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Open Thread

Are The GOP Running Dead for 2012 or are they simply total goof-offs?

The Republicans seem to be handing the Democrats the next election on a platter. Newt Gingrich has ripped the Paul Ryan Budget.

On top of The Huffington Post Article I received this email from The Daily Kos.
We often don’t know what’s at stake in an election until it’s too late. Fortunately, Republicans in DC have been up front with us. (I know crazy, right?) Over the past month, they made it clear they will hand over Medicare to private insurance companies if they win the 2012 elections.
This is a good thing, because now we have another excellent reason to stand up and fight them. That’s why we’re sending John Boehner a cake, with the signatures of Daily Kos community members underneath it, thanking him for guaranteeing we will be fired up for 2012.
Click here to add your name to the petition that will appear underneath the thank you cake.
Here’s what happened:
On April 5, Paul Ryan released the Republican budget plan, which called for deep cuts to Medicare and the privatization of whatever is left.
On April 15, only two House Republicans voted against this budget.
On May 5, John Boehner said that Republicans wouldn’t push for this budget now because it can’t pass while Democrats control the Senate and the White House. However, Boehner made it clear that Republicans still strongly backed the plan.
That’s about as straight forward as Republicans are ever going to be. They are going to slash and privatize Medicare as soon as they control the House, the Senate and the White House.
The rowdy reception Republicans received at town halls last month was a sample of the blowback they are getting from this, but let’s give them another taste—in cake form! Click here to thank John Boehner for finally being honest about the Republican plan to destroy Medicare.
Keep fighting,
Chris Bowers
Campaign Director, Daily Kos

As well each of their potential presidential candidates has imploded shortly after they announced their decision to run. Well at least two have, and one announced he won’t run. As they self-destruct or withdraw, and they are slowly eliminating the potential candidates, one person is quietly sitting on the sidelines watching the carnage: Sarah Palin, my personal choice for the destruction of the Republicans. There is a LONG WAY to go yet. But after the let down of last year I am beginning to become more optimistic.

As I write this, something has clicked which had not previously occurred to me. My best hope for the senate, in my wildest dreams, would be to pick up two extra states over and above a swing of 5% on the 2008 elections for the Democrats to get anything done. Those states would preferably be the difficult to obtain ones of Arizona and Texas. Both states have retiring senators, and given the path of self destruction that the Republicans are currently on, (and will hopefully continue on till November 2012) the Democrats will nab them. They would then attain 62 seats in the senate, giving them a gap of 4 votes, not two as I had been wrongly assuming. This may be enough to bypass any Blue Dog block and enable a flood of legislation to pass. Meanwhile back in the real world, Walter Mitty says tell im ya dreamin. I am not a praying man, but till November 2012 I will be facing Mecca an awful lot.  I think another sex scandal would be really nice. About 3 months out from the election and running right up to Election Day.

The unpopularity of certain state governors will also help the Democrats, New Jersey, Wisconsin, Florida, Maine and Ohio in particular. Massachusetts has a BIG party machine behind it so Scott Brown should be swept away with the Democrat tide. The Democrats have a big voter registration. Just paint him Republican. Lets hope we get two strong liberals in Connecticut & Massachusetts would REALLY help the Democrats. No Blue Dogs allowed. Tip for the Democrats: if you are lucky enough to get 62 in the senate pass 2 years of popular things with the voters to wipe them out in 2014. It’s called governing by popularism.  Copying Australia’s National Broadband Network would be a great start.
United States Senate elections, 2012
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate_elections,_2012

911 replies on “Are The GOP Running Dead for 2012 or are they simply total goof-offs?”

I have always been impressed by The Huffington Post. But they now seem to be taking it to an even higher level. So much so that they are the trend setter in online media. Setting extemely high standards that everyone should use as a template. What I find is unusual is no one is attempting to copy their procedure. At a time when a lot of old media is in a lot of trouble. The Huffington Post uses the strategies that could dig some of the trouble media out of a hole. Yet no one else employs their methods. An article gets high rankings in Google by having links. Every article on The Huffington Post has the abilty to have hundreds if not thousands of links added. Its so ridiculously simple. Yet no one else is taking notice. The Age and SMH could learn a lot from The Huffington Post. Maybe they are just to set in their ways or too stubborn to learn from the new guy on the block. If you venture down this page
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/30/congressman-pelosi-clearly-backs-14th-amendment-in-debt-standoff_n_914137.html
You have many options to link presented time and time again and you will notice some of the options have link numbers attached. At the present time Facebook like is on 881 Facebook share is on 164 Twitter is on 258 and the Google link option is on 2. How hard is that?

Follow up from discussion on ABCnew24 is that the deal is done in the Senate, but the Congress is still up for grabs. The tea party are still feral and it will go done to the wire. Hmm… None the wiser really. Thanks ABC. 🙁

You know Chris, I have recently been thinking that I think the Huffington Post has lost something. It certainly feels different now – and it’s hard to be specific about what has changed. But I do feel that I am less interested in the stories on Huff Post than I used to be. It often feels to me that there is less actual content than there used to be – less detail about a story. I think it’s gone down hill since the ownership change.

But I agree that it’s model is very powerful.

811
Wow! That’s truly epic stuff Gaffy.
There’s nothing like a master word smith giving Rupert his just desserts 🙂

KatieLou agree re HuffPo –
it was my favourite site during Obi’s election (apart from here of course 😉 ) – great articles, great links and intelligent commentary.
Since then i have the odd look and it never quite grabbed me in the same way – maybe it was driven by the passion that was so intense at that time.
But also agree with you and CB – great model for the old MSM to learn from.

HaHaHaHa, how does Barnyard stop himself from looking real fucking stupid.

After all the noise about GBNT on miners etc and how we as Australians don’t deservr an MRRT on the products, he now finds out the miners are going to mine his farm. :mrgreen:

“The farmer really has no rights and gets no money from it,” Senator Joyce said.

“On my own place where I pay the rates, insurance, repairs and maintenance I can’t just go and knock down trees but the mining companies can.

“I can’t just put down a bore and take what I want but the mining companies can.”

He said compensation for farmers was also paltry.

“We’re finding that some of these wells can produce up to $1 million a day, while other ones can produce between $10,000 and $30,000 a day,” he said.

“Yet, we find out what the farmer gets – $240 a year, $1500 a year and the best of them were $8000 or $9000 a year.”

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/environment/joyce-caught-in-coal-seam-gas-web-20110801-1i7xe.html#ixzz1TlqwAjgA

808 Katielou I haven’t noticed anything myself. I am on the alert for such things. What might have changed for you may not have been noticed by me. But let me know if you spot anything. It is on the hit list of the Koch brothers. What they don’t realise is that they are actually helping the Huffington even by putting negative comments on The Huffington Post. The trolls don’t last long.

Noted too Jen. I still thoroughly enjoy it. I thought I would pick any down grading of quality articles.

Jen and Chris B re Huff Post – I think there’s less analysis provided. I think the stories are more superficial, less detailed, and with less commentary. I definitely think there’s more magazine type stuff on Huff Post now – basically a lot of fluff and crap. It’s just not as good as it used to be imo.

Thanks Gaffers! Poor old Joycey! 😉

Perhaps he can now feel some empathy with Mabo.

Well What a turn around since takng out Osama. It appears we have a very strong Republican President.

822 Katielou I can’t agree with you there Katielou. If that were the case there would not be so many liberals/progressives on the site. You need fluff stories to bring in the new progressives.

Chris – I’m really going on how I’m reacting to the site – how interested I am – and its definitely less than before.

Chris B @ 825

I think its hard to get a sense of whether the debt ceiling agreement was good or not. Some writers I trust are slamming it and others not so.

Here, Bob Cesca who regularly writes for HuffPo, refers to Ezra Klein and writes that the bill is not so bad. He writes it’s been set up to get rid of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy.

http://bobcesca.com/blog-archives/2011/08/upon-further-examination.html

Also Guy Rundle wrote a great piece in Crikey in the last couple of days that was very supportive of Obama.

You’ve got to remember that the way the US government works is just so different from ours. To try to get legislation through Congress and the Senate is a minefield.

That post linked above was not written by Bob Besca but by another wrter and posted to Cesca’s blog.

Here’s an extract from Guy Rundle’s piece on the dent deal and Obama. NUBO, NUBO, NUBO!

I’ve oft remarked here that people who live inside Westminster or European systems really don’t understand the radical nature of the US system, in which there is a genuine separation of powers, not the pseudo-separation of Westminster ones (de facto combined executive/legislative branch, weak judiciary).

But in their frustration, it seems as if many Americans do not understand it either, or if they do, do not want it any more — they want, whether they know it or not, the great “other” of the political systems that emerged in the eighteenth century, a system which regularly generates a government elected on a programme, with the power to implement it.

The Right want this, but as they cannot criticise the Constitution, they have no way of speaking about it. Hence they focus obsessively on myths of distortion and sabotage — from Obama’s birth certificate, to the obsessive argument that Al Franken stole the Minnesota Senate race.

Faced with the most divided government possible — chambers in control of separate parties, President and the lower house from different parties — they cannot square the chaos, with the idea — implicit and explicit in US life — that the founders’ acts were driven by providence, that the US system is literally a godly creation. Fallible humans — demonic liberals — have betrayed the vision.

For a Left whose interest in the minutaie and logic of the system is often close to nil, Obama fails because — well, because he takes the office seriously. What American liberals want is another FDR, whose most audacious attempt to take an end-run around the constitution was his scheme to double the size of the Supreme Court in the late 30s, the additional justices all being good Democrats.

A great plan to get round the Court’s obstruction of New Deal legislation, but such plans were only possible because there was a mass movement behind him (it was eventually defeated not by the Republicans but by southern Democrats).

Today, many American liberals want Obama to reprise such FDR moments ab nihilo, amid an atomised and image-swaddled America. The Chicago University professor of constitutional law, who spoke throughout the 08 campaign of compromise and consensus, is being slated for … obeying the constitution and reaching for consensus.

Many have rallied round Bill Clinton’s helpful remark that he would have unilaterally raised the debt ceiling “in a trice”. Well maybe. But one suspect it’s far more likely that Clinton would have “triangulated” it, slashing public welfare as he did in ‘95, and spinning it as “getting America moving again” appearing with Boehner in the Rose Garden, with hands held high.

Such remarks have fed American liberalism’s wholly imaginary sense of what is possible at the moment, and nourished their deep and absolving desire for noble failure. Thus the Democratic President who slashed welfare, and cemented in the underclass inaugurated by Reagan, who failed on healthcare, has become the rallying point against a president holding the line on benefits, and protecting the provisions of the health care bill he did achieve. When perception have become that reversed, you know that the relationship between reality and fantasy has been comprehensively reversed.

For Obama, the main game — not merely in career terms, but as a political achievement — is a second term, as a centrist, even European-style centre-Right President. Why? Because the Democrats will not regain the House in 2012, and they will most likely lose the Senate.

Facing a united, and hard-Right legislative body, Obama’s domestic mission will be two-fold – to show that the first black President can represent the spirit of the system as well as anyone, to protect what has been achieved through the veto power, and to hope against hope that one of the five conservative Supreme’s falls under a bus — giving him the opportunity (subject to Senate composition) to influence the shaping of US society for decades to come.

A new Carter? No, I think not. For after all, had he gone the route of unilaterally raising the ceiling, for the good of the country, then the GOP would have once again be united by what they opposed. You only have to look at John Boehner’s cringing apologetic announcement — “not the best deal we could have got” — to see what the main purpose of this carnivale was: to bang a wedge into the Republican party, with the hope that it will produce primary season chaos, and possible third party candidacies.

Bumbling? Strikes me more as hard-fought politics under tough circumstances. And so with all the troubles he faces, I say unto thee once again … NUBO NUBO NUBO … never underestimate Barack Obama.

http://www.crikey.com.au/2011/08/01/rundle-debt-deal-the-ideal-compromise-it-pleases-no-one/

828 Katielou They could have used the 14th amendment to push it through without any hitch.

New arrest in phone-hacking scandal.
******************************

British police have made their 11th arrest in relation to the News of the World phone-hacking saga.

Stuart Kuttner, 71, has been arrested by police investigating allegations of phone hacking and police bribery.

Police say he was arrested on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications and on corruption allegations.

Look another conspiracy.

More here…

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-08-03/british-police-make-new-phone-hacking-arrest/2821764?section=world

832/1 megan Katielou Apparently the rich and corporations will pay more tax. Maybe I was a bit too quick off the mark. megan that is a beauty on the pill. The religious groups won’t have to have it on their insurance. But then people who want the free pill just have to change insurance companies. That is a good thing.

BTW
The youtube video in the Ben Sandilands piece is utterly rivetting’
Well worth a look.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dlf4gOvzxYc
Please click on “cc” button to show English subtitles. Part 2 is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDlEOmcALwQ
Professor Tatsuhiko Kodama is the head of the Radioisotope Center at the University of Tokyo. On July 27, he appeared as a witness to give testimony to the Committee on Welfare and Labor in Japan’s Lower House in the Diet.

(At the end, Prof. Kodama was able to elaborate only three of his “four requests” probably due to the time constraint.)

Paddy,

Thanks for that sobering article on Japan’s nuclear trauma.
Wonder how other countries would have handled it differently without causing enormous traumatic civic unrest.

I know this is only anecdotal but spent some years living there and their care of the populace in fire-safety drill, earthquake advice, etc is unsurpassed in my travels. Felt very safe there despite regular earthquakes and my lack of Nihongo. Particularly liked the lack of guns, with men armed only with sticks as armored guards outside banks.
On driving past these nuclear stations,both in Japan and France, have been struck by how ‘normal’ they look, and I suppose a certain sense of complacency sets in.

Remember taking photos of some wonderful graffiti under Yokohama railway lines when an elderly lady tried to distract me by pointing to the tallest skyscraper. Very much about maintaining harmony, look for the beauty, don’t distress nor rock the boat.

This gaijin is feeling terribly sympathetic for all concerned….they were/are way in over their heads, hoping itwould not be as serious and have just found it too difficult to come out with the distressing truth.

It is indeed an awful situation Megan.
I can’t see it going away any time soon either.
From my readings on various websites, the biggest problem pollutant is Caesium, which has a half-life of 30 years!
That means it will still be around and at harmful levels for hundreds of years. 🙁

Tom Watson: ‘Phone hacking is only the start. There’s a lot more to come out’
*****************************************************

The Labour MP has won the admiration of fellow politicians for doggedly investigating the phone-hacking scandal. What has the experience taught him, how has it changed his life – and what revelations are still to come?
A month ago, Tom Watson received word that the Guardian was about to expose the hacking of Milly Dowler’s phone by the News of the World. With 72 hours to go, he cleared his diary; a few days later, he was averaging three hours sleep a night, as he and his staff picked through leaked documents, newspaper archives, personal testimony from phone-hacking victims, and more. As the MP who had been obsessively trying to cut through the murk surrounding News International for two years, he well knew that the most dramatic chapter in the two-year phone-hacking saga had arrived – and the imperative now was to work harder than ever.

So how have the last few weeks been? “Sleep-deprived, totally crazy,” he says, sitting in his parliamentary office during what seems to be a rare moment of calm. “But also, there’s been a great sense of relief. I think I said something to David Cameron about a month before: that there were powerful forces trying to cover this story up. At some points over the last two years, I thought it might blow. But I’ve also thought that the lid could be welded back on. But when Nick Davies broke the Milly Dowler story, that was the point where I knew they’d never get the lid back on.”

And has he been surprised by what’s happened since?

Brooks went after him. Guess who’s laughing now?

A great read.

More here…

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/aug/02/tom-watson-phone-hacking

President Barack Obama dodged a debt-ceiling fiasco Tuesday.
**************************************************

He reacted with a wiped brow more than a victory lap, and with good reason.

As Republicans gradually weigh a potential challenger, Obama’s re-election bid faces daunting problems: high unemployment, a limping economy, lackluster approval ratings and a demoralized liberal base. The last-minute debt agreement prevented a full-blown disaster. But it might do little or nothing to help Obama’s campaign.

It cuts spending that might otherwise have produced jobs. And for now, at least, it keeps Obama from claiming he tackled long-festering problems such as Medicare, Social Security and a revenue base that consistently lags behind the nation’s spending habits.

Obama has considerable political assets, including robust fundraising and an up-and-running nationwide operation. Also, the Republican primary process is murky, and it’s too soon to gauge whether it will produce a top-notch nominee who can match Obama’s proven campaign skills.

But job worries are dominating this election, and economists see little likelihood of a serious recovery before the November 2012 election. The man who ran on hope and change in 2008 is hoping voters will decide against change this time, fearing the GOP nominee would be worse.

The guy has cut off his nose to spite his face. I don’t know what the Democrats are going to do. Unless they find someone to replace him real quick. The Republicans will win the next election.

More here….
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/03/obama-2012_n_916965.html

Chris, Barack Obama could not have done anything unilaterally. This agreement had to pass a Repug dominated Congress plus the Senate. That article above is just too simplistic in its analysis, imo. Yes, Obama faces a tough economy and that will make it hard to get re-elected, but the political situation just faced is not of Obama’s own making, nor is it completely in his control. Again, I refer you to Guy Rundle’s piece – I think he is spot on. Obama’s doing a good, solid job in the most difficult of circumstances. Also have a look at that link I posted to Bob Cesca’s job – most of the cuts are to defence (yay!), and are prospective – spread over many years, Dems attacking Obama are being too idealistic and blinkered, and the Republicans are just assholes.

844 Katielou “Republicans are just assholes.” Couldn’t agree more.
At the moment I get the same sort of feedback I got just before the 2010 midterms. You are right he couldn’t have done more. But it is perception. Unfortunaltely 95% of Americans aren’t as informed as you and me.

845/6 It a robot doing the spamming. They have found a weakness in our system and it will keep happening till it is plugged.

Study fast tracks high-speed rail link.
*****************************

A study into the feasibility of a high-speed rail network connecting eastern seaboard cities has found it could get passengers from Sydney to Brisbane in three hours for as little as $75.

The Federal Government is releasing the first stage of its feasibility study into the high-speed rail network today.

It says trains could travel at speeds of up to 350 kilometres per hour and estimates the cost of the network at between $61 billion and $108 billion.

The Government says the network could carry around 54 million passengers a year by 2036, with fares between $100 and $197 for a Sydney to Melbourne trip.

A one-way ticket from Brisbane to Sydney is expected to cost between $75 and $177.

Each full train would be the equivalent of taking 128 cars off the road.

The feasibility study was commissioned as part of Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s deal with the Greens.

Quite a handy infrastructure project to have for the next election. With that the NBN and climate change Labor looks like the can do party for big projects.

More here…
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-08-04/high-speed-rail-feasibility-study/2823760

Megan I think you need to let the hosting company know about the spamming to have it blocked.

Chris,
re spam…
Have been in touch with Cat and she needs me to fwd names which I will once I have a list.
They all seem to have uppercase names in common.

858
Chris,
Yes, I accept that they are computer-generated. However, Cat advised me to let her know so am just following instructions….I moved them to the spam folder rather than delete so she can see for herself.
I’m still only on my “L” plates …and a slow learner at that!! 🙂

megan – l
et me just say thanks for your efforts –
I would have No Effing Idea what to do.
Jx

Hi Jen,
Hope you are feeling better and getting back to normal….if there is ever such a thing!! 🙂
Agree re your refugees comment…so distressing.
Life’s a bitch for too many people.

Hi megan – got your email.

I took a look at the comments and it does not appear to be coming in though regular channels. This means that I’ll need to run an system upgrade but that will have to wait for a bit. In the meantime I have awoken the spam monster! Something to keep in mind is that the spam monster doesn’t have a high IQ and sometimes it gobbles up perfectly reasonable comments (but just like a small child, it does have an ability to learn). I’ll check on the monsters behaviour this weekend and take care of any collateral damage. I’ve also put in a block on the network that was the source of the computer issuing the comments (the computer in question is located in Krasnokamensk China and was part of a network operated by a now defunct company TransTeleCom).

Paul McCartney Says He Was ‘Apparently’ Hacked, Will Talk To UK Police.
***************************************************

Paul McCartney announced Thursday that he will be contacting British police after allegations surfaced that his phone messages may have been hacked.

The former Beatle told reporters at the Television Critics Association press tour, “I’ll tell you that when I go back after this tour I’m going to talk to the police because I apparently have been hacked,” according to the Wrap.

McCartney’s announcement comes a day after his ex-wife Heather Mills alleged that a journalist working for tabloid publisher Trinity Mirror had admitted to hacking her phone in 2001. Speaking to the BBC on Wednesday, she recalled receiving a phone call from a journalist, who quoted word-for-word a voicemail message that McCartney had left her.

McCartney remarked, “I don’t know much about it, but I do think it’s a horrendous violation of privacy, and I think it’s been going on for a long time and more people than we’ve heard about knew about it.”

That’s it! They’ve really done it now! They’ve touched royalty. Now they’re for it!

More here…

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/04/paul-mccartney-phone-hacking-police_n_918858.html

Thanks Katielou. I think by comments I read, a lot don’t realise that. But it is another tabloid. 🙂

I’ve also put in a block on the network that was the source of the computer issuing the comments (the computer in question is located in Krasnokamensk China

We knew that Cat as they were using all good Chinese names. :mrgreen:

Geezus – even some Libs are starting to feel bad.

“My personal view, and [it] won’t probably win many friends in the Liberal Party, I think it is absolutely indefensible for Australia, a prosperous country, to send children by themselves to another country.
“I think we are failing in humanity in doing that.
“I don’t feel proud to be an Australian if we are going to send small children to another country unaccompanied.”
(Colin Barnett WA Liberal premier)

This is the final straw for Labor IMO.
They have no excuses to use now such as Howard capitalised on after 9/11 (terrorism), and now the Libs are snookering them by doing what they have always done (Naroo) and seeming more humane.
Poor old Chris Bowen is the fall guy, but why TF don’t some Labor politiians start standing up for what we all know they believe in????? Garrett on climate change and uranium mining, Penny Wong on Gay Marriage, all of them on Asylum Seekers… utterly reprehensible. Fucking pathetic.
😡
And we will end up with Abbott as PM as he can present himself as more humane while maintaing the racist -pleasing Off Shore processing mantra.
Still looks better than sending children to Malaysia.

Well Jen, Colin Barnett will be laughing his head off after having said that as he will have all the roof top yellers screaming out to attack Labor from left and right.
Unaccompanied children, that is if there are any, is the last shot in the locker to make political gain for the extreme right wingers and any one else who wants to jump on the band wagon, and it will also be yelled loud and long in the media.

If that is Barnets statement i notice he has no compassion for the children being sent to sea in rickerty boats not knowing where they will end up but one of those places could be Davey Jones locker.

Let’s rework Barnets statement;

“My personal view, and [it] won’t probably will win many friends in the Liberal Party Australia, I think it is absolutely indefensible for Australia Indonesia, a prosperous country, to send allow children by themselves to travel in leaky, unseaworthy boats to another country.
“I think we are failing in humanity in doing that.
“I don’t feel proud to be an Australian if we are going to allow other countries to send small children to another country unaccompanied.”

(Colin Barnett WA Liberal premier).

Now wouldn’t it be wonderful if he had said that and we could all have the same ideas about allowing Asylum seekers in to Australia, or where ever else they may be accepted, in an orderly manner.

Facts are;
While boats are making their way across the sea the lieberals will be aided by the hostile media to yell Stop the Boats purely in an effort to grab votes.

If any party, in the present climate, says let them come and process them on shore the lieberals will be aided by the hostile media to yell Stop the Boats purely in an effort to grab votes.

If the lieberals are to win the next election on the back of all this because they, the media and Hanson-Young can scream the loudest then you can rest assure the children that arrive in leaky boats in future will be banged up behind razor wire on Nauru, or turned around at sea and sink or drown, and we will not hear about it.
The sooner that everyone realises this bullshit dichotomy the better.

I would sooner support a party that gives the children safe passage back to Malaysia, with the real chance of reuniting them with their parents than a party that would bang them up in Nauru or turn them around at sea.

I am sure that once the word gets out that whoever gets on a boat and tries to make it here will end up in Malaysia, there will be no more boats.
It may also be the intention of the Government to send them to Malaysia for a few months and then bring them back when all the shit has settled, that’s what i would do, but i don’t know what will happen.
One thing for sure as far as i am concerned there is a lot of hysterical political bullshit about the issue and i don’t believe for one minute that any member of the lieberal coalition right wing extremist ratbags cares a fuck about the safety of Asylum seekers, except to win them votes.

Here we have a government who i am sure will look after the welfare of the Asylum seekers and then we have the loud mouths attacking the Government when they were the cause of there being Asylum seekers in the first place because arseholes like howard and abbott and their extreme right wing acolytes sent our people to smash the fuck out of their governments and cities and buildings.
These same arseholes are now screaming aout them wanting to come here and the majority of Australians are agreeing with them and voting against their own interests.
All because we in Australia have a tendency not to want to take on the propaganda machine that is Murdoch and stop his march toward the regime change of the democraticaly elected government of Australia.
That is who we should be yelling and screaming at, not each other.
Everyone is too dumbed down to see that.

Sending a few children, who have been lucky to make it to Xmas Island on a boat, on a safe plane journey to a friendly country is nowhere near as bad as some of the things that i have seen in my time in the grey funnel line and anyone screaming and yelling about it needs to harden the fuck up.
There Government will not be able to have any sensible Asylum seeker policies until the raving and ranting of the lunatics has been bedded down and put to sleep, and as long as there are votes in it those raving and ranting will continue to do so.

gaffers –
I agree with almost everythjing you say except that we should take these people here. Nothing will stop the boats because as you say people will flee the countries we have helped too fuck up… regardless of what any government here says or does. They are desperate to get out and we are signatories to the UNConvention on Refugees and should accept people seeking asylum.
They have every right to come here seeking help. It is the racism that Murdoch and co like to incite that is driving this nonsense – the numbers of AS’s coming here by boat are insignificant. Labor should stand up to the bigotry , not cowtow to it like a bunch of fucking liberal apologists.

and I also agree re Hanson-Young. She doesn’t cut it with me and i’m clearly a supporter. The Greens need someone with more fire and punch to take this issue on…
a new senator perhaps…
:mrgreen:

Jen
If the Government with the aid of our neighbours can set up a sensible South East Asia set of regional processing centers then it should be possible to get these refugees here with cooperation with the UNHCR. This will effectively put the people smugglers out of business and prevent future trips on unsafe boats across wide expanses of unpredictable seas.
These AS are up till now able to turn up in Indonesia and pay $10k for a trip on these unsafe boats.

I believe it would be much better for them to turn up to a safe haven regional processing centre and keep the $10k in their pocket.

Through the assistance of these RPCs they will be able to work while the UNHCR processes them as genuine AS and they can then be forwarded on safely by plane or ship to the country which will accept them.

That way the Government should be able to have heaps more money to assist them as they can close down all the gulags in Australia and release the armed forces to do the job they are cut out for.

There are plenty of ulterior motives for the extremist right wing lieberal party miscreants and they always do things in such a way as the enrich their mates with sly little schemes.
The only tears they are shedding for AS are crocodile tears with which they can bash Labor and this city where i live went lieberal in 1996 “stopping the boats” and has not been able to claw back to Labor since. It reall is a sick joke.
The only papers on sale are Mordormedia and the local radios blare out rednecks like alan Jones or Laws all day. They are well and truly propagated and their minds must be numb.

This is the kind of thing that lieberals get up to while no one is watching. Talk out of one side of their mouth while they are running their own little immigration scheme charging, you guessed it, $10k per head to get them in to Australia.

http://www.vexnews.com/2010/07/two-faces-the-lnp-mp-who-talks-tough-on-boats-his-staffer-and-the-immigration-racket/

It adds up doesn’t it. Stop the boats so that the people smugglers are not getting the $10k and then run your own little scam so that you get the $10k that the people smugglers were getting.

Of course every person that gets detained and accepted from on a boat lessens the number of immigrants that can put $10k in to their greedy little pockets.

Which from my point of view means that anyone screaming like a lunatic to bash Labor for trying to do something positive with AS is being effective in installing an Abbott led lieberal government which will set the AS situation back 10 years and enable their mates and their little scams to prosper again.

I don’t want that, that is why i want the Mordor Media smashed to bits and the screaming lunatics bashing the Labor Govt to STFU.

I don’t want the NBN or the CT or the MRRT or the PPL etc to be shut down by a religious lunatic because Australian fucktards have voted a lieberal government.

These RPCs will effectively shut all the screaming lunatics up as there will be nothing of any political gain from their screaming.

Um Jen, Gaffy. Don’t forget that the Greens silence is deafening. They are in this government too.

Chris –
The Greens are calling for AS to be processed in Australia – the only party saying this.
Gaffers – the problem with your argument is that you believe that AS will stop getting in botas and people will stop trading in their misery if they don’t think they will get to Australia – i think thats’ bullshit. It implies there are ordely queues people can join to be sent to processing centres wherever. It’s not the case for many of these people and they will get on boats to go anywhere that will have them. It won’t stop people smuggling – it will just keep it out of our vision which is what Labor wants. I completely agree that we could end up with a Liberal Fucktank of a government because Gillard has sold out on this. She is trying tyo win the xenophobic vote ahead of Abbott insrtead of standing up and challening this whole nonsensical argument that we should not take Asylum Seekers. We should.
I don’t want to see Abbott in power and I also dont want Labor to be so fucking unprincipled. It seems its one or the other… what a choice 😡

and as to
“anyone screaming and yelling about it needs to harden the fuck up”.

I don’t want to harden up. I want to see a government that behaves with compassion when required. You know – integrity, courage, decency, instead of self-serving dishonest, gutless populist pandering , which is what we are getting now. If we can’t criticise Labor because we might get Abbott, then they effectively can get away with anything.

Jen
Your argument does not even get off first base. You are assuming that if Labor and the Greens adopt the policy of open the borders and welcome them with open arms for onshore processing, then the rest of Australia will agree and adopt that principle.

The only time that worked was when there was bipartisan between LNP and Labor with Vietnamese refugees.

Howard trashed all that in 1996 and continued trashing it for a period of twelve years because the people of Australia voted for him to trash it. That’s a fact.

The majority of Australians at the moment don’t want boats coming to Australia. That’s a fact.
He would still be trashing it if he had not introduced workchoices. That’s a fact.

If;
Labor and greens introduce on shore processing to appease the loud mouth lunatics, the lunatics will be happy and the AS will be processed on shore. That’s a fact.

The next election will be won by LNP. That’s a fact.

Onshore processing will be disbanded by the LNP and we will be back to 1996 and the AS will be slugging it out on Nauru. That’s a fact.

Labor and the Greens will be yelling out from opposition for better humane treatment for AS. That’s a fact.

Is an AS being welcomed at a RPC with his $10k still in his pocket, with the right to work, and duly processed by UNHCR and flown to Australia, more or less compassionate than the same AS arriving in Indonesia, giving his $10k to a people smuggler, jumping on an unseaworthy (they don’t use Rivieras) boat, then 50-50 chance of making it to Xmas Island?

Does not make it to Xmas Island = dead.
Makes it to Xmas Island and is detained and processed, then flown to Australia.

If i was the AS i would take the Malaysian option every time.

If, given time, there is every possibility that the regional processing centres will work out and there will be a humane process for getting AS to Australia risk free and happy. If they arrive in Australia like this no one will care two hoots about “stopping the boats”. There will not be any boats and the luddites will then have to resort to their true values of “stop the AS”

However certain elements in Australia don’t want this scenario to work as it will kill off their vote catching loud mouth racist screaming and yelling about how it won’t work so they gather some votes.

Australians should forget all the hyperbowl, STFU, have a bex and a good lie down and see if the process will work.

If it does i am sure it will be more humane than what happens at present and more AS will reach Australia sooner.

If the AS keep on jumping on leaky unseaworthy boats presented by the people smugglers there will surely be more tragedies like Xmas Island just recently. That’s a fact.

Open slather for onshore processing purely sets up a lucrative business for people smugglers to send people to their death in unseaworthy, leaky boats. That’s a fact.

AS should not have to pay $10k for the privelege of being resettled in Australia, especially after we have bombed the fuck out of their country.

One thing is for sure is that the Luddite Abbort, if he gets in to power, will trash this country until we are all wanting to seek asylum in some other country, fuck knows where, but if the loud mouths keep on harping it will happen sooner than later.

Katielou
I think there is still a court case outstanding where the shareholders are up in arms about how much Roo gouged out of the over inflated price Nooscorpse paid for Shine.

Perhaps Elizabeth may be a little embarrased.

Gaffers-
“If the AS keep on jumping on leaky unseaworthy boats presented by the people smugglers there will surely be more tragedies like Xmas Island just recently. That’s a fact.
Open slather for onshore processing purely sets up a lucrative business for people smugglers to send people to their death in unseaworthy, leaky boats. That’s a fact.
AS should not have to pay $10k for the privelege of being resettled in Australia, especially after we have bombed the fuck out of their country.”

I totally agree.
Just don’t think it will stop because of this bloody silly shuffling going on. People flee war however they can.
It’s not like they go through a travel agent who points out the good points and downsides.
Do you really think the people smugglers will be honest about the AS’s chances of being settled here? “oooh , actually I advise you not to try and get to Oz – they just ship you out to Malaysia, so how about you join that nice orderly queue over there and wait like a good chap”…
bullshit.
They will tell them they can get them in through the backdoor – and when they come we have a responsibility to take them .

I repeat –
if we don’t challeng labor when they fuck up becuase there is a risk Abbott will get in (and yes – it is an abhorrent thought) , then they can do pretty well whatever they like, and be as pathetic as they are currently…
Keep chaplains in the schools because otherwise they upset the religious nutters, don’t allow gays to marry (if they are silly enough to want to 😉 ), keep kids behind razor wire , stay in Afghanistan in a conflict based on eons of cultural hatred because we have to suck up to the US, etc etc
Enough .
You are really proposing that we have to support Labor behaving like conservatives because the conservatives are even worse.
No.

Apart from that I agree with everything you say… :mrgreen:
especially the bit about Murdoch.
Get rid of him and there may be some chance sanity can enter the political debate.

Jen

Just don’t think it will stop because of this bloody silly shuffling going on. People flee war however they can.
It’s not like they go through a travel agent who points out the good points and downsides.

First up the ones who have papers come to Australia by air and nobody cares. They are either rounded up at some stage or are given Asylum.

The ones that don’t have papers virtually have to come by sea and will at some stage be in Indonesian or Australian waters.
Let’s see how it all pans out as recently a group of AS from Shri Lanka was intercepted in Indonesian waters as they were heading for NZ. I don’t know where they are now but when this thing is bedded in the Indonesians will probably intercept boat loads of AS in their waters before they can leave. Who knows.
Let’s just see how it all pans out. I am sure you will not be disappointed in the end.
One thing for sure there will be a good grapevine of info that this last lot have wasted their money and will be back in Malaysia.

Keep chaplains in the schools because otherwise they upset the religious nutters, don’t allow gays to marry (if they are silly enough to want to ), keep kids behind razor wire , stay in Afghanistan in a conflict based on eons of cultural hatred because we have to suck up to the US, etc etc
Enough .
You are really proposing that we have to support Labor behaving like conservatives because the conservatives are even worse.
No.

Yep theyy are all really big ticket items aren’t they.

I am sure the conservative lieberal party could deliver these numbers i borrowed from over the fence.

1. Unemployment 4.9%
2. Inflation 3.6%
3. Public Net Debts 7% GDP
4. RBA Interest rate 4.75%
5. Growth rate 3.3%
6. AUD Vs USD 1.0403
7. Trade Surplus – $2B jun 2011- Australia’s $2 billion-plus trade surplus for June brought the tally for the last financial year to $22.4 billion – easily the biggest surplus in raw terms for the past 40 years of records compiled by the ABS
8. “ALP best manager of money, history shows” – Mega
9. Australian families depending on one breadwinner pay among the lowest amounts of tax in the world and have become better off under the Gillard Government – Natsem
10. Investment in the next year in mining and related infra-structure projects $140B
11. Labor’s Tax take 21.75% of GDP Vs 25% under Liberals
12. No interest rise for the 10th consecutive month Vs 10 consecutive rises under Howard/Costello. It is now expected no rises in the future with a prospect of interest rate cuts.
13. The number of people filling for bankruptcy in Australia has fallen by 16%.
14. Australia safe from debt crisis: OECD – http://afr.com/p/national/economy/australia_safe_from_debt_crisis_rgznLP6HTyYo7nGragUwyI #auspol
15. Credit Rating AAA
16. We are in Asia –
17. business investment spending is expected to grow by 15 per cent this year and another 15 per cent next year. – Ross Gittin

All this while the hung parliament is delivering the small ticket items like Health reform, NBN, ETS, PPL, MRRT, and numerous other pieces of legislation that total something like 161 items.
All the while the conservatives say NO, NO, NO.

Sometimes people protest too much on too narrow of issues.

Gaffhook –
I am not for a minute saying that the issues that Labor is doing well with should be underestimated. Nor am I suggesting that I want to see them out of governemt. I don’t. But what you call “small ticket items” are pretty much what has lost Labor much of its support base over the last decade starting with Tampa, contuing through supporting the invasion of Iraq and afghnaistan, and onto treating the victims of those conflicts like political pawns instead of human beings.
They might seem “small ticket” to you, but they are the very reason I am now a candidate for The Greens and not Labor, and why their vote has increased from bugger all to 12 percent and we now hold the BOP.
Labor is losing support to the Greens because they have lost their moral and ethical standing on so-called Small Ticket items.
And I wish we were getting votes from the Coalition of fucktards, but we’re not. And that is Labor’s fault. The more they behave like Conservatives the more their own supporters look for other representation – and for now that’s the Greens.

And just a small reminder, there are a band of liberal politicians who also depise their own party- and I bet they don’t vote Labor. … Malcolm Fraser, Petro Georgio, Judy Moylen, Malcolm Turnbull to name a few. They represent moderate liberals who do not like what either party is doing… they are the voice of middle conservative Australia.
Stop giving in to the racism that Rupert fosters.
Governments are meant to lead for the greater good, not pander to the ill-informed.

The 2012 Speculatron Weekly Roundup For August 5, 2011.
***********************************************

In an odd moment from this week, an eagle-eyed Taegan Goddard found a strangely pessimistic image on the RNC’s website — pessimistic, that is, from the RNC’s perspective. On an image depicting “Obama’s Last Day,” there was an accompanying datestamp: “January 20, 2017.” We thought, “Wow, we know that Republican voters are down on the 2012 field of candidates, but where’s the pride, man?”

Ha. Ha. Ha! 😆

😆 Conceding the next election before it happens! 😆

More here…

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/05/the-2012-speculatron-week_n_919895.html#s322896&title=Michele_Bachmann

Have you seen, anywhere, in any media, or even heard reported or repeated on NPR, the following sentence?

“We have changed our assumption on this because the majority of Republicans in Congress continue to resist any measure that would raise revenues, a position we believe Congress reinforced by passing the act.”

It’s right there on Page 4 of the official Standard & Poor’s “Research Update” — the actual report on what they did and why — published on August 5th as the explanation for why they believe Congress — and even the Gang of Twelve — will be unable to actually deal with the US debt crisis. Perhaps it’s just lazy — the bullet points at the beginning of the report don’t mention the Republicans or taxes, but instead just say, for example (part of one of six quick bullet-points):

The downgrade reflects our view that the effectiveness, stability, and predictability of American policymaking and political institutions have weakened at a time of ongoing fiscal and economic challenges”
In order to figure out that one of the reasons why is that “Republicans in the Congress continue to resist any measure that would raise revenues,” a hard-working reporter would have to read to page four of the eight-page report.

It’s just too much effort for most reporters?

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Mainstream-Media-Ignores-S-by-Thom-Hartmann-110806-861.html

I don’t subscribe to the idea that reporters are lazy.
I feel much more comfortable with the idea, that stuff is not being reported accurately or if at all, is all orchestrated by the extreme right wingers to blame the Government.

Is it a coincidence that the same ting happens here with our media?
I don’t think so.

Gaffy and Jen – I read this article in Bloomberg recently, observing the curiosity of toxic politics in Australia while we’re really doing bloody great.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-26/politics-feeds-despair-in-nation-world-can-envy-william-pesek.html

FWIW, I think the problem falls squarely at the feet of Tony Abbott. “If you don’t give me the job, I’ll wreck the place” (courtesy Paul Keating). Spot on.

Overall, I think the Greens have been showing Abbott how to do opposition by supporting some stuff and opposing some stuff.

Wikileaks cables said it all.

As protests continue and the brutal crackdown on protests wears on, US State Embassy cables released by the media organization WikiLeaks provide a greater understanding of the Washington power politics that have led to this moment.

For the past five to six years, the US policy toward Syria has used what could be called a two-pronged strategy to push for regime change. The US has supported “civil society” activists or external opposition organizations. It has also worked to delegitimize, destabilize and isolate the country through the application of sanctions and various other measures, which could be applied to exploit vulnerabilities.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/WikiLeaks-Cables-Reveal-US-by-Kevin-Gosztola-110806-724.html

Cable here

http://wikileaks.org/cable/2006/12/06DAMASCUS5399.html

KatieLou and Gaffers @895
totally agree with that article. Am apalled at the nonsense going on about the economy, the carbon tax,mining tax etc by the idiotic Abott. That is a different argument to the one gaffers and I are having, which I thnk essentialy comes down whether you believe processing AS’sffshore will stop the boats (and the racism).
Gaffers you believe it will work to stop people smuggling . I don’t.
Apart from that I agree with all you other views on Murdoch, Abbott and the basic gullibilty and ignorance of the voting public – thanks chiefly to Rupert.

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