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"Always yield to temptation. It may not pass your way again" -- Robert A Heinlein
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 Clitoral Economics
Barbara Ehrenreich via rialator, Tuesday, Jan 22 2008, 1:37pm
With all the talk about how to stimulate it, you'd think that the economy is a giant clitoris. Ben Bernanke may not employ this imagery, but the immediate challenge--and the issue bound to replace Iraq and immigration in the presidential race--is how best to get the economy engorged and throbbing again. (story and 1 image)
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other press
 It’s confirmed -- Rudd really is a Dud
nano, Monday, Jan 21 2008, 10:47am
We all waited patiently for the new PM to set about IMPROVING conditions for Australians. We waited in vain for a new vision for the nation, a vision incorporating fairer deals for all – remember Rudd’s lying election slogan, “a fair go for all Australians?” To date all we have seen is reticence, fear, INABILITY to govern, no vision for the FUTURE whatsoever – just the same ol’, same ol’ SERVILITY to big money interests. [The same interests that have plunged the world into economic recession and continue to plunder our finite natural resources at an alarming rate!]
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commentary
Hands on Leadership with Hugo
barra, Sunday, Jan 20 2008, 9:39pm
Latin American politics is not as dreary as the local timid variety. Hugo Chavez certainly knows what it means to lead. While some in the west may find his political methods a tad extreme, they certainly deliver results. Chavez recently threatened to nationalise the banks if they didn’t comply with the latest laws obliging them to make funds available for mortgages, small business and farming at accessible rates. (story and 1 image)
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The ‘Penny Drops’
finch, Sunday, Jan 20 2008, 10:20am
Applying the ‘KISS’ principle we are easily able to determine that the regulated economy of China is the world’s leading economic success story. Western deregulated economies have been outperformed/beaten/trounced/devastated/etc by the regulated economies of the East. However, big money interests in the West are loath to admit their failure! Also, notice the reticence of the western mass media to cover this major story; a very partisan bias is clearly evident in this regard. (story and 1 image)
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A Taste of Reality and Success: Regulation!
peptide, Saturday, Jan 19 2008, 10:25am
China has trounced the economies of the world but especially that of the USA with a very simple strategy, REGULATION! Russia’s re-emergence has not gone without notice either! China has effectively won the Globalisation war that America imagined was in its pocket – the arrogance, dissociation and incompetence of America is now legendary. But there’s more, a whole lot more.
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commentary
Demented America
finn, Friday, Jan 18 2008, 7:06pm
They were never meant to influence the direction of the nation – demented American religionists, rapturists, Southern Baptists, evangelicals and other assorted empty-heads have always been organised by religion to satisfy the needs of the State and serve the interests of an enlightened ruling elite that could care less for the fantasies of religion. (story and 2 images)
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Semiotic Morass
finch, Thursday, Jan 17 2008, 10:34pm
There’s a lot of well written stuff out there; no one can claim defeat if the British and Australian governments feel it necessary to filter the free flow of information on the internet. Of course all such idiotic measures are doomed to failure as were measures employed to prevent the spread of books after the printing revolution (hundreds of years ago). Nevertheless, the same ignorant forces exist today as [they once did] in the dim, dark, past.
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commentary
The Outstanding Feature of the U.S. election Campaign
peptide, Thursday, Jan 17 2008, 10:57am
This one is easy, too obvious to warrant an in depth analysis. What is it that all presidential candidates have in common besides lying through their teeth? [Distinctions between major party policies have virtually disappeared in the U.S. today.] What does the general tone, posture, and approach indicate? Why are those responsible for plunging the nation into numerous crises (failed wars, economy, legal rights etc) ignored by the candidates who should be screaming for blood? Outlining remedial policies in STARK CONTRAST to the ‘policies’ of the prevailing Bush regime would seem in order one would think! Remember the axiom, the best defence is attack? Why have the current field of candidates abandoned the most useful weapon of politics -- ATTACK?
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commentary
Rudd, Keelty, Haneef and the Banks
Kingfisher, Wednesday, Jan 16 2008, 7:21am
Australians remember the Indian doctor victimised by John ‘racist’ Howard and Mick ‘drunken dropkick’ Keelty, for purely political purposes. Today, the Rudd government did not oppose moves by the courts to re-instate Dr. Haneef’s working visa; however, the drunken, incompetent, AFP Chief, Keelty, in an attempt to save whatever is left of his tattered reputation and probably his last gesture of mindlessness prior to entering a clinic for substance abuse – yes, Mick, the whole country knows – continues to doggedly pursue the Indian doctor in view of the fact the UK authorities have indicated that no evidence exists to incriminate Dr. Haneef. Perhaps scheduling Keelty would be the most appropriate course of action the government could take at this stage!
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Facing the interest rate incline
budgie, Tuesday, Jan 15 2008, 10:23am
In anticipation of yet another interest rate hike a very brief history of Australia is warranted. This nation was built/developed by THE PEOPLE who enjoyed the fruits of their labour for generations. However, the past few decades have seen successive governments surrender the natural wealth of the nation to Transnationals, globalists and free market ‘rationalists.’ I would never have imagined the day I needed to remind the public what essentially constitutes a nation! (story and 2 images)
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America: a moral swampland
lynx, Sunday, Jan 13 2008, 9:34pm
This short paper is written as a response to RAND Corp, Carnegie-Mellon (Institute) and a host of other American ‘think’ tanks – if the functional qualifier, "think," is at all relevant in America today! We can save you a lot of conjecture and trouble by simply stating it as it is! But then how would you justify your existence?
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Mushroom (cloud) Blues
yarra, Friday, Jan 11 2008, 9:39pm
What possesses a once moral nation to reverse course and embark on a flagrantly illegal path of military invasion, plunder and murder. The REALITY of American intervention in Iraq is countless civilian deaths, the installation of a puppet government and a declaration that America now has interests it must protect after laying waste to a once viable State -- that is REAL American 'liberty and democracy' in action! Do Americans actually imagine they can murder over one million innocent men, women and children and avoid retribution – it seems so? Americans remain in a state of convenient blindness (denial) to the horrors they have caused -- no price is too high for OTHERS TO PAY for the American way of life!
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A lasting imprint or a national characteristic?
barra, Thursday, Jan 10 2008, 10:49am
Have no doubt that national leaders leave their ‘mark’ on a nation. Former PM John Howard’s greatest achievement has been largely overlooked, as it was a secondary by-product of his conservative politics of fear and servility. Inadvertently or otherwise Howard succeeded in reshaping the opposition Labor party and creating a Labor leader in his own image! That development has been most unfortunate for Australia, as Howard’s most notable characteristic while in office was COWARDICE! [His second most notable characteristic was servility.] (story and 2 images)
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Kevin Rudd: the invisible PM
peptide, Wednesday, Jan 9 2008, 9:06am
Australia is not short of critical issues affecting the nation at present. Perhaps the most politically damaging -- but by no means the most important – are bank interest rate hikes and the lack of regulation in this regard! The parasitic Banks are attempting – successfully at this stage -- to pass the cost of THEIR INCOMPETENCE to the public! The feeble and outrageous excuse given to Rudd’s eunuch government and the Australian people is that interest rates have risen in order to compensate for losses sustained from “exposure” to the U.S. credit crisis; in other words, ‘I want YOU to pay for MY incompetence,’ say the banks! ‘Impressive’ manoeuvre! The arrogance of deregulated Australian banks knows no bounds as is clearly evident today; it seems the word RESPONSIBILITY only applies to the public [servicing bank loans] but not to Bank executives – a very nice arrangement, for some! (story and 1 image)
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The Mother Load: grass roots electioneering
nano, Tuesday, Jan 8 2008, 9:14am
“That damned internet!” We could hear the plutocrats and media moguls from here (Australia). There is no denying that many ruling interests have taken a severe pounding from the ‘new’ grass roots GLOBAL communications medium. Given the means, many small voices on the net have combined to form a tsunami for "CHANGE" – there’s that magic word again!
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A bullet for Obama
finch, Saturday, Jan 5 2008, 8:09pm
Who would have thought the dark horse democrat would capture the hearts and minds of so many with his slick speeches and smooth delivery – a good dose of charisma hasn’t gone to waste on him either. However, the plutocrats are murmuring; their anointed has been usurped by the people’s choice – a certain foreboding now hangs over Obama as he continues to gain in the race to the Presidency. Consider what the rabid right once did to a white Catholic democrat President and his brother. Who imagines they have changed after witnessing their handiwork with Bush and the neo-cons? (story and 1 image)
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opinion/analysis
Domestic collateral damage
nano, Saturday, Jan 5 2008, 8:40am
People are unravelling at an alarming rate today. Millions are succumbing to the pressures of western, affluent society. Something critically important to human well being is definitely missing from the capitalist formula. Almost the entire population is suffering from stress/anxiety related complaints. Did we destroy numerous indigenous cultures for this? Is our ‘advanced/superior’ culture a LIE or rather is it a sociological DISEASE that is killing the planet? It is clear that nintendo and plasma TV do not happiness make! CONSUMERISM BENEFITS ONLY THE FEW IT SEEMS! (story and 2 images)
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Kevin Rudd: they see him here, there, NOWHERE!
major mitchell, Friday, Jan 4 2008, 9:22am
Who is the leader you have when you don’t have a leader, why Kevin Rudd, of course? Remember how that little Queensland bureaucrat ‘caved’ and back-stepped on every tiny issue he imagined would lose him a vote prior to the elections? True to ‘character,’ excuse me, that little shit has NO character! 'True to form’ Rudd has caved on the promise to monitor the Japanese whale slaughter in the Southern Oceans. (story and 2 images)
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China set to displace all nations as sole superpower
Kingfisher, Thursday, Jan 3 2008, 11:47am
The inevitability of China’s rapid ascension to the position of leading superpower is creating dread in traditional western centres of power – but it's the west that has been beaten at its own game. (story and 2 images)
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opinion/analysis
Saddam defeats Bush from grave
yarra, Tuesday, Jan 1 2008, 8:14am
What to do with a living president defeated by a dead dictator?
I will never forget the rallying call Saddam made prior to his arranged execution; his final command to the nation was to fight a classic guerrilla war of attrition and draw the American elephant into a quagmire where it could EASILY be DEFEATED. He promised victory if the people persevered and he was right. However, Saddam’s ranting was more a manifestation of bravado and personal rage than directives to a people that hated his guts!
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