The G-8 comes to my neck of the woods

Frederick County, Maryland, USA. It’s a relatively normal place…normal being relative anywhere, I suppose. It’s home to about 235,000 souls, and is roughly 670 square miles in area. You can drive from one end of the county to another in under 30 minutes, whether it’s north-south or east-west.

I’ve call FredCo home for 13 years now. As with most who moved here in the 90’s, it was the only place in the Baltimore/Washington corridor where we could afford a larger house with a yard.

But FredCo has within its borders something that sets it apart from other mostly rural counties in Maryland. Just outside of Thurmont, a mere 15 minute drive from the city of Frederick, is a little place called Camp David. And, suddenly, this weekend Frederick County is on the map.

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 This morning a few G-8 protesters were gathering in Thurmont, painting signs and gathering on street corners to share their thoughts about world affairs.

Richard Ochs and Donna Plamondon, two members of Occupy Baltimore, expected to be joined by about a dozen others from their group. They prepared signs near the Weis grocery at the southern end of the city.

Outdoors, reporters and law enforcement outnumbered residents and protesters before 11 a.m. Protesters said they had no plans to be destructive, but wanted to let government officials know that they are dissatisfied with the status quo. Nine Occupy New Haven members arrived by car after camping nearby.

Barbara Barbe was out front of Brown’s Jewelry & Gift store watching the morning’s activity.

“Every other car’s a police car,” Barbe said.

She and police shared the opinion that all seemed to be calm and friendly under the sunny skies.

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Notwithstanding the nonchalance of the local paper, the truth on the ground is that there is great deal of apprehension around FredCo. The local hospital is on high alert, with mandatory on-site staff presence and a makeshift triage – “just in case” – in the cafeteria. The local news-talk radio station is sending out special emails reminding listeners to tune to 930 AM for the latest information.

Anyone who has followed the news, even casually, over the past decade knows that a G-8 or G-20 summit usually means riots in the host city. I’m not sure where the protesters could riot in FredCo. Thurmont is a spec on the map, and Frederick city is not exactly Metropolis. Maybe they can meet at FSK Mall, or Baker Park. I dunno.

If anything of interest happens, I’ll make a follow-up post. Otherwise, you’ll know that it was just another ordinary, quiet weekend in the sticks.

Full fathom 5 my Slipper lies.

The drama in Canberra has inspired me to discover a long lost poem by one Mr William Shakespere.

Full fathom 5 my slipper lies:

Of his reputation cesspools are made:

Those little turds that were his eyes:

Nothing of him that doth fade:

But doth suffer a Party-change:

Into something stink and manged:

Press gallery hourly ring his knell:

Dong-Dong

Fark, now I hear them,– Dong-Dong, Taxi!!

Original below the fold.

A long fisking of a stupid Parlimentarian

I caught Christine Milne (Greens Tasmania) on ABC news radio yesterday  on Thursday during the opening speeches about the minerals taxation bill.

The sheer “did she just say that” stupidity was breathtaking… That she hasnt been pilloried in the press for it speaks volumes about the poor state of political reporting in Australia today.

So Im going to fisk it a little, its a loooong speech, so it will take quite a while, her speech will be plain text, my observations will be bold.

The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT (Senator Crossin):

Order! The Senate is considering the minerals resource rent tax legislation as a package.

Senator MILNE

(Tasmania—Deputy Leader of the Australian Greens) (19:30):

I rise tonight to discuss what sort of future we aspire to have in this country, because, whilst the specific is the Minerals Resource Rent Tax Bill 2011 and associated legislation, the context in which we are debating this tax is what sort of vision do we have for Australia in the next 20, 30 or 50 years. How you raise the money and where you spend it will determine that kind of country, because the future is actually an extension of the present and it is shaped by the decisions and actions we make.

Here Christine is using her amazing intellect to tell us time is linear, and actions have consequences… probably the highest point of her speech

More, oh so much more.. under the fold

Why the desire to pull the troops out of Iraq in the first place?

*posted first on Friday Feb. 10, here*

In the Australian today:

NO sooner did President Barack Obama welcome home American troops from Iraq and laud that country’s stability and democracy than an unprecedented wave of violence across Baghdad and elsewhere revealed the severity of Iraq’s political crisis.

Unfortunate, yet hardly surprising, even to the most casual of observers.

And whilst I can understand (yet not agree with) the Left’s position not to send troops into Iraq in the first place – an argument, largely moot, for another day – what I don’t understand is their fervish desire to pull the troops out.

It always smacked of idealism, ideology, rather than hard-nosed practicality.

After all, what was so bad with having a US troop presence there to help maintain Iraq’s fragile democratic stability?

One could argue that I am biased because a) I am centre-right politically and b) because I live in South Korea, a nation that has had a US troop presence – some 37,000  28,000 or so currently – since the armistice between North and South Korea and have seen what a permanent US troop presence looks like.

I am happy to accept those labels and can gladly tell you that such a presence ain’t that bad.

By and large,  US bases in Korea – and Japan for that matter – haven’t been a problem.

Sure, issues pop up from time to time, but if one looks at the big picture, then a strong US presence here can only be seen as a good thing, a safe option, a pretty darn good insurance policy against North Korea trying anything major on.

Almost 60 years we’ve had US troops over here without any major problems. In fact, many major problems (a full-scale Nork attack comes to mind) have arguably been averted thanks to this presence.

So, why the rush to leave Iraq essentially free of any US military  before even a decade is up and before, as is clear now, the job is done?

OK, so perhaps it’s a bit like comparing apples and oranges. US troops in Korea, aside from those stationed at the DMZ, aren’t on active duty as they were in Iraq.

However, it’s not a completely dissimilar situation. Perhaps a good analogy would be to compare mandarins and oranges.

US troops not only provided safety and stability in the fledgling democracy that is Iraq – a country still steeped with sectarian and tribal rivalries – but surely they also provided a deterrence to anybody or any groups who want to destabilise the nation.

What takes years to build can take mere seconds to destroy, and I fear a lot of hard work is being undone on the whim of a flawed, feel-good, ideology.

So why?

The only practical reason that I can see for Obama pulling his troops out of Iraq is that with an Iranian confrontation looming which includes action needed in Syria, Iraq frankly isn’t important enough any more or at best, an impractical option for a potentially over-stretched military.

Of course, Obama – a man of the progressive Left – can’t actually come out and say that but it is reasonably well-known to those who don’t just get their news from the MSM that Obama is actually more of a war-time president than Bush was, having committed more troops to both Iraq and Afghanistan, and for a longer period of time.

So whilst the MSM might play along with the “bringing the troops home” narrative, the evidence indicates this simply isn’t the case.

Some 20,000 marines, seamen and air crews from half a dozen countries, a US nuclear aircraft carrier strike group and three US Marine gunship carriers are practicing an attack on a fictitious mechanized enemy division which has invaded its neighbor. It is the largest amphibian exercise seen in the West for a decade, staged to simulate a potential Iranian invasion of an allied Persian Gulf country and a marine landing on the Iranian coast. Based largely on US personnel and hardware, French, British, Italian, Dutch, Australian* and New Zealand military elements are integrated in the drill.
Bold Alligator went into its operational phase Monday, Feb. 6, the same day as a large-scale exercise began in southern Iran opposite the Strait of Hormuz. This simultaneity attests to the preparations for a US-Iranian showdown involving Israel behind the words on Feb. 5 of US President Barack Obama (“I don’t think Israel has decided whether to attack Iran”) and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Feb. 3 (“The war itself will be ten times as detrimental to the US.”).

(*BTW, I don’t recall Aussie PM Gillard highlighting that one.)

And this:

As the US and Israel carried on bickering over the right time to strike Iran’s nuclear sites, their war preparations continued apace. debkafile’s military sources report that flight after flight of US warplanes and transports were to be seen this week cutting eastward through the skies of Sinai on their way to Gulf destinations, presumably Saudi Arabia, at a frequency not seen in the Middle East for many years.

Add into this mix reports that China will reportedly help Saudi Arabia build a nuclear bomb, and that both China and India have started paying Iran for its oil in gold thus helping thwart current US/UN sanctions (more of which were recently thwarted by Russia and China), then we see a stage set for a showdown and we see the reality that rhetoric aside, Obama won’t be bringing many troops home at all.

To someone who doesn’t know any better, it’s as if Russia, India, and China – all wannabe first chickens to the trough – are ganging up on America.**

PS Who wouldn’t love to be a fly on the wall listening in to what the US is really saying about China? Their ever-expanding use of soft power is in many ways, stuffing it all up for America. China must surely be becoming an ever-increasing pain in the neck.

This leaves Australia in an interesting position. Our main export partner is China. Our main ally is the US. We send China our goodies to help them get rich and rival America. We practice shooting our guns with America to help keep America on top.

And yet China and America are also so deep in each other’s pockets. America buys China’s goods. China buys America’s debt.

Fun times.

** I highly recommend reading The Lucifer Principle by Howard Bloom. Part of the book talks about the pecking order of nations.

#ProTip for Following the GOP Primaries

I find the GOP debates & endless caucus coverage marginally more bearable if I turn down the volume and use the Benny Hill theme song as a soundtrack instead. Here’s a 10-hour loop (!) which might come in handy as Super Tuesday looms…

N.B. Works equally well as an accompaniment to Australian Parliamentary Question Time coverage.

So which one?

Which Republican presidential nominee?

Having just spent an hour or so watching the New Hampshire GOP Republican debate, having gleaned various tidbits over the internet since a while back, I can honestly say I don’t know.

Yet.

In comments at that link, Ron Paul’s supporters come across as a tad too fervent, as does Paul himself. He just comes across as a bit whiney. Quick to complain about a problem but a bit wishy washy with any solutions.

Romney arguably won, but he comes off as Obama-lite+religion. He’s big government but I will say he’s tending to own his opponents. He does look presidential and has the establishment’s backing… not necessarily a good thing when up against Obama who REALLY has the Establishment’s backing and REALLY (at least) talks presidential (except here where he sounds about as formidable as Julia Gillard).

Congrats to ‘Watts Up With That’ – 100,000,000 Page Views and Counting…

W00T to WUWT on their “small milestone”, reached sometime this morning (8am-ish January 7th US Pacific time; the wee hours of the 8th Aussie time).

So wander over, offer your congratulations and thanks to Anthony Watts for his tireless efforts to bring some sanity – and SCIENCE – back to the discussion of nature, weather, technology and global warming climate change, check out Christopher Monckton’s guest post Hurrah for 8 orders of magnitude! and make sure to have a browse through some of the WUWT classics reposted here.

As Tim Blair noted in his recent post PEAK LOVE, “Climate panic is in decline…”  And though the self-inflicted damage of the content of the Climategate emails and many of the stupid hyperbole-ridden ham-handed advertising and “awareness” campaigns by the Warmies themselves (and their Love Media enablers) are partly to credit for the loss of credibility of the Catastrophic Man-Made Global Warming’s Gonna Kill Us All®  movement, much credit must really go to the big guns of the bloggy “Deniosphere” such as Anthony Watts, Andrew Bolt, James Delingpole and our own Blogfather Tim Blair.

“Ha ha Warmist losers. For you the war is over.”

The fix is in

During the 2008 presidential election cycle, I wrote over 60 posts — including extensive analysis of the primaries and conventions — at my personal blog, The Vulture Lurks (recommended by 4 out of 5 curmudgeons). So far this election cycle I’ve written a handful of minor posts. Why the drop-off? That’s easy. This isn’t an election we’re witnessing. It’s a coronation, at least on the Team Elephant side of the ledger.

Why would I call it a coronation? How could I call it a coronation when there is no clear front-runner and the first primary hasn’t even occurred yet? Follow along as I read the tea leaves.

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Conservative media: Fox News (“fair” and “balanced”) is in the tank for Romney. Big time. Some of Fox’s so-called analysts are so far up Romney’s butt that they taste his lunch mere seconds after he does.

Fox has proclaimed Romney winner of nearly all of the debates. Yet after one of the debates, Michele Bachmann surged into the lead in the polls. After another, it was Herman Cain. After yet another, it was Newt Gingrich. You should be getting the idea by now. No matter Romney’s showing, he’s the winner.

Every time Fox gets on the subject of the “Primary front runners”, Romney’s name is first on their lips. No matter where he is in the latest polling, first, second, even FOURTH, he is always “a front runner”. Meanwhile, if he is first or second, NO ONE beyond second place gets a mention. Hell, when he was in fourth place in an Iowa poll recently, the candidate ahead of him, Ron Paul, was omitted from mention in the front runners discussion. But not Mitt.

Talk radio isn’t quite as blatant; in fact, many talk show hosts are reluctant to be seen as endorsing anyone, such is the general distaste for Romney among the listening public. But almost without fail, all talk show hosts assert that no matter who the Republican nominee is, no matter how much they might deviate from conservative principles, we HAVE TO vote for them – ANYONE but Obama. Never mind that a vote for Romney is a vote for “Obama-lite”. You gotta do it!

Columnists of various stripes have wandered hither and yon regarding Romney. But two powerhouse conservative pundits have lined up foursquare behind him: Ann Coulter and Charles Krauthammer. Both of these two alleged conservatives have shelved principle and gone with “electable” as be-all/end-all for their candidate. Never mind that it was said of Ronald Reagan in 1980 that he was unelectable. This is different.

Bang the war drums: Every candidate still in the race, with the exception of Ron Paul, is obsessed with proving their warrior bona fides. “I would go to war with Iran NOW!”, one after another will thunder. The audience (God help us!) eats that shit up. It would appear that so-called conservatives have bought into the propaganda that never-ending pre-emptive war is “defense”. Again, God help us!

One is left in amazement that a candidate can spew vitriol with regards to all of the wasteful spending in Washington, and yet opine that the military, estimated to hit around $1.4 TRILLION in spending in 2012, needs to be beefed up. We’re drowning in debt, but without war-without-end and the trillions of dollars it requires, we’re going to be overrun by cave-dwelling terrorists, and conquered.

The military-industrial complex lives and thrives.

The Team Elephant elite: They’ve made it clear for over a year – Romney is their guy. I suppose they’d settle for Gingrich in a pinch (much as they settled for McCommie last cycle, when Rudy Giuliani was their preference). But they’re adamant. It WILL be Romney or an equally conviction-free statist. Period.

Do you really think the attacks on Governor Perry Gardacil, Herman Cain, and Michele Bachmann happened because Big Media (the BM for short) hates “real” conservatives and wanted to destroy them? Those attacks were friendly fire. Those attacks were orchestrated. Don’t be surprised if Newt succumbs to something similar to what happened to Cain between now and mid-January.

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“Okay, Vulture. You believe there’s a coronation afoot. What do you say we do about it, smart guy?”

What CAN we do? Truthfully, we in the West have gone so far down the slippery slope to ruin that I don’t think it matters any more who we elect.We might crash and burn and start to recover sooner with one candidate over another.

But crash and burn we shall.

A Decade of Tim Blair — Blogger, Legend

Gavin Atkins at Asian Correspondent marks the milestone:

Blogger/journalist Tim Blair has never been one to take a lot of notice of plaudits, awards or milestones – in fact, he assiduously ignores them – but the recent passing 10-year anniversary of his blog should not go by without comment.

For many Australians of a conservative or libertarian bent, about ten years ago, just reading or watching the news was like being asked to wade through a floating garbage dump of dogma to try and read what was written on the ground. What’s more, most of us were left cursing, as only the most watered down of our thoughts would ever make it through as a letter to the editor.

Tim Blair changed all that with his blog that tackled the idiocies of the left pretty much as they happened. His blog filled a niche that conservatives were crying out for, and his comment sections soon became almost as entertaining as the articles. […]

Along the way, he has invented terms such as Blair’s Law and the Gore Effect as well as alerting the world to the alarming tendency of lefties to tilt their heads in photographs.

And then there’s the Plastic Turkey meme, the new verbs “to beclown” and “to Fisk,” and probably a whole lot more that others can add in comments.

One thing Gavin didn’t mention was how global Tim Blair’s appeal has turned out to be  – in fact, one sledge often thrown at him by some of his resident trolls is that he has “too many” American fans and commenters.  For some reason, his Leftoid Australian detractors believed that was some sort of fatal “gotcha”.

Ah, his trolls!  Not only have Tim’s blogging efforts attracted some of the most clever and witty commenters over the years, they’ve seen him collect some of the most dedicated, demented, obsessive and sometimes just chuckleheadedly-silly assortment of sockpuppets and trolls ever seen in one place.

Go over and read Gavin’s whole piece, and be sure to leave your thoughts & favourite memories/recollections in comments either here or there.

Happy Tenth Blogiversary, Tim!

P.S. Where’s Wronwright with that mead…?

P.P.S. As our blogroll has been rather neglected of late, if you are one of the #BlairNation troupe of bloggers (new motto, #WeAreUs – thanks Julia!) and aren’t listed over on the right-hand side there ——->
just drop your blog link in comments and we’ll get it updated. Cheers.

UPDATE:  More comments now at The Blogfather’s here:  TEN YEARS OF LOVE.  As Puce would have said, CLICK.

Question time in Australias parliment.

While I was in Canberra I ducked into the gallery to watch question time. I got to see Julia and the 3 ringed circus in action, and was present when Mr Shorten made his rather silly “Economic white Australia policy” speech.

 

Here was my impressions.

Tony Abbott was walking around like he had 3 testicles not 2. It was fairly obvious from his demeanour, and that of his party they have the whip hand at the moment. Activity on the opposition benches seemed purposeful, and smooth.

The government benches looked a little different, much less confident, and fully aware they were under siege. The front bench looked ok, but Swan was all fluff and no substance and most of the rest of the bench were variously slouching, distracted or morose.

As for Julia, only one word to sum her up, brittle.

She looked extremely uncomfortable, but trying to radiate a sense of calm and control, but nowhere near pulling it off.

While I was in the gallery 2 people were ejected for disrupting proceedings, one went fairly quick, the other made a bit of a spectacle of himself.

At that stage the speaker of the house warned the gallery it would be cleared if there continued to be disruptions.

Then came the most pathetic, schoolyard bully boy bullshit I’ve seen for a long time.

Julias cabinet spokesman, yesterday..

The ALP side of the house swiveled their collective heads and tried to stare down/intimidate the gallery. It was ridiculous, it came close to me standing up and telling them to pull their heads in and stop being so childish. It reminded me of nothing more than this silly old clip from the movie “Beetlejuice”.

(the scene at 00:34 sums the look up)

The sight of the government of Australia acting like a bunch of kids was disappointing, not surprising, given the 3 ring circus it has become, but sad all the same.

Also sad was the amount of too-ing and fro-ing between the government and opposition benches and Mr Winsors seat, with multiple notes being passed to the “most important man in Australia”, sad.

Townhall meeting coming to a venue near you

OK, so PM Gillard reckons The Debate We Never Had™ is over, but that doesn’t mean – oh no siree – that folks aren’t standing up to have their say.

A townhall meeting in Brisbane:

Mr Hockey said merchants at a Brisbane market this morning told him they would not be able to pass on the cost of an estimated 10 per cent rise in electricity without sacking staff.

“Time and time again, as we went past every store, all the workers were coming out and saying ‘you have to stop this tax’,” he said.

Read on.

Best Australian Ad of the Year So Far: TradeTools Doesn’t {Heart} Julia

I love this ad.  I would marry this ad.  Hell, I would gay marry this ad.

PDF of actual ad from yesterday’s Sunday Mail at link; text of the prize rant below for clarity:

Fun with pollies

I sent a rather grumpy email off to a WA Federal senator today, I didnt bother signing the email as I thought it would go straight in the bin.

 

At about 1400 I received a phone call from the pollie in question he was a little grumpy as well.

 

Heres my email. (1 typo fixed)

A lifelong member of the ***, staying shamefully silent as the whole cattle transport industry is gutted by government fiat. (Im not going to dob the bloke in by name or affiliation, he was pretty straight with his answers)

 Please explain why I shouldn’t load a truck full of cattle and use your offices as a yard till this is sorted out?

 Do you(r) city based idiots have any idea just how stupid they are? If not would you please grow a pair of nuts and inform them. In bloody public.

 

The call went something like this.

Pollie: Are you the bloke who sent that unsigned email calling me stupid?

Me: No I called other members of your party stupid, Ive read your background, you of all people should know how badly this is affecting people.

Pollie: Oh well Ive rung you to set you straight, on a few things.

Me: go on..

Pollie: We are working as hard as we can to get the industry back up and running, the foreign minister is headed to Indo this week, theres other things happening as well.

Me: Look is this all because you are stuck with the greens, or your own people pushing the ban?

Pollie: Neither, its all due to the RSPCA and animals Australia, we want it started again.

Me: Well Ive got a *** business and a couple of my truck driver customers have been laid off, theres a business here in town with 30 trucks not moving and its killing them, its not just the farmers..

Pollie: (sounding genuine) Mate, I know Im receiving calls from blokes I know in the same boat, I got a call from *** who have just laid off 100 blokes..

Me: Well you know the effects, have you told your city based idiots what they are doing, do they even know?

Pollie: I can tell you there is a lot of friction in the party on this issue, I have had some pointed discussions with a few of my colleagues.

 

There was a bit more, but I was on the road when I got the call or I would have written it down. my impressions.

 

He is under massive pressure.

He knows blokes personally who have their livelihoods wrecked

I dont feel the ban was supported by him or any other “adult” in the ALP.

The government is so scared and shaky its willing to wreck the cattle industry to avoid pressure groups such as the RSPCA or animals Australia criticising them.

The threat of direct action, even in the abstract such as my email terrifies them.

 

This government would come perilously close to falling if a single truck of cattle made its way to a parliamentarians office..

Id encourage everyone to pile on, send emails or phone ALP pollies and put the pressure on them.

Our Langolier government

Most of you probably remember the book and/or movie, The Langoliers. Those little creatures would gobble up, or destroy if you will, everything – matter, space, time – they came across.

In a sense, the Gillard (and previously, Rudd) government has many similarities. Everything her Langolier eyes set themselves upon, they destroy.

The list is unbelievable.

Read the rest of this entry

Governor Moonbeam strikes again

Governor Jerry Brown of Kahleefornia must have felt that he hadn’t left enough wreckage his first stint as Governer (1975-1983), during which he earned the moniker “Governor Moonbeam” as a result of his wacky libtard ways. Apparently he learned absolutely nothing in the ensuing 28 years, because he’s still finding new and inventive ways to ruin the Golden State. Ladies and gentlemen: how NOT to generate tax revenues.

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Amazon.com today said it will sever ties with some 10,000 affiliates in California to protest the Internet sales-tax law signed by Gov. Jerry Brown Wednesday.

The big online retailer has been threatening to cut those ties since February. In emails today to its California affiliates, Amazon called the bill “unconstitutional and counterproductive. ” The bill is part of the budget package passed by the Legislature.

The affiliates are businesses and nonprofits that have Amazon links on their websites. When someone clicks through that link and buys something from Amazon, the affiliate gets a fee.

Under the bill, Amazon will have to collect sales tax on all sales to Californians.

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People like Governor Moonbeam are not called libtards for nothing. Brown knew that Amazon was going to do this because…wait for it…they’ve been telling him so since February. And yet he STILL signed the bill into law! I wonder how many jobs (and the tax revenues they provide) will be lost as a result of this ass-headed attempt to put a gun to Amazon’s head and extort tribute from them.

Asshat.

Road trip!

Let’s do it!

How about the cattle farmers stick it back to that Gillard?

Click for full size.

Yes. We’re talking loading 100-odd trucks – or more – with now unsaleable cattle and sending them down to the lawns of Parliament House. There’s lush green grass there for them to feed on and even a water fountain for them to drink from (not to mention the sprinklers could be utilised).

Bugger all else they can do with that season’s worth of cattle now, is there?

It would send a clear message.

Spot has even included a handy directions guide (where the map comes from).

Green deceivers

The latest Green commercial states that “storms are more extreme and more frequent”.

This is flat out wrong. In fact, the opposite is true.

Yes. Storm frequency and intensity has actually gone down the past 30 years. Here’s data collected by Dr. Ryan Maue Ph.D at Florida State University.

Continue reading this entry

Labor and Green comment-bombing on the rise? You’re not imagining it. And yet…

The Greens had “Shock & Awe”…

The Greens have launched another strike against the media, calling for volunteers for a rapid-response team to target “shock jock” and “hate campaigns” through talkback and letters to editors.

The call to action echoes Bob Brown’s attack on the “hate press” last week and Twitter jibes at individual journalists from his director of media, Marion Rae.

“The Australian Greens are looking to build a national network of individuals who want to take up the challenge of responding to the misinformation and hate campaigns being waged by radio shock jocks and other sections of the community and media,” says the party in an email.

The party calls the task “critical work”.

Labor has the “Wall of Noise” …

LABOR faithful are being urged to flood airwaves, news websites and letters to the editor sections with a “wall of noise” as part of a propaganda campaign against the Liberal-National Government.

The Sunday Times has obtained emails from Labor state secretary Simon Mead urging party members and supporters to become a “noisemaker” and join the “wall of noise team”.

“We need to be making phone calls to radio stations, posting items on news websites and writing letters to all our newspapers,” Mr Mead told Labor supporters and members in the email sent last month.

He said in another email: “By getting your voice heard you help change the media story from one supporting the government to one that says they are out of touch with the public.”

And yet despite all their smears, their sneers, their jamming and spamming, their outright deceit… their poll numbers say what?

Agreed, Jill Singer: the nonsense has to stop

Jill Singer supports a carbon (dioxide!) tax. Unfortunately, she shows a complete ignorance of the real science behind the politics.

THE “debate” over a carbon tax in Australia has become high farce.

Indeed it has. The Left seem to think that taxing the bejesus out of a trace gas will somehow save a planet that doesn’t need saving. Jill and her ilk fail to realise CO2 is only a minor greenhouse gas at that. It makes up only 0.04% of our atmosphere. Most of it is natural. The sceptical side has man-made CO2 at 3% or about 0.001% of our atmosphere. The alarmist side puts man-made CO2 at ten times higher. But so what? That means man-made CO2 would occupy 0.01% of our atmosphere.

There’s no way Man’s small contribution to a minor greenhouse trace gas – yet an essential gas, most of it naturally occurring – can be the main driver of climate. That hypothesis is, to use Jill’s words, a “high farce”.

Read more of this post

THE Herman Cain! Presidential Announcement Video

More at The Blaze.

If you’re on Twitter, follow THE Herman Cain & the Cain press office.

Go, Citizen Cain!

UPDATE:  And in case anyone’s interested, the rest of the potential field: The 2012 Candidates Not Named “Herman”

UPDATE 2: Lots of good stuff at Citizens4Cain, including 5 reasons not to dismiss him as a serious contender.

Trump dumped

So we see over at Bolt’s Palace this morning that the Donald has pulled out of the US presidential Republican nomination.

Well, it’s doubtful anyone’s surprised. And yeeees, this certain blogger did like what Trump was offering, even whilst knowing most conservative bloggers (libertarian here) didn’t want a bar of him. A lot of it was that breath of fresh air factor he brought to the debate. And I still think no other Republican that has been offered up will be capable of beating Obama.

Happy to be proved wrong, but there you go.

And I still think a successful businessperson would be ideal for the US’ top job, especially considering the deficit and debt. So I guess that leaves me favouring Romney, however, lately, one’s ear hasn’t been kept that close to the political – let alone the US political – ground.

Who’s been looking good lately, folks, and why?

PS Thanks for all the email updates JM even though there wasn’t any time to use them.

x-posted

UPDATE

Herman Cain?

Sneaky edit under the fold….

And it begins…

(Cross-posted from The Vulture Lurks)

You knew it was coming. After all, you can’t just kill Usama bin Laden and declare victory. Oh no. You have to milk the sumbitch for all it’s worth. Welcome to 2001, the sequel.

An advisory has been sent to law enforcement officials advising them to be vigilant about train security based on information uncovered after the death of Osama bin Laden, officials said.

Officials stressed the advisory is general in nature and the information apparently uncovered from the bin Laden compound dates back more than a year.

According to NBC News, U.S. officials say they have not found reference to specific plots. Instead, they say they’ve found what they call “aspirational” items — events al-Qaida operatives were interested in trying to make happen.

I see. So…we’re in a heightened state of alert and expected to endure God-knows-what in the name of “security” based on…al-Qaida’s wishlist????

*bangs head on wall*

Levin rips Donald Trump to shreds

There’s James Board’s unedifying man-crush on Trump*, and then there’s reality…

Levin points out many things about Trump that show he is no conservative, but a few of the glaring ones are the fact that he support Charlie Crist over Marco Rubio twice, as well as calling for the impeachment of George W. Bush, accusing him of lying to get us in the war. Oh yeah, and he supported Universal Health Care in America, the Canadian style.

And there’s more. This is a must listen.

And where the hell was he during the last few years of the Tea Party’s birth and rise, and the battles it was fighting?

President Trump?  Not. Gonna. Happen.

*LOL. You know I still love ya, man 😉

UPDATE:  Shy retiring type @DanRiehl has a word in the Trump fanbois’ shell-likes.  Heh.

via The Right Scoop and Mark Levin

EAT THE RICH… but you’ll be hungry again an hour later.

This excellent video by Bill Whittle, featuring some statistics from Iowahawk’s “Feed Your Family on $10 Billion a Day”, is definitely worth nine minutes of your time.  Michael Moore makes an appearance though, so best not watch whilst eating.

More good stuff at Bill Whittle’s Declaration Entertainment, and see also Iowahawk‘s post above & Allahpundit‘s “Why can’t we balance the budget by confiscating super-rich people’s money?” featuring video by Mary Katharine Ham.  H/T HotAir.

Finally, Obama addresses the nation about America’s Kinetic Military Action in Libya

And via the magic of Twitter, his entire 7-page single-spaced speech can be distilled down into fewer than 140 characters:

“I authorized this war that is not a war, which is narrowly focused but broad in scope, so we could lead. As helpers.”

And this critique:

“Eerily like a Bush speech, but without the conviction.”

Hey, here’s a word cloud!

If you’d like a little more detail, see PJTV‘s account of the speech.  If you’d like the time-limited, vermouth-limited overserved kinetic martini-action version, see VodkaPundit’s drunkblog account.

And if you’d like to see how this speech SHOULD have been done, see Reagan.

UPDATE: More on Obama’s War from James Board, and a great post at RedState which includes some of the top Twitter reactions.

 

via twitterers @MelissaTweets, @EWErickson, @KamaainaInOC, @GayPatriot, @instapundit, @CalebHowe & @VodkaPundit.