Pinko Commie Traitors

Are Factchekers the new heroes of 2010?

nobody@vox.com(Emmi) — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 10:36:24 -0800

When I write posts on coffee growers' threats to rainforest birds, I usually start out by reading the concerns of conservation groups. They make certain claims about how birds are losing habitat to sun-grown plantations. Afterwards, it's easy enough for me to download studies from ornithologists who have actually been to South America and observed what's going on. I then critique the methods to see if the study is legit.

Is that the end? No. I then try to read about all this from the perspective of people whose livelihoods depend on the farms. One of my favorite authors, an animal rights activist, reads hunting books all the time. A good scientist will tell both sides of the story.

Ellen Goodman wrote a Boston Globe Editorial called Facts and Figures: Myths and Mantras. It's about how lying in the media has become mainstream. She mentioned Factcheckers. I think the smart people in our society should make them the new heroes of 2010. If we want the truth, that is. But where do Factcheckers get sources? Like my approach, it should be from a variety of sources. And evidence that can't be denied: videos, photographs. Trials and evidence. From Goodman's article:

It’s now possible to find a group somewhere in Googleland that will agree with anything. Any outlier can find a tribe and a “fact’’ - Global warming is a hoax! Evolution is a fraud! - that reinforces his own belief.

There is a sense that we don’t need science or editing or fact-checking as long as we have crowd-sourcing. I’m not suggesting that newspapers - once defined as the first rough draft of history - are without errors. But there are prices to pay and corrections to be made and standards to be met. When was the last time an Internet birther ran a correction or lost his job?

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Naughty Friday funny - The therapy session

nobody@vox.com(petermcc) — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 00:25:10 -0800

Psychiatry Session

A psychiatrist was conducting a group therapy session with four young Mothers and their small children.

You all have obsessions,' he observed.

To the first mother, Mary, he said, 'You are obsessed with eating. You've even named your daughter Candy.'

He turned to the second Mom, Ann: 'Your obsession is with money. Again, it manifests itself in your child's name, Penny.'

He turned to the third Mom, Kathy: 'Your obsession is alcohol. This too shows itself in your child's name, Brandy.'

At this point, the fourth mother, Joyce, quietly got up, took her little boy by the hand and whispered, 'Come on Dick, this guy has no idea what he's talking about. Lets pick Willy up from school and go home."

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Is Julie Bishop having 2nd thoughts?

nobody@vox.com(petermcc) — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 04:45:07 -0800

Julie_bishop

On the first day of the Liberals latest, greatest hope coming to power it was interesting to see Julie Bishop's body language with Abbott.

Firstly when Tony was speaking about flirting with Julia Gillard you can see Julie actually shaking her head. Not happy Jan.

The other item that caught my eye was Abbott coming up behind her in a Press conference and grabbing her shoulders. To me it looked like she was momentarily annoyed by the physical contact but quickly recovered in front of the cameras.

If I was young Tony I'd give up on the physical contact. It just doesn't go down well with women Voters. I guess that's why he doesn't poll well with them.

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Billionaires For Wealth Care Battle Hymn

nobody@vox.com(LilTreva) — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 02:44:40 -0800

Maybe, you've already viewed and heard this video, the Battle Hymn of the Billionaires For Wealth Care. If not, I think it's a worthy download. I have neither seen, nor heard corporate media reports covering the visit that Billionaires For Wealth Care paid to a tea baggers if you can't afford to buy health care, you deserve to suffer and die...rally.

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It ain't over till it's over

nobody@vox.com(petermcc) — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 20:19:28 -0800

Senator Fielding

The complications from this mornings ballot just keep getting better as the day goes on. Firstly, I have to mention an item from this mornings ballot. There was one informal vote that simply had the word NO scrawled across it.

I can imagine the frustration behind that vote but I wonder if the person who did it realised they were giving Abbott a one point win? How cool would a drawn vote have been?

To make matters even more complicated, the unpredictable Senator Fielding (at left) wont vote for putting the ETS bill into a Senate enquiry. This stops Abbott putting the bill into limbo and likely will force a vote.

This vote could very easily see enough Senators cross the floor to vote with the Government and see the ETS Bill passed.

What a result that would make. The Libs voted in a less popular Leader only to see the bill passed anyway. The wannabe power brokers from the Independents and The Greens get left out of the process. And the farmers get to see how useless the Nats are to their cause for earning Carbon Credits.

Next time a negotiation comes around folk will have to consider if they are going to play themselves out of the game early or wait and see and moderate their behaviour.

Incidentally, I don't think Kevin 07 will call a double disolution any time soon. Why risk it when the Libs have plenty more punch ups to come?

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Champagne corks are a popping - Abbott wins

nobody@vox.com(petermcc) — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 15:17:22 -0800

The Mad Monk

Hockey out on the first vote which wasn't predicted by the pundits leaving Tony to win by 1 vote.

The celebrations have began but the loudest cheers are coming from Labor. Usually the leader starts out popular then gets dragged down by the poor policy. Tony is already "on the nose" so at least he can't fall as far. Of course trying to win an Election is going to be problematic.

Will the remaining small L Liberals get jack of trying to rebuild and think of starting a real Liberal party?

Joe probably make a serious error by offering a free vote but it's still better for him to not take the job just yet.

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Call to give Blair the boot

nobody@vox.com(petermcc) — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 03:03:12 -0800

George Galloway

George Galloway is reknowned for dishing up serves to the folk who think it's their God given right to apply their military forces against weaker opponents.

Here is a recent example that was drawn to my attention by fellow Voxer koan911 and I'm very grateful for his scolarship. I have been meaning to comment on the ill fated attempt by Blair to be the first European Union President and this makes a nice introduction.

This link has George's speech to the War Crimes Conference & Exhibition that ocurred in the Putra World Trade Centre in KL Malaysia on 28th October 2009. It's broken up into 3 short parts and is an excellent reminder of the bad behaviour of the so called Leaders of the Free World.

Towards the end of the speech George encourages the throwing of shoes at Blair which I think is an excellent idea even though well short of what he really deserves.

Recently young Tony thought it might be fun to score the gig as the first European Union President and it actually tracked along for a short while until someone realised he would not be able to travel to all the countries under his presumed control should he be successful. A number of EU countries recognise the International Crime of Aggression and all it would take is one up and coming Prosecutor to want to make a name for himself and Tony would face the embaressment of defending his actions. Add to that the annoyance of the rest of Europe caused by Blair bouncing around George Bush's feet like an excitable puppy and I'm sure Tony would take years to get through the legal system.

Looks like Tony will have to stick with his current job of creating Peace in the Middle East.

Hmm.

I hope they don't do performance reviews on the Peace job. He might have to risk the EU job.

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Will Joe Hockey get dudded by the Liberal party, Again?

nobody@vox.com(petermcc) — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 22:19:10 -0800

Joe hockey2

Tomorrow looms as an interesting day for the Good Ship Lost Cause otherwise known as her Majesty's Opposition.

The party that is confused about Global Warming is still unaware that the Voters are sick of inaction and want to get a start on addressing the problem as best we can. Even folk who count themselves as traditional Liberal Voters are in favor of getting a start and if the papers are to be believed, by a very big margin.

The problems for the Party are many but the fundamentals are simple to follow.

The Voters prefer listening to scientists rather than pollies with vested interests when it comes to thinking about Climate Change.
The folk denying the problem don't come over as reliable sources. Wilson Tuckey, Barnaby Joyce (from the Nats), and of late Senator Minchin with his Left Wing conspiracy theories are doing a good job of looking like folk you don't want to sit next to on public transport.
The message is unsellable no matter who gets the gig as chief salesperson.
The small L Liberals have almost disappeared from the party after the man handling they received from John Howard.
Whoever puts their hand up for the job knows they face an uphill battle trying to control the various factions.

Currently the media are claiming Joe Hockey is going to challenge but I'll wait to hear it from Joe himself. Surely he won't fall for the offer. Better to let Malcolm do the heavy lifting on the ETS and wait for things to settle down. A good clean up by replacing those who resigned would be an excellent start to turning around the party.

I think Malcolm is up to the task of slapping down the undisciplined and freshening up the front benches. Goodness knows they could use a clean out of the dead wood. With any luck a few might jump over to the Nats where they can live unchallenged by new technology and developements. Funnily enough, Wilson Tuckey will be under pressure to hold his seat against the Nats come the next election. Perhaps he should jump now. It's a perfect fit for him.

Can Joe control the capital C conservatives if he takes the job? Nope.
Can he sell the unsellable? Nope.
Will he make another poor decision that will be even more damaging than accepting responsibility for Work Choices under the previous Government?

That remains to be seen.

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Most Coalition voters back ETS: Newspoll

nobody@vox.com(petermcc) — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 20:58:21 -0800

Nick Minchin

Meet Nick Minchin.

The Leader of the Opposition in the Senate is currently trying to undermine his Leader, Malcolm Turnbull, in the ETS battle currently in the Senate.

Nick was a Climate Change sceptic, then he suddenly back flipped when John Howard claimed to have seen the light, then he apparently flipped back again but didn't have the courage to declare his 2nd back flip until the last week or two.

Not a good look.

When Voters already suspected he was not truely behind an ETS, he has confirmed their view that he is not a trustworthy individual. Certainly not someone you can trust to run the country the way you want it run even after he pretends to agree with you.

The truth is also suffering under the machinations of Nick and his gang. Loud claims that the Voters are melting down the phones asking him to block the Bill are given the lie by a report in todays Australian, hardly a bastion of Labor support, that an overwhelming number of Coalition Voters want the ETS passed.

The prediction is a loss of 20 seats for the Libs in metro areas which interestingly would remove Turnbull and Hockey from the side of enlightenment and also Andrew Robb and Kevin "Haneef" Andrews from the deniers.

Malcolm Turnbull has it right with the stats and I simply can't understand why the Party is even entertaining a change to an electorally disasterous alternative.

It's hardly rocket science. Do what the Voters want. The fact they are considering doing otherwise suggests the sheltered workshop of Canberra has left them out of touch with the real world.

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A pause in the grain harvest

nobody@vox.com(petermcc) — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 02:00:09 -0800

Grain bunker

My current employment with AWB is on hold for a couple of days due to an unusual break in the weather. After getting some excellent hours in the first week we have suddenly copped waves of heavy rain that has stopped the farmers getting the headers into the crops.

This is probably a good thing because my soft computer hands are feeling the brunt of manual labor as we have been pulling tarps around and getting plenty of broom and shovel work.

The picture at left is not from our site but it gives a good look at how the process works. Our bunkers are longer than these ones and the bunker wall is more of an angle.

The bunkers have a ground sheet on the floor to keep the grain clean and when the stack is at its maximum height tarps are hauled over the grain to keep out impurities and water. To get the tarps in place two front end loaders are hooked up to the ends of the tarp and with the assistance of a few blokes, it is dragged over the grain. The trickiest part is being on top of the stack when the tarp is in motion and stepping onto the grain. My first step had me sinking down to my waist level immediately and I had visions of going straight under and them having to dig me out. That seemed like unecessary stress so I hooked my arm over the tarp and hung on. Trying not to look like a rank amateur. No doubt I failed but at least I didn't suffer the embarassment of having to be hauled out.

For all the excitement though, it's fantastic to be working outside in the fresh air. The temps have only hit the mid 30's so far and that has been no problem. I did manage to get through 3.5 litres of water on the first day but I am aiming to do better in the next heat wave. It's very important to keep the kidneys working.

It looks like it will be Monday at least before we get back on site but even that might be a tad optimistic. We just had a heavy downpour about an hour ago that might push it back even further.

Farming must be a bitch of a job. Late last week the farmers couldn't get the headers out because of Total Fire Bans then the rain came. The monster harvest prediction must be wobbling a bit now.

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