Categories
Open Thread

A Rear Admirals’ Vice is A Vice Admiral in his Rear!

Like Nelson said to Hardy “kiss me Hardy” and Hardy replied “kiss ya be fucked Horatio I’m next in line for Admiral”

The only things that Captain McCain and I have in common are that we both sailed through more water than the average shark, in the Grey Funnel Line, in roughly the same era except for the fact that he made more of a career out of it than me. We served in the same waters at the time of the Vietnam War. We both probably sailed past more lighthouses than the average Chucky Six Pack has seen shithouses and both probably saw more Action Stations than Barbie Six Pack has seen railway stations. He was a “Birdie” and I was an electrician. We were of course in different Navies, he in The USN and me in the RAN. Now days the life of a sailor is considered as the ships being made of steel, the men made of wood, and it is all Wine, Women and Song, but way back then the ships were made of wood, the men of steel, and it was Rum, Bum and Gramophone Records.

(disclaimer ; without the bum)

Macca had a lot to live up to as his Father and his Grandfather were Four Star Admirals. The only step above Admiral in the USN is Fleet Admiral (the big Boss). His boss of course is the C.I.C. (Commander in Chief).

Young Macca no doubt had burning ambitions to be the equal of or go one step better than his Pop or Pop Pop.

He joined the Naval Academy and in 1958 graduated as an Ensign at number 894 of 899 graduates. Not exactly top of the class! He subsequently went into training and became a Birdie. His ability to crash planes and play up left a lot to be desired and one wonders if the records of his Poppys had some influence on his not being severely disciplined which may have ultimately affected his chances of promotion. When one reads his records, he has had some bailouts over the years, but his most important bail out was on 26 October 1967 when he was shot down over North Vietnam and became a POW. He was released on March 14th 1973. He had the ranking of Lieutenant Commander at the time. There would have been little chance of him receiving any promotions as a POW and this would have severely stalled his desire to make Admiral. He was given different assignments in US Naval Bases and after having only reached the rank of Captain resigned from the Navy on April 1st 1981. (April fool)

At this point in his life he most probably would have been an honest and upstanding member of the community. He subsequently decided on a political career and was elected to the House in 1982 and the Senate in 1986.

Over the period of the next 26 years he developed an uncanny knack of becoming involved with lots of the more shady characters that have graced the US political stables and the only way he was going to surpass his Poppys’ Admiral Status was to become C.I.C. He ran against the Imbecile for POTUS in 2000 and failed after he was swift boated USS Enterprised by the Imbeciles Neo Cons.

Prodloužená a občas bolestivá erekce – k té dochází místě vzácně. Přístup k těmto datům mají pouze proškolení zaměstnanci.

The downward spiral of the now Ancient Mariner with a whole flock of Albatrosses hanging round his neck gathered pace even quicker over the next eight years. He now has the GOP nomination for POTUS election in a few days time and this ex Upstanding Naval Officer has morphed into the exact opposite of what he once was and no amount of lies, deception and self flagellation is going to get him over the line on Nov 4th (US time). His Political record of voting with the Imbecile, the Keating five and his record on Veterans Affairs votes leaves only one solution …

Having never made the rank of Admiral he would never stand triumphantly on a “Bridge” to anywhere whilst one of the stinking rotting albatrosses, hanging round his neck, is his running mate in charge of a partially built “bridge” to nowhere

He should be Courts Martialled, found guilty, keel hauled, demoted, shackled to an oar on a Galley, and sent in search of the “Santa Maria”. When he finds it he can duly tell Chris C the lie that he was a USN Rear Admiral and bend over for him.

From a jolly Jack Tar to Jack Tarred. What a miserable shell of a man!

A gentle reminder to Cindy McCain that if she wants to get involved in bashing BO then she also better be ready for return of serve. Even though she looks like a fresh faced lady she has not got exacty what you call clean skin!

Oct. 18, 1999 | PHOENIX — GOP presidential candidate John McCain’s wife Cindy took to the airwaves last week, recounting for Jane Pauley (on “Dateline”) and Diane Sawyer (on “Good Morning America”) the tale of her one-time addiction to Percocet and Vicodin, and the fact that she stole the drugs from her own non-profit medical relief organization.

Permission to step ashore please Sir?

770 replies on “A Rear Admirals’ Vice is A Vice Admiral in his Rear!”

Some details of the package:

“The $4.8 billion down payment will be made available through a lump sum payment of $1,400 to singles and $2,100 to couples, which will benefit:

* Age Pensioners;

* Disability Support Pensioners;

* Carer Payment recipients;

* Wife and Widow B Pensioners; Partner, Widow and Bereavement Allowees;

* Veterans Affairs Service Pensioners;

* Veterans Income Support Supplement recipients;

* Veterans Affairs Gold Card holders eligible for Seniors Concession Allowance;

* Those of age pension age who receive Parenting Payment, Special Benefit, or Austudy; and

* Eligible Self Funded retirees holding a Commonwealth Senior Health Card (CSHC)

People who are receiving Carer Allowance will also receive $1,000 for each eligible person being cared for.

All payments will be made automatically through Centrelink and the Department of Veterans Affairs in the fortnight beginning 8 December 2008. “

Grace @474-
Thank you.
It helps to know some of them can see it for what it is.
(and good to see you here. )

DG, looks rather Howardesque to me, one time handouts to solve short-term problems without having to pay any real money to address structural issues.

505
HusseinWorm
Think of it this way HW.
It adds up to aprox $35 per week till the govt’s review on pensions comes out next year. Basically, they’re just bringing it forward by a few months.

Ferny, I hope you realise we were only discussing Seppos of the grossly overlarded variety? LOL

In a land of obesity, the fattest ten states are in a class of their own!

HusseinWorm,

With the country facing possible recession, there is nothing that can be done structurally fast enough. A short-term fix is necessary at this point. It is not just about politics, as this is not an election year. 😉

Some of the longer term stuff, as Chris B says, will come through the review. Other parts are already in place, but will take years to generate results.

The broadband network planning should be nearly complete. Kevin just has to put his foot down with Testra. That would be one piece of infrastructure he could get moving quickly.

513
Chris B
Now then Chris….Don’t you DARE suggest that Telstra isn’t
working their fingers to the bone to bring us all a world class BB
network by next Tuesday at the latest! 🙂

Plus Sol and his other amigos are simple the best little executives
that millions of $s and golden parachutes can buy.

516
🙂
Actually, there are only two left.
Burgess ran home to mummy.
(Pesumably to tell her to sell her shares.) :mrgreen:

WEll I’m off to Gloria Marshall so that I will be acceptable to all you proponents of thinness out there.
Hmmph 😡

Quote doing the rounds at the moment re the sudden drop in values of shares:

“this is worse than divorce; I have lost half my net worth but I still have my wife/husband!”

Being a complete dunce about economics-
1} where is all this money coming from?
2) is this any different to redrawing on my mortgage so that i just owe more in the end, but I could pay my bills this month???
3} should I cancel my 3rd plasma screen layby – given that I live alone? – But what will I do i the bathroom????
4) does anyone want to buy my Hummer???

jen,

The money is coming out of the budget surplus. What it means long-term is that there will be much less money for the government to spend on election porkbarrelling and big restructure programs.

They are not borrowing money, so far as I can tell. But sometimes you need to borrow to save yourself going under in the short term. Hopefully, in the long term things will pick up so that you can make the necessary repayments …

4) does anyone want to buy my Hummer???

No no no – Spammy! I know there’s a joke in there but just walk away, don’t say anything just walk away

I know how much we love obscure tech sites on here, but this one has a good dissection of the government’s pathetic attempt to build an already outdated 12Mbps FTTN network.

http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php?id=646010715

I can’t wait till the Ruddster gets his committees to “fix” the road network. The reality of this government’s plans are falling way short of what is required.

524
jen

You know all those taxes you pay? And all the revenue the Feds have scooped up from the mining boom and company tax, well, they are going to redistribute some of it to those deemed needy and worthy enough.

This bit of socialism is being backed by Her Majesty’s Opposition because hey, they’ve been trying to wedge the Ruddster on pensioners since the days of Brendgun (remember him? LOL). So they can hardly go all negative now that Ruddy has ripped open the treasury vault so as to shovel it out to those very citizens, can they?

Besides, this is an ‘economic crisis’, not a sudden pang of kind hearted largesse. (And one assumes Ruddy and Swandiver have been staring into the crystal ball and been terrified by what they’ve seen there!)

So we have Ruddy’s Stimulus Package (or whatever acronym turns you on), and now that the fear of inflation has been stuffed back into the bottle our Dear Leader can stride across the nation, flinging the bountiful seed of surpluses past on the dry and barren ground of economic hardship.

May thousands of happy punters bloom.

Jen @ 524 you could do worse than pop in the bath with this…

‘…the dark heart of the global financial system [is] the $55 trillion market in credit derivatives and, in particular, credit default swaps, the mechanisms routinely used to insure banks against losses on risky investments. This is a market more than twice the size of the combined GDP of the US, Japan and the EU. Until it is cleaned up and the toxic threat it poses is removed, the pandemic will continue. Even nationalised banks, and the countries standing behind them, could be overwhelmed by the scale of the losses now emerging.’
http://www.chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/3/1628-not-enough-money-in-the-world-the-real-monster-in-the-meltdown-closet.html
Locally, the 7 14 21k on housing is potentially a blonde rodent & will go with owners & RE agents on a rising market just like last time.
The more things change…:)
See Kirri’s linked photo above on who’s laughing now.
On Friday last it was 20K on bank deposits, see Peter Martin & John Quiggin, by late Sunday it was the lot. I’m afraid Rudd is poorly advised but hey he changed at least on that nonsense.
As for the future…stay tuned as they say.

codger!!
where TF have you been?
and may I say that much to my embarrassment I have no idea what Credit Derivatives are… 😳

532 HusseinWorm I hope he is wrong! It could be just someone stirring up trouble. I will ring his electorate office tomorrow to see if I can find out anything. Actually my local member said they would send out stuff on broadband yesterday, better check the letterbox. Meanwhile if Kevin Rudd is reading this tell em to hurry up and fix the broadband.

528-\
CB-
trouble with WW’s is that the wine uses up too many points and then you can’t eat, so something has to give.

Jen, the Credit Default Swap market (which I talked about being the ‘next shoe to drop’ so many months ago) is essentially an insurance policy against companies defaulting on their debt. The buyer pays a premium and the seller offers to cough up if the company they relate to fails to pay off on its bonds or other debt instruments.

But like the futures market, speculators play them who do not in fact actually hold any of the underlying company bonds, and there’s a HUGE casino in these things out there.

So imagine how ‘dislocated’ that market is now that Lehman’s have imploded and everyone went into panic mode about who’d be next to default.

535
jen

much to my embarrassment I have no idea what Credit Derivatives are

Unfortunately jen, it’s now apparent that neither did thousands of bankers, brokers, local councils, superannuation funds or, even worse, ratings agencies.

Us mere mortals are not supposed to be financial rocket scientists.
But the merchant bankers et al should have known better.

If anyone was feeling sorry for McStupid and thought he was genuinely trying to tone down the peurile rhetoric about BO, read this and watch the video in the article.
It surely should convince what a real scumbag he has become:

This seems like it might make a bit of news today. At the end of an interview with a small TV station in Virginia yesterday afternoon, John McCain declined to condemn a Virginia Republican’s comparison of Barack Obama to Osama Bin Laden, saying he needed “more context” first.

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/10/mccain_declines_to_condemn_vir.php

I have been nagging them (last year) to do broadband by sewer. It will slash their costs (to a quarter) and speed up the implementation. I have spoke to three different people working for Senator Conroy. So I hope that’s what will happen, if not I will be really upset.
Here is the latest on broadband by sewer. Its not a joke by the way.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/01/24/h20_sewer_rollout/

Gaffhook-
IMHO that is the defining moment where McCain lost this election. He can no longer pretend that his supporters were behaving in an unseemly manner, or that Sarah was a bit too new to handle the racists (yes i said it ) in the crowd.
That was a deliberate and disgusting decision to fuel racism.
And that will be the end of him .
The press are backing the winner now, so McCain just shot his leg off.

543
Gaffy
McCain’s not exactly “presidential” on that clip is he?
I kept waiting for him to say.
Senator Obama is not a terrorist…as far as I know. 🙂

Paddy:

In 2007 the Chicago Mercantile Exchange set up a federally regulated, exchange-based market to trade CDSs. So far, it hasn’t worked because It’s been boycotted by banks, which prefer to continue their trading privately.

(Wiki)

…so they ‘knew what they were doing’!!! LOL

548
Kirri

…so they ‘knew what they were doing’!!! LOL

Just like McCain’s campaign team !!! ROTFLMAO

Frankly I’m sick to death of subsidising people with kids. Every time I turn around these double income households full of spawn are getting another fuckin’ handout!

Meanwhile the single-income battler paying a mortgage on his/her pat malone – whose kids are grown – have to battle on sans any assistance.

And it’s probably put paid to any further rate cuts too. Bastards!

*Disengage rant mode*

WEll excuse me Mr. Grover – but what about those of us who are sans- partner but with the buggery kids???
Single-income battlers with the little blighters still eating them out of house and home???

Yep Jen.
Been there for the last 10 years. Did it with NO government handouts. I still have my 20 year old daughter with me….and my 17 year old son weekends. My eldest is out on her own these days.

Oh for goodness sake you two.
Get a room 🙂
You could honeymoon in Iceland.
(The stock exchange there just dropped 70% in 10 minutes.)e

Hi y’all.

It seems the long years of Reagan’s fantasy are about to expire. Who would ever have thought that they would end with a pseudo-Texan – a bible-hugging, tax-cutting, deficit-bloating, war-making, draft-dodging, dog-whistling, half-witted excuse for a C-i-C – going for a semi-nationalisation of the US banking industry.

Now that folly has turned to woe, it is easy to see how badly the people were taken in.

Votemaster has updated with lots of good polling news, but this is the bit I like.

Obama’s haul for September hasn’t been announced yet, but an aide described it as big (English translation: more than the $66 million we raised in August). If Obama did raise something in the $70-100 million range, he will be all over TV in marginal states like West Virginia and Indiana, forcing McCain to make terrible choices about which states to abandon, much as Bush did to Kerry in 2004.

Have a look at the link to the same day in 2004, its really scary!
http://www.electoral-vote.com

The higher that amount is the more Obama can go on the offensive in the south. It is quite possible that Obama has had a huge influx of money over the last two weeks due to the financial crisis encouraging the small donors to give even more!

The money Obama has behind him they are going to blow the doors off the place in the last three weeks. That’s right folks only three weeks to go!

It is no wonder McStunt is looking bamboozled. All the political verities of the last 25 years have been skewered. De-regulation has been de-coded and now equals corruption and greed; boosting the economy now means saving it from extinction; defending Americans means saving them from the Republican party; reform means electing a liberal Democrat. 400 electoral votes for Obama are on the horizon.

Want to know something, the next three weeks, the way things keep going. 400 will be a cake walk.

New polls:
OBAMA miles ahead in Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesotta, and 9 points ahead in Colorado(52-43)
Chris: I think 370 electoral votes is the high water mark for Obama, I can’t see him getting past 400.

569 A couple of weeks ago the polls suggested 330 or so would be high water mark. It may not happen but if the McPalins keep up their divisive and aggressive antics and Obama keeps his head then a bandwagon effect is possible which would have other states as the high water mark to get over 400. Interesting to see the conservatives and GOP hardheads getting excited about 60 Senate seats. Even if the Dems fall a couple short it’s unlikely that the GOP senators will be able to form a solid block on popular issues such as health care. The suggestion from some that only the financial meltdown is propelling Obama misses the argument that conservatives often do well in crisis situations. The only problem is that the people have cottoned on to the idea that the McPalins are anything but a “steady hand on the tiller”. Quite a way to go but looking very positive for a decisive shift.

So yesterday (US time) Obama made a significant economic statement announcing a number of new proposals to help struggling individuals and small businesses.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/14/us/politics/14campaign.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
It was a clever move and had him again looking presidential, plus knowledgeable on things economic. He’s a man with a plan. The other thing he said that was interesting was to admit that part of the problem was people borrowing beyond their means. So Obama dared to point some of the blame towards “Main St”, which as far as I can see, is a new thing. Still, it was balanced with jointly pointing the finger at the other usual suspects.
McCain, as usual, was caught flat footed, with no response except to claim once again that McCain was raising taxes on small business (95% of small businesses won’t be affected adversely by Obama’s tax plan). Today McCain has made an announcement about buying mortgages of defaulting mortgagees, but as far as I can see, it’s the same announcement he made last week.
Yesterday also, McCain purported to start his campaign anew. Apparently the new stuff is all about how McCain will fight and never give up.The fresh start has been dubbed “let McCain be McCain”. Aaron Sorkin must be chuckling to himself. Note to McCain: getting strategy from TV shows = fail.

Hi Katielou. It is now pure O-Wow contrasting with a McGimmick-a-day. So far the polls have not shown any sign of fatigue: Obama’s numbers just keep climbing around 0.5% every day. By the of October there will be hardly any Republicans left. I wonder how it feels amongst the great American unwashed? Is there a sense of change afoot? (I wish I was there to experience it…)

Yes – I think the overwhelming sentiment is that Obama will win. And the Republicans that I speak with (that’s just a small number) don’t seem too concerned about that. McCain is seen as pretty useless.

G’Day Gang,

E-Day minus 20 and all’s well:
Board Odds CBet:
OBAMA, Barack 1.10
MCCAIN, John 6.35

At Intrade: Bomb-Bomb is ~4/1 (tight as… compared with CBet) whereas The Kid is at ~4/1-on which is much better value than the ~10/1-on at CBet.

Tues Oct 14:
http://news.yahoo.com/comics/doonesbury;_ylt=Akp_FyJFeYlcyGPtd7HuMJzmcLQF

Tues Oct 14: Why Eddie needs to talk with Lloyd Fullerton*
http://news.yahoo.com/comics/nonsequitur;_ylt=A0WTUeEF7_RIB40AiiMDwLAF

Tues Oct 14:
http://news.yahoo.com/edcartoons/tonyauth;_ylt=Ar2zbwP0SmROH2BVMmcc7mrmcLQF

Tues Oct 14:
http://news.yahoo.com/edcartoons/tomtoles;_ylt=A0WTUeEF7_RIB40AsCMDwLAF

http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoon/display.cfm/61182

http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoon/display.cfm/61186

http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoon/display.cfm/61197

http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoon/display.cfm/61198

* Lloyd is our site’s ranking “Big Picture” guy.
———————–
KatieLou, talk about flogging a dead maverick! What an act of desperation is JMc’s to borrow strategy from the “West Wing” at this stage of the GOPper campaign. Jed Bartlet was a Democratic President and despite his flaws, had integrity by the bucketload.
Johnny Bomb-Bomb lost whatever vestiges of that character trait he possessed when he tossed his lot in with Turd Blossom, “Schmuckens” Schmidt, Liar Tuck and Yup-Yup Palin.
The destiny of Gollum awaits Senator Faustus (R-AZ).

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

Mornin’ all-
just back from Iceland.
You all seem to froget that if Hillaryb was the candidate she would 65 points ahead and winning 600 electoral votes even though there aren’t that many.

Btw Spammy – a hummer is car dear friend.

Wow, even Republicans in supposedly safe House seats are shitting themselves with worry, and begging for resources to be allocated to them AND taken out of the McCain campaign!

Bit of “Blowback” to give McBombster a spot of bother……

McCain Transition Chief Aided Saddam In Lobbying Effort…..

William Timmons, the Washington lobbyist who John McCain has named to head his presidential transition team, aided an influence effort on behalf of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein to ease international sanctions against his regime……….

John McCain strongly supported the 1991 military action against Iraq, and as recently as Sunday described Saddam Hussein as a one-time menace to the region who had “stated categorically that he would acquire weapons of mass destruction, and he would use them wherever he could.”

A couple of attendant ironies here:

1) For JMc, the notion of having a “Transition Chief” is in a word….redundant.

2) Lifting sanctions on Iraq was the right thing to do as far as the dying Iraqi kids who desperately need medicine that the sanctions denied them was concerned, but when you’re hellbento on going gandbusters against a card-carrying bastion of the “Axis of Evil” , you can’t have it both ways.

(HuffPo breaking…..)

579
jen
Welcome home jen
Hope you bought a couple of banks and a few fish
while you were over there.
No doubt, singlehandedly hauling Iceland out of bankruptcy. 🙂

Meanwhile…..let’s not get too depressed.
It’s still not too late for the Democratic party to come to its
senses and come from behind, by installing Hilary at the top of the ticket. :mrgreen:

582

Yeah, Spammy, sorta like a BJ Holden.

Sod you Ecky!!!
That was a fresh cup of coffee and it’s now all over the monitor. 🙂

569 Progressive The best part of the election is yet to come, the last 2-3 weeks is always the most effective. Hence Obama has kept the bulk of his spending till then. The half hour block on the TV networks will be extremely effective. Obama is swimming in millions, it will not be wasted.

Tomorrow’s debate is McDickhead’s last chance to at least make it a respectable defeat. But, if he uses the occasion to go after Obama personally, I think it’ll backfire on him even more.

They Repugs are scarring the WITS out of the Independents and undecided. (I am upset about that)! So they are being forced to the Democrats. Other people will go into the polling booths with their hip pockets BURNING and vote accordingly.

Top o’ the mornin’ all!

Talk about studies in contrasts. As the economic tsunami carries away Bush, McCain and the neocons, it enables Gordon Brown to ride the crest of the wave – and may just save him:

“Mr Brown’s political resurrection has been so striking that at a briefing for the international press in London last night he spent much of his time batting away praise and insisting that he really was not a superhero.

Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman had set the tone by posing the question in The New York Times of whether Mr Brown’s decisive action in the international banking crisis had saved the world.”

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24499438-2703,00.html

No wonder the inter-bank lending rate LIBOR hasn’t budged. According to Nouriel Roubini:

…(the) total credit losses resulting from the meltdown of the subprime mortgage market will be “closer to $3 trillion,” up from his previous estimate of $1 trillion to $2 trillion.

(Bloomberg)

So we’ve got quite a way to go yet, folks.

Nothing like greedy self-interest to swing their vote:

WSJ: According to a new survey by Prince & Associates, voters worth $1 million to $10 million are favoring Sen. John McCain, while voters worth $30 million or more are favoring Sen. Barack Obama. The survey of 493 families showed:

More than three quarters of those worth $1 million to $10 million plan to vote for Sen. McCain. Only 15% plan to vote for Sen. Obama (the rest are undecided). Of those worth more than $30 million, two-thirds support Sen. Obama, while one third support Sen. McCain.

The reason? Taxes.

…so they’d sell their country for a few shekels into the hands of a geriatric hot head who doesn’t have a clue?

Ugly.

Comments are closed.