Ah, the USA. Let’s celebrate their own celebration of ignorance and stupidity. How these people get on television is anyone’s guess. WEE mean, Australia has its own crass and appalling TV journalists, commentators and entertainers (Kyle Sandilands anyone?) but the US really takes the cake in promoting the truly sub-intelligent and moronic to celebrity prominence.

News Ltd, has found some commentators and journalists worse than their own to pick on for once…

‘Serial killer’ for approving camel cull “Launched air strikes against camels” Anchor is serious The Punch: A bit too far?PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd has been labelled a serial killer on US TV for approving the culling of feral camels.Erin Burnett, an anchor on American financial news channel CNBC, launched a verbal attack targetting Rudd following his government’s decision to spend $A19 million to cull feral camels in the outback.

via Kevin Rudd called a ‘serial killer’ on CNBC | TV | News.com.au.

These people are really stupid and so dumb transparent -  you can bet if John Howard had made this decision it wouldn’t have rated a mention.

But their real stupidity is that they have sat and barracked for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq for the last few years and simply cannot see the offensive irony of calling the cull of camels in the outback ‘genocide’.

These people represent a portion of the American establishment that is sick, sick, sick. They are so out of touch with any kind of reality that it really is not worth talking about their outlandish behaviour and hateful, bile filled speech. They are so tired and dull. Let’s just hope they go away.

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Oh for ____’s sake! Well the Liberal Party of Australia is really focused in on the important issues.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has been accused of swearing on purpose on national television to increase his appeal to voters.

Last night on Channel 7 Mr Rudd dropped the word “shit” as he spoke to sacked Pacific Brands workers about the Government’s decision to spend billions stimulating the economy.

“People have to understand that, because there’s going to be the usual political shit storm, sorry, political storm, over that,” he said.

His comments were applauded by the audience.

But this morning Melbourne’s Liberal Mayor Robert Doyle and Opposition frontbencher Peter Dutton both accused Mr Rudd of scripting the moment

via Rudd flies into swearing storm – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation).

What a bunch of tossers. With all there is to criticise Kevin Rudd over this is the one? Or is it payback for the equally moronic carry-on about the Labor Party’s horror that Malcolm Turnbull mentioned the name of the Prime Minister’s wife and wealth in the same sentence.

Can someone inform both parties there’s an economic meltdown, bushfires and industrial relations legislation to discuss in rational and mature ways – WEE guess that’s hoping for too much.

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photo credit: Larsz

Stephen Conroy has had a brain meltdown on this issue of internet filtering. And hundreds of Australian expressed their concern today around the country (and many thousands more have expressed their outrage at the laws online).

Digital Liberty Coalition protests against web filter held across Australia

Protests

Digital divide … hundreds attended rallies across Australia today to oppose the Government’s web filtering plan.

* Protests against web filtering scheme

* Held in capital cities across Australia

* Monthly rallies until March

HUNDREDS of people attended rallies in Australian capital cities yesterday to voice their opposition to the Rudd Government’s planned internet filtering scheme.

via Digital Liberty Coalition protests against web filter held across Australia | News | News.com.au.

The internet censorship proposal is ricidulous. It is another ‘moral panic’ issue. The Rudd Government is only trying to pander to the likes of Family First and Nick Xenophon on this one. But in the process of pandering to these two annoying senators who account for a fraction of the population, the Government is ignoring everyone else.

It’s a curious issue because techies keep advising that it won’t be hard to bypass the filter – so you can get around the stupid legislation – and so can the weirdoes and gambling people and any other nutter. It’s like gun laws – if you really want to get your hands on a gun you can. If you really want to get around an internet filter you can. So it’s not going to stop criminals or those folks intent on using the internet for ill.

But it will by all accounts really slow everything down for everyone. And here is the greatest irony of the genius Conroy’s plan. At the same time as he’s about to build a fast broadband network, he’s introducing legislation and technology that will slow it down!

Explain the logic in that if you can.

The other problem is that there is very little clarity around what exactly will be blocked. Image of child pornography yes, and euthanasia information (that’s a whole other debate). But there is also talk of other things such as all porn, peer to peer sites, the list goes on and on.

The Rudd Government is officially out of control. Rudd talks about innovation and needing to be technically advanced. Australia is about to become the only western democracy in the world to censor its internet – yeah, clever country indeed.

If you want to join the fight for our internet freedom you can here:

[iframe http://www.getup.org.au/campaign/SaveTheNet/442 600 800]

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Rudd wants all to pay for climate except him NEWS.com.au
Rudd wants all to pay for climate except him

By Glenn Milne

July 06, 2008 12:00am

I mean, is this guy for real? Is this guy meant to be a serious political journalist? This is like something written by a 3 year old. WEE are flabbergasted.

What is going on at news.com.au?

Basically, Milne argues that, beyond all convention of PMs in this country, that Rudd should pay his own prime ministerial costs for transport and so forth. This is bizarre. WEE can only hope that this was an article written in jest that mistakenly made it to the website.

If Milne stands by such rubbish is this, then he really is the pathetic excuse for a journalist WEE always suspected he was. Unprofessional and puerile – that man really should be sacked.

And just in case they realise how pathetic this article is and remove it from news.com.au, WEE have pasted the contents here.

Prime Minister won’t pay his power, petrol bills

Carbon trading scheme will drive up costs

Rudd says he understands pressures families face

Last December, after signing the Kyoto Protocol at the Bali Climate Change Summit, Mr Rudd declared: “We must all share the burden.”

KEVIN Rudd wants all Australians to share the pain of increased costs to help save the planet from climate change – except him.

The Prime Minister revealed yesterday he would continue to allow taxpayers to pick up his power and petrol bills.

In the wake of the week’s Garnaut report, Mr Rudd was asked if he would pay for power, lighting and heating bills at The Lodge.

The Sunday Herald Sun also asked whether he would start to pay his petrol bills for his chauffeur-driven car.

Mr Rudd’s office responded: “The Prime Minister will not be changing the long-standing practices of previous prime ministers in relation to these matters.

“The Prime Minister understands the cost-of-living pressures that confront Australia’s working families, carers and seniors.

“He also understands that Australians want the Australian Government to take action on climate change.”

Taxpayers pick up the bill for the car and The Lodge.

The Government is set to introduce a national Emissions Trading System by 2010 that will increase the cost of energy bills and fuel in the name of reducing global greenhouse gas emissions.

Mr Rudd has stressed that for a carbon trading system to work, consumers must be hit with a noticeable price rise in order for them to begin reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Mr Rudd declined to say how much The Lodge and his chauffeur driven car cost taxpayer’s last year, referring the Sunday Herald Sun to Government annual reports.

According to Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet portfolio estimates, the cost of running The Lodge and Kirribilli House in Sydney is expected to be $1.8 million this financial year.

Mr Rudd, whose wife, Therese Rein’s companies turned over about $260 million last year, also has a taxpayer-subsidised nanny for his youngest son and a taxpayer-funded butler paid $78,000 a year.

Mr Rudd earns $370,000 a year, including allowances.

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WEE think the most amazing thing about this election was the fact that the off-mainstream press (MSM) were so stunningly accurate with their predictions of a Labor win. When many were wavering and worrying about the ‘narrowing’ or Rudd just messing up, the poll watchers were calmly asserting that there was nothing to worry about.

And on the night it seems they were dead right. WEE must say, that we didn’t really believe the wise old sage, Possum, would be right – although WEE were confidently predicting a Labor win to friends and sundry, back in the deep recesses WEE had our doubts.

And then, on the evening of the election broadcast (admittedly before Queensland votes had begun counting) WEE were still wavering, worried sick that Howard and his cronies would win their unwinnable election.

But to great relief, Possum and Pollbludger were proved correct. And Howard was swept from office.

Highlights of the night included the roar from the crowd in the tally room when the ABC showed a graphic of Bennelong with Maxine McKew ahead of John Howard. Also Kerry O’Brien claiming that there, ‘was a swing to the ABC’. Priceless. It could possibly be Freudian slip of the century – in that it confirms everything the Howard huggers and ABC haters have mythologised about what’s wrong with the national broadcaster.

And finally, the change of government. It’s noticeable. There is a different feeling out there in the community now. A collective sigh of relief that Howard has gone. A slight jolt when an announcer on TV mentions the Prime Minister and you see an image of Kevin Rudd. We’re still getting used to it. Eleven years is a long time, and it’s been a long time between drinks for compassionate and respectable government. Let’s hope that Rudd can deliver the goods.

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Howard hits states again – National – smh.com.au

It might work, but WEE hope that the good burghers of Queensland will see through this act. WEE hope they’ll see through Howard’s sudden feigned outrage at people being forced into these mergers.

Along with a hospital in Mersey in Tasmania one really has to take these interventions with a grain of salt. Howard is simply out of control. He will stop at nothing to get back in. It is kind of sad in a frightening way. As happened to poor Dawn in Welcome to the Dollhouse John Howard should really go home and right an essay on dignity. Because he is certainly not displaying any at the moment.

He is probably betting on the fact that no-one will remember all of these bizarre tactics if he wins the next federal election. He is really just trying to secure his place in history and hoping to hell he can leave the stage with dignity (the way he should have left late last year).

And he will stop at nothing to do it. He won’t mind trashing any convention to remain in power. He will tell any lie, slander anyone who gets in his way. It will either work (WEE hope it won’t) or he will retire a very diminished politician who will have trashed his (questionable) legacy for the sake of his own ego.

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From the start of this saga, WEE had given the Government the benefit of the doubt. Maybe there really was something that the AFP had on Haneef. WEE were content, despite the uneasiness of the continued extensions of Haneef’s detention, to let the AFP do their job and trust that the judicial review of the case would ensure a reasonable outcome. But then it started…

Government ministers couldn’t help themselves, commenting on the case. Ruddock, Downer, Andrews and Howard just couldn’t keep their mouths shut. This wasn’t for the benefit of the case, it was to try and draw the opposition out – to try and get a rise from Rudd. And the longer Rudd resisted the more bits and pieces of information dribbled out. That was until it became apparent that the AFP had made some errors in the investigation.

Mick Keelty blames the time zone difference between Australia and the UK for some of the confusion. Good grief, its 2007 not 1807. However, when push came to shove and they had to make some charge against Haneef to justify all the carry on surrounding the case, the judicial system operated as it should and granted bail to the accused.

This is where things started to go off the rails and the Government really started to overstep its power. Kevin Andrews, a grubby character if ever there was one, and a committed Christian, decided that based on some evidence that only the AFP and he have been privy to (and which seems to be the only piece of evidence not leaked to the press!) he would revoke Haneef’s working visa. This truly was an act of a complete bastard. A mean, nasty and vicious act – and an act that was political in its motive.

And make no mistake, this was not an act that Andrews dreamed up all by himself. This one has all the hallmarks of a classic Howard maneuver. Try and win a political point over Labor under the guise of anti-terror laws. They have used this time and time again. And unfortunately for the Gold Coast registrar Haneef, he was in the way, and disposable (and deportable).

What they didn’t count on was the whole AFP case unravelling quite so badly. Unravelling to the point that the DPP had to drop the charges against Haneef.

If the Coalition had been able to resist their insatiable desire for a political wedge to damage Rudd, they wouldn’t be in this mess. If they had let the AFP do their job without the running commentary. If Haneef could have waited patiently for the case against him to be dropped after investigation, then none of this grandstanding would have been necessary. None of this visa nonsense would be necessary and the whole thing could have been a shining demonstration of how the terror laws could work – even in the case of an innocent person being detained.

But no, our grubby leaders couldn’t let that happen. And it begs the question. Did they really introduce the terror laws to protect Australia? Or did they introduce them to create the circumstances for political show trials? Show trials designed to keep the community in fear? Show trials to try and goad the opposition into questioning their outrageous treatment of any poor bugger that gets detained on flimsy or false evidence?

These are the questions we should reflect back on these men who think nothing of dragging Haneef through mud. Of course they will squeal like stuck pigs that this article is written by someone soft on terror, that WEE haven’t seen the evidence against Haneef, that WEE would prefer to see someone get killed in a terror attack that protect the nation. What rot.

WEE cannot stop asking these questions. The veil of suspicion must fall on the Howard government. It is they who have betrayed our trust in this case. It is they who have behaved in the most appalling way. It is they who are threatening the national security of this country through their abuse and disregard for natural justice and common law.

Do not let Andrews cast further suspicion onto Haneef as he tried to do by commenting on the haste with which the poor doctor left the country last night. Rather let us reflect on the haste with which Andrews made his decisions about this case, and the suspicion this arouses about the Government’s motives for such actions. Get suspicious about everything this Government has done and will do in the future under the guise of terror laws and ‘protecting’ Australia.

Question their utterances, now matter how Downer extreme. Question their actions. For in our view these are not the actions of men with the countries interest at heart – this are men who are acting in their own self-interest, and in the interest of maintaining power.

And finally, can WEE just make the observation that the quiet dignity and grace that Haneef has shown since his release stands in stark contrast to the hysterics of the grubby men who pretend they are protecting Australia.

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Adam Rope (Letters, April 4) asserts that I did not oppose the interventions in Australian domestic politics by Tom Schieffer, the former US ambassador to Australia. This statement is untrue. For example, in my Herald column on March 30, 2004, I wrote that Schieffer “should understand that it is not the role of the US ambassador to interfere in the domestic political debate”. Mr Rope should do some fact-checking. Gerard Henderson Sydney

Source: Nothing but a wave of apathy in the wake of tsunami warning – Letters – Opinion SMH 5 April 2007

Poor old Adam Rope. He probably doesn’t have time to gather every column that this man has ever written and check the collected wisdom of Gerard Henderson (what a frightening task) to find every little reference, and has to rely on his memory. Adam probably has a real job. But Henderson is onto the keyboard in a flash to write in to the newspaper (the very same one that provides him weekly column space) to point out the error. [more]

But in the great scheme of things, did Adam’s error really matter? Were we all standing around the water cooler talking about Henderson’s article. The answer is no. Do WEE have time to check every seeming misrepresentation that Henderson makes about certain facts in his columns? No. It’s just part of the general cut and thrust of debate. No, it only matters on planet Henderson.

What makes this miserable, ungenerous action even more disappointing is that the letters editor allows such unimportant drivel to be published in the letters page. If Henderson wants to correct the record let him do so in his weekly column but don’t take up precious letters space where the voices of the great unwashed should be heard.

Then again, he probably realises that not as many people will read his protestations if they are included in his column – WEE find the letters page far more interesting that his biased, one-eyed opinions about politics in Australia.

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Well the sentence in the David Hicks case has been brought down. This terrible, dangerous man, who was caught consorting with terrorists, hanging with Osama, and providing material support to terrorists will serve nine months in prison in Adelaide.

Gosh, the case against him must have been compelling for this result. Hardly a case of do the crime, do the time. It doesn’t seem the crime was very serious after all.

Bush, Howard and all their cronies should hang their collective heads in shame. The serious and terrible crimes of which he was accused (that we never really got to the bottom of) were worth a measly nine months in jail? Are they serious? Seven years was pleaded down to nine months?

Can we get these fools away from the levers of government? They really don’t deserve them. [more]

Janet Albrechtsen and the rest of the Howard cheer squad were out in force late last week, misrepresenting the views of many people who were more concerned about justice than his guilt or otherwise. But all of us have apparently got ‘egg on our faces’ because Hicks pleaded guilty. Well they must be suffering a bit of egg blowback tonight! This dangerous man they have all be demonising for the last five years will be walking among us early in 2008.

How will we protect ourselves from such danger? WEE are astonished that Howard can, in the light of this result, stand with his straight, serious face on and tell us that due process has been observed and justice has run its course.

WEE mentioned that it was a sad chapter in Australian history earlier this week. Well, it’s starting to descend into farce. WEE only hope the electorate can see through this sham.

Either the man is a dangerous terrorist (the government position) who deserves to be locked up behind bars for a long time, or he was a naive adventurer (the rather extreme left view) who was in the wrong place at the wrong time and so was only guilty of misadventure… which WEE don’t think is a crime.

Gosh, when is this farce going to end? Now we have to wait until early next year (and after the election… how convenient) to really hear what Hicks is all about. And of course it will be dragged on and on in the media. Couldn’t they have put us all out of our misery and released him now? Then it could all be over in a couple of weeks, or at least the real issue in all of this could have been brought into focus, the role the Australian government played in colluding with the Americans to lock Hicks up without trial for five years.

Alas, the media will now be clamouring over each other to court Hicks for his story over the next 9-12 months. And the distraction of these media games will ensure that Howard and his government avoids any awkward questions about his disgraceful handling of the Hicks case from the day he was apprehended by the Americans.

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Today marks a very unpleasant chapter in Australian history. The fact that David Hicks has seemingly admitted his guilt in providing material assistance to terrorists (with no specific incident cited, of course) is a sad indictment on the whole process of what has happened at Guantanamo Bay.

It is reasonable to assume that Hicks was up to no particular good in his decisions to engage in some kind of action in first Kosovo, and then Afghanistan over five years ago. But nothing is reasonable about the Australian government treatment of Hicks after he was picked up by American forces.

[more]

What this case represents is a total abandonment of an Australian citizen overseas. In his post-9/11 excitement, John Howard also abandoned the fundamentals of our judicial system. Hicks has paid the price of Howard’s political games, which include backing G W Bush to the hilt and trying to paint the opposition as being weak on terrorists. WEE have also witnessed and embarrassing and unprecedented demonisation of Hicks by senior members of our government and more importantly by our chief law officer, Phillip Ruddock.

It’s all rather sad and depressing, but at least by his admission of guilt, Hicks will not have to spend any longer in that vile camp at Guantanamo Bay. That was probably what was on his mind anyway. It was clear that there would be no fair trial in the short-term, and the prospect of serving anymore time in Cuba was probably unbearable.

So just be clear. Here was the decision he faced: plead not guilty and remain in Guantanamo Bay indefinitely while the case goes through years of agonising legal toing and froing, or plead guilty to a more minor charge of material assistance for terrorists and be on a plane home to Australia in a few weeks. Um, that isn’t a fair process. This is an outcome as a result of the tortuous conditions at Guantanamo Bay.

Make no mistake. The man has had to sleep with lights on for the last five years. I’d like to see all those people gloating at the guilty verdict today spend a few months in his shoes and then say they wouldn’t be desperate to get out of such a situation.

What has happened today is no victory for anyone. Hick’s story is a modern day tragedy and we hope there is a new leadership in the Australian government before another situation such as this one presents itself. The response by the current leadership has been completely inadequate.

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