Friday 29th of March 2024

here is another nail...

undertakers

What’s up? Are he and his advisors morons, or just out of touch? Do they have some secret jobs-related October Surprise that will magically reemploy the 22 percent of Americans who are out of work during the last few weeks of the election? Are they the Chicago Black Sox of politics, determined to throw the race to the Republicans? Psychologist Drew Westen can’t figure it out either, wondering aloud if Obama is sick in the head.

Some ask: Is Obama a Republican?

blue suede shoes and econ 101...

bachmann and elvis

Michele Bachmann wishes Elvis happy birthday on anniversary of his death

US Republican presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann gets dates wrong as she stops off in South Carolina on campaign trail

Republican US presidential candidate Michele Bachmann offered a "happy birthday" message to the late singer Elvis Presley even though 16 August is the anniversary of his death.

Bachmann shouted "Happy Birthday, Elvis!" from the stage at a campaign stop at the Beacon Drive In, a South Carolina restaurant famous for its fried food and sweet tea.

a tragedy...

salt lake

 

The ABC is preparing itself for confirmation that it has lost three veteran newsmen in a helicopter crash in remote South Australia.

Journalist Paul Lockyer, pilot Gary Ticehurst, and cameraman John Bean are believed to have been killed when their chopper crashed near Lake Eyre yesterday evening.

The experienced news crew had been working on news and feature projects in the Lake Eyre region and it is believed their Sydney-based helicopter went down in a remote area about 150 kilometres north-west of Marree at about 7:30pm.

weak french bladder...

DEPARDIEU

French actor Gerard Depardieu has been accused of urinating in the aisle of a plane as it prepared to take off from Paris on Tuesday, forcing the plane to turn back to its parking spot.

A passenger on the flight said Depardieu, 62, the star of movies such as Jean de Florette and Green Card, appeared to be drunk and insisted he be allowed to use the bathroom during takeoff, when passengers must remain seated.

When he was asked by a CityJet hostess to return to his seat, Depardieu urinated in the aisle, the passenger told French radio station Europe 1 on Wednesday.

taking care of business .....

 

taking care of business .....

from Crikey ....

Politicians are masters at answering a different question to the one asked and, while she might have slipped up a little when referring to the member for Dobell, normally no one does it better than our trained-lawyer Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

She shows all the skills honed by chasing ambulances in pursuit of a dollar as she verbally steps around things like a promise not to introduce a carbon tax. And she was at it again in the Labor Party parliamentary caucus this week as she sought to play down calls for an enquiry into the ownership of Australian media.

too long in the midday sun .....

too long in the midday sun .....

In a demonstration of the kind of zero-tolerance policing of modern criminality that will no doubt impress Iran's morals police as much as Egypt's military rulers, officers outside London announced on Monday that they had arrested a man for sending text messages encouraging people to take part in a mass water fight.

farming gas...

farming gas...farming gas...

smelling roses...

economy

 

THE world has moved into a "new and more dangerous phase" of economic uncertainty because of the European sovereign debt crisis, according to World Bank president Robert Zoellick.

In an exclusive interview with The Weekend Australian, Mr Zoellick said the European economic problems were far more intractable and serious than the US economic problems.

And he worried that the British riots could derail the British budget austerity program.

"I believe what (British Prime Minister David) Cameron is doing in the UK is really necessary. My concern would be if the politics knocked it off course."

appearance vs substance .....

appearance vs substance .....

from Crikey .....

On farming v mining, Abbott clear on the politics but not so clear on a policy

Crikey Canberra correspondent Bernard Keane writes

tonicchio gasbag is back from holidays...

gasbag and pyne

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has sought to clarify his comments about farmers having the right to refuse coal seam gas miners access to their land, now saying it is a matter for the states.

Under law, minerals on private property are owned by the Crown and landholders are required to allow mining companies access for exploration or mining. The states administer the laws and glean royalties from mining.

In a radio interview on Friday Mr Abbott said: "If you don't want something to happen on your land, you ought to have a right to say no."

president murdoch...

president murdoch

The 2012 Republican presidential debate in Ames, Iowa, Thursday night was exciting. Really.

Sure, it was a civil discussion between conservatives in nice-looking outfits. And it took place in the most midwestern of midwestern states – Iowans' insistence on maintaining an air of middle-class normalcy is almost fanatical. Still, the two hour-long affair sparkled, thanks to the event's co-host Fox News. If bad news is good news for television ("it bleeds, it leads"), however, then this bit of good news about Fox's performance is sure to be bad news for everyone – including the media organisation itself.

more about phoney perry...

warming pants

The climate sceptics can finally get excited about the 2012 election: Rick Perry, their candidate of choice, is about to officially throw his hat in the ring.

Perry calls global warming "all one contrived phony mess that is falling apart under its own weight." Unlike many of the other GOP presidential candidates, he hasn't expressed concern about climate change in the past, so he won't have to do any back-pedaling. Notorious climate denier Marc Morano is a big fan: "Based on climate views alone, anyone who is holding their nose voting for Mitt Romney because there's no other viable candidate will now rejoice to have an option with Rick Perry."

the rise of the elites .....

the rise of the elites .....

The Bullingdon is an ancient dining club for undergraduate toffs at Oxford, all male, by invitation only. You need pots of money to join, partly to fork out for the uniform of white tie'n'tails with trimmings, but mostly to pay for the property damage wrought at the club's notorious orgies of drinking and destruction.

The British Prime Minister, David William Donald Cameron (Eton, Brasenose), his Tory Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Gideon Oliver Osborne (St Paul's, Magdalen, and heir to a baronetcy), and the Tory mayor of London, the blond, bicycling and batty Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (Eton, Balliol), were all Bullingdon chaps in the '80s.

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