left party will rise in it’s place?

twostix

15 Oct 12 at 12:10 pm
But then, I’m Gen-X and still remember the pre-iPad days when the words you read in the morning paper over breakfast were still there, unchanged, that afternoon or evening.

Yep – that’s why I photocopied and PDFd the Glenn Milne piece “PM a lost cause for warring unions” from the front page of the dead tree edition of the Oz.

No ‘disappearing’ allowed in that instance…

Rabz

15 Oct 12 at 12:13 pm
he question is do they, as dullard spent much of her life advocating for, dislike the ALP and wish it would die so a true far left party will rise in it’s place?

That’s an interesting observation. If you didn’t know any better you’d assume the presstitutes are hoping to create a schism in the ALP.

Given the absolute pasting the ALP is going to cop at the next election, I think its destruction is inevitable. The left will be booted – the current structure of the ALP is untenable. The unions must also be sidelined, by legislation if necessary. Their current role in political process is in my opinion nothing short of a criminal conflict of interest.

Do “they” need a new far left party though? That’s what the f*cking greenies are.

Rabz

15 Oct 12 at 12:22 pm
One must ask, who created the environment that allows the Gillard Government and Labor to operate such a disgusting campaign that has reached the low, low level that we’ve seen last week?

Do you remember the stories about how amoral Ramjan & the Left were when kids in student politics? That is your answer.

As I read her endless games it brought back memories of my time in a similar environment.

Student politics is squalid and as it is unsupervised the left learn there how to squander public money (student union fees) and use committees and all the tools of the modern bureaucracy to hide the crimes & evidence.

Sure it is for small change, but if you know how fraud occurs, it always starts small amounts and once it is proven that it is not caught it grows…

PS: Check out Bunyip’s column about Laurie Oakes. This reminds us taht the Stenographers were kids once and like M0nty they were participants on one side or the other (nearly all the other).

Token

15 Oct 12 at 12:24 pm
This is beautiful: The Anti-flirt Club, Washington D.C. (1923).

Memo Julia:

4. Don’t go out with men you don’t know—they may be married, and you may be in for a hair-pulling match.

(via Retronaut)

(if someone wants to send that to Blair or Bunyip, go for it – my email’s munted tonight)

sdog

15 Oct 12 at 12:32 pm
And this is what the neo-wowsers of the modern Labor Party remind me of:

http://www.retronaut.co/2012/10/lips-that-touch-liquor-must-never-touch-mine/

sdog

15 Oct 12 at 12:38 pm
What the???

Via Bunyip’s latest, I’ve just discovered to my horror that one of the current slapper and gordon directors is my cousin!

The shame, people, the shame…

Rabz

15 Oct 12 at 12:39 pm
Keith, Sdog,

For the past 30 years, newspaper publishing computer systems have specifically indentified story “versions” from one to whatever, but that ID system has not been carried over into the story metadata of the systems of the past 15-20 years. There are lot of really stupid reasons why that hasn’t happened. Every story running through a publishing system will have potentially dozens of versions which anyone should be able to access providing it has a “published” tick (and doesn’t have legal issues). Updating online copy is a constant problem from the other side of the consumer-producer interface. No-one’s trying to hide anything; it’s just that publishing systems are a chaotic dog’s breakfast of lack of planning and constant loss of corporate memory from virtually continuous rounds of golden handshakes.

Tom

15 Oct 12 at 12:42 pm
I’ve just discovered to my horror that one of the current slapper and gordon directors is my cousin!

Moderators, Moderators.. a banning is needed… guilt by association.

Rudiau

15 Oct 12 at 12:44 pm
this is what the neo-wowsers of the modern Laybore Pardee remind me of

Spot, is that Squire Turnbull in the photo pointing at the sign?

Rabz

15 Oct 12 at 12:45 pm
Moderators, Moderators.. a banning is needed… guilt by association.

Nooooooooo!!!!!!

Rabz

15 Oct 12 at 12:46 pm
Re Gillar’s visit to Afghanistan

She is booked into a 3 day visit to India so it makes sense to surprise visit the troops.

Re destruction of the ALP

I haven’t noticed any introspection in the NSW and QLD branches after their apocalyptic results so I doubt we’ll see much movement away from Union dominance.

All the decent, old school labor people have left in disgust over the years. Even my old Dad, was a kid during the depression his father was a brickie so he had stuff all work and didn’t grow veges for fun, brought up in Guildford (very very working class area in Sydney) old school labor but gave up on them after Keating became PM.

Think back to the Hawke period – those Ministers were the real deal, Barry Jones had lots of ideas even if they were a bit ‘funny’. His seat was gifted to Gillard. Which tells the tale.

DaveF

15 Oct 12 at 12:47 pm
It is, indeed, Rabz! Good catch! lol

sdog

15 Oct 12 at 12:48 pm
Do “they” need a new far left party though? That’s what the f*cking greenies are.

Consider you’re a typical green leftist MSM “journalist”.

You’re constantly in agreement with the Greens on political and social issues and are often bitterly frustrated by the ALP selling out or “losing” on the issues but realise it’s currently the only electable left wing party.

Or is it? Following Twitter one soon realises that most green leftist dickheads think The Greens would go really, really well if only it wasn’t for the bumbling useless Labor Party getting in the way.

Gillard spent years running a group whose basic reason for creation was in response to exactly that line of thinking regarding the ALP vs the commies. The underlying premise of the Socialist Forum was that the commies would never get anywhere in Australia so long as the ALP stood in the way – either it had to be demolished or taken over. Gillard herself wrote at least one (embarrasingly childish) paper on how best to achieve that for the “far left” – as she referred to herself and the readers.

twostix

15 Oct 12 at 12:50 pm
And this is what the neo-wowsers of the modern Labor Party remind me of:

http://www.retronaut.co/2012/10/lips-that-touch-liquor-must-never-touch-mine/

There isn’t enough liquor in creation to create any such lustful desires with that lot.
In other words they nothing to lose making that statement.

Rudiau

15 Oct 12 at 12:55 pm
Following Twitter one soon realises that most green leftist dickheads think The Greens would go really, really well if only it wasn’t for the bumbling useless Labor Party getting in the way.

There’s a good reason why the left doesn’t have economic power: it destroys economies. The human trash riding with the ruling clash in the current nanosecond will be roadkill in a few months. We need patience, but a strong resolve that, out of self-preservation, the left is never again in our lifetime allowed near the national treasury.

Tom

15 Oct 12 at 1:00 pm
Larry Pickering alludes Gillard was boofing Peter Gordon of S&G as well.

Peter Gordon (ex-partner of both Slater & Gordon and Julia Gillard)

I hadn’t heard that before. Another one!

DaveF

15 Oct 12 at 1:01 pm
New song from The Rolling Stones:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPFGWVKXxm0

Pretty damned good.

C.L.

15 Oct 12 at 1:05 pm
Brain Teaser

The ANN-225 sounds like an amazing aircraft, however, the important question here is could it take off if it sat on a giant conveyer belt that moved in the opposite direction and at the exact same speed of the plane’s wheels?

No google cheating.

Rudiau

15 Oct 12 at 1:05 pm
No-one’s trying to hide anything

Yes they are, sometimes.

In the example I gave above, the NYT stealthily went in and “toned down” some of their rhetoric after copping some social media flack for the original version.

Is it old-fashioned of me to believe that they shouldn’t have published what they published in the first place unless they were willing to stand behind it and defend it? Or openly and transparently correct any errors of fact? Online publishing has given them the power to take stealth “do-overs” whenever they want.

Instead of discussion and defusing criticism with more words, they just went in and stealth-edited it so that anyone who complained looked like a berk, since by two or three revisions later the things people had complained about simply weren’t there anymore.

Here’s another more egregious example (again, from the Times) where the final result bears little resemblance to the original version. The first version was just laughably, openly biased against Romney; the later version got toned down quite a bit after criticism.

sdog

15 Oct 12 at 1:07 pm
There isn’t enough liquor in creation to create any such lustful desires with that lot.

*coughNannyRoxoncough*

sdog

15 Oct 12 at 1:11 pm
And this is what the neo-wowsers of the modern Labor Party remind me of:

http://www.retronaut.co/2012/10/lips-that-touch-liquor-must-never-touch-mine/

Hmmm… cam’t imagine ethose that hadn’t touched liquor being inclined to, but whatevs.

It does remind me of the old NSW cancer council campaigns of the 80′s. They used to have stickers, “Kiss a non-smoker. Enjoy the difference”.

Fleeced

15 Oct 12 at 1:12 pm
Instead of discussion and defusing criticism with more words, they just went in and stealth-edited it so that anyone who complained looked like a berk, since by two or three revisions later the things people had complained about simply weren’t there anymore.

Here’s another more egregious example (again, from the Times) where the final result bears little resemblance to the original version. The first version was just laughably, openly biased against Romney; the later version got toned down quite a bit after criticism.

I’ve noticed papers do that with their online headlines.

They post inflamatory ridiculously biased (usually to the left) headlines during the day but then come 5pm you check back to find a much more moderate headline on a story, presumably for the benefit of the suburban mums and dads who will read the site in the evening and would choke at the day time headline.

During the day they pander to the university, public servant and white collar professional classes (a group who also make up the “twitterverse”). Which feeds the online media delusion that this group is some sort of representation or voice of larger society.

twostix

15 Oct 12 at 1:18 pm
The ANN-225 sounds like an amazing aircraft, however, the important question here is could it take off if it sat on a giant conveyer belt that moved in the opposite direction and at the exact same speed of the plane’s wheels?

Lift is required for takeoff and lift is generated by airflow over the wing. Therefore, if the aircraft is not moving through the air, no lift is generated and it will not get airborne.

Huckleberry Chunkwot

15 Oct 12 at 1:23 pm
The ANN-225 sounds like an amazing aircraft, however, the important question here is could it take off if it sat on a giant conveyer belt that moved in the opposite direction and at the exact same speed of the plane’s wheels?

Yes it could. Uh-huh. No doubt at all. Physics and stuff proves it.

Gab

15 Oct 12 at 1:28 pm
Tom,

If they’re not trying to hide anything, then they should at minimum have the courtesy to stick ‘revised’ with date on the story They’re already changing it, so it wouldn’t be too hard or time consuming to do so.
I take your point however, that many content management systems are not terribly good at versioning, but most are pretty good at providing metadata to the webpage, if they’re allowed to do so.

Keith

15 Oct 12 at 1:31 pm
Lift is required for takeoff and lift is generated by airflow over the wing. Therefore, if the aircraft is not moving through the air, no lift is generated and it will not get airborne.

And while the conditions set do allow for airflow over the wing, it seems unlikely that there would be sufficient outside of storm level winds.

Unless the jets exhaust over the wings?

Driftforge

15 Oct 12 at 1:35 pm
No-one’s trying to hide anything

Yes they are, sometimes.

Unintended published pics?
Tom posted an article this morning on Gillards Afganistan trip which featured this unflattering pic of the PM.
The pic has been pulled and doesn’t appear in their library of pics on the trip.
I found it in google images and expect it will be pulled from there as well some time soon.

Rudiau

15 Oct 12 at 1:36 pm
Don’t worry Rabz, I’m sure the stigma will wear off in, oh, a couple of generations.

Keith

15 Oct 12 at 1:39 pm
Yes it could. Uh-huh. No doubt at all. Physics and stuff proves it.

As i said yesterday “Brute Force”

For mine, a good explanation here.

Rudiau

15 Oct 12 at 1:43 pm
Brain Teaser

The ANN-225 sounds like an amazing aircraft, however, the important question here is could it take off if it sat on a giant conveyer belt that moved in the opposite direction and at the exact same speed of the plane’s wheels?

No google cheating.

Yes it would, the plane would move forward regardless of the rotational speed of the conveyor and would move forward in relation to the amount of thrust generated by the jets or prop, because the forward motion is caused by the jet thrust not the driven wheel it will go forward.

It is simply answered by considering if pushed in the

Old Fridgie

15 Oct 12 at 1:44 pm
And yes, I did cheat.

Rudiau

15 Oct 12 at 1:45 pm
Disregard the last line please…

Old Fridgie

15 Oct 12 at 1:45 pm
Yes it would, the plane would move forward regardless of the rotational speed of the conveyor and would move forward in relation to the amount of thrust generated by the jets or prop, because the forward motion is caused by the jet thrust not the driven wheel it will go forward.

You are correct.

Rudiau

15 Oct 12 at 1:47 pm
@ Rudi, from the link that you provided, the wording of the riddle makes it fall into the paradox category.

Huckleberry Chunkwot

15 Oct 12 at 1:55 pm
Antonov AN-225 is a 6 engine cargo lifter. Only 1 example exists that is used. A second exists but is incomplete.

The Antonov AN-124 is 4 engined cargo lifter. There are a number of these flying.

Mike of Marion

15 Oct 12 at 2:03 pm
@ Rudi, from the link that you provided, the wording of the riddle makes it fall into the paradox category.

It’s a banned topic on XKCD now

For some reason the blog keeps rejecting the link, so google “XKCD The Goddamn Airplane on the Goddamn Treadmill” or try http://tinyurl.com/ykbkug3

sdog

15 Oct 12 at 2:05 pm
@ Rudi,from the link that you provided, the wording of the riddle makes it fall into the paradox category.

Agreed, as the author points out.

As you point out, one problem here is the wording of the question. Your version straightforwardly states that the conveyor moves backward at the same rate that the plane moves forward. If the plane’s forward speed is 100 miles per hour, the conveyor rolls 100 MPH backward, and the wheels rotate at 200 MPH. Assuming you’ve got Indy-car-quality tires and wheel bearings, no problem. However, some versions put matters this way: “The conveyer belt is designed to exactly match the speed of the wheels at any given time, moving in the opposite direction of rotation.” This language leads to a paradox: If the plane moves forward at 5 MPH, then its wheels will do likewise, and the treadmill will go 5 MPH backward. But if the treadmill is going 5 MPH backward, then the wheels are really turning 10 MPH forward. But if the wheels are going 10 MPH forward . . . Soon the foolish have persuaded themselves that the treadmill must operate at infinite speed. Nonsense. The question thus stated asks the impossible — simply put, that A = A + 5 — and so cannot be framed in this way. Everything clear now? Maybe not. But believe this: The plane takes off.

Rudiau

15 Oct 12 at 2:09 pm
I’m surprised they didn’t fill it in and plant cactus – that’s what they’ve done to most of the fountains on the campus.

kae

15 Oct 12 at 2:17 pm
These poor sods will be sent to reeducation camp, er, cultural awareness classes.

There they’ll learn that it’s possible to upset anyone at any time by doing anything.

Might as well just give up.

kae

15 Oct 12 at 2:19 pm
Um, Rudi, which unflattering pic of the PM? There’s a page full of them.

kae

15 Oct 12 at 2:22 pm
The Federal Court has just commenced proceedings against shagger thompson.

Huzzah.

Carpe Jugulum

15 Oct 12 at 2:22 pm
Hey, Carpe
How’s it going? That’s great news, huh!
Did you see the comments on Cat about the BER?

kae

15 Oct 12 at 2:23 pm
Too funny! Hail the puppetmaster! There is a handful of people in the world who can turn the zombie media into a slavering mess of uncontrollable rage:

Rupert Murdoch has labelled victims of phone hacking “scumbag celebrities” after they met the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, during the Conservative party conference.

Mr Murdoch took to Twitter to criticise the talks in Birmingham between Mr Cameron and members of the Hacked Off campaign, the singer Charlotte Church, actor Hugh Grant and a former TV presenter, Jacqui Hames.

Murdoch tweeted: “Told UK’s Cameron receiving scumbag celebrities pushing for even more privacy laws. Trust the toffs! Transparency under attack. Bad.”

The comments sparked a storm of disapproval, with Mr Murdoch repeatedly asked to apologise for the remarks and remove the tweets.

Tom

15 Oct 12 at 2:25 pm
Um, Rudi, which unflattering pic of the PM? There’s a page full of them.

Harsh but fair.

Rudiau

15 Oct 12 at 2:31 pm
I hope Rupert told them to bugger off with their whining for an apology and removal of tweets.
—————————————————-

Essential Report

FP: LNP 47%, other 36% (-1)

2PP: LNP 53%, other 47%.

All that hard work attacking Abbott and all they got was a lousy tee shirt.

Gab

15 Oct 12 at 2:31 pm
Did you see the comments on Cat about the BER?

Hi Kae – no i can’t say that i have.

FYI i finished my last BER Building 2 months ago in Victoria and we will be moving to Japan in the new year.

Carpe Jugulum

15 Oct 12 at 2:34 pm
It was Numbers saying what a wonderful stimulus and a useful project the BER was.

Shame you weren’t around to open eyes…

kae

15 Oct 12 at 2:43 pm
Speaking of paradox. S_dog this is for you.Try to read this keeping a straight face.

My Dog: The Paradox

.

Rudiau

15 Oct 12 at 2:45 pm
I think its just FWA that have charged shagger.

Where does this leave him? As its not criminal procedings I guess he continues as is?

harrys on the boat

15 Oct 12 at 2:47 pm
Love it, Rudi!

sdog

15 Oct 12 at 2:50 pm
Obama Admin Had Video All Along Showing No Protest at Benghazi

Gab

15 Oct 12 at 2:57 pm
At least someone likes the Australian ‘Today’ show…

Australia Has a “Today” Show, and It’s A Lot More Breasty and Penisy Than the American Version

sdog

15 Oct 12 at 2:57 pm
Beautiful timing. The misogynist Thomson was defended by passionately by none other than Julia Gillard. There’s nothing she doesn’t fuck up.

C.L.

15 Oct 12 at 3:00 pm
Shagger Thomson gets charged by FWA and claims that the charges were brought about by “pressure“. I presume that he is bliming Abbott.

Tiny Dancer

15 Oct 12 at 3:00 pm
Thank heavens for that. After a three-year investigation, FWA will slap Craig Thomson on the wrist with financial penalties, which someone else will no doubt cover, and removes the possibility of criminal charges, gaol and expulsion from parliament:

“I have not taken this action lightly. I am satisfied that it is in the public interest to pursue the allegations in the documents filed in the Federal Court today and consider that there is a reasonable prospect of success ” Ms O’Neill said.

“If successful I will be seeking the imposition of pecuniary penalties relating to each of the 37 alleged contraventions where penalties are available.

“I will also be seeking orders requiring Mr Thomson to pay compensation for losses allegedly incurred by the HSU by reason of the alleged breaches of general duties should they be proven.”

Happily, the ABC has provided a platform for Bill Shorten on tonight’s Q&A to explain how he and FWA have done the right thing, while laughing out of the side of his mouth. He won’t be even asked about why the feral attack on TA didn’t work and the fact that the government is still doomed.

Tom

15 Oct 12 at 3:04 pm
Experts: African Americans dumber than everyone else…

CBS reports:

Florida Passes Plan For Racially-Based Academic Goals.

Palm Beach, Fla. (CBS TAMPA) – The Florida State Board of Education passed a plan that sets goals for students in math and reading based upon their race.

On Tuesday, the board passed a revised strategic plan that says that by 2018, it wants 90 percent of Asian students, 88 percent of white students, 81 percent of Hispanics and 74 percent of black students to be reading at or above grade level. For math, the goals are 92 percent of Asian kids to be proficient, whites at 86 percent, Hispanics at 80 percent and blacks at 74 percent.

C.L.

15 Oct 12 at 3:06 pm
Slight edit, Tom:

which ~~someone~~ ~~else~~ the taxpayer will no doubt cover

Gab

15 Oct 12 at 3:06 pm
Who was it that argued that the case against Thompson was going nowhere?

dover_beach

15 Oct 12 at 3:08 pm
Who was it that argued that the case against Thompson was going nowhere?

Comical mOnty and his trusty sidekick Sheriff Shitfer.

Infidel Tiger

15 Oct 12 at 3:09 pm
monty? SFB? or was it SFB? Or monty?

Apparently we are to have a few weeks of peace as SFB vows not to blog. yay!

Gab

15 Oct 12 at 3:10 pm
I am astounded at the power bureaucrats (DoCS) have over families, and the suffering they can cause for imaginary Munchhausen by Proxy Syndrome, they send an Aboriginal girl back to be pack raped so she can be with her own kind.

Helen Armstrong

15 Oct 12 at 3:11 pm
I called this decision corruption at the time.

It was.

C.L.

15 Oct 12 at 3:12 pm
I wonder if Tony Jones will ask Shorten about abusing female immigrant shop-keepers who scarcely speak English in tonight’s inevitable ‘sexism’ discussion.

Ahahahahaha.

Who am I kidding?

C.L.

15 Oct 12 at 3:14 pm
Shorten is a vertically challenged, women hating, racist.

Infidel Tiger

15 Oct 12 at 3:15 pm
removes the possibility of criminal charges, gaol and expulsion from parliament

Fear not Tom, there are still two police investigations underway that are looking into alleged criminal misconduct by thommo.

Whoopie bloody do – how long will they drag on for?

He’ll be turfed out of his electorate by angry voters before the cops get around to charging him, no doubt.

Rabz

15 Oct 12 at 3:18 pm
He’ll be turfed out of his electorate by angry voters before the cops get around to charging him, no doubt.

Oh, ye of little faith! That was always how it was planned. It’s called institutional corruption.

Royal commission as a matter of urgency after the change of government. Grey bar hotel for every fucking one of them, from Gillard and Shorten down. And the Fisk Doctrine to ensure it never happens again.

Tom

15 Oct 12 at 3:26 pm
Or perhaps Sophie could embarrass the lot of them by repeating ad finitum that according to Newspoll more Australian women would prefer Tony Abbott in the lodge than Julia Gillard.

Again & again & again, every time someone uses ‘Tony’, ‘woman’ and ‘problem’ in the same sentence

Rousie

15 Oct 12 at 3:39 pm
What Rousie’s talking about — Q&A:

Host Tony Jones is joined by: Actress, author and psychotherapist Pamela Stephenson , Minister Bill Shorten, Comedian and TV presenter Charlie Pickering, Shadow Minister Sophie Mirabella and IPA Review Editor James Paterson.

Tom

15 Oct 12 at 3:43 pm
Sophie, what a brave woman going in to do battle with gillard’s snarling yap-dogs. Give ‘em heaps Sophie and don’t let them shut you up or berate or deride you.

Gab

15 Oct 12 at 3:45 pm
Sophie should take a leaf out of the less is more book, keep reminding them Abbott is more popular with women & dial the awkward dial to 11.

When they inevitably try to focus on the gender differential in Newspoll she can simply reply that yes, Tony is even more popular than Julia with men.

Rousie

15 Oct 12 at 3:50 pm
Perhaps even a short maths lesson on how the Newspoll percentages extrapolate to real votes among men & women out in voterland

Rousie

15 Oct 12 at 3:58 pm
Who drew the short straw for QAnd A tonight?

Tal

15 Oct 12 at 4:08 pm
It was JC. Really, I saw the short straw and all, Tal.

Gab

15 Oct 12 at 4:11 pm
In Canberra an old priest lay dying in the hospital. For years he had faithfully served the people of the nation’s capital.

He motioned for his nurse to come near.

“Yes, Father?” said the nurse.

“I would really like to see Prime Minister and the Treasurer before I die”, whispered the priest.

“I’ll see what I can do, Father”, replied the nurse.
The nurse sent the request to Parliament and waited for a response.

Soon the word arrived; Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Treasurer Wayne Swan would be delighted to visit the priest.

As they went to the hospital, Julia commented to Wayne, “I don’t know why the old priest wants to see us, but it certainly will help our images and might even get me re-elected Prime Minister. After all, I’m IN IT TO WIN IT”.

Wayne agreed that it was a good thing.

When they arrived at the priest’s room, the priest took Julia’s hand in his right hand and Wayne’s hand in his left.

There was silence and a look of serenity on the old priest’s face.

Finally Julia Gillard spoke. “Father, of all the people you could have chosen, why did you choose us to be with you as you near the end?”

The old priest slowly replied, “I have always tried to pattern my life after our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.”

“Amen”, said Julia. “Amen”, said Wayne.

The old priest continued, “Jesus died between two lying thieves; I would like to do the same.

Gab

15 Oct 12 at 4:16 pm
Sophie should remind them of Piggy Albanese’s thuggish threat that if the Coalition didn’t back off from demanding Thompson answer for his crimes that Mirabella’s personal life would be attacked in Parliament.

twostix

15 Oct 12 at 4:20 pm
I know she’d never do it, but Sophie should have a T-Shirt on tonight noting someone else in the room voted to endorse a creepy man who sent some disgusting tweets including referred to her as a “Botch”.

Token

15 Oct 12 at 4:40 pm
Good thing is Sophie can hold her own, rest assured females in the audience will be clutching their pearls and reaching for the smelling salts

Tal

15 Oct 12 at 4:45 pm
It was Numbers saying what a wonderful stimulus and a useful project the BER was.

Kae – if you still have the photos i took (the ones with crossbracing in the middle of a doorway etc) forward them to the Cat so all can see what an absolute brothel the BER projects were.

Carpe Jugulum

15 Oct 12 at 5:22 pm
I guess the liar’s party will be having a quick whip around for Thompson’s legal fees, pecuniary penalties and compensation. Otherwise it’s bankruptcy and gone from Parliament, then a byelection. Or let me guess, the trial will take two years.

Keith

15 Oct 12 at 5:51 pm
Apparently we are to have a few weeks of peace as SFB vows not to blog.

Over those weeks we need as many articles pissing on AGW as humanly possible.

harrys on the boat

15 Oct 12 at 5:55 pm
Does any one know what effect the civil charges laid today will have on any criminal charges the police may want to lay?

max49

15 Oct 12 at 6:01 pm
The 7.30 Report has Sales and Roxon. That’s a ratings killer combo right there. Roxon has a memory lapse. Thousands and thousands of pages, so hard. But had she read the texts? Complex, doncha know? Abuse of process (ha!). They were trying to settle for ages, she says, and they’ve adhered to proper process. Leigh seems unconvinced – good look for someone with a credibility gap to work on. Roxon hiding behind the court case. Ha-ha, no we weren’t going to lose. The same material is before the court and I will not provide a commentary.
On to Thompson: will the ALP prop up his court costs? No.

blogstrop

15 Oct 12 at 6:47 pm
Where are my comments going?

kae

15 Oct 12 at 6:50 pm
Does any one know what effect the civil charges laid today will have on any criminal charges the police may want to lay?

Don’t know for certain, but I reckon it will delay them by, oh, another five years or so.

jupes

15 Oct 12 at 6:51 pm
The Oz’s Mumble blogger Peter Brent is a part of the problem, IMO — a member of the self-appointed temporary political ruling class who thinks the electorate is fundamentally stupid:

Of course the people who organised the (Rudd) coup, and the journalists who cheered them on, reckon Abbott is a brilliant opposition leader. The story works best that way.

And today government ministers keep talking about Abbott. They remain obsessed with him.

It’s fashionable in political commentary to warn of the danger of underestimating a particular politician.

But the more common mistake lies in overestimation.

Tom

15 Oct 12 at 6:52 pm
Kae some weird stuff has been happening on the blog in the last two hours (and I don’t mean the troll activity).

Gab

15 Oct 12 at 6:53 pm
Some directives don’t work as advertised. I am a bit pissed off.

Jacques Chester

15 Oct 12 at 7:00 pm
Yea, I felt that way after voting for Rudd, Jacques.

Gab

15 Oct 12 at 7:01 pm
Jacques, sorry, but it’s obviously something created by the ALP.

kae

15 Oct 12 at 7:04 pm
WTF? No 4-oh-friggin-4?

kae

15 Oct 12 at 7:05 pm
Hey, (tap, tap, tap), is this think fixed?

kae

15 Oct 12 at 7:05 pm
Nope. Won’t do links.

kae

15 Oct 12 at 7:06 pm
Why the cost blow out by the BER, google james board rudds education devolution.

kae

15 Oct 12 at 7:07 pm
The Oz’s Mumble blogger Peter Brent is a part of the problem, IMO — a member of the self-appointed temporary political ruling class who thinks the electorate is fundamentally stupid:

I don’t understand this guy. Is he supposed to be The Australian’s goto guy for Turnbullian losers?

He’s wrong, every time, all the time and not just “wrong” as in I don’t agree with his politics, but wrong as in wtf is this guy smoking. Yet still he’s on the Aus payroll.

It’s bizarre.

twostix

15 Oct 12 at 7:11 pm
When a car or plane is moving normally, the part of the wheel in contact with the ground is stationary with respect to the ground. Anything else is called skidding. The axle is moving at the same speed as the car. The top of the wheel is moving with twice the velocity of the car. If a plane is on a roller moving backwards so that it has zero velocity with respect to the air it doesn’t matter how much the engines are pushing or what they are pushing with, there will be no lift. I hope you are all better at economics than you are at physics.

DrBeauGan

15 Oct 12 at 7:17 pm
WFT is Tony Abbott doing trolling the Cat from his hotel room in Jakarta and scrambling the software? Can’t be anyone else’s fault.

Tom

15 Oct 12 at 7:20 pm
Nod, by necessity of definition, if the wheel conditions are as specified, then the engines must be exerting enough force and only enough force as required to maintain station.

DriftForge

15 Oct 12 at 7:27 pm
AN ad agency charged $1 million to edit a single line from the federal government’s carbon tax compensation campaign, removing an admission that not every family would be eligible for the payments.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/sydney-news/carbon-tax-ad-1-million-edit/story-e6freuzi-1226493958366?sv=f716945b8cf297d1b98f9850efd5ddea

Gab

15 Oct 12 at 7:28 pm
Monday 15 october 2012.

Fairfax traded whole day less than $0.40

And lots of shares traded too

Mike of Marion

15 Oct 12 at 7:34 pm
Don’t know if this will appear ( da apple is playing funny buggers even on da ABC site )

And screenwriter Bob Ellis, who was a young Sydney University student in 1962. Bob became convinced the end of the world was at hand and escaped with his girlfriend to the Blue Mountains to avoid the inevitable mushroom cloud over Sydney.

On a Richard Fidler thing about the Cuban missile crisis.
What a dickhead this man is, a self confessed, drugged up, paranoid loon. And ABC go to man.
It’s at the ” download mp3 file “

jumpnmcar

15 Oct 12 at 7:34 pm
Volume:

24,390,197

Mike of Marion

15 Oct 12 at 7:35 pm
Labor and the commentariat have been underestimating Abbott since he fell over the line against Turnbull. Personally, I’m surprised he hasn’t blown himself up by now but he is dealing with the worst government in living memory.

Costello would have crucified KRudd and Gillard if he hadn’t squibbed it. Howard should be condemned for a long time for the way he placed himself above the party during 2006-07.

H B Bear

15 Oct 12 at 7:37 pm
Howard should be condemned for a long time for the way he placed himself above the party during 2006-07.

Fair call from the Bear.

jumpnmcar

15 Oct 12 at 7:44 pm
The health fascists are out of control! Start getting across the detail on proposed alcohol taxes, folks:

The Federal Government’s Australian National Preventative Health Agency (ANPHA) is due to recommend this week that new taxes should be introduced to set a minimum price on alcohol, which would cause the price of cask wine to skyrocket to as much as $47.40 for a four-litre cask.

But submissions put to ANPHA by industry stakeholders and producers have slammed the proposal, saying it will have a negative impact on responsible drinkers who can’t afford to purchase premium products.

Liquor retailers are also weighing in, with the manager of a regional Cellarbrations store in NSW telling TheShout that the introduction of minimum pricing was a “tax grab”, and that older customers, such as pensioners, would be the most negatively affected.

Gillard, Roxon and Plibersek are money-hungry fascists whose default position is collectivism and the emasculation of personal liberty. Make sure this measure doesn’t see the light of day before adult government is restored.

Tom

15 Oct 12 at 7:46 pm
Roxon is completely unable to answer questions about Ashby because it is before the courts. She is a pig of a human.

Tiny Dancer

15 Oct 12 at 7:46 pm
So, as a single parent who rarely drinks, I’m now going to be penalised by being priced out of the market? Gee, thanks, Nanny.

Who knew that by the age of 45 I’d be so incapable of making decisions about my welfare that I’d need the government to decide how much I was allowed to spend on the occasional drink?

I am so over this government – a pack of scrags and harpies. And that’s just the males.

nilk

15 Oct 12 at 8:01 pm
The Federal Government’s Australian National Preventative Health Agency (ANPHA) is due to recommend this week that new taxes should be introduced to set a minimum price on alcohol,

Brendan O’Neill and others in the UK have been slamming the government there for its embrace of the concept of “minimum alcohol pricing.”

I’ve been having trouble getting links to “take”, but I’ll try two examples:

Minimum alcohol pricing” sounds like such an inoffensive idea. No one is likely to go to the barricades, far less to the wall, in order to “Smash Minimum Alcohol Pricing!” So in the interests of political honesty and clarity, and with an eye for encouraging some people to consider going to the barricades over this latest Lib-Con measure, I think we should start referring to “minimum alcohol pricing” by its true name. This is a Sin Tax, pure and simple, designed to punish people, specifically poor people, for the crime of occasionally wanting to get hammered and have fun.

This is prohibition through the backdoor, targeted at those whom the political classes consider to be reckless and self-destructive.

sdog

15 Oct 12 at 8:03 pm
Only if you consume cask wine, Nilk. (I know, I can hear the lefties snarking about those who would drink from a cask.) So a $12 cask will now be around $50. They’ve learned nothing from their alco-pops debacle.

Gab

15 Oct 12 at 8:03 pm
A clean skin bottle is $2. Will they be next?

pete m

15 Oct 12 at 8:06 pm
And this one’s a great take-down of the “neo-temperance lobby” and the way they throw around dodgy science-y sounding “stats” in their crusade to basically impose temperance on the lower classess:

Panorama has been caught out peddling dodgy alcohol stats, only the latest instance of junk-science moralising by the neo-temperance lobby.

Long, but really worth a read.

sdog

15 Oct 12 at 8:07 pm
He’s wrong, every time, all the time and not just “wrong” as in I don’t agree with his politics, but wrong as in wtf is this guy smoking. Yet still he’s on the Aus payroll.

It’s bizarre.

I think he hoped to set up a site like the poll guy at Crikey but is disappointed he is not attracting the fruit bat crowd he loves.

It is clear he is a deep lefty who has discovered he has an audience on the centre right, so most of his topics amounts to trolling.

He doesn’t even bother doing very many articles with stat analysis any more which is a pity as when he posts a graph I usually look at them and ignore his twaddle.

Token

15 Oct 12 at 8:09 pm
That’s why I linked this earlier – it reminds me of our new neo-temperance overlords.

sdog

15 Oct 12 at 8:10 pm
Actually, I don’t drink Le Chateau Cardboard, Gab ~ it’s the principle of the thing. Like speed humps on side streets, which are another pet hate of mine.

I’ve got a very fussy palate, and would rather buy one good bottle of wine to drink.

Of course, I can always invest in Mr. Walker. More value for money.

nilk

15 Oct 12 at 8:11 pm
More from Sp!ked on the new puritans.

sdog

15 Oct 12 at 8:14 pm
The Federal Government’s Australian National Preventative Health Agency (ANPHA) is due to recommend this week that new taxes should be introduced to set a minimum price on alcohol, which would cause the price of cask wine to skyrocket to as much as $47.40 for a four-litre cask.

Breaking news…

…Bill Shorten will be touring the wine districts with Paul Howles handing out huge slabs compensation to keep alive the large wine companies which have been made uncompetitive by the sudden and unexpected impost on a major export industry…

Token

15 Oct 12 at 8:14 pm
I’m not sure if it’s been mentioned that the Oz is giving away e-books over the next fortnight.

The site is here.

The code words have been Marmalade and Queen for the first 2. I think we’re all clever enough to work out the next ones, if not a trip to the library or spending $1.50 will give it to you.

DaveF

15 Oct 12 at 8:16 pm
I’ve been introduced to some cask, one sunny afternoon a while back. Those small handy little 1litre boxes. Had a very palatable red from one, pleasantly quaffable. Can’t remember the brand but pretty sure it was just under $20.

Gab

15 Oct 12 at 8:17 pm
A 4 litre cask of “goon” (cheap wine) the kids drink (18 – 20 ish olds) is around $8 they take to parties.
If it goes to $40 dollars they will drink rum or something cheaper and half kill themselves.

candy

15 Oct 12 at 8:25 pm
The joke about the nanny state booze tax is that it has already happened.

In dry communities casks go for about $50 and beer for $80 a case, utes are parked on the perimeter selling them.

The experiment has taken place and the results are in, but it doesn’t get a mention in the report.

Because guys that can buy 4 casks a week from the dole do so. And don’t eat. And mooch highly taxed cigarettes off others.

Yep I love the fact based science of government funded lobby groups.

DaveF

15 Oct 12 at 8:29 pm
They’re not the new Puritans, they’re the new mussels in brine. I hate these people with a passion.

Infidel Tiger

15 Oct 12 at 8:29 pm
Not as much as I do, IT.

JC

15 Oct 12 at 8:31 pm
A 4 litre cask of “goon” (cheap wine) the kids drink (18 – 20 ish olds) is around $8 they take to parties.

Wait, young people still drink? To excess, sometimes?

I thought Labor’s anti-alcopops tax was going to fix that!

Oh well. It’s perfectly logical that if one sin tax didn’t work, the best answer is another sin tax. Enough sin taxes and eventually we’ll have no more sin. And that’s the real job of government, isn’t it? Forcing its citizenry to be healthy, wealthy & wise (not to mention pure and good) in spite of themselves?

sdog

15 Oct 12 at 8:33 pm
There are actually premium brands in cardboard these days. It’s actually possible to drink reasonable quality wine from 4-litre casks. This proposed impost is a tax on women, pensioners and Aboriginal alcoholics in NQ, NT outback NSW, SA and WA — hugely different and irrational targets. If, for example, you want to stop blackfella “Coolabah corroborees” in Katherine, don’t target middle class white women in Sydney. This is a sin tax, the new revenue stream for political extremists in government who have run out of other people’s money to finance their social engineering.

Tom

15 Oct 12 at 8:33 pm
Alcohol-busting zealot Agent Nelson from Boardwalk Empire personifies the modern Roxonian left:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yml_-Mx82wY

C.L.

15 Oct 12 at 8:38 pm
Spot, these backdoor prohibitionists must impose sin taxes to stop people from sinning. So then people have more disposable income and then the grubberment can invent other new taxes to fund their stupid green schemes. There is a plan.

Gab

15 Oct 12 at 8:39 pm
OMG Q&A idiots feel that Slipper’s texts were tacky – feminist Fox squirmed while trying to excuse them.

Charlie Pickering doesn’t see them as misogynist – more that “if it wasn’t for the political context then he would have thought it was a couple of drag queens trying out dialogue” (paraphrasing).

And now it’s Shorten. Where’s the barf bag???

nilk

15 Oct 12 at 8:46 pm
Re Plane on a Conveyor Belt/Treadmill
DrBeauGan, DriftForge.
The home treadmill with a leafblower is a good analogy, helped get my head around this thought experiment in physics.

So what does this all have to do with treadmills? Well, now let’s place our plane on that treadmill and see what happens. If the wheels were perfect – that is, there is no friction in the bearings (and no deformation of the wheels as they spin) – then something interesting happens. When we turn on the treadmill, the plane stays stationary on its own. The wheels simply spin along the track, and impart no force to the plane. If you had a car with frictionless axles, and you disconnected the whole drive train, the same thing would happen to your car.

The only reason that a plane or a car moves backwards on a treadmill is that the wheels are somehow partially locked to the axles. In a plane, this is because of minor friction in the bearings. In a car, it’s because of the drive train. If you want the car to stay still, you have to turn the drive train at the proper speed. If you want the plane to stay still, you have to overcome the minor bearing friction. And again, since friction does not change with speed, you don’t have to exert any more force at higher speeds. If you run the treadmill at 5mph and turn on the plane’s engines just slightly, they will provide enough thrust, pushing against the air, to keep the plane still. If you then increase the treadmill speed to 500 mph, you won’t need to adjust the throttle on the airplane – it will remain stationary. That’s because it’s seeing the same frictional force that it was at 5mph. Thus, it doesn’t matter how fast the treadmill is moving – if the pilot does not want to remain stationary, then he won’t. It only uses the very first bit of power from the engines to keep the plane stationary. As the throttle is increased from that point, it moves forward just as it would on any other runway. It’s pushing against the stationary air!

If you don’t believe me, imagine this (or even try it at home): you’re standing on a skateboard on a treadmill. You hold onto the handrails of the treadmill and turn it on. Of course, you’ll remain stationary (relative to the ground). In fact, you only need to use a very light touch to stay stationary – perhaps a few fingers pressed against the handrails. Crank up the treadmill speed as high as you like. You’ll still only need the same light touch to remain stationary. At any time you like, you can move forward – closer to the treadmill console – by simple pulling on the handrails. If you had a jet engine, or super-strong hairdryer, you could use this to propel yourself forward instead of holding onto the handrails. In fact, if you’re really careful, you might be able to do this at home with a skateboard and a leafbower, but I doubt you’ll have a sensitive enough control of your leafblower thrust to get yourself to remain stationary.

So you see (oh please tell me you see), the conveyor operator cannot force the plane to remain stationary. And if the plane isn’t stationary, it can take off.

Read more here.

Rudiau

15 Oct 12 at 8:46 pm
Bwahahahaha!:

Smoking won’t kill you in the next life.

The mussels in brine ain’t happy.

Infidel Tiger

15 Oct 12 at 8:48 pm
No, no, no, no, no, CL. There are no masochists among the fascist left when they comandeer government these days. They’re all drug addicts, alcoholics and the otherwise mentally disturbed who expect all the sacrifices to come from the trusting white trash who voted for them.

Tom

15 Oct 12 at 8:49 pm
LOL “Is the real Julia Gillard a confirmed liar?”

Awesome question.

Shorten doesn’t believe that Abbott is a misogynist in the original use of the word, but in today’s usage yes he is.

Short answer, Tony doesn’t hate women, but he shouldn’t have used the word “shame” nor should have had attended a rally that had the ‘ditch the witch’ signs.

Ergo Abbott hates women as shown by his actions.

Shame is now verboten.

Actually enjoying the questioner calling out Shorten.

nilk

15 Oct 12 at 8:52 pm
I also really like this interview with Thatcher

Jeremiah

15 Oct 12 at 8:52 pm
Cannot watch Q&A. Quite aside from the drivel being spouted by most of the talking heads, the asinine inanities appearing at the bottom of the screen from Twitter users simply do my head in, it is classic ALP never-graduated-from-student-politics-at-whatever-half-baked-Dawkins-psuedo-uni-I-got-into-on-affirmative-action pap.

Oh, and the look-at-moi clapping – Shorten, like many before him, mistaking the adulation of the true believers for the adoration of the majority.

James in Melbourne

15 Oct 12 at 8:54 pm
Sophie now bringing up the Australia Day set up of Tony. I can’t believe I’m almost enjoying Q and A.

nilk

15 Oct 12 at 8:54 pm
Stellar, Nilk. Thanks for taking one for the team by watching Q&A,

Gab

15 Oct 12 at 8:55 pm
Uh-oh, Snow Cone can’t let Sophie make a reasonable point about Abbott, so he’s jumped in and now Catherine Fox has to put her 0.03c worth.

She can’t imagine any previous PM being spoken about the way that the Red Dalek has been.

Obviously she’s been living under a rock.

nilk

15 Oct 12 at 8:57 pm
One thing that bugs me is, Gab, the people hardest hit by the sin taxes on smokes and alcohol are those in the lower socio-economic demographics whose income consists wholly or partly of welfare. And I’ve never seen any evidence that the government charging them more and more to sin, really decreases the rate of sinning amongst them. It’s a deeper issue than that.

When Labor did that huge hike on cigarette taxes a few years ago, less than 20% of the general population smoked but at least 50% of Aborigines did. Have they actually stopped smoking, or are they just handing more of their government-provided income support back to the government (churn, churn, churn) and still sinning merrily along?

Sin taxes are so incredibly regressive, I’m really surprised there aren’t more compassionate Lefties who purport to caaaaare about “the poor” speaking out against them.

sdog

15 Oct 12 at 8:57 pm
Just noticed the dills at Fair Work Australia have got the wrong name of the Filed papers

DETAILS OF FILING
Document Lodged: Statement of Claim – Form 17 – Rule 8.06(1)(a)
File Number: VID798/2012
File Title: General Manager of Fair Work Australia v Graig Thomson
District Registry: VICTORIA REGISTRY – FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA
Dated: 15/10/2012 Registrar
Note
This Notice

They have written GRAIG Thomsom – wrong person!!!!!

Mike of Marion

15 Oct 12 at 8:59 pm
Anyone asked Shorten about the Asian immigrant woman he abused for not having a pie he wanted?

C.L.

15 Oct 12 at 8:59 pm
Pamela Stephenson thinks the P(re)M(enopausal) one kicked arse and it was a powerful speech.

Oh dear. Go back to Scotland, dear.

She did make one point about Slipper’s texts: he would have had some expectation of how they’d be received.

That’s a very good point and one that’s yet to be addressed.

nilk

15 Oct 12 at 9:00 pm
We probably owe Nilk a cask of the best goon for watching Q & A for us.

sdog

15 Oct 12 at 9:01 pm
And, yes, the budgie smugglers rear their head. (sorry for the mixed metaphors). Apparently Tony has spent years cultivating a ‘macho macho image’ with his budgie smugglers, and now he’s bringing his wife out.

Sophie pointed out that well, duh, budgie smugglers are part of the uniform for triathlons and surf lifesaving. Oh, and Bob Hawke wore them, they are fit healthy men.

nilk

15 Oct 12 at 9:04 pm
Oh noes! More about Tony Abbott using the word ‘shame’. Pickering is convinced that Tony used the word ‘shame’ too many times.

It was obviously deliberate, and while Sophie pointed out that she used the word ‘shameless’ on the weekend and had to wonder if someone would bail her up for it.

Charlie says, no, you’re not Tony Abbott so you can use that word. (paraphrasing)

nilk

15 Oct 12 at 9:06 pm
Just noticed the dills at Fair Work Australia have got the wrong name of the Filed papers

Probably on purpose to give him avenue to appeal or an extension of time.

Infidel Tiger

15 Oct 12 at 9:07 pm
Ms Gillard said in parliament tony Abbott had a history of misogyny but she did not say it was in “today’s terms”.

unless Ms Gillard is just stupid and doesn’t know what she’s talking about. there’s that.

candy

15 Oct 12 at 9:09 pm
Aaaand we’re back to Alan Jones and that phrasing.

Luvvie Fox reckons, by the way, that when you say, “just joking” you’re actually being passive-aggressive and sexist.

Snow Cone brings up the joke about Abbott and Credlin, and how nobody walked out.

Fox thinks we’ve become desensitised since we’ve had a female PM and gotten used to this sort of sexist language.

nilk

15 Oct 12 at 9:09 pm
I’m not giving up swearing tonight, I guess. Seriously, what fucking planet do these people live on?

nilk

15 Oct 12 at 9:10 pm
Thanks, Jeremiah. It’s fun discovering the left’s pariahs without the left’s slander, e.g. Thatcher and Sen Joseph McCarthy. Because the right actually runs the place most of the time, conservatives have never felt any urgency to articulate the capitalist mixed economy’s modus operandi. Those assumptions are obsolete. Time to give the left a thrashing and return it to the wailing losers’ ghetto.

Tom

15 Oct 12 at 9:11 pm
Oh yes, and Charlie decided to be a standup comedian after his grandmother gave him a tape of Billy Connolly when he was 12.

“If enough people laugh, you don’t care.” So that’s okay then, Charlie.

nilk

15 Oct 12 at 9:12 pm
Bill Shorten waving the red flag on Julia’s behalf.

Sexism isn’t just about what people say, it’s also about who’s standing up for women in the workplace. (Hello, Craig!)

nilk

15 Oct 12 at 9:13 pm
Flipped on Qanda 10 minutes in and lasted just 2-3 minutes before switching off.

Where do the find these repellent leftist zealots?

That Fox woman is repugnant – an adjective I can confidently apply having listened to her for merely one diatribe of self-important ignorant opinionating

JamesK

15 Oct 12 at 9:14 pm
“can you pledge tonight, on TV that you won’t tweak the rules about super funds?”

Sophie to Shorten.

nilk

15 Oct 12 at 9:15 pm
Shorten talks about how the ALP want to raise the Super percentage like it’s a good thing.

They’re determined to achieve a budget surplus.

The only governments who have ever reduced spending in real terms since the 1970s are Labor governments.

Fark me.

nilk

15 Oct 12 at 9:17 pm
Labour want us all to have Super so they can control what should be in the individual control of each earner themselves……… ‘cos of course we can’t be trusted to look after ourselves, Labour has to do it for us

hz

15 Oct 12 at 9:17 pm
Besides infuriated politically interested conservatives and the now known to be impotent twitterati does anybody actually watch Q&A anymore?

twostix

15 Oct 12 at 9:20 pm
Lass wearing a large cross now asking Pamela Stephenson why she’s had procedures (aka plastic surgery) done.

Answer: because I want to look like a babe.

Fox has to jump in now, about ageing and how we need more women speaking out about it, especially in the workplace.

Apparently before today, women never appeared in the workplace.

nilk

15 Oct 12 at 9:22 pm
That AFR woman, Catherine Fox is a first rate imbecile. She really gives females a bad look.

JC

15 Oct 12 at 9:22 pm
I thought you chose castor oil, JC?

dover_beach

15 Oct 12 at 9:25 pm
Yes she does, JC. We women find it so confronting, because so much of our life is bound up in our appearance.

I wonder who we can thank for that? All the focus on looks. Wouldn’t be those women who push the gender-raunch?

And Pamela feels so much respect for women who can grow old gracefully. Sod off, pretentious fool.

And sense from pickering – you shouldn’t base your self-worth all on your appearance.

nilk

15 Oct 12 at 9:25 pm
And, now, Shorten can’t believe the pressure society puts on young girls.

Oh, and now he brings people with disabilities into the appearance appreciation society. (Do I snark about the high proportion of disabled babies aborted?)

nilk

15 Oct 12 at 9:27 pm
If they ever have a sanctimonious douchebag Olympics Charlie Pickering would be short odds for a gold medal.

H B Bear

15 Oct 12 at 9:28 pm
indeed, Mr. Bear. I’ve never seen him in action before, but I can see why he’s on their ALPBC.

nilk

15 Oct 12 at 9:29 pm
Is it over? How much more can Nilk take??!!

Gab

15 Oct 12 at 9:30 pm
The only governments who have ever reduced spending in real terms since the 1970s are Labor governments.

JC you need to get back on twitter and challenge the idiot. Is Emerson related to Biden?

Gab

15 Oct 12 at 9:32 pm
LOL Since the introduction of the carbon pricing mechanism (sayeth the Shorten), we’re doing okay. There are still ‘pockets of disadvantage.’

nilk

15 Oct 12 at 9:33 pm
He is a co-host of the Project on Ten, nilk.

dover_beach

15 Oct 12 at 9:33 pm
Sorry, I meant Shorten.

Gab

15 Oct 12 at 9:33 pm
Tell that to the people I know who are now out of work, and the businesses that have closed because their power bills have gone through the roof.

nilk

15 Oct 12 at 9:34 pm
Yes she does, JC. We women find it so confronting, because so much of our life is bound up in our appearance.

Shocking isn’t it. The females of our species trade on their looks. I’m shocked.

And sense from pickering – you shouldn’t base your self-worth all on your appearance.

He’s a moron.

JC

15 Oct 12 at 9:34 pm
Would it be too ‘Offensive’ (perhaps illegal) if I said I couldn’t care less how many women are in the workforce? The western world needs more women to have more babies and then look after them. This is as nature intended. It would be a great thing if one day we could shut down the last ‘child care’ centre in the Goo-gah Archipelago and men once again enjoyed full employment.

C.L.

15 Oct 12 at 9:36 pm
lol, JC. Yes he is, but that small snippet is relatively sensible.

Gab, I think I’ve pretty much reached my limit. It was Shorten bleating on about how wonderful Labor gov’ts have been.

Fark. Next week, Billy Bragg, Peter Garrett, Amanda Vanstone and Scott Morrison. Missed the last one.

nilk

15 Oct 12 at 9:36 pm
JC you need to get back on twitter and challenge the idiot. Is Emerson related to Biden?

Oh yea, Leg over Emo.

Naaa I find it a little boring, Gab.

Who the fuck is this Charlie Pickering as Ive never heard of the twerp before. For a comedian, he appears very unfunny.

JC

15 Oct 12 at 9:36 pm
Thanks nilk, really enjoyed the running commentary.

Rudiau

15 Oct 12 at 9:37 pm
Nilk, Charlie Pickering is on Channel 10′s leftwing fashion youth news program “The Project”. Channel 10 is the ABC with commercials, which is why it is almost bankrupt.

Tom

15 Oct 12 at 9:38 pm
CL one of the problems is most definitely the high percentage of women in the workforce. Over supply of workers pushes wages down. Even I know that.

nilk

15 Oct 12 at 9:38 pm
right at the end , Tony Jones to Shorten – do you swear at home or only in pie shops…..

ta da, guess cos everyone laughed, it’s a joke, Joyce

hz

15 Oct 12 at 9:38 pm
LOL:

Sponsors return to Jones’ show.

C.L.

15 Oct 12 at 9:39 pm
That’s was Nilk, for readers at home, our Cat reporter live from the trenches of the ALPBC. Thanks, Nilk and stay safe.

Gab

15 Oct 12 at 9:39 pm
That would explain why I’ve never seen him in action, Tom. I truly loathe the television these days. I have a friend who records Bolta’s show for me, and she’s got all the eps there, but I still haven’t even seen those.

I have my nice and extensive dvd collection of films, series, and docos for a reason.

nilk

15 Oct 12 at 9:40 pm
They had a quite interesting topic discussed on this show – Women aging.

I for instance think wifey is just as pretty to me as she was when we first met- few lines and all.

JC

15 Oct 12 at 9:41 pm
Thanks, Nilk. Love taking in your commonsense.

Tom

15 Oct 12 at 9:41 pm
right at the end , Tony Jones to Shorten – do you swear at home or only in pie shops…..

ta da, guess cos everyone laughed, it’s a joke, Joyce

When they do it, it’s funny!

C.L.

15 Oct 12 at 9:42 pm
I was going to say the only worthwhile political commentary on Ten is South Park – but that is on SBS for some reason. I don’t think any of the lefty wog hand-wringers could have ever watched it.

Ten looks set to join those businesses carefully guided by Lachlan Murdoch straight onto the rocks.

H B Bear

15 Oct 12 at 9:43 pm
Thanks, Gab, and back to you in the studio. I’m off like a frog in a sock.

nilk

15 Oct 12 at 9:44 pm
Nilk, do you also collect your water from a well?

dover_beach

15 Oct 12 at 9:46 pm
Ema Alberici next topic.. Tony Abbott.

He really seems to the PM.

JC

15 Oct 12 at 9:46 pm
“I for instance think wifey is just as pretty to me as she was when we first met- few lines and all.”

thats really romantic, Jc.

candy

15 Oct 12 at 9:48 pm
The Fox woman hasn’t been Stutch’ed, yet. But she sure deserves to be superannuated out. Just the look on the young girl asking the question when Foxie tried to behave as one of the girls was priceless.

Mirabella got the prize for most interrupted by Jones, by a long way. While Shorten got the prize for most uninterrupted, by a long way.

But the gold medal goes to the ABC for sheer chutzpah for claiming the audience was 47% coalition voters. Woo hoo!

Lazlo

15 Oct 12 at 9:48 pm
Hell no, Dover. I like to use taps. They’re these marvellous inventions where you turn a handle and water comes out.

nilk

15 Oct 12 at 9:49 pm
“I for instance think wifey is just as pretty to me as she was when we first met- few lines and all.”

Yes, Candy, that comment should not go unnoticed. JC is such a romantic and a gentleman.

Gab

15 Oct 12 at 9:49 pm
Is that really the collective ABC observation, JC? What happens if the zombie secretariat suddenly stops believing? Is it possible it could happen at the same time the same loss of belief happens to the Magic Negro’s zombies?

Tom

15 Oct 12 at 9:52 pm
the ABC for sheer chutzpah for claiming the audience was 47% coalition voters.

It’s the biggest lie out there, Lazlo. No one believes them and their BS numbers. I doubt very much whether any coalition voters go to the [spit] ABC.

Gab

15 Oct 12 at 9:52 pm
Channel 10 is the ABC with commercials, which is why it is almost bankrupt.

I thought that Channel 2 is the ABC with commercials, some for crap from the abc store – though mostly for the ALP and the greens.

Rob

15 Oct 12 at 9:54 pm
If they ever have a sanctimonious douchebag Olympics Charlie Pickering would be short odds for a gold medal.

Oh absolutely Mr Bear. The idea that comedy is meant to be transgressive hasn’t occurred to him. The po-faced Shorten is a close runner up though.

Viva

15 Oct 12 at 10:05 pm
A lot of guys around Pickering’s age are PC to a fault a la van Onselen, Penberthy etc. All that caring and sharing would make me nervous. Their female friends seem to lap it up. No wonder Tony A ruffles their feathers.

Viva

15 Oct 12 at 10:16 pm
What’s Comrade Yet to be Ditched Witch doing cuddling up to soldiers in Afghanistan?

It’s milked her father’s death for all it’s worth, gathered the scraggy girlfriends around to belt the living suitcase out of a decent family man for a week non stop, and now it’s attempting to bathe in the reflected glory of fellas who she’d flick in an instant if she saw a profit for herself.

What a deceitful dissolute piece of work we have squatting in The Lodge.

Mick Gold Coast QLD

15 Oct 12 at 10:18 pm
Interesting reading:

What Psychopaths Teach Us about How to Succeed

We can learn a lot from psychopaths. Certain aspects of their personalities and intellect are often hallmarks of success

Reading this I it is clear the Slapper & Goose has many characteristics in common with Kevni.

Token

15 Oct 12 at 10:18 pm
Viva @10.16pm

Yeah – but then they’ll overstep the mark with their oestrogen friends like George Fungus did on that Ten chick panel show about Ben Roberts-Smith, the VC winner.

That Mia Freedman puts her PC feminist foot in her mouth pretty regularly too.

H B Bear

15 Oct 12 at 10:30 pm
CONSCIOUSNESS SCANNER OFFERS HOPE TO VEGETATIVE PATIENTS: A special scanner developed in Canada is helping doctors more accurately diagnose patients believed to be completely vegetative (and thus, lacking in all consciousness). The machine is able to show that some such patients are, in fact, conscious, but unable to respond in any way. This is similar to functional MRI imaging used by Dr. Adrian Owen at Cambridge University, which has shown similar amazing results.

Bottom line? What we know about the brain is presently very limited. Some percentage patients believed to be “vegetative” are, in fact, conscious. Evolving scientific understanding of brain injury should lead to greater recognition of disability rights and reticence to “pull the plug” too quickly.

Gab

15 Oct 12 at 10:37 pm
What a deceitful dissolute piece of work we have squatting in The Lodge.

Hence the biting contempt expressed loudly out here in the electorate. This is misinterpreted as contempt for a woman. No. It is contempt for the deceitful dissolute piece of work we have squatting in The Lodge.

Viva

15 Oct 12 at 10:39 pm
You’d have to be a real dumbass to buy into that ‘people only criticise gillard because she’s a female’ crapola.

Gab

15 Oct 12 at 10:40 pm
You’d have to be a real dumbass to buy into that ‘people only criticise gillard because she’s a female’ crapola.

We are forbidden from treating her as an individual because that would be sexist.

Dangph

15 Oct 12 at 10:44 pm
Yes, it’s simply unfair to hold women to the same high level of expectations we hold men, just as it’s unfair to hold blacks to the same level of expectations we hold whites.

It’d be like expecting a child to be as responsible as an adult.

/soft bigotry of low expectations

sdog

15 Oct 12 at 10:48 pm
C.L. @3:06 pm

I note that that Florida Board of Education is being waacist! What do they mean by holding Asians to a higher standard in both reading and math? Or does that mean that they’re giving up on the whites, hispanics and blacks? Which ever way you spin it, it’s not a good look.

Cold-Hands

15 Oct 12 at 11:07 pm
CRAIG Thomson faces a costly legal battle after Fair Work Australia launched legal action against the independent MP, claiming he spent Health Services Union funds on a dozen separate engagements with prostitutes, and seeking orders that he pay back potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars to the union.

FWA lodged a 200-page statement of claim with the Federal Court in Melbourne that contained the most detailed claims to date against Mr Thomson, forensically linking specific cash withdrawals on his union credit card with alleged expenditure on escort agencies.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/in-depth/craig-thomson-cited-on-dozen-hookers-as-fair-work-australia-seeks-order/story-fndsip4d-1226496666424

Not to worry, gillard has the utmost confidence in him. She will defend him to her bitter end…

PRIME Minister Julia Gillard says she will not comment on the charges laid against independent MP Craig Thomson over the alleged misuse of union funds.

bwahahahaha!

Gab

15 Oct 12 at 11:13 pm
Given Thommo is already into NSW Labor for $150,000, he is going to have to find some very friendly lawyers in a hurry.

Never a slush fund around when you really need it.

H B Bear

15 Oct 12 at 11:24 pm
Perhaps one of his hookers knows a lawyer?

Gab

15 Oct 12 at 11:26 pm
Would it be too ‘Offensive’ (perhaps illegal) if I said I couldn’t care less how many women are in the workforce?

As somebody who works in engineering where the only women around are of questionable femininity I certainly wish there were more women in the workforce. Hot ones preferably, in miniskirts.

Somehow though I don’t think thats the wishful thinking the feminazi’s are hoping for.

Jeremiah

15 Oct 12 at 11:50 pm
Labor: the party for women.

ALP rocked by new Craig Thomson cash for sex claims.

C.L.

15 Oct 12 at 11:50 pm
CONSCIOUSNESS SCANNER OFFERS HOPE TO VEGETATIVE PATIENTS

Hope for Biden?

C.L.

15 Oct 12 at 11:52 pm
I was going to say the only worthwhile political commentary on Ten is South Park – but that is on SBS for some reason

I actually reckon the South Park guys are borderline right wingers. They poke fun at all the usual left wing sacred cows but do so craftily enough that they get away with it.

Jeremiah

15 Oct 12 at 11:54 pm
But the gold medal goes to the ABC for sheer chutzpah for claiming the audience was 47% coalition voters. Woo hoo!

I was in the Q&A audience once, I don’t think its necessarily one sided, its just that the Coalition voters tend not to heckle and carry on like a bunch of retards (just like out in the real world) so when you’re watching at home you only ever hear the lefties in action.

Jeremiah

15 Oct 12 at 11:59 pm
The violent sexist language and mentality of our times…

… from lefty Fairfax, of course:

Danielle could nail Rusty for at least $25m.

Why she deserves $25 million isn’t explained.

C.L.

16 Oct 12 at 12:04 am
I’m not sure Hamid Karzai will regard Julia Gillard, of all people, as a moral authority on this…

PM canvasses for the end of ‘insider’ attacks.

C.L.

16 Oct 12 at 12:08 am
Potemkin’s Village

All these creatures spend their time explaining… here

Grigory Potemkin

16 Oct 12 at 4:10 am
Great! Having flown in and out of Afghanistan in a bizjet to be “briefed” by a corps of people who loathe everything she stands for, now she has an ADHD retard’s fixation with military-speak:

“I’m not going to comment on a matter that’s before the courts (Thomson) and I’m also not going to war-game a lot of hypothetical questions about a matter that’s before the courts,” she said.

Tom

16 Oct 12 at 4:58 am
Hey, this liberty quote:

Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage’s whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men.

Is yet another reformulation of Hobbes’ thesis in Leviathan.

Hobbes gets no love from libertarians, except by proxy when recast by people like Ayn Rand.

Abu Chowdah

16 Oct 12 at 5:13 am
Prime-minister-in-waiting Tony Abbott and the Coalition get on with the job of government-in-exile while Gillard’s harpies sound more and more like an opposition on border protection:

TWO senior opposition frontbenchers will travel to Sri Lanka to discuss the Coalition’s controversial policy of returning asylum-seeker boats to Sri Lanka.

Amid growing signs the revived Pacific Solution is failing to deter asylum-seekers, the Coalition indicated yesterday it planned to continue its unorthodox strategy of pursuing foreign policy from opposition.

News of the planned Sri Lanka visit by immigration spokesman Scott Morrison and foreign affairs spokeswoman Julie Bishop came as Tony Abbott last night raised the broader people-smuggling problem at a meeting last night with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in Jakarta…

The Coalition’s silence on towbacks drew further taunts from the government, Immigration Minister Chris Bowen accusing Mr Abbott of lacking the “guts” to raise the policy, which Jakarta has publicly opposed.

Tom

16 Oct 12 at 5:35 am
Link.

Tom

16 Oct 12 at 5:37 am
Channel 10 like the ABC but with more ads?
I have wondered why there are no conservative commercial TV stations, since it is commercial radio that remains the bastion, but here we go into a support of Jim Rose’s theory that media biases itself towards its audience.
In short, the TV people must see their interests being served by appealing predominantly to people under 30. Until we have Fox News Australia this will not change.

Blogstrop

16 Oct 12 at 6:23 am
In short, the TV people must see their interests being served by appealing predominantly to people under 30.

I wonder if that might be due to the lack of people under 30 actually reading stuff rather than watching.

The number of typos I get from the 20-somethings at work drive me nuts. It’s obvious that they don’t have a clue about basic things like even copying an address correctly.

I’m halfway tempted to put together a remedial english session for them.

They are remarkably uncritical, too, which is also a recipe for disaster at times.

nilk

16 Oct 12 at 6:32 am
Are instances of an employee defrauding their organisation usually pursued in a civil action?

Blogstrop

16 Oct 12 at 6:46 am
Sydney Morning Herald are shameless in their pursuit of Alan Jones’ advertisers, given more recent developments in politics.

dd

16 Oct 12 at 6:50 am
There are claims that Indonesia won’t accept a towback boats policy here.

This article simply mentions “sources”, rather weak I would have thought if this was supposedly an Indonesian government policy position. Is this just another bogus claim by the ALP?

Can anyone identify a reference where a known Indonesian government official has said such a thing?

At the very least, if it is genuine, I would like to know the reason behind their policy.

2dogs

16 Oct 12 at 6:54 am
A quarter of all Tasmanians are at or near the poverty level. Unfortunately, that’s what happens when your industries all get closed down.

The report’s authors recommend more training.

dd

16 Oct 12 at 6:55 am
Sydney Morning Herald are shameless in their pursuit of Alan Jones’ advertisers

And not even an acknowledgement of the massive conflict of interest: Fairfax owns 2UE, which is being thrashed by Jones’ 2GB.

Tom

16 Oct 12 at 6:58 am
A report by Christopher Booker on the BBC’s bias in climate change matters, with a lengthy introduction by Sir Anthony Jay, writer of Yes Minister and himself a former BBC employee. He’s well aware of all the tricks used in presenting a subject in a way to try and look impartial but to skew the impression given. Everything here can be easily applied to our ABC, which is a perpetual understudy to the publicly funded propagandists of the world.

Blogstrop

16 Oct 12 at 6:59 am
In short, the TV people must see their interests being served by appealing predominantly to people under 30.

Lack of competition means that their theories about audiences and market share haven’t been truly tested by the market.

But on a somewhat unrelated issue, it’s incredible that even with a government backed oligopoly, two of the networks, 9 and 10, are struggling. What’s the basic cause of this? Is it local content rules (which drive up costs)? competition from the ABC (which restricts market share)? Pay TV and Online competition?
Or all of the above, or none of the above?

dd

16 Oct 12 at 7:01 am
It seems the SMH is plain lying with their screaming headline “Indonesia rejects Abbott ‘tow back boats’ vow”, 2dogs.

From Jakarta Post:

Australian opposition leader Tony Abbott did not delve into details of his coalition’s so-called “turning back the asylum seeker boats” policy when he met with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono at the latter’s office in Jakarta on Monday, according to Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa.

“No. [The talks between Yudhoyono and Abbott did not discuss] that specific modality or possibility. But there was a good discussion on the problems or common challenges of people smuggling and how the issue must be addressed,” Marty told the press after the meeting.

Marty accompanied Yudhoyono in the meeting while Abbot was accompanied by the shadow foreign affairs minister Julie Bishop.

From Bolt:

Neither side discussing what could be tricky is a bit Javanese. But Abbott’s immigration spokesman Scott Morrison says tow-backs were raised with Natalegawa in a subsequent meeting.

Indonesia will want a reward for allowing boats to be turned back again, and will not want to agree too easily. But unless the boats are turned back, boat people will keep coming. For now, Abbott would prefer to have engagement, not confrontation, as he introduces himself properly to a president whose goodwill will be essential.

Greg Sheridan:

…very few Australian cabinet ministers, other than the prime minister, get to see the President individually in Indonesia.

It reflects the view within the Indonesian establishment that Abbott is overwhelmingly likely to win the next election… Importantly, it is also the case that Abbott now has a more pro-Indonesia policy than the Gillard government…

The Yudhoyono administration did not snub Julia Gillard by agreeing to see Abbott. Yudhoyono is Southeast Asia’s senior statesman and structurally pro-Australian, but the Indonesians were very comfortable with Rudd and before that John Howard. They have found the Gillard government erratic and unreliable.

The Indonesians are well aware of Abbott’s turn-back-the-boats policy and are formally opposed to it. But their willingness to embrace Abbott shows they will be keen to work with him on this problem in government.

Protocol and diplomacy. Raging like a bull in a china shop is not going to get SBY on side. But of course the lefty media say otherwise.

Gab

16 Oct 12 at 7:06 am
Jakarta Post before the meeting:

Observers have suggested that, among other crucial issues concerning Indonesia-Australia relations, the issue of asylum seekers will likely be raised.

On the Indonesian side, many expect Yudhoyono to renew talks about young Indonesian boat crews currently in Australian detention.

As of July, there were still 54 Indonesian children in Australian detention while 215 others have been released.

Meanwhile, Abbott said that he would focus on business issues, particularly on the cattle trade and agricultural cooperation, as well as tourism, regional security, education and food security.
…
To The Australian, Abbott said he would also “build relationships on cracking down on people-smuggling”. But he did not mention whether he would raise his coalition’s policy to “turn back boats carrying asylum-seekers to Indonesia waters”.
…
Faizasyah downplayed potential negative impressions of an Indonesian head of state having an official meeting with an opposition leader of a friendly state.

“I’d rather see it positively. The meeting should be considered as an effort to maintain a good bilateral relationship that can be reached by being engaged in ties both with the government and the opposition,” he said.

Abbott and his entourage have been in Indonesia since Thursday. With Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, he attended the 2002 Bali bombing memorial service in Denpasar, Bali, on Friday.

Yudhoyono did not attend the Bali ceremony and instead decided to undergo a medical check-up with his wife, Ani Yudhoyono.

Gab

16 Oct 12 at 7:13 am
The member for Dobell also faces the wrath of a parliamentary committee looking into claims he misled the parliament when he denied the allegations.

I read that and thought, so what?

After 5 years of goverment by the most repugnant government who have blanket support from the media, we all now know that no matter how offensive an action is, a person from the Left will never be sanctioned.

We’ve seen the emperor [parliament & the legal system] have not clothes.

Token

16 Oct 12 at 7:16 am
Gab, Greg Sheridan noted to AJ this morning that the Indonesians know given status to Abbott makes Labor go troppo.

The Indo’s are master at passive agressive diplomacy and are getting back at labor for endless insults during the 5 years of the Labor government.

i.e reesatablishing the trade in illegal immigrants, Pacific Viking, the East Timor camp plan & the cattle ban

Token

16 Oct 12 at 7:21 am
The Parliamentary Committee is stacked anyhow

Mike of Marion

16 Oct 12 at 7:23 am
I have no doubt Sheridan is correct, Token. Abbott is building a relationship with SBY. To go in all brash and screechy, like a gillard, is not the way to build that relationship. The specifics of the policy, including the tow-back bit, was discussed in a separate meeting with Bishop and Morrison and other Indo officials.

Gab

16 Oct 12 at 7:25 am
The specifics of the policy, including the tow-back bit, was discussed in a separate meeting with Bishop and Morrison and other Indo officials.

Of course it was, and the Coalition would ensure the discussions are not leaked to the media to win the daily spin cyole.

That is how business is conducted by professionals.

Token

16 Oct 12 at 7:31 am
JC says

“I for instance think wifey is just as pretty to me as she was when we first met- few lines and all”

What a guy JC!. I take back any bad things I said about you before.

Alice

16 Oct 12 at 7:33 am
From the SMH article by 2dogs:

Senior sources familiar with discussions in Darwin this week between the Indonesian and Australian governments said ”Indonesia made it clear to us” that it would not tolerate what is a key element of the Coalition’s strategy. The Herald has been told that one of those who conveyed this message was the Indonesian Foreign Minister, Marty Natalegawa.
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One senior Australian official said it was obvious it would be impossible to tow back boats and have a constructive relationship with Jakarta.

”It would take the relationship off a cliff,” the official said.

Sounds a bit dubious as reported by Jakarta Post

Contrary to the SMH the issue of asylum seekers was not raised at all in the meeting back in July. FM Marty was at that meeting too I believe and he’s not shy of talking to reporters about what is said in meetings.

In July, Yudhoyono also met with Abbott in Darwin, on the sidelines of the second Indonesia-Australia Annual Leader’s Meeting. In this meeting, Abbott did not mention people-smuggling issues at all, according to reports.

Their ABC24 has been blasting the news that Abbott didn’t have the guts to talk about the tow-back aspect with SBY so we know this will be the topic for the rest of the week.

Gab

16 Oct 12 at 7:34 am
I have wondered why there are no conservative commercial TV stations, since it is commercial radio that remains the bastion, but here we go into a support of Jim Rose’s theory that media biases itself towards its audience.

I’ve wondered this too Bloggie as Fox News has proven there is a major niche in the market to be addressed.

I suspect the issue is the scale of the enterprise.

Radio seems to work with small, flexible, dynamic workforces. By its nature it is not hard to set up another radio station and thereby with numbers diversity arrives. If a non-government station goes in the tank for the Left (e.g. 2UE a few years back), the audiance can leave as it has alternatives.

TV by contrast require large teams of people so the economics means there are fewer organisations and the workers are more unionised. Therefore, the culture of the workforce over time pushes the institution to the left over time.

It will be interesting to see how TV survives in coming years as with the NBN people don’t need the left wing gatekeepers to get audio-visual entertainment.

I know I barely watch TV any more.

Token

16 Oct 12 at 7:38 am
But on a somewhat unrelated issue, it’s incredible that even with a government backed oligopoly, two of the networks, 9 and 10, are struggling. What’s the basic cause of this? Is it local content rules (which drive up costs)? competition from the ABC (which restricts market share)? Pay TV and Online competition?
Or all of the above, or none of the above?

The reasons I no longer watch free to air TV:

Shit content
Smug dickheads
Too many fucking ads
Anything decent I’ll buy on DVD
A fantastic DVD recorder for anything else (ease of ad removal)
I have Fox and watch that instead (largely for the sport)
Too many other interests (including the Cat)

Rabz

16 Oct 12 at 7:48 am
A report by Christopher Booker on the BBC’s bias in climate change matters, with a lengthy introduction by Sir Anthony Jay, writer of Yes Minister and himself a former BBC employee.

The BBC’s history of surpressing information of great importance to the community so they can gain short term advantage is finally being questioned. A parliamentary enquiry about the institutional cover up is being called for.

I’m sure a well placed questioning the integrity of the organisation about other important matters such as AGW could be made at that time.

BTW, remember the wall to wall coverage in Australia when Murdoch’s media got in trouble last year? Compare the reporting on this disgusting corporate cover up.

Where is the outrage now the BBC is involved?

Token

16 Oct 12 at 7:48 am
Another reason:

Not enough High Definition content – both the league and AFL grand finals were in standard definition, which looks f*cking terrible.

Rabz

16 Oct 12 at 7:53 am
But on a somewhat unrelated issue, it’s incredible that even with a government backed oligopoly, two of the networks, 9 and 10, are struggling. What’s the basic cause of this?

There problem seems to be due to the government controls on the market.

They are behomeths that loaded up on debt during a boom which need to go insolvent to resolve the problem of debt, expensive agreements with suppliers and staff.

The TV stations are not too big to fail.

Token

16 Oct 12 at 7:57 am
I know I barely watch TV any more.

Me neither. I can’t see any future for broadcast television. It’s surely going to go the way of the hand-cranked clothes mangle.

I watch a lot of YouTube. There are lots of people earning a living from creating content on YouTube, some of them becoming rich. That trend is just going to continue.

Dangph

16 Oct 12 at 7:59 am
The silly moaning herald:

FOR 56 years the Nine Network has been a force to be reckoned with. Today, it sits on the brink of collapse…

Channel Nine:

Fauxfacts on brink of collapse…

Just hurry up and die, FFS!

Rabz

16 Oct 12 at 7:59 am
Gerard Henderson delievers again:

I agree with Summers it is ”terrible” to call the Prime Minister a liar. However, when I asked her if she had expressed such a view when Howard was called a liar, she declined to answer the question. Summers also takes offence that, on occasions, Gillard is referred to as ”she” or ”her” and maintains that ”previous prime ministers were accorded the basic respect of being referred to by their last names”.

This is manifestly not so. Moreover, last Thursday Gillard used the words ”he” and ”he’s” in one sentence when referring to Abbott.

This is normal conversation.

It seems that Summers’s evident sensitivity has had an impact on Gillard. Last Tuesday, the Prime Minister complained that Abbott was ”now looking at his watch because, apparently, a woman has spoken for too long”. In the 1992 US presidential campaign, George H.W. Bush was criticised for looking at his watch when debating Bill Clinton. This is not a gender specific act. Nor is being told to shut up. Nor is being called a ”piece of work”. Last year I was called a ”piece of work” by the Sydney University academic Simon Chapman. It took me a full eight seconds to recover.

Token

16 Oct 12 at 8:01 am
Anything decent I’ll buy on DVD
A fantastic DVD recorder for anything else (ease of ad removal)

There are shows like the Mentalist I enjoy, but can’t watch on TV as they play them out of sequence and d*ck around with the programming times.

I’d rather get the DVD or obtain by alternate means and so I can watch a series in sequence during the short window after the kids have gone to sleep.

Token

16 Oct 12 at 8:03 am
Sky has the correct editorial policy for a small pay TV current affairs market like Australia’s: oxygen for both left and right points of view competing on the same stage, sometimes in the same time slot. What is going on at the ABC is out-of-control, ethics-free journalistic corruption: unrestrained extreme leftist editorialising and a virtual prohibition on centre-right opinion, which is the default position of the middle class. Doubly outrageous when the public is paying for it. Network 10 attempted to narrow its market to the under 30s, which has been a disaster. Nine’s looming insolvency is simply the result of a management quality vacuum after Kerry Packer’s 2005 death and a mountain of debt.

Tom

16 Oct 12 at 8:04 am
What is going on at the ALPBC is out-of-control, ethics-free journalistic corruption: unrestrained extreme leftist editorialising and a virtual prohibition on centre-right opinion

But other than those minor criticisms, is it steadfastly unbiased, as noted by the under appreciated Ozdraylian Lobodomee Pardee genius, andrew leigh.

Rabz

16 Oct 12 at 8:10 am
… can’t watch on TV as they play them out of sequence and d*ck around with the programming times.

Yes, what a brilliant way to further piss off your intended audience.

Morons.

Rabz

16 Oct 12 at 8:12 am
One of the reasons SBY doesn’t like having anything to do with Gillard is that she is unmarried. It is beneath his dignity and that of his wife to receive her and the hairdresser.

C.L.

16 Oct 12 at 8:31 am
Was poor Alan Bullied?

1735099

16 Oct 12 at 8:36 am
Excellent cartoon of gillard in Afghanistan. Says it all really.

Gab

16 Oct 12 at 8:53 am
A handy bookmark for the foulmouthed abuse trolling we have endured in government while they ransack the national treasury.

Tom

16 Oct 12 at 8:57 am
On BBC bias and climate change, Antony Jay, the writer for Yes, Minister, really seemed to know his stuff. The writers of that show were fairly balanced too, and poked fun at all sides. I still remember their episode on chemical risk management:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Greasy_Pole

A problem with climate change is that it is even more difficult than most scientific fields to understand, and requires a facility with mathematics which is not at all common. Most people who opine on this topic don’t really know what they are talking about. That includes me, so I try not to give an opinion, beyond saying that I am bothered by some of the rhetoric.

Julian O'Dea

16 Oct 12 at 8:58 am
THE fate of one of the key promises Labor made to form minority government – constitutional recognition of councils – has been offloaded to a committee.

Gab

16 Oct 12 at 9:01 am
ANGER is growing among parliamentarians over Nicola Roxon’s agreement to provide training for MPs and senators to stop sexual harassment as part of the government’s $50,000 legal settlement with the ex-Speaker’s former staff member, James Ashby.

Independent MP Rob Oakeshott, who was instrumental in getting Peter Slipper to resign as Speaker of the House of Representatives last week over sexually explicit texts, says the plan is “patronising” and “offensive”.

Coalition frontbencher Bronwyn Bishop has demanded to know “what deal the Attorney-General has done”.

Labor MPs, who asked not to be identified, said they would not participate in the training scheme.
…
“Making a deal which sets acceptable standards for the behaviour of MPs is offensive from a Labor Party that can’t meet its own standards of behaviour.”

One Labor MP said he would not undertake the training.

“It’s unenforceable,” he said.

Another Labor MP said he believed it would be a contempt of the parliament if the government tried to force the training on MPs.

“Once an MP has been elected to the parliament, you cannot take action that would impede a member from taking his or her seat in the house,” he said.

Three weeks after making the offer, the Attorney-General’s office said yesterday there were no details but “a sexual harassment education program will be introduced in due course”.

Gab

16 Oct 12 at 9:06 am
Most people who opine on this topic don’t really know what they are talking about.

I focus on the disconnect between the supposed urgency of the doom and then the way the same people cherry pick solutions.

e.g.

Yes to extremely expensive wind technology which provides intermittent power and removes the birds of prey and bats from the eco-system.

No to nuclear, a proven technology which provides resource poor France (and her neighbours) the electricity it needs.

Token

16 Oct 12 at 9:07 am
Another “media adviser” for Duckbum:

Welcome back to Canberra Darrin Barnett, who is joining the PMO team as a media adviser. Barnett, a former AAP journo and adviser to Tanya Plibersek, is returning to the the big house after a stints with the MUA and EMC. He previously worked for NSW Labor spinning for Reba Meagher and Morris Iemma.

Gab

16 Oct 12 at 9:07 am
As Bolta picked up today, The Australian slams Nanny Roxon in a big way for proving beyond all doubt she is out of her depth and not up to the job of being AG.

I look forward to the days when adults run the government and once more are promoted based upon talent and experience, not for the buzz.

Token

16 Oct 12 at 9:10 am
Heh. So much for SFb taking time off from commenting here.

Gab

16 Oct 12 at 9:16 am
Roxon is the weakest link.

H B Bear

16 Oct 12 at 9:18 am
Three weeks after making the offer, the Attorney-General’s office said yesterday there were no details but “a sexual harassment education program will be introduced in due course”.

The end result from this is a Labor crony mate will get a big fat payout to running the training using taxpoayer funds which virtually no MPs attend.

Token

16 Oct 12 at 9:20 am
Your ALPBC and the Indonesians join the Gillard Labor government, treating Tony Abbott as defacto Prime Minister of Australia.

In fact, the only people who aren’t are a bitter old man, a clown, the dishonourable member and the musselman. That’s democracy for you.

H B Bear

16 Oct 12 at 9:23 am
He previously worked for NSW Laybore spinning for Reba Meagher and Morris Enema.

Two of the most intolerable idiots to have cursed public life in this country’s history. Both were utterly offensive, indescribably incompetent, parasitic dolts.

Rabz

16 Oct 12 at 9:25 am
So much for SFb taking time off from commenting here.

Que?

Tom

16 Oct 12 at 9:34 am
He’s reappeared on the gerbil worming thread, Tom.

Whining away, as bloody usual…

Rabz

16 Oct 12 at 9:36 am
Labor media advisors seem to get passed around like a dose of the clap at an ALP conference.

H B Bear

16 Oct 12 at 9:45 am
treating Tony Abbott as defacto Prime Minister of Australia.

Funny how he didn’t bring up turning the boats around with SBY, and funny how Morrison won’t disclose conversations on the issue with Marty Natalegawa.

1735099

16 Oct 12 at 9:48 am
He’s such a deep and insightful thinker, Rabz. For example on 29/09/12 here:

Meanwhile, in the real world, outside the reality challenged echo chamber, Romney is going to lose, and for good reasons; most of them outlined so well by Clinton at his democrat convention speech.

That’s almost as prescient as his forecast on gerbil werming on 16/08/12:

we are quite likely headed to a clear new all time global warming high within the next 12 months.

Tom

16 Oct 12 at 9:50 am
He’s such a deep and insightful thinker

He’s also been praying to gaia for an extremely hot summer, which he seems to believe will lead to dullard being re-elected.

I kid you not.

Rabz

16 Oct 12 at 9:53 am
Funny how he didn’t bring up turning the boats around with SBY, and funny how Morrison won’t disclose conversations on the issue with Marty Natalegawa.

None of that is “funny” except to mentally damaged leftists who think what they’re told to think by The Age and SMH.

twostix

16 Oct 12 at 9:58 am
Don’t take the bait, Twostix, it’s just rewarding the innate liar.

Gab

16 Oct 12 at 10:00 am
THE honeymoon is over for the West Australian Labor Party nine months after the boost that followed its dumping of leader Eric Ripper in favour of Mark McGowan. Newspoll shows the Barnett government is again well ahead of Labor after a slump in voter support that coincided with the appointment of Mr McGowan as Opposition Leader in January.

Dumping leader doesn’t pay for Labor

They still can’t learn from their past mistakes.

Gab

16 Oct 12 at 10:03 am
He’s also been praying to gaia for an extremely hot summer, which he seems to believe will lead to dullard being re-elected.

It’s been freezing here so far and people are longing for the warmth of spring.

People should leave him be though. He like many leftists have totally and completely gone all in on this government – like US leftists have gone all in for Obama. It’s all or bust and as the reality looms that it’s a bust they’re getting and going to get even more emotionally unstable.

Arguing with him these days is like arguing with the nut who has built a bunker in his back yard and thinks the world is going to end next year.

twostix

16 Oct 12 at 10:04 am
Happy snap #1

Happy snap #2

Gab

16 Oct 12 at 10:14 am
Funny how he didn’t bring up turning the boats around with SBY…

It’s called ‘Menschheit’ – a thing between men.

They don’t need to discuss it.

SBY knows that’s what Abbott wants and he respects him for not advertising the fact for domestic consumption. It’s how an intelligent person operates in this region.

C.L.

16 Oct 12 at 10:17 am
Funny how he didn’t bring up turning the boats around with SBY, and funny how Morrison won’t disclose conversations on the issue with Marty Natalegawa.

Read the comments above Numbers. Your lack of understanding on dealing with non-Australian cultures is telling.

Those of us who do business with Asia know you would never do that to the Indonesians as it is such a monumental faux pas.

It is boorish from Labor like you describe which has lead to SBY dodging meetings with Gillard.

Token

16 Oct 12 at 10:17 am
If I am wrong on Romney losing, it would be but a blip compared to the 25,687 predictions that Gillard government was about to collapse, as recorded in this blog by various participants over the last 2 years.

steve from brisbane

16 Oct 12 at 10:20 am
LOL/

He just can’t stay away.

Gab

16 Oct 12 at 10:21 am
Anti-misogny campaigner Craig Emerson comes out swinging for… Craig Thomson.

Too funny.

C.L.

16 Oct 12 at 10:26 am
Those of us who do business with Asia

Ah – the instant ex-pat expert on the inscrutable Asian other – You’d be almost funny if you didn’t take yourself seriously….

1735099

16 Oct 12 at 10:26 am
The Federal Government’s get-tough policy on asylum seekers was in tatters last night with almost 340 arriving in Australian waters in 24 hours.

They just can’t implement any policy with success. Perhaps it’s time they realised their policies are the problem.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/newshome/15117126/asylum-seekers-flood-cocos/

Gab

16 Oct 12 at 10:32 am
The Legover Man’s stand-up material has always been better than his singing.

H B Bear

16 Oct 12 at 10:33 am
In a record number of arrivals for one day, four boatloads carrying a total of 233 people arrived on the Cocos Islands while a boat with 104 arrived off Christmas Island.

The Government dribbled out a series of press releases about the arrivals over the course of the day, leading the coalition to claim Labor was attempting to make the event less of a news story. The last press release was sent out at 7pm yesterday despite the fact the boats had been intercepted on Saturday.

It is understood the Government was last night pushing hard to move the new arrivals off the Cocos Islands and on to Christmas Island as quickly as possible.

The huge influx of people to the Cocos Islands has seen a tent city spring up at the old quarantine station to house the arrivals.

By putting people at the station, about 2km out of the main township, the island has avoided similar scenes of chaos from earlier this year when officials had to house asylum seekers in the town’s pub.

Gab

16 Oct 12 at 10:34 am
Ah – the instant ex-pat expert on the inscrutable Asian other – You’d be almost funny if you didn’t take yourself seriously….

LOL, was that an insult from the boorish old homophobe who has spent 40 years nursing a grudge?

Token

16 Oct 12 at 10:39 am
Perhaps the gillard could give a screechy presentation to SBY admonishing him for his misogynistic ways. How many women in SBY’s cabinet?

Gab

16 Oct 12 at 10:42 am
Gotta love Peter Reith’s articles over on The Dumb. It’s like running a stick along a fence to annoy the ALPBC running dogs.

Woof woof.

H B Bear

16 Oct 12 at 10:44 am
Remember that one time, when SfB took several weeks off blogging to read 18 books?

Oh wait, that was yesterday.

Nevermind.

sdog

16 Oct 12 at 10:47 am
Remember that one time, when SfB took several weeks off blogging to read 18 books?

I’m guessing those books had a lot of pictures and words in big type-face.

Token

16 Oct 12 at 10:49 am
Shitfer is a Cat junkie. He’ll be selling his arse later today just to afford another hit.

Infidel Tiger

16 Oct 12 at 10:50 am
That’d be catatonic junkie, wouldn’t it, IT?

kae

16 Oct 12 at 10:52 am
It seems the SMH is plain lying with their screaming headline “Indonesia rejects Abbott ‘tow back boats’ vow”

The ABC is also pushing this line hard. It must be the top McTernan talking point for the week – ‘moving on’ from misogyny.

Lazlo

16 Oct 12 at 10:52 am
So Emmo is upset about Brandis but happy for Shagger to come out and trash FWA. They just don’t get irony these simple folk from the left.

Tiny Dancer

16 Oct 12 at 10:52 am
Just had a meeting with an ex-Hawke Minister who said that he couldn’t believe how ‘fucked’ the current ALP was.

Rococo Liberal

16 Oct 12 at 11:11 am
Rococo

That’s an understatement.

kae

16 Oct 12 at 11:14 am
The ABC just handed Milne the megaphone to make a stupid statement to the effect that if Australia supplied uranium to India we’d be complicit in any “nuclear accident.”
The ABC is complicit in aiding with prominence anyone who wants to make outrageous statements they approve of, while disregarding or actively undermining those with a more rational view.
Rafe has linked elsewhere to Garth Paltridge’s The Climate Caper, and it is clear that the anti-nuclear forces and the AGW alarmists are stamped out of the same mould.

blogstrop

16 Oct 12 at 11:16 am
Good heavens! What a rude weatherman

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bQULr1lyvs

areff

16 Oct 12 at 11:26 am
Our own demon-possessed green SHY has just said that it’s wrong that a two year old should have been incarcerated fo a long time. The parents are blameless, except for being a security risk No biggie. No responsibility on their part, I guess?
But wait, when you think about it she’s actually arguing for a return to colonialisation of these countries that have so badly failed to provide a liveable country that their citizens are flocking to the more attractive ones, run by governments with the heritage values that the colonial powers must re-impose on these erring states before the world becomes totally chaotic.
This is the only way to look after all the kiddies.
Thanks for that, wild-eyed bogan harpy Sarah.

blogstrop

16 Oct 12 at 11:35 am
Phabulous phucking Phil the phixer pheigns phury that, horror of horrors, justice may not be done after all:

Given the glacial pace at which the legal system moves, it is possible that the civil charges against Craig Thomson could be unresolved by the time of the next federal election.

That is, if Thomson is unsuccessful in having the case against him thrown out when it is first scheduled to appear before the Federal Court in December.

Following its report handed down in May, Fair Work Australia lodged 62 civil charges against Thomson, 37 of which carry maximum fines of $6600 each. The other 25 are alleged breaches of union rules and carry no penalties.

All are civil charges, meaning even if the court finds against Thomson on all 62 counts, he is perfectly eligible to stay in Parliament.

Tom

16 Oct 12 at 11:52 am
Given the glacial pace at which the legal system moves, it is possible that the civil charges against craig thomson could be unresolved by the time of the next feral election.

Gee, no shit, sherlock?

Rabz

16 Oct 12 at 12:07 pm
Funny how he didn’t bring up turning the boats around with SBY, and funny how Morrison won’t disclose conversations on the issue with Marty Natalegawa.

He does and the headline would be about bullying a neighbour. he doesn’t, and he’s weak.

You watch.

Nic

16 Oct 12 at 12:11 pm
Gab @10.03am

Sneakers McGowan will have people at Canberra and Melbourne airports to make sure Gillard isn’t seen anyway in WA before the election. I think the Collingwood football team have made more trips to Perth than Gillard and they still need a map to get to Tullamarine.

Of course, the election will be fought on State issues. Just like the wipeouts in NSW and Queensland were.

H B Bear

16 Oct 12 at 12:14 pm
There is no way the Fed Court will toss out the civil charges without a formal eharing. Thomson is dreaming.

pete m

16 Oct 12 at 12:20 pm
They didn’t want her in the NT either. I hear she’s electoral poison, Bear. The only place she’s welcome for upcoming elections is the ACT.

Gab

16 Oct 12 at 12:26 pm
Tom

Phil has phorgotten that if Thommo is bankrupt he can’t be a pollie.

kae

16 Oct 12 at 12:37 pm
I guess one of the unions will pay Thomson’s legal fees, the ALP won’t see him go bankrupt by any means.

candy

16 Oct 12 at 12:42 pm
Candy, he’s now such a pariah that the ALP and the unions won’t be game to give him a cent. He’ll have to start selling property to stay out of bankruptcy court like Slippery Pete.

Tom

16 Oct 12 at 12:47 pm
The only place she’s welcome for upcoming elections is the ACT.

Gab, she hasn’t appeared in a single piece of lobodomee pardee electoral material in the ACT.

Watch the result on Saturday people – could be very interesting…

Rabz

16 Oct 12 at 12:50 pm
He’ll have to start selling property

Presumably his new post hookers wifey now owns the family home – you know, the one that’s had all the expensive renovations…

Rabz

16 Oct 12 at 12:52 pm
Rabz it was in an article I read couple weeks back where the statement was made that gillard’s welcome on the campaign trail, by Gallagher.

Gab

16 Oct 12 at 1:01 pm
Just had a meeting with an ex-Hawke Minister who said that he couldn’t believe how ‘fucked’ the current ALP was.

Half of Gillard’s front bench were advisers or staffers to Hawke ministers. It is a tribute to their inbreeding and lack of talent that Labor is the mess that it is.

Gillard is a classic example – in politics for 20 years after being Emilys Listed into the Cain/Kirner disaster in Victoria. She still shows absolutely no political judgement beyond the next week.

H B Bear

16 Oct 12 at 1:04 pm
Gab,

I’ve been largely avoiding anything to do with this election, except talking to a few of the Liberal candidates outside the shopping centre on Saturdays.

However, I do scan all the letterboxed lobodomee pardee material just before throwing it in the bin.

No dullard, no carbon dioxide tax, etc.

gallagher’s such a clueless, arrogant moron that it doesn’t surprise she’d make such an announcement.

Methinks she was quietly talked out of it shortly afterwards…

Rabz

16 Oct 12 at 1:07 pm
Do the ALP flyers actually have the ALP logo on them, Rabz?

Gab

16 Oct 12 at 1:08 pm
My God – they really are that f*cking stupid – however, we can all relax – it was only a “one off”…

Rabz

16 Oct 12 at 1:10 pm
Rabz, from your link above:

“It gives people a bit of a boost and a bit of a focus on what we need to do over the next 11 days.”

Yes, a boost and focus on the need to not vote for any of the whiny victimteer team ALP.

kae

16 Oct 12 at 1:13 pm
Do the ALP flyers actually have the ALP logo on them?

There’s a particular idiot running for laybore who does make “ACT Laybore” quite prominent, but most of them don’t – it requires a bit of a look.

However, the official lobodomee pardee logo has yet to be seen.

Rabz

16 Oct 12 at 1:14 pm
Half of Gillard’s front bench were advisers or staffers to Hawke ministers. It is a tribute to their inbreeding and lack of talent that Labor is the mess that it is.

By contrast to Hawke’s ministry where most actually had a real job before they got into politics.

Maybe there is something to this…

Token

16 Oct 12 at 1:20 pm
Rabz,
Have you noticed the roadside signs ? Liar’s party come in several colours, including colours used by other parties. I’ve seen blue, red, orange, and they’re all liar’s party. Blue is used by the liberals, and red is another party (community first ?).
I guess the liar’s don’t believe in branding any more, or they’re being deceptive.
The only colour that the liar’s haven’t used is green.
Curious that.

Keith

16 Oct 12 at 1:23 pm
Senior federal police say their ability to investigate major crime will be ”devastated” if a controversial proposal to track the internet use of Australians does not go ahead.

What an absolute pig faced, fascist, fuckwit.

twostix

16 Oct 12 at 1:23 pm
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/trust-us-police-push-for-greater-data-access-20121015-27ndh.html

twostix

16 Oct 12 at 1:24 pm
”To be blunt, we are too busy policing the community and policing national and international law to go on fishing expeditions. We just don’t have the resources.”

”I know it’s a big ask, but we’re asking people to trust us,” Assistant Commissioner Gaughan said.

Oh.my.god.

How about that race riot Gaughan? Clear cut case of incitement under ACT law.

Oh that’s right, the AFP are Labor men and “Trust us” they say.

Why the fuck should we?

twostix

16 Oct 12 at 1:27 pm
Keith,

The roadside signs have been a source of great amusement of late. Someone has been vandalising the lobodomee pardee’s signs.

That reminds me – unless I was imagining things (or hallucinating) one of the candidates was standing on the side of WH Drive yesterday evening in “blackface”, cheerily waving at the traffic.

Must investigate further…

Rabz

16 Oct 12 at 1:29 pm
By contrast to Hawke’s ministry where most actually had a real job before they got into politics.

I don’t think you can generalise – look at Keating v Swan, Hawke v Shorten. Half the Liberal party are staffers/solicitors too (although not union ambulance chasing firms).

I wonder if it is the quality of senior staff – compare Arthur Sinodinos to the kids in short pants that surrounded KRudd. Can you still pull good policy generalists out of the senior levels of the public service any more? God knows who is advising Gillard – I’d be doing anything to remove any association with this basket case off my CV.

H B Bear

16 Oct 12 at 1:32 pm
Fresh White House Insider

Now it’s not so much the argument I want to point out here but what Jarrett said to that other woman, who I believe was Julianna Smoot. When she was screaming about “he was one of ours” I am thinking it was a reference to Jim Lehrer, the moderator of that first debate. I went back and rewatched that debate a few times and there are several examples where Obama looks right over at Lehrer and appears to be waiting to be bailed out. And I’m guessing Lehrer tried to do just that but Obama was so bad so often and Romney was so good nobody could have saved Obama’s ass that night. Nobody.

And that means they will try to ensure they get that kind of help even more for the second debate. But just like he was prepared for the first debate, the governor will be even more prepared the second time around. And this time we are pushing Benghazi out there hard. A whole lot of us. They will try and pack the house. They will try and play out a gotcha moment. But we are prepared. The governor doesn’t have to win big like he did last time. He’s just got to win.

DaveF

16 Oct 12 at 1:33 pm
Jeremiah @ 11.59

Re Q&A – I agree and ditto.

I managed to get into Q&A as an audience member, identified myself as a coalition voter and submitted a number of questions for vetting.

My questions were not selected but I was fortunate to be randomly picked for a question from the floor.

Carefully worded and prepared with research into one of the panel guests, the question silenced the audience, had the relevant Labor Minister stumbling and gave an opportunity to a former Coalition Minister on the panel to add additional relevant information.

Unless more of us get into the game, ready to fight and I mean really fight hard…

Grigory Potemkin

16 Oct 12 at 1:33 pm
Gallagher has also played the gender card just because some liberals followed her around the hustings with their “triple your rates” sign on a trailer.
I wonder where she got the idea? Not the badass… surely.

Keith

16 Oct 12 at 1:34 pm
No, because he doesn’t look like a thug.

A probationary constable involved in the violent arrest of a young Brazilian student has admitted he Tasered the victim five times on the ground while the victim was handcuffed and being sprayed continuously with capsicum spray…

Tasers were fired up to 14 times by four officers and he was restrained by seven officers using three cans of capsicum spray, two sets of handcuffs and a police baton.

The student and football player died minutes later.

C.L.

16 Oct 12 at 1:34 pm
Keith, I have noticed the same thing. Labor are using all sorts of colours for their signs. Quite strange.

The huge owl sculpture in Belconnen Way had a large banner in front of it a couple of days ago, reading “$480,000 of your taxes wasted” or some such thing. I assume that was related to the election.

Julian O'Dea

16 Oct 12 at 1:53 pm
The owl “sculpture” cost taxpayers $400,000 plus $80,000 to install. Bruce Armstrong one very happy “artist”.

Gab

16 Oct 12 at 1:58 pm
I had no idea Japan was this screwed:

REVENUES: 90,334 (billion yen)

Tax revenues: 42,346
Other revenues: 3,744

Government Bond Issues (borrowing): 44,244

EXPENDITURES: 90,334

National Debt Service (interest): 21,944

Social Security: 26,390

Other: 42,000

Half their tax income pays interest on the debt when the rate is about 1%. Wow. Half the budget is borrowed. Wow.

And most of the debt is owed to the public so default isn’t really an option. Wow.

Originally found at Zero Hedge.

DaveF

16 Oct 12 at 1:59 pm
I quite like the owl, but it had to be returned to Melbourne for a while to be “winterised” for Canberra’s conditions. I am not sure who paid for that.

That was the story anyway. It certainly disappeared for a while.

Julian O'Dea

16 Oct 12 at 2:00 pm
Julian,
Yes, the owl was conceived, built, installed and repaired at great cost during the last labor term.
The so-called artwork along the GDE – another huge waste.

Keith

16 Oct 12 at 2:01 pm
The artist is apparently paying for a new coat of paint. it seems the outdoor owl wasn’t weatherproof.

Gab

16 Oct 12 at 2:02 pm
I heard an interview with this guy on the Adam Carolla show, he helped create Saw:

Last week, NBC announced that it has brought in “Carnivalé” creator Daniel Knauf to serve as show runner and head writer. Still skeptical that the series will feature glittery, emoting vampires? Daniel helped squelch those fears recently on Twitter.

When asked if the series would watered down since it is airing on a network instead of a cable channel, Knauf wrote, “Believe me, we’ll be pushing the outside of the broadcast envelope as far as content goes.”

And with regards to the metrosexualization of recent vampire fare, he also puts that assumption to rest.

“And not wimpy post-millennium, self-actualizing, oh-so-tortured, Abercrombie-&-Fitch, ‘sparkling’ Dracula. Victorian badass Dracula.” He also promises “55% sex, 30%violence, 10% kinky, 5% smoldering.”

Token

16 Oct 12 at 2:02 pm
huge owl sculpture in Belconnen Way

Is actually a two sided sculpture.

No prizes for guessing what the reverse side resembles.

Offensive, insulting, criminally profligate fucking morons.

$480,000, FFS. Certain people should be jailed over this.

Rabz

16 Oct 12 at 2:07 pm
Abbott should advise that all aid to Indonesia is subject to a “per boat” penalty. Aid over 2012-2013 is what? Half a billion. A penalty tallied at the end of 12 months that withholds a half million per boat that gets through should generate some “care factor” on the part of our grasping northern neighbours.

Abu Chowdah

16 Oct 12 at 2:40 pm
I managed to get into Q&A as an audience member, identified myself as a coalition voter and submitted a number of questions for vetting.

Are you saying you did Grigory, or are you quoting someone?

Token

16 Oct 12 at 2:56 pm
Clearly the Gillard government is not dying of shame – it doesn’t have any.

A week after Thommo tries to relive his glory days of scoring cheap political points waving around the results of some sloppy Liberal mail-out, Chris Bowen does a doorstop on illegal immigration. Having taken government in 2007 with six people in immigration detention, over 12,000 have claimed asylum this year, nearly 4,500 of those after Bowen announced the re-opening of Nauru.

And there is Bowen standing on the steps of Parliament pissing into the wind – or more correctly the microphones of your ALPBC – some McSporran soundbite about lions.

H B Bear

16 Oct 12 at 3:12 pm
“I for instance think wifey is just as pretty to me as she was when we first met- few lines and all”

What a guy JC!. I take back any bad things I said about you before.

All of us girls nodding in furious agreement here, JC.

I picked up a pamphlet at the beauty salon about a new medical treatment for skin, where they take your blood and spin the platelets out and then inject them back. I said I didn’t need it ‘yet’, only went for a facial and massage, just interested in what they’re coming up with, but Da Hairy Ape was worried.

You don’t need dat, Lizzie, he said, and reinforced his objection with – or ya’ll never win da Tour de France. Dat’s blood doping.

Well, that’s off the agenda then, for sure.

Don’t want to end up one day looking like the much ‘worked on’ Pamela Stephenson on Q and A either (sneaked a look), although she’d look better if she changed that awful hair, de-Cleopatra’d the eyeliner and went to the gym a bit.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

16 Oct 12 at 3:30 pm
Well my wife’s just as pretty and I haven’t even noticed if she’s got lines, so there!

blogstrop

16 Oct 12 at 4:12 pm
“Wife goggles”.

We all have them.

Julian O'Dea

16 Oct 12 at 4:17 pm
An interesting read on Alan Jones (not just about the recent advertising boycott) and his ratings and poltical influence.
Just the last part here:

Will Jones walk?

A year ago, Jones’ options were worth $4 million. Today that’s down to $2.56 million and the present ad ban makes it unlikely he will qualify for either half of the third tranche, costing him $880,000.

He can’t be happy. And that’s bad news for Macquarie, staring at the deadline next June when the contract on their walking cash machine expires – just as the Labor government that has been so helpful for them faces election defeat.

Watch this space. This may not be pretty.

SteveC

16 Oct 12 at 4:17 pm
Potemkin’s Village

While the ‘economic girlie men’ of the Gillard Labor Government run around tearing their party dresses… here

Grigory Potemkin

16 Oct 12 at 4:31 pm
On a slow news day, having exhausted its anti-Alan Jones campaign, the SMH ferals go looking for a new anti-Coalition gotcha and settle on a “story” that’s nearly 24-hours old involving Sophie Mirabella:

Liberal frontbencher Sophie Mirabella has been accused of hypocrisy for criticising on television a cut to parenting payments that she supported in Parliament.
About 100,000 single parents will lose their parenting payments under changes which passed Parliament last week with the support of the Coalition.
Asked about the change on ABC TV’s Q&A last night, Ms Mirabella accused the government of forcing disadvantaged parents to pay for its financial mismanagement and record waste.
‘‘The collateral damage of billions of dollars being mismanaged and then the government struggling to create the illusion of … a $1.5 billion wafer-thin surplus is that there’s a panic, and the people who can least afford it are the ones who get damaged in the process,’’ she said.

So the Libs did the wrong thing encouraging the rabble to live within its means.

Tom

16 Oct 12 at 4:32 pm
Token @ 2.56

I did it

Grigory Potemkin

16 Oct 12 at 4:33 pm
An interesting read on Alan Jones

Another unethical Fairfax newspaper fails to declare its conflict of interest (FXJ own 2GB rival FXJ Radio).

Tom

16 Oct 12 at 4:36 pm
Via Instapundit:

A former Republican-appointed U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts is calling for a formal investigation into the legality of Elizabeth Warren’s law practice conducted for years from her Harvard Law School office, without a valid license to practice law in Massachusetts.

But, but… do Indians need to be licensed?

Fleeced

16 Oct 12 at 4:39 pm
“Wife goggles”.

We all have them.

And a very good thing too, especially in the morning after a long night out when the remnant mascara has run a black ring around your puffy blinky eyes and your hair is a nest to which any self-respecting rodent would object and last night’s smooching has left you with a red razor rash all over your cheeks and neck and the look on your face face says your head is splitting open slowly.

But – Hello my beaudiful darlin’.

Wife goggles.

Now – ‘husband goggles’ – let’s not go there.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

16 Oct 12 at 4:50 pm
Now you’ve got me all sentimental.

When I was in my very early 20s, a married friend of mine in his late twenties told me his wife was the most beautiful woman in the world. I was skeptical. C’mon, you’re just saying that because you have to, I told him. No, I mean it, he replied. I let it go because I didn’t think it was a good idea to force the issue, but I didn’t believe him.

Now that I’m married, I understand how a man can say “my wife is the most beautiful woman in the world” and mean it.

Oh come on

16 Oct 12 at 4:59 pm
You choose the kitten, you like the cat.

Julian O'Dea

16 Oct 12 at 5:07 pm
Grigory – love the ‘business as usual’. That is just like the spirit of the Blitz.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

16 Oct 12 at 5:11 pm
Not much of a metaphor, Julian…

Oh come on

16 Oct 12 at 5:13 pm
How on earth did Channel 9 manage to rack up $3.2 billion’s worth of debt?

Oh come on

16 Oct 12 at 5:29 pm
So Combet stated:

COMBET: The Insiders is a show that is known to listen to a lot of this (politics), but people outside hear bits of it. And I think they would prefer politicians to get off name-calling and get on with the business of government.

So far, the screechy gillard has called Abbott “gutless” and a “coward”. One of her snarly minsters referred to Abbott as a “mouse”.

F**king hypocrites. Always with the moralizing empty soundbites.

Gab

16 Oct 12 at 5:38 pm
Now that I’ve been screwed, I understand how a man can say “my wife is the biggest bitch in the world” and mean it.

JamesK

16 Oct 12 at 5:41 pm
‘husband goggles’

lol. So true.

Gab

16 Oct 12 at 5:43 pm
How on earth did Channel 9 manage to rack up $3.2 billion’s worth of debt?

Private equity buyout of Packer and others. They paid too much and also ran it into the ground trying to trim costs so making the payments difficult.

Capitalism at it’s best.

DaveF

16 Oct 12 at 5:46 pm
No pre-nup, James?

Do those things actually count for much these days anyway?

Fleeced

16 Oct 12 at 5:47 pm
Sorry to hear it, James.

Oh come on

16 Oct 12 at 5:52 pm
Just on the offchance, does anybody know what the unspeakable joke was at the CFMEU dinner? (This is entirely for research purposes, personally I am mortally offended by jokes)

Jannie

16 Oct 12 at 6:01 pm
Wife goggles, yes.

No, no such thing as husband goggles. We see their faults and watch them age, and love them all the same.

(Okay, so I don’t have one. Wanna make somefink of it?)

kae

16 Oct 12 at 6:02 pm
Even if we knew we couldn’t tell you, Jannie.
Wouldn’t want to kill you ‘n all.

kae

16 Oct 12 at 6:03 pm
How on earth did Channel 9 manage to rack up $3.2 billion’s worth of debt?

The Australian free-to-air TV oligopoly, with its regulated licensing and barriers to entry, is a licence to print money in the good times with operating margins around 30% – it would be 0-10% like every other industry if it wasn’t a protected racket. It’s irresistible to highly leveraged private equity.

Tom

16 Oct 12 at 6:07 pm
Um, kae. What you’re describing *are* husband goggles. That’s the love bit.

Oh come on

16 Oct 12 at 6:15 pm
It’ll take more than goggles to make this scene look good: Combet’s girlfriend reading Labor’s propaganda de jour on tonight’s ABC TV News.
She sounded like she was enjoying the “lion in Canberra, mouse in Indonesia” line.
This is too much.

blogstrop

16 Oct 12 at 6:19 pm
ie. a man who sees his wife’s faults and watches her age and doesn’t love her all the same…a case of missing goggles…time to call triple-0 and ask for a lawyer.

Oh come on

16 Oct 12 at 6:20 pm
“A man’s a man but a cup of tea’s a comfort”.

Gab

16 Oct 12 at 6:23 pm
Combet has a girlfriend? It always amuses me how Labor spin doctors try to portray him as a chick magnet. I remember Hawkey crapping on about how studly he is on Australian Story; something about how Blanche has the hots for the jowly, scowly nerd. He perpetually looks as though he’s just finished sucking on a lemon.

Oh come on

16 Oct 12 at 6:31 pm
Gab, that sounds like an adaptation of the old “a woman is only a woman, but a good cigar is a smoke”.
These days I’ll settle for the cup of tea, however, having become a non-smoker some time back.

blogstrop

16 Oct 12 at 6:34 pm
It was told to me by an ancient Aussie woman, of convict stock, a real salt of the earth type, Blog. I thought it hilarious and cutesy.

Gab

16 Oct 12 at 6:37 pm
ALPBC on the 7 news getting stuck into Abbott because they have no idea what he discussed with the Indonesian Paresident so ALPBC (without fear or favour) will run with the ALP spin!!!

Mike of Marion

16 Oct 12 at 6:45 pm
Indonesian President

Mike of Marion

16 Oct 12 at 6:46 pm
Mike, they’ve been running that all day. They really are nothing more than the media unit of the ALP.

dover_beach

16 Oct 12 at 6:53 pm
And a woman is only a woman, but a good Cigar is a Smoke.

From Rudyard Kipling’s poem “The Betrothed”

Septimus

16 Oct 12 at 6:54 pm
There’s this weird thing on Twitter. Overwelhmingly leftist many, many, many of them seem to be of the bizarre idea that Abbott and the Liberals are hated and that Gillard and the ALP are romping it home.

I posted a tweet to one of the regular oh so serious dime a dozen female twiterrati asking how she could think that when the polls show Abbott flogging Labor from here to Sunday. The answer:

Murdoch owns 80% of media. Discount poll results by 80%. Don’t know a soul who backs Abbott

And there you have it. This is the world that the average leftist inhabits, one where they can go their entire lives without coming into contact with 55% of the population.

twostix

16 Oct 12 at 7:08 pm
Nothing gets me angrier than people who deliberately, consciously lie and obfuscate – and I have never in my life seen so much of it coming from a national government. Gillard is lying her head about what Abbott is doing in Jakarta to obfuscate the fact that SBY is treating Abbott as the PM in exile. And she has spent the last week consciously lying about Abbott’s “misogyny”, which Bolt nails beautifully in his account of Shorten’s attempt to lie about what words mean. Bolt and Price are discussing the issue now.

Tom

16 Oct 12 at 7:08 pm
Murdoch owns 80% of media.

Amazing just how dumb lefties are.l

Gab

16 Oct 12 at 7:12 pm
It would be nice if Margie Abbott or her daughters sued Ms Gillard for the big misogyny lie as it affects them personally too not just TonyA.

candy

16 Oct 12 at 7:13 pm
And a woman is only a woman, but a good Cigar is a Smoke

But surely in certain instances both can be smokin’ hot!

Viva

16 Oct 12 at 7:16 pm
Now this would be an excellent documentary to see.

How effective is all that aid to poor countries?

According to the doco maker… not at all, and rather quite damaging. Not that that’s news to anyone here, I suspect.

nilk

16 Oct 12 at 7:17 pm
Do you think normal punters would believe the ALPBC that Abbott committed some faux pas or was cowardly in not discussing the “most important plank” of Coalition asylum seeker policy?

I would think most who are not automatic Greens/Left ALP voters would see thru’ it.

It started with Emma ALPerici last night on Lateline where she tried a surprise attack on Eric Abetz after the ridiculously spun report and was also non-stop on ALPBC radio today.

They live in an alternate universe.

JamesK

16 Oct 12 at 7:18 pm
Buyers’ remorse in France.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/9610717/French-business-erupts-in-fury-against-disastrous-Francois-Hollande.html

Viva

16 Oct 12 at 7:18 pm
It would be nice if Margie Abbott or her daughters sued Ms Gillard for the big misogyny lie as it affects them personally too not just TonyA.

The Lying Slapper did it under parliamentary privilege – coward that she is.

JamesK

16 Oct 12 at 7:20 pm
Lion vs mouse. McTernan talking point coming up everwhere, twice I’ve heard on ALPBC News and 7.30 and probably elsewhere. It’s today’s McTernan meme. Groundhog default setting is Abbott,Abbott,Abbott.

——————-

JamesK, sorry about your lady problems. I hope it gets better. I find my ex is a far nicer person now than when we split – ‘husband goggles’ after the fact, as it were. But I think now I am with my true love, no goggles required. Yet.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

16 Oct 12 at 7:27 pm
JamesK, sorry about your lady problems

LOL! Thanks Lizzie but it was a long time ago.

The last was 6 years ago.

I’ve been cleaned out – so no problems now

JamesK

16 Oct 12 at 7:31 pm
Mysogyny, that word is everywhere.

In Canada it’s currently being used by the government to ban Catholic Schools from teaching that abortion is morally wrong.

Laurel Broten, Minister of Education told reporters that under its new anti-bullying law, Bill 13, The Accepting Schools Act, Catholic schools would no longer be permitted to teach that abortion is wrong

“We do not allow and we’re very clear with the passage of Bill 13 that Catholic teachings cannot be taught in our schools that violates human rights and which brings a lack of acceptance to participation in schools,” she said.

“I don’t think that there is a contrast or a conflict between choosing a Catholic education for your children and supporting a woman’s right to choose,” she added.

Bill 13 is about tackling misogyny, taking away a woman’s right to choose could arguably be one of the most misogynistic actions that one could take.

Worst Ever.

http://www.lifenews.com/2012/10/14/catholic-schools-told-they-cant-teach-abortion-is-wrong/

twostix

16 Oct 12 at 7:33 pm
Leigh Sales is positively glowing while talking about Abbott and his “failure”. Reminds me of SfB.

Tiny Dancer

16 Oct 12 at 7:33 pm
Freight companies should have access to truckies’ driving records to improve road safety, an industry group says.

In a submission to the newly created Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal, the Australian Logistics Council (ALC) says roads would be safer if transport companies could bypass privacy laws and access employees’ driving records.

“ALC believes transport companies need to be able to confirm whether employees and contractors driving their vehicles have an appropriate and valid heavy vehicle licence,” the submission made earlier this month states.

“While this may be imposed as a condition of employment, providing this information is also prohibited under privacy legislation.”

The tribunal was set up by the federal government in July to hear concerns about pay, conditions and deaths in the trucking industry.

Because anything that undermines privacy is automatically a Good Thing.

For some reason, whenever I capitalise ‘Good Thing’ I always think of Jerome Bixby’s work.

nilk

16 Oct 12 at 7:36 pm
Good program on trolling now on SBS.

Viva

16 Oct 12 at 7:36 pm
Leigh Sales is positively glowing while talking about Abbott and his “failure”. Reminds me of SfB.

If Abbott had of gone over and started “roaring” abour policy the ALPBC, et-al would have been apoplectic.

Nobody gives a shit – the polls will not budge between now and next year, just like they didn’t between this time last year and now and this time two years ago and now. No matter what these losers and their lickspittles do and say.

twostix

16 Oct 12 at 7:41 pm
Murdoch owns 80% of media. Discount poll results by 80%. Don’t know a soul who backs Abbott

I remember a relative of mine – a life-long, rusted-on Labor supporter and public servant – recollecting how she expressed her horror to her colleagues around the staffroom table immediately after the 1996 election result. “How did Howard win?” she wondered. “No one I know voted for him!”

Many lefties are like this. They surround themselves with people who share their political views and soon forget that there might be others out there who disagree with them.

Viva: well, at least they don’t have to wait 7 years to vote him out like they used to.

Oh come on

16 Oct 12 at 7:42 pm
“The Lying Slapper did it under parliamentary privilege – coward that she is.”

Is that an abolsute defence then JamesK, parliamentary privilege? but she’s been insinuating this everywhere and some ministers have actually said TonyA. is a misogynist because she said it in parliament. just asking.

parliamentary privilege seems terribly open to abuse then

candy

16 Oct 12 at 7:43 pm
The best thing Abbott can do is not respond to these dickheads. They just keep blowing up about every little thing and make themselves look stupid. If he doesn’t rise to the bait it must drive them insane.

Tiny Dancer

16 Oct 12 at 7:47 pm
Oh Come On

a life-long, rusted-on Labor supporter and public servant – recollecting how she expressed her horror to her colleagues around the staffroom table immediately after the 1996 election result. “How did Howard win?” she wondered. “No one I know voted for him!” Many lefties are like this. They surround themselves with people who share their political views and soon forget that there might be others out there who disagree with them.

Sounds like my friend. Couldn’t understand how Howard got in ‘cos noone she knows voted for him – must have been rigged, then (she surmised).

She was quite shocked to discover that I wasn’t rusted on lefty, ‘cos isn’t everyone in her circle?

kae

16 Oct 12 at 7:52 pm
To be as charitable as possible to the Prime Minister, she wasn’t necessarily lying when she called the Opposition Leader a misogynist; she could have been mistaken. In which case, she needs to admit her error – Tony Abbott is demonstrably not a misogynist – and apologise.

However, when we start getting members of her cabinet refusing to concede that she was mistaken in her description of Tony Abbott, and instead dissemble about the very clear definition of the word whilst refusing to concede that she was wrong to call him a misogynist, then it’s pretty clear a charitable interpretation of Gillard’s accusation is naive.

Oh come on

16 Oct 12 at 7:54 pm
Nobody gives a shit – the polls will not budge between now and next year

Too right, Twostix. The challenge is to keep our food down while Labor’s harem of gangsters, spivs and whores spend the next year ransacking the national treasury.

Tom

16 Oct 12 at 7:58 pm
Brandis on fire.

17 solicitors and 2 barristers
$730,000 in legal fees
Roxon calling the Slipper case “vexatious”

.
and then they go ahead and settle with Ashby for $50,000.

Gab

16 Oct 12 at 7:59 pm
To be clear:

17 Commonwealth solicitors and 2 barristers for Sliiper.
$730,000 in legal fees paid for by the taxpayer for Slipper.
Roxon calling the Slipper case “vexatious” and yet employs the heavies above that cost a motza…

.
and then they go ahead and settle with Ashby for $50,000 anyway. Are they completely stupid?

Gab

16 Oct 12 at 8:05 pm
Yes, Gab.

kae

16 Oct 12 at 8:06 pm
Numbers, you idiot.

Funny how he didn’t bring up turning the boats around with SBY, and funny how Morrison won’t disclose conversations on the issue with Marty Natalegawa.

Obviously, you have never dealt with Indonesians. Javanese culture is very big on non-confrontation. So what is not said is very important. SBY knows Abbott is the next Australian PM, so by not discussing this, he has indicated that is has to be dealt with elliptically, offline, and without public confrontation. If he HAD mentioned it, the meeja would have pounced on it, and a deal has not been worked out yet, so mentioning it merely makes the deal harder.

They know us very well, so the edges of the Indonesian position would be mentioned to Morrison.

That neither side has discussed when was deniably discussed there without committing the main players to anything simply means that positions were established and the willingness to deal sorted out. And there it will lie, with low-level messaging, to establish well-understood starting positions, until Abbott becomes PM.

because he has already sent a most important message to SBY – he will visit Jakarta soon after election.

And you missed ALL of this. Dude, that’s hilarious.

Mk50 of Brisbane

16 Oct 12 at 8:14 pm
Are they completely stupid?

They have not the slightest interest in the fact that this money came out of the pockets of working people. To them, it’s magic money you get access to whenever the left successfully lies to enough voters to ransack the state until adults are re-elected to clean up the mess. Then the cycle repeats. They’re like a tribe of primitive highland savages from PNG who come to town every now and then to get drunk and bot fags off the white folks.

Tom

16 Oct 12 at 8:15 pm
Murdoch owns 80% of media. Discount poll results by 80%

sounds incredibly familiar. I’ve heard the same argument about discounting pro-Obama polls in the USA.

SteveC

16 Oct 12 at 8:17 pm
Discount all you want SteveC, but Romney seems to have the big mo at the moment and the mo is what counts in elections.

Kimberly is calling. Attend to her please.

JC

16 Oct 12 at 8:23 pm
Is that an abolsute defence then JamesK, parliamentary privilege? but she’s been insinuating this everywhere and some ministers have actually said TonyA. is a misogynist because she said it in parliament. just asking.

parliamentary privilege seems terribly open to abuse then

Who has said that Tony Abbott is a misogynist outside parliament, Candy?

When asked evey minister has declined to say when invited that they think Tony Abbott is a misogynist.

They just don’t quite admit that he isn’t.

JamesK

16 Oct 12 at 8:24 pm
sounds incredibly familiar. I’ve heard the same argument about discounting pro-Obama polls in the USA.

By 80%?

Yes Steve of course you have.

Now that you’re the official leftist Steve on Catallaxy don’t become a wanker.

twostix

16 Oct 12 at 8:24 pm
lefties confuse 80% newspaper ownership in some States with 80% media ownership across all media.

lefties confuse facts with fiction

que

pete m

16 Oct 12 at 8:29 pm
Mitt is in from $4.15 to $2.75 in the past two weeks at tab.com.au. I’m very happy to have picked up $3.50 and have a nice little spring dividend on the way on Melbourne Cup day (US time).

Tom

16 Oct 12 at 8:31 pm
“Many ~~lefties~~ people, of all political persuasions, are like this. They surround themselves with people who share their political views and soon forget that there might be others out there who disagree with them.”

FTFY

Jarrah

16 Oct 12 at 8:32 pm
Mr Hollande is tightening fiscal policy by 2pc of GDP next year to meet EU deficit targets, with two-thirds coming from higher taxes. The budget does little to shrink the French state. Spending has risen to 55pc of GDP, similar to Sweden but without Nordic labour flexibility.

They are doomed. 55% of GDP??

That’s at or above the sort of spending you get in total war. No nation can withstand it for long.

A similar level of spending 1914-18 by the UK wrecked the country’s ability to be the world financial centre and they never recovered from it. A second bout 1939-45 destroyed them.

France may be in a vastly more fragile and parlous state than anyone even imagines – especially them.

This is very bad news.

Mk50 of Brisbane

16 Oct 12 at 8:34 pm
I have to disagree with you Jarrah.
In my experience most people of the left don’t seem to know anyone who isn’t. Whereas those of the right know that there are people who don’t hold the same views as them and do have these people in their circle of friends.

kae

16 Oct 12 at 8:35 pm
Jarrah:

“Many lefties people, of all political persuasions, are like this. They surround themselves with people who share their political views and soon forget that there might be others out there who disagree with them.”

FTFY

Twee and inaccurate. Very few lefties maintain friends with people who have radically different political views or worldviews where these are discussed openly by the non-leftist. There is simply too much disdain, contempt and assumed moral superiority on the part of the lefty to permit this.

The reverse is not nearly so true.

The tactic one uses when dealing with a heart-on-the-sleeve leftist in a left-wing working environment is to assume a silent neutrality or indifference. Go ask any non-leftist working at the ABC, or in most faculties or newsrooms.

Mk50 of Brisbane

16 Oct 12 at 8:40 pm
Buyers’ remorse in France.

We have some Frenchies working with us. Good people who could not get a job in their preferred industry as all jobs are taken for life.

I do hope there is a shadow minister willing to get out of the blocks in the first weeks of an Abbott government to cherry pick some more of their enterprising young folk.

Token

16 Oct 12 at 8:46 pm
I’ve heard the same argument about discounting pro-Obama polls in the USA.

That would be because they were D+8 or thereabouts.

dover_beach

16 Oct 12 at 8:47 pm
If Abbott had of gone over and started “roaring” abour policy the ALPBC, et-al would have been apoplectic.

Abbott was part of a government which had a strong productive relationship with the Indo’s.

He knows that you do not reveal what is agreed.

The lefties are trying to get him to repeat their own stupidity.

All this shows is how much the ALPBC has not learned from the disaster they created when they stitched up the cattle export industry.

Token

16 Oct 12 at 8:49 pm
And you missed ALL of this. Dude, that’s hilarious.

Pearls before swine MK. Liebore have a bogan appreciation of diplomacy.

Lardarse and co are making us a regional laughing stock.

Lazlo

16 Oct 12 at 8:50 pm
“Many lefties people, of all political persuasions, are like this. They surround themselves with people who share their political views and soon forget that there might be others out there who disagree with them.”

FTFY

It’s utterly impossible to not be constantly exposed to pop-left thinking given that it’s everywhere and is the default state for most recognizable people in pop culture, Journalists, Actors, Musicians, etc.

twostix

16 Oct 12 at 8:50 pm
Mysogyny, that word is everywhere.

This feels like the last days before the rotten Keating government fell. The media conducting endless witch trials as they seek pull society apart to keep their beloved incompetents in power.

Token

16 Oct 12 at 8:53 pm
Mk50 your position is illogical.
For example:
People with brown eyes tend to surround themselves with others with brown eyes. They quickly forget there are people around with blue eyes.

The reverse is not true. Blue eyed people have friends of both eye colours.

If the first statement is correct, how do the blue eyed get brown eyed friends, given the brown eyed people will shun them?

SteveC

16 Oct 12 at 8:53 pm
The reverse is not nearly so true.

The tactic one uses when dealing with a heart-on-the-sleeve leftist in a left-wing working environment is to assume a silent neutrality or indifference. Go ask any non-leftist working at the ABC, or in most faculties or newsrooms.

Great reply Mk50 to Jarrah’s snide little comment. As if the tool knows what the environment we live/work in is outside these halls of sanity.

Token

16 Oct 12 at 9:00 pm
SteveC, non sequitur.

Token

16 Oct 12 at 9:01 pm
“A similar level of spending 1914-18 by the UK wrecked the country’s ability to be the world financial centre and they never recovered from it. A second bout 1939-45 destroyed them.”

Yes, it was the spending that was the main problem during those years. O.o

“In my experience most people of the left don’t seem to know anyone who isn’t.”

Most of my friends are lefties. We tend not to talk about politics because they think my preference for small government is “crazy”, so perhaps the lefties in your experience simply didn’t realise that someone had different views because that someone was keeping quiet to maintain the peace?

In a sense, I’m agreeing with Mk50, but I’m not putting it in a disdainful, contemptuous way or assuming moral superiority like he does.

Jarrah

16 Oct 12 at 9:03 pm
because he has already sent a most important message to SBY – he will visit Jakarta soon after election.

I don’t believe SBY would give his time to an opposition leader if he thought there was no chance of Abbott becoming the next Prime Minister.

Additionally, look at how gillard and her ministers have behaved today, epecially gillard though, in a foreign country airing the dirty laundry of home in a public forum calling her opposite a “coward” and “gutless” and a “mouse”. You’d be delusion to think the leaders of both India and Indonesia don’t see/hear that. What would they think of this “prime minister” behaving like a sodden fish wife on the world stage? I don’t know much about Indian culture but sure as hell in Indonesian culture that type of behaviour is considered shameful and the person seen as out of control, undisciplined, brash and perhaps losing it mentally. Such emotional outbursts – like her screechy lecture she spat at Abbott – do nothing for her image, foreign or domestic, regardless of the number of youtube hits. pfft.

gillard does not have and has never had a handle on foreign protocol and diplomacy.

Gab

16 Oct 12 at 9:04 pm
SteveC

Are you in the middle of a romp with Kimberly, your plastic sex doll and not thinking straight.

What the fuck is that stupid gibberish supposed to mean, you idiot.

JC

16 Oct 12 at 9:05 pm
“SteveC, non sequitur.”

It looks like you don’t know what that means.

I find it particularly gratifying when you throw a jab at someone and end up punching yourself on the nose.

Jarrah

16 Oct 12 at 9:06 pm
gillard does not have and has never had a handle on foreign protocol and diplomacy.

The majority of world leaders and dignitaries would consider her a shameful slut and beneath their dignity in meeting.

I’m not much of an admirer of foreign cultures but there are some elements I embrace.

Infidel Tiger

16 Oct 12 at 9:07 pm
There is a real leftie whinge going on in here tonight. Nothing like labels to make those people part of a faceless tribe on the other side and keep these people inside feeling safe.

I really hate the great divide. By labelling other people lefties (when you dont even really know them) you simply avoid debating real ideas. People really arent that simple. They buys shoes in all sorts of sizes and colours and I expect their beliefs come in much the same way.

Lefty is just a name. Same as bogun. Same as westie. Same as slut. Same as misogynist. Same old. Adults acting like children in calling names.

Do we ever learn?

Alice

16 Oct 12 at 9:07 pm
It looks like you don’t know what that means.

Wrong again.

Remember these words Jarrah:

Better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.

Token

16 Oct 12 at 9:11 pm
“Remember these words Jarrah:”

I bet you’re wishing you’d remembered them before blundering into the conversation.

Jarrah

16 Oct 12 at 9:14 pm
‘Who has said that Tony Abbott is a misogynist outside parliament, Candy?’

JamesK, Ms Roxon said the current campaign painting Abbott as a misogynist is ‘fair game’,she said that last week and and Ms Pilbersek said the same on Lateline last week. Bill Shorten last night Q&A said TAbbott was misogynist too.

candy

16 Oct 12 at 9:14 pm
Jarrah, stop pretending you’re aren’t a collectivist big government zombie. Life will be simpler if you avoid leftist self-delusion.

Tom

16 Oct 12 at 9:17 pm
I wish I was surrounded by people who thought and felt like me. I get so tired of biting my tongue so as not to cause offence.

My friends keep a score card when they introduce me to new friends just to keep a watch on what topics I bring up.

It’s never dull, but I am a bit over it.

nilk

16 Oct 12 at 9:18 pm
Sorry, i was just trying to draw an analogy, which clearly failed! Assume there are two types of people, type A and Type B. If Type A people only have Type A friends, how is it possible type B people have Type A friends? That would require Type A people to have type B friends.

In Mk50′s example, Type A are left wingers and type B are right wingers.

It’s fairly simple set theory. If Set A does not overlap set B, then logically set B does not overlap Set A.

SteveC

16 Oct 12 at 9:18 pm
And who the heck is gillard to call Abbott a “coward”?

Recall when she went jetting off (yet again) to beg for votes for the temporary UN secseat?

Remember how Abbott dared to comment about Her Boganess jetting off again in pursuit of some fantasy when she should be in Indonesia discussing with SBY the asylum problem she created?

Remember then how nasty her Labor cronies, the ABC and the msm were in calling Abbott an idiot for not realising that SBY would be in NY at the same time?

Recall how the media had great delight in publishing the photos of SBY sitting next to gillard and back here her gal cabal saying “nyah nyaaa see she did meet him”?

What you may not remember – because the msm never printed it – is that gillard did not meet with SBY at all. In fact SBY said he was too busy with other foreign leaders. Sure, there was the photo op but that was all.

So Abbott was right again.

And since her return from the UN conference, has she met with SBY to further discuss what can be done about the asylum problem she created? Well, has she?

She is in no position to call anyone a “coward”.

Gab

16 Oct 12 at 9:20 pm
Save an argument on the definition of mon sequitur. Call Bill Shorten he’s big on that definition stuff .

Pickles

16 Oct 12 at 9:20 pm
Alice, I agree, except when it comes to people from “The Shire”

SteveC

16 Oct 12 at 9:20 pm
Sorry, i was just trying to draw an analogy, which clearly failed!

Yes it did. It was clearly stupid.

JC

16 Oct 12 at 9:24 pm
Steve C
Read what Nilk wrote.
I’m not clocked for what I say with my left-leaning friends, I just shut up, it keeps the peace.
Many of my left leaning friends have been friends for nearly 40 years, from teenagers.
It’s much easier for anyone with right leanings to keep quiet, particularly when your job might be in an area which doesn’t appreciate free thought and personal responsibility.

kae

16 Oct 12 at 9:25 pm
SteveC:

Mk50 your position is illogical.
For example:
People with brown eyes tend to surround themselves with others with brown eyes. They quickly forget there are people around with blue eyes.

The reverse is not true. Blue eyed people have friends of both eye colours.

If the first statement is correct, how do the blue eyed get brown eyed friends, given the brown eyed people will shun them?

Oh, my…

The funny thing is, you actually think you are making some kind of valid point.

Your titanic intellect (among cacti, at least) may not have noticed this, but worldviews are not eye-colours.

Mk50 of Brisbane

16 Oct 12 at 9:26 pm
Grigory @ 1:33 pm

Unless more of us get into the game, ready to fight and I mean really fight hard…

You’re right about that, the biggest problem the right have is that we are indeed silent far too often. The most annoying thing is that there is no need for us to abandon the fight, the advantage we have is that our position is usually a well researched sometimes even coldly rational position that can be very easily argued in a debate through facts.

The left comfortably control all of the one liners and fashionable cliche’s but when you get into a detailed discussion nine times out of ten the argument falls in our favour.

There’s a reason why the world has been steadily trending towards the right ever since the end of WWII DESPITE all of the “revolutions” and social movements that have taken place during that time and its simply because in the end cooler more rational heads always prevail.

The left HATE engaging in discussion with righties because they ALWAYS overreach and end up looking like idiots. We should try and engage them wherever possible!

Jeremiah

16 Oct 12 at 9:29 pm
Dogshit’s best friend, Evel Knievel, will now attempt to think without using intelligence or perception:

It’s fairly simple set theory. If Set A does not overlap set B, then logically set B does not overlap Set A.

Are all these Green nuff-nuffs like this? Sheesh.

Tom

16 Oct 12 at 9:29 pm
16 Oct 12 at 8:14 pm

Thank you, Mark. Masterfully explained.

And to think that Julia Gillard’s reaction was to call Abbott a ‘coward’ (and thus also, she called SBY an idiot). She is THAT stupid – as if we didn’t know already based on her utterly disastrous regional diplomacy.

C.L.

16 Oct 12 at 9:30 pm
gillard does not have and has never had a handle on foreign protocol and diplomacy.

Which reminds me; is she carting round the First Handbag this time? Flaunting her unmarried paramour is merely the first of her many political mis-steps.

Words have meanings, Alice. They’re not just ‘names’.

Cold-Hands

16 Oct 12 at 9:32 pm
I see your point SteveC but the analogy falls down because type B people don’t advertise they are type B. If they did they would be shunned or criticised by type A people.

So B people keep quiet about their Bness and are able to keep their A friends.

That’s really how it works. I know.

DaveF

16 Oct 12 at 9:33 pm
Type A are left wingers and type B are right wingers.

The world is neither so neat, nor so simple. Which is why your analogy failed – your assumptions are not correct.

Mk50 of Brisbane

16 Oct 12 at 9:33 pm
The biggest problem the right has is that quite frankly most of us are far too damn busy to get involved in the fight.

At uni we’re too busy studying (for real degrees I might add) and partying and at work we’re too busy making money. During both of those times the left are stuffing around doing sweet F/A, how do we compete with that?

Jeremiah

16 Oct 12 at 9:34 pm
Which reminds me; is she carting round the First Handbag this time?

Stedders? Sure. He gets a free flight on a private jet and she gets a hair do each morning.

JC

16 Oct 12 at 9:34 pm
The left HATE engaging in discussion with righties because they ALWAYS overreach and end up looking like idiots. We should try and engage them wherever possible!

Same goes for AGW alarmists.

Ooops! Forgot. They are out of the same pd.

Lazlo

16 Oct 12 at 9:35 pm
pod

Lazlo

16 Oct 12 at 9:36 pm
Hey, remember July?

Julia Gillard attacked the Opposition Leader for raising national security issues while overseas.

C.L.

16 Oct 12 at 9:36 pm
During both of those times the left are stuffing around doing sweet F/A, how do we compete with that?

Money quote!

And why, FFS, would we even want to?

At the end of the day, we get the money, the girls and the careers, while the left scrabble, lie and cheat to steal from us the money they just know they are entitled to.

Because they just know they are morally superior donchaknow.

Mk50 of Brisbane

16 Oct 12 at 9:37 pm
look at how gillard and her ministers have behaved today, epecially gillard though, in a foreign country airing the dirty laundry of home in a public forum calling her opposite a “coward” and “gutless” and a “mouse”.

This from a woman who didn’t even have the courage to play cricket with a little girl, at media spot to to supposedly promote Australia’s relationship with India through the ties of cricket. She couldn’t be arsed to prove that her words meant anything.

Rob

16 Oct 12 at 9:38 pm
“So what is not said is very important.”

Ok, Mk50, I think you have convinced me, more or less, and certainly explained why no reason has been given by Indonesia.

Indonesia is not giving a reason for not wanting the boats turned back, because they see it as a bargaining chip. If they gave a reason, it would be hard for them to reverse the position later.

Both Abbott and SBY knew this already. Abbott didn’t mention it specifically to prevent SBY being in a situation where SBY would have needed to give a reason and therefore become committed to opposing the turning back of the boats.

Everything gets nutted out in discussions that the media never hears of. The formal conversations are kept as bland as possible. Options stay open away from the public gaze.

2dogs

16 Oct 12 at 9:41 pm
The tactic one uses when dealing with a heart-on-the-sleeve leftist in a left-wing working environment is to assume a silent neutrality or indifference. Go ask any non-leftist working at the ABC, or in most faculties or newsrooms

I cannot tell you what an effort it was to stay silent on the Misogyny Speech in my academic workplace last Wednesday. I broke out in hives just listening to the smug commentary.

Megan

16 Oct 12 at 9:41 pm
Very few lefties maintain friends with people who have radically different political views or worldviews where these are discussed openly by the non-leftist. There is simply too much disdain, contempt and assumed moral superiority on the part of the lefty to permit this.

Agreed, the left think the right are evil, the right think the left are misguided and THAT is why the left find it justified to resort to violent and oppressive behaviour.

Jeremiah

16 Oct 12 at 9:43 pm
This from a woman who didn’t even have the courage to play cricket with a little girl, at media spot to to supposedly promote Australia’s relationship with India through the ties of cricket.

Her media minders would have been mindful of the youtube possibilities, or the photos taken of her bowling action, from behind.

Let your imagination roam on that for a while.

Lazlo

16 Oct 12 at 9:44 pm
Can you fucking believe this? I’m absolutely fucking stomped.

Through the 90′s the US banks were being bullied in all sorts of ways to end red lining. The Kenyan represented ACORN in a lawsuit to attack the banks for “racist” lending.

Now looksee.

NEW YORK — The American Civil Liberties Union accused Morgan Stanley of violating civil rights laws by encouraging a lender to push more expensive and risky mortgages on black neighborhoods in Detroit.

Read more: Morgan Stanley faces discrimination lawsuit – Washington Times http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/oct/15/morgan-stanley-faces-discrimination-lawsuit/#ixzz29Sfnsy00
Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter

Fisk is right. Leftism needs to be fucking banned.

JC

16 Oct 12 at 9:45 pm
This from a woman who didn’t even have the courage to play cricket with a little girl,

She probably feared ending up like Bob Hawke.

Cold-Hands

16 Oct 12 at 9:47 pm
They really are amoral scum JC.

Lazlo

16 Oct 12 at 9:50 pm
The trouble is the non-statist types have a diversity of opinion on the size of the state and social controls, freedom etc whereas the media/academic statist have a list of beliefs that cannot be departed from if they want to avoid being excommunicated.

I happen to believe Medicare as a voucher system is probably optimal but I’m sure others would chip me for that view as not being free market enough. Fine, but I’m sure it would be a reasonable debate about costs/benefits not me red faced shouting “WHY DO YOU HATE THE POOR????”.

That’s the difference.

(if it’s not clear from the above I’m definitely on the side of personal liberty and a small govt)

DaveF

16 Oct 12 at 9:51 pm
It’s jawdropping, Lazlo. Scum is strong enough.

Just fucking ban leftism. That’s all.

JC

16 Oct 12 at 9:56 pm
oops isn’t

JC

16 Oct 12 at 9:56 pm
Don’t sweat it, Jeremiah.

Lefties love Whitlam’s dismissal speech too.

Fat lot of good it did him a month later.

C.L.

16 Oct 12 at 9:58 pm
Lefties love Whitlam’s dismissal speech too.

It was a very good speech. Credit where it’s due.

DaveF

16 Oct 12 at 10:06 pm
To be fair, Cold Hands, there was also the John Howard bowling-fail on the sub continent too. Mind you, I have never seen a pitch that looked like it had undergone recreational ploughing/convectional till before.

entropy

16 Oct 12 at 10:10 pm
that would be conventional till….

entropy

16 Oct 12 at 10:11 pm
Mk50 @ 9:37 pm

Agreed, but its the slow creeping of socialism that I’m worried about, they are used to playing the long game. In this globalised world its important that countries maintain competitive legal and tax structures. Expertise is now more mobile than ever, and once a country is f*cked by socialism I doubt they can ever recover.

As an example I know a number of Spanish Engineers that have all fled Spain to work abroad, most say they will never return. This same thing is happening in Poland and Ireland as well. This all despite the state spending vast sums of money educating these people only to have them leave once they are qualified enough.

Just recently my employer ran a massive recruitment drive in Portugal, they are actively poaching their nations best and brightest to come work here in Norway, offering them assistance with relocation etc as well.

Its alsmost as if Ayn Rand’s prophecy is slowly being fulfilled.

Jeremiah

16 Oct 12 at 10:12 pm
Re the comment about Javanese culture – well, it’s a bit disingenous, IMO. For a start, the Javanese were colonised for 400 years by the Dutch – who (with the Scots) have to be among the most direct people in the world in day-to-day discourse. It is not as if this is a big shock to them, or that they have no practice in handling it.

The reality is, they have neither the resources or the inclination to deal with thousands of economic migrants transiting through Indonesia to Australia. Why should they? It is expensive and pointless, from their perspective.

johanna

16 Oct 12 at 10:13 pm
It was a very good speech. Credit where it’s due.

Yes. The “nothing will save the Governor General” and “Kerr’s cur” bits.

But otherwise it was all mouth and no trousers.

Lazlo

16 Oct 12 at 10:14 pm
I cannot tell you what an effort it was to stay silent on the Misogyny Speech in my academic workplace last Wednesday. I broke out in hives just listening to the smug commentary.

I can just imagine it, Megan. Comiserations. I was there once but thankfully no more. Enough to make one start on the biscuits and leave none for them.

On the issue of friendships – when I meet new people I do some gentle sounding out. Like all those with a rightist bent, I tend to come in slowly, similar to entering the pool on a cold day, and subtly I take notice of who is doing the same. I talk to them separately later. Lefties hit the water with a splash, straight in, no concern about who they’re splashing or drowning and oblivious to the general temperature around them, blaring out their received wisdoms in loud forward tones but with brains in reverse. They really do lack style as well as substance.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

16 Oct 12 at 10:16 pm
Emma Alberici actually yelled at Scott Morrison on Lateline.

Viva

16 Oct 12 at 10:17 pm
WSJ: Hillary’s ‘Responsibility’
As the White House blames State for Libya, the Secretary says little.

CNN reported Monday night from Lima that Mrs. Clinton finally addressed the White House comments by saying “I take responsibility” for what happened in Benghazi. She added that “I want to avoid some kind of political gotcha” so close to an election. That’s nice, but it still leaves many questions, such as why her own comments to the U.N. differed so much from the substance and tone of Mr. Obama’s. Saying you take “responsibility” in brief interviews from faraway Peru is a long way from acting as if you’re responsible.

JamesK

16 Oct 12 at 10:17 pm
DaveF, it cuts both ways. I live in Berowra electorate. Libs got 60% to Labor 20% and Greens 10% in the last election, so presenting a left wing view is typically not popular.

SteveC

16 Oct 12 at 10:19 pm
Subsequently, Whitlam lost by the largest majority in Australian political history. 55 seats. By any meaningful criterion, the speech was one of the biggest failures in the history of oratory.

C.L.

16 Oct 12 at 10:19 pm
Bret Stephens, WSJ: To the Wavering Voter
Mitt Romney won’t make war on women, the Middle East or the middle class.

Takes apart every lying Dem meme

RTWT

JamesK

16 Oct 12 at 10:22 pm
Darrell Issa: State Dept. sitting on $2 billion-plus for embassy security

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) says the State Department is sitting on $2.2 billion that should be spent on upgrading security at U.S. embassies and consulates worldwide, but the Obama administration will not spend the funds.

Issa made his comment during an appearance on CBS’s “Face the Nation” to discuss the recent attack in Benghazi, Libya, that left U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans dead. Issa, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, held a highly partisan hearing on the incident last week…

With Republicans turning the Libya into a political issue, Democrats have countered that House GOP leaders actually sought to cut funding for embassy security, which Issa tried to refute.

“You can’t always look to [new] money when there’s money sitting there,” Issa said. “We’re going through a ‘Mission Accomplished’ moment. Eleven years after Sept. 11 [2001], Americans were attacked by terrorists who pre-planned to kill Americans. That happened, and we can’t be in denial.”

JamesK

16 Oct 12 at 10:26 pm
Emma Alberici actually yelled at Scott Morrison on Lateline.

I imagine Scott didn’t yell back at the unhinged moron.

Heavens, consider the beat-up he would get from the Labor cronies and ABC24: see, there’ll all misogynists!!!!!!!!

Anyway, Scott’s too much of a gentleman and has good breeding. He wouldn’t yell back at the little screecher anyway.

Gab

16 Oct 12 at 10:26 pm
Yes. The “nothing will save the Governor General” and “Kerr’s cur” bits.

But otherwise it was all mouth and no trousers.

Of course it was self serving but a good speech only needs a couple of good lines to be effective.

The only exception I can think of is The Gettysburg Address. 200 fantastic words with the best phrasing saved for the end. Masterful alliteration there.

DaveF

16 Oct 12 at 10:26 pm
I don’t know why her handlers at the ABC can’t see she’s in need of a mental health day or 20.

Gab

16 Oct 12 at 10:27 pm
Leftism is simply ideological cover for amorality or greed or both. The reason they invest so much in manufacturing consensus positions & are desperate to revel in the adulation of fellow leftards is that they can neither deal with the innate sense of shame that plagues them nor contemplate the satisfaction that can exist in a simple, humble, honest life.

For while shame produces a change in behaviour in most people, for the left it is an emotion to be suppressed at all cost. To do otherwise is to cede a life as completely fraudulent & utterly wasted.

They are of a kind who would regulate blindfolds for all travellers on the road to Damascus, because the alternative scares the absolute hell out of them.

Rousie

16 Oct 12 at 10:29 pm
Emma Alberici actually yelled at Scott Morrison on Lateline.

Good. The worse they are towards the coalition now the more party room support there will be to (ahem)”reform” the ABC.

“The worse the better.”

twostix

16 Oct 12 at 10:31 pm
Morrison hammered ALPerici and the Laying Slapper

JamesK

16 Oct 12 at 10:32 pm
Freudian or what?

JamesK

16 Oct 12 at 10:33 pm
LOL

Gab

16 Oct 12 at 10:34 pm
“Emma Alberici actually yelled at Scott Morrison on Lateline”

she’s following the screeching example of jGillard, all the labor women will be at it soon

candy

16 Oct 12 at 10:35 pm
The only exception I can think of is The Gettysburg Address. 200 fantastic words with the best phrasing saved for the end. Masterful alliteration there.

No argument from me, it’s wonderful, and without a trace of self serving.

Henry V St Crispin’s Day is also good, but fictional of course, I guess.

Lazlo

16 Oct 12 at 10:35 pm
SteveC:

DaveF, it cuts both ways. I live in Berowra electorate. Libs got 60% to Labor 20% and Greens 10% in the last election, so presenting a left wing view is typically not popular.

I dunno about that, I live in Warringah (Bronnie Bishop) and a lot of people have only the ABC and Fairfax as their point of reference and have opinions reflecting that. I’m not sure why they vote Lib but they seem to just have a reflex against the ALP.

Most people I know have gone along with the “hard man Abbott” meme….

I was more making a point about media/uni type people who have a very closed mind so they exclude others who don’t concur with their world view.

DaveF

16 Oct 12 at 10:42 pm
I’m just going to throw this out there:

This particular open forum is not a mess of pages and pages of lies and idiocy.

That is all.

twostix

16 Oct 12 at 10:53 pm
I really like Morrison, that guy’s got some serious leadership potential. He’s got a tough portfolio and handles it very nicely.

Jeremiah

16 Oct 12 at 10:54 pm
Just trying to watch emma alberscreechy yelling at Morrison….I have to pause it and take a few deep breathes before I continue. Small doses. I’m a bit over a third of the way through and so far The Screecher has asked Morrison the same question three times. It’s like she doesn’t listen or it’s a simple ploy to trip up Morrison.

She really is very unprofessional and not good at her job.

Gab

16 Oct 12 at 11:01 pm
Mind you, Morrison is sensational.

Gab

16 Oct 12 at 11:03 pm
Twostix

I agree, I get turned off when its all partisan super snark. I also notice more different people are commenting.

DaveF

16 Oct 12 at 11:03 pm
Yes twostix.

“And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs’d they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us” on this open forum.

Lazlo

16 Oct 12 at 11:04 pm
The later questioning suggest La Screecha thinks the Opposition is in government.

Gab

16 Oct 12 at 11:04 pm
Morrison is shadow immigration?

DaveF

16 Oct 12 at 11:08 pm
Looks like the marriage wrecking snake in a woman suit lied again:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/truth-lost-as-julia-gillard-targets-asylum-talks/story-e6frg6n6-1226497367257

Infidel Tiger

16 Oct 12 at 11:15 pm
Not according to the way alberscreech was questioning him.

Gab

16 Oct 12 at 11:16 pm
Looks like the home wrecking hoolihan is blowing smoke up her own hole:

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/prime-minister-julia-gillard-tells-indian-forum-about-viral-speech-in-parliament/story-e6frf7jo-1226497349393

Infidel Tiger

16 Oct 12 at 11:18 pm
Disgusting larcenous tramp gets the boys to help her out of a jam:

http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/political-news/gillard-files-missing-say-lawyers-20121016-27pfq.html

Infidel Tiger

16 Oct 12 at 11:19 pm
First it was that S&G had to get permission from the AWU to release the contents of the mysterious files and now poof! they’re missing.

They really do think the public morons.

Gab

16 Oct 12 at 11:24 pm
“Day-to-day I don’t spend much time thinking about the Leader of the Opposition. I bare him no personal ill will and I hope he is Leader of the Opposition for the rest of his life.”

She is really pathological if she believes this.

Wow

DaveF

16 Oct 12 at 11:26 pm
IT

The file could, quite legally, have been destroyed after 7 years (for a standard conveyance, others you keep longer). Storage costs and good housekeeping says to get rid of the old ones – unless there’s a good reason to think you might need it

Cato the Elder

16 Oct 12 at 11:26 pm
The file could, quite legally, have been destroyed after 7 years

So why did S&G initially say they had to get permission from the AWU? What, for a missing file?

Gab

16 Oct 12 at 11:37 pm
The Conveyancing files have been released to Blewitt (they’re available at michaelsmithnews.com); it’s further files relating to the slush fund that have yet to surface. And they may not- Gillard didn’t create a file in the S&G system, so all this correspondence may have been in her own file JEG which she presumably took with her.

Cold-Hands

17 Oct 12 at 12:24 am
“Day-to-day I don’t spend much time thinking about the Leader of the Opposition.”

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

C.L.

17 Oct 12 at 12:28 am
Lying, incompetence, probable illegal conduct, corruption…

Just another day in the Gillard ‘government.’

Caught out: the proof that Nicola Roxon did try to shut down James Ashby case.

C.L.

17 Oct 12 at 12:34 am
Meet the New Poll Truthers, Not The Same As The Old Poll Truthers

Because those who questioned methodology, partisan split, and turnout assumptions when polls showed Obama ahead were crazy Denialists in a war with Media-Approved Narrative Reality.

But now that the polls are turning against Obama…

sdog

17 Oct 12 at 12:56 am
“Day-to-day I don’t spend much time thinking about the Leader of the Opposition. I bare him no personal ill will and I hope he is Leader of the Opposition for the rest of his life.”

That’s a good line. But more than a little contrived.

Julian O'Dea

17 Oct 12 at 7:13 am

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