The Last Post

Goodbye, you miserable old has-been.

Funny Ha Ha

From an exhibition called Behind the Lines 2007. I don't know if they are really "The Year's Best Cartoons" but they are quite good mostly. And all available free online!

Merry Christmas One And All

Still looking for that perfect gift? The image above comes from The Lovely Mistresses of George W. Bush, 2008 Pin-Up Calendar. And don't forget your George W. Bush White House Christmas card - this year's theme is "all the multitudes worship you".

And something to give thanks for? Only one more year of this shit to go.

EXACTLY!

Just hearing the word "SORRY" is more important than compensation:

"The matter of compensation I think is a white man's worry - they're thinking of millions of dollars. I may be wrong, but I think that's not what the Aboriginal people are asking for."

Aboriginals have never adopted our flawed materialistic view of the universe, but we have never been able to understand that.

The real healing will begin when we start to realize that their world-view was always superior to our own polluting, destructive and selfish agenda.

Heckuva Job, George

For anyone still seeking understanding, this graph from the OPEC website shows exactly who George W. Bush's real paymasters are:

See here for background.

Trust Is Dead, Janet

If Janet Albrechtsen had even a shred of decency, she would be choking on her own hypocrisy. Pleading for her job at Teh Oz, she says anyone calling for her dismissal (and there are plenty of them) is a totalitarian who is as guilty of stifling dissent as... um... well, never mind. Sticking to the Karl Rove playbook, Janet doesn't even bother trying to defend her disgraceful record of lies and nonsense, she just goes on the attack like a terminally rabid dog.

I think this article by Phil Hoskins best addresses the issue:

Merchants cannot be trusted to deliver what they promise, employers cannot be trusted to pay on promised retirement plans, even spouses cannot be trusted to keep their vows. We live in a buyer beware culture where every person is on their own to make it through a jungle of real and perceived threats and attacks.

One cannot shop in a mall without fear of some idiot seeking fame with a rifle, cannot book a flight on an airplane without fearing being bumped because the flight was oversold. You cannot drive on the freeway without concern that the idiot racing to take your space will not pull a gun to prove his point, cannot give a toy to a child without fear of lead poisoning, cannot trust a politician on anything.

Trust is dead.

...

The followers of Milton Friedman would have us believe we can trust in the “market” to right all wrongs, despite the complete failure in each and every instance where this philosophy has been tried. Karl Marx would have had us trust in the communal conscience to deliver the ultimate good, but again, each and every instance in which it has been tried has failed.

Trust cannot be imposed, it cannot be brought into existence by faith, it is by its very nature a product of free and open communication and human interaction. Trust is not a lofty goal of perfection and honesty. Trust is the acceptance of what is with the backing of experience that what was foretells what will be. But it does require facing what is without blinders, being responsible to look beyond the bright and shiny promises and putting in the effort to know other people for who they are.

Trust requires that we stop calling each other names as a substitute for discourse and problem solving.

There is so much of our culture that shoves us away from those requirements toward a world of fast paced isolation and fantasy. There is no institution or force on the horizon to pull us in the other direction, for all have become part of the vortex of insincerity and pretense.

If trust is to be restored it is up to you and I to step away from the distractions to see who is around us, to take the time to smile and say hello, to learn to honor our word as the definition of who we are and what we do. Trust is dead, but isn’t this the season that reminds us that miracles are possible?

The Murdoch media has lost the public trust just as surely as the Bush White House has done. The road to redemption, should either choose to pursue it (and there are no signs yet), will not be easy.

As Far As These Sad, Sunken Eyes Can See

Behold Teh Murderoch Legacy! It's all yours, James.

Meanwhile, Zannino takes his $21 million and walks away...

Earlier this year, Zannino helped broker the company's $5.6 billion proposed sale to News Corp, which would add Barron's, Marketwatch.com and other media as well as the Journal to its international news empire.

All Your Prizemonies Is Mine, Kev!

Did somebody tell Kev I was writing a book?

And will I have a chance at the $100,000?

"The USA Does Not Torture" - George W. Bush

It's now official. The people running the CIA are not only ass-wipes but also stupid as fuck.

Education Revolution NOW PLEASE!

It's pretty sad that this wanker is probably the most famous ex-student from the high school my kids will soon be going to.

Yes, Virginia, Wingnut Bloggers ARE Stooges

How much does Tim Blair get paid? This is from the "Say What?" quotes at Doonesbury:

"I mean, talk about a direct IV into the vein of your support. It's a very efficient way to communicate. They regurgitate exactly and put up on their blogs what you said to them. It is something that we've cultivated and have really tried to put quite a bit of focus on."
-- former WH communications director Dan Bartlett, on conservative blogs

"Cultivated" = spent money on. Full disclosure, Tim?

The Culture Wars Are Over!

Put on your Happy Feet:

"We're a very small country and we have very little culture distinct enough to call it our own.

"So why should we have a war about it? It's as ridiculous as bald men fighting over a comb, when we should be out there trying to grow hair."

INQUIRIES!

Excellent:

The Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, said yesterday that there would be an inquiry into the way the Haneef case was handled. Well done, Mick.

Warmongers R US

I see my local Liberal MP, Steven Ciobo, is now on the opposition front bench. For any researchers out there, here's some interesting background.

Ciobo's mate George Brandis, who came to the support of Ciobo's protegé Brett Mason during the "lying rodent" scandal, is also on the bench as shadow AG. I guess that means the Libs now agree that Howard really WAS a lying rodent.

Mason employed Chrenkoff to push pro-war propaganda. Ciobo lists him as a friend. That's the facebook connection in the image above. And here's Chrenkoff's connection to the Fadhil brothers, famed pro-US neocon bloggers from Iraq. Interesting that Omar is now apparently living in New York and graduating from Colombia, innit???



Meanwhile, here's some Murdoch media explanation of how Ciobo held his "safe" Golc Coast seat:

Although Miszkowski managed a swing of 5.3 per cent it was not enough to wrench the seat from Ciobo.

Miszkowski, a former president of the Gold Coast Jewish Community Council who ran a quirky campaign epitomised by a jingle, was unavailable for comment when contacted.

Miszkowski was hoping to be Queensland's first Jewish MP, but finished with 35.7 per cent of a two-party preferred vote.

Running in the blue-ribbon seat against Ciobo, Miszkowski attempted to win local Jewish support, but his rival’s record as chairman of the Parliamentary Friends of Israel proved too great a challenge.

Finally, speaking of the Murdoch media, here's Chrenkoff's link to Janet Albrechtsen...



Now I ask you, why is there a social network among all these people? Is it just a social network, or something more than that? Why are our national politicians socialising with overt war propagandists (and failed ones at that)?

I Told You So

From this blog, June 5th 2007: What Happens To The Liberals After The Rudd Landslide?

I have been waiting (in vain) for someone within the Howard Liberal Party to mount a leadership challenge. And I have slowly been realising that the reason it hasn't happened - nor even been seriously discussed - is that nobody in the Conga Line is qualified to take over. Nobody else in Howard's cabinet could possibly defeat Rudd. They all suck.

Until just now, I hadn't considered the full implications of that. But this Crikey story got me thinking. The lack of leadership capacity in the Liberal Party could actually leave them decimated for a decade to come.

Let's assume Rudd wins victory. Howard is gone in a blink. But who takes over? It's the same Conga Line queued up for a stint in opposition.

But what do I know, right?

Who's afraid of the big bad rightwing meejah?

LP's Gummo and Kimbarella want you to know that Teh Enemy has been defeated and we can all just laugh at them now. Meanwhile, the political editor of the Opposition Orifice is still writing shit like this:

OCCASIONALLY you recognise that you are in the presence of human greatness. I had that experience this week in Jerusalem when I went to interview Natan Sharansky...

I seek enlightenment from Sharansky on two questions: why does Israel get such a bad press in the West, far worse than it deserves, and can democracy work in Arab societies?

The article is an excuse to spew racist, Zionist, pro-Fascist crap like this:

"Europe now is in a much more difficult situation ideologically than Israel. They tried to build their new society only on human rights. They believe the nation-state has human rights but no commitment to identity. They find a minority (part of the Muslim population) which has a strong identity and no commitment to human rights."

"Europeans find themselves helpless in the face of this and I believe that Europe will have to go back to national identity. Democracy must have a connection with identity. There must be a national, democratic state."

Got that, folks? Human rights must be jettisoned to ensure that people have a sense of "identity", which can only be provided by rabid nationalism. Never mind that many Europeans today see themselves as predominantly citizens of Europe, if not the world. The "One Nation" idea is much catchier, isn't it? Zig Heil!

And this is the Political Editor of a major Australian newspaper spewing such crap.

But don't worry, all you have to do is laugh and they will all go away. Right, Gummo?

UPDATE: OK, it might seem I am being a little thin-skinned and snarky here. But I want people to realise what's going on. Sharansky is an avowed Zionist, a Sharon Likud government stooge, and probably a former CIA asset.

He's also one of the people who have been loudly calling for an attack on Iran. Now, if you want an insight into the craziness to which Australia is inevitably exposed (whether Gummo sees it or not), take a look at what's being going on with Iran this week.

Bush said he only just found out that Iran doesn't have any kind of nuclear capability at all. That is a lie. So why was Bush pushing the threat so hard, when he knew it was a lie? Did he just want to drive up the oil price for his Texas and Saudi mates? Did he really want to launch an attack? On what - the oil fields? Destabilizing Iran and crippling their oil production ability would certainly have kept global oil prices high for some time!

But why are so many voices in Big Media backing Bush's anti-Iran rhetoric? If they were just being played for fools, you would expect a big backlash from them. But there is no backlash, just as there was no backlash after Iraq's WMDs turned out to be a lie. Coz they are in on the game.

Big Media is working with Big Oil to push a global agenda in favor of the Corporatocracy.

Which means, for example, that Greg Sheridan knows exactly what he is doing when he presents Natan Sharansky as an example of "human greatness". But how many of his readers know what's going on?

BRING ON THE INQUIRIES!

PM today:

Mr Rudd said he could not understand "through the $300 million `Wheat for Weapons' scandal that, whereby Australia became the largest source of illicit foreign funding to Saddam Hussein's regime, that no minister, no minister was held accountable or responsible for that gross failure."

He said advice was being prepared on whether his government would pursue the AWB Iraq wheat scandal and why former foreign minister Alexander Downer or trade minister Mark Vaile were not stood down.

UPDATE: And no, I am not back to blogging. I am just pissed off with trying to post intelligent comments on other blogs where people would rather keep slapping each other on the back and telling stupid jokes that are not even funny.

UPDATE 2: Gummo scores an own goal at LP. Sigh.