Nuked !

Now hasn't our dear leader an open mind about filling our future energy needs? The ship of state has been running on too much polluting coal and he has just realised that it's fucking up the climate. Let's think about the possibilities. The nuclear option just happens to have flashing lights around it or maybe it's the radiation we can see.

" Gosh, is that you Ron ringing up with your regular Saturday morning racing tips? Gday mate, how r ya ? Race3 no4 , Race 7 no5... both nobbled... terrific.
Got that, so you ,Champs and Hughy are backing nuclear. Wow what a great idea and such a coincidence. Next week I've got a plan to go for an independent and open commission to back that too".

Take that!

" As for the rest of your splutter, it seems to bear out my suspicion that libertarianism is the characteristic prejudice of very clever but not very wise young men without spouses or children who have yet to resolve their existential angst about the fact that they were born from women’s wombs, that they were helplessly dependent on their mothers’ breasts and subject to their mothers’ guidance during their earliest years, that they will one day age and die (and have to have their bums wiped for them in nursing homes in the final stages of their existence), and that they and their fellow rationally self-interested utility maximisers in their beloved market economy are still just animals in an ecosystem and when it dies back they will die back with it".

From larvatus prodeo comments.

Fakeing it.

One of the greatest frauds perpetrated on the public are the employment figures. If you are to believe Peter Costello 'all is well' in Oz .....the economy is going "gangbusters". Disguised is the fact that those with one hour of employment, per fortnight, are still regarded as employed.

An important figure was released today. This is the the 'underemployment' rate. Shamefully only released once a year, it tells the real tale of the disregarded. A link is provided to a not too lengthy ABC transcript on this matter. It's good to remember these real life people, next time someone tells you that John Howard will be difficult to remove when the economy is booming for all.

See World Today.

Who can it be Now?

"Because free societies are open and tolerant, because we respect every life and mourn every loss, the terrorists have concluded we are decadent in spirit, weak in character and conquerable". * says Dick Cheney.

"Defeat in Iraq for the United States of America will present my children with a vastly different, less secure world than they face today and under no circumstances should we allow ourselves, if you like, to lose morale muscular and to step back from this" said Defense Minister Nelson recently on Lateline.

These two quotes are interesting because of the similarities....... stand strong and muscular in the face of the enemy, lest you show yourself to be somehow weak and morally inferior. Nelson seems to be just parroting this wacky neo-con/fundy thinking that he has learnt on his trips to 'new homeland'.

Cartoon is by the great Mr Fish.

Year of the Pig............

Cracks are appearing in the Government of Australia.

Has Peter Costello's time finally come?

Mr Morale Muscular.

Its not just Obama and the democrats who are giving solace to the enemy. Its everybody who wants to bring the forces home.

Brendan Nelson says "those people, whether they be in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia or in any other part of the world, people who are arguing that we withdraw from Iraq, to abandon the Iraqi people, to ignore the requests of the democratically elected Iraqi Government - those who argue that we should do that before the Iraqi security forces are in a position to essentially look after their own security, we will by definition hand victory to those al Qaeda and other terrorist networks who see it as important. Do not forget, Tony, that Osama bin Laden himself, late in 2004, described Iraq as World War III."

There you were, thinking that 1) the Iraq war was a mistake to begin with, as are all wars. 2) It should never happened because the reasons for wageing it were proved to be palpably wrong. There never were any weapons of mass destruction and we should stop and admit it was all a bloody mistake. Or, 3) You supported it at the beginning, but feel like there has already been enough death and it is going nowhere.

Whatever your position, and of course there are many others, if you think it's time to pull up shop and bring the boys and girls home you are an established terrorist supporter. Not only that though,"you will endanger not only Iraqis, the Middle East but also the rest of the thinking world".

And if that's not bad enough , you particularly nasty piece of work, Brendan Nelsons' three children will "face challenges that they will never overcome" and live in a " less secure world than they face today". Hold on, there's more.... we, ourselves, may lose "morale muscular".

So, shut the fuck up or you may just get a visit for breaching Sedition Laws. I just don't want to lose my "morale muscular", whatever it means, because of youse.

Oooopsies

" Look, in the end this isn't a matter for Australia. We don't have a vote in the American presidential election, we just have to deal with whoever wins the election. And whatever John Howard or I, or anybody else may think privately, we'd never say anything publicly about the elections of a foreign country. "

Alexander Downer in interview with the ABC - 2004

...........and thanks to Idlaviv.

Excuses for 'The Gaffe'.....1) and 2)

"If I was running al-Qaeda in Iraq, I would put a circle around March 2008, and pray, as many times as possible, for a victory not only for Obama, but also for the Democrats" Source.

1) Just as latte slurping, chardonnay sipping, totalitarian socialists were writing off our leader, he has developed new powers. As we all know, Osama Bin Laden is the head of a famous terrorist organisation. His goose is cooked. John Howard is involved in picking his enemy mind; even down to prayer rituals and specifics about his attitudes to American election results. That 'Obama' rymes with 'Osama'.

With this same skill, he will surely be able to glean what Kim Jong 11 and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are up to, as well. Stuff like..... Ahmadinejad has backed Kevin Rudd to become Australian P.M. through Sportsbet. Kim Jong 11 has all of Midnight Oils' albums, the hots for Julia Gillard and is planning to send her a Valentine's Day card, having circled Feb 14 next year. His favourite dish ,when planning evil , is Kimchi.

2) So, if that one doesn't work for you, try .......... "Howards really made a cleverly disguised slur on al-Qaeda by suggesting that they might be stupid enough to have someone like him as leader". Dastardly terrorists beware, John Howard is at the wheel of the Australian ship of state.

Are these two Characters Morphing?

It is our considered opinion that they are.

There may be more evidence at a later date.

She is a qualified scuba diver.

Never let it be said that EAT AT JOE'S balks at an alleged salacious story, of the mile high variety, involving a movie star and our soon to be sold air carrier, that was reported with enormous style. It is, after all, the day before Valentine's Day. See Telegraph for the story.

Dumb Card, Dumb Arguments

Senator Ian Campbell now has the job of spruiking the so called Smart Card, now that mr nice guy, Joe Hockey has handed over the baton. We all know that it is good for us and there is this huge horde of welfare cheats who need to get their come uppence and that it has space for us to put our favourite songs on and we don't have to get one if we don't want one and .........Yesterdays visit to Auntys A.M. proved an interesting one, if you were listening.

GILLIAN BRADFORD: So, how many more safeguards have you put into this bill since the head of your own Consumer and Privacy Taskforce, Allan Fels, put his criticism that there's no reason to put on this card things like your title, or your date of birth. He saw that as too much information stored on this card.Have you gotten rid of both those things?

IAN CAMPBELL: Well, I met with Professor Fels for some hours on Friday and went through his report. I think that Professor Fels made 27 recommendations. I've accepted, in whole or in part, 25 of them. And two of them are to make the date of birth, for example, a matter of choice for Australians. I want to make this...

GILLIAN BRADFORD: He didn't even want it there as a matter of choice. He said people should not be required. It should not go on the card. Once the information's there it can never be taken out of the system.

IAN CAMPBELL: Well, some people just want to have their date of birth there for their own reasons. And what I want is for Australians to, in fact, not only own this card - it'll be one of, potentially the only card in their wallet they, they actually own, it's theirs - they will be able to choose whether or not they have the date of birth. There's a lot of Australians...

GILLIAN BRADFORD: What about the title?

IAN CAMPBELL: ...a lot of, lot of people listening to this program who want a date of birth on a card so they can prove their age. And I'm not going to say no, you can't.

Contrast this with the rest of his days work where he reassures all that this baby will never become an identity card and there will be super stiff penalties for anyone who asks for it.
"The smartcard will be brought in by 2010 under a bill, introduced to Parliament today, which Senator Campbell says provides for a five-year jail penalty for anyone demanding the use of the new card for identification purposes" as quoted from Fairfax.

So have you got that? If some freedom loving teenager wishes to use it to prove to the bouncer that she is over eighteen, that's cool. Watch out bouncer, if you ask for it, because you may well be spending time in the slammer. And don't you in any way imagine that this young women is using it as an identity card because she's not.

Bizarre, Really.

John Bellinger, the legal adviser to the US Secretary of State, admitted Guantanamo Bay had become "a lightning rod for criticism that threatens our record on human rights" and it was important to try to counter this. It is how he is going about it that is very weird.

Mr Bellinger said he did not believe it was a violation of Mr Hicks's human rights to be held in Guantanamo Bay for five years without charge, and the Australian was "more than just an adventurer".

And if that leap wasn't enough to bend the mind of anyone still thinking straight after a possible psyops operation I refer you to the slurred words of Sir Henry Casingbroke who mentioned the same Fairfax report when he commented at Larvatus prodeo.........

"Shurely shome mishtake? John Bellinger, the legal adviser to the US Secretary of State, according to today’s SMH, defended Hicks’s trial process as fair and denied Hicks was being charged under a retrospective law. But then he is also quoted saying - in mitigation of US action re Hicks - that there were tribunals using offences that were “obviously put down on paper much later than the conduct actually that was in question”. Is this man a habitual drunk? Or is it just a shortcoming in processing a logical train of thought? This is a legal adviser to the US Secretary of State?! Perhaps I am missing a legal subtlety here. I invite the legal geniuses at Catallaxy to please explain this one."

A Fair Go goes Overboard

Refugee Muhammad Faisal, in the red, has been granted a permanent protection visa after almost six years of detention on the island of Nauru.*

He was originally found by the immigration department to have genuine fears of persecution if he returned to Iraq. An ASIO ruling overrode those concerns, deeming him a security risk.

Unfortunately for him and his lawyers the nature of his adverse security assessment was not something he was allowed to see . Added to that were difficulties associated with the distance and status of Nauru where he was permanently held in custody. This explains the many years of his open ended incarceration and partly associated mental illness.

His connection with Scott Parkin is an interesting one. In December 2005, lawyers acting for Parkin lodged a Federal Court challenge seeking to quash his own adverse security assessment and Faisals. Parkin's lawyers were also acting for another Iraqi refugees, Mohammed Sagar who has also been held in immigration detention after receiving an adverse security assessments from ASIO.

Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews says due process in Muhammad Faisal's case has been followed. When due process excludes the individuals right to know why he or she has been subjected to punitive treatment, including indefinite detention, it is very hard to see how. An unaccountable secret service is a feature of governments that Australia claims to be strongly opposed to . Certainly not part of any truly democratic tradition and something to be protected from.