Categories
Open Thread

To Term Or Not To Term?

That is the existential question of our elected parliament. One of the most fascinating aspects of contemporary Oz Politics is the relationship between the NBN-phobic Rupert Murdoch and Neville Wran’s former Silk du Jour—now shadow Comms Minister—Petit Mal de Wentworth, the loyal Liberal tasked by his Dear Leader to not merely remove from the national agenda, but to DESTROY our NBN.

Pokud se chcete zaregistrovat, je nutné zaškrtnout souhlas se zprácováním osobních údajů. Doporučili byste tuto suplementaci, pokud ano, tak pouze vitamínu k1 nebo společně lekarnavceske k1 a d1 anebo k1, d1 a ca.

Call it a hunch , but after the way Fontleroy Wentworth was rolled from the tory top spot by the Monky Prince with the OO’s nod, I don’t believe the man who conjured Godwin Grech is too fond of Rupert OR Anthony! Some commentators see Malcs as being in the Death Seat. I don’t. Without the pressures of opposition leadership perpetually upon him, I think Malcolm Turnbull, one of the greatest bullshit artists to ever grace the hallowed halls of our Capital, has the patience and smarts to fuck both Abbott and Rupert.

Windsor and Oakeshott stated the NBN was a major factor in them going with Gillard.

The stakes couldn’t be higher. The control of the NEW medium— and thus the message— is up for grabs. Staggeringly until quite recently, the new paradigm came as a surprise to Rupert’s arse. As we’ve been witnessing, the day of the msm locusts is at hand. Hyper-alert,”trained” paparazzi are poised to swarm the first whiff of centre-leftist blood. Bewildered backbenchers have been told to cancel all travel and holiday plans. Klutzes are being coccooned; motor-mouths, muzzled. Good old-fashioned Team Play is flavour of the month in Party rooms.
We should be so lucky already. Let us rejoice in this year of the Team Player!

Kinda makes a guy wanna rush out and join a power-breakfast worship group.

How would Leo Strauss or Niccy Machiavelli, Gould of The Hill or Plouffe & Axelrod read this one?
Shall this government of ours, Ticsters, proceed to term or is the rule of Ranga I of Oz rife for Abbortion?

801 replies on “To Term Or Not To Term?”

Yes gaffy. I have trouble with people who say it won’t work or it won’t happen. Without providing any evidence.

Mornin Ticsters.
Fairly heavy unseasonal rain here for the last 6 hours and forecast rain for about 4 days.
Probably nothing to do with climate change.

Gillard opens door on euthanasia.
**************************

THE terminally ill could be granted the right to die after Prime Minister Julia Gillard backed a conscience vote on restoring the authority of territories to legalise euthanasia.

Fourteen years after the Northern Territory became the first place in the world to legalise euthanasia – only to be overridden nine months later by the Howard government – Greens leader Bob Brown pledged his first priority would be a bill to restore the territories’ power to pass euthanasia laws.

”This won’t bring in euthanasia, but it will restore the rights of the territorians to be able to legislate for euthanasia the same as everyone in the states,” Senator Brown, a former GP, told Channel Ten.

Wedge politics. The mad monk has been cornered.

more here….
http://www.theage.com.au/national/gillard-opens-door-on-euthanasia-20100919-15hyz.html?autostart=1

Guillard will find more popular issues like this that the mad monk cannot support. 😈 The real Abbott will be found!

Chris B,

Many from the Labor Party will vote against this in a conscience vote, so it does not really wedge Abbott all that much. I am hoping that it passes, but it is hard to judge how it will go.

107 David Gould Many from the Liberal Party will vote for it too. The general population is for it. Abbott will have to take a stance. Wedged.

Chris B,

Personally, I do not think that Abbott is wedged if he takes a stand on this issue. ‘Wedging’ is generally used as a term for describing putting forward a policy on which your party is united but on which the opposition party is divided in order to expose those divisions.

As an example, the climate change legislation was used politically by the ALP to wedge the coalition, knowing that all of Labor would stick together on it while the Liberals and the Nationals would tear themselves to pieces over it.

Basically, if you are arguing that Abbott will be wedged over this then you are also arguing that Gillard will be, too, as neither party is united on this issue.

“Wedge politics. The mad monk has been cornered.

Chris, agree.

Sure it will go to a conscience vote, David, but Abbott is duty bound to oppose it on behalf of Holy Mother Church despite over 80% of Australians and over 90% of Territorial Darwinians supporting voluntary euthanasia. Also, David, after the gathering at the MCG honouring the victims of last year’s Vic. fires the eulogy was delivered by a secular person and not any of the “pie in the sky when you die mob” who were officially seated in the second row. Very significant social change.

More scales will fall from Australian voters’ eyes as Monky, Andrews and Co.insist that citizens die in an “approved manner” rather than decide what is best for themselves. Only the brainwashed believe that The State or establishment (tax freeloaders) religions have ownership of our births and deaths.

Another feature of this beautifully timed political gambit by Bobby Brown is that it will take lots of to and fro time. Every day of parliamentary sittings taken up by debate that frames Abbott as hopelessly out of touch with the electorate is a good day in the lead up to July 1 BoP realities.

Good on you Dr. Philip Nitschke! Thank you for having the courage and determination to keep the voluntary euthanasia banner flying through the dark days of the rodent.

DG, if not a “wedge”, then how about a nudge……. into a stance redolent for deep scrutiny. 🙂

It should be noted that all states in Australia have the right to legalise euthanasia. None have done so. This indicates that the political parties do not consider it a cut and dried issue in the minds of the Australian people.

Whatever the politics of it, I hope that it passes and that in turn we get the legislation in the ACT.

There just may be a big shit fight developing internally in the GOPpers. Turd Blossom is the elephant in the room and now Sarah the Moose hunter is taunting him.

So not only does she appear to playfully taunt Rove with the “go to, here” line, she implied that he was in the dark about what’s really happening in the Republican Party. For if he weren’t in the dark, why would he need to visit Iowa to “see the light?”

http://www.opednews.com/populum/linkframe.php?linkid=118859

Cook Shifts Alaska Senate to “Likely Republican”
***************************************
The Cook Political Report has moved its rating of the Alaska U.S. Senate race from “Solid Republican” to “Likely Republican” in the wake of Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s planned write-in bid.

“While Murkowski is well-known and retains a reservoir of goodwill among voters, history has not been kind to write-in candidates and Murkowski’s path to victory is extremely steep. Still, Murkowski’s decision adds enough uncertainty, particularly in the absence of polling to provide some guidance, that we are moving the race to the Likely Republican column.”

Nate Silver says Murkowski “indeed stands a chance — and more than a trivial chance — in her write-in bid. The race would probably be competitive if Ms. Murkowski were running a conventional, independent candidacy. And there is not sufficient evidence to conclude that being a write-in will harm her to the point that she is not viable in a race where she otherwise would have been.”

http://politicalwire.com

The Executive Director of the Sydney Institute is not amused!

Hangdog Henderson slurs $weetie’s bro as the wrong kind of “Liberal Lover”. Tim Costello has outed himself as an unabashed Centre-Leftist and can therefore no longer call himself a true Blue Liberal.

“Turnbull must learn to pull his head in
September 21, 2010 smh

On Sky News last week, Tim Costello declared his (political) love for Malcolm Turnbull. It was all very touching – and all very well. Except the head of World Vision Australia is not – and has never claimed to be – a Liberal Party supporter. Rather, Costello has invariably taken a position on the centre-left in the domestic political debate…….

Turnbull, on a good day, is a plus for the opposition. Yet his policies on climate change – and his socially progressive beliefs documented in Annabel Crabb’s essay Stop At Nothing – are far from popular in the outer suburbs and regional areas where most marginal seats are located.

Turnbull may become a team player. Or he may become yet another Liberal who spends much time criticising the party he once led – in the tradition of the late John Gorton, Malcolm Fraser and John Hewson. They are the kind of Liberals whom Tim Costello loves.”

Poor Jeddy doesn’t appear to be taking the election loss of his co-religionist, Monk Negative, terribly well at all.
Such are the vicissitudes of the professesional, political arse-hoover.

I wonder if it is a case of payback is a bitch.
Laura Canary was the most prominent Gopper in the Don Siegelman jailing episode.
David is this a CT or just a coincidence?

As Riley’s two terms are winding down, bodies are piling up. Is that coincidence? Or has Alabama’s political environment gone from toxic to deadly? And if so, what is driving it?

Ralph Stacy certainly did not seem like a prime suspect to commit suicide. He was 53, with a wife, Angel, and a daughter, Savannah. Friends and colleagues described him as a jovial man who was a popular speaker and didn’t mind poking fun at himself. The Montgomery Advertiser wrote:

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Suspicious-Political-Death-by-Roger-Shuler-100920-688.html

Sure looks like one could be raises out of that. Or a Conspiracy Theory has been suggested by Op Ed news.

Gaffy@124,

Doesn’t that lift one’s spirits?
Wish people like these would get more kudos and publicity….and financial support.
Imagine this implemented here in OZ!

125
Megan

If they do that in Aus then with the power running in the road i will get a bike with magnet loaded wheels and no more pedaling.
Zero to 100 in 4 seconds. 😆

oh gawd -here we go.
The Greens want to kill everyone…. well, only older conservative voters.
(fabulous idea if you ask me )
Geezus – where does this end?
first, we want to give drugs to primary school kiddies,
then we want to make everyone eat nothing but vegies (which would lengthen their lives, so that’s a bad idea), and now we want to kill off all the oldies.

Soylent Greens. 😈

Paddy, Junior gave our household a round of booming belly laughs when she opened the Sarah Silverman clip. She’s very good. 🙂

Geez, gaffy, dunno where you pull some of those pearler clips from but the notion of a world terrestrially connected with Solar Highways is…..wel, BLOODY INSIPATIONAL!

Hell,Yeah! Australia would do our future citizens and perhaps our biosheric bretheren a species-saving favour if we became early adopters. Maybe the Greens should forget about snuffing our oldies and get their murdering heads aound the idea.
G’day, Jen. 🙂

Good to see you too, megan. Been having a rollicking good time reading Foucault’s Pendulum by Unberto Eco. His honeyed disdain for the vainglorious and stupid wankers that seem to be over-represented in the publishing/editorial “business” is delightful. As you attend a few book and ideas fests, reckon you might enjoy it if you havn’t already.

Hardball Tony plays right into Malc’s hands by refusing to pow-wow on major issues as he promised. The longer Tones’ dummy-spit lasts, the less political capital he will have to spend.
Let’s face it, without Murdoch, Abbott would be fucked as a Player.

“Reopening climate change policy, for instance, or having serious second thoughts about broadband policy is not a trap that this Opposition is about to fall into.”

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/09/21/3018199.htm

Michael Ware, Former CNN War Correspondent, Speaks Out On Alleged War Crime CNN Refused To Air [UPDATED]

Mr Ware tells of the alleged incident he says he witnessed and filmed in 2007 when working for US news giant CNN, but claims the network decided the footage was too graphic to go to air.

He alleges that a teenager in a remote Iraqi village run by the militant Islamist group, al-Qaeda was carrying a weapon to protect himself.
“(The boy) approached the house we were in and the (US) soldiers who were watching our backs, one of them put a bullet right in the back of his head. Unfortunately it didn’t kill him,” he tells Australian Story.
“We all spent the next 20 minutes listening to his tortured breath as he died.”
Ware goes on to describe his mental state during that time, in which he realized that he was “more concerned with the composition” of his photo than he was with intervening in some way. “I indeed had been indifferent as the soldiers around me whose indifference I was attempting to capture,” Ware says.
“I am not the same fucking person,” he tells me. “I am not the same person. I don’t know how to come home.”
Ware also attested to his desire to expose more people to the horrors of war:

He dreams of renting out a theater and subjecting an audience to it in full surround sound; that way people would know what it’s really like over there. “It’s my firm belief that we need to constantly jar the sensitivities of the people back home,” he says. “War is a jarring experience. Your kids are living it out, and you’ve inflicted it upon 20-odd million Iraqis. And when your brothers and sons and mates from the football team come home, and they ain’t quite the same, you have an obligation to sit for three and a half minutes and share something of what it’s like to be there.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/21/michael-ware-former-cnn-w_n_733030.html

Nothing to see here, move along folks, the fox is to undertake serious investigations in the henhouse.
No feathers will be left unruffled.

The Press Complaints Commission has confirmed it is to look again at allegations of phone hacking at the News of the World following new revelations about the extent of the practice, in a move that could prompt a re-opening of its investigation.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/sep/21/phone-hacking-news-of-the-world

Foucault’s Pendulum by Umberto Eco is a fantastic book – one of my all time favourites (hardly surprising, given that one of the main themes of the book is an attack on conspiracy theory thinking ;)).

EC @ 130, it’s interesting that the morning after that episode of Australian Story went to air we get an article in the newspaper about a soldier complaining that the army is too concerned about “collateral damage”. Quite a coincidence. 🙂
Also, when is the meedja going to stop shopping Jim Molan around as your archetypal retired general and hardboiled realist and give us his current title of director of defence operations at Australian Aerospace & Defence Innovations, a branch of the Defence Science Technology Organisation, in other words he works for the department of defence.

Is there any former history/evidence that absentee/pre election votes tend to fall in any particular direction.

It appears Castle was 10% ahead of O’Donnell in paper votes counted but 6% behind her in the electronic votes, and according to the result she won.
I am aware that here in Oz it is fairly safe to assume that in any electorate the postal votes, by history, will favour one party over the other.
I hope we never go to electronic voting the way it causes arguments in the US.
The pre poll votes favoured Castle and theyare saying the late endorsement by Sarah Moose Hunter caused the surge in votes for O’Donnell.

Last Tuesday’s hotly contested race for the GOP’s U.S. Senate nomination in Delaware ended in victory for the state’s moderate, much-beloved former Governor and nine-term U.S. Congressman Mike Castle — at least according to the tabulation of ballots cast in the race which can actually be verified by anybody as having been recorded accurately as per the voters’ intent.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/O-Donnell-LOST-in-Delaware-by-Mark-Crispin-Mille-100921-898.html

“it’s interesting that the morning after that episode of Australian Story went to air we get an article in the newspaper about a soldier complaining that the army is too concerned about “collateral damage”. Quite a coincidence”.

Indeed, Hussey. That’s the trouble with civilians when your’re trying to liberate them. They go about their own business in a region where their people have lived for thousands of years, but the s.o.b.’s just keep getting in the way. You’d think by now the freakin’ Hajies would get it through their thick raghead skulls that we’re only trying to do what’s best for them. Sheesh! Talk about ingrates.

http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoon/display.cfm/90623

http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoon/display.cfm/90770

http://www.truthdig.com/cartoon/item/coming_this_fall_20100919/

http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoon/display.cfm/90821

American politicians, aided and abetted by a fawning mainstream media (no, not you Rupert, you’re *special* ) have fabricated a fiction aimed at a largely ignorant American public that fails to address the real problems in Iraq. It is in this topsy-turvy world created by political hype and media spin that a president can, with a straight face, announce the withdrawal of American “combat troops” from Iraq, while leaving behind six combat brigades (renamed, but not reorganized) comprising some 50,000 troops to fight and die in “noncombat.”

~Scott Ritter, Sept. 21, 2010.

http://www.truthdig.com/report/print/obama_and_iraq_through_a_glass_darkly_20100921/

By Post Author

Yeah, Paddy, Krugman’s good when he talks like a Commie. But he is too kind to these people. They may be poor little rich libertarians who major in lament to some, but they’re just a bunch of money-sucking animals to me.
Let the bastards bleat by all means. Then tax them in a fair and balanced way.

And free beer for the wharfies!

By Post Author

(Al Quaeda’s Fifth Column. Prepare to be very afraid)

“US warns on enemies within:

The United States faces a “spike” in the threat from home-grown extremists who are inspired by Al Qaeda, according to top US officials…..

The threat…”is evolving in several ways that make it more difficult for law enforcement or the intelligence community to detect and disrupt plots.” ……….

Michael Leiter, head of the National Counterterrorism Centre, described a “spike in homegrown violent extremist activity” that was enabled by extremist groups abroad using the internet……..

“Suffice it to say, we are all seeing increased activity by a more diverse set of groups and a more diverse set of threats.”

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/09/23/3019413.htm

(The above is a lead story at abc online)

Subtext: (Not that the Obama administration is playing the fear card or anything but…) Liberty can only be sustained by ve-ry expensive hyper-vigilance. By spending YOUR tax dollars, naturally. If you wise and clever citizens give up a some more of your Constitutionally guaranteed freedoms and give us a shitload more money, we will be in a position to protect and serve you better. Trust us, security is our business.
We also need to censor the internet and commence more online surveillance. Keeping tabs on 30 million Americans is not enough.

Btw, ASIO started banging on about the threat of “homegrown terrorism” during the years of The Rat. Their stance remains the same now.Thank goodness for “We The Vulnerable” that Asio’s efforts have been re-doubled and re-financed. Otherwise the Commos, opps sorry, the homegrown terrorists are going to destroy the very fabric of our clever and classless and free society. Did you know that thousands of terrorists arrive in Australia by boats every week? These people have must have some kind of fear of flying.
————

Ticsters, if you reckon The Imbecile is a war criminal and you dig what Jon Stewart does generally, then this vid interview between Glenn Greenwald and Amy Goodman is worth a listen/look.

Glenn Greenwald on Iran, Tea Party Candidates, Jon Stewart and Obama’s Assassination Policy

http://www.commondreams.org/video/2010/09/21-1

Off to a family wedding for the w/e. Ciao till Tuesday, y’all 🙂

Time for Democrats to Run Against Sarah Palin?
*************************************

Public Policy Polling looks at undecided voters nationally and finds they are “pretty ambivalent” when it comes to their feelings about President Obama: 44% of them approve and 44% disapprove. However, when it comes to Sarah Palin a stunning 65% have an unfavorable opinion while just 17% who see her in a positive light.

“The group of folks who haven’t made up their minds yet is 14% Democrats, 21% Republicans, and 65% independents. They’re not really sold on the President but they know they don’t like Sarah Palin- making the Republican Party the Palin Party could help push Democratic candidates across the finish line in a lot of this year’s close races.”

I would leave running against Sarah Palin till 2012.
http://politicalwire.com

From over the fence BK.

“Abbott, the pre-election butterfly, entered the reverse chrysalis and has emerged a post-election grub!”

154
gaffy, I missed the fin review today and no one’s bunged it up on twitter either. Bloody disgraceful. 🙂
Mind you. The fun and games with Somylay deciding whether he will or won’t back Labor is keeping me in hysterics. Talk about the great unhinging!!! 😆 The current score is that he *will* take the deputy speaker’s role in return for not voting against Labor on supply and confidence motions. But the headlines keep changing.

157
Paddy
Yeah i have been following it. Mr Somlyay does not like the unhinged one even a teensy weensy little bit especially when the unhinged one just gave him a pay cut of 25k for his last term in parliament by taking the shadow whip off him and giving it to Entsch.
Pay back is a real bitch sometimes. :mrgreen: 🙁

Winner declared in pollsters election prediction race.
******************************************

Winner declared in pollsters election prediction race
September 24, 2010 – 3:56PM
And the gong for the most accurate election-eve opinion poll goes to . . . cue drum roll.

Now that the Australian Electoral Commission has finished its count of the two-party preferred vote, we can make a final assessment of how well the pollsters performed in predicting election 2010.

The simplest way of measuring pollster accuracy is to look at the ”absolute error” – the difference between the pollster’s prediction of the share of the two-party vote and the actual outcome.

On election night, the AEC had Labor on 50.7 per cent of the two-party preferred vote and the Coalition on 49.3 per cent. The verdict then was that the Morgan Phone poll and Essential Media’s online poll – which had both predicted a 51-49 split in the the two-party vote – shared the bragging rights as the most accurate polls.

But now we have the AEC’s final count of the two-party vote – which puts Labor on 50.12 per cent of the two-party vote – it turns out that the most accurate pollster was Newspoll.

more here..
http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/politics/winner-declared-in-pollsters-election-prediction-race-20100924-15poh.html

Looks much better for the Democrats.
*****************************

With the midterms approaching, conventional wisdom has it the Dems will get a 1994-style trouncing. Kirsten Powers on the Democrats’ plan.

The conventional wisdom is that Democrats are in for a shellacking in the midterm elections.

Many are comparing the impending wave to the carnage of the 1994 midterms, where Democrats lost 54 House seats, eight in the Senate, and control of both Houses.

But there are many differences between 1994 and today.

For one thing, barring some sort of freakish event, Democrats are not going to lose control of the Senate as they did in Clinton’s first term.

The dynamics of the election are also different in an important way. Dr. Brian Calfano, a political science professor at Missouri State University, recently explained it like this: “Fully half of the Democratic seats in 1994 were in districts that had voted for the Republican presidential ticket in one or both of the previous two presidential elections. This time, just one third of democratic seats are in that kind of danger. All of this is to say that it remains too early to make any kind of accurate prediction about how these midterms are going to turn out for the two major parties.”

Fast forward to 2010. No Democrat will be caught flat-footed this time around. Democrats from President Obama on down have seen the danger early.

The polls have also started to move Democrats way, and should continue to move their way after the nascent Dem advertising campaigns begin in full swing.

After showing an unprecedented 10 point lead for Republicans on the generic ballot, Gallup’s subsequent polls have tightened, with this week finding Democrats leading 46 percent to 45 percent among registered voters. It is the second week out of the last three in which the two parties have been virtually tied.
And earlier this week, Nate Silver suggested in The New York Times that the generic ballots may actually be underestimating the Democrats. In his analysis, Republicans did better when voters were asked if “in general they would prefer to see a Democrat or Republican elected” choosing the GOP by six points – 39 to 33. But when the candidates were named, the gap was lessened to just a two point GOP advantage, 45 to 43. Silver concluded: “This might imply that the generic ballot overestimates Republicans’ standing by about four points, at least in swing districts.

more here..
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-09-23/midterm-elections-why-the-dems-wont-go-down-without-a-fight/?cid=hp:mainpromo8

The sun is shining in Manly and am enjoying the shenannigans of a certain Lib ex-whip who is treading rather heavily on the toes of a certain Mad Monk. 🙂
Wonder what part the rodent is playing here, and/or Pell?
Imagine the mutterings of LNP moderates.
Looking forward to leaks in days to come.

“Knock, knock.”
“Who’s there? ”
“Owen ”
“Owen who?
“” Oh when the Saints
go marching in…….”
( 6 yo ‘s favourite!!)

Go the Saints!!

Christine O’Donnell Will Stop America From Sexing Each Other (VIDEO).
*******************************************************

Sweet sassy molassey! People are still finding clips of GOP Delaware Senate nominee Christine O’Donnell saying strange things on the teevee? Apparently, Christine O’Donnell was, all this time, one of the most televised figures in politics. Additionally, her desire to stop the unmarried masses from making sweet, sweet love to one another was astoundingly ambitious.

From Greg Sargent, here’s a clip of O’Donnell enthusiastically vowing to keep America from having sex.

All the Dems have to do is lead with her in part of the TV campaign.
Destroy the youth vote in one easy lesson.

more here…
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/24/christine-odonnell-will-s_n_738276.html

What a big “conspiracy”. :mrgreen:
100 minutes and 68 all, no extra time, not even a shootout from 50 meters, and get the punters to fork out again next week.

John Boehner ‘Affair’ To Be Focus Of New York Times Expose, NY Post Reports.
************************************************

House Minority Leader John Boehner was asked by a liberal blogger Thursday to answer questions about an affair with a lobbyist, an allegation that will reportedly be the focus of an upcoming New York Times expose. Boehner ignored the question outright.

The Post sees a journalistic plot to drop a bombshell on the upcoming midterm elections by smearing a high-profile GOP leader:

Insiders on Capitol Hill are buzzing about an upcoming New York Times exposé that will detail an alleged Boehner affair. Sources say the Times is looking for the right time to drop the story in October to sway the election, similar to how the Times reported during the 2008 presidential campaign on an alleged John McCain affair that supposedly had taken place many years before and that was flatly denied by the woman in question.
Mike Stark, an activist and blogger, intercepted Leader Boehner after his highly publicized “Pledge to America” unveiling to ask him about the accusation:

“Speaker Boehner, have you been cheating with Lisbeth Lyons, the lobbyist for the American Printing Association?” Stark asks. Boehner did not respond.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/24/john-boehner-affair-lisbeth-lyons_n_738007.html

CAUGHT: Stewart Shows GOP’s ‘New’ Pledge Exactly The Same As The Old (VIDEO).
*****************************************************

Last night on “The Daily Show,” Jon Stewart lambasted the GOP for their new “Pledge to America,” a promise of fresh, new ideas that sound identical to the Republican rhetoric of the last 20 years.

Stewart began by remembering two years ago when Republican senators previously pledged to make the GOP a “party of new ideas,” trying things like forum website America Speaking Out, and other ideas that ultimately failed. Now, with midterms around the corner, Republicans have are trying to reinvent themselves once more, promising things like reduced spending, smaller government, permanent tax cuts, and other things that sound oddly familiar.

“Your fresh new ideas,” Stewart said, “sound slightly – I’m sorry, did I say slightly? – sound EXACTLY like your old ones.”

More here….
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/24/stewart-gop-pledge-america_n_737812.html

I just had a howler of an argument with a bloke.

He said collingwood supporters could not read or write, but they could draw!!!!! :mrgreen:

Comedians lead the way!
********************

Testifying before Congress, staging rallies, doing the job that journalists can’t — comedians are driving America’s political debate, and there’s no shortage of material.

Stephen Colbert testifying in front of Congress. Bill Maher serving as a one-man opposition research division against Wingnut Queen Christine O’Donnell. Jon Stewart hosting a pre-election “Rally to Restore Sanity” on the Washington Mall.

It’s no joke: Comedians are driving the political debate this year. Consider it a sign of the times – laughter and satire is the only sane response to the sickening spin cycle we’re subjected to on a daily basis.
After all, if a one-fifth of Americans believe that President Obama is secretly a Muslim, one-quarter believe that he wasn’t born in the United States, and over half think he’s a socialist, we’re acting crazy anyway. Might as well add some intentional humor to the funhouse-mirror distortions that pass for political debate. Because the best explanation for belief in the above statistics came from Colbert: “I love the truth; it’s facts I’m not a fan of.”
Yes, we’ve come a long way since the days of Will Rogers and Mort Sahl – and not just because the jokes are running for office now. (They were then as well).
There’s a reason to take comedians seriously as commentators today. Sometimes it feels like they’re the only ones telling the truth.

more here…
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-09-25/stephen-colbert-testifies-before-congress-and-more-comic-political-forces/

Murdock has delusions of power.
This was just plastered on one of his tame broadsheets.
I suspect he may have jumped the shark.
Outing Grog’s Gamut is a just plain stupid act.
Mark Scott and Andrew Wlkie will not be pleased.
ROTFL Neither will Grog. 👿
http://tinyurl.com/23xlovg

AP Poll: Repeal? Many Wish Health Reform Went Further.
********************************************

President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul has divided the nation, and Republicans believe their call for repeal will help them win elections in November. But the picture’s not that clear cut.

A new AP poll finds that Americans who think the law should have done more outnumber those who think the government should stay out of health care by 2-to-1.

“I was disappointed that it didn’t provide universal coverage,” said Bronwyn Bleakley, 35, a biology professor from Easton, Mass.

More than 30 million people would gain coverage in 2019 when the law is fully phased in, but another 20 million or so would remain uninsured. Bleakley, who was uninsured early in her career, views the overhaul as a work in progress.

The poll found that about four in 10 adults think the new law did not go far enough to change the health care system, regardless of whether they support the law, oppose it or remain neutral. On the other side, about one in five say they oppose the law because they think the federal government should not be involved in health care at all.

More here…
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/25/ap-poll-repeal-many-wish-_n_739211.html

Conway Closes Gap in Kentucky
*************************

The latest Courier-Journal/WHAS11 Bluegrass Poll in Kentucky shows Rand Paul (R) edging Jack Conway (D) in the race for U.S. Senate, 49% to 47% with four percent still undecided.

The previous survey found Paul with a 15 point lead.

Said pollster Jay Leve: “Whether that is a result of genuine traction for (Conway), second thoughts about his opponent, or a newly raised consciousness among voters who a month ago were not focused on the contest, I am not sure.”

http://politicalwire.com

Boxer Leads in California by Eight Points
********************************

A new Los Angeles Times/USC poll in California finds Sen. Barbara Boxer (D) leading challenger Carly Fiorina (R) in the U.S. Senate race by eight points among likely voters, 51% to 43%.

Key finding: “But the major headwind against Fiorina may be the president. Fiorina has vowed if elected to work against the president’s agenda, yet California voters were unequivocal about their desire for a supportive senator. Among likely voters, 56% wanted Obama supported, and only 34% wanted a senator who would be an opponent.”

http://politicalwire.com

Christine O’Donnell’s Controversial Past Spoofed In ‘SNL’ Season Opener (VIDEO).
***************************************************

Last night on the season premiere of “Saturday Night Live,” the cold opening mocked none other than Republican senate nominee Christine O’Donnell. Her anti-masturbation stance, former fascination with witchcraft, and conspiracy theory about mice with human brains provided more than enough material for ‘SNL’ to work with.

The comedians are having a field day with the Repug candidates.
Maybe the Democrats should use comedy in some of their ads.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/26/christine-odonnell-snl_n_739503.html

180
Paddy
She probably gets paid a motza to write that unadulterated shit.

What a fucken low rate imbecile.

I feel genuinely sad at the thought that Grog’s outing may mean he won’t be blogging on politics anymore.

Laura Tingle sums up the Grog issue acutely as usual.
On twitter no less. 😆
latingle:
The point about Grog’s Gamut is not about anonymity, it’s about why a national newspaper feels it has to ‘out’ him ?

Geez Jen.
I watched Q & A last night and that lovely rep from your neck of the woods was there in all her glory grossness.
There is one word that is almost the perfect description of her and that is Remora, except for the fact she is not slender. Everything else about a Remora fits her to a Tee.

193
I’d have to agree with you there Gaffy. That “creature” that appeared on Q&A was simply appalling. I thought Tony Jones was pretty pissweak at controlling her rants and diatribes last night.
A really most unattractive woman!! 🙁

Speaking of “unattractive” people….. James Massola is still trying to wriggle around in the sewer this morning.
His reputation is in the gutter. (probably thanks to being “leant on” by his editor) But after outing Grog, he’s now spewing bile about whether he was on company time when he attended the #media140 conference. (Grog, in fact, took a day’s annual leave)
It’s a quite disgusting look and Massola will probably rue this episode for the rest of his career.
The full spew is here. – http://bit.ly/93topu

New polls. Good news all around for the Democrats.
*******************************************

Barbara Boxer Rebound Confirmed By Another California Poll.
It may just be the bouncing ball of randomness at work but new polls in California, Nevada, Ohio and Kentucky released over the weekend gave Democrats something to smile about, or perhaps just a little less to wince at. Specifically, a new California poll confirms a slight rebound by Senator Barbara Boxer, while a new Nevada survey conducted by a Republican firm is more positive than other recent surveys, giving Senator Harry Reid his biggest edge since August.

In California, a new survey sponsored by the Los Angeles Times and USC and conducted by a bipartisan team of campaign pollsters finds Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer leading Republican challenger Carly Fiorina by eight percentage points (51% to 43%). While the result is a bit better for Boxer than some other recent surveys, the difference is slight — polls by Field and SurveyUSA conducted last week both showed Boxer leading by six point margins. The new survey nudges our trend estimate, which also considers slightly older polls, up to a 3.7 point margin for Boxer (47.9% to 44.2%), just enough to push California into the “lean Democrat” column.

More here…
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/27/another-california-poll-c_n_740067.html

197
KL. I see even Laurie has had a sly dig at Massola and News Ltd. 🙂

LaurieOakes I don’t care who Grogs is as long as he keeps tweeting. (And blogging.)

Indeed Gaffy –
you can see why I have to take her on… it’s irresistible.
Have to say i reckon I give her more stick than TonyJones did last night. Last time we were in a public forum (VFA gig) I apologised to the audience on her behalf for her atrociously rude and disrespectful behaviour . She just loved that! (:mrgreen:)

Comments are closed.