GOP flagrantly fingers Sarah Palin : McCain Camp prepares case for it's defence...in advance...already

What's wrong with these pictures people plonkers prats whatever/whoever?



What a way to run a railroad.

Or, indeed, absolutely anything else.

We wonder why ye olde English exclamation "Couldn't run a ruddy piss-up in a brewery," so readily springs to mind?

McCain camp trying to scapegoat Palin

John McCain's campaign is looking for a scapegoat. It is looking for someone to blame if McCain loses on Tuesday.

And it has decided on Sarah Palin.

In recent days, a McCain “adviser” told Dana Bash of CNN: “She is a diva. She takes no advice from anyone.”

Imagine not taking advice from the geniuses at the McCain campaign. What could Palin be thinking?

Also, a “top McCain adviser” told Mike Allen of Politico that Palin is “a whack job.”

Maybe she is. But who chose to put this “whack job” on the ticket? Wasn’t it John McCain? And wasn’t it his first presidential-level decision?

And if you are a 72-year-old presidential candidate, wouldn’t you expect that your running mate’s fitness for high office would come under a little extra scrutiny? And, therefore, wouldn’t you make your selection with care? (To say nothing about caring about the future of the nation?)

McCain didn’t seem to care that much. McCain admitted recently on national TV that he...

So read the rest of this remarkably, revealing report.

You know, if it all wasn't so serious it could be bloomin' hilarious.

Good job some of us still have a strong sense of humour, eh?



*(Cross posted across at 'appletree')

Cheney Coming Out Of The Closet ...

That's all folks.

Case closed.

*(Cross posted across at 'appletree')

Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand : Why we're saying "Sack the sick sods!"

Brand and Ross: BBC statement

BBC director general Mark Thompson has suspended presenters Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand following the row over their prank phone calls to Fawlty Towers [Manuel] actor Andrew Sachs on Radio 2.

The move was announced in this statement:

What we really want to know is why the big-bods at the BBC took so bloody long. And, at the end of the day whether or not these two turds will be summarily turfed out on their unarguably undeservedly, obscenely overpaid arses.

And in case anyone hasn't yet heard, THIS is why. Talk about a tardy transcript , eh?

Shame on the pair of these perverted pricks. May the louts lead the rest of their lousy lives in extremely "interesting times." At least.

UPDATE : Russell Brand has resigned.

The idiot party

Republicans cheer as McCain mocks the idea that nuclear power plants should be safe. There's no nice way to say this: those people are morons.

Bonus! McCain also mocks the idea that a ban on abortion ought to contain an exception for cases in which the woman's health is at risk:



(cross posted at appletree)

Silly Sarah Palin : Appropriate Caption Competition ...

Here you go.

So, have at her.

The Third World War ... Continued

*

Whether you've already read Gordo's 'World War' post or not, you must read this.

(Snip)

Reality can be detected, however, by applying the Orwell Rule and inverting public pronouncements and headlines, such as “Aggressor Russia facing pariah status, US warns”, thereby identifying the correct pariah; or by crossing the invisible boundaries that fix the boundaries of political and media discussion.

(Big snip)

In the meantime, an American invasion of Pakistan is under way, secretly authorised by President Bush.

The “change” candidate for president, Barack Obama, had already called for an invasion and more aircraft and bombs.

The ironies are searing. A Pakistani religious school attacked by American drone missiles, killing 23 people, was set up in the 1980s with CIA backing. It was part of Operation Cyclone, in which the US armed and funded mujahedin groups that became al-Qaeda and the Taliban. The aim was to bring down the Soviet Union. This was achieved; it also brought down the Twin Towers.

On 20 September the inevitable response to the latest invasion came with the bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad. For me, it is reminiscent of President Nixon’s invasion of Cambodia in 1970, which was planned as a diversion from the coming defeat in Vietnam. The result was the rise to power of Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge. Today, with Taliban guerrillas closing on Kabul and Nato refusing to conduct serious negotiations, defeat in Afghanistan is also coming.

It is a war of the world.

In Latin America, the Bush administration is fomenting incipient military coups in Venezuela, Bolivia, and possibly Paraguay, democracies whose governments have opposed Washington’s historic rapacious intervention in its “backyard”. Washington’s “Plan Colombia” is the model for a mostly unreported assault on Mexico. This is the Merida Initiative, which will allow the United States to fund “the war on drugs and organised crime” in Mexico – a cover, as in Colombia, for militarising its closest neighbour and ensuring its “business stability”.

Britain is tied to all these adventures – a British “School of the Americas” is to be built in Wales, where British soldiers will train killers from all corners of the American empire in the name of “global security”.

Some are certain to ask, who the hell's the smart ass saying World War 111 is already underway?

Sad to say, the man concerned is no smart ass at all. Far from it, in fact. He's a man in the know. He's also a man who's not afraid to stand on any rooftop whilst shouting out the truth.

He's an internationally applauded & acclaimed, multi-award winning film maker, author and 'genuine' journalist.

Incidentally, does anyone here still remember genuine journalism?

*(Cross posted across at 'appletree')

Is Bush trying to start World War III before he leaves office?

American helicopters kill civilians in Syria:

American military helicopters have tonight attacked an area along Syria's border with Iraq, causing casualties, according to reports on Syrian state TV and from witnesses. Quoting unnamed Syrian officials, the television report said the area is near the Syrian border town of Abu Kamal.

Local residents told the Associated Press by telephone that two helicopters carrying US soldiers raided a farm in Hwijeh village, 10 miles (17km) inside Syria's border.

An official Syrian spokesman confirmed eight people were killed in the attack. Witnesses said five others were wounded; one of the witnesses said five of the dead were from a single family. The residents refused to allow their names to be given because they feared they would be harassed by authorities.

The US military in Baghdad had no immediate comment.

The area is near the Iraqi border city of Qaim, which had been a major crossing point for fighters, weapons and money coming into Iraq to fuel the Sunni insurgency.

The Syrian foreign ministry has summoned the US charge d'affaires in Damascus to protest at the raid, Syria's state news agency SANA reported tonight. Syria's deputy foreign minister had informed the US official of "Syria's protest and condemnation of this serious attack", it said. The Iraqi charge d'affaires had been summoned for the same reason, it said.

Iraqi insurgents seized Qaim in April 2005, forcing US marines to recapture the town the following month in heavy fighting. The area became secure only after Sunni tribes in Anbar turned against al-Qaida in late 2006 and joined forces with the Americans.

(cross posted at appletree)

Why farting's fine with us ...

Fed up of forever feeling full of flatulence?

Sick of so many assorted sodding stinks, smells and stenches?

Then don't be.

From now on we should all just relax and feel free to let it rip, where ever and whenever we want to.

Today, for the first time, we found out how having a few farts a day can help keep the doctor away.

And that's official.

Really!

Read all about it.

So remember, dear readers, from now on you need never be afraid to ...


*(Cross posted across at 'appletree')

Mad McCain Clan : 'First (super-short-fuse) Family'?

Irritability infested/infected genes?

Troubling family trait?

Poor parental guidance?

Absolute absence of any semblance of some sort of good guidence?

Obvious lack of self control?

Learned (loutish) behaviour?

Delusions of grandeur disease?

Some sort of serious, and ultimately self destructive, self-impotance syndrome?

Flat out, fatally flawed?

Plain old common or garden plonker/pillock?

We wish we knew.



One thing we do know, for definite, is that the last thing this planet needs right now (or at any time at all), is an even 'hotter' empty head in the White House than the world has already endured - for eight full f*cking years.

McCain's brother apologizes for calling 911

*(Cross posted across at 'appletree')

Help Obama!

I wasn't very happy when Obama picked Joe "The Gaffe Factory" Biden as his running mate. During the primaries, I began my Biden Death Watch on day one, and began waiting for Biden's mouth to sink his candidacy. His mouth did not disappoint. And now it appears that Biden's mouth has done it again:

"Mark my words," the Democratic vice presidential nominee warned at the second of his two Seattle fundraisers Sunday. "It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking. We're about to elect a brilliant 47-year-old senator president of the United States of America. Remember I said it standing here if you don't remember anything else I said. Watch, we're gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy."

"I can give you at least four or five scenarios from where it might originate," Biden said to Emerald City supporters, mentioning the Middle East and Russia as possibilities. "And he's gonna need help. And the kind of help he's gonna need is, he's gonna need you - not financially to help him - we're gonna need you to use your influence, your influence within the community, to stand with him. Because it's not gonna be apparent initially, it's not gonna be apparent that we're right."

Ben Smith says that he assumes Biden was talking about Cuban Missile Crisis Kennedy, and not Bay of Pigs Kennedy.

A lot of Democratic partisans have suggested that what Biden said wasn't that bad. Well, it wasn't Palin bad. He didn't say that people who bomb abortion clinics aren't terrorists. But it was plenty bad, as Russ Douthat explains:

Biden didn't say: "Every President gets tested in his first six months in office, and Barack Obama won't be any different." He specifically highlighted Obama's youth as a reason to expect a "generated crisis to test the mettle of this guy," and specifically compared him to John F. Kennedy - whose perceived inexperience (and poor initial impression on the world stage) was supposedly one of the contributing factors in the Russian decision to send missiles to Cuba.

It's true that all Presidents should expect to get their mettle tested in their first year in office, and it's true that John McCain's years working on foreign-policy issues in Washington won't exempt him from that rule. And maybe that's what Biden meant to say. But the words he actually uttered seemed intended to cite his running mate's youth and relative inexperience as a reason why Obama, in particular, would be likely to face an international crisis in his first six months. And in an election where John McCain has been trying (and trying, and trying) to emphasize the risks associated with Obama's inexperience, that seems like a remarkably foolish thing for a vice-presidential candidate to say about his running mate and foreign policy.

If Biden's remarks are "wholly unremarkable," then, it's only because we've reached a point in the race where Joe Biden could be photographed doing the foxtrot with Jeremiah Wright at a "Free Mumia" rally and it wouldn't affect the outcome of the election.

Well, I'd say that the only reason that Biden has been getting a pass for his gaffes is the fact that his Republican counterpart has been saying things that are much more harmful to the ticket. That's saying a lot. Palin is up against Joe Biden, after all, and she's only been interviewed by reasonably objective journalists on three occasions.

But the fact is that Obama will almost certainly be the next president, and I think that any loyal American and any person who's concerned about what happens to the United States has an obligation to help out Barack Obama. The poor man is about to be blindsided by an international rival who's determined to test him. Let's help Obama anticipate the crisis that's coming during his first six months in office by thinking of possible scenarios.

Remember the criteria: it must be an international crisis that's been manufactured as a way of testing Obama's will. And Obama's reaction must seem wrong at first, but be proved right in the end. I can think of a couple of scenarios, but this is the one I think is most likely:

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announces that he will restart his nuclear program. Barack Obama responds by saying, "they wouldn't even know what to do with a nuclear weapon if they had one." The two leaders meet without preconditions in a hastily prepared summit.

At the summit, Ahmadinejad challenges Obama to back up his words by giving Iran a nuclear weapon. Diplomatically cornered, Obama has no choice but to give him one. Saying that he has no fear of becoming an international pariah, Ahmadinejad immediately arms a Shahab-4 missile with the nuclear warhead and fires it at Tel Aviv.

When the missile impacts, the warhead splits open. Inside is confetti and a flag that says "BANG!" Instead of becoming an international pariah, Iran becomes an international laughingstock. An angry mob storms the presidential residence and tears Ahmadinejad limb from limb. Iranian people set up a democracy that serves as a model for good government and economic growth in the Islamic world.

Obama reveals that the fake nuke was Biden's idea, and Biden is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Creates major scandal when it's found that his acceptance speech was plagiarized from Neil Kinnock.

***

That's only one of the several possibilities that Biden alluded to. I know that we can think of the remaining possibilities in time to warn Obama. Please help by giving your scenario in the comments.

(cross posted at appletree)

Heard about the hideous JAMES HOWSON?

*

Baby killer given life sentence

The judge said Howson had shown no remorse

A father who murdered his baby daughter by snapping her spine will spend at least 22 years in prison.

James Howson, 25, was given a life sentence at Leeds Crown Court for the murder of 16-month-old Amy at their home in Doncaster, South Yorkshire.

He was convicted of murder on Tuesday after a jury heard he held Amy over his knee and broke her back in two.

Emphasis, most emphatically, all our own work.

Further words fail us.

Read the rest and weep.

*(Cross posted across at 'appletree')

** UPDATE:

Here's a photo from 'The Sun' of the lovely little Amy in life.

Good Gawd, guys & gals! Have we gone and gotten it wrong?

'Strewth, brothers and sisters!

Can you say "some serious shit"?!

In the interests of remaining immediately recognisably reliable and/or completely credible, tonight we wish to shed a little shite ... oops ...light ... upon some super-startling revelations which that what ..... awrh shit sugar ... we've extremely recently, received ... and by the sorta-semi-devine, imaginary powers invested in us, have studiously as well as officially, reviewed. Really.

Right?

Right!

Read on.

First, feast your mince pies on this - via a no expense spared, 'Extreme Emergency' email from our friendly neighbourhood good old busybody buddy, Bootlean.

Next, thanks to some amazingly awesome research by the arch-astute, Al Devito of Vineyard Views, it's now possible to prepare to meet your (maybe) maker, with merely a quick click of your own mighty mouse!

*(Cross posted across at 'appletree')

This sort of thing makes it hard to win hearts and minds

From Radio Australia:

Foreign troops have killed nine Afghan soldiers and injured several others in a mistaken air strike during an operation in the southeastern province of Khost. A district chief says helicopter gunships pounded an Afghan army post on a road in Dowa Manda district, a Taliban stronghold.

The US military admitted coalition forces "may have mistakenly killed and injured" the soldiers, and says it is investigating.

Hundreds of civilians and Afghan forces have been killed in friendly fire incidents this year by foreign forces hunting al-Qaeda-backed militants.

(cross posted at appletree)

Gordon Brown's Britain:Peers of the Realm, Peter Mandelson, Lords of the Land, Stunts & Stinks, Stenches & Smells, Scandals & such like, and so on ...

After spending so much time at so many (subtle), title-tinkering attempts before plumping for our final preference, we're now left wondering what else is worth our while saying concerning this particularly sickly, sad & sleazy sort of story.

Oh, well.

Why worry?

Let's leave the rest to 'The Telegraph'.

All About An Amazing Atheist Advertisers' Announcement. Amen.

Don't ask us.

What would we know?

After all, 'aven't we always admitted that we're avowed agnostics?

Eh?

And anyway, we're just doing the ruddy reporting.

It's down to you to do your own damned deciding.

Maybe this might help, though.

*(Cross posted across at 'appletre')

NATO allies wavering in Afghanistan

From Reuters:

NATO members are wavering in their political commitment to Afghanistan, one of the alliance's top commanders said on Monday, describing the nearly seven-year-old campaign against the Taliban as disjointed. Pointing to more than 70 "caveats" that gave individual countries a veto over certain operations, and the fact that troop commitments remained unfulfilled, General John Craddock said he was fearful the operation was being short-changed.

"We are demonstrating a political will that is in my judgment sometimes wavering," Craddock, a U.S. general and NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Europe, said in a speech to policymakers and defense analysts in London. "It's this wavering political will that impedes operational progress and brings into question the relevance of the alliance here in the 21st century."

Craddock told Sky Afghan reconstruction and development was moving ahead slowly and needed to be more coherent.

"I do not think we are losing, we are not winning fast enough," Sky's website quoted him as saying. "Security is at a stalemate. Governance is stuck top dead center."

In his earlier speech, Craddock defended the view expressed by Britain's outgoing commander in Afghanistan, Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith, that the Taliban could not be defeated and insurgents needed to be drawn into dialogue.

The American are joined by Iran in their resistance to talks with the Taliban:

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki warned the West on Sunday not to push for talks with the Taliban militia which had stormy relations with Tehran when it ruled Afghanistan up to 2001.

"Today, the whole world knows about the strategic failure of foreign forces in Afghanistan and we advise them not to try a new failure," Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told a news conference. "We advise them to think about the consequences of the talks (with the Taliban) which are taking place in the region and in Europe and avoid being bitten in the same spot twice," Mottaki said, citing a Persian proverb.

The Afghan government denied the report but President Hamid Karzai has long called for talks with the Taliban on condition that they accept his government's constitution and are not involved with Al-Qaeda. The hardline Sunni Taliban had hostile relations with Shiite Iran, which was a major backer of the Afghan opposition to the militia's rule.

Iran was a major backer of Afghan opposition to the Taliban? It was only last year that the US said it had "irrefutable proof" that Iran was arming the Taliban. I guess that turned out to be an obvious lie, though you'd never guess it to read news account from that time.

To sum up: the Afghan government and America's NATO allies want to negotiate a truce with the Taliban, but Iran and the United States stand opposed to any compromise. NATO's military effort has stalled, and the US has dishonest about the source of the Taliban's weapons. In reality, the Taliban were being armed by elements within the Pakistani security forces, which in turn were being supplied by the United States. So is it any wonder that many NATO nations are considering withdrawal from Afghanistan?

If a military alliance can't hold together in a war, then what is the purpose of the alliance? The Bush administration wants to expand NATO to include Georgia and other former Soviet states, but how could our new allies rely on the alliance in a confrontation with Russia when the alliance fails against a relatively weak foe like the Taliban?

The bottom line is that the Bush administration's intransigence on the issue of peace talks and its unwillingness to commit enough force to win in Afghanistan is undermining America's strategy to contain Russian, and threatening its most important military alliance.

Meanwhile, the war continues to take its bloody toll:

Police and government officials in Kandahar are accusing the Taliban of slaughtering nearly 30 civilians - some of whom were decapitated - in a brazen bus attack staged outside the city. However, a spokesman for the Taliban, which yesterday took responsibility for the gruesome killings, said the attacks were made because passengers were members of the Afghan National Army.

The attacks took place last Thursday, but officials learned of the attacks only yesterday.

(cross posted at appletree)

Powell Says He Supports Obama. So Sodding What?

*

We see that that old Yank, Colin-the water carrier-Powell is backing Barack.

So what?

We, along with many millions more worldwide, warmly welcome almost anything/anyone helping to hamper and/or humble the unarguable ogre that the American, Republican political party machine has lately, increasingly become.



However, also along with many millions more worldwide, we won't ever forgive or forget the shameful and sickening sins of some certain super-callous and completely uncaring American military cretins. Never. Not ever.

It's for that reason that today we say: "So what?"

Understand? Powell can back whoever he wants to for all we care. It won't make him any better a man than he's already shown himself to be. On many more occasions than we can count. Witness, for example the numerous ways he happily helped BushCo begin buggering up the whole wide world, before he finally was 'persuaded' to simply up-sticks and sod off out of it.

But, as is all too often our ancient generation related wont, we digress ...

My Lai massacre horror and the part played by a young, ingratiatingly ever eager to please, Colin Powell in the cover up mission.

An ultra, uber-miserable mission which eventually, and undoubtedly damned deservedly, finally flat-out failed in the most mega-miserable manner imaginable.





Shown above (whilst still unashamedly shaming a uniform he could well have worn with pride), is the slimy killer scumbag, US Army Lt William Calley, mass murderer and war criminal of Vietnam (international) infamy.

At the time of typing, said sad shortass of a shit is still alive and well, in Atlanta Georgia. Enjoying life and liberty as he currently continues strutting free and easy, in his very own 'home of the brave and land of the free'.

Phft!

Please pass us a puke-pail. Pronto.

('This Old Brit' personally recommended, related reading.)

**[Cross posted across at 'appletree']

McCain Loses His Honor

Voters in swing states are receiving robocalls which allege that Barack Obama "worked closely with" '60s radical William Ayers. The charge is untrue (Ayers and Obama were both on the board of a charity in Chicago, but had little contact), but dishonesty is common in negative robocall campaigns. What makes this campaign noteworthy is the fact that it's being conducted by a company called FLS-Connect. The Republican National Committee has paid FLS $8 million this election cycle.

The connection between the McCain campaign and FLS is ironic, given the firm's history:

FLS-Connect was linked to the pro-Bush robocalls in the 2000 South Carolina GOP primary that helped sink John McCain. The charges included that "Mr. McCain's current wife, Cindy, was a drug addict and that the couple's daughter Bridget, adopted from Mother Teresa's orphanage in Bangladesh, was a black child Mr. McCain had fathered out of wedlock," the New York Times reported.

So now McCain is employing the same firm that smeared him, his wife, and his daughter. I can't begin to describe the level of disgust I feel for John McCain right now.

(cross posted at appletree)

Big-Bad-Brother Britain : Poxy Plots and Ploys Proliferate

Yes, we know, mister (unarguably) unelected UK leader, (and super-smarmy sidekick, Ms 'smart arse' Jacqui Smith).



You know where we live.

Right?

But what about how you'd have us live, if you had your way?

Police may get more data powers

[British Home Secretary] Jacqui Smith said intercepting communications was 'vital'

Jacqui Smith has set out plans to give the police and security services more powers to gather phone and e-mail data.

The home secretary said police risked losing the ability to fight crime and terrorism without new laws.

The government is considering creating a giant database to store details of every UK phone call and e-mail sent.

Ms Smith stressed the "content" of conversations would not be stored but she wanted a national debate on what new powers should be introduced.

And she warned that without increasing their capacity to store data, the police and security services would have to consider a "massive expansion of surveillance".

Plans to collect more data on people's phone, e-mail and web-browsing habits are expected to be included in the Communications Data Bill, due to be introduced in the Queen's Speech in November.

'Vital capability'

In a speech to the Institute of Public Policy Research, Ms Smith said:

See for yourself what this wicked witch has said.

Update:

Whilst we were still typing this, some equally concerned soul, stateside, sent us this.

Time alone will tell, eh?

*(Cross posted across at 'appletree')

Golden Oldies & Silver Surfers ...

*

Wow!

Who knew?



Well, we knew.

Too true, we knew.

Did you know too?

*(Cross posted across at 'appletree')

Bush Blinks on North Korean Nukes. Again.

Lost in the swirl of election news was a major foreign policy climbdown by the Bush administration.

Ever since Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice negotiated an end to North Korea's nuclear weapons program in February of 2007, the Bush administration has resisted following through on a key part of the agreement: removing North Korea from the State Department's list of state sponsors of terrorism. On October 9, North Korean premier Kim Jong Il decided he'd had enough of Bush's stalling, and announced that he would expel UN weapons inspectors. On October 10, Bush capitulated, agreeing to remove North Korea from the terror list. On October 12, North Korea resumed the shutdown of its nuclear weapons program.

So why didn't Bush remove North Korea from the list last year? As it is, it looks as though Bush is weak and that he was negotiating in bad faith. Since North Korea was in the process of demolishing its nuclear weapons facilities, why didn't Bush live up to his end of the agreement?

We may never know the answer to that one, but this event mirrors the entire history of the negotiations between the Bush administration and North Korea. When Bush took office, North Korea's nuclear program had under suspension for six years under an agreement negotiated by the Clinton administration. Clinton had agreed to provide fuel oil in exchange for North Korea's compliance. But in 2002, the Bush administration suspended the oil shipments and North Korea resumed its weapons program. The administration's policy was driven by neoconservatives in the administration, most notably Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and John Bolton, the World's Worst Diplomat.

The crisis worsened until October 9, 2006, when North Korea tried and failed to detonate a nuclear weapon. A month later, Democrats won control of congress and forced Bush to fire Rumsfeld and the World's Worst Diplomat. Shortly after that, Condi Rice negotiated an agreement that was essentially the same as the one that Bush had abandoned in 2002, with the added provision that North Korea be removed from the list of state sponsors of terrorism.

Naturally, the World's Worst Diplomat is outraged that the North Korea crisis has once again been defused. And naturally, John McCain agrees with the World's Worst Diplomat.

(cross posted at appletree)

Turkey Bombs, Bombs, Bombs Iraq ...

Today, as Turkey grows increasingly sick and tired of the murderous, PKK terrorists' attacks on Turks ...

Turkish warplanes have bombed Kurdish rebel positions in northern Iraq, Turkey's military says.

For the seventh time in the last ten days, adds us at 'This Old Brit'.

So read the rest of this latest report.



Next, make a note of the note in the pic.

Now, see some more re : the PKK crew.

World's Coolest Horse

What I like most about this video is it reminds me of a couple of donkeys we used to own when I was growing up in Arizona. Topolino and Pinocchio had been used in movies, and had been taught to open corrals and turn doorknobs.

So you'd be eating breakfast in the kitchen and hear the door open, then hear the clop-clopping of the donkeys' hooves on the concrete floor. Topolino and Pinocchio would walk in and start looking around as if to say, "so what's for breakfast? Got any hay?"

***

Also, check out this video of a race featuring a horse named "Hoof Hearted":



(cross posted at appletree)

Haider finally does something good for humanity

Jeorg Haider

Jeorg Haider, Austria's most prominent fascist, has done something I can support:

Austrian far right leader Joerg Haider was killed in a car accident on Saturday, the national news agency APA reported. It quoted police as saying Haider died after suffering severe head and chest injuries when a car he was driving went out of control and rolled over several times outside the southern city of Klagenfurt. APA said he was alone in the car.

Rightist groups surged to a combined 30 percent of the vote in a national parliamentary election last month, with Haider's smaller Alliance for Austria's Future tripling its support to around 12 percent.

Haider made headlines by campaigning on an anti-immigration ticket and with verbal gaffes. He once reproached Austria's government by citing the "proper labor policies" of the Third Reich. On another occasion he referred to concentration camps in a parliamentary debate as "penal camps." Haider was also widely condemned for meeting Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in 2002, which he said was a "purely humanitarian" matter.

Born in Upper Austria, his father was a former member of Adolf Hitler's brown-shirted storm troopers. His mother was a teacher who had been a Hitler Youth leader.

(cross posted at appletree)

Frolicking Financial Fun For Friday ...

Here it is, folks!



What we've all been waiting for.



The joke of the day - week - month - year - decade - century - millennium!



*(Cross posted across at 'appletree')

The armed and the unarmed: sometimes, it's like we're different species

Gun Owner .............................. Not Gun Owners

A couple of recent stories illustrate a basic difference between those who keep a gun in the house, and those who don't:

Man Finds Wrong House, Wrong Bed, Nice Family

Bob and Joanne Breiner of Gaithersburg returned home with their son after eating at a Chinese buffet.

Bob Breiner walked upstairs to the master bedroom and flipped on a lamp. Less than two feet away: a man he'd never seen, wrapped in blankets, sound asleep. On the floor were shoes, socks and pants. Earlier, the man had apparently helped himself to a crab cake from the refrigerator.

The Breiners fled their house and called police. Officers made their way to the bedroom.

"The man had been drinking," said Montgomery police spokeswoman Lucille Baur, "and returned to what he thought was his home and climbed into bed and went to sleep."

He had missed by eight miles, apparently getting off at the wrong bus stop on his way home to Damascus. After the Breiners found out that their intruder had no police record and that he had lost his job three weeks earlier, they told officers they didn't want to press charges.

Joanne Breiner, who teaches English as a second language at Roberto Clemente Middle School, headed into her kitchen. Into a plastic grocery bag she packed a container of homemade chicken soup, homemade cookies and some spare ribs, giving the food to officers and telling them to pass it on to the man.

"I think her mom would have been disappointed if we didn't feed the intruder," said Bob Breiner, noting the manners of his Sicilian-born wife and mother-in-law.

Man Accidentally Walks Into Wrong House During Blackout, Shot Twice

A man who mistakenly walked into the wrong house during a power outage at his duplex was shot and critically injured by his neighbor. Orange County sheriff's deputies said Jeff Conway, 24, mistakenly walked into the home of Berky Deguzman, 62, near Huntsman and Gray Fox lanes near the University of Central Florida campus late Wednesday.

Deguzman apparently thought Conway was a burglar and opened fire, officers said.

Deputies said Deguzman will not be charged because he was in his legal right to shoot Conway.

"You have a right to protect your property," an officer on the scene said. "Florida passed that law so basically he is protecting his domain."

(cross posted at appletree)

68 Years Ago Today: This Scouse Brit Was Born ...

Today is should have been this scouse Brit's birthday.

Here's his Liverpool family's official website.

Here's his wikipedia page.

*(Cross posted across at 'appletree')

US Judge Ricardo Urbina Upsets Bombastic BushCo's Applecart

Judge orders Chinese Muslims freed from Gitmo

Chinese, Muslim, Islamofascist terrorists?

Well, well, well. We do declare.

Hands up who knew.

Did you?

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A federal judge has ordered the immediate release into the United States of 17 Chinese Muslims who have been held for several years in the U.S. military facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

A U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina on Tuesday ordered the 17 detainees to appear in his Washington courtroom at 10 a.m. Friday and said he would hold a hearing next week to determine under what conditions they will be settled in the United States.

The government late Tuesday afternoon announced it would file papers shortly with an appeals court seeking an emergency stay to stop the judge's order in its tracks.

The detainees are ethnic Uighurs, from a mostly Muslim autonomous region in western China.

They have been in government custody for seven years and have been cleared for release for the past four years to any country willing to take them. No countries have volunteered.

The judge, visibly impatient, told government lawyers he wants no delays.

"There is a pressing need for them to be released," Urbina declared.

And, good old Judge Ricardo flatly refused to let the matter rest, even at that.

"I have issued an order. I do not want these people interfered with in any way," the judge said.

Read the rest of this (sorta semi-refreshing), report right here.

*(Cross posted across at 'appletree')

As the World Waves Bye-bye to the Bush Bum ...

*

It seems it's time to say so long, George.

We, in the civilised world, wish we could say it's been nice ... but it ain't, so we won't.

(Pretty, pretty photo collage created by ourselves.)

There are days when all it takes is a single speech to illustrate the decline of a world power. A face can speak volumes, as can the speaker’s tone of voice, the speech itself or the audience’s reaction. Kings and queens have clung to the past before and humiliated themselves in public, but this time it was merely a United States president.

Or what is left of him.

So, see the rest of this sad/sorry state of affairs' story for yourselves, courtesy a combination of well written kudos worthy words from Der Spiegel, Al Devito, and R. J. Adams

[See also, Al Devito's "Vineyard Views" -- and see also, Der Spiegel]

*(Cross posted across at 'appletree')

A Little Bit About Lehman Brothers' 'Horrible' Richard Fuld ...

What we see above is what we've got.

He's a poxy, predatory opportunist prick called Richard Fuld.

He's been robbing the poor to give to the rich.

And so far, it seems this ghoul's going to get away with it.

So what we want to know is why?

How the hell can this sort of shameful stuff be allowed to happen?

Lehman Bros head took home $300m

The head of failed US investment bank Lehman Brothers has told Congress that he took home about $300m in pay and bonuses over the past eight years.

Richard Fuld, whose firm went bankrupt last month, made the statement during testimony before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

(snip)

Mr [Henry] Waxman also criticised Mr Fuld for requesting multi-million dollar bonuses for departing executives just days before last month's collapse.

"In other words," he added, "even as Mr Fuld was pleading with [Treasury] Secretary [Henry] Paulson for a federal rescue, Lehman continued to squander millions on executive compensation."

Still, not to worry too much though. We suppose things could be worse.

After all, this fat-cat, Fuld f*cker, did have the decency to declare ....

"I feel horrible about what happened,"

Read the rest of this outrageous report right here.

Then hope as hard as we're hoping that before long we'll be able to switch the shot of the shyster shown above, to the shot shown below.



But, beware of holding your breath.

No matter who replaces G.W. Bush as president of the US.



*(Cross posted across at 'appletree')

Obama's big scandal -- UPDATED

The Moonies are taking time off from trashing crosses and are now trashing Obama

The Rev. Sun Myung Moon's propaganda organ, also known as the Washington Times, has uncovered a doozy of a scandal that involves Barack Obama.

It seems that Obama, along with fellow Illinois senator Dick Durban and Mayor Richard Daily of Chicago, asked the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to provide a $20 million grant to build 439 low income housing units in Chicago. The housing is part of a project called Stateway Gardens, which is being built by the Chicago Housing Authority. HUD awarded the grant, calling the project a "shining example" of urban revitalization.

One of the developers of Stateway Gardens is a firm headed by Allison Davis, who has contributed tens of thousands to Obama's campaigns over the years, but neither Davis nor his firm will receive any of the HUD money.

That's it. That's the whole scandal. As part of a grant application, a public housing authority included letters of support from several prominent politicians. A political supporter of Obama's heads a firm that is helping to build the project, but is not benefiting from the grant. The grant is funding hundreds of low income housing units at a cost of less than $50,000 per unit. You just can't trust those big city politicians, can you?

The article relies heavily on a group called Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW), which apparently believes that any low income housing at any price is wasteful. It's not much of a scandal, but it seems that organizations like CAGW and the Moonie Times are willing to grasp at any straw in order to attack Obama.

By the way, the Obama campaign has kicked off a new website devoted to McCain's involvement in the Keating Five scandal. In that scandal, John McCain took contributions and gifts from Charles Keating, then tried to bully bank regulators into dropping an investigation into a savings and loan operated by Keating. It turns out that Keating had been stealing millions, which caused his thrift to fail. Keating went to jail, taxpayers lost billions, and John McCain was formally reprimanded by the Senate Ethics Committee.

But don't look for anything from the Washington Times or Citizens Against Government Waste about THAT scandal.

Here's a video that explains McCain's role in the Keating Five scandal in detail:



UPDATE: The McCain campaign now asserts that McCain did nothing improper on Keating's behalf. But there's two problems with that denial:

1) The plain fact is, McCain intervened on behalf of a contributor who was breaking the law, and McCain's intervention wound up costing taxpayers more than $3 billion when his contributor's bank folded two years later.

2) The way McCain has always told the story, his involvement with Charles Keating is what convinced him to stop trading favors for campaign contributions, and to try to change the law to limit such contributions. As Ben Smith writes, if McCain thinks he did nothing wrong, "what's this giant mistake that transformed McCain into a reformer?"

(cross posted at appletree)

Wherein: We Fart Full in the Faces of Fannie Mae Fat-Cat Faeces ...

Today we cut out the crap and cut straight to the chase.

Mortgage forgiven for woman, 90, who shot herself

AKRON, Ohio - Mortgage finance company Fannie Mae said it is forgiving the mortgage debt of a 90-year-old woman who shot herself in the chest as sheriff's deputies attempted to evict her.

Addie Polk's plight was cited by Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, on Friday before the House voted to approve the $700 billion financial rescue package. Kucinich voted against the plan.

Fannie Mae announced later Friday that it would dismiss its foreclosure action, forgive Polk's mortgage

(snip)

Countrywide Home Loans [who, some swear, positively sucks] filed for foreclosure last year, and Polk's home was sold to Fannie Mae at a sheriff's auction in June

Read the rest of the heartbreaking report right here.



*(Cross posted across at 'appletree')

This bloke Shaft is one bad cu... (shut your gob!)

The theme from Shaft, British-style.

(cross posted at appletree)

Latest Insane US Hostilities : Waging War on What One Wants to Wear ...

Well, we just don't damned well care anymore.

Couldn't give a flying f*ck in fact.

So we're going to come right out and say it:

Only in America ... in a pathetic, Republican Party, political pantomime:

HARRISBURG, Pa.

Sue Nace thought election volunteers were joking when they told her she would have to remove her T-shirt to vote in the presidential primary last spring.

But it was no laughing matter to the poll workers-turned-fashion police, who said Nace's Obama shirt was inappropriate electioneering — and made her cover the writing before casting a ballot.

Now, a political fight over what voters can wear to the polls is headed to court in Pennsylvania — with the Republican Party favoring a dress code and Democrats opposed.

See some more regarding said scary stupidity.

Incidentally, as for the particular pair of phony, posing, posturing, politico pricks' pics shown below, you can carry on and create your own crappy captions -- since we've suddenly realised we've something much more serious to sort out.

Something ... such as our own special, and oh-so-scrummy, Saturday night 'tea & toast' super-supper.




*(Cross posted across at 'appletree')

The Latest Peter Mandelson 'Scandal' ...

Remember Machiavelli?

Oops! Sorry!

Erm, we meant to say Mandelson. Peter Mandelson, that is. He's the louse on the left.

He's also a serial sodding resigner; usually under some sort of cloud.

We can hardly bloody believe it. Barmy Gordon Brown has brought the b*stard back. He's called him in to his cabinet.

Mandelson!? A man elected by no one. A man no longer even a member of parliament. That's why he's being elevated bunged (by the back door), into the House of Lords.

Yep, you read that right. The House of Lords.

What a way to run a railway, eh?

While we were well aware that Gordon Brown was desperate, we had no idea he was SO desperate.

Read the rest of this report - while we two try making contact with the spirit of 'Scotty' - to beg him to beam us both back up.

(Cross posted across at 'appletree')

McCain sinking fast

McCain isn't very happy about the way the campaign is going

Some good news from America:

The McCain campaign is abandoning Michigan, which means that they have virtually no chance of winning any of the states won by Kerry in 2004. That means Obama can win by taking Ohio or Florida, or any two of the new battleground states (Virginia, Missouri, Indiana, and North Carolina).

The folks at 538 have Obama ahead in Virginia, Ohio, and Florida.

And it might get worse for McCain before it gets better: a CNN poll taken just after the Biden-Palin debate says that 51% were more impressed with Biden, while 36% thought Palin won the debate. That's despite the fact that 84% said Palin did better than they expected. Also, 87% said that Biden is qualified to be president, while only 42% say Palin is qualified.

One last note: Obama is not the kind of candidate that you want to fall behind. As Clinton found, he's not a guy who is likely to make a mistake that will give you an opportunity to get back in the game.

(cross posted at appletree)