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Open Thread

Kissing our arses goodbye?

The Australian Federal Government has just released a white paper detailing a proposed carbon emissions reduction target of between 5% and 15% by 2020 relative to 2000 levels. The 5% target is described as unconditional whereas the 15% target is described as subject to global agreement where all major economies commit to substantially restrain emissions and all developed countries take on comparable reductions to that of Australia.

The white paper goes on to argue Australia’s unique position in the global war on climate, citing a per capita impact of between 34–41% below 1990 levels, in effect demonstrating that Australia’s proposed commitment is ahead of the Europeans (per capita reduction is projected at 24-34%) and ahead of our cousins (projected 25% per capita sacrifice).

The report argues that Australia’s particular national circumstances (a strong population growth projection, heavy reliance on fossil fuels, etc.) make for greater structural adjustment when compared with many other developed nations.

However, what I don’t see in the report is a sufficient connection to the bigger issue:

Kirribilli Removals – 15 December 2008:

If permafrost melts across the vast areas of Russia and Canada, then we can kiss our arses goodbye

385 replies on “Kissing our arses goodbye?”

EU Parliament Working directive 48hr opt-out axed.

Strike a blow for Social Europe! was the rallying call, and an absolute majority in the European Parliament backed it, in a vote updating the working time directive.

The parliament voted to scrap Britain and 14 other countries’ right to let employees work a longer-than-48-hour-maximum week if they want to.

Next come conciliation talks between parliament and EU governments.

But, failing agreement, the existing law stands.

The official steering the legislation through parliament, Spanish socialist Alejandro Cercas, said: “Let’s bring about a real reconciliation of family and social life, in a social Europe.”

more…
http://www.euronews.net/en/article/17/12/2008/working-directive-48hr-opt-out-axed/

Obama Taps LaHood for Transportation Secretary.

President-elect Barack Obama is expected to announce Illinois Republican Rep. Ray LaHood as his choice to become the next secretary of transportation, ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent George Stephanopoulos reports.

If confirmed by the Senate, the Illinois lawmaker will replace Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters in overseeing the Department of Transportation and its key agencies, including the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

LaHood is the first registered Republican who would be joining the Obama administration, and just the second non-Democrat. Obama has tapped current Defense Secretary Robert Gates, a registered Independent who considers himself a Republican, to stay on in his current position.

more..
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=6199215&page=1

Aretha Franklin to sing at Obama inauguration.

Aretha Franklin will sing, the Rev. Rick Warren will pray and more than 11,000 U.S. troops will be watching over inauguration ceremonies in case of an attack during President-elect Barack Obama’s swearing-in on Jan. 20.

As many as 4 million visitors are expected to be on hand when Obama takes the noontime oath from Chief Justice John Roberts on the steps of the Capitol.

Some 4,000 local police, 4,000 police from around the country and security agents from other government agencies will be on hand, taking direction from the Secret Service. About 7,500 active duty military and 4,000 National Guard troops also will participate. That includes a contingent on alert to respond to a chemical attack.

A “big chunk” of active and guard units will perform ceremonial work involving parades, reviews and honor guards, the U.S. commander in charge of domestic defense said Wednesday.

more..
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hu8TE83fkG5j6apkrARSSv6SRC0AD954OJMG0

Obama team will get crisis training to prepare for terrorist attacks.

Barack Obama’s White House team is to undergo a crash course in how to handle terrorist attacks and international crises as part of rigorous efforts to prepare the new administration for early challenges in office.

The briefings and exercises on potential international alarms and security threats – the most comprehensive ever for any incoming officials – will include two days of hands-on training next January in which cabinet officials will be questioned on dealing with potential disaster scenarios, including an attack that would wipe out the top tier of America’s political leadership.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/dec/18/obama-team-crisis-management-training

Aussie lessons for Obama’s school tsar Arne Duncan.

KAREN Duncan, who grew up in the plush surrounds of an exclusive Tasmanian girls’ school, just may be the Australian closest to the incoming US administration of Barack Obama.

Her husband, Arne, has been responsible for transforming some of Chicago’s toughest schools and is now the president-elect’s nomination for secretary of education.

Duncan met her husband at a Launceston gym where she was working part-time. It was 1990, and she was a student at the University of Tasmania studying to become a physical education teacher and he was a 196cm tall semi-pro American basketballer playing for a now-defunct team called the Launceston Ocelots while also working with children who were wards of the state. They married in January 1992.

In Hobart yesterday, Duncan’s mother, Geraldine Donnelly, said her daughter, who donated as much as she was allowed to the Obama for President campaign, was excited and busily preparing for a move from Chicago to Washington.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24816611-26397,00.html

Obama adds another Republican to Cabinet.

Two Democratic sources also said Obama will tap Mary Schapiro to head the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Schapiro is CEO of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the largest nongovernment regulator for all securities firms doing business with the U.S. public. She is a former SEC commissioner and served as chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in 1994 during the Clinton Administration.

more..
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/12/17/transition.wrap/index.html

Fife and drum extravaganza set for Inauguration Day

The Army is making sure it impresses its next commander-in-chief when he is sworn in next month. It is planning to honor President-elect Barack Obama with the biggest fife and drum corps that the Army has ever put together.
he Army’s Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps marches with surgical precision, and its bass drums boom loud enough to set off car alarms 10 yards away. On January 20, it will march near the start of the procession from the Capitol to the White House.

The corps is part of the Third Infantry Regiment, the oldest active infantry unit in the U.S. Army.

more…
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/12/17/military.inauguration/index.html

Obama Stimulus Plan Could Hit $1 Trillion
Cash Infusion Would Be Carried Out Over 2-Year Period, Advisers Say.

After consulting with economists from across the political spectrum, President-elect Barack Obama’s advisers are contemplating an economic recovery plan that could cost as much as $1 trillion over two years.

The figure is far bigger than the $600 billion that Mr. Obama’s team initially envisioned.

A number of economists, including former advisers to Republican presidential candidate John McCain, have suggested to Mr. Obama’s team that the economy needs a much bigger cash infusion, possibly up to a $1 trillion over two years.

Mr. Obama’s top economic advisers solicited the opinions as they worked to assemble a spending plan that would meet Mr. Obama’s goal of saving or creating 2.5 million jobs over two years.

Mr. Obama advisers say his team has not settled on a figure. But the advice represents a far bigger sum than his advisers had considered.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/12/17/politics/main4672673.shtml

Tuskegee Airmen earn inauguration invites.

Black WWII pilots were banned from victory parades after returning to U.S. The Tuskegee Airmen made history during World War II as the first black military pilots in the United States, only to return home to discrimination and exclusion from victory parades. Survivors of the elite unit have been invited to Barack Obama’s inauguration as the country’s first black president.

“I want to come hopping, skipping and jumping!” said 92-year-old Spann Watson, an airman from New York. “We had a part in changing these United States.”

This is one of the groups that I mentioned on the day Obama won.
YES! These pilots were amongst Americas finest. They did not loose one bomber they were escorting over Berlin to the Germans.

Tuskegee Airmen Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuskegee_Airmen

Two hi res images Tuskegee Airmen Mustang P51C
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3f/P-51_Mustang_edit1.jpg

http://www.airportjournals.com/Photos/0705/X/0705012_9.jpg

If you want to see how badly the African Americans were treated even when they were on our side, the movie Tuskegee Airmen is a great buy for around $9.95

Prior to the Tuskegee Airmen taking over escort duties of the Flying Fortresses, the US Air Force was getting slaughtered over Germany.

Look, I know there’s a lot left wanting in the Rudd ETS plan as proposed, and yes, it disappoints that we are not leading the world in solar energy adoption etc etc etc, but just try and get your mind around Barnaby Joyce and his ilk:

“My current concern with the emissions trading scheme is that a religious fervour has built up around the altar of global warming. Those who serve at the altar have become ruthless in their denigration of alternate views.”

In old-fashioned populism we haven’t seen since Sir Joh Bjelke-Peterson, he claims the scheme is nothing more than a tax-raising enterprise which will punish people’s pockets and jobs.

(Crikey)

And now, just try and imagine the fruit loops that would be rioting in the streets and calling for Rudd’s head if he’d called for 10% or 15% or more?

Of course the Greens would be rioting with them, right up to 40% (or, the sheer lunatic fringe range of utter impossibility, unless you’re all prepared to travel by bicycle and light your houses with candles!). Funny combo eh? The climate deniers and the Greens that want the impossible…or else they’ll get agitated.

The political reality is that these are the extremes and they hold the balance of power, so Rudd HAD to wedge Turnbull or see no ETS implemented in this parliament.

It’s hard to swallow, (and I speak with experience in that department! LOL), but it’s the bleeding reality he has to contend with.

Again, I will second KR’s point. It’s still hard to believe there is Climate Change deniers left. Unfortunately they are in the balance of power. Whether Obama’s influence in the USA will make a difference later on, we’ll have to wait and see.

With economy in shambles, Congress gets a raise.

A crumbling economy, more than 2 million constituents who have lost their jobs this year, and congressional demands of CEOs to work for free did not convince lawmakers to freeze their own pay.

Instead, they will get a $4,700 pay increase, amounting to an additional $2.5 million that taxpayers will spend on congressional salaries, and watchdog groups are not happy about it.

“As lawmakers make a big show of forcing auto executives to accept just $1 a year in salary, they are quietly raiding the vault for their own personal gain,” said Daniel O’Connell, chairman of The Senior Citizens League (TSCL), a non-partisan group. “This money would be much better spent helping the millions of seniors who are living below the poverty line and struggling to keep their heat on this winter.”

As I see it, this group of politicians did not cause the problems, so they should not be punished for the Republicans mistakes. In fact I am quite happy for the Democrats to be rewarded in advance for cleaning up Bushes mess. Anyway it’s not my money they are being paid with. 😈

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/with-economy-in-shambles-congress-gets-a-raise-2008-12-17.html

Justice Kennedy rejects 2 more challenges to Obama.

Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy has rejected two more efforts to get the court to consider whether President-elect Barack Obama is eligible to take office.

Kennedy on Wednesday denied without comment an appeal by Philip J. Berg, a Pennsylvania attorney, that claims Obama is either a citizen of Kenya or Indonesia and is ineligible to be president because he is not a “natural-born citizen” of the U.S. as required by the Constitution. Another appeal from California, based on Berg’s claims, also was denied.

more…
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics/story/816621.html

paddy at 206

On the subject of Sock and Awe …
Latest number of direct hits that George Bush has received from around the planet is 27,635,885. The USA ranks as the top hitter, followed by France with the silver, and a bronze for Australia.

By Post Author

221
Cat. You’re a better shot than I am Gunga Din. 🙂
Still, it’s good to we Aussies haven’t let the team down too badly.
BTW The link at 206 is to a cartoon and not the current game de jour.

Kirri @ 215
I hear what you’re saying, but can’t get the taste of ashes out of my mouth re Rudd.
LOL When I first started reading that Crikey piece about Barnaby, I thought he was refusing to pass the legislation because it didn’t go far enough!! 🙂 Oh dear, what an innocent fool I was.
Still, for the first time in my life, I actually sent Getup some money to run their ad during the Boxing day test.

Plus……..In the delicious world of “unintended consequences”,
Bob Gottliebsen has a great article in todays Business Spectator.

Australian industry has not factored in the very real chance that power costs could rise rapidly if the looming bankruptcy of Victoria’s Latrobe Valley power stations eventuates in the wake of a big fall in the value of coal fired power generators.

This potential disaster must be taken into account and added to carbon containment measures announced this week.

But it’s not going to be isolated to Victoria, the crisis will become all too apparent as NSW moves to undertake a quasi-privatisation of its own power assets.

The four Victorian power plants are all privately owned but were all privatised by the Kennett government in the 1990s. Many have since changed hands again, but their debts mature at similar times.

Most were financed with around 20 per cent equity and 80 per cent debt although that ratio will differ from station to station. It’s hard to calculate the exact amounts of borrowing and equity but it looks as though Australian and global banks have loaned somewhere in the vicinity of $5 billion to the four power stations. That would mean that there is roughly $1.2 billion to $1.5 billion in equity valuing the stations at around $6.5 billion……………

Then this little gem.

However what the banks can do is to try and reduce their exposure by accessing the power stations’ cash flow. The best way to do that is to lift prices. Substantially. There are some regulations that might curb such an action that but now that we have a national grid they are not severe. The other states do not have the capacity to replace the vacancy left by the Victorian brown coal stations.

http://www.businessspectator.com.au/bs.nsf/Article/Power-failure-$pd20081216-MD8CX?OpenDocument&src=sph

So despite Rudd giving the coal industry carbon credits for free, the fact that Kennett (one of my most hated pollies) has ripped off the private sector for billions. Means that the financial crisis will force them to raise the price of electricity to avoid bankruptcy. Thereby causing the cleaner and renewable sources to become more viable.

Sometimes……….Irony can almost taste sweet. 🙂

Back to the headline story, thanks Cat for CORRECTLY presenting the target as 5-15%. It appeared to complicated for many in the MSM who just went with the 5%, which of course, suited their needs perfectly

Thanks for that summary Paddy, as I saw the article and had meant to read it!

Obviously the irony isn’t missed on anyone…and if the dirtiest coal burning generators of them all end up getting shoved out of business, well hey, we’ll ALL pay, but then that’s what we SAY we want. Isn’t it?

Meanwhile the deniers are going hell for leather, just check out Miranda Devine’s latest diatribe against anyone foolish enough to believe that human CO2 emissions are anything to worry about! And of course she reckons that most people are not prepared to pay for all this expensive ‘green’ power and blah blah blah…

How many more years of the hottest years on record, the vast reduction in Arctic ice mass, the rising acidification of the world’s oceans will it take to get these people to think beyond their petty political tribalism? Meanwhile, the level of CO2 rises inexorably from obvious sources, and yet they refuse to even consider it prudent to take evasive action.

Meanwhile, in the Twilight Zone that’s become the US economy, the Fed’s announcement that it will resort to unusual methods to pump prime the economy again, and in particular its saying they will buy the long bond to push down rates at the other end of the curve has had the predictable effect: the 30 and ten year bonds are rising as everyone piles in expecting a free elevator ride.

This is eye-popping stuff: a Fed induced bubble in Treasuries which they guarantee to support with printed money!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You could not even invent a story like this. It’s like Robert Mugabe running the Fed! LOL

No doubt they’re desperate, no doubt they ‘mean’ to do good, but the Fed is King Canute to the tide of world finance, and they cannot decree what Mr Market should do.

This is 100% guaranteed to end in tears.

Hey Gouldie wrap your maths around this one.
How many iron filings from a high school physics lab would it take to chock the hole?
How fast would the imbecile be dragged to outer space if they inserted a steel plate in his skull?

A Giant Breach in Earth’s Magnetic Field

“The opening was huge—four times wider than Earth itself,” says Wenhui Li, a space physicist at the University of New Hampshire who has been analyzing the data. Li’s colleague Jimmy Raeder, also of New Hampshire, says “10 to the 27th particles per second were flowing into the magnetosphere—that’s a 1 followed by 27 zeros. This kind of influx is an order of magnitude greater than what we thought was possible.”

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/16dec_giantbreach.htm?list961147

Chris B

Refers to the last post re censorship of the net but thought you might be interested in this.
It is an article from oped stories in the US. Go to the story for the link to join in.

There’s also time for more debate, and while there is clearly much debating going on within Government, ISPs, consumer groups and the public, there is one debate you can take part in online, through a free webinar session on Friday, December 19, at 11am AEST.

It’s called “The Content Filtering Debate”, and you can register to take part, and/or receive a free transcript, via this link.

http://www.itwire.com/content/view/22339/127/

LOL
Dear oh dear Kirri. I’d forgotten why I try not to read Miranda.
My blood pressure’s been a tad high lately and my Dr suggested that reading Bolt probably wasn’t all that wise.
Clearly I’ll have to add Miranda to my anti-porn filter.
She’s certainly doing her best to keep what’s left of Fairfax on a “fair and balanced” path with the sun king’s minions.

BTW while your around.
I noticed somewhere on the net recently, (I’ve lost the original ref.) that Glencore was possibly getting into a spot of bother.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idUKWLA366520081216?pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=0

Is it just my paranoia, or would a serious problem with them put Switzerland in big trouble?
Ah.. Here’s the link that caught my eye. Any opinion on this one?
http://www.creditwritedowns.com/2008/11/glencore-swiss-giant-on-edge.html

Well Paddy I’ve never come across them before, but the CDS graph looks really scary! Being a private company, there’s no listed share price and of course no publicly available accounts…just what they deign to tell you, so who knows? But any big company in resources will be suffering massive reductions in turnover now, so it’s a matter of their debt ratios and the willingness of their lenders to stand by them if they are distressed.

232
Gaffy, at least your utube clip has some humour. 🙂
This one from Crikey yesterday is about as awful as anything I’ve seen.
I’m thinking of writing to Conroy to have it included on the filter.
Sometimes, we just have to protect the public!!
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=YHvwWQIPRbw

234
Ta Kirri.
I guess there’ll be lots more fallout over the next year or so and no doubt some new names will be added to the lists of the fallen.

Where is EC has he defected or eloped?

Enemy Combatants Rule America

Two years into FDR’s Administration Prescott Bush was confident his 500,000-man mercenary army could depose the President. After two years of fighting World War Two, the government could not sell a War Bond.

Americans have a short attention span. They much prefer the life of cows: fat, dumb and happily milked every day. Can they endure four years of living in tent cities? If they hated Mexican immigrant laborers, how will they feel about Chinese who buy our foreclosed homes with a few US Treasury Bills?

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Enemy-Combatants-Rule-Amer-by-Jason-Paz-081217-203.html

yeah, the Euro had it’s biggest one day movement ever…it’s looking like nervous time for the USD, but what could anyone expect with the Fed throwing the printing presses at it?

You have to wonder who’s been minding the store…obviously the seriously mentally impaired youngster:

The three-person auditing firm that apparently certified the books of Bernard Madoff Investment Securities, the shuttered home of an alleged multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme, is drawing new scrutiny. Already under investigation by local prosecutors for its potential role in the scandal, the firm, Friehling & Horowitz, is now also being investigated by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the prestigious body that sets U.S. auditing standards for private companies. The problem: The auditing firm has been telling the AICPA for 15 years that it doesn’t conduct audits.

http://money.cnn.com/2008/12/17/news/companies/madoff.auditor.fortune/index.htm

…so because they told the accounting body they didn’t ‘do audits’ they didn’t check to see they’d been certifying Mr Madoff’s “books”!

ROFL! What a fiasco!

Public Notice

I, Enemy Combatant a.k.a. E.C. a.k.a. ec a.k.a. Ecky, of http://www.politic.osm.net do hereby disassociate myself from the treasonous low-lives referred to by Mr. Gaffhook in his link at 238, nor will I be responsible for any debt they have incurred during the current “economic downturn” or thereafter.
These are not, nor have they ever been, “my people”. It’s a matter of terminology; for ’tis they who are the “enemy” and my associates and my ‘umble self who “combat” them.

If the “enemy” are permitted to control language, then maufacturing the consent they need to rule rubes is easy.

241
Kirri one can only laugh at this sort of thing.
You can just imagine the straight face on the guy as he says it all. LOL
I know we signed it but that does not mean we audited it you fools.
Havent you read the disclaimer you fools?

Gaffy, it’s breathtaking in every dimension: the scale of the fraud, the length of time he conducted it, the utter incompetence of the SEC who had even done investigations of him for gawd’s sake!

But the fallout is tragic, this guy has ruined people, utterly ruined them, and worse, some of them actually knew him and trusted him. This one is a movie script, it’s so unbelievable.

“You couldn’t make this stuff up, you couldn’t!”
Oh yes you could Kirri.
All you need is a name…………Let’s say……umm…. Bernie Madoff. 😆

That’s pronounced “made off” by the way! LOL

It’s too funny, and too tragic all at the same time.

246
There are a few stories about him on that oped page that i look at. He has sucked quite a few in from overseas as well by all accounts.
He will finish up a hero in Seppoland.
Meanwhile the Storm Financial owner up here was allegedly escorted from an inner city water hole the other night for his own safety. Other patrons became very boistrous and hurled rather loud insults at him. They were worried what was going to be hurled next.
Locals up here only lost $500mil and the poor bloke was only trying to have a quiet drink.

221 Catrina Sock and Awe went from 27 million to 34 million now! I think that is in 5 hours! Boy is that game on fire! See what a viral email can do!

“He will finish up a hero in Seppoland.”
I don’t think so Gaffy.
The ABC showed some footage of him coming out of a bail hearing on TV tonight. Lots of pushing and folks looking fairly pissed off with him.
He’s conned and stolen from the rich and the not so rich. Plus he’s made too many powerful people look bloody foolish.
I suspect he’s going to need protective custody before long.
Just sitting there wearing a bracelet under house arrest mightn’t be all that safe for him as more and more people realize they’ve lost the lot.

Kirri
And on and on it goes. LOL

Those who favor regulation of hedge funds start by insisting that they must register with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Well, Madoff had registered with the SEC voluntarily, and a fat lot of good it did. Those who support regulation also say that hedge funds should disclose more of what they do. Well, Madoff did make some disclosures; it’s just that they weren’t true. As SEC Chairman Chris Cox has all but admitted, the scandal doesn’t show that his agency lacked the power to regulate; it shows that it failed to exercise it. Responding to this scandal with more regulation would be like thrusting more pills on a patient who refuses medication.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/17/AR2008121703185_pf.html

Just an anecdote about the Australian economy. I was talking to someone senior from a magazine organisation. He said advertising was strong in December but advertising for January issues had died. He gave an example of a leading Australian retailer who last year placed 10 pages of advertising in the January issue of a well known magazine – the retailer has bought no advertising in January 2009.

Here you go Kirri!
Gold and a fast boat to China is this blokes reccommendation.

Having said that, here’s a quick update on what I’m seeing right now in the markets …

First, gold: Gold has staged a very nice rally over the past week, jumping from $741 to as high as $860 as I write this column. That’s a very solid, sharp 16% gain — in under a week!

The distrust of paper assets and financial institutions is driving investors to gold.
Still, gold is not yet out of the woods. My indicators tell me we need to see gold close solidly above the next target resistance level at the $879 area.

http://www.moneyandmarkets.com/the-fed-gold-stocks-and-china-5-28828

Yeah Gaffy, gold, it’s got a long way to go when the USD hits parity with the Pacific Cowrie Index (to borrow a quip).

Meanwhile, in Seppo meltdown land, the investigators who are lugging out boxes of records from Madoff’s office are asking how did a 70yr old guy produce all the statements and keep pumping them out to all the investors all over the world? Somebody had to be helping, but who dunnit?

Stay tooned folks, this is going to be even more interesting! LOL

Kudos to the Rude Pundit for a very good post on torture.

It’s so good to be reminded, that not only is this maniac insanely funny
for most of the time. He can also be a damn fine pundit of the serious kind.

http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2008/12/regarding-torture-detention-and.html

Whereas, if one is looking for some “serious” journalism in the good ol’ USA.
Then look no further than the ever reliable Fox.

“O’Reilly: Atheists want to ‘revoke’ Christmas”
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=9y17pyVzHhM

262
Katielou
I have to say, the thought of Al actually winning, puts a nice glow on a cold and wintry day down here in the south. 🙂

“Greenspan Says Markets May Rally in 6 to 12 Months ”

Oh really? Like this guy can get anything right?

“Markets are being suppressed by a degree of fear not experienced since the early 20th century (1907 and 1932 come to mind),” Greenspan said in the commentary. “Human nature being what it is, we can count on a market reversal, hopefully, within six months to a year.”

…oh do tell Alan, do tell. And what are they so afraid of then Mr Magoo? Would it be the house of cards built on the biggest piles of debt the universe has ever seen?

And who assisted the creation of that Alan, huh?

This old clown doesn’t realise nobody is listening anymore.

Coleman leads Franken by just 2 votes.

Two votes is all that stands between Minnesota Republican Sen. Norm Coleman and Democrat Al Franken, according to the Associated Press tally in the state’s still-unresolved Senate race.

Coleman’s shrinking lead, combined with a state Supreme Court decision handed down Thursday, has suddenly heightened the prospects that Franken, who has trailed in every count since Election Night, could end up winning the seat after all the votes are counted.

Thursday’s court ruling dealt a blow to Coleman, who had filed suit to prevent rejected absentee ballots from being counted, but Republicans took solace in the court’s order to establish a uniform standard for sorting and counting those absentee ballots. Either way, the decision makes it likely the race will remain undecided until next year.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1208/16732.html

How bizarre.

When Julia Gillard needs to read documents or to consider decisions, she closes her office door and declares herself to be “in the cone”. Once the cone has descended, even her staff are not allowed in unless they perform a ridiculous ritual. Bringing the hands together above the head, the supplicant must make “the sign of the cone”. It’s humiliating enough to deter all but the most urgent interruptions.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/peter-hartcher/rudds-busy-bees-still-need-to-do-better/2008/12/18/1229189797508.html

Katielou, can recall your disappointment some posts back with Julia Prole; your mention of how she’s tough on her staff. 40% turnover or suchlike. Not a good look at first glace, I must admit.
Actually, I’m with Gillard on the cone thing. Sometimes leaders need time to think clearly and strategically about important issues. Some players, none of whom appear on The West Wing, need one-out time to do this best. If it’s REALLY important then staff should knock, enter and blurt out: “Ma’am excuse me, but we’re at war with Indonesia”, and depart forthwith.

One feels certain that the absence of “coning” while conveying that info would not be viewed as a career-altering decision.

The great porn war.

Government plans to introduce mandatory internet filtering have enraged – and mobilised – the blogosphere, and no one knows where it will end, reports Nigel Bowen.

Clive Hamilton is keen to establish he is not a wowser. He did, after all, strip naked at Jim Cairns’s Down to Earth hippie festival in 1974 and fought the good ’60s fight against “neurotic Victorian sexual mores” in his younger years. He even volunteers that he has no problem with non-violent erotica. “If it treats all parties in a non-objectified way, then tell me where I can get it.”

http://www.theage.com.au/news/technology/web/the-great-porn-war/2008/12/18/1229189814605.html

Speaking of homophobes Ecky, do you remember the once ranting Pastor Ted? (That is ‘pastor’ before he was defrocked for having regular rendezvous with a rent boy while indulging in a little methamphetamine.) Pastor Ted liked to badmouth certain types, like er, gays for example, from his pulpit before he was outed.

Well, now, for some trivia: guess who’s just made a video doco about poor old Ted? One where Ted spills it all, (yeah, he’s still having trouble with his sexuality, so he ain’t ‘cured’ yet, what a surprise! And he bought the meth, but he never inhaled, so to speak!).

You’ll never guess…never!

OK, it’s Nancy Pelosi’s daughter!

How’s that for a hoot?

And speaking of drugs, Guy Rundle’s done a very nice reprise of 2008 in Crikey where one of the notable events of April was:

Albert Hofmann, inventor of LSD, dies at the age of 102, or 9,331,483 @&%$#@ in acid years.

…hahahaha! But more seriously, he notes that in May:

Andrew Bolt continued to be a c-nt.

…can’t argue with that. It’s also true for all the other months too! LOL

Japan well in the race with the Us to get interest rates to zero.
Japan today to .1%.

Japan’s rate cut came within hours of the Cabinet Office publishing the grimmest official view yet of economic outlook – the economy contracting almost 1 per cent in the year ending March 30, no growth during the ensuing 12 months, a sharp rise in unemployment and a return to deflation next year.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/business/story/0,28124,24823787-643,00.html

272
Kirri

Albert Hofmann, inventor of LSD, dies at the age of 102

Wonder how many died before they reached 25 suckin on the shit.
Obviously he abstained to live that long.

274
Well you see Gaffy, when you took *Hoffman* acid, it was a very different experience to what these young whippersnappers today call acid. In fact it was a truly mind expanding experience.
Or at least that’s what I discovered while conducting my own research. ( For the pure benefit of science you understand.) :mrgreen:

Now as to 275……Well sadly, Linda’s already departed for that great movie set in the sky.
But imagine if someone were to drop Bush and co in the shit like Mark Felt did for Nixon.
ROTF
Today’s media would run a million miles before they’d even print it. 🙁

276

Yeah paddy there were many who thought they had the powers of an eagle from high up in buildings after suckin on it.
Certainly made people do funny things at times.

The imbeciles ex press secretary or speech writer has already tried from memory and you are right it did not raise many eyebrows in the press.

Obama Cabinet: Middle-of-the-roaders’ dream.

President-elect Barack Obama spent the campaign fighting the notion that he’s an unabashed liberal.

Now he can point to Exhibit A: a Cabinet that’s a middle-of-the-roaders’ dream.

Consider the scorecard: The centrist Democratic Leadership Council claims ties with half the group. Movement progressives count a single one, Calfornia Rep. Hilda Solis at Labor, a union favorite.

But if Obama gives with Solis, he takes away with former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk, a free-trade advocate for trade representative, no union favorite.

Classic Obama, some grumbled.

“We just hoped the political diversity would have been stronger,” said Tim Carpenter, executive director of Progressive Democrats of America. “We see a lot of recycled Clinton folks and he gets a strong ‘D’ on the policy side. We hope he will hustle them to be more progressive.”

Disappointing…
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1208/16734.html

279
The sad irony of the Hoffman era Gaffy, is that there were many more victims (both here and around the globe) of a very different and more dangerous combination of substances.

Testosterone, alcohol, and motor vehicles.
When I think back on all the “research” I conducted over a period of nearly 30 years………..The memories that really give me the cold sweats, about just how lucky I was to even survive, mainly involve motor cars and booze.
That’s not to deny there were plenty of other “nervous moments” and lost comrades along the way though. 🙁

Anyway, we can only hope that a certain ex potus, might try testing out his skill at ducking trees instead of shoes. While at the wheel of a fast car. Heck, I’d even send him the rocket fuel to help his reflexes. 👿

Kirri
The classic casee of reverse osmosis. Madhoff scams the Ponzi Estate for untold millions FFS.
The Ponzi Estate is suing federal prosecutors. Oh Dear more twist and turn chapters for the movie. LOL

“It isn’t bad enough that the family was duped out of millions, but for federal officials and reporters to continue to associate Mr. Ponzi’s creative investment strategy to Bernard Madoff’ outright scam does great harm by defaming Mr Ponzi’s reputation,” said Ponzi estate attorney, Rob D’Frawd. “Compared to Bernard Madoff, Charles Ponzi was Mother Teresa.”

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Ponzi-Estate-Sues-Federal-by-steve-young-081218-228.html

Bernard Keane sums up politics in Crikey today:

In fact politics is more or less based around people of high principles and good will discovering that the obtaining and exercising of power involves doing bad things, distasteful things, amoral things, involves unpleasant trade-offs and not just the famous half-loaves of compromise but stale, mouldy crusts. And it’s all the more that way because its symbiotic partner, its Siamese twin the media, dislikes complexity and nuance, in favour of the same simple narratives, repeated with an ever-changing cast of characters but the same plots and moral lessons over and over again. That’s what sells. And what gets votes.

…how true, and how sad that it’s what we’ve got after deciding that shooting each other in the streets doesn’t work either!

283
LOL
Don’t we all. 🙂
BTW
Loved that Ponzi link.
Just when you think it couldn’t get crazier…..It does!!
Free money from the Fed, Ponzi suing an even bigger crook for slander and what’s more…..I heard a ridiculous rumour that a black man had been elected potus!!!

I think it’s time to hide the car keys and crack a nice bottle of red.
Cheers!!!
Oh yes. From Crikey’s xmas tree of Advent madness comes this insane link. Do you want the chicken or the rabbit sir?
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=ybVb3t560oY

That’s very funny Gaffy! Apparently Mr Ponzi was a very small time player next to this guy. There’s an article in the NY Times about how whole sections of the real estate industry had funds invested with Madoff and now they’re all bust.

On the same theme, but more seriously, Krugman asks:

Yet surely I’m not the only person to ask the obvious question: How different, really, is Mr. Madoff’s tale from the story of the investment industry as a whole?

…and decides the whole US economy has been running a colossal Ponzi scheme to the advantage of Wall Street’s sharks and at the cost of the entire nation.

He’s got a point.

Is there anyone more unpopular than Bush?

Support for Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso has slumped to 16.7 percent, a survey by Jiji news agency showed on Friday, as the gaffe-prone premier struggles to revive the nation’s recession-hit economy.

The figure was down 22.1 points on a similar nationwide poll last month, the agency said, and the worst so far for Aso, who is battling to maintain control over his ruling coalition amid growing unease at the global credit crunch and a rising tide of bankruptcies and layoffs.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUKTRE4BI1D020081219

Movement in Minnesota

The canvassing board finished counting all the Franken challenges and started examining Coleman’s challenges. As a result, Coleman’s lead over Franken has dwindled to only 5 votes. Unless you are really into this, you may not understand why examining Franken’s challenges helps Coleman and why examining Coleman’s challenges helps Franken. Here’s how it works. Why would Coleman (for example) challenge a ballot? Because it looks sort of like a Franken vote, but there is something wrong it, like a stray mark on it, that might get it disqualified, as Minnesota law says that stray marks on a ballot make it invalid, and writing in “Lizard people” certainly makes it invalid. However, another Minnesota law says that if the intent of the voter can be determined, then the vote is valid. These laws are in conflict and by challenging a ballot, Coleman is hoping the board will toss it out. As they go through the ballots Coleman challenged, some are indeed thrown out, but others are accepted–nearly always for Franken (just as some of the ballots Franken challenged went for Coleman). With only 5 votes separating the candidates (out of 2.9 million) and 379 more Coleman challenges to be examined today, there is a fair chance Franken will end up leading by tonight.

more interesting Minnesota stuff…
http://www.electoral-vote.com

BREAKING NEWS

Bush gives automakers $17.4 billion lifeline

WASHINGTON – The Bush administration came to the rescue of the troubled U.S. auto industry Friday, offering $17.4 billion in loans in exchange for concessions from carmakers and their workers.

“Allowing the auto companies to collapse is not a responsible course of action,” President George W. Bush said. He said that a bankruptcy was unlikely to work for the auto industry at this time and would deal “an unacceptably painful blow to hardworking Americans” across the economy.

An official said $13.4 billion of the money would be available this month and next, $9.4 billion for General Motors Corp. and $4 billion for Chrysler LLC. Both companies have said they soon might be unable to pay their bills without federal help. Ford Motor Co. has said it does not need immediate help.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28311743/

By Post Author

Obama’s selection to represent a sector of the Big Sky Daddy franchise at the inauguration and there deliver a heavenly invocation on behalf of all Americans……. is a gay-bashing, war-mongering hypocrite who pays zero taxes under the name of Pastor Rick Warren.

Warren has compared homosexuality to incest and bestiality, supports the Iraq war, and, in fact, just gave George W. Bush his first-ever “international medal of peace” (yes, peace) —

http://www.salon.com/opinion/walsh/?last_story=/opinion/walsh/election_2008/2008/12/19/rick_warren/

Oh, excellent choice, Barack!

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God” (Matthew 5:9).
————————-
Fri Dec 19:
http://news.yahoo.com/edcartoons/jeffdanziger;_ylt=A0WTUfZWEUxJRagAswcDwLAF

Yes, it’s a bizarre choice of Big Sky Daddy representative, isn’t it Ecky? And rather like the Ruddster’s batting score of 5% for emissions reductions which has set the greens and lefty types right off, it has inflamed the passions of certain sections of the community, namely gays and anti-war types.

Is it a ploy to soften the hard right bible bashing fruit loops and lull them into thinking Prez Barack Hussein is gonna get tough on these deviants? If so, it’s a very strange pick.

Personally, I would have preferred the Right Reverend Wright myself! LOL

Meanwhile, Fox’s token liberal Colmes, tells Ann Coulter that he thinks she “is a hate crime”, to her face. Oh well, he got that right.

On second thoughts Ecky, it would have been even better if Obama had selected a grand poohbah from the Klu Klux Klan to officiate! You know, “no hard feelings”, sort of thing! LOL

But let’s get it straight, this guy is going to do a ceremony, he hasn’t been brought into the cabinet or anything, so let’s get over what the symbolism means, and realise that yes, Obama has made a political decision to include some of the rightwing religious nutters (who mostly did NOT vote for him) at his big gig.

What if he’d asked the most liberal religious figure in the country, say the gay bishop or someone who would have been totally acceptable to the GLBT crowd?

As far as I know, Obama’s still not ant-gay, even if the preacher is.

No surprises for guessing Peter Schiff’s take on the auto bailout: this is mad, rewarding the losers and punishing successful companies. It’s also a moral hazard because the next weak industry will be knocking on the door for money.

And he also reckons that the US dollar will crater with all this printed money (well, how many trillions of new taxes are you hearing about to pay for this? None, it’s ALL new debt).

So, buy gold, energy and know that you won’t get killed.

The man has spoken the truth.

Al Franken lead 250!

The state Canvassing Board’s ballot rulings today in the U.S. Senate race has unofficially put challenger Al Franken in the lead by about 250.

The intense scrutiny of “voter intent” resumed today by the five-member board charged with directing Minnesota’s recount in the U.S. Senate race between incumbent Republican Norm Coleman and Democratic rival Al Franken, and the day’s rulings turned the challenger’s slight deficit into a triple-digit lead.

http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/senate/36438459.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUac8HEaDiaMDCinchO7DU

With the New Year fast approaching, we have decided to begin ranking the top 10 Senate races this week — a little early Christmas/Hannukah/Kwanza/Festivus present for the Fixistas out there.

Obviously, this Line will change MANY times between now and November 2010 — depending on candidate recruitment, retirements and a thousand other factors. So if your pet race isn’t on the Line this time, don’t fret — it’s better to be on the Line at the end of the cycle than the beginning of it.

may need to register..
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/2008/12/the_friday_senate_line_appoint.html

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