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Open Thread

Swings and Roundabouts

Over the last several weeks Dick Cheney has been doing the political talk-show circuit. A couple of weeks ago on Face the Nation Cheney took what appeared to be a cheap shot at Colin Powell by suggesting Powell is no longer a member of the Republican party. As night follows day, Rush Limbaugh was quoted as saying that “Colin Powell represents the stale, the old, the worn-out GOP that never won anything” (source CNN). Even Bill Clinton jumped in with a brief comment linking Cheney and a need for target practice in the same sentence. Enter stage left – one General Colin Powell.

With 17 mins. on Face the Nation Powell delivers a message wrapped up in some serious statesmanship and just a touch of diplomacy (part 1/2, part 2/2).

And now things get interesting with the release of a CNN poll:

The CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey, released Monday, suggests that 70 percent have a favorable opinion of Powell, who was Secretary of State during President George W. Bush’s first term, and who served as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Persian Gulf War. Only 30 percent of those polled have a favorable view of Limbaugh, the popular conservative radio talk show host, with 53 percent saying they hold an unfavorable opinion.

In poll numbers released Thursday, 37 percent say they have a favorable opinion of Dick Cheney, with 55 percent indicating they hold an unfavorable view of the former vice president.

Among Republicans, it’s a different story. The poll suggests that 66 percent of Republicans have a favorable view of Cheney, 64 percent give Powell a thumbs up, and 62 view Limbaugh in a favorable way.

One has ask the question – will Powell be the man to lead the GOP out of the wilderness? All of a sudden the minority party just got interesting (and just maybe Time Magazine have an answer).

661 replies on “Swings and Roundabouts”

“He needs to go to the toilet a lot at night and it leaves a smell,”

…if only Possum wouldn’t hit the sauce so hard!

HarryH @397

I seriously wrote exactly that straight afterwards, but didn’t post it…
dontcah just love to gloat occasionally!!
:mrgreen:
Oh, and GB and his “axis of evil” and you’re with us or against us “”.
What a fcking moron.

I love watching Hannity and Limbaugh. Hannity’s rage gives me a nice warm inner glow. 🙂

Bernard Keane does a nice little expose of the Fitzgibbon brothers in Crikey.

Big brother is a nice bit of work, without doubt, and a sense of entitlement only matched by his arrogance in poncing into the Defence Minister’s office to do a deal.

Sounds like the tosser gene got spread around a lot in that family.

I see John Faulkner has got the Defence gig.

If someone asked me to name which Australian politicians i admire and trust, probably the first two names that would come to mind would be Bob Brown and John Faulkner.

Faulkner seems to me to be the kinda glue that keeps things together for the Party behind the scenes and his integrity is unquestioned. I hope the health of the Party doesn’t suffer because of this move, even though it sounds like he was needed in this position.

HarryH-
agreed. John Faulkner is admirable.
As someone on PM today said -” he has Gravitas”. … love that word!
also agree – big surprise – on Bob 😉

Agree, Harry, because of his lethality and incorruptibility, few people have the sauce to mess with Faulkner. He’s a good choice. Certainly won’t have his family running boondoggles from his workplace like the dope he replaces did.
————————
Albert from Texas. Yes suh! He play real purty soft and mightly powerful strong.
(the pianist and saxophonist are sidemen to die for. Albert’s handle was, The Iceman, because his musical shards could fast-freeze hearts with his goose-bump inducing, double octave, staccato attack lick.)

There’s a wee bit of The Kid in Albert Collins’ cool.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cz6LbWWqX-g

Pleasure mon ami.

Shheesh – gotta love Oz politics – Rudd has a free car and Joel let his brother use his office… headline news.
Just re-read Obamba’s stunning speech (even though apparently “it’s only words”… not sure what else you use to make a speech 🙄 )
Talk about Gravitas.

John Faulkner for PM.

From Washington to a Baghdad cafe:

The speech was carried on all of Baghdad’s main television channels, as well as the regional satellite news channels. Retired engineer Hassan Alwi, who watched the speech at a Baghdad café, said he would wait and see if Obama delivers on the ideas he outlined.

“America has very little credibility, but what he said about respecting Islam and improving relations was a great thing,” said Alwi. “The question is, will he practice what he is preaching? Only the future will tell us.”

(Fox news, of all places)

Barnyard Joystick and the English language have a very odd relationship:

Mr and Mrs Rudd go to church on Sunday and we all feel safe that he is an economic conservative, he said so, ready to smack those naughty selfish neo-liberal bankers and protect us from scum-of-the-earth people smugglers, the worst form of life, apparently, so I suppose Pol Pot, Stalin, Hitler, Mao and Idi Amin all got off lightly.

http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-world-according-to-barnaby-joyce/

There’s so much more, I thoroughly recommend it to anyone who enjoys cryptic meanderings.

Hello people, and sorry about the hiatus, which will go on a bit longer yet. I’m indulging in a health and weight loss program which takes up a lot of my free time (and is slowly working – down about 9kgs so far, but still a fair way to go).

I still occasionally scan briefly but don’t get much time to post. But couldn’t resist popping over for two things.

1. Dick Cheney: read on Huffpost about how he secretly briefed Congress on the importance of continuing torture. It has probably been discussed already on this topic (no time to read right through), but must add my two-penneth.

What a disgusting piece of sh-t he is – not a man with any humanity! He can at least claim some place in history as almost the only leading political figure who opposed Nelson Mandela being released from prison. Just been doing a little research on Don Dunstan and the contrast sickens me. At least Bush had the excuse of being a moronic half-wit with delusions. Cheney doesn’t have that, although if he believes some of that stuff he’s espoused, maybe he is crazy.

I’d love to see Barack go after him, but he’s got more important things on his plate at present.

2. John Faulkner: Great appointment. Those empire-builders that undermined Joel Fitzgibbon (who deserved to go) would be best advised to take early retirement rather than risk another fight. Either that, or get used to being a lot more accountable.

Keep well, everybody. Will try to get over now and again.

Cheers

Don

Cheers Don, ggod to hear from you
– and YES – we have all expressed our utter contempt at the Bag of Shit Cheney , who appears to have taken over Most Hated Politicain Spot from GWB ( although George will always hold a special place in my heart).
So feel free – dig the heels in and throw the shoes, Cheney is a complete turd and… we Love Obama.
Well, Katielou and i do anyway.

I just watched Obama speak at Buchenwald and i witnessed another amazing , powerful speech.

But this time it wasn’t from Obama himself. Obama spoke briefly, and then handed over to a Buchenwald survivor Elie Wiesal, saying Elie could explain things better than he could.

He was right……again. He spoke beautifully.

Anyone who says words don’t change anything doesn’t know history.

Obama is trying to change the global tone…and results will hopefully follow.

FiveThirtyEight: Senate Rankings, June 2009 Edition

1 (Up 1). Missouri (R-Open)
2 (Down 1). New Hampshire (R-Open)
3 (Up 1). Kentucky (R-Bunning)
4 (Down 1). Connecticut (D-Dodd)
5 (Same). Ohio (R-Open)

Top 5: 4 Republicans, 1 Democrat (Same as last month)

6 (Up 2). Delaware (D-Open)
7 (Up 4). Nevada (D-Reid)
8 (Up 1). Colorado (D-Bennet)
9 (Down 2). North Carolina (R-Burr)
10 (Up 3). Texas (R-Open?)

Top 10: 6 Republicans, 4 Democrats (Same as last month)

11 (Down 1). Illinois (D-Burris)
12 (Same). Pennsylvania (R > D-Specter)
13 (Up 1). Louisiana (R-Vitter)
14 (Down 8). Florida (R-Open)
15 (Up 1). New York (Jr.) (D-Gillibrand)

Top 15: 8 Republicans, 7 Democrats (1 extra Dem. compared to last month)

16 (Up 1). Arkansas (D-Lincoln)
17 (Down 2). Iowa (R-Grassley)
18 (Up 1). California (D-Boxer)
19 (Up 1). Georgia (R-Isakson)
20 (Down 2). Oklahoma (R-Coburn)
21 (Same). Wisconsin (D-Feingold)
22 (Same). Arizona (R-McCain)
23 (Up 1). Hawaii (D-Inoyue)
24 (Down 1). Kansas (R-Open)
25 (Same). Alaska (R-Murkowski)
26 (Same). North Dakota (D-Dorgan)
27 (Same). Maryland (D-Mikulski)
28 (Same). South Carolina (R-DeMint)
29 (Same). Washington (D-Murray)
30 (Same). South Dakota (R-Thune)
31 (Same). Alabama (R-Shelby)
32 (Same). Indiana (D-Bayh)
33 (Same). Vermont (D-Leahy)
34 (Same). Oregon (D-Wyden)
35 (Same). Utah (R-Bennett)
36 (Same). New York (Sr.) (D-Schumer)
37 (Same). Idaho (R-Crapo)

The Daily Show:

Well we begin the night with a look back, six months ago on this very plywood stage after the government had spent untold billions bailing out the financial industry, the big three auto makers came asking for a relative pittance! And it was then that a middle-aged man turned to a Camera 3 and made a urgent plea…

Wall Street lost 7 trillion dollars without selling anything! At least when Detroit loses money, we get cars! So give them the money!

Whoa, that makes total sense! And I’m happy to report the government gave them the money. They gave GM 20 billion dollars to keep them from going bankrupt and well its a half-year later, its probably time to check in and see how GM doing but before I do that, let me just er… enjoy a quick sip of Ever Clear mixed with hydrochloric acid…

BiG Mess: The Daily Show, June 2 2009

Arvo Ticsters
Great to be safely back home after a couple of days of Highway Roulette with all the truckies thundering up and down what is a total disgrace for a national highway.
Busy catching up on the backlog.
A great cup of coffee EC.

Great to see you, Don. No arguments from me about your contempt for Torture Dick or the aptness of the tapping of Faulkner .

Jen, Ted Rall is also a cartoonist (often linked here) who regularly displays a hyperbolic leftist bent. He is also a shit-stirring satirist , eg from your link,

“He (BHO) is a monster, and he should remove himself from power”.

As an unabashed Lefty myself, many times I’ve considered Ted’s toons to be over the top and havn’t included them here. However, he makes a valid point (in your link) about political prisoners, some still festering after seven years full in prisonscapes more familiar to Dostoevsky, Kafka, Koestler, Solzhenitzyn and Orwell.

“In democracies with functioning legal systems, it is assumed that people against whom there is a “lack of evidence” are innocent. They walk free. In countries where the rule of law prevails, in places blessedly free of fearful leaders whose only concern is staying in power, “tainted evidence” is no evidence at all. If you can’t prove that a defendant committed a crime — an actual crime, not a thoughtcrime — in a fair trial, you release him and apologize to the judge and jury for wasting their time.”
—————————————–

Bringing a good, wholesome American man to trial for the gunshot murder of abortionist,“Killer Tiller”, is a gross miscarriage of justice!

~Rush Limbaugh
——————————
Great pleasure, gaffy, glad you negotiated Hwy 1 orright and arrived home safely.
Over 1000 people will cark it in violent cicumstances this year on our roads and many thousands more maimed. No deaths have been attributable in the same peroid to “home grown terrorism”. Be fascinating to compare the amounts that our goverments deem fit to allocate to sorting each.

Jen, watched The Kid do Cairo U. on paddy’s replay link shortly after reading the text on Huffy and commenting on it at #388.

June 5
http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoon/display.cfm/71466

June 5:
http://news.yahoo.com/edcartoons/bensargent;_ylt=AuSj7QJ6tAdCnehigRtXD3Ml6ysC

With a few exceptions, worth noting is the widespread lack of outrage by “moderate” Christians over the in-church slaying of Dr. Tiller. Maybe their God was away on business that Sunday, who knows?
Or do spiritual situation ethics also apply to the fifth commandment in the case of political assassinations?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9mhsW5aWJM

As President Obama unshackles the leg irons of the Bush administration’s failed Middle East policy with his moving speech to the Muslim world ~ Dick ‘ the natural state of man is war ‘ Cheney squirms nervously in his seat increasingly aware that his politics of fear is becoming irrelevant in a world that seeks to cooperate and unite:

Allen L Roland

http://blogs.salon.com/0002255/2009/06/05.html

Cartoon by Pat Oliphant.

Could be one of the first fish to fry.
Or maybe the SEC is showing that they can actually charge someone even though they missed Big Bernie.

WASHINGTON – The government is charging Angelo Mozilo, the former chief executive of mortgage lender Countrywide Financial Corp., and two other company executives with civil fraud.

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s case also accuses Mozilo of illegal insider trading, an agency spokesman said Thursday.

Countrywide was a major player in the subprime mortgage market, the collapse of which in 2007 touched off the financial crisis that has gripped the U.S. and global economies.

Mozilo is the most high-profile individual to face formal charges from the federal government in the aftermath of the crisis.

http://www.builderonline.com/mortgages-and-banking/sec-charging-ex-countrywide-ceo-mozilo-with-fraud.aspx?cid=BLDR090529002

That Rush Limbaugh was not miscarried by his mother is great miscarriage of justice!

Hello proud troops of the ticster! You’re obviously all still alive, as I appear to be. And hello again to you Flaneur (to whom I have been conversing on the ‘other side’). Who’s there? As EC knows, I’ve been fighting the good fight occasionally back at PB, probably because I vainly think I can change the fucking world if I have a bigger audience 🙂 You should have read my PR campaigns!
Anyway, I’ve been reading back here and there’s no lack of formidable opinion around here. Love youse all.

Reping of jaundiced view:. Being of sound comfort in the strength of one’s SPAM filter, I hereby declare an email address of

irh@riant-ventues.com.au

…and do request a meeting of like minds at a beer-orientated venue in the (recently less) sunny venue of Brisbane. Agenda to be discussed on arrival. Good beer only!

jaundiced view :

That explains why my emails bounced!

Senseless waste of electrons. Many apologies.

But you have defeated the “typo-fillter”; just the “grey-filter” to go. A mere formality!

This makes sure Obama has full control of his agenda/money.
——————————————————————————————–

South Carolina Supreme Court orders Sanford to accept stimulus funds.

After waging a months-long war against the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Gov. Mark Sanford (R-SC) lost his final battle yesterday, when the state supreme court ordered him to accept the $700 million in stimulus funds he had opposed. The court, in a unanimous decision made “with blazing fast speed,” took extra steps to try to ensure Sanford obeys their ruling:

The S.C. Supreme Court also took the rare step of issuing a writ of mandamus, which orders the governor to apply for the money.

Think Progress

Don’t get Tagged. Watch out for this one.
===========================
By: JimWhite
I usually think of myself as a pretty web-savvy person who takes care to protect online information and my online presence. Today, however, I fell for a pretty bad and embarrassing web trick.

http://oxdown.firedoglake.com/diary/5636

Immigration: A win – win situation for Obama. With the Latino vote running at around 65% at the last election and about 12 million illegals. Obama can’t help but win on this issue. The Democrats get immigration right, plus Sonya Sotomyer, plus healthcare, plus all the other bits and pieces. They are likely to pick up much more than 65% of the Latino vote at any upcoming elections.
=======================================

Immigration: New Faces, Better Odds
Barack Obama has established an undeniably ambitious agenda for this year, including overhauling the health care system, imposing limits on carbon emissions, fixing the economy, remaking the financial regulatory structure, winding up one war while winding down another and enacting a budget.

While that would seem to be more than enough, it’s altogether possible that Obama will try to plant one more flag on that mountain by rewriting the nation’s immigration laws to fix something that virtually everyone agrees is badly broken, yet until now has evaded a broadly accepted solution.

Twice in the past three years, Congress made a run at making comprehensive changes in the rules that govern who can enter the United States, who can work here, what penalties are imposed on those who ignore the law and hire undocumented workers, and what to do about the 12 million people — give or take — believed to be in the country illegally.

A comprehensive article on the immigration issue.

JV!!!!!!
Yay- thought you’d found the dark side more worthy- but figured it wouldn’t last 😉 then thought you might have drowned in the deluge you guys copped, so V. glad to see you back.
OIbi seems to be pretty much earning his dough- hasn’t been too disappointing imo- and howTF could he possibly have lived up to our lofty expectations anyway??
anyway Cheers – and you still owe me a cheseburger.
btw- what happened to r/Ron??

ChrisB-
I keep getting invitations to add people to my facebook page – but I don’t have one (that I know of!). Is that the same kind of thing??

Cat – finally got to watch the vids you posted of Obi getting burgers etc.
What a lovely man he is!!

Hi Jen!
Yes, it’s a jungle out there in ALP hackland, but sometimes there a good debate without acrimony.
I had a cheeseburger ready for you at Brisbane but you disappeared early – plenty more where that came from though. (I have a secret source – in virtually every suburb! Yellow is the clue …)

Barry is doing very well – I thought the Eygypt speech was magnificent, and the reaction shows how much reach it had. He’s exceeding my expectations already. I had no idea he would get stuck in on the M East issue so early and so strongly. Both he and Hillary in Egypt at the same time plus a heap of diplomats working the palestinian factions and Israeli parties. Netanyahu has been relatively quiet, which has to be significant, and I think he might eventually be forced to accept a 2 state solution by Tzipi Livni’s party and popular opinion (hope so anyway).

Don’t know what happened to r/Ron – he had gone while I was on the blogging wagon. Must have transgressed or something.

There is a little restaurant in Rue Saint-Dominique, Paris that goes by the name ‘La Fontaine de Mars‘. It’s not one of the top-end or anything, but it is something special at least for me. If asked about the top favourite meals I’ve had so far – one particular salad at this particular restaurant is on that list (probably had something to do with the truffles). And now I’ve just learnt that Barack and Michelle Obama dined there last night!

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/06/06/world/AP-Obama-Evening-in-Paris.html?ref=politics

🙂

Hi JV!!

By Post Author

JV -was actually unwell in Brissy so KatieLou fed me and I went to bed early – bit disappointing as i wanted to celebrate Obi’s stunning victory into the early hours, but ah well…
and yeah, his Cairo speech was truly amazing. The man has such integity and intelligence I have to pinch myself at times. I also get that he isn’t as strong on some issues as he could be, but I suspect that he is being strategic rather than uncommitted – time will tell.
Agree that his focus on the ME is pretty amazing at this point in his presidency – he doesn’t fuck around. And what’s more all the players are listening (except the extremists as you would expect)…

so JV- are the ABO’s on PB still wringing their hands that it isn’t Hillary, or have they admitted the error of their ways? :mrgreen:

Jen – I have seen one admission of error on Barry’s worth in the primaries, but that’s all! They know though, they know.

Hi Catrina – glad you are still around, firing on all 8.

On the extremists, I suppose Obama’s strategy is to bring as many palestinain groups into the negotiation fold as he can (the diplomats and envoys are at it hammer and tongs as we speak), thus isolating the extremists left outside as small splinter groups – then if public opinion can be mobilised in favour of a peace deal, then the militant groups will be disempowered. Hope it works!
He’s doing it differently this time. Bill Clinton dealt only with one leader – Arafat, and this left to many other groups excluded as Arafat didn’t lead all palestinan groups by any measure.

yeah JV- the isolation of the extremists may have the desired effect – unlike GB’s ridiculous posturing.
They will start to look as out of touch as he did.

It wasn’t one of the 3A’s, but not sure who – a noble and fine admission though, I thought.

It’s the Maggie Thatcher method – never admit you’re wrong, and never apologise.

446 Jen No, that would just be users asking you to join. It is very handy, but very un-user friendly.

jen:

btw- what happened to r/Ron??

He just stopped. I suspect he was attempting to read his own posts and his intestines retaliated by looping out of his mouth and strangling him. I know that’s how my stomach felt when I attempted to read and understand them.

Flaneur- you crack me up!

😉
jaundiced view:

It wasn’t one of the 3A’s, but not sure who – a noble and fine admission though, I thought.

‘Twas Adam. Agree that he did it with class. Not that I got involved – just stood on the sidelines with 000 speed-dial ready. “All three” was my intended response to the operator’s first question. 😉

Here are Eminem’s lyrics about Sarah Palin:

Well I can be as gentle and as smooth as a gentleman
Give me my venom, an inhaler, and two Xenadrine,
And I’ll invite Sarah Palin out to dinner, then
Nail her. Baby, say hello to my little friend.
We Made You

Would this be a first.
Five Seppo security workers are being held in relation to the slaying of another in the Green Zone in Iraq.
Looks like the investigations are being done under Iraqi jurisdictions and these guys could finish up being tried under the local laws.
One would imagine that the death penalty would maybe part and parcel of the judicial system there.
Anyone know.
My cynicism tells me that in previous times these guys would just happen to drift back home to Seppoland with no further charges and all hushed up.

The five suspects knew the victim, a source inside the Green Zone familiar with the investigation said. Both the Iraqi and the Green Zone sources noted that the FBI has been involved in the investigation from the start.

Once the suspects are charged and referred to trial, the case would be sent to Iraq’s Central Criminal Court, the Iraqi official said. If that happens, it would be the first time U.S. citizens were tried in Iraq since the United States returned the country’s government to the Iraqis.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/06/06/iraq.green.zone.killing/index.html?eref=rss_world

G’day, jv, ta for your kind words; you’ll always be one of the gang in Ticster Town, pal.
http://editorialcampana.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/who-me-bush.jpg

And yes, squire, Baz’s Cairo U. moves are Richtering deep. His reference to Palestine as Palestine was huge in implication. ME Moderates are very supportive; the fanatics of course are incapable of responding rationally. Amazingly, their hasn’t been much high-powered kvetching from the US Jewish Lobby.
The asap Two-State Solution is laid large upon the diplomatic table. Now it’s up to the Players.

Flaneur, re your “commandment” query, ‘fraid I’m going to have to plead The Fifth on that one! 🙂
And let us know if you two reprobates organise a few quit beers at a Brissy rubberty down the road apiece. Could be a couple of other desperates maybe wanna chew the fat.
Cheeseburgers, wasn’t it? (do they do organic, man?)
——————–
Anyone catch the “Wind that Shakes the Barley” on SBS last night? Powerful film. Ken Loach’s best, imo.
From the scene where the train pulled into the station to rail away the young Mick Doc and the squad of toey Black &Tans, I was on board….all the way to the terminus.

The number of casualties in the wake of the GFC is something that is hard to come to grips with.
One imagines how many of these unfortunate souls would be still present if they had been given some mortgage relief by the greedy ones who got the bailouts but never lifted a finger to help them.
I believe that the Dems could have done more to help them in their plight.

There will be no memorial wall in Washington with names etched into black granite — not for these people, neither the desperate who killed themselves, nor those who lashed out and murdered others. Who will remember the Knudsons in their shallow grave, or Christopher Wood’s dead children? No statue will be raised on Wall Street to solemnly remind the former masters of the universe of the Main Street consequences of their financial manipulations. No equivalent of the Arlington National Cemetery will ever be laid out for the dead of this crisis or filled with headstones reading: “Beloved Mother, Killed by Capitalism” or “Devoted Husband and Father, Sacrificed in the Name of Greed.”

Instead, the bodies will just continue to pile up. A daughter here. A father there. A family in a nearby neighborhood.

No one will ever know how many. And no one will record their names for posterity.

http://www.alternet.org/module/printversion/140455

Nah, gaffy, megan and me have got the keys to the engine room. She and I are but humble stokers and spam sweepers, Cat, of course, is our Pirate Queen and Chief Engineer although from her skeletal manifestation at 466, looks as if she could go a hearty feast.
Word around the blogs is that they don’t feed her at home. 🙂

Just been over lookin at the new crikey blog “punch”
Came across these two descriptors of Barnyard. LOL

Comment 10.

This article shows that he’s just a stream of consciousness meandering through a mental desert.

Comment 19.

Barnaby: The thinking man’s Katter.

EC
483
Yeah sure makes you wonder how thats happened after all those wonderful crock pot recipes she was describing to Jen quite a few archives back.
Must be all that energy loss scrubbing those black , white political correct boards in the office and no lunch break. :mrgreen:

479 Enemy Combatant Is that fanatics in the Middle East or phanatics in the Republican Party?

Finally, I got to Steve Keen’s blog tonight to get the real story on our Miracle of St Kevin of Rude in dividing the decimals and points:

So putting this all together (looking just at C+I+G+X components), the probable outcome for real output in the last quarter was a fall of the order of 1-2%, or an annual rate of decline of 5-8%.

http://www.debtdeflation.com/blogs/2009/06/05/the-pool-room%E2%80%93week-ending-friday-5th-june-2009/

…in other words, as the more numerate and articulate have said, we are, truly, in recession.

If those symbols C+I+G+X look daunting, be not afraid, lo, be not even a tiny bit afraid, for they are simply the skull behind the duggery of Treasury’s cooked books. And they be thick!

What the numbskulls have done, is that they’ve measured the flow of exported minerals using metrics that are old. They are using dollar values from BEFORE the collapse in commodity prices to calculate the dollar value of our exports:

The volume measures of exports of bulk commodities … are calculated by multiplying the quantities of such exports, as reported by exporters in tonnes or some other unit of quantity, by the average price of such commodities, as reported by exporters in the reference year. For the March quarter 2009 volume estimates, 2006-07 is the reference year for prices. The reference year prices are updated annually, in the September quarter accounts. For example, the September quarter 2009 accounts will use average prices reported in 2007-08.

…so there, in a nutshell is why we ‘grew’.

And why the pigs are flying.

Enemy combatant:

And let us know if you two reprobates organise a few quit beers at a Brissy rubberty down the road apiece. Could be a couple of other desperates maybe wanna chew the fat.

Things are moving fast at the OK Corral. Wednesday will see the first stare-down over some barley-juice and grub. I’m sure JV (and certainly I) would welcome other fat-chewers.

Happy to have my (now) free-range email used as a coordinating device for future events (though best to let me know the first time you email me, so that I can go poke around the SPAM net and whitelist your address).

gaffhook:

…security workers…

That is a euphemism for “mercenary”, isn’t it?

Chris, when writing I featured militant ME fundies, but it certainly applies to both.

Kirri, hero-shattering number crunching from Keen Man.
Flaneur will be devastated to discover that The Rooster crowed so convincingly about sexed-up data. Deeply shocked myself.

Hey diddle diddle, The Rooster did fiddle,
And the pig jumped over the moon
http://i.realone.com/assets/rn/img/8/7/4/6/20586478-20586479-slarge.jpg
The running dog laughed to see such fun
And the stats ran away all festooned.

Enemy combatant:

Flaneur will be devastated to discover that The Rooster crowed so convincingly about sexed-up data.

Putting aside the fact that I am devastated whenever I discover a negative discrepency between the quantity of coffee beans in the fridge and the current demand for the aforementioned commodity in the household population, I think it only fair that I take a long sober look at the figures before placing my emotional health on the line. 😉

I hope the Opposition (or Greens) take this up in the appropriate Senate committee. The response would be most illuminating. In fact, the only reason I give it any credence is ’cause KR took it seriously.

Am I becoming a cynic? Hope not.

489

KR, over at the other place, Possum provided a link to this article by the ABS which states that the methodology used by them to determine the value of exports “has been in place for many decades, is very well documented on the ABS website, and well understood by most analysts.” Given that the last revision to the methodology was 12 years ago and the overall system has been in place for decades, you can’t argue that they are ‘cooking the books’ as that implies that they are trying to hide how they calculate the figures, when their methodology should have been well understood by analysts who work in the industry.

Are Lewis & Cohen Financial Terrorists or merely Wall St. Pinkover Boosters?
Or are these men speaking truth to power?

You be the judge.

Instead of hauling out the new drywall to cover up the existing studs, let’s seriously consider ripping down the entire structure, dynamiting the foundation and building a new system that rewards taking prudent risks, allocates capital where it is needed, allows all investors to get accurate and timely financial information and increases value to shareholders and creditors.

As a start, the best-compensated executives at the top of these big banks, hedge funds and private-equity firms should be treated like general partners of yore. If a firm takes prudent risks that pay off, this top layer of management should be well compensated. But if the risks these people take are imprudent and the losses grave, they should expect to lose their jobs. Instead of getting guaranteed salaries or huge bonuses, they should have the bulk of their net worth completely at risk for a long stretch of time — 10 years come to mind — for the decisions they make while in charge.

This would go a long way toward re-aligning the interests of these firms with those of their shareholders and clients and the American people, who have been saddled with their risks and mistakes.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/07/opinion/07cohanWEB.html?_r=1&pagewanted=1

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