John Hawkins: If and when do you see the United States hitting Iraq? How do you think it'll work out?Tim Blair: It all depends on Iraq’s fearsome Elite Republican Guard. Why, those feisty desert warriors could hold out for minutes. Dozens of US troops will be required. Perhaps they’ll even need their weapons...Wouldn’t expect it to last long once it happens.
When asked to predict a casualty count for the invasion, Blair predicted :
"Below 50."The Republican Guard began killing American soldiers with car bombs and IEDs the day Coalition of the Willing troops entered Baghdad. Civilians, trained by Saddam Hussein through TV broadcasts in the construction of improvised weapons and explosives, joined in the fighting.
Outrageous. ABC1 cut short Superfreak by Rick James on Rage for some election announcement thingy.
How different would the asylum seeker debate be if boats filled with economic refugees from the UK & US turned up?
If you want Australians to support boat people, you have to turn it into a sport. Give the boats numbers and get them to race here
Pauline Hanson's mid-90s beliefs and policies on immigrants have now been raided by both Liberal & Labor prime ministers.
Australia has 7.5 million square kilometres & 22 million people. 3 people per square k. We're not overcrowded, we're fucking barren
Abbott costing plan to blast asylum seekers into space for "off world processing."
I sure hope in the future we never have to flee Australia in boats for any reason. How welcome would we be as refugees in Indonesia?
For non-Aust. readers, here's our new PM @JuliaGillard preparing to snog an elderly member of the electorate.http://tinyurl.com/25xtysy
@JuliaGillard Moving Forward Together? Together : Moving Forward? Or how about Forward We Move Together With Working Families?
Joe Hockey : " I don't know what Labor stands for." Same thing the Liberals stand for - keeping The Greens from shattering 2 party system.
"Moving Forward" from what? Moving Forward from the coup
I want to vote for a party moving diagonally.
Is @JuliaGillard really lifting political slogans from The Simpsons? http://tinyurl.com/2fzglrv
What election? 4 out of 6 Most Popular stories of the week on ABC News online are psychic octopus related http://tinyurl.com/23zhkcq
is anyone going to have one single fucking inspiring thing to say in this whole fucking election?
Bob Brown calls for end to Labor Vs Liberal vicious, bitter. election advertising, promoting "nasty negativism". Hear Hear.
Apparently, some evangelists think atheists, like @JuliaGillard, are satanists in disguise. Perfect cover.
@JuliaGillard announcing Australian austerity measures : "clean and green, but very very lean."
@JuliaGillard announces "this requires ongoing discipline." Mmm, discipline.
It doesn't seem to matter whether you vote Liberal or Labor, either way the mining industry's candidate becomes PM
A shame the Liberals couldn't use The Angels 'Stand Up' as their theme tune as well as their mantra http://tinyurl.com/25bydt5
From The Angels' Stand Up: "promises are easy, you swallow every word, be sure of who u serve."
Can't we just replace nearly all politicians by some mix of Google Wave & social networking? At least until the robots are ready to govern?
Two polls, one front page, utter cognitive dissonance http://tinyurl.com/353sbnp #ausvotes
Yes, it's true @JuliaGillard & @TonyAbbottMHR, we are more interested in Tambo's adventures than your campaigns http://tinyurl.com/3xz8cw9
If Citizens' Assemblies decided policy, we wouldn't have gone to war on Iraq, cannabis would be legal & everybody would have free iPads.
So now the minimum price for a 20 year old 2nd hand car is $2000? That'll keep P-platers off the roads. The poor ones anyway
On the plus side, the FedElection2010 campaign does seem to be slowing down time.
Anti-Gillard leaks from inside federal Labor should be referred to as REDs, (Ruddevised Explosive Devices)
Surreal. Reporters pepper @JuliaGillard with questions about what it's like to be peppered with questions about #Ruddileaks
Did @JuliaGillard make the decision to dump campaign plans and "Go For It" after hundreds of Twitter messages telling her to cut the shit?
@JuliaGillard promises to make sure "the real Julia is on display." Will this Real Julia also refer to herself in the third person?
Majority of Australians opposed to Afghanistan War. @SenatorBobBrown says we need a debate on it. No media reported this today.
A Philip K Dick election. What manufactured reality are we in now? Another fake? Is this the real Julia? Are u real? Am I?
Seriously, if Labor don't know how pissed off people still are about the coup, they don't deserve to win
Craig Emerson is dying on Q & A like a kitten juggler at a PETA Christmas party.
Christian lobby groups panicking that environment-minded Christians are drifting off to hang out with atheist Greens. Interesting.
A shocking international headline for this federal election. From the UK Independent : "Children found starving in rural Australia" http://ind.pn/cpVvkX
The Liberals think a few thousand asylum seekers is a more important issue than national broadband. Priority/reality check needed.
Co-conspirator of illegal war that killed more than 200,000 wanders freely thru Australian communities during campaign http://tinyurl.com/28mgvpz
So far in @JuliaGillard's launch speech, the Mr Rabbits have outnumbered the Mr Abbotts 2 to 1
Even Westies who moved away decades ago are secretly pleased so much of election appears to be hanging on Westie opinion
New Liberals slogan : 'Let's Wait And See What Happens Tomorrow, Okay?'
The fact that carers get so little for looking after the elderly & new mothers will get so much tells you a lot about our priorities
Welfare for the poor? Bad. Welfare for the rich? Good. Think Liberal.
"Mr Rabbit, we got another boat here, whaddauwannado?" "How many Muslims on board?" "About 40." "Turn em round."
@SenatorBobBrown's checklist of issues undebated, so far, revealed how thin & duplicate campaigns of Gillard & Abbott have been.
Gillard can live with 'Ranga', but can Tony Abbott handle 'The Rabbit'?
Prime Minister Tony Abbott. Governor General John Howard. US Ambassador Alexander Downer. The Horror.
Tony Abbott doesn't back a carbon tax, Julia Gillard, like Rupert Murdoch, does.Australia’s top-selling newspapers yesterday went for Julia Gillard, with Sydney’s Sunday Telegraph (circulation: 630,000) saying every government since 1931 has been given a second chance, so why shouldn’t the ALP get one, too? Melbourne’s Sunday Herald Sun (circulation: 597,000) said “the best interests of Australians are served by the re-election of Labor”.
Did humans live at the same time as dinosaurs?The answer is of course no....
Yet another eye-widening example of the ABC's relentless pro-science bias.
...but about a third of Australians got it wrong in a recent survey.
About 6 million Australians believe early humans hung out with dinosaurs. And the problem is?
If my reading of taxpayer funded religious school literature has taught me anything, it is that it's no up to the people who think Jesus Rode Dinosaurs to prove that he actually did, it's up to scientists to prove overwhelmingly that he did not.The survey results are being used to highlight what is being described as a disturbing ignorance about science.
Dr Cathy Foley, president of the Australian Scientific and Technological Societies, says Australians have a long way to go before having good scientific literacy.
"Unfortunately 30 per cent of Australians think.... dinosaurs and humans were alive at the same time, for example, which is probably something I guess worries us."
"...the things you had to do to go through the motions of the standard political contest....I hate the idea of war. I'm not a fan of the military, and many of the people in it.
"...I had to crap on a bit (praising the troops), get that over. Everyone does it. But if you came out and said 'I don't really think much of the troops', you'd end up with no seats and no votes. So that's the nature of politics.
"Those things don't rest easy with me now. I mean, you've got to be comfortable with yourself, first and foremost.
"...it is very hard for politicians in the environment where....you've got to toe the party line, you got to toe a lot of national emotional line, and if you don't necessarily agree with that, then go get another job, and that's what I did."
Over the years I have received tender messages from (current prime minister Julia) Gillard saying how much she misses me in Canberra. One of them concerned her study tour of the US, sponsored by the American government in 2006 -- or to use her moniker -- "a CIA re-education course". She asked me to "stand by for emails explaining George Bush is a great statesman, torture is justified in many circumstances and those Iraqi insurgents should just get over it".She promised "to catch up when I'm back from the US and I'll show you my CIA-issued ankle-holster". I never got to see her ankles or her holster, but I will say this: you have to hand it to those guys in Washington, they have a way of making lefties like Gillard change their minds on foreign policy. Within the space of two years, they converted her from a highly cynical critic of all matters American into yet another political sycophant.
The poor woman has been brainwashed.
"...it's always the darkest before dawn, and the people will have the ultimate voice - molotov cocktails into the Parliament Houses. We WILL regain control of the nation."
"...something might yet turn up that will make us appreciate anew his vast experience and steadiness under fire...if there were to be another terrorist attack...(we could) admire his firmness in handling it."Will he suggest the same for Tony Abbott now?
"I review Addiction, Fear, Starting a Cult, Being a B-Grade Celebrity, Buck’s Parties, Happiness, Justice, Racism, and Killing Kyle Sandilands, to name just a few."Sadly, Kyle Sandilands was not willing to add total authenticity to that review.
"Don’t listen to advice, would be my advice. And yes, I’m aware that by taking that advice you’d be doing exactly what I’ve told you not to, but therein lies the central paradox of critical analysis. Do you listen to others or do you make up your own mind? A smart pin-stripe blazer doesn’t go astray either, just quietly."
"I think everyone should have some familiarity with the great texts that are at the core of our civilisation. That includes, most importantly, the Bible.Most important core text of our civilisation, eh?
"I think it would be impossible to have a good general education without at least some serious familiarity with the Bible...."
"If two men are fighting and the wife of one of them comes to rescue her husband from his assailant, and she reaches out and seizes him by his private parts, you shall cut off her hand. Show her no pity."Unicorns, donkey dicks, raping virgins, stoning women to death and cutting off their hands - the Tony Abbott literature class of 2011.
"Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy crib?"
"....they shall bring out the damsel to the door of her father's house, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones that she die: because she hath wrought folly in Israel..."
"If a man happens to meet a virgin who is not pledged to be married and rapes her and they are discovered....he must marry the girl, for he has violated her. He can never divorce her as long as he lives."
"There she lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of horses."
Promises are easy
You swallow every word
Just be sure of who you serve
Yes, what an absolute mystery it is.Americans who are attending the annual conference (with Kevin Rudd) are curious.
They wonder how it happened that an Australian leader who appeared so popular and so comfortable on the world stage only 12 months ago could be tossed out so quickly -- even before he had faced an election.
"...the best online port of call for the voice of bogan authority."Things Bogans Like on The Herald Sun :
There is nothing a bogan loves more than being outraged. In particular, being outraged at people who, for a variety of reasons, it has made minimal effort to understand on ethnic, national, or religious grounds.
With an array of columnists with a hard-wired awareness of the bogan’s panic buttons, the topic du jour on the comments page......invariably revolves around blaming ‘other’ people for bad things.
Thus stimulated, bogans are equipped with sufficient righteous indignation to cover any encounter with a fellow at the water cooler, food court, playgroup or other designated daytime bogan convergence point.
"We must move/go forwards, not backwards."
"Tonight I say, we must move forward, not backward; upward, not forward; and always twirling, twirling, twirling towards freedom!"I'm not being critical in pointing out that Julia Gillard appears to be sourcing The Simpsons for political rhetoric. I say More Of It.
Children are our future. Unless we stop them now.If something goes wrong.....blame the guy who can't speak English.
Volunteering is for suckers. Did you know that volunteers don't even get paid for the stuff they do?
How is education going to make me smarter?
I wish God were alive to see this.
Stupidity got us into this mess, and stupidity will get us out.
Marriage is like a coffin and each kid is like another nail.
I never apologize, I'm sorry but that's the way I am.
It takes two to lie....One to lie and one to listen.
When are people going to learn? Democracy doesn't work.
Opportunities are available in all walks of life in Australia
So if you're young and if you're healthy
Why not get a boat and come to Australia
Australia, the chance of a lifetime
Australia, you get what you work for
Nobody has to be any better than what they want to be
Everyone walks around with a perpetual smile across their face
What a brilliant children's story Storm Boy is (Ch 22). Kid lives on a beautiful beach, no shoes, doesn't have to go to school and his best mate is a pelicanBeautiful movie.
Storm Boy rescued the pelican, Mr Percival, when he was a baby. He returned pelican to the wild, pelican returned. They play catch together
Aboriginal friend from up the beach reveals that when a pelican is shot, big storm arrives. Don't tell drought stricken farmers that.
Haven't seen Storm Boy since 8yo. Forgotten the ending. The boy & that pelican are such good friends, sure hope nothing happens to that bird
Storm Boy's dad : "Radio? You don't want to listen to radio. Fill your head with wanting this and that. Things you don't need." Communist!
Storm Boy is a child. He doesn't realise pelican he rescued now and adult and is using him to catch & cut up fish dinner & snacks. Pelican trained boy
Uh oh. Storm Boy has to go to school now. No shoes, can't read, hangs with pelicans. The other children will be brutal, vicious, relentless.
"We miss you Storm Boy. Me, your dad, and Mr Percival." Storm Boy's joy at discovering school is actually quite nice ruined by dependent pelican
How long do pelicans live anyway? What happens when Storm Boy turns 18 and heads to uni? Having a pelican following u round then would be weird
Storm Boy back at home now with dad & pelican. The kid & dad prepare for a gale at the beach humpy. Pelican bails when there's hard work to do
Boat caught in gale off shore. Only way to save people on boat is to get a line out there, reel them in. Mr Percival volunteers to do it
Pelican saves boatload of people, possibly asylum seekers, Storm Boy realises pelican isn't a total sponge. Pelican waits for fish reward
"I knew you could do it, Mr Percival! You're really great, Storm Boy tells pelican, who seems to be getting annoyed no fish reward is forthcoming
People rescued by pelican discuss possible newspaper headlines. One of the rescued men tells StormBoy when hero pelican is dead he'll look "great stuffed and in a glass case"
Weird that when StormBoy discusses rejecting life of school, shoes, electricity with Mr Percival, pelican immediately flies off in the direction of hunters
Hunters are shooting at Mr Percival. Oh fuck,now I remember how this ends. "They shot Mr Percival!"
StormBoy visits grave of his pelican friend. Contemplates lesson learned by his mate Mr Percival - save peoples' lives, get shot at
Hmm, no storm appeared when Mr Percival was shot dead. So StormBoy's friend from up the beach is a liar.
Aboriginal friend shows StormBoy nest of recently hatched pelicans. "Like Mr Percival started all over again." Pelican poses in sunset, credits roll
"And everything lives on in their hearts the wind-talk and wave-talk, and the scribblings on the sand; the Coorong, the salt smell of the beach, the humpy and the long days of their happiness together. And always, above them, in their mind's eye, they can see the shape of two big wings in the storm-clouds and the flying scud, the winds of white with trailing black edges spread across the sky. For birds like Mr Percival do not really die."
Mr Backhouse had cared for (Mr Percival) since starting at the zoo in 2000.
"....I’m 33, so I remember Storm Boy pretty passionately as a kid.’’A boy who loved Mr Percival in Storm Boy ends up looking after him, until his death.
ABC Managing Director Mark Scott knows a coup when he sees one :The circumstances of Rudd’s removal are a graphic exposure of the thoroughly worm-eaten character of both the Labor Party and the entire system of so-called parliamentary democracy in Australia. The Labor Party long ago ceased to be a mass political party in any meaningful sense of the word, but the depth and breadth of the gulf between it and the lives and concerns of the mass of ordinary people have never been so clearly demonstrated.
The leadership challenge was not decided by a move from the caucus but by a tiny handful of unknown factional bosses and union bureaucrats responding directly to the demands of powerful corporate and financial elites for a revamping of the government.
Not only did backbench MPs have no idea of the events on Wednesday evening, Cabinet members were in the dark as well. As one minister told the ABC: “I am sitting in my office watching all this unfold on TV. I have no part in this and no idea what’s going on. This is madness.”
Much has been made of the collapse in opinion poll support for Labor as the underlying reason for Rudd’s demise. But the opinion polls reflect more the impact of the media on popular consciousness than any genuine social or political movement. When key sections of the media and the corporate interests they represent backed Rudd, his opinion poll ratings reached record highs. Once he lost their confidence and their support was withdrawn, his opinion poll rating, and that of the Labor Party, fell accordingly.
The ousting of Rudd—the only time a Labor prime minister has been removed during his first term—was not carried out as a result of a movement of the working class, but by key sections of the financial and corporate elites.
