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Censorship

All through the ages, the first thing the great dictators did when they got into power was to burn the books. There hasn’t been a time throughout history when a dictator hasn’t burned or banned books. Whether it be Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Mao Tse-Tung, Napoleon, Brezhnev, George Bush or Sarah Palin. Even now countries such as China, Saudia Arabia, Iraq, Iran, North Korea and Cuba just to name a few have strong censorship laws.

I came up through the sixties and seventies working for Collins Book Sellers who were battling the Henry Bolte/Aurthur Rylar government’s arcane censorship laws. Books like The Little Red School Book, Portnoy’s Complaint, The Outcasts of Foolgarah, Lady Chatterley’s Lover, were books that we were able to use to challenge the law; along with various editions of Playboy. Gough Whitlam came along and there was a new dawn with books. Most of the old rules were overturned and in Victoria there was very little trouble any more because Bolte was gone. Although in Queensland they still had Joh Bjelke-Petersen.

Labor governments in Australia through the ages have been on the progressive side of censorship. The Howard Government was doing it’s best to bring in strong censorship laws. Once even getting a law that would have had anyone arrest and charged for loading any sort of porn onto the Internet inside or outside the country, that is, if you were uploading porn to the USA you would be charged. It was stopped on the way to getting governors’ approval. Whose definition of porn was it?

I was most relieved when Kevin Rudd was elected. No more trouble with censorship laws. The ALP had more sense. The ALP would have much smarter people working in that department. No more trouble. Imagine my horror when I received an email from my son about the Great Firewall of Australia. You cannot imagine the anger and swear words that came from my mouth. The thing that really disappoints me the most is the amount of talent in the ALP that has not stood up against this law. One person in particular who is my hero, Maxine McKew, for beating John Howard in Bennelong. I have my own personal desktop background of the Bennelong result, she has not been stood up on this issue. Maxine is not the highest person in the ALP but she comes from a very strong media background. I expected that she would have taken a stand on this issue. But Maxine is not alone. There are many others in the ALP who remain silent.

Why won’t the firewall work? First of all, you could never make it a word based program. There are two many words that cross over, for instance the first and most obvious word is sex. If you ban the word sex, you also ban communicating with Middlesex and Sussex, you could never mention the word sextant. You would stop any email with a job application asking the persons sex or any document asking for your sex. That would just about grind the Internet to a halt in Australia. What about Virgin? Well there goes Virgin Airlines, Virginia and West Virginia for a start, then the online bible. Most of the words to do with women’s sexual health would be out. To show how effective a word based censorship firewall is to try blocking the word Viagra in your email. Ads by using the word Viagra will still get through. It cannot be done, because I still get V!agra Vi*gra and Viagr* coming through.

Senator Conroy says he only wants to ban child porn sites. Well I can tell why it won’t stop the child porn sites. Even if he blocked every site it would still get into Australia very, very easily. How? Every laptop coming into the country. Every portable USB hard drive on a key ring. Has anyone mentioned to Senator Conroy that the new portable hard drives can hold over 1Terabyte of information? Then there is Peer to Peer networks. His system won’t be able to block those at all. The record companies have been unsuccessful in stopping them, how is he going to stop them? Anybody with a little bit of computer knowledge can do that. Just ask your kids to show you how. Ask them about Limewire. Peer to Peer networks are a giant whole in Senator Conroy’s firewall, so big you could drive a truck through it.

Point inhibitor, is the first treatment generated in the viagra going to buy cialis daily pills. Doit, on viagra 100mg acheter prix donner des suppléments de racine.

Senator Conroy’s intention is to block illegal websites. He has a budget allocated for that. It will be very difficult to do that for the present standard of the Internet without blocking a lot of innocent sites. But what Senator Conroy has not taken into account the huge explosion of the Internet in the USA that’s about to happen under Barrack Obama. Free up restrictions on the Internet, introducing broadband to large amounts of untouched area’s in the USA. Senator Conroy’s system will slow the Australian Internet down under today’s system. It will be worse when Obama’s Internet kicks in.

Let’s say Senator Conroy is 100% successful in the sites he blocks. All are correct none that shouldn’t be are blocked. The ALP is tossed out at the next election. The Liberals win in a landslide and Tony Abbott is the new Minister for communications. Not a nice thought is it? That would be senator Conroy’s fault.

Senator Conroy’s 40 million dollars would be much better spent and far more effective on extra police to crack down on child pornography. Oh I forgot, he can’t give that to another department can he?

Obama’s Internet Revolution Begins.

http://www.toptechnews.com/news/Obama-Brings-Cyber-Sensibility/story.xhtml?story_id=0320013Q3J4W&full_skip=1

1,645 replies on “Censorship”

Uncle Sam’s once in a lifetime, everything must go, monster sale:

Economists said the tumbling consumer prices offered more evidence that companies ranging from boutiques to airlines to car dealerships were beginning to offer deep discounts to compete for a shrinking pool of disposable cash. Americans have tightened their spending as job losses mounted and easy credit dried up, and retailers are bracing for a punishing holiday shopping season.

“We’re looking at a pretty deep recession now,” Mr. Behravesh said. “ All of a sudden, any pricing power that companies might have had is gone. You’re going to see discounting like crazy going on. All kinds of sales. You’re going to see all kinds of prices being slashed.”

…NY Times

Everything from houses to wristwatches will get sucked into this vortex of falling prices, just at a time when the Fed would dearly love to re-inflate the economy. Inflation brings down the cost of re-paying debts, and deflation does the opposite.

Commodity prices suffered their biggest ever recorded decline last month, so hello, it’s the perfect storm.

Democratic Steering Panel Chooses Waxman Over Dingell.

The House Democratic Steering Committee has nominated Henry A. Waxman to be chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee next year — a stinging rebuke of the sitting chairman, John D. Dingell .

Waxman won a 25-22 vote over Dingell in a closed-door meeting of the Steering panel on Wednesday. Because Dingell got more than 13 votes in the secret balloting, he can be nominated to run against Waxman at Thursday’s Democratic Caucus meeting, at which all of the Democrats elected to the 111th Congress are eligible to vote.

http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?parm1=5&docID=news-000002988176

Local officials will be working in the 87 counties under the scrutiny of top lawyers brought in by candidates Norm Coleman and Al Franken.

Two weeks after the closest U.S. Senate election in Minnesota history, a massive hand recount of all 2.9 million votes gets underway today, with local officials working under the scrutiny of top lawyers brought in by both candidates.

At stake is possible control of the Senate, where Democrats are within a few seats of a filibuster-proof 60-vote majority, putting intense pressure on county auditors who now find they may have to explain every decision they made in the closest race in the country.

http://www.startribune.com/politics/34701314.html?elr=KArksDyycyUtyycyUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUU

295 Cat

Fuck the monster.

There is a big difference between ‘strong’ language and abusive language. I have seen no evidence of abusive language in here (which is what distingishes this place from PB), though, of course, some of us use the occasional ‘fuck’ to express strong feeling or inject humour – or perhaps to describe the outcomes of a recent date.

OK, so we don’t date, but you get my point. Save the monster for abusers (and I suspect the community’s censure of such behaviour would be loud and stern) and let our communication be otherwise uncensored.

FUCK THE MONSTER!

Judge’s decision boosts Franken’s Senate hopes.

A Minnesota judge granted a request by Al Franken’s Senate campaign to gain access to data about absentee ballots that were disqualified in Ramsey County, which heavily favored the Democrat in the general-election vote this month.

A judge ordered Ramsey County, which encompasses the heavily urban area of St. Paul, to produce voter data that could be of use to the Franken campaign by the close of business today.

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/judges-decision-boosts-frankens-senate-hopes-2008-11-19.html

306 Progressive Not bad. I prognosticated that Obama would get 70 million in that competition that KatieLou almost won. Although I would have done better if I had stuck with my original pick of 60 senate seats. It’s going to be close.

All but 6 of the S&P 500 stocks fell last night. When you see that, almost 100% of stocks declining, you are getting close to a huge bounce. When there’s total capitulation like last night, when everyone is hiding under the table in a fetal position, it’s about time to buy.

Interesting times, as they say.

One thing bothers me about this deflation thing: the world’s central banks have been opening the monetary sluice gates in the most unprecedented flooding of financial markets. So why not inflation?

Well, in the long term all this extra liquidity MUST create inflation, the world MUST follow Zimbabwe, (to a lesser degree, but the principle is the same), but just now all that capital is not getting into the marketplace. It’s been doled out to banks who’ve been sitting on it, or buying out smaller competitors (in the US), but it’s not being freely lent out. When it starts to move, look out, today’s bogeyman will disappear as fast as it arrived, and we’ll be in the biggest inflationary mess we’ve ever seen.

Thank you everyone for your support, it’s been a terrible time and obviously I wasn’t coping with it very well yesterday. Today things are a bit better inside my head and whilst still devastated, have more of a grip on things this morning. Your a class act, all of you and I’m very, very grateful to have you as friends

Hi Spammy- glad to see you here. Keep in touch and let us know how you and yours are faring.

Ferny- seems you kept your roof on this time… do you know how any of the others are faring??
And welcome home Megan.

To some it’s a perfect storm, to True Sons of Mammon it’s just another salvage opportunity…………………

Grand Gala Opening at a suburb near you soon!

CRAZY KIRRI’s!!

A customer-friendly, point-of-sale retail lifestyle experience that has Silly Solly’s and Cerebrally Challenged Clark’s managers stringing themselves up in commercial despair in public dunnies from Bunbury to Brissy, from the Atherton Tableland to the East Adelaide Badlands.

All stocks must go. No reasonable offer refused.

Container loads of steak knives are being re-routed from international shipping lanes to Sydney wharves and warehouses as we blog.
————————————————–

MAN DE-PENISED BY CHICKEN
http://www.ifc.com/on-ifc/mediaproject/video?bctid=1875308464

Also recommended viewing for MA 15+ is Episode 2: Gates.

All of which suggests that the MSM are pitching to a diminishing demographic of de-cashed, deliberately dumbed-down dunces who can no longer be corralled in sufficient numbers to guarantee that GOPper & Allied retain their military-industrial strength suction upon taxpayer monies “housed” in the U.S. Federal Reserve.

New Media (that includes us, peoples) are the mutant Golden Staph of The Fourth Estate.
The bug is no longer snug in Rubesville’s rug.
As long as electrons can course the intertubes unencumbered
And information can be satellited, Wi-Fied or tom-tom drummed,
We shall remain relatively free from the tyranny that so obsesses authoritarians about the lives of others whose destinies they seek to control.

Ecky- judging by that lyrical and incisive post your furniture is not floating out the front door.
Or was your area not as badly hit?

jen, mercifully Min & G. et moi live on a hill, so if furniture is floating out our front door, the Sunny Coast hinterland would have to be under water. Cosmic billiards being what it is these days, the ugly spectre of a massive meteor strike in the Pacific Ocean or Tasman Sea inducing another monster wave like the one that hit the East Coast of Oz about 50 years (cf. Tim Flannery’s The Future Eaters et al.) before whitefellah planted flags everywhere…….. keeps us gratefully suckin’ down each glorious day as it comes for as long as they keep on a comin’.

http://users.tpg.com.au/users/tps-seti/spacegd7.html#tsunamiimpact

In the fullness of time going forward, we are all but fodder for fate’s fickle finger. Show me a man who should have taken that left hand turn at Alburquerque and I’ll show you a duck who went apeshit just trying to deal with the consequences.

Chris: I read that some of the states haven’t yet counted their absentee/early votes, so Obama’s total could go above 70 million.

Ecky, well may you jest, but the accounts of the imported cars piling up on the US docks are a fair indicator that the monster sale is only just begun. (Of course here we have the two big US car financiers pulling out and leaving a whopping hole in the auto industry.)

The Seppos are in for some big shocks and Obama’s got one hell of a mess on his hands.

Spammy
Great to see you on deck. Hang in there mate.

299
Megan
I will pass on your condolences to Spammy.

Geez, I don’t know if there is a workable solution for the Detroit car manufacturers. I heard the CEO’s saying before a committee last night that their problesm were caused by the financial crisis, and not by them or their long term strategies. I disagree. They haven’t adjusted to smaller, more fuel efficient, more environmentally friendly vehicles. I also heard that the $25bn they want will cover operating losses for a couple of months. It won’t fix anything. But then, I understand also that their workforce is 2% of the US workforce. Imagine those millions of unemployed?

I dunno, but I think if there is any assistance, it has to be tied to innovation, so there’s a chance the industry can adapt and be viable. Or maybe they should give up and use the money to retrain and support the unemployed. Otherwise it’s just money thrown down the drain, imo.

322
Katielou

It’s life support, and temporary at that KL. As painful to the broader economy as it will undoubtedly be, funneling billions into the furnace with no end in sight will actually cause more harm in the long run.

And yes, they brought it on themselves, paid lobbyists to muscle Congress to keep their gas guzzlers churning out, and look where that got them: less and less market share.

Time to pull the plug, and better that they let it happen at the arse end of Dubbya’s horrid regime than have Obama being seen as the guy who sunk the auto industry. (He’s been making noises about rescue, but he MUST do that, even if the sagest advice is that it’s really a lost cause.)

Nup, they’re gone, either in a few months, or a few tens of billions later.

Good point about timing Kirri – I agree. And Obama has more important things to do with the money – like making some lasting structural changes that will actually help the economy (health care, for example).

Kirri and Katie

We might get an idea on the car industries future tomorrow when Henry Waxman and John Dingell go head to head for the Chairmans spot on the Energy Committee.

Dingell(from Michigan) has held the position for decades and until the last year has been gas guzzler friendly and the car industry’s best(but in hindsight, maybe worst) friend.

Waxman is more progressive and new energy focused.

You get the feeling that Waxman has Obama’s nod and that energy , along with the economy as a whole, is where Obama is planning to hit the ground running in Jan.

I think Detroit will be propped up, but the models( both business and car) will change drastically.

Who really knows if it’s possible though.

323
Kirri
While I agree that “they brought it on themselves, paid lobbyists to muscle Congress to keep their gas guzzlers churning out” it also equals a lot of unemployment and misery.

I think its time for Governments to revisit the Meidner Plan – particularly the share levy etc, meaning that effectively the workers would end up as significant shareholders.

I would appreciate your thoughts on this

And whatever you do Catrina do not unleash the monster on the Rude Pundit.

327
HH
Yep Harry that was a good read.

328 Grace

The academic jury may still be out on the Swedish social engineering, but one thing is certain, the time has run out for Detroit. It’s way too late to attempt a re-write of their collective failures, and sure, it’s going to be bloody awful, but it’s going to be no matter how it’s handled. It’s a slow death or a quick one; take your pick. As some have already pointed out, 25 billion is chicken feed at the rate these companies are bleeding cash, so what would a real re-capitalisation and re-structure cost? God knows, but it would be a horrendous sum, and given that government can’t change management overnight, (nor pick better managers), there’s no guarantee that would work anyway.

Nup, putting that much capital at risk with a slim chance of turning it around does not seem like a good idea to me, and besides, car manufacturing will end up migrating to India and China anyway.

Detroit is defunct, they just have to do a Terry Schiavo on it, and remove the life support. It’s already functionally dead.

HarryH @ 331

My favourite quote from that piece…

Suffice it to say, the Republican Party is largely comprised of white, married Christians. Anyone watching the two conventions last summer can’t have missed the stark differences: One party was brimming with energy, youth and diversity; the other felt like an annual Depends sales meeting.

Hehe. Parker’s sure brave, but right on the money, imo.

Harry- loved that!
I remember reading somewhere not so long ago that the religious zealotry had reached such ludicrous levels that people held hands and said grace in restaurants FFS!!!!!
No wonder the entire planet has held Americans in such contempt – they mostly deserved it. At least they have redeemed themselves recently.

Parliament wants commission to draft equal pay legislation.

MEPs have overwhelmingly called on the European Commission to ensure that women are paid as much as men at work.

They complain that the existing legislation – now in place for some 30 years – is well out of date, and want the EU to ensure employers stop discriminating – possibly under the threat of fines.

http://euobserver.com/9/27134

EU preparing green help for ailing car industry.

The European Union is preparing targeted action rather than an overall bailout to help the auto sector, one of Europe’s biggest employers that is in crisis as the credit crunch bites.

The auto sector has become the second front in the economic battle being waged, after EU member states made large-scale rescue efforts to aid Europe’s worst-hit banks.

However officials in Brussels want to make sure the aid is closely targeted and eco-friendly.

Hopefully the USA will head in the same direction. It would be very helpful if they had similar plans.
http://www.eubusiness.com/news-eu/1227100623.14

Yep KL
Another major storm is bearing down on Bris right now – following a storm last night that brought serious flooding, and the weekend horror mini cyclone.

Personally I blame that Palin woman. She found out where I lived and has called on plague and pestilence to smite me

Thank God for Sarah Ferny. At least someone realises what a true monster you are. Hope you’ve said your prayers, loaded the ark and have prepared to meet your maker.
Meanwhile….. Down here in the south, I’m preparing to celebrate the GF’s birthday with Freedom Fizz and the finest Chinese food that Melb can provide.
I promise I’ll think of yoiu and Mrs Ferny, as I stuff myself with Peking Duck.
Seriously, hope it’s all OK up there and the skies stop weeping all over you.
Cheers from the madness in Melb.

Recount: Norm Coleman’s lead over Al Franken shrinks.

The Great Minnesota Recount kicked off Wednesday with masses of volunteers for Republican U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman and Democratic challenger Al Franken moving into a fresh phase of the struggle: eyeballing the first of 2.9 million ballots, ready to pounce on anything that looked questionable.

By day’s end, with about 18 percent of the vote recounted, Coleman continued to lead Franken — but by only 174 votes, notably narrower than the unofficial gap of 215 votes at which the recount had begun. Franken’s gain owed much to a swing of 23 votes in the Democratic stronghold of St. Louis County — the result of faintly marked ballots and older optical scanners that failed to read the marks.

http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/senate/34736454.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aULPQL7PQLanchO7DiUs

Yep Ferny. I just had a look at the radar and the colour today says seriously heavier rain than yesterday.
Hang in ther batten down.

Arizonan will head Homeland Security.

Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano (D) has been chosen to serve as secretary of the vast and troubled Department of Homeland Security for President-elect Obama, Democratic officials said. Napolitano is a border governor who will now be responsible for immigration policy and border security, which are part of Homeland Security’s myriad functions.

Napolitano brings law-and-order experience from her stint as the Grand Canyon State’s first female attorney general. One of the nation’s most prominent female elected officials, she made frequent appearances on behalf of Barack Obama during the campaign. She was re-elected to a second four-year term in 2006.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1108/15815.html

Daschle Picked To Lead Health and Human Services.

Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle is President-elect Barack Obama ’s choice to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, an appointment that many Democrats predict will greatly help with efforts next year to overhaul the health care system.

A Democratic congressional aide confirmed that Daschle would be nominated to head the department. The aide requested anonymity because the nomination has not been publicly announced by Obama or his office.

http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docID=news-000002988253

Ga. Democrat gets campaign help from Bill Clinton.

Former President Bill Clinton on Wednesday appealed to Georgians to send Democrat Jim Martin to Washington arguing the state’s hotly contested Senate runoff must provide a “bridge not a firewall” to the progress promised by President-elect Barack Obama.

“The hopes of America are riding with Georgia,” Clinton told a rally at Clark Atlanta University, a historically black college.

Democrats are within two seats of a 60-vote majority that would give Obama a stronger hand in Washington and Georgia is one of two unresolved Senate races. Martin is locked in a tight Dec. 2 runoff against Republican incumbent Saxby Chambliss.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/G/GEORGIA_SENATE?SITE=CONGRA&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

In Minnesota, Franken Wins a Skirmish.

With just 215 votes separating him from Republican incumbent Norm Coleman, every possible uncounted ballot matters to Al Franken. And so the ruling from the Ramsey County District Court, while small, might well be a critical skirmish that the former comedian can claim as he tries to win the war of attrition that is Minnesota’s Senatorial recount. The Democratic Party’s ability to overcome filibusters in the Senate may depend on the outcome.

http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1860734,00.html

Kirri
I have found a website that almost agrees with your take on the future of the auto industry. Some interesting reading!

Never forget: President Bush, Treasury Secretary Paulson, Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke and president-elect Barack Obama have declared — unanimously and unambiguously — that this is “the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.” Now, brace yourself for seven horsemen of the Apocalypse that could strike next year with great fury, speed and power………………

Moody’s has slashed its ratings on both GM and Chrysler bonds to Caa2. That’s not just “junk”; it’s deep, deep junk, eight notches below investment grade. These are bonds that, according to Moody’s own definition, “may be in default” or have “present elements of danger with respect to principal or interest.” In sum, GM is on the razor’s edge of bankruptcy even before the recession deepens.

http://www.martinweiss.com/Articles/Article.asp?ArticleID=7634

Gaffy, they are spot on, this has been brewing for years, and ‘bailing them out’ is just a bottomless well in which to throw away some more taxpayers money.

Of course that might not stop Congress from doing just that! LOL

Howdy y’all. ’tis great to see the blogging rolls on. So the poitics has worked out pretty well, but the economy is going from bad to worse. The de-leveraging has only just begun, I’m afraid….maybe we are 5% into the souffle….a long way to go yet. The whole world is about to start re-gurgitating dollars. Lawd alone knows what will happen then, but it won’t be good for our own battler or its kiwi half-brother….Any takers on the S&P 500 @ 200 by the end of 2009?…Could easily happen….oil is so cheap that even the majors will soon be struggling to turn a quid, and the Emerging Market producers are going to have to boost output (rather than cut it) to make ends meet. Meanwhile, manufacturing – incuding, but not limited to, autos – is globally super-sized and will have to shrink….finance has to shrink by maybe 80% from peak levels….tech is going to have margins ripped to pieces…shipping is in for a terrible decade…property and construction will have to get used to 50’s and 60’s style products….no more mcmansions, praise the debt-collectors….travel and tourism will go down-scale…..will we all be rooned, along with Warren Buffet?

It’s time to re-read Steinbeck…..and take up drinking….

personally, i think they should save the auto industry….take a long-term view: put em in chapter eleven bankruptcy, but recapitalise them with transitional govt help and then set about down-scaling the n. american industry….and i think they should apply similar principles to other parts of the economy….that is, if they still want to have an economy in, say 3 years time…..the govt of course has to fix the budget at the same time…time for wealthy boomers and dinks and gen xers to give up some of their hard-earned….time for tough love in america…

I was watching the Senate hearings last night about the auto bailout and they had the 3 CEO’s of GM, Chrysler and Ford.

One Senator incredulously asked them how they came down to the hearings to beg for Taxpayer money to help their ailing companies.

Each one of them had flown individually in the company lear jet.

I mean, how stupid and tone deaf can these idiots be. Would it not have occurred to them that it might be smarter to fly down commercial.

I mean here they are begging for massive amounts of hard up taxpayer money and they haven’t even sold the company f*ckin lear jets.

I worked for life insurance companies for about 20 years, in the actuarial field. In the 1970s, most executives were about as bright as Sarah Palin on a so-so day – almost all were time servers and arse lickers (don’t enquire about the petty arseholes who kept the troups in check with pettiness about showing up at 8.31am rather that 8.30am.

The actuaries had to keep them all in line, which was OK because then the whole industry was so heavily regulated that even a twit could make money.

Later. my experience in excecutive roles was like a tour through “Dilbert World”. There were people who wanted to get things done and solve problems flexibly (me) and the other 98% of flakes, incompetents and dills. (In some ways it was better when I moved into the public sector but in more ways it was worse; the mindlessly vindictive were heavier on the ground because you couldn’t fire the bastards or change their duties without a Royal Commission, an Act of Parliament and the approval of Betty Windsor.)

George Marshal used the General Motors structure as model to modernise the US Military in the 1940s. It looks like George Bush updated that model to the GM in the 2000s for the whole of his Administration.

The debate is not about whether GM, Ford and Chrysler go under. Its the form of the rescue, which ideally will include curtailment of bonuses, excessive salaries as well as a great purge of useless executives – i.e. senior management and anyone designated a sycophant. The current senior managements and boards have to go. They need to be replaced by CEOs who are very smart, and accept a pay scales at most 24 (say) times the lowest paid worker. have a plan and, most importantly, who can walk the floor and convince the workers to come on board to the new standards that include quality for the $, environmentally friendly products and benefits that are in line with profits. (Which will be easier if Obi’s health reforms go through :))

Chris

They arent fcukin around in the USA with the new internet

InternetforEveryone.org — a public-private sector initiative to connect every American to a fast, open and affordable Internet — will hold its first town hall meeting on Dec. 6 in Los Angeles. This event is the first of a nationwide series designed to build popular support for making universal Internet access a top priority for the new administration and Congress.

http://www.freepress.net/node/45727

Three words stick out like the dogs proverbials in the article.
Hope Conrod reads them!

FAST, OPEN, AFFORDABLE.

Compare our

SLOW, CENSORED, DEAR AS POISON variety.

Restoring America’s Broadband Leadership

Since 2001, the United States has fallen from fourth in the world in broadband penetration to 15th in the world today. While American consumers face high prices and few choices, many of our European and Asian counterparts have achieved the goals of universal deployment and competitive markets. Returning to the top of international rankings would translate into millions of new jobs and hundreds of billions of dollars in increased economic activity for the United States.

I think the Internet is a bit too much like education. That’ why the conservatives don’t like it, in any country.
http://www.internetforeveryone.org/index.cfm?objectid=BA7FECBC-1D09-317F-BBE3E4B63ACD5BAF

356
Cardster

i.e. senior management and anyone designated a sycophant.

Yes but which sycophant decides which other sycophant has to go?

They need to be replaced by CEOs who are very smart, and accept a pay scales at most 24 (say) times the lowest paid worker. have a plan and, most importantly, who can walk the floor and convince the workers to come on board to the new standards that include quality for the $,

Lots of modern day old fart boards when confronted by an up and coming smart exec usually get rid of them so they don’t lose their seat on the board.

HEY GOD!!
Piss on Brisbane one more time and me and the mates are gonna jump up and grab ya by the God balls and then we’re gonna squeeze. If fact, we’re gonna squeeze so fucken hard that your Almighty nuts will look like raisins and Mrs God will think she’s suckin’ on empty elbow skin.
You hearin me God??! Be WARNED: We will take any further storm activity in or around Brisbane as a divine directive to go NUTS!
Capiche?!

Needless to say Ecky and Roxanna (have we met?) that Ferny Grove is once again soggy – but safe.

I’m watchin’ you God.

The problem for the US is that GWB (no 10000000000000000000000000000000000000000 out of 43 as a president) is still in charge for 2 months and the vindictive, Lord Dolly mindset intends to harm his successor at the expense of his country.

I believe Wya needs to “enjoy” multiple up-close-and-personal experiences with the angry end of a bull-prod to accept the error of his ways. (Oh, shit – the bastard’s brain has probably been so fried by crystal-am that he wouldn’t notice the fucking prod 🙁 )

Gaffhook 361
Exactly!

A mate of mine position was “made redundatnt’ for discovering that his major bank’s computer balancing system failed to include any welfare payments from the Federal Government!

Go figure

Maybe the new BO government should let the automakers go down the shitter and pump the money in to vehicles like this.

AFS Trinity Power Corporation today announced it pulled its 150 MPG plug-in hybrid SUV prototypes out of the LA Auto Show but will independently exhibit and demonstrate the super fuel-efficient vehicles on their own elsewhere in downtown LA during the show.

The company’s decision followed actions by the LA Auto Show to muzzle AFS Trinity from highlighting the 150 miles per gallon fuel economy of its XH150 prototype vehicles. The suppression by the automakers of information about technologies such as this raises serious questions about the judgment, vision, intentions and capabilities of the leadership of these companies, said Edward W. Furia, Chairman and CEO of AFS Trinity.

http://www.scientificblogging.com/news_releases/afs_trinity_150_mpg_suv_being_suppressed_auto_industry

Instant Runoff Voting

Yesterday’s posting mentioned that Bob Bird got 12,000 votes in Alaska that would undoubtedly otherwise have gone to Ted Stevens. As a consequence of his presence on the ballot, Mark Begich was elected, something Bird voters probably did not want. Several readers mentioned that the problem lies in the voting system. There are other voting systems, such as instant runoff voting that handle this kind of situation much better. In IRV, as it is called, the voter is asked to mark his or her first choice, second choice, etc. on the ballot. Conceptually, when the votes are counted, they are sorted into piles based on everyone’s first choice (which in the case of the Alaska Senate race would have contained a pile for Bird with 12,000 votes). If some candidate gets 50% of the votes, he or she wins and the election is over.

What a good idea, maybe we should introduce instant run off voting here.
http://www.electoral-vote.com

Senate GOP in big funk.

A day after losing Ted Stevens’ seat, along with their best hope for getting Joe Lieberman to cross over, Senate GOP leaders preached party unity as the key to surviving the Obama years.

If that doesn’t work, there’s always psychotherapy.

Down to 42 seats with two still at risk, Senate Republicans are in a deep funk. Some are in denial. Some want a return to conservative principles. Some want to cut deals. Some want more filibusters.

Others want to jump out a window — but they’re afraid they’d screw that up, too.

“We probably wouldn’t die,” a Republican Senate aide joked Wednesday. “We’d just lie there, hurt and suffering, which is not too much different from where we are now.”

Two years ago, the Republicans held a 55-45 majority. They’re down 13 seats since then, with a too-close-to-call race in Minnesota and a runoff in Georgia still to come.

Oh dear, what can the matter be? Oh dear what can the matter be? 😈

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1108/15812.html

Ferny, very impressed with you latest passtime as Muscler of the Omnipotent.
Pretty soon you’ll be making Zeus an offer he can’t refuse, gaving Shiva a bit of static and bothering Buddha bigtime.

“Make with The Enlightenment pronto, pal, or me an’ da boys are seriously gonna shake your tree!”

Big Picture-wise and cognizant of their individual retaliatory capacities, guess you have to carefully choose the days when you launch in boots and all.

Life is great – but life sucks.

I have a dilemma – one one hand there is this thing that I’m dealing with which is a rolled gold failure scenario – on the other hand when I scratch around and dig below the surface I can see bits of reality shinning though like blades of light illuminating a dark, damp and musty room. In search of mental equilibrium I’m posting a comment on Politic 101 because at the end of the day this place is my quasi-stress-free-I-can-think-out-loud-zone. Apologies to everyone because I known that days are passing and things are happening here and I’m not as in sync as I want to be – especially to Chris B – there are issues out there on the censorship subject that care deeply about but there is this other planet where stuff is happening and I know that if you guys know what I know you guys would be be telling me to go do my stuff (and telling me with a passion that can change the world). I just want to apologise for not being what I should be but at the same time I want to say that there is a chance that you guys may be really proud of what I may achieve. So let me rephrase the status quo: life sucks, and life is great, and don’t forget … we can change the world.

Cat, these “It was the best of times. It was the worst of times” moments are the stuff of life.

You don’t owe any apologies here, ma’am, indeed you’ve much to be proud of as your “*twinkle*” yesterday suggested. Without your determination, leadership, oversight, long hours and engine room savvy our site would not have achieved genesis.

May I suggest you move among the shards of light that scythe the “dark, dank and musty room”. Take your time. Before drifting into slumber each night, broadcast the “known knowns” of your present dilemma to the universe before your subconscious slips its earthly shackles and bounds free to frolic where it will go. Meanwhile, your onboard computer will do all the slog work.
Perspective and your path will be revealed sooner rather than later.

Catrina, go change our world!

Disclaimer: Though familiar with the writings of Gurdjieff, Madame Blavatsky and Harry Houdini, I have never been a devotee of their philosophies nor have I ever worked for John Sands greeting cards nor been a paid writer of fortune cookies.
🙂

[Needless to say Ecky and Roxanna (have we met?)]
I used to be Tassieannie in the leadup to last year’s election. Enthusiastic reader, infrequent poster. Glad all is well for now.

G’ Day Gang,

Very kind of you Gaffy, but Billy Boy was a heavy hitter compared to this little sleeper cell dilettante.

A Beta male’s (he sure ain’t no Alpha) response to the Darwinianly selective problem of mandibular alopecia.
http://news.yahoo.com/comics/thequigmans;_ylt=A0WTUfDkzSVJh0oBmgQDwLAF

Lucy van Pelt and Danae Pyle, two American kids not unlike Jack and Diane, “tryin’ to do the best they can”, saw a chance to turn a buck at Lobbying.
So they took it!
http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoon/display.cfm/63032

First……. it was kiddies who were gunned down on neighbour’s porches when trick or treating at Halloween, but with the sudden upturn in Sep-side front doorstep homicides in 08, our Ticster Investigation Team (TITsters) have unearthed another contributory factor——-
Pollsters Who Refuse to Drop Off.
http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoon/display.cfm/63036

Chris B @366
IRV! great idea.. but could you explain to the Septics how your friend Conroy managed to engineer it so the family first with 2% of the vote (they actually lost their deposit) could get a senate seat that should have gone to the Greens! I bet even Conroy wishes he hadn’t been such a smart arse. But I guess he’ll never learn. He’d probably try to arrange with Ralph Nader to have McCain win California!!

BTW, chrisb, he’d probably try to ban political discussions on the internet, because 18 year olds are too impressionable.

Hello Cat:
What’s this mean?
“I just want to apologise for not being what I should be but at the same time I want to say that there is a chance that you guys may be really proud of what I may achieve. So let me rephrase the status quo: life sucks, and life is great, and don’t forget … we can change the world.”

Sounds like you’re in a moral conflict – feeling the pull to go against your own values in order to achieve a greater good. I know that feeling all too well. And because of that experience I also know that sometimes we use the ‘greater good’ argument to justify doing something we’re not comfortable with. We humans are cunning little buggers when it comes to silencing the angel on our shoulder.

So, take courage and do what you must. Just make sure your appraisal of the situation is an honest one. And if it it is, then there’s no reason to apologise for not being what you should be – cos you’ll be acting in accordance with who you are.

If ever there was evidence that The Monthly has lost the plot and is desperate to find ANYTHING to fill its pages, it’s an article this month by Robert Forster on “Hair Care” – yep – he was just bursting to share with us everything life has taught him about looking after one’s follicles. The Monthly obviously aspires to become the Women’s Weekly. And then there’s Robert Manne’s endless (it goes on and on and on and on – get a good editor Robert for chrissakes) paeon of praise for Rudd. Yawn. And will someone please tell Don Watson that “The Nation Reviewed” is meant to be about THIS nation. If you want to add an addendum to your recent book on your American travels, it belongs elsewhere. (The editors share in this criticism.)

For these sins….and several others, most notably the increasing conceit and tedium of most of its contents … and the Rolex ads – I will not be resubscribing.

Shame. It showed promise once. Oh for a decent political/social journal in this country!! THank Gawd for the net, eh.

The beast that prowled down Wall Street has gorged itself and is now turned down Main Street and devouring all in its path:

Economists said the swelling jobless numbers were creating a vicious circle between Wall Street’s losses and the afflictions of the broader economy.

“The profit drag on corporate America is widening and deepening, and this is leading to more layoffs and cutbacks in capital spending, which is extending and deepening the recession,” said Stuart Schweitzer, global markets strategist for J.P. Morgan Private Bank. “We’ve gotten into a full-blown, self-feeding downturn.”

A hell of their own making is descending on them, and all they can say is “Hello Iceland”.

378 Gippslander Exactly. Even though it is used here. Not everyone is happy. It depends on the situation and the end result. If it gets the result you like its good, if it gets the result you don’t like, go back to the old system.

It is only early days in the Minnesota recount but things promising in that they apparently have not started recounting the Franken stronghold vote areas as yet!

Coleman leads Franken 195,638 votes to 180,923 for an edge of 14,715. That might seem like good news for Coleman, but in reality it represents a net loss of 70 votes from the original count for Coleman and a net loss of only 27 votes for Franken, so among undisputed ballots Franken has cut Coleman’s lead by 43 votes.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Minnesota-Recount-Update-by-Steven-Freeman-081120-838.html

Cat, we’re proud of you no matter what happens!

You go girl, and do what you must.

By the way, we’re off for a long weekend down the South Coast, staying with friends on the beach. It’s a bit of a celebration really, as I’ve just had the results of my PET scan, and I am, for now at least, all clear.

All that hell during treatment is now just a memory, and I’m left with a ‘second belly button’ (where my feeding tube once was!), and an aversion to alcohol! (Mrs K reckons that’s a v.good outcome!).

Thanks to all who sent me their best wishes during my darkest times, you kept me in good cheer and good company.

Bye, ‘aveagoodweekend!

374 Katielou This just goes to show there are massive changes taking place. The old guard is being swept aside.

FANTASTIC news Kirri!! You have been in all our thoughts.

But GEEZ man! An aversion to booze??!! I’ll slit my wrists on your behalf.

Quite an interesting read on one Alaskans views on telling Olberman to get rooted!

I’m like many Alaskans, just not the one you’ve been forced to get to know lately. I know what newspapers I read. I know Africa is NOT a country. I know Stephen Harper is the Prime Minister of Canada, and I know he has T.V. perfect hair. I know who makes up NAFTA – which I thought was a crock when it passed. My favorite birthday present this year was the return of Habeas Corpus in a 5-4 US Supreme Court decision on June 12th.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Keith-Olbermann-Broke-Up-W-by-Shannyn-Moore-081120-616.html

385
Great news Kirri.
I also was aquainted with the aversion to booze about five years ago and funnily enough now i do not miss it.
Downside of it was that i only saved four dollars a week because i home brewed, not $28 a week with the pub stuff.

C’mon Gaffy. Get with it. An aversion to beer is no loss at all. But imagine not being able to savour a fine Aussie wine??
Or even a not-so-fine Aussie wine!
Some things just make life worth living.

Is Obama Wooing McCain?

Christopher Orr speculates that by making nice with Sen. Joe Lieberman, President-elect Obama gives “a kind of peace offering to John McCain, a sign that there are no hard feelings and that Obama is serious about working with the ‘other’ side… Assuming he’s on the list of Republicans with at least occasionally ‘gettable’ votes on Obama’s priorities (along with Snowe, Collins, etc.) what better way to get him… than to use his pal Joe as a goodwill ambassador?”

Obama wins over half a dozen moderate Republicans in this manner and the Democrats will have no problem with the senate. If he succeeds in doing this, all I can say is the man is brilliant. The Repugs will become irrelevant.
http://politicalwire.com/archives/2008/11/20/is_obama_wooing_mccain.html

McCain can help them get over the magic 60 number in the Senate. He loves to think of himself as a maverick, and what better way to prove it than to vote with the other side. Also if the Republicans slag off about McCain for losing the election, he may just have a bit more motivation to get all mavericky.

394 Katielou Obama is brilliant. This will unblock everything for his agenda. Two years of progress = landslide of massive proportions in 2010.

I was thinking – you know all the drama about whether Bill Clinton’s business and charitable activites compromise the appointment of Hillary as Secretary of State, why wasn’t this also a big problem for her potential presidential candidate nomination? If it would be a problem for the Sec of State, wouldn’t it also be a problem if Hillary were President?

391
Ferny

Or even a not-so-fine Aussie wine!

Ah yes that was it.
Medicinal port from the chemist at the top of Kings Cross after 10 PM closing at 2 bob a bottle.
Code words being “Hey mate Granny’s sick!”
Well and truly round the world for ten bob.
In the ’60s that was.

396
No katielou because as the president if any one muck raked she could pre-emptively bomb the livin daylights out of them.
Bein the CIC and all that would make anyone nervous about spillin beans so to speak.

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