Categories
Open Thread

Loose Change Is Hard To Belive In

Two years ago Barack Hussein Obama was elected President of the U.S. with  Democrats having a majority in  Congess and an almost fiflibuster-proof majority in The Senate. Tomorrow the politicl landscape will have changed somewhat.  To what degree depends largely on how many formerly energised Democratic supporters are “getting out the vote” because we know that a buzzed-up bunch of Tea-Baggers are going gangbusters to rally their people for E-Day.

Conventional Wisdom and assorted Solomons of Psephology like  Nate “NYT” Silver predict Dems will lose the Congress and hold The Senate by a whisker. Seems a fair call, but wouldn’t be surprised if the Dems get done in the Senate too. We’ve all had our two bob’s worth over the possible result and the reasons for it. In the next day, many of those quetions and points of conjecture will be answered.

1,024 replies on “Loose Change Is Hard To Belive In”

I know I am being one tracked about this, but it bothers me that we are entering a milder but nevertheless as potentially destructive a situation here as in the US.
At the recent Victorian election I took part in a candidate’s forum along the lines of QandA.
The first statement from the Country Alliance candidate whom I had just spent about 5 minutes in very civil conversation was “the Greens are our number one enemy” – greeted with loud applause from a very vocal part of the audience. (CA is the old Shooters and Fishers party, unofficially fronted by Bob Katter)
I was quite stunned – the hostility was palpable, and completely unnecessary but their entire campaign was run on these lines including television adds saying similar things. On polling day I and others handing out for The Greens copped some pretty aggressive people quoting similar stuff -“you’re The Enemy”. “you want to talke my guns and my civil rights” and so on.
I was disturbed by this new level of paranoia … and am even more so now.

Just heard the Q’ld weather report – hope you are all ok up there!
Bloody dire from the sound of it.

I was tuning in channel 11 when I noticed an (obvious fake) reference to the (once again) illegal act of crush video’s. How long before a news organisation picks it up and acts with horror giving channel 11 the free publicity they want.
Note. It was only in the USA that it was declared legal under free speech last year by the Supreme Court. Very quickly the congress pushed through a new law correctly written to make it illegal again. Thank goodness.

Crush Fetish.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crush_fetish

“It’s not a wake-up call, it’s a four-alarmer,”
*********************************
— Rep. Robert Brady (D-PA), quoted by the Washington Post, saying he’ll introduce legislation “that would make it a federal crime to use language or images that could be interpreted as inciting violence toward members of Congress or federal officials.”
http://politicalwire.com

I’m so used to heavy metal music and video games getting the blame for the killing sprees of young white men, It’s quite challenging to hear a sheriff blaming the shock jocks for inspiring these crimes. I wonder if the sheriff is a fan of Bowling For Columbine?

and from Krugman’s article…
“Will they (the GOP) accept the reality of what’s happening to America, and take a stand against eliminationist rhetoric? Or will they try to dismiss the massacre as the mere act of a deranged individual, and go on as before? ”

I know where I’d put my money. 😡

It will be interesting to see what happens – surely it is going to be hard to use the hostile rhetoric anymore? But then, there will be the inevitable outcry based on freedom of speech, and financed by the gun lobby.
But then the motivation for at least Democratic politicians can be no greater – they must be very worried (rightly so) about their personal safety.

813 Jen I’ll put two bob on that Jen.
814 Katielou For their own survival. The Democrats need to take a hard line on it.

Meanwhile Happy noo Year Rupert. NMaay the rays of sunshine shine further up your hole in 2011.

Mr Watson has written to Mr Murdoch asking him to examine the Thurlbeck case. “Given that it would be reasonable to assume that you are made aware when your senior employees are adjudged to be blackmailers in the High Court,” writes Mr Watson, “please can you tell me: 1. What action you now plan to take against Neville Thurlbeck? 2. Why you did not suspend Neville Thurlbeck as soon as Mr Justice Eady published his judgement, given your zero tolerance approach to wrong-doing? 3. Why you did not report the matter to the police, given the serious nature of the criminal offences being committed by your employee, on your behalf? I know that you will not want your family business to be increasingly seen as a criminal enterprise besmirching the name of my country’s democracy.” The News of the World declined to comment.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/press/max-mosley-joins-now-row-with-claims-of-blackmail-2179749.html#

817 Katielou I got the impression, due to Sarah Palin targeting her she was much more liberal than a Blue Dog.

speaking of Rupert, gaffhook@ 818 –
I am curious as to whether he willl reign in his bunch of crazies on Fox now – and even the likesof Bolt and Co. here ?
On one hand I doubt it, but then againhit doesn’t take much to link his minions to the politics of Hate both in the US and here – and no matter how much ducking and weaving they try to do the truth is slapping everyone in the face. Maybe the old bastard might find a shred of decency before his demise.

Jen “It doesn’t take much to link his minions to the politics of Hate both in the US and here” Spot on Jen. But will someone do it?

Well Jen the pressure is coming back on the bastard and i would imagine he thought everything had gone quiet for him after he lined a few pockets with his millions.

It is going to be difficult to nail him with the tories in power but more mice are starting to squeak.

Now that the News of the World assistant editor, Ian Edmondson, has been suspended because it is claimed he knew of the routine interception of phone calls to the royal family, politicians and showbusiness, television and sports celebrities, there are very serious implications for the police and the Murdoch family, and for us all.

For News International, the phone-hacking story is clearly moving into the perilous stage of the unravelling deception. From watching and, indeed, precipitating the collapse of thousands of public figures over the years, Murdoch’s journalists will know that the exposure of a cover-up may be a great deal worse than the criminal investigation into the paper’s practices following the jailing of the private detective Glenn Mulcaire in 2007…………………Better still, imagine how Murdoch’s papers would have reacted if they’d had a whiff of this sort scandal at the BBC. We would never have heard the end of it; the director general and the board of management would have had to resign. Jeremy Hunt would be reassigning TV channels.

The truth is that no other organisation in Britain could have acted in this way and come so far without suffering serious penalties and public humiliation.

That alone is enough to reveal the extent of Murdoch’s power in British affairs – the penetrating influence of a man who does not even pay taxes here. News International has not endured the same pitiless scrutiny that it applies to others and that certainly should now change.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jan/09/andy-coulson-rupert-murdoch-phone-hacking

The images from Toowomba were shocking. Please stay safe all you Queenslanders. ABC News 24 this morning was demonstrably crap. These days I turn it off and listen to the radio – it’s the only place to get comprehensive news it seems. ABC News Radio and Radio National are 100x better than what ABC offers up as 24 hour news. It’s such a shame they seem to assume the viewer’s attention span is 15 seconds.

Sarah Palin’s Political Career May Already Be Over, But If It’s Not, It Should Be.
*****************************************************

I automatically recoil at the suggestion that people should be held responsible for the actions of others, especially when it comes down to the influence they supposedly have on those they’ve never met. It’s the kind of Lieberman-esque thinking that brought us the culture wars, the scapegoating of video games and a decade’s worth of Ice-T demonization. As someone who did not emerge unscathed from that ignoble period in our history, I instinctively feel that the people who trade in those kinds of arguments are demagogues and hustlers.

And for those who want to attribute an overt conservative or liberal agenda to Jared Loughner — I’m not seeing it. Not saying it’s not there, just saying I don’t see it, at least not yet. I’m sure we’ll learn more over the coming days, but there wasn’t a political agenda behind the shootings at Columbine, or the Beltway Snipers, or Virginia Tech. When the target is a U.S. Congresswoman of course the context is different, but in the end it may be that Loughner’s conscious motives are as equally disturbed, idiosyncratic and non-political as those of the Columbine shooters.

So, it’s somewhat surprising, even to me, that I find myself here — saying that Sarah Palin’s handling of the whole Tucson shooting situation has been so utterly self-involved and reckless from start to finish that it should disqualify her from ever occupying a position of political leadership in this country again.

But, here I am.

In my defense, consider what what was happening in March of last year:

Jane Hampshire nailed it…

More here..
http://firedoglake.com/2011/01/10/sarah-palins-political-career-may-already-be-over-but-if-its-not-it-should-be/

I think that we need to be careful about ascribing something that we hate as the cause of something else that we hate. While this guy may have been influenced by political rhetoric, there is no evidence that he was – he seems to be a disturbed individual who was mad at the congresswoman for not answering a question about the meaningless of language at a similar event three years ago.

Further, even if this person’s act of violence was triggered by political rhetoric, there are plenty of other potential triggers out there. For Charles Manson, the White album was sufficient; the Catcher in the Rye was good enough for another lunatic.

DG-
I think you are downplaying the extent and the extreme level of violent rhetoric that fills the US airwaves.
Even if it did not incite this particular individual ina gun-obsessed culture like the US the constant “call to arms” that is the obvious message -even if supposedly metaphorical- of the TeaParty and other right wing nutjobs is disturbing and should be silenced.

and I echo KatieLou’s message –
I hope you and your families are safe… this is devastating.

Jen,

I agree that it should be silenced. But linking this particular act to that rhetoric when there is no evidence that that link is valid is not the means to do so. Indeed, it may backfire – and I think it already has. When we overstate the case – or make a case that is manifestly false – our opponents get the opportunity to portray us as the extremists. The argument against violent imagery needs to be made on its own merits, not through using specific violent acts that are unrelated to it. The rise in threats of violence, for example, is a statistical fact that is a legitimate argument.

David –
from what I have read most commentators are being very careful to not make an explicit link between this person’s crime and the violent rhetoric, however it has created the dialogue about the potential impact of such language on the social psyche, and the need for this to stop. And that has to be a good thing.

Jen,

Even making an implicit link is wrong when the implication is that this violent act was caused by the over-the-top rhetoric – an implication for which there is no evidence.

Chris B,

What premises have been used in this logic? To me, it is exactly the same ‘logic’ that is used in linking violent video games and movies to violence.

DG – do you think an assassin targetted a politician in a vacuum?

Excellent Slate article on the shooter, Giffords and the Tea Party – How anti-government, pro-gun, xenophobic populism made the Giffords shooting more likely.

http://www.slate.com/id/2280711/

Gabrielle Giffords’ Shooting: The Impact on Obama’s Presidency.
***************************************************

Saturday’s shooting spree could prove a turning point in the Obama presidency. Jonathan Alter on how the White House should talk about the tragedy—and the echoes of Clinton at Oklahoma City.

President Obama is off to a good start in his handling of what the networks are now calling “The Tragedy in Tucson.” The moment of silence he asked for on Monday at 11 a.m.—resonant for older Americans of the exact hour on November 11 each year that the World War I Armistice was once observed—is an appropriate expression of what we need right now: Less Noise.

More here..
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-01-10/gabrielle-giffords-shooting-the-impact-on-obamas-presidency/?cid=hp:mainpromo3

Katielou,

No. But the fact is that he first approached this particular politician in 2007 and asked a question about the meaningless of language – nothing to do with healthcare, gun control, or any other issue. His friends reported that the non-answer to this question annoyed and frustrated him. He basically became a nihilist obsessed with language and grammar. It would seem to me that the most likely reason for his violence against this particular politician was this obsession. That is where the evidence points at the moment, at any rate.

No act takes place in a vacuum. But even though everything is connected that does not mean that you can draw a line between one thing and another and say, ‘This contributed to that,’ and have that statement be meaningful. Primary causes are the things that matter.

Jen and Ticsters Dear, us mob are all ok, thank you. Our local ISP recently struck off by lightning is now back in da bidness of conspiring to abet our great nation of cyber-criminals in dodging the GST 🙂 The deluge has been far worse for folks on the Darling Downs and elsewhere. Brisbane basin is rising fast. Amazing how most people pitch in and spontaneously help each other when the going gets tough. To witness altruism ascendant over vested interest warms the human heart.
Horrific as they are, fire and flood are the worst natural disasters we’ve had to deal with in Oz for the last couple of centuries. Mercifully we don’t have to live with the daily shock and awe of a filthy hegemonic war.

http://www.truthdig.com/cartoon/print/unrequited_love_20110109/

——————————————–

Hammer Nailed with Can Time:
http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/delay_gets_three-year_jail_sentence_20110110/

Repositioning a Culture of Complaint as a Culture of Hate.
http://www.truthdig.com/cartoon/print/bless_you_20110109/

Katielou,

The Slate article was good, until the last part. It had until that point made explicit that there is no evidence that this particular act was the result of violent rhetoric, instead saying that the odds of violence were being increased. But then it said:

“Today it is the right that amuses itself with violent chat and proclaims an injured innocence when its flammable words blow up.”

The thing is, there is no evidence that these flammable words *have* blown up. This last line is an attempt to directly link this particular act of violence with the rhetoric. There is no evidence for this. The fact that writers are making these claims is not helping our cause.

Palin’s Other Arizona ‘Targets’.
*************************

Like Gabrielle Giffords, Harry Mitchell and Ann Kirkpatrick were under siege during the health-care debate and appeared on Sarah Palin’s “crosshairs” map. They tell Shushannah Walshe about death threats—and the need to cancel town-hall events.

• Sarah Palin responded to critics today in an email to Glenn Beck, saying, “I hate violence. I hate war. Our children will not have peace if politicos just capitalize on this to succeed in portraying anyone as inciting terror and violence.”

For Arizona Congressman Harry Mitchell, the threats were verbal, conveyed in messages left at his office. “I cannot tell you how much I wish a panty bomber would come in and just fucking blow your place up,” one hissed. Another promised to “disembowel him with a rusty pitchfork.”

For his colleague in the Arizona delegation, Ann Kirkpatrick, besides emails calling her a “whore,” the threats got physical: A sewer cap was thrown through her office window. “Everybody in the back of their minds, everybody feared this, everybody put this into their calculations,” says Kirkpatrick’s former chief of staff, Michael Frias, “but nobody thought it would happen.”

More here…
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-01-10/after-garbrielle-giffords-palins-other-arizona-targets-speak/?cid=hp:mainpromo4

Not necessarily David – the Right might be referring to the pressure it is facing (righly so, imo) in the wake of this incident. Palin (or her staff) have deleted her gun sight graphic. She’s deleted tweets talking about “reloading etc” – even the Right can see how bad it looks in the wake of Tuscon. IMO, this is exactly the debate that people should be having. Even if it is shown this one guy was not in any way provoked by the overblown political rhetoric – it’s the potential such rhetoric can have on unstable minds that is exactly relevant and appropriate.

Man Arrested For Threats Made To Michael Bennet’s (D-CO) Staffers.
*****************************************************

Let the wild speculation and finger pointing begin:

Federal authorities have arrested a man accused of repeatedly making threats to Colorado U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet’s staff.

The most recent threats allegedly came on Thursday, two days before a gunman in Arizona killed six people and wounded 14 others, including a congresswoman.

According to an arrest warrant affidavit, John Troy Davis called Bennet’s Denver office Thursday upset over his social security benefits and during the call said he, “may go to terrorism.” He also allegedly said, “To get your attention, I will go down there and set fire to the perimeter,” according to the affidavit.

During a call several days earlier, Davis, who lives in the metro area, told another Bennet staffer, “I’m just going to come down there and shoot you all,” while complaining about social security benefits, according to the affidavit. Let the wild speculation and finger pointing begin:

Federal authorities have arrested a man accused of repeatedly making threats to Colorado U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet’s staff.

The most recent threats allegedly came on Thursday, two days before a gunman in Arizona killed six people and wounded 14 others, including a congresswoman.

According to an arrest warrant affidavit, John Troy Davis called Bennet’s Denver office Thursday upset over his social security benefits and during the call said he, “may go to terrorism.” He also allegedly said, “To get your attention, I will go down there and set fire to the perimeter,” according to the affidavit.

During a call several days earlier, Davis, who lives in the metro area, told another Bennet staffer, “I’m just going to come down there and shoot you all,” while complaining about social security benefits, according to the affidavit.

More here..
http://crooksandliars.com/nicole-belle/man-arrested-threats-made-michael-ben

It might not be my 1st choice in how the political debate is run. But hell, after all the crap from the right wingers and loonies over the last two years. Anything with in reason, that puts the Democrats in full control is good.

Terror in Arizona: Just another ‘isolated incident’? Funny how that list keeps mounting.
*****************************************************

It’s fundamental to their psychology, as Digby often observes, for right-wingers to constantly portray themselves as victims — indeed, the American Right long ago mastered the art of flipping reality on its head and turning attempts to hold them accountable for their predilection for violence into a vicious and unfair attack on their honor — of turning the perpetrators into victims and the victims into perpetrators. In 1870, it was the “bloody shirt”. Today, in the wake of the Gabrielle Giffords shooting, it’s the “blood libel,” as Glenn Reynolds puts it.

Indeed, the only thing more predictable than the eventuality of actual violence erupting in a climate of broadly sanctioned violent eliminationist rhetoric is the certainty that the Right will attempt to claim that any discussion of accountability and the need to examine the role our national discourse has in fomenting violence is an attempt to victimize them.

More here..
http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/terror-arizona-just-another-isolated

Republican Rhetoric, Right-Wing Terror.
******************************

“My tears are flowing and I am stunned and angered that Gabby Giffords was savagely gunned down while performing her congressional duties.” So said Minnesota Republican Representative Michele Bachmann in response to Saturday’s mass killing in Tucson. But less than a year ago, Bachmann called for resistance to cap and trade legislation, “I want people in Minnesota armed and dangerous on this issue,” adding, “Thomas Jefferson told us, having a revolution every now and then is a good thing.”

Sadly, when it comes to the casual incitement to violence, Michele Bachmann has plenty of company among the leading lights of the Republican Party and the conservative movement. While the motivation (and mental health) of the alleged Tucson mass killer Jared Lee Loughner remains unclear, his bloodbath served to once again highlight the most dangerous development in American politics:

Please don’t jump to any conclusions from this article.

More here…
http://crooksandliars.com/jon-perr/republican-rhetoric-right-wing-terror

Again via twitter,
“the ABC is saying if you leave in Strathpine or Caboolture, get out now. Apparently the water is going to be higher than 1974”

Obama to travel to Arizona for memorial.
********************************

US President Barack Obama will travel to Arizona on Wednesday to attend a memorial service for shooting victims there, a senior administration official says.

Earlier today, sombre chimes rang out across a frosty Washington, plunging America into a moment of silence, and President Barack Obama voiced a nation’s shock over an Arizona shooting rampage.

Mourners gathered at the White House, at the US Capitol, and at a hospital in the southwestern state where lawmaker Gabrielle Giffords, the prime target when a lone gunman ran amok on Saturday, is fighting for her life.

http://www.theage.com.au/world/obama-to-travel-to-arizona-for-memorial-20110111-19lt8.html

Lord Mayor Campbell Newman just announced est. 6,500 properties across Brisbane will be flooded by Thursday.

Things look dire in Brisbane according to latest news on ABC Radio National.
Ecky, Flaneur, Gaffhook, Jaundiced View, Ferny Grover, Possum …and any others of our online northern compatriots whom I met with in Brisbame during Obi’s election… am hoping like hell you are all safe .

Fark! What a day!

Time for a cup of tea, a Beckett’s and a good lie down….

(passer-by to derelict enshelled in old-style metal garbage bin)

Pardon me, Sir, but are you waiting for Godot?

No schmuck, Katrina!

—-

They’re tryin’ to wash us away……

Mr. Hooker remembers the flood
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GOCAC8FCqE

They’re tryin’ to wash us away………

Word on Canal sez tha Dixie Flyer ain’t gon’ make it through tonight.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGs2iLoDUYE

Hang in there Brisbane, bereaved, drenched and deluged. And the rest of Squee-gee Oz.

The sun gon’ shine in yo’ back do’ one day.

Yessuh.

862
Jen

It’s ok up here in Townsville, some 1500km north of Brisvegas by road.

We have had a lot of rain over the past two months and everything
is saturated and the dams are full and being let go.

We got another 65 mm of rain overnight and that’s about what is happening every other day.

Our biggest fear is that the coral Sea is 2 degrees warmer than has been measured before and that kind of usually turns in to a blow or two which is given a name.

Yes thanks, Jen. Min and Jnr and me are mercifully all home and snug. We’ve cleared the garage and are ready to help shelter the deluged and desperate should conditions worsen.

Despite the devastation, would rather endure this than what you had to go through with the fires last year.

Watching the footage tonight I don’t think that there is any difference Ecky . .. it is terrifying when we are reminded that human beings have no power when it comes to the full force of nature – and there is more to come, from the sound of the predictions.

Gaffers – glad you are safe.

Sheriff Dupnik spells it out again for the cerebrally-challenged Rubes of America.

“Sheriff: ‘Maybe They Could Pass A Law That Would Require That Every Child Have An Uzi In Their Crib’

Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik has made some controversial comments in the wake of Saturday’s shooting in his district. On Monday night, he was interviewed on “The CBS Evening News” with Katie Couric and defended his positions.

“If you are in law enforcement and you are not a right winger- you will get all kinds of heat from the right wing nuts,” he told Couric.
Later in the interview, he took issue with laws that allow the carrying of concealed or non-concealed weapons at all times.

“That’s the height of insanity,” Dupnik said. “I don’t know what else they can do. Maybe they could pass a law that would require that every child have an Uzi in their crib.”

(scroll down a bit for Dupnik/Couric short clip)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/10/jared-loughner-court_n_807096.html

Looking at the floods from the safety of my couch on the TV down here in Vic, I really hope all you northern ticsters are safe.
It looks friggin horrible and my thoughts are with you all.
Take care. P.

869 Enemy Combatant Doesn’t matter how often I see that. It still gets a good laugh. Ronnie hasn’t lost his touch.

IMHO i call it poetic justice. The greedy banks in their haste to rip off the mortagees had their contracts robo signed.
Now they are using these docos to try and screw the little person.

However it has come back to bite them on the arse and it is good to see Jack and Jill six pack have some kind of victory over the greedy bastards. It appears some sloppy work by the legal fraternity is trying to help prop the greedy bastards up as well.

But New York judges are also trying to take the lead in fixing the mortgage mess by leaning on the lawyers. In November, a judge ordered Mr. Baum’s firm to pay nearly $20,000 in fines and costs related to papers that he said contained numerous “falsities.” The judge, Scott Fairgrieve of Nassau County District Court, wrote that “swearing to false statements reflects poorly on the profession as a whole.” ……………….In the most publicized example, David J. Stern, a lawyer whose Florida firm has been part of an estimated 20 percent of the foreclosure actions in the state, has been accused of filing sloppy and even fraudulent mortgage paperwork. Major institutions have dropped the firm, which has been the subject of several lawsuits, and 1,200 of the 1,400 people once at the firm are out of work.

The Florida attorney general’s office is conducting a civil investigation of Mr. Stern’s firm and two others.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/11/business/11lawyers.html?_r=2&ref=business

MySpace to slash workforce in half.
***************************

MySpace has announced it will cut some 500 jobs, nearly half of the staff of the troubled News Corp-owned social network, which has been eclipsed by Facebook.

“Today’s tough but necessary changes were taken in order to provide the company with a clear path for sustained growth and profitability,” MySpace chief executive Mike Jones said in a statement.

“The new organisational structure will enable us to move more nimbly, develop products more quickly, and attain more flexibility on the financial side,” Jones said.
Advertisement: Story continues below

He said the restructuring would “result in a 47 per cent staff reduction across all divisions globally and impact about 500 employees”.

News Corp bought MySpace for $US580 million in 2005 but it has been overtaken in recent years by Facebook, which has grown to more than 500 million members while MySpace’s numbers have dwindled.

In November, News Corp president and chief operating officer Chase Carey said the losses at the social network were unsustainable and there needed to be improvement in the next few quarters.

More here..
http://www.theage.com.au/business/world-business/myspace-to-slash-workforce-in-half-20110112-19myh.html

Sheriff Dupnik blasts Limbaugh: ‘he is irresponsible’.
*****************************************

As John wrote yesterday, Rush Limbaugh was spewing his usual incendiary language yesterday and aimed some of it at Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik. Unlike many elected officials, particularly Republicans, who cower when Limbaugh attacks them, Dupnik went on ABC News and criticized Limbaugh by name for his role in inciting hatred and violence:

I like the guy.

More here…
http://www.americablog.com/2011/01/sheriff-dupnik-blasts-limbaugh-he-is.html

Like him too, Chris. Straight shootin’ sheriffs in Arizona ain’t exactly thick on the ground.

—————————-

JA looks a tad drawn after his brief Court mention today but his message is lucid as a laser.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jan/11/julian-assange-wikileaks-execution-gantanamo

————————————

Guess who’s just taken a 15% poll whacking?
http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoon/display.cfm/94649

Actually Reporter Doe was rolled into a morgue fridge about 20 years ago.
http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoon/display.cfm/94653

http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoon/display.cfm/94654

Liquefiable Assets:
http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoon/display.cfm/94664

http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoon/display.cfm/94632

http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoon/display.cfm/94638

http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoon/display.cfm/94640

Hot Dang! What is it with people who just can’t understand that firearms and the NRA are there to Protect & Serve ordinary Americans?
http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoon/display.cfm/94666

Like good ol’ Rush sez ‘n’ all…….

“My Daddy was a hate-monger…….then he became a miller.” 🙂
http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoon/display.cfm/94671

Jan 11:
http://news.yahoo.com/comics/jeff-danziger

Jan 11:
http://news.yahoo.com/comics/pat-oliphant

By Post Author

Right you are. paddy. Can’t believe the leadership Anna Bligh is providing in this crisis. Cambell Neuman has also exceeded expectations, imho. Gillard is doing her best but appears out of her depth(sorry) when viewed beside the State and City leaders.

—————————–

At Brisbane River’s surged edge today a vignette of human kindness.

Now if we could only bottle it!

It’s funny we hadn’t met some of the people in the street down further until last night and they’ve all come up and helped, we were helping,” she said.
“There’s an 81-year-old lady that lives in that house that had to get out. We’ve got all her walking frames.”
Mr Fowler says it is heartening to see people sticking together in the crisis.

~from Auntie online.
The scope of this tragedy is just too difficult for the AB “friggin” C to handle.

By Post Author

Gillard would do well to lose the botox… makes her look plastic and not genuine as compared to Anna Bligh – impressive.

George Smiley aka John Le Carre chats with Amy Goodman about Tony Blair deceiving the Brits into war and the Armed Madhouse that is America.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCSbCG08r64

Couldn’t sleep last night so watched all seven Chapters of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.

Got totally sucked in all over again. Script, acting, story, direction and editing are all superb. Absolutely nothing is “Second Eleven” about this production. Wasn’t until I saw JLC in the Goodman i/view that I twigged how superbly Alec Guiness inhabited the author’s essence.

After a geek at “Tinker” one appreciates the chasm between the subtlety and sense of irony and nuance of top shelf Circus performers compared with the crassness of their Sep counterparts of the period.

By Post Author

looks like no stone will be left unturned in the witch hunt for a reason to get JA to Sepside for incarceration.
There are a few previous cases which will assist him in his defence, should they manage to seize/render him.

The US attorney in the federal court in the Eastern District of Virginia on December 14 obtained a subpoena directed to the social network site Twitter. It seeks the mailing addresses and billing information, connection records and session times, IP addresses used to access Twitter, email accounts……………………….

First Holder said the Justice Department was looking to prosecute Assange under the Espionage Act. Section (c) of the Espionage Act (18 U.S.C. § 793) makes it a felony when a person “receives or obtains or agrees or attempts to receive or obtain from any person, or from any source whatever, any document” … “respecting the national defense with intent or reason to believe that the information is to be used to the injury of the United States, or to the advantage of any foreign nation.”……………….

First, as to the intent requirement, the statute was well described by former Supreme Court Justice John Marshall Harlan as “singularly oblique.” It implicates political views—one man’s intention to injure the US is another man’s intent to help it. Thus it is very difficult to prove that Assange and WikiLeaks received material with intent or reason to believe that the information would injure the United States. Quite to the contrary, WikiLeaks correctly asserts that it obtained information in order to shine light on the sordid operations of US imperialism, to the benefit of the American people

http://www.opednews.com/populum/linkframe.php?linkid=125015

Let it all hang out JA. The sooner the better. Fuck em all.

“We are stepping up our publishing for matters related to Cablegate and other materials,” Assange said. “Those will shortly be occurring through our newspaper partners around the world — big and small newspapers and some human rights organizations.”………………………
Earlier Tuesday, WikiLeaks released a statement decrying the death threats in the United States that have been made against Assange. It drew a link between his experience and that of Democratic Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in the head in an Arizona massacre Saturday that killed six people and touched off a fierce debate over the toxic tone of U.S. political discourse.,/blockquote>

http://www.opednews.com/populum/linkframe.php?linkid=125014

And Jen, feminists will have my guts for garters but I can’t stand it anymore!

Julia, lose the god-damned purple Dame Edna jacket. In a disaster, gear like that is best set aside for pantomines. Check out what your new best friend Anna Bligh has donned and thread up accordingly. Have a gander what your old mate Kevvy is up to in Windsor while you’re at it. Yesterday Campbell Neuman was doing grabs in the rain ffs.

We don’t want no steekin’ fashion statement. We want to see you muck in and mean it. This is what leaders do in crises. Remember what Betty Windsor’s Mum did after the bombing blitz of London.

You’re DOING the part just fine, Julia. When one is trying to communicate with emotionally frazzled people, you have to LOOK the part too, Prime Minister.

*wistfully removes marker fron Virginia Woolf novel and continues reading*

By Post Author

From October 2009 but it is all relevant IMHO.

The latest edition of Politico’s “Get To Know A Congressman” series features Rep. Gregg Harper (R-MS). In the interview, Harper was asked about the Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus, which advocates for hunters and fisherman in Congress:

POLITICO: What in the world does the Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus do?

HARPER: We hunt liberal, tree-hugging Democrats, although it does seem like a waste of good ammunition.

http://www.opednews.com/populum/linkframe.php?linkid=125003

886
Ecky, having just watched the Kevvie footage.
http://bit.ly/h2R1Ub
I’d have to agree. Jules has looked and sounded like a badly dressed robot over the last few days.
Anna Bligh and Campbell Neuman have been outstanding.
However…..My thoughts are with the poor souls in Qld, as word has leaked out that Tony Abbott is on his way. 🙁

Geezus Paddy – like they’re not suffering enough.
As for feminists having your guts Ecky – not this one .
Jules is wet (pardon the pun) and she looks fake, stilted and more worried about her televisoion image than what is happening around her.
She is no leader IMO.
which means Abbott can only benefit- which is fucked.
None ofwhich matters right now given the loss of so much , including lives. But at times like this we need a leader-
and Kevin and Anna look the most genuine right now.

888
Paddy
That sure sounds a bit comforting for sure.

I am still a bit iffy about whether it would be easier for the seppos to get him from the UK rather than Sweden.

His legal eagles have to be on their game.

Kev with his dacks and sleeves rolled up humping bags on top of his head is what it is all about. Getting down and dirty.
He was apparantly still going at midnight last night and was up early today and fronting a media interview at 6am. Good on him.
Julia needs to fuck off all of her advisors and start fresh with half a dozen Gaffhooks, ECs, Paddys’ and Jens. :mrgreen:

One of my nephews moved in to a house in Graceville on Monday, was told to evacuate on Tuesday. Went back and got his furniture early Wednesday morning. Rental house went under apparently but he and family and furniture safe high and dry in Jindalee. 🙁

On Julia – firstly the botox issue – Anna Bligh is botoxed (she admits it), and I think obviously more than Julia. That’s not the problem, imo.

The issue is she’s just not natural in her presentation – in appearance and voice. She always sounds like she’s reading from a cue card – if she could only show some natural emotion and inflection in her voice and facial expressions.

And I think that carries through to her dress – overall, she’s just too stitched up.

Why Julia?

Bligh and Rudd have come across as real and genuine people.

Sarah Palin Presidential Odds Plummet On InTrade After Arizona Shooting.
***************************************************

Sarah Palin’s InTrade odds of running for president took a tumble Sunday following Saturday’s deadly shooting in Arizona.

In the wake of the shooting, the former Alaska governor has faced accusations that her placement of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) on a list of 20 targeted legislators — highlighted behind crosshairs — may have played some role in catalyzing the violence. Palin’s camp has strongly denied any violent intention or any connection to the events.

I suspect the Republican odds are heading in the same direction.

More here…

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/10/sarah-palins-presidential-odds-intrade_n_806667.html

Julian Assange: WikiLeaks Has ‘Insurance Files’ On Rupert Murdoch, News Corp.
*****************************************************

WikiLeaks chief Julian Assange revealed that he has damaging “insurance files” on Rupert Murdoch and his News Corp media empire that he will release if something happens to him or to WikiLeaks.

Assange made the revelation in a conversation with journalist John Pilger that appeared on the website of the New Statesman magazine on Wednesday.

Let ’em out! Let ’em out!

More here…

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/12/assange-wikileaks-murdoch-files_n_808086.html

Hillary Clinton Labels Arizona Shooter An Extremist ‘Motivated By His Own Political Views’
***************************************************

While many are still debating whether Saturday’s tragic shooting in Arizona was politically driven, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that the suspected gunman, Jared Lee Loughner, was clearly “motivated by his own political views.”

“Based on what I know, this is a criminal defendant who was in some ways motivated by his own political views, who had a particular animus toward the congresswoman,” Clinton told CNN in an interview in Oman, a stop on her mideast tour promoting civil society groups. “And I think when you cross the line from expressing opinions that are of conflicting differences in our political environment into taking action that’s violent action, that’s a hallmark of extremism, whether it comes from the right, the left, from al-Qaida, from anarchists, whoever it is. That is a form of extremism. So yes, I think that when you’re a criminal who is in some way pursuing criminal activity connected to — however bizarre and poorly thought through — your political views, that’s a form of extremism.”

Go Hillary!

More here…

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/12/hillary-clinton-arizona-shooter_n_806259.html

Comments are closed.