Category: Politics (Page 36 of 43)

Today marks 100 days of President Barack Obama.

Yes, I know. So many people are talking about this it is getting boring already.

Nonetheless, lots of valuable information at Policy Watch, including this graph:

Obama's 100 Day Spending Spree

Somebody take back the credit cards!

Further news:

1.  In the US, NBC, CBS and ABC will screen Obama’s 100 day press conference. Fox will stick to its normal programming, screening the show ‘Lie to Me.’  Much mirth follows, as some commentators suggest it might be difficult to tell the difference.

2.  White House staffer Robert Gibbs tells reporters they have earned a ‘strong A’ for their reporting on Obama’s first 100 days. In related news, circulation of US newspapers falls at unprecedented rates in the first three months of this year. Via Small Dead Animals.

Michelle Malkin has some interesting, and snarky, comments about the first 100 days, as well as the Scare Force One story:

Come on, who’s surprised? The White House-engineered photo-op of low-flying Air Force aircraft that caused terror in New York City this week epitomizes the Age of Obama. What better way to mark 100 days in office than with an appalling exercise in pointless, taxpayer-funded stagecraft.

The superficiality, the unseriousness, the hubris, the obliviousness to post-9/11 realities: They were trademarks of the Obama campaign and they are the tattoos on his governance.

He never leaves home without his teleprompter. All the Obama world’s a stage. Or a world ready to be staged.

Except that it isn’t.

Nick Xenophon has called the increased allowance a back door pay rise, but he knows very well it is not. That is just popularist grandstanding.

It is an increase of 17% in their electorate allowance. MPs cannot use that money as disposable income. It must be used to meet the cost of providing services in their electorate. A large part of what (good) MPs do is provide an information and advocacy service to people in their area.

17% may sound a lot, but this is the first increase in the allowance since 2000. If it were a pay rise for teachers or dockers, I doubt their unions would consider this an adequate increase over the same period.

“Australians have two choices,” said Coalition spokesman on matters of state, Michael Ronaldson. “MPs either set their own terms and conditions or an independent umpire does. I suspect the community would be very much in favour of the latter.”

It’s just that the timing could have been better.

No warmth, nothing to buy, no transport, no hope.

The joys and triumphs of socialism …

Documentary photographer Tomas van Houtryve visited North Korea posing as a businessman looking to open a chocolate factory. Despite 24-hour surveillance by North Korean minders, he was able to take some remarkable photos of  Pyongyang and its people. Photos can be viewed on the Foreign Policy website. Don’t look for happiness here.

Via Small Dead Animals.

Hmm…

Hilary Clinton said that the Iraqi government had “come a long, long way” and that the bombings were “a signal that the rejectionists fear Iraq is going in the right direction.”

Perhaps not such a good sign if you are one of the people who has been killed or injured.

It is just as likely that the renewed violence is because Iraqi terrorists have new confidence because they perceive the current US administration as weak and not having the will to take them on.

And why did Hilary need to reiterate to Iraqi leaders that the US would not abandon Iraq, if, as the Democrats insisted before the elction, the Iraqis couldn’t wait for US forces to leave?

On the 25th April 1915 troops from Australia and New Zealand landed north of Gaba Tepe in Turkey at a spot now known as Anzac Cove.

2,000 men from Australia and New Zealand were killed on the first day.

Dawn Service at Anzac Cove

More and more Australians are attending ANZAC services each year. The ANZAC campaign is considered by most ordinary Australians to be the time when we came of age as a nation.

This idea is rubbished (of course) by the trendy elite. We became a nation at Federation. The ANZACS were defeated. It wasn’t our war. We were fighting for the British Empire.

Nitwits like Marilyn Lake seem to think we are celebrating war, or our subservience to England, or the privileges enjoyed by males, or whites, or something:

When participation in foreign wars becomes the basis of national identity, it requires the forgetting or marginalising of other narratives, experiences and values. The Anzac myth requires us to forget gender and racial exclusions, the long history of pacifism and anti-war movements, the democratic social experiments and visions of social justice that once defined Australia; to forget that at Gallipoli we fought for “empire” not the nation, symbolising our continuing colonial condition.

As we prepare to inaugurate a republic, she says, we should move on from this redneck racist view of history, and of our identity, into a more inclusive way of seeing ourselves and the way we relate to the world. People like Professor Lake cannot seem to abide the thought that people might not share her passions, and see things her way, or be thinking about her issues, even for a minute. They should be made to. For their own good.

I am not at all distressed or alienated by the fact that Australia is part of an international community – the British Empire, now the Commonwealth of Nations – which has brought higher standards of living, education, rule of law and stable government to many nations and many millions of people around the world. I am proud to be part of that family. The constant blathering by Australian republicans about the need to cut our apron strings to Britain and form our own identity seems more like teenage rebelliousness than maturity or vision.

The ANZAC campaign was a failure at many levels – politics, planning, local command. Foolish, ill-informed choices were made. Thousands of young men were killed in a campaign that probably made no difference to the outcome of World War One at all. None of that should be celebrated, and it isn’t.

But here’s the thing. We made a commitment and we kept to it. The young men from Australia and New Zealand who landed on that beach had every reason to complain, to refuse to comply, to rebel. But they didn’t. They endured cold, poor food, poor command.  Many of them endured grievous injury and death. And in all of that they were courageous, disciplined, purposeful. They cared for one another, they did not give up, they sacrificed their own hopes and even their lives for the sake of others.

We became a nation at Federation. We showed what kind of nation we could be at Anzac Cove. The qualities shown there – discipline, self-sacrifice, courage, persistence – are exactly the qualities we need now. They are what defines us at our best. They are our best hope for the future.

We also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us.
Romans 5:3-5

Well, duh.

Yahoo/Seven has a poll asking this question.

At 9am this morning the answer was entirely predictable.

This is a good indicator of the basic common sense of the ordinary Australian. The kind who never stood a chance of being invited.

Was the 2020 Summit a Waste of Time?

Eric at Big Hollywood writes about real beauty – the kind Susan Boyle has, and real ugliness, the kind Janeane Garofalo has.

I won’t say much more – it’s worth reading the whole thing.

But I share his frustration at the view expressed by Garofalo and others that the only possible reason any one could disagree with Barack Obama about anything is because he is black.

Worried about tax policy? No you’re not. You’re a racist redneck.

Worried about where money for massive ‘stimulus’ spending is going to come from? No you’re not. You’re a racist redneck.

Worried about Obama’s foreign policy? No you’re not…. You get the idea.

One of the convenient things about that kind of thinking is that you never have to bother engaging with people’s concerns or answering their questions. You can just dismiss them because they are, you know, racist rednecks. But given the kind of nonsensical nastiness Garofalo apparently believes, a lack of further engagement with her is probably a good thing.

And aren’t rednecks ordinary working people, the kind the Democrats were supposed to represent?

At the last possible moment, Australia has been done the right thing and said it will not be sending delegates to the UN’s Geneva Conference for Racism and Anti-Semitism (commonly called Durban II).

The conference is due to start on the 120th anniversay of the birthday of Adolf Hitler.

This means our illustrious leaders will miss words of wisdom from planned speakers like Iranian President Imanutjob.

Australia will join the US, Italy, Germany, Canada, and a number of other countries.

Some in the US have complained that by not going, President Barack Obama is losing a chance to show leadership. The truth is exactly the reverse.

Well done Obama. Well done Kevin.

South Australia’s Minister for Road Safety Tom Koutsantonis has a good record for saying the right things: `Extreme behaviour on our roads, such as speeding, is unacceptable and won’t be tolerated.’ and ‘Unfortunately, you can’t legislate to avoid stupidity.’

You may not be able to legislate to avoid stupidity, but you can surely avoid appointing idiots to executive positions in government.

Mr Koutsantonis has been fined at least twenty-seven times for speeding, three times for running red lights, and once for driving while using a mobile phone. This is not just one or two incidents – careless moments which were out of character. This is a record of long term disregard for the law and for the safety of other road users. Tom Koutsantonis is dangerous and irresponsible.

As at this date he has unpaid fines of nearly $1000 dating back to 2007.

If the Rann Labor Government in South Australia has the slightest regard for road safety, and any respect for the people of South Australia, Tom Koutsantonis must be sacked.

Update:

As of about midday on Monday 20th, Tom Koutsantonis has resigned as Minister for Road Safety.

‘I probably should have resigned earlier,’ he said. ‘My past transgressions mean that I can’t go out and do my job properly.’

No kidding.

But we’ll still have the benefit of Mr Koutsantonis’ wisdom in other areas:

‘I will continue to my work in the areas of Correctional Services, Gambling, Youth, Volunteers and assisting on Multicultural Affairs.’

Well, what was he supposed to do?

Some of the criticism seems a little unfair – he couldn’t very well have refused to shake Chavez’s hand. He just didn’t have to look so jolly pleased about it.

Especially after Chavez’s recent remarks about the US during his very chummy visit to Iran:  “It’s a policy of permanent aggression, of war, of terrorism by the US empire. That’s the great guilty one, the great Satan, as they call it here,” Mr Chavez said. He also has been critical of Mr Obama, including calling him “ignorant” last month after the US president accused Mr Chavez of “exporting terrorism” and being an obstacle to progress in Latin America.

The problem is, you just can’t be chummy with everyone. You can’t be friends with everyone. And sometimes it is wrong to try, because if you are happy to be friends with the bully and the dictator, that sends a message to the bullied and downtrodden. It is not the message the US should be sending.

And Obama did look happy. Certainly happier than Bush when he met Rudd at last year’s G20.

With a conference to condemn Israel. You couldn’t make this up, honestly.

Hitler was born on 20th April 1889. 20th April 2009 is the first day of Durban II, the second United Nations World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance.

Except of course it isn’t against any of those things. It’s just against Israel. And perhaps the US.

There is one country in the Middle East where people of any race and religion have full rights of citizenship. There is one country in the Middle East where human rights are guaranteed, where there is an independent judiciary, open press and freedom of speech. One country where men and women are equal under the law. One country with fully democratic government. That same country has a consistent record of accepting refugees, and delivering emergency and humanitarian aid around the world.

Of course, that is the only country in the world ever to have been condemned by the United Nations Human Rights Council – on average once every two months since the UNHRC was established in 2006. The UNHRC once expressed some concern about Burma, but that’s it. No other country in the world – not Sudan, not Zimbabwe, not North Korea or Iran, has been considered worthy of attention.

Likewise, the only country condemned at Durban I was Israel. Some media opinions and comment at the time.

The US had already said it would not send delegates if Durban II were to be a repeat of Durban I. Austalia is dithering. 

Diplomats yesterday reached agreement on the text of Durban II’s declaration. In an effort to encourage the US, and any fence-sitters like Australia to attend, the text does not ake any specific mention of Israel or Zionism. But it ratifies the statements issued at Durban I.

I am glad Barack Obama’s administration has stood firm on this so far.

In addition, an ‘Israel Review Conference’ is being held in Geneva, starting two days before Hitler’s birthday, so people who want to review Israel can then travel straight across the road for the main celebration.

I’m sure Hitler would be delighted.

Further reading and resources on Zionism, anti-semitism, the UN and Durban.